Journal Entry History

 700 words

You will keep notes about the course content in your Blackboard journal. To give flexibility regarding your interests, you can choose the course weeks you will add notes to the journal. You will be required to complete four journal entries (2 before or by week 6, and 2 after that). Only you and the instructor will have access to the journal.

Try to answer the following questions in each of your journal entries:

Answer each question separately

• What interested you the most in the week’s course content? Why?
• What about the concepts discussed this week? (use the syllabus, course schedule, to see each week’s concepts). Did they help you understand the historical process better, or not? How come? Comment on at least one concept and related event/process discussed in the textbook or lectures.
• What event, concept, or historical process remained unclear to you? Why?
• How do you evaluate your learning process about world history so far?

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15

Empires and Alternatives
in the Americas 1430–1530

531

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World in the Making Perched on a granite ridge
high above Peru’s Urubamba R iver, the Inca site
of Machu Picchu continues to draw thousands of
visitors each year. First thought to be the lost city of
Vilcabamba, then a convent for Inca nuns, Machu
Picchu is now believed to have been a mid-fifteenth-
century palace built for the Inca emperor and his
mummy cult. It was probably more a religious site
than a place of rest and recreation

.

Many Native America

s

FOCUS What factors account for the diversity of
native American cultures?

Tributes of Blood: The Aztec Empire,
1325–1521

FOCUS What core features characterized Aztec
life and rule?

Tributes of Sweat: The Inca Empire,
1430–1532

FOCUS What core features characterized Inca
life and rule?

COUNTERPOINT: The Peoples of
North America’s Eastern Woodlands,
1450–153

0

FOCUS How did the Eastern Woodlanders’
experience differ from life under the Aztecs
and Incas?

backstory
By the fifteenth century the Americas had

witnessed the rise and fall of numerous

empires and kingdoms, including the classic

Maya of Mesoamerica, the wealthy Sicán

kingdom of Peru’s desert coast, and the

Cahokia mound builders of the Mississippi

Basin. Just as these cultures faded, there

emerged two new imperial states that

borrowed heavily from their predecessors.

The empires discussed in this chapter, the

Aztec and Inca, were the largest states ever

to develop in the Americas, yet they were

not all-powerful. About half of all native

Americans, among them the diverse peoples

of North America’s eastern woodlands, lived

outside their realms.

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In 1995, archaeologists discovered a tomb on a peak overlooking Arequipa, Peru.
Inside was the mummified body of an adolescent girl placed there some five hun-
dred years earlier. Evidence suggests she was an aclla (AHK-yah), or “chosen
woman,” selected by Inca priests from among hundreds of regional headmen’s
daughters. Most aclla girls became priestesses dedicated to the Inca emperor or the
imperial sun cult. Others became the emperor’s concubines or wives. Only the most
select, like the girl discovered near Arequipa, were chosen for the “debt-payment”
sacrifice, or capacocha (kah-pah-KOH-chah), said to be the greatest honor of all.

According to testimonies collected after the Spanish conquest of the Incas in 1532
(discussed in the next chapter), the capacocha sacrifice was a rare event preceded
by rituals. First, the victim, chosen for her (and rarely, his) physical perfection,
trekked to Cuzco, the Inca capital. The child’s father brought gifts from his province
and in turn received fine textiles from the emperor. Following an ancient Andean
tradition, ties between ruler and ruled were reinforced through such acts of
reciprocity. The girl, too, received skirts and shawls, along with votive objects. These
adorned her in her tomb, reached after a long journey on foot from Cuzco.

As suggested by later discoveries, at tomb-side the aclla girl was probably given a
beaker of maize beer. In a pouch she carried coca leaves. Coca, chewed throughout
the Andes, helped fend off altitude sickness, whereas the maize beer induced sleepi-
ness. Barely conscious of her surroundings, the girl was lowered into her grass-lined
grave, and, according to the forensic anthropologists who examined her skull,
struck dead with a club.

W hy did the Incas sacrifice children, and why in these ways? By combining ma-
terial, written, and oral evidence, scholars are beginning to solve the riddle of the
Inca mountain mummies. It now appears that death, fertility, reciprocity, and
imperial links to sacred landscapes were all features of the capacocha sacrifice.
Although such deadly practices may challenge our ability to empathize with the
leaders, if not the common folk, of this distant culture, with each new fact we learn
about the child mummies, the closer we get to understanding the Inca Empire and
its ruling cosmology.

The Incas and their subjects believed that death occurred as a process, and that proper
death led to an elevated state of consciousness. In this altered state a person could
communicate with deities directly, and in a sense join them. If the remains of such a
person were carefully preserved and honored, they could act as an oracle, a conduit
to the sacred realms above and below the earth. Mountains, as sources of springs and
rivers, and sometimes fertilizing volcanic ash, held particular significance.

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In part, it was these beliefs about landscape, death, and the afterlife that led the
Incas to mummify ancestors, including their emperors, and to bury chosen young
people atop mountains that marked the edges, or heights, of empire. Physically
perfect noble children such as the girl found near Arequipa were thus selected to
communicate with the spirit world. Their sacrifice unified the dead, the living, and
the sacred mountains, and also bound together a far-flung empire that was in many
ways as fragile as life itself.1

But this fragility was not evident to the people gathered at the capacocha sacrifice.
By about 1480, more than half of all native Americans were subjects of two
great empires, the Aztec in Mexico and Central America and the Inca in South
America. Both empires subdued neighboring chiefdoms through a mix of violence,
forced relocation, religious indoctrination, and marriage alliances. Both empires
demanded allegiance in the form of tribute. Both the Aztecs and Incas were greatly
feared by their millions of subjects. Perhaps surprisingly, these last great native
American states would prove far more vulnerable to European invaders than their
nonimperial neighbors, most of whom were gatherer-hunters and semi-sedentary
villagers. Those who relied least on farming had the best chance of getting away.

1. In what ways was cultural

diversity in the Americas related

to environmental diversity?

2. Why was it in Mesoamerica

and the Andes that large

empires emerged around 1450?

3. What key ideas or practices

extended beyond the limits of

the great empires?

OVERVIEW QUESTIONS

The major global development in this chapter: The diversity of societies and
states in the Americas prior to European invasion.

As you read, consider:

Many Native Americas

FOCUS What factors account for the diversity of native
american cultures?

Scholars once claimed that the Western Hemisphere was sparsely settled prior to
the arrival of Europeans in 1492, but we now know that by then the population of
the Americas had reached some sixty million or more. A lthough vast open spaces

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remained, in places the landscape was more intensively cultivated and thickly
populated than western Europe (see Map 15.1). Fewer records for nonimperial
groups survive than for empire builders such as the Incas and Aztecs, but scholars
have recently learned much about these less-studied cultures. Outside imperial
boundaries, coastal and riverside populations were densest. This was true in the
Caribbean, the Amazon, Paraguay-Paraná, and Mississippi R iver Basins, the
Pacific Northwest, and parts of North America’s eastern seaboard.

Ecological diversity gave rise in part to political and cultural diversity. A merica’s
native peoples, or A merindians, occupied two ecologically diverse continents.
They also inhabited tropical, temperate, and icy environments that proved
more or less suitable to settled agriculture. Some were members of egalitarian
gatherer-hunter bands; others were subjects of rigidly stratified imperial states. In
between were traveling bands of pilgrims led by prophets; chiefdoms based on fish-
ing, whaling, or farming; regional confederacies of chiefdoms; and independent
city-states.

Political diversity was more than matched by cultural diversity. The Aztecs and
Incas spread the use of imperial dialects within their empires, but elsewhere hundreds

of distinct Amerindian lan-
guages could be heard. Modes of
dress and adornment were even
more varied, ranging from total
nudity and a few tattoos to highly
elaborate ceremonial dress. Lip
and ear piercing, tooth filing,
and molding of the infant skull
between slats of wood were but
a few of the many ways human
appearances were reconfigured.
Architecture was just as varied,
as were ceramics and other arts.
In short, the Americas’ extraor-
dinary range of climates and nat-
ural resources both reflected and
encouraged diverse forms of ma-
terial and linguistic expression.
Perhaps only in the realm of reli-
gion, where shamanism persisted,
was a unifying thread to be found.

Canadian War Club This stone war club with a fish motif was excavated from
a native A merican tomb in coastal British Columbia, Canada, and is thought
to date from around 1200 to 1400 C.E . Such items at first suggest a people at
war, but this club was probably intended only for ceremonial use. Modern
Tsimshian inhabitants of the region, who still rely on salmon, describe the
exchange of stone clubs in their foundation myths.

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0

0 650 Kilometers

650 Miles

PACIFI

C

OCEAN

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

Caribbea

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Sea

Rio de
la Plata

Gulf of
Mexico

Lesser

A

ntilles

Greater Antilles

Amazo n

R
.

O
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Pa
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MESOAMERICA

Main areas of se�lement, c. 1492

Major trade route

Main Se�lement Areas in
the Americas, c. 1492

Principal crops
Amaranth

Beans

Cacao

Chilies

Co�on

Maize

Manioc

Potatoes, sweet potatoes

Quinoa

Squash, pumpkins, gourds

Sun�owers

Tobacco

Tomatoes

Peanuts

NORTH AMERICA

SOUTH
AMERICA

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Equator

30ºN

120ºW 90ºW 60ºW 30ºW 0º

30ºS

MAP 15.1 Main Settlement Areas in the Americas, c. 1492 Most native Americans settled in regions that supported
intensive agriculture. The trade routes shown here linked peoples from very different cultures, mostly to exchange rare
items such as shells, precious stones, and tropical bird feathers, but seeds for new crops also followed these paths.

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Shamanism consisted of reliance on healer-visionaries for spiritual guidance. In
imperial societies shamans constituted a priestly class. Both male and female, sha-
mans had functions ranging from fortune teller to physician, with women often
acting as midwives. Still, most native American shamans were males. The role of
shaman could be inherited or determined following a vision quest. This entailed a
solo journey to a forest or desert region, prolonged physical suffering, and controlled
use of hallucinogenic substances. In many respects Amerindian shamanism resem-
bled shamanistic practices in Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Often labeled “witch doctors” by Christian Europeans, shamans maintained a
body of esoteric knowledge that they passed along to apprentices. Some served as
historians and myth keepers. Most used powerful hallucinogens to communicate
with the spirits of predatory animals, which were venerated almost every where in
the Americas. Animal spirits were regarded as the shaman’s alter ego or protector,
and were consulted prior to important occasions. Shamans also mastered herbal
remedies for all forms of illness, including emotional disorders. These rubs, washes,
and infusions were sometimes effective, as shown by modern pharmacological
studies. Shamans nearly always administered them along with chants and rituals
aimed at expelling evil spirits. Shamans, therefore, combined the roles of physician
and religious leader, using their knowledge and power to heal both body and spirit.

The many varieties of social organization and cultural practice found in the
Americas reflect both creative interactions with specific environments and
the visions of individual political and religious leaders. Some Amerindian
gatherer-hunters lived in swamplands and desert areas where subsistence agricul-
ture was impossible using available technologies. Often such gathering-hunting
peoples traded with—or plundered—their farming neighbors. Yet even farming
peoples did not forget their past as hunters. As in other parts of the world, big-game
hunting in the Americas was an esteemed, even sacred activity among urban elites.

Just as hunting remained important to farmers, agriculture could be found
among some forest peoples. Women in these societies controlled most agricultural
tasks and spaces, periodically making offerings to spirits associated with human
fertility. Amerindian staple foods included maize, potatoes, and manioc, a lowland
tropical tuber that could be ground into flour and preserved. With the ebb and
flow of empires, many groups shifted from one mode of subsistence to another,
from planting to gathering-hunting and back again. Some, such as the Kwakiutl
(K WA H-kyu-til) of the Pacific Northwest, were surrounded by such abundant
marine and forest resources that they never turned to farming. Natural abundance
combined with sophisticated fishing and storage systems allowed the Kwakiutl to
build a settled culture of the type normally associated with agricultural peoples.

shamanism 
Widespread system
of religious belief and
healing originating in
Central Asia.

