Aztec and Incas Comparative Essay

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The Aztecs and Incas were two of the strongest and greatest ancient empires in history that each had a long list of advances and achievements. But over all, the characteristics of the Incan Empire in terms of advancements in technology, military, and government were more modern than the Aztec Empire. This concept of modernity is based on a judgment concerning the time period in history and the area where it took place. What I consider modern are acts and advancements that extend upon and break the previous barriers and beliefs of the time period to work towards a fuller development. Although the Incas were more advanced and modern in their ways, the Inca and Aztec Empires were similar in some of the aspects that allowed them to be so successful and powerful. First, both civilizations had intensive agriculture mandated by the state. The crops were then redistributed to all the social classes equally. Both economies depended greatly on agriculture and farming, even producing some of the same crops such as corn and squash. Although agriculture based societies have been around for a long time in history and were pretty much the norm in this time period, their agriculture systems still created a surplus of crops, which allowed for increased populations. Next, both civilizations developed some form of record keeping. The Aztecs created a writing system of pictorial representations. While the Incas never developed a real writing system, they did form a system of colored ropes and knots, “quipu”, to communicate and keep records. These systems were pretty advanced and modern compared to civilization’s prior. Last, both civilizations were successful with military organization. Both empires trained peasant boys from the time they were teenagers, which created large armies. The Incas eventually replaced their peasant army with an army of professional officers, while the

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