The Aztecs and the Incas Essay Example

The Aztecs and the Incas were Pre-Columbian tribes in Meso-America, The Aztecs lived in the Mexico valley while the Incas lived in the Andes Mountains. The Aztecs were heavily populated, they were known for their religion and how they made sacrifices and built temples for their gods. The Incas were known for worshiping their gods and lived in the mountains to feel closer to the gods. The Aztecs and the Incas were similar in that they both adapted to their environments in order to survive, but they adapted in different ways and for different reasons.When we look at a map of Central America and South America we can see that the Aztecs were situated next to a big body of water, they were Located in Mexico Valley. Since the Aztecs didn’t have enough food and were at the brink of starvation they needed a way to get food fastly and efficiently, they were able to make Chinampas which were articles of land that were planted in the water to help grow crops. The Chinampas was a way that the Aztecs were able to adapt to their environment, they needed to use the environment around them for food or else their people would starve. The Incas were located in the Andes mountains and were known for sharing the same type of religious beliefs as the Aztecs, though they both were in different places they still used the environment around them to get food. The Incas used a form of  farming called Terrace farming, in which farmers had to make step-like shapes in the mountains in order for them to make food. If they grew food on normal mountain land it wouldn’t be easy to harvest or plant the crops since the mountain was very steep, and they couldn't go down to plain land because of religious reasons.The Incas and Aztecs both used their environment to get food for their empire, we are able to see this through the Mountains and rivers that both civilizations adapted too in order to feed their people.The Aztecs were located in Mexico Valley in a land that nobody wanted, they were heavily surrounded by big bodys of water and failed to receive an abundant amount of food for their people. The Aztecs needed to get food and water for their people so they used the rivers and oceans around them. The Aztecs built Chinampas which were small pieces of land planted in rivers to help grow more crops. The Chinampas were able to produce food at a fast pace which would help feed the people. The Aztecs adapted to their environment because they didn’t have food and were able to adapt in a certain way because of the environment they were in, they had a lot of water and land around them.The Incas were placed in the Andes Mountains, like the Aztecs they were both very religious and made many temples and sacrifices for their gods. Keeping this in mind, the Inca civilization valued religion, hence where they lived. They believed that if they were higher to the skies the closer they were to the gods, because of this they lived in the mountains. They were able to adapt to the environment around them by building bridges and making terrace farming, they were able to make bridges to communicate and interact with each other in such high lands, it would’ve been harder if they had the climb the mountains to get to one place, they made bridges to help them with this problem. The Incas adapted to their environment because they needed to communicate towards each other and unit the empire. We can see this through bridges where they helped cross different places. The reason that they didn’t adapt in other different ways like the Aztecs were because of the Mountainous terrain that they lived in, they lived in higher grounds because of religious reasons while the Aztecs did it because they needed food. While both Empires were able to adapt to their environments around them they had different reasons and ways on to why/how they did it. The Aztecs did it for food and were able to accomplish it by Chinampas and their rivers but the Incas did it because of religious reasons and were able to adapt by Terrace farming and bridges.