Pre-Columbian Native America

• Aztec State Structure

  • Military alliance of three major city-states
  • Extract tribute from smaller states in return for autonomy
  • Emperor (Huey Tlatoani) seen as descendent of gods
  • Priests used religion to support emperor's authority
  • Strict caste-like social system
  • Priestly aristocracy at top
  • Land owning nobles and artisans below
  • Peasants below them
  • Huge slave class used for forced labor and construction
  • Massive population gave military advantages
• Aztec - Religion

  • Polytheistic with multiple gods
  • Primary god was the sun god who was also the god of war (Huitzilopochtl)
  • Practice of human sacrifice to appease their gods
  • Gods were constantly at war with evil gods, demons and spirits
  • Gods needed blood to replenish their strength
  • Sacrificed slaves by cutting their wrists and throats so their blood would run down temples and be absorbed into the ground to replenish the Gods
• Aztec - Technical Innovation

  • Incredible builders, Tenochitlian being one of the biggest cities
  • Drained and reclaimed the swampland about Lake Texaco
  • Created islands out of nothing and in between them there were enormous canal systems for transportation
  • Chinampas were man-man islands or floating gardens for sustainable agriculture and to protect their crops from raids
  • Sank and stacked man-made fences in the water until they had a large enough area cordoned off
  • Able to plant crops like corn, beans, and squash
• Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world at the time, with over 300,000 people living there.
• They had an empire that included much of central Mexico, with their capital city being Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco.
• Origin of the Inca

  • They lived in modern day Peru in the Andes mountains until around the later half of the 13th century
  • They began conquering nearby tribes
  • They originate from the city of Tique and Lake Titicaca in the Andes mountains
  • Over the next 250 years they built an empire along the Andes Mountains with the use of advanced infrastructure to maintain control over the people
• Inca State Structure

  • They created a highly centralized bureaucratic empire
  • At the top reigned an emperor/absolute ruler (Sapay Inca) seen as a divine ascendent of the creator God Viracocha and sun God Inti
  • People could only participate in government if they spoke the Inca language of Quechua, which gave an incentive for conquered people to assimilate into Inca culture
  • The empire was divided into 4 quarters, each having 70-80 local governors, since there were 8 provinces and each had an Inca governor
  • The state owned all land and resources in "lands of the sun" which existed alongside properties owned by temples, elite, and traditional communities
  • In central regions of the empire, subjects were grouped into hierarchy units of 10, 50, 500, 1000, 5000, and 1000 all of which were headed by local officials that were appointed by an Inca gov or emperor
  • They took regular censuses every 4-5 years to accurately collect taxes and keep track of population
  • Births, deaths, marriages, and other population data were recorded on quipus
  • They demanded a labor service (Mita system) from conquered people where their labor was required periodically, two weeks out of every year
  • They would work on infrastructure, roads, cities, palaces, and large state farms ("sun" farms) to support temples and religious institutions
  • They had complete control over conquered people as when they conquered a civilization, they would kidnap teenage and young adult men and bring them back to the Capital of Cusco as hostages to educate them in Inca culture, language, and way of life to make them proper Incas
  • They would grant them citizenship so they would have social mobility and economic privileges, to then ship them back to their original city so they would marry into the population and help them further assimilate
  • They created Qhapaq Nan which was an organized road system that facilitated trade
  • These roads were only available to those with government paperwork (citizenship)
• Inti the sun god


  • Supreme god
  • They built mountain top palaces and cities for ceremonies to worship Inti, such as the sun temple of Coricancha and the religious ceremony of Capacocha
• Inca - Human sacrifice ritual

  1. Children ages 7-8 years old being chosen

  2. Prepared 2 years in advance, being provided with a lavish life

  3. Given a feast and lots of alcohol to numb them

  4. Killed quickly and humanely in a temple on a mountain top
• Inca - Ancestor worship

  • Mummification of dead kings and scholars
  • Stored high in the mountains to preserve them and be used in religious ceremonies
• Inca technical innovation


  • Most advanced engineers and best builders in Pre Columbian America
  • Designed the first suspension bridges along with pontoon bridges and the pulley system
  • Allowed them to connect regions and create roads in regions others couldn't
• Quipu


  Knotted strings used to record information such as tax and trade information, numbers, transactions, data, history
• Inca mathematics and astronomy


  • Created complex mathematical equations that allowed them to measure the movements of the sun and stars
  • Created a 365 day solar calendar
• Inca agriculture


  • Utilized the process of terrace farming to flatten mountain sides for agriculture and the reduction of runoff from snow/rain