Week 6

I like to believe or think empires share some concept of ideology meaning that they have something that motivates them to keep living and surviving. Ideology differs from empire to empire, but at the same time it is the same concept that gets them to keep expanding and rising.  We can see that the Incas and the Aztecs both had an ideology that kept them align to keep doing what they were doing, whether it was human sacrifice or split heritance.

                We have seen that few students in the class have compared Roman Empire to the Inca Empire and I agree that they share similarities, but to me that is a hard comparison to deal with since there is not enough evidence for other empires, or I should say written evidence that can support the similarities of these two empires. In the other hand the Incas and the Aztecs both shared the time period where we could see that their ideology for Gods gave them an incentive to act or to justify their actions.

                Both empires strived to keep their Gods alive and content by providing different rituals that satisfied them. The Aztecs sacrificed the most prestige people in order to feed the blood-thirsty sun that would grant them a next day or food. The Incas expansion was developed through providing more territory to their God Itz and also keeping their ancestors happy through the system split heritance.

                I believe that Conrad and Demarest at the end of the chapter specifically explain the similarities of both empires. Most of their differences were their cultivation process, but at the same time they had the same forces that push them to expand and fall. Because their ideology and concept of that made them expand and fall, we also see similarities as to when they traveled and the casualties they had common to unknown territories. The Incas suffered through the tropical rain forest while the Aztecs suffer with the high mountains. So I believe Conrad and Demarest compare both empires and do a good job doing so.