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Thus, the ecological diversity of the Americas helped give rise to numerous cul-
tures, many of which blurred the line between settled and nomadic lifestyles.

Tributes of Blood: The Aztec Empire 1325–1521

FOCUS What core features characterized aztec life and rule?

Mesoamerica, comprised of modern southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El
Salvador, and western Honduras, was a land of city-states after about 800 C.E .
Following the decline of Teotihuacán (tay-oh-tee-wah-KAHN) in the Mexican
highlands and the classic Maya in the greater Guatemalan lowlands, few urban
powers, with the possible exception of the Toltecs, managed to dominate more
than a few neighbors.

This would change with the arrival in the Valley of Mexico of a band of
former gatherer-hunters from a northwestern desert region they called Aztlán
( ost-LAW N), or “place of cranes.” As newcomers these “Aztecs,” who later called
themselves Mexica (meh-SHE-cah, hence “Mexico”), would suffer humiliation by
powerful city-dwellers centered on Lake Texcoco, now overlain by Mexico City.
The Aztecs were at first regarded as barbarians, but as with many conquering
outsiders, in time they would have their revenge (see Map 15.2).

Humble Origins, Imperial Ambitions
Unlike the classic Maya of preceding centuries, the Aztecs did not develop a fully
phonetic writing system. They did, however, preserve their history in a mix of oral
and symbolic, usually painted or carved, forms. Aztec elders maintained chronicles
of the kind historians call master narratives, or state-sponsored versions of the past
meant to glorify certain individuals or policies. These narratives related foundation
myths, genealogies, tales of conquest, and other important remembrances. Though
biased and fragmentary, many Aztec oral narratives were preserved by young
native scribes writing in Nahuatl (NA H-watt), the Aztec language, soon after the
Spanish Conquest of 1519–1521 (discussed in the next chapter).

W hy is it that the Spanish victors promoted rather than suppressed these
narratives of Aztec glory? In one of history’s many ironic twists, Spanish priests
arriving in Mexico in the 1520s taught a number of noble Aztec and other
Mesoamerican youths to adapt the Latin alphabet and Spanish phonetics to vari-
ous local languages, most importantly Nahuatl. The Spanish hoped that stories of
Aztec rule and religion, once collected and examined, would be swiftly discredited

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and replaced with Western, Christian versions. Not only did this quick conver-
sion not happen as planned, but an unintended consequence of the information-
gathering campaign was to create a vast body of Mesoamerican literature written
in native languages.

The Aztecs were a quick study in the production of written historical docu-
ments, and most of what we know of Aztec history relies heavily on these hybrid,
sixteenth-century sources (see Seeing the Past: An Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán).
Aside from interviews with the elders, several painted books, or codices, marked
with precise dates, names, and other symbols, survive, along with much archaeo-
logical and artistic evidence. In combining these sources with Spanish eyewitness
accounts of the conquest era, historians have assembled a substantial record of
Aztec life and rule.

0

0 150 Kilometers

150 Miles

PACIFIC OCEAN

Gulf of
Mexico
Caribbean
Sea

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Sierra Madre Del Sur

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YUCATAN
PENINSULA

VALLEY OF MEXICO

MAYA
HIGHLANDS

TA�SCAN MAYA

ZAPOTEC

MIXTEC

MEXICA
(AZTEC)

TLAXCALAN

COLHUA
OTOMI

Chichén
Itzá

Tenochtitlán

See inset map

TABASCO

By 1440

Added by 1481

Added by 1521

�e Aztec Empire,
1325–1521
Aztec territory

100ºW 90ºW

20ºN

Tropic of Cancer

Lake

Texcoco

Texcoco

Xochimilco
Coyoacán

Tlacopán

Tenayuca

Tenochtitlán
Atzcapotzalco

Xaltocán

Ixtalapapa

Chalco

Valley of Mexico

Causeway
Dike

MAP 15.2 The Aztec Empire, 1325–1521 Starting from their base in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the
Aztecs quickly built the most densely populated empire in the A mericas. Their first objective was the Valley of Mexico
itself. A lthough a line of kings greatly extended the empire, not all peoples fell to the Aztec war machine, including
the Tlaxcalans to the east of Tenochtitlán and the Tarascans to the west. A lso unconquered were the many nomadic
peoples of the desert north and the farming forest peoples of the southeast.

SEEING THE PAST

An Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán
Named for Mexico’s first Spanish viceroy, the

Codex Mendoza was painted by Aztec artists

about a dozen years after the Spanish Conquest

of 1519–1521. It was commissioned by the viceroy

as a gift for the Holy Roman emperor and king

of Spain, Charles V. After circulating among the

courts of Europe, the Codex Mendoza landed in

the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, where it

remains. Much of the document consists of trib-

ute lists, but it also contains an illustrated history

of Aztec conquests, crimes and punishments, and

even a map of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital. This

symbol-filled map is reproduced here.

According to legend, the Aztec capital came into ex-

istence when an eagle landed on a cactus in the middle

of Lake Texcoco. This image, now part of the Mexican

national flag, is at the center of the map. Beneath the

cactus is a picture of a stone carving of a cactus fruit, a

common Aztec symbol for the human heart, emblem

of sacrifice. Beneath this is a third symbol labeled after-

ward by a Spanish scribe “Tenochtitlán.”

The city, or rather its symbol, marks the meeting

of four spatial quarters. In each quarter are various

Aztec nobles, only one of whom, Tenochtli (labeled

“Tenuch” on the map), is seated on a reed mat, the

Aztec symbol of supreme authority. He was the

Aztecs’ first emperor; the name “Tenochtli” means

“stone cactus fruit.”

The lower panel depicts the Aztec conquests of

their neighbors in Colhuacan and Tenayuca. Framing

the entire map are symbols for dates, part of an

ancient Mesoamerican system of timekeeping and

prophesying retained by the Aztecs. Finally, barely

legible in the upper left-hand corner is the somewhat

jarring signature of André Thevet, a French priest

and royal cosmographer who briefly possessed the

Codex Mendoza in the late sixteenth century.

Examining the Evidence

1. W hat does this map reveal about the Aztec worldview?
2. How might this document have been read by a common Aztec subject?

Tenochtitlán, from the Codex Mendoza

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The Aztecs apparently arrived in the Valley of Mexico some-
time in the thirteenth century, but it was not until the early
fourteenth that they established a permanent home. The most
fertile sites in the valley were already occupied, but the Aztecs
were not dissuaded; they had a reputation for being tough and
resourceful. Heeding an omen in the form of an eagle perched
on a cactus growing on a tiny island near the southwest edge
of Lake Texcoco, the refugees settled there in 1325. Reclaim-
ing land from the shallow lakebed, they founded a city called
Tenochtitlán (teh-noach-teet-LAW N), or “cactus fruit place.”
Linked to shore by three large causeways, the city soon boasted
stone palaces and temple-pyramids.

The Aztecs transformed Tenochtitlán into a formidable
capital. By 1500 it was home to some two hundred thousand
people, ranking alongside Nanjing and Paris among the world’s
most populous cities at the time. At first the Aztecs developed
their city by trading military services and lake products such as
reeds and fish for building materials, including stone, lime, and
timber from the surrounding hillsides. They then formed mar-
riage alliances with regional ethnic groups such as the Colhua,
and by 1430 initiated imperial expansion.

Intermarriage with the Colhua, who traced their ancestry
to the warrior Toltecs, lent the lowly Aztecs a new, elite cachet.
At some point the Aztecs tied their religious cult, focused on
the war god Huitzilopochtli (weetsy-low-POACH-tlee), or
“hummingbird-on-the-left” to cults dedicated to more widely
known deities, such as the water god Tlaloc. A huge, multilay-

ered pyramid faced with carved stone and filled with rubble, now referred to by
archaeologists as the Templo Mayor, or “Great Temple,” but called by the Aztecs
Coatepec, or “Serpent Mountain,” became the centerpiece of Tenochtitlán. At its
top, some twenty stories above the valley floor, sat twin temples, one dedicated to
Huitzilopochtli, the other to Tlaloc. Coatepec was built to awe and intimidate. In
the words of one native poet,

Proud of itself
Is the City of Mexico-Tenochtitlán
Here no one fears to die in war
This is our glory
This is Your Command
Oh Giver of Life

B

A

D

C
0

0 0.5 km

0.5 mi

Lake Texcoco

Tlatelolco

Tenochtitlán

Causeway
Major road
Major canal
Aqueduct

Great Temple
Ritual center
Palace
Assembly hall

A
B
C
D

Lake Texcoco and Tenochtitlán, c. 1500

Lake Texcoco and Tenochtitlán, c. 1500

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Have this in mind, oh princes
W ho could conquer Tenochtitlán?
W ho could shake the foundation of heaven?2

The Aztecs saw themselves as both stagehands and actors in a cosmic drama
centered on their great capital city.

Enlarging and Supplying the Capital
With Tenochtitlán surrounded by water, subsistence and living space became
serious concerns amid imperial expansion. Fortunately for the Aztecs, Lake
Texcoco was shallow enough to allow an ingenious form of land reclamation called
chinampa (chee-NA HM-pah). Chinampas were long, narrow terraces built by
hand from dredged mud, reeds, and rocks, bordered by interwoven sticks and live
trees. Chinampa construction also created canals for canoe transport. Building
chinampas and massive temple-pyramids such as Coatepec without metal tools,
wheeled vehicles, or draft animals required thousands of workers. Their construc-
tion, therefore, is a testimony to the Aztecs’ power to command labor.

Over time, Tenochtitlán’s canals accumulated algae, water lilies, and silt.
Workers periodically dredged and composted this organic material to fertilize
maize and other plantings on the island terraces. Established chinampa lands
were eventually used for building residences, easing urban crowding. By the mid-
fifteenth century the Aztecs countered problems such as chronic flooding and high
salt content at their end of the lake with dikes and other public works.

Earlier, in the fourteenth century, an adjacent “twin” city called Tlatelolco
(tlah-teh-LOLE-coe) had emerged alongside Tenochtitlán. Tlatelolco was the
Aztec marketplace. Foods, textiles, and exotic goods were exchanged here. Cocoa
beans from the hot lowlands served as currency, and products such as turquoise
and quetzal feathers arrived from as far away as New Mexico and Guatemala, re-
spectively. Though linked by trade, these distant regions fell well outside the Aztec
domain. A ll products were transported along well-trod footpaths on the backs of
human carriers. Only when they arrived on the shores of Lake Texcoco could trade
goods be shuttled from place to place in canoes. Tlatelolco served as crossroads
for all regional trade, with long-distance merchants, or pochteca (poach-TEH-cah),
occupying an entire precinct.

Aztec imperial expansion began only around 1430, less than a century before
the arrival of Europeans. An alliance between Tenochtitlán and the city-states of
Texcoco and Tlacopan led to victory against a third, Atzcapotzalco (otts-cah- poat-
SAUL-coh) (see again Map 15.2). Tensions with Atzcapotzalco extended back to
the Aztecs’ first arrival in the region. The Aztecs used the momentum of this vic-
tory to overtake their allies and lay the foundations of a regional, tributary empire.

chinampa A terrace
for farming and house
building constructed
in the shallows
of Mexico’s Lake
Texcoco by the Aztecs
and their neighbors.

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Within a generation they controlled the entire Valley of Mexico, exacting tribute
from several million people. The Nahuatl language helped link state to subjects,
although many subject groups retained local languages. These persistent forms of
ethnic identification, coupled with staggering tribute demands, would eventually
help bring about the end of Aztec rule.

Holy Terror: Aztec Rule, Religion, and Warfare
A series of six male rulers, or tlatoque (tlah-TOE-kay, singular tlatoani), presided
over Aztec expansion. W hen a ruler died, his successor was chosen by a council of
elders from among a handful of eligible candidates. Aztec kingship was sacred in

Aztec Human Sacrifice This image dates from just after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, but it was part of a codex
about Aztec religious practices and symbols. Here a priest is removing the beating heart of a captive with a flint knife as
an assistant holds his feet. The captive’s bloody heart, in the form of a cactus fruit, ascends, presumably to the gods (see
the same icon in Seeing the Past: A n Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán, page 539). At the base of the sacrificial pyramid lies an
earlier victim, apparently being taken away by noble Aztec men and women responsible for the handling of the corpse.

