Reasons for Aztec & Inca Expansion

          It seems to be that motivation and justification of the expansion of the Aztec and Inca Empire seem to be different in the sense that one was driven by power and the other wealth. Like any civilization, whether ancient or modern, there is always a need to grow and expand. The reasons can be numerous, such as in this case; religion, power, wealth, diversity, ideology or even to be able to sustain a population. In Conrad and Demarest book, they explain that the expansion of the Aztec nation occurred due to ideology and religion, but "ideology was ultimately religious." (Conrad & Demarest, 5) Now the expansion of the Inca is said to be different than the Aztec because their ultimate goal was to gain territory to extend their wealth for their leader and their deceased, "property rights of the dead." (Conrad & Demarest, 136)

           The Aztec's motivation for expansion was their religious belief of human sacrifice that was justified by the fact that their sun god needed to be satisfied in order to rise the next day, in other words fight the forces of darkness. The need for human sacrifice drove them to go to war in order to capture POW's to use them as sacrifice. When the Mexica experienced defeats, they would believe that their god of war was not satisfied so this "motivated redoubled militarism" in order to increase the number of captives to please their god. With this strategy or idea, they not only satisfied their sun/war god Huitzilopochtli, but they also gained territorial, political, military and economic power. With this expansion came to be the Triple Alliance that consisted of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, which increased military power.

           On the other hand, the expansion of the Inca empire was very different to that of the Aztec because they were more interested in pleasing their current king and deceased. The motivation for their expansion was the cult of royal mummies and "split inheritance [that] forced a living ruler to seek new sources of wealth." This was all justified by the ideology of "property rights for the dead" (Conrad & Demarest, 132). Wealth was such a crucial role in the expansion of the Inca that their "Military expansionism was to provide wealth for some and economic security for all, political advancement, for the state's leadership... and an honored afterlife for deserving individuals." (Conrad & Demarest, 125)

            Both civilizations were powerful in their own way because they both had strong beliefs and ideologies. In short the Aztec were clearly driven by power that was justified by their religious ideology and the Inca empire were driven by wealth expansion caused by the cult of royal mummies that was justified by the idea of property rights.