Cultural Contact Between The Aztec And The Inca Empires
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Alex Hamilton
Dr. Courtney Buchanan
Anthropology 100
7 December 2014
Anthropology 100 Research paper
In the 15th century Christopher Columbus set out on a voyage in order to find a new route going west to get into Asia. With his three ships he sailed all the way across the Atlantic and soon landed on the Caribbean coastline. This event is what started the Spanish conquest of America. The Spanish conquests were most known for they’re conquering of the Aztec and the Inca empires that were the biggest Empires in Central and Southern America. When the Spanish had come to south and central America they faced many different civilizations with different cultures. I believe there were different forms of cultural contact between the Spanish conquering the Aztec and Incan empires due to their different locations and cultures. I also believe there were many similarities between the cultural contacts that occurred as well.
The Incan empire is located in the Andes Mountains and along the western coastline of South America. The capital city was called Cuzco in the Andes. The leadership of Pachacutec led the Incas to expand into the largest empire in the Pre-Colombian America. The Spanish were under the rule of Pizarro when they had come to conquer. There were many factors that were different during the culture contact of the Spanish trying to conquer the Incas than the Aztecs. One example is that the Inca did not…show more content… Throughout their differences the underlining reason for both of the civilizations demise was due to the overpowering amount of deaths by diseases like small pox that the indigenous people were not immune to. Also the Spanish Technology played a huge role also in the defeat of both empires. The conquering of both these empires influenced the cultures that central and south America are
trade routes, and some of its kingdoms were beginning to assert world power. Major empires developed in both South America (the Inca) and Mesoamerica (the Maya and Aztecs.) China grew to have hegemony over many