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that each tlatoani traced his lineage back to the Toltecs. For this, the incorporation
of the Colhua lineage had been essential. In keeping with this Toltec legacy, the
Aztec Empire was characterized by three core features: human sacrifice, warfare,
and tribute. A ll were linked to Aztec and broader Mesoamerican notions of cosmic
order, specifically the human duty to feed the gods.

Like most Mesoamericans, the Aztecs traced not only their own but all human
origins to sacrifices made by deities. In origin stories male and female gods threw
themselves into fires, drew their own blood, and killed and dismembered one
another, all for the good of humankind. These sacrifices were considered essential to
the process of releasing and renewing the generative powers that drove the cosmos.

According to Aztec belief, humans were expected to show gratitude by follow-
ing the example of their creators in an almost daily ritual cycle. Much of the sacred
calendar had been inherited from older Mesoamerican cultures, but the Aztecs
added many new holidays to celebrate their own special role in cosmic history. The
Aztecs’ focus on sacrifice also appears to have derived from their sense that secular
and spiritual forces were inseparable. A ffairs of state were affairs of heaven, and
vice versa. Tenochtitlán was thought to be the foundation of heaven, its enormous
temple-pyramids the center of human-divine affairs. Aztec priests and astrologers
believed that the universe, already in its fifth incarnation after only three thousand
years, was unstable, on the verge of chaos and collapse. Only human intervention
in the form of sustained sacrificial ritual could stave off apocalypse.

As an antidote, the gods had given humans the “gift” of warfare. Human
captives, preferably young men, were to be hunted and killed so that the release of
their blood and spirits might satisfy the gods. Warrior sacrifice was so important to
the Aztecs that they believed it kept the sun in motion.

Devout Aztec subjects also took part in nonlethal cosmic regeneration rituals in
the form of personal bloodletting, or autosacrifice. According to sources, extrem-
ities and genitals were bled using thorns and stone blades, with public exhibition of
suffering as important as blood loss. Blood offerings were absorbed by thin sheets
of reed paper, which were burned before an altar. These bloodlettings, like captive
sacrifices, emphasized the frailty of the individual, the pain of life, and indebted-
ness to the gods. Human blood fueled not only the Aztec realm, but the cosmos.

Given these sacrificial obligations, Aztec warfare aimed not at the annihilation but
rather at live capture of enemies. Aztec combat was ideally a stylized and theatrical
affair similar to royal jousts in contemporary Eurasia, with specific individuals
paired for contest. Aztec warriors were noted for their fury, a trait borrowed from
their patron deity, Huitzilopochtli. Chronic enemies such as the Tlaxcalans appar-
ently learned to match the ferocious Aztec style, and some enemies, such as the
Otomí, were eventually incorporated into Aztec warrior ranks.

autosacrifice The
Mesoamerican
practice of personal
bloodletting as a
means of paying debts
to the gods.

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Mesoamerican warriors considered death on the battlefield the highest honor.
But live capture was the Aztecs’ main goal, and most victims were marched naked
and bound to the capital to be sacrificed. A lthough charged with religious meaning,
Aztec warrior sacrifices were also intended to horrify enemies; visiting diplomats
were made to watch them. Aztec imperial expansion depended in part on religious
terror, or the ability to appear chosen by the gods for victory.

In addition to sacrificial victims, the Aztecs demanded tribute of conquered
peoples. In addition to periodic labor drafts for public works, tribute lists included
food, textiles, and craft goods for the empire’s large priestly and warrior classes. Other
tribute items were redistributed to favored subjects of lower status to help cement
loyalties. Yet other tribute items were purely symbolic. Some new subjects were made
to collect filth and inedible insects, for example, just to prove their unworthiness. As
an empire that favored humiliation over co-optation and promotion of new subjects,
the Aztecs faced an ever-deepening reservoir of resentment.

Daily Life Under the Aztecs
Aztec society was stratified, and Mexica nobles regarded commoners as uncouth. In
between were bureaucrats, priests, district chiefs, scribes, merchants, and artisans.
A lthough elites displayed the fruits of their subordinates’ labors, most Aztec art
seems to have been destined not for wealthy people’s homes but for temples, tombs,
and religious shrines. Despite heav y emphasis on religious ceremonies, the Aztecs
also maintained a civil justice system. Quite unlike most of the world’s imperial
cultures, Aztec nobles sometimes received harsher punishments than commoners
for similar misdeeds.

Class hierarchy was reinforced by dress and speech codes, along with many
other rules and rituals. The tlatoani, for example, could not be touched or even
looked in the face by any but his closest relatives, consorts, and servants. Even
ranking nobles were supposed to lie face down on the ground and put dirt in their
mouths before him. Nobles guarded their own rank by using a restricted form of
speech. Chances for social advancement were limited, but some men gained status
on the battlefield.

At the base of the social pyramid were peasants and slaves. Some peasants were
ethnic Aztecs, but most belonged to city-states and clans that had been conquered
after 1430. In either case, peasants’ lives revolved around producing food and
providing overlords with tribute goods and occasional labor. Slavery usually
took the form of crisis-driven self-indenture; it was not an inherited social status.
Slavery remained unimportant to the overall Aztec economy.

Merchants, particularly the mobile pochteca responsible for long-distance trade,
occupied an unusual position. A lthough the pochteca sometimes accumulated

tribute Taxes paid
to a state or empire,
usually in the form
of farm produce or
artisan manufactures
but sometimes also
human labor or even
human bodies.

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great wealth, they remained resident aliens. They had no homeland, but made a
good living supplying elites with exotic goods. Nonetheless, there is no evidence
of complex credit instruments, industrial-style production, or real estate exchange
of the sort associated with early merchant capitalism in other parts of the world
at this time. The Aztec state remained tributary, the movement of goods mostly a
reflection of power relations. Merchants, far from influencing politics, remained
ethnic outsiders. Thus, both the Aztec economy and social structure reinforced the
insularity of Aztec elites.

The life of an Aztec woman was difficult even by early modern standards. A long
with water transport and other heav y household chores, maize grinding and
tortilla making became the core responsibilities of most women in the Valley of
Mexico, and indeed throughout Mesoamerica. Without animal- or water-driven
grain mills, food preparation was an arduous, time-consuming task, particularly
for the poor. Only noblewomen enjoyed broad exemption from manual work.

Sources suggest that some women assumed minor priestly roles. Others worked as
surgeons and herbalists. Midwifery was also a fairly high-status, female occupation
(see Lives and Livelihoods: The Aztec Midwife). These were exceptions; women’s
lives were mostly hard under Aztec rule. Scholars disagree, however, as to whether
male political and religious leaders viewed women’s duties and contributions as
complementary or subordinate. Surviving texts do emphasize feminine mastery of
the domestic sphere and its social value. However, this emphasis may simply reflect
male desire to limit women’s actions, since female reproductive capacity was also
highly valued as an aid to the empire’s perpetual war effort.

Indeed, Aztec society was so militarized that giving birth was referred to as
“taking a captive.” This comparison reflects the Aztec preoccupation with pleasing
their gods: women were as much soldiers as men in the ongoing war to sustain human
life. Women’s roles in society were mostly domestic rather than public, but the home
was a sacred space. Caring for it was equivalent to caring for a temple. Sweeping
was a ritual, for example, albeit one with hygienic benefits. Hearth tending, maize
grinding, spinning, and weaving were also ritualized tasks. Insufficient attention to
these daily rituals put families and entire lineages at risk.

Aztec children, too, lived a scripted existence, their futures predicted at birth by
astrologers. Names were derived from birthdates, and served as a public badge of
fate. Sources affirm that Aztec society at all levels emphasized duty and good com-
portment rather than rights and individual freedom. Parents were to police their
children’s behavior and to help mold all youths into useful citizens. Girls and boys
were assigned tasks considered appropriate for their sex well before adolescence. By
age fourteen, children were engaged in adult work. One break from the chores was
instruction between ages twelve and fifteen in singing and playing instruments,

LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS

The Aztec Midwife
In Aztec culture, childbirth was a sacred and ritual-
ized affair. Always life-threatening for mother and
child, giving birth and being born were both explic-
itly compared to the battlefield experience. Aside
from potential medical complications, the Aztecs
considered the timing of a child’s birth critical in
determining her or his future. This tricky blend
of physical and spiritual concerns gave rise to the
respected and highly skilled livelihood of midwife.
It is not entirely clear how midwives were chosen,
but their work is well described in early post-
conquest records, particularly the illustrated books
of Aztec lore and history collectively known as the
Florentine Codex. The following passage, translated
directly from sixteenth-century Nahuatl, is one such
description. Note how the midwife blends physi-
cal tasks, such as supplying herbs and swaddling
clothes, with shamanistic cries and speeches.

And the midwife inquired about the fate of
the baby who was born.

W hen the pregnant one already became
aware of [pains in] her womb, when it was
said that her time of death had arrived,
when she wanted to give birth already, they
quickly bathed her, washed her hair with

soap, washed her, adorned her well. And then
they arranged, they swept the house where
the little woman was to suffer, where she was
to perform her duty, to do her work, to give
birth.

If she were a noblewoman or wealthy, she
had two or three midwives. They remained
by her side, awaiting her word. And when the
woman became really disturbed internally,

Aztec Midwife This image accompanies a description
in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, of the midwife’s duties
written soon after the Spanish Conquest. (Firenze,
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ms. Med. Palat. 219, f.
132v. Su concessione del MiBACT)

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such as drums and flutes, for cyclical religious festivals. Girls married at about age
fifteen, and boys nearer twenty, a pattern roughly in accordance with most parts
of the world at the time. Elder Aztec women served as matchmakers, and wedding
ceremonies were elaborate, multiday affairs. Some noblemen expanded their pres-
tige by retaining numerous wives and siring dozens of children.

they quickly put her in a sweat bath [a kind of
sauna]. And to hasten the birth of the baby,
they gave the pregnant woman cooked ciua-
patli [literally, “woman medicine”] herb to
drink.

And if she suffered much, they gave her
ground opossum tail to drink, and then the
baby was quickly born. [The midwife] already
had all that was needed for the baby, the little
rags with which the baby was received.

And when the baby had arrived on earth,
the midwife shouted; she gave war cries,
which meant the woman had fought a good
battle, had become a brave warrior, had taken
a captive, had captured a baby.

Then the midwife spoke to it. If it was a
boy, she said to it: “You have come out on
earth, my youngest one, my boy, my young
man.” If it was a girl, she said to it: “My young
woman, my youngest one, noblewoman, you
have suffered, you are exhausted.” . . . [and to
either:] “You have come to arrive on earth,
where your relatives, your kin suffer fatigue
and exhaustion; where it is hot, where it is
cold, and where the wind blows; where there
is thirst, hunger, sadness, despair, exhaus-
tion, fatigue, pain. . . .”

And then the midwife cut the umbilical
cord.

Source: Selection from the Florentine Codex in Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano, eds., Mesoamerican

Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2005), 216–217.

Questions to Consider

1. W hy was midwifery so crucial to the Aztecs?
2. How were girls and boys addressed by the midwife, and why?

For Further Information:

Carrasco, Davíd, and Scott Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs, People of the Sun and Earth, 2nd ed. Indianapolis:
Hackett, 2008.

Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: An Interpretation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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At around harvest time in September, Aztec subjects ate maize, beans, and
squash seasoned with salt and ground chili peppers. During other times of the year,
and outside the chinampa zone, food could be scarce, forcing the poor to consume
roasted insects, grubs, and lake scum. Certain items, such as frothed cocoa, were
reserved for elites. Stored maize was used to make tortillas year-round, but two

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poor harvests in a row, a frequent occurrence in highland Mexico, could reduce
rations considerably.

