The Americas Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Americas - Research Paper Example This essay compares the perspectives, issues, and the concerns of the Aztec and the Inca peoples, and with relation to their contacts with the Europeans. For a thorough comparison of the perspectives, issues and concerns of the Aztec and the Inca peoples, this essay will analyze five major issues thus: religion and rituals; structures, architecture or earthworks; agriculture trade and their reasons for decline. The paper will use historical methodology to do this comparison. The paper thus will analyze and interpret both primary and secondary sources. The online e-core material shall also be used to supplement the primary sources. The Aztecs was a group in Mexico that had around ten thousand members while they controlled an empire of more than 22 million people. They, however, had never developed a bureaucratic system as the Europeans. Andreas and Overfield (129) observe that the Aztecs political system allowed their kings to remain in power as long as the kings continued to send tribute. They held both religious and political power. The kings were seen as the representatives of the gods, and they also controlled the civil powers. The Aztec believed that a religion was a very important element in keeping the conquered peoples in control, especially the use of the sacrificial system. In 1519 with the arrival of theSpanish in the current day Mexico, with 11 ships, the capital city of the Aztec was Tenochtitlan (Sahagun and Anderson 128). The Inca, on their part, had a sophisticated bureaucracy, and they had incorporated the ideas into their culture to form a true and unique empire. Their empire consisted of bet ween nine to 12 million people. The Aztecs were led by emperors thought to have demigod powers, while the Inca were led by a supreme ruler, also seen as a god. Just like with the Aztecs ruler with absolute political and religious powers, the Incan ruler was an authoritarian ruler who controlled movement, marriage