Aztecs VS Mongols Essay

The Mongols and the Aztecs evolved on completely opposite sides of the world, so they had a substantial amount of differences. The contrasted culturally and socially. For example, religion was one of the numerous differences between the two. Also, the foundation of their societies was different as well; one being based on agriculture and the other being nomadic. However, they were not different in every aspect. The Mongols and Aztecs were similar politically because both had substantial and powerful militaries. Culturally, the Aztecs and Mongols were different, particularly with their religions. The Aztec Empire worshipped their Sun God; they believed that the sun was a gift from the Gods and that as it goes down every night, they’re required to make sacrifices in order to make it rise up again the next morning. Their king had to be a descendant of the Sun God in order to rule and he lived in a large religious temple. On the other hand, the Mongols were tolerant of most religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Shamanism, Islam). There were few places of worship because of the fact that they were nomadic, but they did praise their Allah. The empire first began as Pagans but eventually Islam became the favored religion of the empire because the Mongols went into the middle east.They did not sacrifice people, but they did animals. This religious difference exists because the two empires are on reverse regions of the globe, the Mongols in central Asia/Middle East and the Aztecs in present day Mexico; Therefore we know that the different areas of the world followed different customs and religions. The Aztecs and Mongols also contrasted socially, specifially because of the foundation of their civilizations. The Aztecs based their civilization on agriculture. They lived in what is Mexico today which had fertile soil and was surrounded by water, thus making it easier to maintain crops and create a system to manage the water. Then there were the Mongols who didn’t really stay in one spot, but were pastoral nomads who traveled all the way from  Eastern Europe to Central Asia with their livestock as a way of obtaining food. Not only did the Aztecs live in such a fertile area of the world, but their main city, Tenochtitlan, was surrounded by Lake Texcoco which provided them with easy access to trade routes. The Mongols could not be agricultural-based peoples like the Aztecs because of the extremely dry desert-like land they inhabited which was not suitable for crops. Therefore they had to resort to the nomadic lifestyle in order to survive. The Mongols and Aztecs were fairly similar politically. Both civilizations had prodigious militaries and conquered everyone around them. The Mongol Empire was a military empire, with Genghis Khan as their leader. They used advanced weapons from China (such as the bow and arrow and flaming catapults), and were excellent horse warriors. The boys were trained to be soldiers at the age of 14 and were forced to join the army. The Aztecs also had a society strongly based around their powerful military. In their empire, every boy who was physically capable would be trained to fight even with little notice. The aggressive warlike way of life in these societies made them very sturdy empires; both were able to conquer areas around them that no one else was able to, because of their intellegence of warfare and use of weapons. Overall, the Aztecs and Mongols were both large and advanced empires. Although they developed at different times and in different places, they had similar military lifestyles. But there were also plenty of things that differentiated the two empires; the first being their religious beliefs and the second being the social foundations of their society (agricultural or nomadic).