In addition to periodic droughts, Aztec subjects coped with frosts, plagues of
locusts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and floods. This ecological uncertainty
restricted warfare to the agricultural off-season. Without large domesticated
animals and metal tools, agricultural tasks throughout Mesoamerica demanded
virtual armies of field laborers equipped only with fire-hardened digging sticks and
obsidian or flint knives.

Animal protein was scarce, especially in urban areas where hunting opportunities
were limited and few domestic animals were kept. Still, the people of Tenochtitlán
raised turkeys and plump, hairless dogs (the prized Xolo breed of today). Even
humble beans, when combined with maize, could constitute a complete protein, and
indigenous grains such as amaranth were also nutritious. Famines still occurred,
however, and one in the early 1450s led to mass migration out of the Valley of
Mexico. Thousands sold themselves into slavery to avoid starvation.

The Limits of Holy Terror
As the Aztec Empire expanded, sacrificial debts became a consuming passion
among pious elites. Calendars filled with sacrificial rites, and warfare was ever
more geared toward satisfying a ballooning cosmic debt.

By 1500 the Aztec state had reached its height, and some scholars have argued
that it had even begun to decline. Incessant captive wars and tribute demands
had reached their limits, and old enemies such as the Tlaxcalans and Tarascans
remained belligerent. New conquests were blocked by difficult terrain, declining
tributes, and resistant locals. With available technologies, there was no place else
for the empire to grow, and even with complex water works in place, agricultural
productivity barely kept the people fed. Under the harsh leadership of Moctezuma
II (“Angry Lord the Younger”) (r. 1502–1520), the future did not look promising.
A lthough there is no evidence to suggest the Aztec Empire was on the verge of
collapse when several hundred bearded, sunburned strangers of Spanish descent
appeared on Mexico’s Gulf Coast shores in 1519, points of vulnerability abounded.

Tributes of Sweat: The Inca Empire 1430–1532

FOCUS What core features characterized inca life and rule?

At about the same time as the Aztec expansion in southernmost North America, an-
other great empire emerged in the central Andean highlands of South America. There
is no evidence of significant contact between them. Like the Aztecs, the Incas burst

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out of their highland homeland in the 1430s to conquer numerous neighbors and
huge swaths of territory. They demanded tribute in goods and labor, along with alle-
giance to an imperial religion. Also like the Aztecs, the Incas based their expansion
on a centuries-long inheritance of technological, religious, and political traditions.

By 1500 the Incas ruled one of the world’s most extensive, ecologically varied,
and rugged land empires, stretching nearly three thousand miles along the towering
Andean mountain range from the equator to central Chile. Like most empires ancient
and modern, extensive holdings proved to be a mixed blessing (see Map 15.3).

From Potato Farmers to Empire Builders
Thanks to archaeological evidence and early post-conquest narratives, much is
known about the rise and fall of the Inca state. Still, like the early Ottoman, Rus-
sian, and other contemporary empires, numerous mysteries remain. As in those
cases, legends of the formative period in particular require skeptical analysis. The
Inca case is somewhat complicated by the fact that their complex knotted-string
records, or khipus (also quipus, K EY-poohs), have yet to be deciphered.

Scholars agree that the Incas emerged from among a dozen or so regional ethnic
groups living in the highlands of south-central Peru between 1000 and 1400 C.E .
Living as potato and maize farmers, the Incas started out as one of many similar
groups of Andean mountaineers. Throughout the Andes, clans settled in fertile
valleys and alongside lakes between eighty-five hundred and thirteen thousand
feet above sea level. Though often graced with fertile soils, these highland areas
suffered periodic frosts and droughts, despite their location within the tropics.
Even more than in the Aztec realm, altitude (elevation above sea level), not latitude
(distance north or south of the equator), was key.

Anthropologist John Murra described Inca land use as a “vertical archipelago,”
a stair-step system of interdependent environmental “islands.” K in groups occupy-
ing the altitudes best suited to potato and maize farming established settlements
in cold uplands, where thousands of llamas and alpacas—the Americas’ only large
domestic animals—were herded, and also in hot lowlands, where cotton, peanuts,
chilis, and the stimulant coca were grown. People, animals, and goods traveled
between highland and lowland ecological zones using trails and hanging bridges.

Other Andeans inhabited Peru’s desert coast, where urban civilization was
nearly as old as that of ancient Egypt. Andean coast dwellers practiced large-scale
irrigated agriculture, deep-sea fishing, and long-distance trade. Trading families
outfitted large balsawood rafts with cotton sails and plied the Pacific as far as
Guatemala. Inland trade links stretched over the Andes and into the Amazon rain
forest. A long the way, coast-dwelling traders exchanged salt, seashells, beads, and
copper hatchets for exotic feathers, gold dust, and pelts. The Incas would exploit all

vertical archipelago 
A ndean system of
planting crops and
grazing animals at
different altitudes.

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0

0 400 Kilometers

400 Miles

PACIFIC
OCEAN

Lake
Titicaca

Maule R.

M
ad

ie
ra

R
.

Amazon R.

Negro R.

Mt. Ampato
20,702 ft./6310 m

Machu Picchu

Mt. Chimborazo
20,565 ft./6286 m

Mt. Aconcagua
22,834 ft./6960 m

A
n
d

e
s

M
o
u
n

t
a

i
n

s
CHACHAPOYAS

MAPUCHE

CHAN�

CAÑARIS

Chan Chan
Cajamarca

Quito

Túmbes

Huarochirí
Cuzco

Tiwanaku

By c. 1400

Added by 1471

Added by 1493

Added by 1525

Inca road

Inca site

Mountain

Inca territory

�e Inca Empire,
1325–1521

20ºS

10ºS

Tropic of Capricorn

60ºW

80ºW 70ºW

80ºW 70ºW
Equator

MAP 15.3 The Inca Empire, 1325–1521 Starting from their base in Cuzco, high in the A ndes, the Incas built the
most extensive empire in the A mericas, and the second most populous after that of the Aztecs. They linked it by a road
system that rivaled that of the ancient Romans. Some groups, such as the Cañaris and Chachapoyas, resisted Inca
domination for many years, and the Mapuche of Chile were never conquered.

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of these regions and their interconnections, replacing old exchange systems and
religious shrines with their own. Around 1200 C.E. they established a base near
Cuzco (KOOS-coh), in Peru’s highlands not far from the headwaters of the Amazon,
and soon after 1400 they began their drive toward empire (see again Map 15.3).

The Great Apparatus:
Inca Expansion and Religion
Cuzco, located in a narrow valley at a breathtak ing altitude of over t wo miles
above sea level, ser ved as the Incas’ political base and religious center. Like
the A ztecs, the Incas saw their capital as the hub of the universe, calling it the
“navel of the world.” Paths and roads radiated out in all directions and tied hun-
dreds of subsidiar y shrines to the cosmically ordained center. Compared w ith
the A ztec capital of Tenochtitlán, however, Cuzco was modest in size, perhaps
home to at most fi ft y thousand. Still, Cuzco had the advantage of being stoutly
built of hewn stone. W hereas most of Tenochtitlán’s temples and palaces were
dismantled follow ing the Spanish Conquest, Cuzco’s colossal stone foundations
still stand.

The Incas in the early fifteenth century began conquering their
neighbors. In time each emperor, or Sapa (“Unique”) Inca, would
seek to add more territory to the realm, called Tawantinsuyu
(tuh-wahn-tin-SUE-you), or, “The Four Quarters Together.” The
Sapa Inca was thought to be descended from the sun and was thus
regarded as the sustainer of all humanity. Devotion to local dei-
ties persisted, however, absorbed over time by the Incas in a way
reminiscent of the Roman Empire’s assimilation of regional de-
ities and shrines. This religious inclusiveness helped the empire
spread quickly even as the royal cult of the sun was inserted into
everyday life. In a similar way, Quechua (K ETCH-wah) became
the Incas’ official language even as local languages persisted.

Inca expansion was so rapid that the empire reached its great-
est extent within a mere four generations of its founding. In
semi-legendary times, Wiracocha Inca (r. 1400–1438) was said
to have led an army to defeat an invading ethnic group called
the Chankas near Cuzco. According to royal sagas, this victory
spurred Wiracocha to defend his people further by annexing the
fertile territories of other neighbors. Defense turned to offense,
and thus was primed the engine of Inca expansion.

Wiracocha’s successor, Pachacuti Inca Yupanki (r. 1438–
1471), was more ambitious, so much so that he is widely regarded
as the true founder of the Inca Empire. Archaeological evidence

B
D

C
A

0

0 250 m

500 yds.

Chunchilmayo R.

Saphy R.

Tullum
ayo

R
.

Upper Cuzco
Lower Cuzco
Residential Area
Road

Main plaza
Temple of the Sun
Assembly Hall
Palace of the Virgins of the Sun

A
B
C
D

Cuzco, c. 1500

Cuzco, c. 1500

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backs this claim. Pachacuti (literally “ Cataclysm”) took over much of what is today
Peru, including many coastal oases and the powerful Chimú kingdom. A long the
way, Pachacuti perfected the core strategy of Inca warfare: amassing and mobi-
lizing such overwhelming numbers of troops and backup forces that fighting was
often unnecessary.

Thousands of peasants were conscripted to bear arms, build roads, and carry
food. Others herded llamas, strung bridges, and cut building stone. With each
new advance, masonry forts and temples were constructed in the imperial style,
leaving an indelible Inca stamp on the landscape. Even opponents such as the
desert-dwelling Chimú capitulated in the face of the Inca juggernaut. Just after
the Spanish Conquest, Pachacuti was remembered by female descendants:

As [Pachacuti] Inca Yupanki remained in his city and town of Cuzco,
seeing that he was lord and that he had subjugated the towns and
provinces, he was very pleased. He had subjugated more and obtained
much more importance than any of his ancestors. He saw the great
apparatus that he had so that whenever he wanted to he could subjugate
and put under his control anything else he wanted.3

These remembrances underscore the Sapa Inca’s tremendous power.
Pachacuti’s successors extended conquests southward deep into what are today

Chile and Argentina, and also eastward down the slope of the Andes and into
the upper Amazon Basin. It is from this last region, the quarter the Incas called
Antisuyu (auntie-SUE-you), that we derive the word Andes. On the northern
frontier, the Incas fought bitterly with Ecuadorian ethnic groups to extend Inca rule
to the border of present-day Colombia (see again Map 15.3). Here the imperial Inca
conquest machine met its match: many native highlanders fought to the death.

According to most sources, Inca advances into new territory were couched in
the rhetoric of diplomacy. Local headmen were told they had two options: (1) to
retain power by accepting Inca sovereignty and all the tributary obligations that
went with it, or (2) to defy the Inca and face annihilation. Most headmen went
along, particularly once word of the Incas’ battlefield prowess spread. Those who
did not were either killed in battle or exiled, along with their subject populations,
to remote corners of the empire.

The Incas dominated agricultural peoples and their lands, but they also spread
their imperial solar cult. W hatever their motives, like the Aztecs they defined dom-
ination in simple terms: tribute payment. Conquered subjects showed submission
by rendering portions of their surplus production—and also labor—to the emperor.
Tribute payment was a grudgingly accepted humiliation throughout the Andes, one
that many hoped to shake off at the first opportunity.

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Inca religion is only starting to be understood. As the chapter-opening description
of child sacrifice suggests, spirit and body were deemed inseparable despite per-
manent loss of consciousness. Likewise, features in the landscape, ranging from
springs and peaks to boulders, were thought to emit spiritual energy (see Reading
the Past: An Andean Creation Story). Even human-made landforms, such as irri-
gation canals, were described as “alive.” These sacred wakas (or huacas) received
offerings in exchange for good harvests, herd growth, and other bounties.

