Many factors influenced the conquering of the Aztec people by the Spaniards including the Aztec’s religion, Spain’s superior weapons, alliances, and disease. The first cause of the Aztec’s fall was their religion. They practiced polytheism and used human sacrifice to keep their gods happy. The Aztec’s believed their god Quetzalcoatl planned to return in human form and rule them. The Aztec people mistook Cortes and his soldiers for Quetzalcoatl.
A bureaucracy is when non-elected officials are in charge instead of elected representatives. This is important because the emperor in the Han empire who was intended to be in control was, in fact, not in control. Moreover, patriarchy was present in both empires. Men had more control than women, therefore, men controlled political control. The Han empire had an emperor known as the Martial(military) emperor.
They believed that Montezuma had offered his valuables freely. This interpretation of the events illustrates the Spaniards’ attempt to appear virtuous and showcases their need to embellish their success in retrieving gold. Meanwhile, the Aztecs believed Montezuma was forced into this offering: “The Spaniards questioned him closely and then demanded gold.” The Aztec explanation of the events suggests a distrust in the Spanish and demonstrates their belief that the Spaniards’ arrival destroyed their society. The discrepancy between the two accounts is due to the biased viewpoints of the writers. The truth, however, can be found in-between the two stories.
Human sacrifice was a religious practice characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as of other Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and the Zapotec. The extent of the practice is debated by modern scholars. Spanish explorers, soldiers and clergy who had contact with the Aztecs between 1517, when an expedition from Cuba first explored the Yucatan, and 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, made observations of and wrote reports about the practice of human sacrifice. For example, Bernal Díaz's The Conquest of New Spain includes eyewitness accounts of human sacrifices as well as descriptions of the remains of sacrificial victims. In addition, there are a number of second-hand accounts of human sacrifices written by Spanish friars that relate the testimony of native eyewitnesses.
This similarity shows that, though neither civilization was dependent on it, land trade played an important role in the cultures of the two civilizations. These trade roads also played a large part in the cultural diffusion of Rome and Latin America. In Classical Latin America and the early years of Classic Rome, Mountainous terrain isolated cities, towns, and villages, but through the complex trade routes, these two civilizations could interact with their surrounding civilizations. Another similarity between the two cultures was that the Aztecs, a classical civilization of Latin America, and the Romans both conquered new territory for either political or economic reasons. With Rome conquering Western Europe and the Aztecs conquering the majority of Central America, the two civilizations gathered a large amount of wealth from the conquered states.
According to Michael Graulich (2000), the director of religious studies at a school in Paris, the primary reason for sacrifice was atonement (p. 2). The primary purpose of sacrifice, Graulich (2000) maintains, was "expiation of sins or transgressions in order to deserve a worthy afterlife” (p. 3) The Aztecs believed that if they stood on good ground with the God’s that they would lead successful and worthy lives passing on to The Underworld, the Aztecs equivalent of “Heaven”. Although religion is the surrounding theme in sacrifice, Michael Harner (1977) proposes an altogether different reason as to why the Aztecs participated in such gruesome practices. His theory involves the idea of human cannibalism (p.
The Aztec and Maya were Mesoamerican civilizations (living in Mexico and Central America) while the Incas lived in South America. The religious beliefs and practices of the Mayans and Aztecs were similar, but the Incas worshiped the sun. The Mayans are credited for the Mayan calendar and the Aztecs also have a calendar, while the Incas are famed for their masonry and engineering skills. All three were great civilizations. The Mayans made several breakthroughs in these fields.
They would use the reasoning that it was the will of the certain god and that is why a certain action took place. The sun, moon, and the stars were very important to primitive cultures. These two cultures had very similar beliefs, but their differences in religion are what is very interesting. How can two cultures be so alike, but also so different? The Aztec people moved into southern Mexico around the year 1300 from their original homeland in northern Mexico.
In the early years there was three different civilization, the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. They all had different lifestyle. If I had the opportunity to live in one of those lifestyle it would be the Aztecs. They had a different way of living. I like the way they worship their god and the way of thinking.
They believed extracting the hearts and chopping the victims head would renew the world. The mutilated bodies were thrown down steps of the pyramid like trash. The Aztecs believed they were closest to the gods. On the other hand, Mayan Indians believed the gods spoke to them through nature and animals. Mayans would pray to the gods before and after something happened.