The+Americas




 * 1. Aztec ESPIRIT**

Summary:
 * E || * "Coined" currency through gold dust and cocoa powder, but primarily a barter system
 * Slavery
 * Obsidian and turquoise was traded
 * **Chinampas**, floating gardens that was the mainstay of their agricultural sector
 * Based off a maize economy
 * Markets every 5~13 days
 * Daily market at Tlatelolco operated by the merchants, **pochteca**
 * Regulated by inspectors and judges
 * Nobles received more from post-conquest spoils
 * Tributes and chinampas provided the food ||
 * S || * City states
 * Empire was centered on a lake basin
 * Called themselves the **Mexica**
 * Rewrote history to suite their needs
 * Warrior culture
 * Military and administrative nobility stemmed from privleged families, but the calpulli nobles (the leaders) were held in even higher esteem
 * Promotion from a peasantry to nobility was rare; inherited nobility
 * Dying while trying to get a sacrifice or while giving childbirth ensured salvation
 * Artisan, scribes, healers, and merchants were the middle class
 * Merchants were the upper-middle class whose success was hindered by the government
 * Polygamous nobility, monogamous peasantry
 * Housewives who primarily worked as mothers and weavers
 * Women rights were equal but gender roles were subordinated
 * Egalitarianism dissolved over time; the peasantry was restricted from doing certain activities since it mirrored rank
 * The commoners who worked on nobility's lands were treated like serfs ||
 * P || * Ruled by kinship who acted as religious administrators
 * A nigh-theocracy that can be compared to Catal Huyuk
 * Divided into seven clans/**calpulli** that came to encompass residential groupings outside of kin
 * Responsible for the distribution and maintenance of goods ands services
 * Calpulli resemble the Arab tribes pre-Islam, unequal status and governed by family heads
 * Gave way to the stratified nobility and absolute ruler
 * Rose to power by 1428 through selling themselves out as mercenaries and taking the conquered lands
 * Subjects were required to pay taxes, offer land, and participate in the military -- like feudalism or the Roman empire
 * Evolved into a stratified society with a divine kingship (**The Great Speaker**)
 * Staged "flower wars" in deliberately unconquered areas to obtain human sacrifices
 * Military was stratified into ranks, marked by items and chosen through reputation
 * Each city state had a speaker, their ruler
 * Constituted the governing council
 * More of a puppet institution: majority of power remained in the Great Speaker and his chief advisor
 * Localized powers like Rome ||
 * I || * Succeeded the **Toltecs** who succeeded the **Mayans**
 * **Teotihuacan** was the Mayan capital; it fell and Maya fell by the 8th century
 * **Tula** was the Toltec capital (968 - 1150) and with its fall was the Toltec empire
 * The Toltecs assimilated and added a militaristic flair to the society
 * Spoke Nahuatl, the Toltec language
 * Philosophy and cosmography was based of the religious fanaticism to creationism
 * Aztecs contemplated an afterlife and the existence of gods -- exemplified by Nezhualcoyotl
 * Aztec art is filled with flowers, bird, song, and blood to represent their faith in nature and deities ||
 * R || * Polytheistic religion with human sacrifices
 * Inherited from the Mayans and Toltecs
 * Believed in at least 128 major gods like **Quetzalcoatl**
 * At time, they mistook **Topiltzin**, the Toltec leader who worshiped Quetzalcoatl, as the god
 * The exodus and myth of Topiltzin led to the Aztec fall because Cortes was allowed into their capital Tenochtitlan because the Aztecs believed Cortes as Topiltzin returning
 * All gods had two forms: male and female
 * Gods pertained to the directions and the idea of center as well patrons of cities and people, like the Greek/Roman Gods
 * Founded Tenochtitlan in 1325 on Lake Texcoco because of a legend
 * Gods were venerated in cycles: the gods of fertility and agriculture --> gods of creation --> gods of warfare and sacrifice
 * Patron god of the Aztecs was the war god **Huitzilopitchli**
 * Revered god of rain was **Tlaloc**, inherited from the Toltec
 * The Aztec temple served offerings to both Tlaloc and Huitzilopitchli, combining preordained ideas with new ideas
 * Cannibalistic through religion
 * The military, primarily the jaguars and eagles, provided prisoners of war as human sacrifices
 * King of Texcoco **Nezhualcoyotl** attempted to introduce monotheism but failed ||
 * I || * Toltec Empire bordered the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys and Guatemala
 * Interacted with the Hopewell peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys
 * Hopewell culture was enriched by the contact as soon as 700 CE and flourished 1200-1500
 * Interacted with various people and cultures that mirrored the European feudal system
 * Internal kingdoms like the **Tlaxcala** were able to constantly resist the Aztecs ||
 * T || * Obsidian weaponry
 * Extensive canals and public works in cities like Tenochtitlan
 * Ground corn on **metates,** stone boards ||