Andeans also venerated their ancestors’ corpses. As long as something tangi-
ble remained of the deceased, they were not regarded as entirely dead. It helped
that the central Andes’ dry climates were ideal for mummification: preservation
often required little more than removal of internal organs. It would have been fairly
common in Inca times to encounter a neighbor’s “freeze-dried” grandparents
hanging from the rafters, still regarded as involved in household affairs. Andeans
sometimes carried ancestor mummies to feasts and pilgrimages as well. Thus, Inca
society included both past and present generations.

The Incas harnessed these and other core Andean beliefs, yet like the Aztecs
they put a unique stamp on the region they came to dominate. Though warlike,
the Incas rarely sacrificed captive warriors, a ritual archaeologists now know was
practiced among ancient coastal Peruvians. Cannibalism was something the Incas
associated with barbaric forest dwellers. Inca stone architecture, though borrow-
ing from older forms, is still identifiable thanks to the use of trapezoidal (flared)
doors, windows, and niches (see World in the Making, page 531). Even so, the
Incas’ imperial sun cult proved far less durable than local religious traditions once
the empire fell. And despite the Incas’ rhetoric of diplomacy, most Andeans appear
to have associated their rule with tyranny. Like the Aztecs, they failed to inspire
loyalty in their subjects, who saw Inca government as a set of institutions designed
to exploit, rather than protect, the peoples of the empire.

Daily Life Under the Incas
Inca society, like Aztec society, was stratified, with few means of upward mobility.
A long with class gradations tied to occupation, the Incas divided society accord-
ing to sex, age, and ethnic origin. Everyday life thus varied tremendously among
the Inca’s millions of subjects, although the peasant majority probably had much
in common with farming folk the world over. Seasonal work stints for the empire
were a burden for men, whereas women labored to maintain households. Unlike
that of the Aztec, the Inca legal system appears to have been harder on commoners
than nobles. Exemplary elite behavior was expected, but not so rigidly enforced.

At the pinnacle of society was the Sapa Inca himself, the “son of the Sun.” He
was also believed to be the greatest warrior in the world, and everyone who came

waka A sacred place
or thing in A ndean
culture.

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before him was obliged to bear a symbolic burden, such as a load of cloth or large
water vessel. Only the Inca’s female companions had intimate contact with him.
A lthough the ideal royal couple according to Inca mythology was a sibling pair,
in fact dozens of wives and concubines assured that there would be heirs. Unlike
monarchs in Europe and parts of A frica, the Sapa Incas did not practice primogen-
iture, or the automatic inheritance of an estate or title by the eldest son. Neither
did they leave succession to a group of elders, the method preferred by the Aztecs.

READING THE PAST

An Andean Creation Story
The small Peruvian town of Huarochirí (wahr-oh-

chee-REE), located in the high Andes east of Lima,

was the target of a Spanish idolatry investigation

at the end of the sixteenth century. The Spanish

conquest of the Incas had little effect on the ev-

eryday life of Andean peasants, and many clung

tenaciously to their religious beliefs. In Huarochirí,

Spanish attempts to replace these beliefs with

Western, Christian ones produced written testimo-

nies from village elders in phonetically rendered

Quechua, the most commonly spoken language in

the Inca Empire. Like the Aztec codices, the result-

ing documents—aimed at eradicating the beliefs

they describe—have unwittingly provided modern

researchers with a rare window on a lost mental

world. The passage here, translated directly from

Quechua to English, relates an Andean myth that

newly arrived or converted Christians considered

a variation on the biblical story of Noah and the

Great Flood. In the Christian story, God, angered

by the wickedness of man, resolves to send a flood

to destroy the earth. He spares only Noah, whom

he instructs to build an ark in which Noah, his

family, and a pair of every animal are to be saved

from the Great Flood.

In ancient times, this world wanted to come to an

end. A llama buck, aware that the ocean was about

to overflow, was behaving like somebody who’s

deep in sadness. Even though its owner let it rest in

a patch of excellent pasture, it cried and said, “In,

in,” and wouldn’t eat. The llama’s owner got really

angry, and he threw a cob from some maize he

had just eaten at the llama. “Eat, dog! This is some

fine grass I’m letting you rest in!” he said. Then

that llama began speaking like a human being.

“You simpleton, whatever could you be thinking

about? Soon, in five days, the ocean will overflow.

It’s a certainty. And the whole world will come to

an end,” it said. The man got good and scared.

“What’s going to happen to us? Where can we

go to save ourselves?” he said. The llama replied,

“Let’s go to Villca Coto mountain. There we’ll be

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Violent succession struggles predictably ensued. Though barred from the role
of Inca themselves, ambitious noblewomen exercised considerable behind-the-
scenes power over imperial succession.

Just beneath the Inca imperial line were Cuzco-based nobles, identifiable by
their huge ear spools and finely woven tunics. Rather like their Aztec counterparts,
they spoke a dialect of the royal language forbidden among commoners. Among
this elite class were decorated generals and hereditary lords of prominent clans.

saved. Take along five days’ food for yourself.” So

the man went out from there in a great hurry, and

himself carried both the llama buck and its load.

When they arrived at Villca Coto mountain, all sorts

of animals had already filled it up: pumas, foxes,

guanacos [wild relatives of the llama], condors, all

kinds of animals in great numbers. And as soon as

that man had arrived there, the ocean overflowed.

They stayed there huddling tightly together. The

waters covered all those mountains and it was only

Villca Coto mountain, or rather its very peak, that

was not covered by the water. Water soaked the

fox’s tail. That’s how it turned black. Five days later,

the waters descended and began to dry up. The

drying waters caused the ocean to retreat all the

way down again and exterminate all the people.

Afterward, that man began to multiply once more.

That’s the reason there are people until today.

[The scribe who recorded this tale, an Andean

converted by Spanish missionaries, then adds this

comment:] Regarding this story, we Christians

believe it refers to the time of the Flood. But they

[non-Christian Andeans] believe it was Villca Coto

mountain that saved them.

Source: Excerpt from The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion, trans. and ed. Frank

Salomon and George L. Urioste (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991), 51–52.

Examining the Evidence

1. W hat do the similarities and differences between the A ndean and Judeo-Christian flood stories suggest?

2. W hat do the differences between them reveal?

For Further Reading:
Spalding, Karen. Huarochirí: An Andean Society under Inca and Spanish Rule. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,

1988.
Urton, Gary. Inca Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.

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Often drawn from these and slightly lower noble ranks was a class of priests and
astrologers who maintained temples and shrines.

Many noblewomen and girls deemed physically perfect, like the sacrificial victim
described at the start of this chapter, were also selected for religious seclusion.
Seclusion was not always permanent, because some of these women were groomed
for marriage to the Inca. Still more noblewomen, mostly wives and widows,
maintained the urban households and country estates of the Incas, dead and alive.

Next came bureaucrats, military leaders, and provincial headmen. Bureaucrats
kept track of tribute obligations, communal work schedules, and land appropri-
ations. Following conquest, up to two-thirds of productive land was set aside in
the name of the ruling Inca and the cult of the sun. Bureaucrats negotiated with
headmen as to which lands these would be, and how and when subjects would be

put to work on behalf of their new rulers. If negoti-
ations failed, the military was called in for a show
of force. Lower-ranking Inca military men, like
bureaucrats, faced service at the hostile fringes
of empire. They had little beyond the weak hold
of local power to look forward to. As a result, in
sharp distinction with the Aztecs, death in battle
was not regarded as a glorious sacrifice among the
Incas. Furthermore, many officers were them-
selves provincial in origin and thus had little hope
of promotion to friendlier districts closer to the
imperial core.

The Inca and his retinue employed numerous
artisans, mostly conquered provincials. Such
specialists included architects, record keepers,
civil engineers, metalworkers, weavers, potters,
and many others. Unlike the Aztecs, the Incas
did not tolerate free traders, instead choosing to
manage the distribution of goods and services
as a means of exercising state power. Partly as a
result, market-oriented slavery appears not to
have existed under the Incas, although some con-
quered young men and women spared from death
or exile worked as personal servants. Most Inca
subjects were peasants belonging to kin groups
whose lives revolved around agriculture and ro-
tational labor obligations. For them, the rigors

Inca Mummy The Incas did not sacrifice humans as
often as the Aztecs did, but headmen in newly conquered
regions were sometimes required to give up young sons or
daughters for live burial on high mountains. Such sacrifices
were known as capacocha, or “debt payment.” The victims,
including this adolescent girl found in a shallow tomb
atop twenty-thousand-foot Mount Lullaillaco in the
A rgentine A ndes, died of exposure after the long climb,
but the Incas believed them to remain semiconscious and
in communication with the spirit world.

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of everyday life far outweighed the extra demands of Inca rule. Only in the case
of recently conquered groups, or those caught in the midst of a regional rebellion or
succession conflict, was this not true. Even then, subsistence remained the average
Andean’s most pressing concern.

Artisans produced remarkable textiles, metalwork, and pottery, but the empire’s
most visible achievements were in the fields of architecture and civil engineering.
The Incas’ extensive road systems, irrigation works, and monumental temples were
unmatched by any ancient American society. No one else moved or carved such large
stones or ruled such a vast area. Linking coast, highlands, and jungle, the Incas’ roads
covered nearly ten thousand miles. Many road sections were paved with stones, and
some were hewn into near-vertical mountainsides by hand. Grass weavers spanned
gorges with hanging bridges strong enough to sustain trains of pack llamas. These
engineering marvels enabled the Incas to communicate and move troops and sup-
plies with amazing speed, yet they also served the important religious function of
facilitating pilgrimages and royal processions. Massive
irrigation works and stone foundations, though highly
practical, were similarly charged with religious power.
Thus, the Inca infrastructure not only played an import-
ant practical role in imperial government, but it also
expressed the Incas’ belief in the connection between
their own rule and the cosmic order.

The Incas appropriated Andean metalworking tech-
niques, which were much older and more developed
than those of Mesoamerica. Metal forging was as much
a religious as an artistic exercise in the Andes, and metals
themselves were regarded as semi-divine. Gold was asso-
ciated with the sun in Inca cosmology, and by extension
with the Sapa Inca and his solar cult. Silver was associ-
ated with the moon and with several mother goddesses
and Inca queens and princesses. Copper and bronze,
considered less divine than gold and silver, were put to
more practical uses.

Another ancient Andean tradition inherited by the
Incas was weaving. Inca cotton and alpaca-fiber textiles
were of extraordinary quality, and cloth became the coin
of the realm. Following Andean norms of reciprocity, co-
operative regional lords were rewarded by the Incas with
gifts of blankets and ponchos, which they could then
redistribute among their subjects. Unlike some earlier

Inca Road Stretching nearly ten thousand miles
across mountains, plains, deserts, and rain forests,
the Inca Royal Road held one of the world’s
most rugged and extensive empires together.
Using braided fiber bridges to span chasms and
establishing inns and forts along the road, the Incas
handily moved troops, supplies, and information
across vast distances. The Royal Road had the
unintentional consequence of aiding penetration of
the empire by Spanish conquistadors on horseback.

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coastal traditions, Inca design favored geometric forms over representations of
humans, animals, or deities. Fiber from the vicuña, a wild relative of the llama, was
reserved for the Sapa Inca. Some women became master weavers, but throughout
most of the Inca Empire men wove fibers that had been spun into thread by women,
a gendered task division later reinforced by the Spanish.

With such an emphasis on textiles, it may come as no surprise that the Incas
maintained a record-keeping system using knotted strings. Something like an
accounting device in its most basic form, the khipu enabled bureaucrats to keep
track of tributes, troop movements, ritual cycles, and other important matters.
Like bronze metallurgy, the khipu predates the Inca Empire, but it served the
empire well. A lthough its capabilities as a means of data management are a subject
of intense debate, the khipu was sufficiently effective to remain in use for several
centuries under Spanish rule, long after alphabetic writing was introduced.

