THE AMERICAS AND OCEANIA
Chapter 20
States and Empires in Mesoamerica
and North America
• Arrival of the Mexica (or Aztecs) in central
Mexico mid-thirteenth century
▫ Warriors and raiders
▫ Tenochtitlan
▫ Developed productive chinampas style of
agriculture
• Aztecs launched military campaigns against
neighboring societies
▫ Built an empire of twelve million people, most of
Mesoamerica
 Controlled subject peoples with oppressive tribute
obligations
Mexica Society
• Most information comes from Spanish sources
▫ Only few books survived the Spanish conquest.
• Mexica warriors were the elite
▫ Enjoyed great food (turkey, duck, vanilla, cacao),
wealth, honor, land, dress, and privileges.
• Mexica women had no public role, but were
honored as mothers of warriors
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Held no property and law
Commanded obedience to father and/or husband.
Active in commerce and crafts
Primary purpose to bear children
Mexica Society
• Priests also among the Mexica elite
▫ Read omens, presided over rituals,
monitored ritual calendar
▫ Advisers to Mexica rulers
• Most of the Mexica were either cultivators
or slaves
▫ Cultivators worked on chinampas or on
aristocrats' land
▫ Paid tribute and provided labor service
for public works
• Artisans and merchants enjoyed prestige
Mexica Religion
• Mexica deities adopted from prior
Mesoamerican cultures
▫ Quetzalcóatl (The Feathered Serpent)
supported arts, craft, and education.
• Ritual bloodletting common to all
Mesoamericans
▫ Human sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli
▫ Large temple,Tenochtitlan, thousands of
skulls
 At the last expansion of the temple it is
recorded that the priest sacrificed 80,000
people, may be a exaggeration but it is
known that human blood flowed
regularly.
• THE Inca Empire, Peru,
atop the Andean Highlands
in the Mountains
The Coming of the Incas
• The Inca settled first around Lake Titicaca in the
Andean highlands
• Inca ruled as a military and administrative elite
▫ Use of quipu for record keeping
▫ Extensive road system linked north and south
• Trade limited
▫ No large merchant or artisan class.
▫ Bartered surplus agriculture and hand-crafted goods
among themselves.
• Inca society was also a hereditary aristocracy
▫ Chief ruler viewed as descended from the sun
▫ Priests led celibate and ascetic lives, very influential
figures
Inca Society and Religion
• Peasants worked the land and
gave over a portion of their
produce to the state
• Inca priests served the gods
▫ Venerated sun god called Inti,
also recognized the moon, stars,
planets, rain, and other natural
forces as divine.
▫ Ritual sacrifices practiced, but
not of humans usually took the
form of animals