Indigenous societies — social organization and warfare

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'He who speaks' — the title of the Aztec ruler, who claimed a link to the gods.

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The single, semi-divine emperor of the Inca empire — the supreme authority over all conquered peoples.

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A Maya 'holy lord' — the divine king of an individual Maya city-state (e.g., Tikal, Calakmul).

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An Inca kinship group that jointly owned land, shared farming and herding duties, and owed labour (mit'a) as a unit.

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An Aztec neighbourhood-clan that held farmland communally, ran its own school and temple, and sent tribute/soldiers to the capital.

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The Inca system of rotational labour tax — households owed work (farming, building, army service) instead of paying in goods.

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The Inca policy of forcibly resettling conquered populations and replacing them with loyal settlers, to prevent rebellion.

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Scheduled Aztec battles, chiefly against Tlaxcala, fought mainly to capture prisoners alive for religious sacrifice rather than to seize land.

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Aztec: kept local rulers in place but demanded tribute, backed by fear of renewed attack. Inca: used mitmaq resettlement and a road network to physically integrate and monitor conquered land.

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Conquer a neighbour, then extract tribute from it, loot immediate plunder and redistribute it to nobles/soldiers, then use captives as enslaved labour or (for the Aztec) sacrifice victims.

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1428 — the alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, which launched the rapid phase of Aztec imperial expansion.

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Some argue women held real economic/religious power (owning property, becoming priestesses, running markets); others stress political and military power stayed almost entirely male, so the system was not fully equal.