Throughout the Andes, women occupied a distinct sphere from that of men, but
not a subordinate one. For example, sources suggest that although the majority of
Andeans living under Inca rule were patrilineal, or male-centered, in their succes-
sion preferences, power frequently landed in the hands of sisters and daughters
of headmen. Inca descendants described a world in which both sexes participated
equally in complementary agricultural tasks, and also in contests against neighbor-
ing clans. Women exempted from rotational labor duties handled local exchanges
of food and craft goods. Women’s fertility was respected, but never equated with
warfare, as in Aztec society. Interestingly, Andean childbirth was almost regarded
as a nonevent, and rarely involved midwives.

As in most early modern societies, parents treated Inca children much like
miniature adults, and dressed them accordingly. Parents educated children by
defining roles and duties early, using routine chores deemed appropriate to one’s
sex and status as the primary means of education. Girls and boys also participated
in most work projects. The expectation of all children was not to change society but
to reproduce and maintain it through balanced relations with deities and neigh-
bors. Contact with the Inca himself was an extremely remote possibility for most
children living in the empire. A rare exception was capacocha sacrificial victims,
such as the headman’s daughter described at the opening of this chapter.

Just as maize was native to highland Mesoamerica and served as the base for urban
development, the potato was the indigenous staple of the central Andes. A hearty,
high-yield tuber with many varieties, the potato could be roasted, stewed, or naturally
freeze-dried and stored for long periods. Maize could also be stored dry or toasted,
but among Andeans it was generally reserved for beer making. Along with maize,
many lowland dwellers subsisted on manioc, peanuts, beans, and chili peppers.

khipu K notted cotton
or alpaca-fiber strings
used by the Incas and
other A ndeans to
record tributes, troop
numbers, and possibly
narratives of events.

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Andean pastoralism played a critical role in Inca expansion. Domesticated
animals included the llama, alpaca, and guinea pig. Llamas, in addition to carrying
loads, were sometimes eaten, and alpacas provided warm cloth fiber. Slaughter of
domestic animals, including fertilizer-producing guinea pigs, usually accompanied
ritual occasions such as weddings or harvest festivals. The average Andean diet was
overwhelmingly vegetarian. Nevertheless, a common component of Inca trail food
was charqui (hence “ jerky”), bits of dried and salted llama flesh. Llamas and alpacas
were never milked. Like many other peoples, Andeans restricted consumption of
and even contact with certain animal fluids and body parts.

The high Inca heartland, though fertile, was prone to droughts and frosts. The
warmer coast was susceptible to periodic floods. Only by developing food storage
techniques and exploiting numerous microenvironments were the Incas and their
subjects able to weather such events. Added to these cyclical catastrophes were
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis, and plagues of locusts. Still,
the overall record suggests that subsistence under the Incas, thanks to the “vertical
archipelago,” was much less precarious than under the Aztecs.

The Great Apparatus Breaks Down
Inca expansion derived from a blend of religious and secular impulses. As in Aztec
Mexico, religious demands seem to have grown more and more urgent, possibly
even destabilizing the empire by the time of the last Sapa Inca. As emperors died,
their mummy cults required extravagant maintenance. The most eminent of mum-
mies in effect tied up huge tracts of land. Logically, if vainly, successive emperors
strove to make sure their mummy cults would be provided for in equal or better
fashion. Each hoped his legacy might outshine that of his predecessor. Given the
extraordinary precedent set by Pachacuti Inca, some scholars have argued that
excessive mummy veneration effectively undermined the Inca Empire.

Too, as with the Aztecs, rapid growth by violent means sowed seeds of
discontent. On the eve of the Spanish arrival both empires appear to have been
contracting rather than expanding, with rebellion the order of the day. The Incas
had never done well against lowland forest peoples, and some such enemies kept
up chronic raiding activities. Highlanders such as the Cañaris of Ecuador and the
Chachapoyas of northern Peru had cost the Incas dearly in their conquest, only
just completed in 1525 after more than thirty years. Like the Tlaxcalans of Mexico,
both of these recently conquered groups would ally with Spanish invaders in hopes
of establishing their independence once and for all.

The Inca state was demanding of its subjects, and enemy frontiers abounded. Yet
it seems the Incas’ worst enemies were ultimately themselves. A nonviolent means

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of royal succession had never been established. This was good for the empire in that
capable rather than simply hereditary rulers could emerge, but bad in that the posi-
tion of Sapa Inca was always up for grabs. In calmer times, defense against outside
challengers would not have been difficult, but the Spanish had the good fortune
to arrive in the midst of a civil war between two rivals to the throne, Huascar and
Atawallpa (also “Atahualpa”). By 1532 Atawallpa defeated his half-brother, only to
fall prey to a small number of foreign interlopers.

COUNTERPOINT: The Peoples of North
America’s Eastern Woodlands 1450–1530

FOCUS how did the Eastern Woodlanders’ experience differ
from life under the aztecs and incas?

By 1450 several million people inhabited North America’s eastern woodlands.
Forests provided raw materials for building as well as habitat for game. Trees also
yielded nuts and fruits and served as fertilizer for crops when burned. The great
mound-building cultures of the Mississippi Basin had faded by this time, their
inhabitants having returned to less urban, more egalitarian ways of life. Villages
headed by elected chiefs were typical (see Map 15.4).

Most of what we know about native eastern North Americans at this time derives
from contact-era (1492–1750) European documents, plus archaeological studies.
A lthough less is known about them than about the Aztecs or Incas, it appears that
Eastern Woodlands peoples faced significant changes in politics and everyday life
just prior to European arrival. Climate change may have been one important factor
spurring conflict and consolidation.

Eastern Woodlands peoples were like the Aztecs in at least one sense. Most
were maize farmers who engaged in seasonal warfare followed by captive
sacrifice. According to archaeological evidence, both maize planting and warrior
sacrifice spread into the region from Mesoamerica around the time of the Toltecs
(800–1100 C.E .). The century prior to European contact appears to have been
marked by rapid population growth, increased warfare, and political reorganiza-
tion. Multi-settlement alliances or leagues, such as the Powhatan Confederacy
of tidewater Virginia, were relatively new. Some confederacies were formed for
temporary defensive purposes, and others were primarily religious. Some villages
housed over two thousand inhabitants, and confederacies counted up to twenty
thousand or more. As in the Andes, clan divisions were common, but population
densities were lower.

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Smaller gathering-hunting groups occupied more challenging landscapes, yet
thanks to their varied diet, they seem to have suffered fewer vitamin and mineral
deficiencies than settled maize eaters. Even maize farmers, however, were gener-
ally taller than their European (or Mesoamerican) contemporaries. Throughout
the eastern forests, including the Great Lakes region, metallurgy was limited to
hammering native copper. Copper was regarded as a sacred substance associated
with chiefly power. Beads made from polished seashells, or wampum, were
similarly prized.

wampum Beads
made of seashells;
used in eastern
North A merica as
currency and to secure
alliances.

L. S
uperior

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Eastern woodlands

Great Plains

Southwest

Great Basin

California

Native Peoples of North America, c. 1500
Plateau

Northwest coast

Subarctic

Arctic

Amerindian group, c. 1500CREE

60
ºN

50ºN

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Tropic of Ca
ncer

90ºW100ºW110ºW120ºW130ºW 80ºW 70ºW

MAP 15.4 Native Peoples of North A merica, c. 1500 To the north of Mesoamerica, hundreds of native A merican
groups, most of them organized as chiefdoms, flourished in a wide array of climate zones, from the coldest A rctic
wilderness to the hottest subtropical deserts. Populations were highest where maize and other crops could be grown, as
in the Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes, and eastern woodlands regions.

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Chiefs, usually warriors or shamans elected by popular agreement, headed most
Eastern Woodlands groups. They retained power, however, only by redistributing
goods such as surplus food or war booty; generosity was the hallmark of leadership.
Few chiefdoms were hereditary, and chiefs could be deposed at any time. Individual
Eastern Woodlanders, particularly young men, yearned for independence even as
circumstances forced them to cooperate and subordinate their wills to others. If the
chief ’s generosity was a centripetal force, egalitarian desires formed a centrifugal one.

Some agricultural peoples, such as the Huron of central Ontario, Canada,
had male chiefs or headmen but were organized matrilineally. This meant that
society was built around clans of mothers, daughters, and sisters. Matrilineal
clans occupied longhouses, or wooden multifamily residential buildings. Elder
women consulted with chiefs, and all women played a part in urging men to war.
Agriculture was a strictly female preserve among the Huron, closely linked to
human fertility. Huron men handled risky activities such as hunting, warfare, and
tree felling. Their sphere of influence lay largely outside the village. Men’s exploits
abroad, including adolescent vision quests, conferred status. Among all Eastern
Woodlanders, public speech making was as prized among adult men as martial
expertise. Only the most esteemed men participated in councils.

Children’s lives were difficult among Eastern Woodlanders (keeping in mind
that this was true of early modern childhood generally). Due to a multitude of

longhouse A wooden
communal dwelling
typical of Eastern
Woodlands peoples.

Huron Wampum Belt For many Eastern Woodlands peoples such as the
Huron, seashells like the New England quahog (a variety of clam) were sacred
trade goods. Shell beads, or wampum, were woven into ceremonial belts whose
geometrical designs and color schemes represented clans and sometimes
treaties between larger groups. The linked-hands motif in this belt suggests a
treaty or covenant.

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vermin and pathogens, inadequate nutrition, smoky residences, and hazards of
war and accident, relatively few children survived to adulthood. Partly for these
reasons, Eastern Woodlands cultures discouraged severe discipline for children,
instead allowing them much freedom.

Playtime ended early, however, as children were schooled before puberty in
their respective arts and responsibilities. Girls learned to farm and cook, boys to
hunt and make war. Soon after puberty young people began to “try out” mates
until a suitable match was found. Though this and the seemingly casual practice of
divorce among Eastern Woodlanders were considered scandalous by early modern
European standards, stable monogamy prevailed.

Warfare was endemic throughout the eastern woodlands in the summer season,
when subsistence itself was less of a battle. In form, these wars resembled blood
feuds, or vengeance cycles. According to European witnesses, wars among the
Iroquois, Mahicans, and others were spawned by some long-forgotten crime, such
as the rape or murder of a clan member. As such, they were not struggles over land,
but rather male contests intended to prove courage and preserve honor.

Warfare closely resembled hunting in that successful warriors were expected
to ambush and capture their equivalents from the opposite camp. These unlucky
individuals were then brought to the captor’s longhouse for an excruciating ordeal,
nearly always followed by slaughter and ritual consumption. (Female and child
captives, by contrast, were “adopted” as replacements for lost kin.) The religious
significance of captive sacrifice among Eastern Woodlanders has been less clearly
explained than that of the Aztecs, but it seems to have been tied to subsistence
anxieties.

Eastern Woodlands religions varied, but there were commonalities. Beyond
the realm of everyday life was a complex spirit world. Matrilineal societies such
as the Huron traced their origins to a female spirit whose grandsons invented the
essential techniques of civilized life. The sky itself was often more important than
the sun or moon in Eastern Woodlands mythologies, and climatic events were
associated with bird spirits, such as the thunderbird.

Like Andean peoples, many Eastern Woodlanders believed that material things
such as boulders, islands, and personal charms contained life essences, or “souls.”
Traders and warriors, in particular, took time to please spirits and “recharge”
protective amulets with offerings and incantations. Periodic feasts were also
imbued with spiritual energy. On the whole, religious life was an everyday affair,
not an institutionalized one. Instead of priesthoods, liturgies, and temples, most
Eastern Woodlands peoples relied on elders and shamans to maintain traditions
and remind juniors of core beliefs.

564 CH A P T ER 15 EM pi r E s a n d a lT Er n aT i v E s i n T h E a M Er i c a s 14 3 0 –15 3 0

smi49238_ch15_526-566 564 07/13/18 12:00 PM

Most Eastern Woodlanders did not regard death as a positive transition. They
believed that souls lived on indefinitely and migrated to a new home, usually
a recognizable ethnic village located in the western distance. Even dogs’ souls
migrated, as did those of wild animals. The problem with this later existence was
that it was unsatisfying. Dead souls were said to haunt the living, complaining of
hunger and other insatiable desires. The Huron sought to keep their dead ancestors
together and send them off well through elaborate burial rituals, but it was under-
stood that ultimately little could be done for them.