The Aztecs were a warrior culture that inherited the ideas of the Mayans through their predecessors, the Toltecs. Aztecs were fierce warriors and religious fanatics and that forged the base of their society. Everything revolved around religion: human sacrifices, war motives, intellectual development, social classes, etc. The Aztec society was divided into city states that were united under one supreme ruler. However, before the kingship was established, society was guided by calpulli, clans. Overtime, nobility from the calpulli separated from their clans and established themselves as a high ranking power in society. Regardless, the ultimate power in the empire was religion, the Great Speaker, the Aztec king, was similarly like the European Popes or Roman Emperors. War was based off a (European) crusade-like ideal. The military was divided into ranks and merits were awarded to military prowess and one's ability to obtain human sacrifices. Divisions like the Jaguar and Eagle were specifically trained to procure sacrifices. Their intellectual thought and artwork were iconic. Economy, however, was not religiously infused. Besides the tributes mandated of conquered lands, economy ran free of religious intervention. However, the calpulli, the nobility, and the government hindered the development of the pochteca class and regulated the distribution of nearly all resources and commodities.


 * 2. ESPIRIT on Incans**

Summary:
 * E || * Roads spread throughout the empire with **tambos**, rest stations, at certain points
 * Subjects were mandated to pay taxes
 * Undertook large public works
 * Tributes of land and labor (mita) was taken from the subjects
 * Weaving was an important industry
 * No specialized traders except in Ecuador since the Incas promoted self-sufficiency as opposed to the long-distance Aztec trade ||
 * S || * An **ayllus, Quechua**-speaking clan
 * Lived in Cuzco by 1350 C.E.
 * Called their empire **Twantinsuyu**
 * Quechua was spread throughout the empire
 * Women roles and rights equaled men (theoretically, the roles were interdependent)
 * Women passed their inheritances to daughters, men to sons
 * Stratified society; women mirrored the same hierarchy
 * ** Yanas ** were removed from the hierarchy to work as **permanent** servants, artisans and workers for the nobility and Inca ||
 * P || * Bureaucracy and divine kingship
 * High priest was a kin
 * **Curacas**, local leaders, maintained power for loyalty
 * Sons were educated at Cuzco to insure loyalty
 * First ruler, **inca**, was **Pachacuti** who ruled from 1438-1471
 * His grandson. **Huayna Capac**, consolidated power and suppressed rebellions along the frontiers
 * Split inheritance
 * Successor gets power and titles
 * Material wealth went to the cult that guarded the mummy
 * Created the perpetual need for conquest
 * To insure loyalty, Cuzco residents were sent to newly conquered areas or the conquered were relocated elsewhere
 * Tambos served as messenger relays
 * Subjects were required to participate in the army
 * Government collected and redistributed all goods
 * Land was divided into three: people, state, and for the sun (religion)
 * The Inca's wife was the imperial leader of all women
 * The empire worked off a reciprocity; the empire provides hard-to-get goods while the localized state returns labor ||
 * I || * Pottery and woven designs
 * Copper, bronze, gold, and silver metallurgy
 * Used **quipu**, knotted strings, for accountancy
 * No written language
 * Incredible stone-cutting ||
 * R || * Mummification, afterlife, spiritual bridge through mummified body
 * Polytheism and Animism
 * Places like mountains, rivers, caves, and temples were **huacas** or holy shrines
 * Human sacrifice
 * Like the Aztecs, sun was the highest god, and the inca was the sun's human manifestation
 * Revered via the **Temple of the Sun** in Cuzco ||
 * I || * Succeeded **Chimor**, the succeeding kingdom of the "intermediate horizon" states of **Tihuanaco** and **Huari**
 * Large states remained critical powers after the fall of intermediate states
 * Conquered by Topac Yupanqui, Pachacuti's son
 * Controlled from Colombia to Chile to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia ||
 * T || * Agricultural terraces on the slopes of the Andes
 * Rope suspension bridges ||

After the fall of the "intermediate horizon" states, their domains fell into civil strife. One of the powers were the ayllu, clans that spoke Quechua. Centered around Cuzco, the ayllus prevailed and under their ruler, the inca Pachacuti, the Twantinsuyu/Incan empire began. Like the Aztecs, the Incans were dependent on conquest. Their economic, social, and political backbone fell upon conquests. Unlike the Aztecs, religion was not such a motivating factor as economics were. The practice of split inheritance created a perpetual need for conquest. However, it is not to say that religion was not held in esteem. The inca was considered a god and the grandest structure in Cuzco was the Temple of the Sun to worship the god of the sun. Economically, the Incans promoted self-sufficiency. The local states led by their curacas only relied on the empire for massive public works and hard to get resources and commodities. With the lack of stress on commerce, there was no development of a merchant class. However, the government still regulated all goods within the empire. The Incans were able to do it so proficiently because their empire was divided into a bureaucratic kingship. The government extracted work and tribute from subjects to work on public works and other projects. This allowed them to had magnificent feats of public transportation spanning throughout their empire. Within the local states, women and men were held in similar regards. The peasants were primarily farmers and herders and the gender roles were interdependent.