Comparisons

Well that's a hard question and It seems theres not a straightforward answer for it.  I mean its really a yes and no answer. When looking at the Inca and Aztec empires in a way it is good to compare them to other empires becuase you make those connections. It's interesting to analyze the factors that contributed to the fall and rise of different empires like the Roman empire. Historians have done this for years where they study past empires and have even tried to compare it to the U.S "empire"Some have gone as far to say that U.S will eventually collapse. Looking at the economy and the rising strength of China in last few years I can understand why their saying that. Yet there are times where comparing different empires isn't a fair game because so many things come into play. You have to consider the time period which is a huge factor also the region, culture,religion,economy,technology etc all these contribute to the formation of a state. For example I can't say that the Inca empire is like the Soviet Union because of the fact that their empire didn't last long. Both empires were under totally different situations. One was led by religious ideology and the other was more political they didn't have a state religion. The Soviets wanted to expand in order to strengthen their state power. The Incas expanded becuase of split inheritance it doesn't seem they focused on becoming powerful it just happened as a result of their religious motivations.  So the reasons the Soviet Union fell are not the same reasons the Inca empire fell. Conrad and Demarest on the other hand actually compare two different empires but in this case I would have to say that their in luck because the time period was close and religion was the focus of both empires. There was a lot of similarities in the way both groups rose to power and fell shortly. Yet Im not completely convinced because the Incas left no evidences of writing. Everything we have been able to find out is through oral history, archeologists, the spanish records which gives us clues to what may have happened but the book mentions that both empires changed their histories in order to create a grandiose image of themselves. Our picture of what really happened could be distorted. The supposed similarities between these two empires could be completely wrong.