Conclusion
By the time Europeans entered the Caribbean Sea in 1492, the Americas were home
to over 60 million people. Throughout the Western Hemisphere, native American
life was vibrant and complex, divided by language, customs, and sometimes
geographical barriers, but also linked by religion, trade, and war. Cities, pilgrimage
sites, mountain passes, and waterways served as crossroads for the exchange of
goods and ideas, often between widely dispersed peoples. Another uniting factor
was the underlying religious tradition of shamanism.

The many resources available in the highland tropics of Mesoamerica and the
Andes Mountains promoted settled agriculture, urbanization, and eventually
empire building. Drawing on the traditions of ancestors, imperial peoples such as
the Aztecs and Incas built formidable capitals, road systems, and irrigation works.
As the Inca capacocha and Aztec warrior sacrifices suggest, these empires were
driven to expand at least as much by religious beliefs as by material desires. In part
as a result of religious demands, both empires were in crisis by the first decades of
the sixteenth century, when Europeans possessing steel-edged weapons, firearms,
and other technological advantages first encountered them. Other native peoples,
such as North America’s Eastern Woodlanders, built chiefdoms and confederacies
rather than empires, and to some degree these looser structures would prove more
resilient in the face of European invasion.

565

smi49238_ch15_526-566 565 07/13/18 12:00 PM

Important Events

c. 900–1600 Late Woodland period of dispersed farming and hunting

c. 1200 Incas move into Cuzco region

c. 1270 Aztecs settle in Valley of Mexico

c. 1320 Aztecs ally with Colhua

c. 1325 Tenochtitlán founded at Lake Texcoco’s edge

c. 1437 Incas defeat Chankas

c. 1440–1471 Sapa Inca Pachacuti expands empire into Ecuador and Bolivia

1450–1451 Great famine in Valley of Mexico

1471–1493 Incas conquer northern Chile and Argentina

1487–1502 Aztecs dedicate Coatepec (Templo Mayor) and expand sacrificial wars

1493–1525 Incas conquer northern Peru and highland Ecuador

1502–1519 Reign of Moctezuma II, conquered by Spanish

1525–1532 Inca succession war, followed by arrival of the Spanish

c. 1570 Formation of Huron Confederacy north of Lake Ontario and of Iroquois League south of Lake Ontario

KEY TERMS
autosacrifice (p. 543)
chinampa (p. 541)
khipu (p. 558)

longhouse (p. 562)
shamanism (p. 536)
tribute (p. 544)

vertical archipelago (p. 549)
waka (p. 553)
wampum (p. 561)

CHAPTER OVERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. In what ways was cultural diversity in the

A mericas related to environmental diversity?
2. W hy was it in Mesoamerica and the Andes that

large empires emerged in around 1450?

3. W hat key ideas or practices extended beyond the
limits of the great empires?

MAKING CONNECTIONS
1. Compare the Aztec and Inca Empires with the

Ming (see Chapter 14). W hat features did they
share? W hat features set them apart?

2. How did Aztec and Inca sacrificial rituals differ,
and why?

3. W hat were the main causes of warfare among
native A merican peoples prior to the arrival of
Europeans?

For further research into the topics covered in this chapter, see the Bibliography at the end of the book.
For additional primary sources from this period, see Sources for World in the Making.

M a k i n g C o n n e c t i o n s

review
The major global development in this chapter: The diversity of societies and states in the Americas prior
to European invasion.

• PART 3: The Early Modern World, 1450–1750

15: Empires and Alternatives in the Americas 1430–1530
The Major Global Development in this Chapter: The diversity of societies and states in the Americas prior to European invasion.
backstory
Many Native Americas
Tributes of Blood: The Aztec Empire 1325–1521
Humble Origins, Imperial Ambitions
Enlarging and Supplying the Capital
Holy Terror: Aztec Rule, Religion, and Warfare
Daily Life Under the Aztecs
The Limits of Holy Terror
Tributes of Sweat: The Inca Empire 1430–1532
From Potato Farmers to Empire Builders
The Great Apparatus: Inca Expansion and Religion
Daily Life Under the Incas
The Great Apparatus Breaks Down
COUNTERPOINT The Peoples of North America’s Eastern Woodlands 1450–1530
Conclusion
Review
SPECIAL FEATURES
SEEING THE PAST: An Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán
LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS: The Aztec Midwife
READING THE PAST: An Andean Creation Story

Introduction
World History? Since 1500?
History 111 – World History since 1500

Spring 2022

Jorge Minella (jminella@umass.edu)

An Empire’s Map

On Exactitude in Science
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, translated by Andrew Hurley.

…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map

of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the

Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no

longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire

whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point

with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of

Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless,

and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the

Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there

are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the

Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

—Suarez Miranda,Viajes devarones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658

Art by Tim Brumley – https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGPkww

Overview

Historical orientation.

Patterns and trends.

Change and ruptures.

What and how?

World
Civilizations

 Triumph of Western
Civilization?

 Civilization paradigm.

 Rise and fall.

Crusader Kerak Castle, Jordan.

New Approaches to World History

 Zones of interaction.

 Global processes.

 New understandings
of modernity.

Bosphorus Strait, Turkey.

Zones of
Interaction

 Seas and oceans.

 Various types of
encounters.

 Flows of people, goods,
capital, ideas, technology,
diseases, plants, animals,
etc.

Chinese Map (Kangnido Map), 1402.

Global Processes
and Local Realities

 Local

 Global

 Multiple perspectives.

Detroit Industry murals, by Diego Rivera,
1933..

Modernity

 Triumph of the “West”?

 Democracy, freedom, and
material prosperity?

 Exploitation.

Cutting the Sugar-Cane, 18th Century
Caribbean.

Agency

 Uneven, but not one-
sided modernity.

 Agency: to act and
shape historical
circumstances.

 Historical recognition.

 Complexity of History.
Map of Quilombo of São Gonçalo, a maroon
community in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1769. National
Library (Brazil).

Afro-Eurasia in Fifteenth Century

 Economic recovery.

 Rise of maritime trade.

 Rise of the Ottomans in the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Land Silk Roads and Maritime Trade

Constantinople, the
crossroads of Eurasia
 Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 1453 – Fall of Constantinople (current day Istanbul).

 Taken from the Christian Byzantine Empire by the
Islamic Ottoman Empire.

 Military innovation.

 Relatively tolerant religious policy.

 Changes in trade.

 New actors.

 Search for new routes.

Le siège de Constantinople (1453) by
Jean Le Tavernier after 1455

Upcoming Lectures

 The Americas before European arrival.

 Colonization of the New World.

 Fall of Constantinople (1453); Contact between Europeans and Native
Americans (1492).

 Some of the watershed moments opening the modern era.

 Global consequences.

• Introduction�World History? Since 1500?

An Empire’s Map
Overview

• World Civilizations

New Approaches to World History

• Zones of Interaction
• Global Processes and Local Realities

Modernity
Agency
Afro-Eurasia in Fifteenth Century
Land Silk Roads and Maritime Trade

• Constantinople, the crossroads of Eurasia
• Upcoming Lectures

The Americas before the
Colonial Encounter
History 111 – World History since 1500

Spring 2022

Jorge Minella (jminella@umass.edu)

Introduction – Lecture Parts

 Native Latin American Civilizations.

 Guiding Typology.



Mesoamerica

and the formation of the Aztec Empire.

 The

Andes

and the formation of the Inca Empire.



Brazil

and the Caribbean

.

Guiding Typology of Native Societies

 Concentrated Sedentary.

 Segmented Sedentary.

 Semi-Sedentary.

 Nomadic.

Guiding Typology of Native Societies

 What is the use of the typology?

 Make sense of territory.

 Understand the patterns of colonization and Native reaction to
colonizers.

 Late fifteenth century: ~60 million people, half of it under Aztec or
Inca rule.

Mesoamerica
 Concentrated sedentary / Segmented sedentary.

 Monumental architecture.

 Regional trade networks.

 Astronomy: agriculture and religion.

 Social stratification.

 Ritual sacrifices.

 Writing systems.

Ruins of Teotihuacan.

The largest structure is
the Pyramid of the
Moon.

Ruins of Tikal, Guatemala.

Mexica – Aztec
Empire

 1320s – Mexica founded
Tenochtitlan.

 1428 – Initiated expansion.

 Tribute network and
military harassment of
neighbors.

 Tlaxcala resistance.

Andes
 Concentrated sedentary / Segmented sedentary.

 Monumental architecture.
 Regional trade networks.
 Astronomy: agriculture and religion.
 Social stratification.

 Rare ritual sacrifices.

 No writing system; knotted strings (khipu) to keep records.

The Kingdom of Cusco

 1438 – Initiated expansion.

 Pachacuti, the world changer.

 Formed the Tawantinsuyu Empire.

Pachacuti, the 9th Inca.

Inca Empire
(Tawantinsuyu)

 Sophisticated centralized
administrative structure.

 Road network.

 Labor tribute and tax: mit’a.

 Mandatory public service.

Brazil and the Caribbean

 Semi-sedentary societies.

 Difficult to know their pre-colonial histories.

 Noticeable differences among the many groups.

 De-centralized chiefdoms.

Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean

 Social stratification: elites and commoners.

Elites

Commoners.

 Intensive agriculture, still for subsistence.

 Some trade of ‘luxury’ goods among elites of different groups.

 Social stratification apparent in village organization, personal
ornaments, and privileges.

Brazil

 Main language groups.

Tupi; Gê; Carib; Aruak.

 Tribes organized in villages or sets of villages.

 Lack of social stratification.

More communal approach to land and resources.

 Subsistence agriculture, hunting, and gathering. No trade.

 Migration

Brazil

 Socially peaceful
villages.

 Frequent wars.

19th century depiction of a Tupi village during war, based on Jean de
Léry’s 16th century description.

Ferdinand Denis. Attaque d’un village fortifié = Angriff auf ein
befestigtes Dorf. Paris [France]: Firmin Didot frères et Cie, 1846.

Concluding thoughts

 Mesoamerica and the Andes

 Concentrated sedentary and segmented sedentary societies.

 High population density.

 High levels of social stratification.

 Political centralization.

 Northern North America, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Circum-Caribbean Zone.

 Semi-sedentary.

 Lower density.

 Political de-centralization.

 How did these pre-colonial characteristics shape conquest and colonization?
What about world history?

19th century depiction of the foundation of Rio de Janeiro (1565). Antonio Firmino Monteiro. Biblioteca Nacional (Brazil)

• The Americas before the Colonial Encounter

Introduction – Lecture Parts
Guiding Typology of Native Societies
Guiding Typology of Native Societies
Mesoamerica

• Número do slide 6
• Número do slide 7
• Mexica – Aztec Empire

Andes
The Kingdom of Cusco

• Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)

Brazil and the Caribbean
Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean
Brazil
Brazil
Concluding thoughts

• Número do slide 17

1

Spring 2022
HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 (Gen. Ed., HS, DG)

University of Massachusetts Amherst
College of Humanity and Fine Arts, Department of History

University Without Walls
Instructor: Jorge Minella

jminella@umass.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course, students are invited to explore the continuities, connections, trends, and
ruptures in world history from the late fifteenth century to the present. Throughout the
semester, we will investigate the historical processes that formed the modern world,
including cross-cultural interactions, capitalism, global migration, colonization and
decolonization, nationalism and imperialism, trade networks, revolutions, and war. The
course emphasizes the multiple perspectives and experiences that shaped world
history, including the determinant role played by non-European societies in making the
modern world. Course readings include a textbook and a set of primary sources that
provide a window into the diverse human experiences in history. Course assignments
include quizzes, primary sources and film discussion, and a final essay.

General Education (HS, DG)
General education courses aim to broaden the students’ minds and experiences by
equipping them to act thoughtfully and responsibly in society, make informed
judgments, and live lives dedicated to service, continued learning, and the joys of
intellectual pursuits for a lifetime. This specific course offers students an overview of
world history since 1500, broadening their cultural, historical, and philosophical
perspectives. Additionally, course assignments are designed to improve critical and
analytical skills essential to students’ intellectual and professional success. This course
fulfills the Historical Studies (HS) and Global Diversity (DG) requirements, as described
below.

