Aztec Civilization Essay Sample

Throughout history many civilizations have rose to power and others crumble under pressure. The key to a thriving society was a secret for many years;as there are many factors in determining which civilizations stay and which crumble. Some of these main factors are historically known to be geography, culture and politics. These are so monumental that they are known to be the key components for the Meso and Sounth American civilizations that are known to us as the Aztec, Maya and Inca and slowly determined their fate over the course of history. However the question remains; how do these factors cause such a major shockwaves in Meso and South American civilizations?

One example of this is the Aztec civilization. The Aztec civilization  has a divine emperor which means an emperor who is believed to be chosen by the ‘gods’ to rule.  This supports the relgion in the society and in a sense makes sure that evreyone stays in line with their beliefs. Under the divine emperor are the priests and elites(as this is a theocracy). One major factor of the Aztec civilization is their sacrificial habits. The Aztecs have a very strong belief in human sacrifice to please the ‘gods’.  This started in the begining of the Aztec empire itself. Upon being drove out of their land, the Aztecs were pushed to an extremely arid lake-area. Their agressors had the intention of letting them starve, but the Aztecs had other plans. They build their capital city on an island in the middle of the lake and expanded it for farming using mats made of reeds that allowed the roots to get the water they needed, and in turn the Aztecs created their own self-sustaining civilization out of a rock and a hard place. However, their environment is still reliviially arid and plagued with disasters such as dust storms and earthquakes. This is influential to their culture because their environment reflects their religion in a mirror-like way. Just like their surroundings, their gods are harsh and unforgiving. This brings us back to their human sacrifice habits. They believed that in order to tame the gods and keep them happy, they must sacrifice humans. They killed kids, prisioners of war and their own citizens in order the maintain their good record with their gods.This in their eyes helped them, but it was also very hard to keep up the population for these sacrifices. In order to keep up with tis, they needed sacricicial people to offer. In their eyes their was no better way to do this than war. They captured prisioners of war and used them as sacrifices. During times of war things can get hectic, so the Aztecs had a strong bureacratic government to keep the peace and sustain belief in their religion. This government and its powerful elited helped install extremally accurate astrological calendars to sustain the crops, massive religious building and beautiful cycloptic art structures. They made an economy out of this by selling their crops in their free market which consisted majoritaly of barter and trade. All of these factors have either proven to help this society(gov’t etc.) or even prove detrimental to it(no beasts of burden).With all of these things considered it rises the question. What were these factors like in other civilizations geographically around the same area?

Similar to the Aztecs, the Mayan civilization was located on the Eastern coast of Mesoamerica in an area modernly known as Guatamala. Their climate was humid but also arid and had frequent droughts. The Mayans, however, were at contant war due to their arid climate. This climate led to droughts and a widespread scarcity of resources. Although their climate was also rough, they did not conduct human sacrifices nearly as much as the Aztec or Inca which provided more workers for fields and the growth of their 3 sister crops including peppers and even cacao.  The constant warfare over resources introduced their bureaucratic government which helped keep the order, and once again preists were at the top of the social hierarchy. These priests often conducted games with a rubber ball in designated stadiums. It is unclear how this game was played, but we are aware that the balls themselves consisted of rubber from the Mayan rubber trees, which were plentiful in the area. Along with their astrological beliefs,  they were able to use things such as math with a place value system and a zero. This was incorporated into their astrological calendar known as the “Mother of Calanders” which they used to keep track of time for important events and crops. Although they were relitivally advanced, they were also plagued with the effects of constant warfare over resources. This prevented them from innovating past the point in which they had peaked. One could say that this was a direct result of the impact of geography on ancient civilizations. However, some civilizations with less war were able to grow rapidlty and adapt to their surroundings.

The Inca were situated in the Andes mountains along the Western coast of modern-day Peru. They started as a small town and grew into a massive society situated in the mountains earning themselves the nickname “Rome of South America”. Furthermore, the decision of the Inca to settle in the mountains was one of the best. The mountains acted as a geographical barrier between them and their agressors(A.K.A) the Spanish. The Spanish was one of many factors to have pushes the Inca into a military empire run by one of the only examples of communism known to have worked. This government was under the control of “Sapa Inca” which directly translate to “The only Inca”. Just like the other civilizations, the priests were given a high ranking position. Major state projects under the rule of this hierarchy were conducted to complete necessary tasks. However, the people were, in fact, payed for this work. It worked like the US military draft. If you got chosen you had to go. One of these projects was terrace gardening. Living on mountains has its disadvantages. In this case it was the steep slipes located on either side of the mountain. The Incas developed terrace gardening, which was a stair-step like pattern chiseled into mountain side to make room for stable roots. This provided the Incas with the 3 sister crops and potatoes, peanuts and peppers. Very little of this land was privatly owned and much of their trade was done through public markets. They did not have a lack of resources so they didnt not need war, but they had the occasional human sacrifice. They wrote records of their society in knotted ropes. This, sadly, has not been cracked yet and we are left clueless to what they may mean. They were the only metal working of the three societies which gave them a leg up on innovations making room for being the only ones to have a beast of burden, to an extent, the llama. The Incas are a prime example of how one minor difference, metal working, can put one civilization ahead of the other.

In conclusion, geography, culture and politics are key points that shape the way a civilization works. By altering small details in the surrounding and inner workings of the Aztec,Maya and Inca, these factors are able to in turn make or break any given society. Comparing the Aztec, Mayans and Incas, the Incans had a leg up on the others simply because geography allowed it to have llamas, its culture was religious and devout and it had the only known communist theocracy to work. The way civilizations either work in perfect harmony or break are not only, in fact, determined only on its God-given surroundings but also on factors the society itself can control; proving that the way civilizations are affected by geography, other cultures and their own determine the way it runs and ultimately the way it affects the world.