Historical Studies (HS): The course’s readings, lectures, and assignments will expose
students to historically significant events, developments, or processes that formed the
modern world as a way of teaching them to understand the present and inquiry into the
future. The course assignments are centered on the collective discussion of historical
documents, allowing students to understand history as an exercise of rigorous research
and interpretation, rather than a collection of facts, dates, and names, or simply a matter
of opinion.

Global Diversity (DG): This course offers the opportunity to learn about societies,
cultures, and environments beyond the boundaries of the United States. The course
invites students to read about, discuss, and analyze a wide range of social, cultural, and
political perspectives that have shaped the modern world. By discussing global
historical processes, the course explores aspects of the histories of Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and Europe, focusing on the complex interaction among them from the late

2

fifteenth century onwards. The primary sources discussed in the assignments include
documents produced by people from different times and parts of the world,
exemplifying diverse experiences and points of view.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Develop an appreciation for historical perspective and global diversity.
• Identify the basic concepts, interpretations, and trends of world history since

1500.
• Discuss the continuities, connections, and ruptures of the historical processes of

modernity.
• Interpret primary sources.

REQUIRED BOOKS

Bonnie G. Smith, Marc Van De Mieroop, Richard von Glahn, Kris Lane. World in the
Making: A Global History, Volume Two: Since 1300. New York: Oxford University Press,
2018.

Additional readings are available on Blackboard Learn, the course’s learning
management system.

ONLINE COURSE EXPECTATIONS (NETIQUETTE)

The course uses Blackboard Learn. Although this course is fully asynchronous, it should
not be a lonely venture. Students benefit more from forming a learning community. A
learning community is a group of people who are willing to help each other. Students
will be required to communicate with each other and the instructor in discussion forums,
e-mail, and other means during the course. Keep in mind that respectful and meaningful
communication is essential to forming a thriving learning community capable of
attaining the course’s goals.

I will communicate with the class through Blackboard’s announcements and a discussion
forum that will remain open throughout the course to exchange ideas, impressions, and
questions about the activities and materials we discuss.

Please, feel free to reach out to me privately at any point during the course. You can use
Blackboard’s Mail Tool or directly write to my e-mail. Please, expect 24 hours for an
answer. Online office hours are available by appointment. I strongly encourage you to
reach me to schedule an online meeting to talk about the readings, assignments, or any
problem that may appear during the course.

3

DISABILITY STATEMENT

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to making reasonable, effective
and appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of students with disabilities and
help create a barrier-free campus. If you have a documented disability on file with
Disability Services (www.umass.edu/disability), you may be eligible for reasonable
accommodations in this course. If your disability requires an accommodation, please
notify your instructors as early as possible in the course so that we may make
arrangements in a timely manner.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Please let me know if you have any questions about navigating the course’s learning
management system. Alternatively, if you need assistance with technical support to
participate in this course, please review our Student Orientation & Resource Area or
Contact 24/7 Support. You will have the option of e-mail, live chat, or phone.

ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY STATEMENT

Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education
requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all
students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic
dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and
facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has
committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to
address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has
committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the
appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not
related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate
department Head or Chair. The procedures outlined below are intended to provide an
efficient and orderly process by which action may be taken if it appears that academic
dishonesty has occurred and by which students may appeal such actions.

Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted
standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient
evidence of lack of intent.

For more information about visit http://umass.edu/honesty

http://www.umass.edu/disability

https://confluence.umassonline.net/display/UASO/UMass+Amherst+Student+Orientation+and+Resource+Area

http://uma.echelp.org/

http://umass.edu/honesty

4

GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS

Students are required to complete the following graded assignments.
All assignments are due on Sundays, at 11:59pm (EST/EDT); see course schedule
below. Please, see Blackboard for further instruction about the assignments.

Personal Journal (four entries, 5% each)
You will keep notes about the course content in your Blackboard journal. To give
flexibility regarding your interests, you can choose the course weeks you will add notes
to the journal. You will be required to complete four journal entries (2 before or by week
6, and 2 after that). Only you and the instructor will have access to the journal.

Try to answer the following questions in each of your journal entries:

• What interested you the most in the week’s course content? Why?
• What about the concepts discussed this week? Did they help you understand the

historical process better, or not? How come? Comment on at least one concept
and related event/process discussed in the textbook or lectures.

• What event, concept, or historical process remained unclear to you? Why?
• How do you evaluate your learning process about world history so far?

Film Discussion (10%)
We will have an informal conversation about the film The Battle of Algiers (1966), which
discusses a process of mid-twentieth century decolonization. The activity uses
VoiceThread, a tool on Blackboard that allows for asynchronous discussion through text,
slides, audio, and video uploads. Students are welcome to participate using the format
they wish. The film’s link is available on Blackboard.

Lecture/Reading Quizzes (15%)
Most of the course weeks include a 5 to 8 questions quiz referring to the week’s lectures
and readings. You will have two attempts on each quiz, and instructions will be provided
in lectures and on Blackboard about the types of questions included in the quizzes. The
average grade of the quizzes comprises 15% of the final grade. Quizzes will be open
between Fridays and Sundays.

Primary Source Activities
The course contains four collections of short excerpts of historical documents that
illustrate specific events and processes discussed in the course. The documents are
available on Perusall, an e-reader accessible from the course’s Blackboard page that
allows for collective annotation of reading material.

The historical documents collections are:

Set 1 – Spanish America
Set 2 – Asia and Global Trade
Set 3 – The Atlantic Revolutions
Set 4 – Decolonization in Africa and Asia

5

The activities with the documents are the following:

1) Collective Reading and Annotation (four rounds, 5% each)

Groups of 4 students will work together (asynchronously) on reading and
commenting on the primary sources. Students will use Perusall’s annotation tools to
add highlights, comments, questions, and any thought that arises from the primary
sources’ readings. Together, try to identify and comment on the purpose, the
argument, the presuppositions, epistemology, and the relationships implied in the
documents. If needed, revisit the lecture on primary sources and the Primary Sources
Reading Guide available on Blackboard to help annotate. The collective annotation
of the documents will help students build a base upon which to write the individual
Primary Source Essays.

2) Primary Sources Essay

a) Essay Outline (pass/fail)
b) Essay (20%)

The final essay should discuss one of the primary sources set discussed during the
course. Please, feel free to choose the set that interests you the most among the
available options.

In the primary source essay, students are expected to demonstrate their ability to
critically read a collection of primary sources and relate it to the broader themes,
concepts, and historical processes discussed throughout the course.

Essays should be 4 to 6 pages long (double-spaced). The assignment is divided into
two parts: the essay outline and the essay itself. I will provide extensive feedback on
the essay outline to help you succeed in the final essay.

The essays should coherently discuss:

a) Why is the collection important? What historical process(es) do they reflect?
b) What is the broader historical context of the document’s production? In other

words, what was happening in the world at the time that may have influenced
the how and why of the documents’ production?

c) Briefly comment on each document’s purpose, argument, presuppositions, and
truth content. (See primary source lecture and the Primary Sources Reading
Guide)

d) How do the documents of the collection compare? How does the comparison
help us understand the historical process(es) in question?

6

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1 (01/25 – 01/30) – Course Introduction

Key concepts and ideas: global/world history, agency.

Lectures

• World history? Since 1500?
• The Americas before the colonial encounter.

Readings

• Chapter 15 – Empires and Alternatives in the Americas

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 2 (01/31 – 02/06) – New Worlds

Key concepts and ideas: colonialism, Columbian exchange.

Lectures

• Iberian society and expansion.
• Conquest and early colonization of the Americas.
• Comment on primary sources and related assignment.

Readings

• Chapter 16 – The Rise of An Atlantic World.
• Primary source: “How to read a primary source.” (available on

Blackboard\Perusall).

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 3 (02/07 – 02/13) – Western Africa and the Atlantic World

Key concepts and ideas: Atlantic world, slavery and slave trade.

Lectures

• Western African societies.
• Slave trade.

Readings

• Chapter 17 – Western Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1450-1800.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 1) annotation Spanish America due.

7

Week 4 (02/14 – 02/20) – Asia and Global Trade Networks

Key concepts and ideas: global trade networks, orientalism.

Lectures

• Trade and intrusion in the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
• Political and cultural consolidation in early modern Asia.

Readings

• Chapter 18 – Trade and Empire in the Indian Ocean and South Asia 1450-1750.
• Chapter 20 – Expansion and Isolation in Asia 1450-1750.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 2) annotation Asia and Global Trade due.

Week 5 (02/21 – 02/27) – Crisis, Reform, and the Colonial Order

Key concepts and ideas: colonial government, emergence of capitalism, environmental
change.

Lectures

• Early modern Europe: crisis and reform.
• The colonial order in the Americas.

Readings

• Chapter 19 – Consolidation and Conflict in Europe and the Greater
Mediterranean 1450-1750.

• Chapter 21 – Transforming New Worlds: The American Colonies Mature 1600-
1750.

Assignments
• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 6 (02/28 – 03/06) – The World so Far ~1500-1750

Lectures

• Review lecture.

Assignments

• Two personal journal entries must have been completed by then.
• Participation in Discussion Board or VoiceThread: mid-semester questions or

comments (bonus points).

8

Week 7 (03/07 – 03/13) – The Atlantic Revolutions

Key concepts and ideas: enlightenment, revolution.

Lectures

• The enlightenment.
• French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and Latin America.

Readings

• Chapter 22 – Atlantic Revolutions and the World 1750-1830.

Assignments
• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 3) annotations The Atlantic Revolutions due.

Week 8 (03/14 – 03/20) – The Industrial Revolution

Key concepts and ideas: industrial revolution, social class, gender relations.

Lectures

• Early industrial revolution.
• The industrial revolution and the world.

Readings

• Chapter 23 – Industry and Everyday Life 1750-1900.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 9 (03/21 – 03/27) – Nationalism and Imperialism

Key concepts and ideas: nation-state, nationalism, imperialism.

Lectures

• Nation-Building in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
• Imperial expansion in Asia and Africa.

Readings

• Chapter 24 – Nation-States and their Empires 1830-1900.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 10 (03/28 – 04/03) – Imperial Conflicts, Resistance, and Revolutions

Key concepts and ideas: mass society, state-building.

9

Lectures
• Imperialism and modern-state building explode: the Mexican Revolution.
• World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Paris Peace Conference.

Readings

• Chapter 25 – Wars, Revolutions, and the Birth of Mass Society 1900-1929.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 11 (04/04 – 04/10) – The World in Conflict

Key concepts and ideas: economic crisis, mass mobilization, global conflict.

Lectures

• The great depression.
• Global conflict: World War II, perspectives from the center and the periphery.

Readings

• Chapter 26 – Global Catastrophe: The Great Depression and World War II 1929-
1945.

Assignments
• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 12 (04/11 – 04/17) – Decolonization and the Global Cold War

Key concepts and ideas: global cold war, global south, socialism, capitalism,
development, decolonization.

Lectures

• The Global Cold War: proxy wars, coups d’état, and revolutions.
• Decolonization and Developmentalism in the “Third World.”

Readings

• Chapter 27 – The Emergence of New Nations in a Cold War World 1945-1970.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Film discussion.
• Primary sources (set 4) annotations Decolonization in Africa and Asia due.

Week 13 (04/18 – 04/24) – The Neoliberal Order and its Challenges

Key concepts and ideas: neoliberalism, globalization.

10

Lectures
• The collapse of communism and the neoliberal order.
• Course review and conclusion.

Readings

• Chapter 28 – A New Global Age 1989 to the Present.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources essay outline due.

Week 14 (04/25 – 05/05) – Final Week

Assignments

• Primary source essay due.
• Four personal journal entries must have been completed by then.

Final available by 05/19

TECHNICAL SUPPORT