Casual readers usually encounter the Mexica people in one of two stories. Either they are the bloodthirsty leaders of an Aztec Empire erected on the skulls of enemies, or they are the inventive engineers who raised one of the world’s greatest cities out of a swampy, volcanic lake.

Which of these stories is true? In a way, they both are—just as England was a place of great intellectual growth at the same time it was home to thousands of poor people falling ever-deeper into debt. But the problem is that both narratives—bloodthirsty empire-builders and inventive engineers—obscure the real stories of the Mexica people.

How can we get at these real stories so we’re not just accepting the big, stereotypical narratives we’re already familiar with? We can start by asking the sorts of questions that reveal important details about a society. For example: Have you ever considered what a group of teenagers would be doing in the afternoon in a neighborhood of the huge Aztec city of Tenochtitlan? What cultural events or icons would they be talking about? What rules would they have to follow? What values would tie them together, or separate them from each other? And how were the politics and culture of their state reflected in the lessons they learned in school?

In this article, we’re going to look at two great states of the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans—the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica led by the Mexica, and the Andean Empire led by the Inca, which they called Tawantinsuyu. We’re going to discuss how these two empires were formed and how their governments maintained control. We’ll look at the economies that kept the common people fed and the rich people happy, as well as the ideas and institutions that most people shared or that divided them into social classes and other groups. But we’ll do all of this with a mind to understanding not just how the governments operated, but how the people saw and understood the states in which they lived.

The Aztec Empire

The Mexica and other Nahuatl-speaking people arrived in the area now called the Valley of Mexico in the early thirteenth century. In this region of Mesoamerica, many different peoples interacted. The older power centers of the region included the city-states of the Maya, to the south; however, other peoples, such as the Miztec and Zapotec in Oaxaca and the Totonac along the Gulf Coast, had built thriving societies. In the densely populated Valley of Mexico, several related groups, including the Toltecs, competed for power, but there was no single overarching power. By the fourteenth century, several Nahuatl-speaking communities had developed into large cities. Of these cities, the three most powerful were Tenochtitlan (ruled by the Mexica), Texcoco (ruled by the Acolhua), and Tlacopan (ruled by the Tepanec). Around 1420, these three cities made a strategic alliance that allowed them to conquer their near neighbors. This triple alliance is commonly called the Aztec Empire.

Although this state was built from an alliance of several Nahua cities, historians often call it the kingdom of Mexica because Tenochtitlan was the undisputed leader and the biggest metropolis of the three. Located on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, Tenochtitlan had natural defenses, plenty of food, and access to regional trade routes. Soon, the city became one of the largest in the world. Meanwhile, the kingdom became an empire as the Mexica and their allies conquered neighboring peoples who were not Nahua.

One reason for the success of the Aztec Empire was the belief system shared by its political leaders. Aztec beliefs began with the idea that the gods had created the world by making great sacrifices—and that humans had to repay those sacrifices to keep the world going. They believed they lived in the time of the Fifth Sun, the latest in a cycle of worlds that had each ended in disaster. To keep the Sun moving and the Earth in balance, people had to make offerings that included food, flowers, and sometimes blood.

This belief system shaped rituals that were part of everyday life, from planting crops to building temples. Everyone—from rulers to commoners—took part in ceremonies that helped maintain balance between people and the gods. But Aztec beliefs were also closely tied to political power. Rulers claimed they were chosen by the gods and were responsible for keeping order in both the world and the kingdom. Tenochtitlan was designed around these sacred ideas. At its center sat the main temple for honoring the gods of war and rain. This temple was the site of large ceremonies, including human sacrifices. These sacrifices—which were meant to preserve the cosmos—often celebrated military victories. These rituals weren’t just about religion. They demonstrated the empire’s strength and helped keep their diverse subjects loyal.

These beliefs also showed up in the political organization of the empire. The kingdom of Mexica was made up of many city-states, called altepeme, each with its own ruler, temple, and market. The leaders of these city-states owed political loyalty and promised an economic payment as tribute to the rulers in Tenochtitlan. Some city-states were treated as almost equals, while newly conquered states had few rights and many obligations. At the head of Tenochtitlan—and therefore the whole empire—was a monarch called the speaker, or huey tlatoani, who was supported by a class of nobles and judges. Because belief and government were so closely tied to each other, these political leaders also acted like priests in important ceremonies and had constant religious obligations. Yet even though nobles held most of the power, commoners could still participate through military service and local leadership, and in some cases become wealthy or powerful. The most common way for a person of the lower classes to rise was through success in war, but merchants who gathered wealth through trade could also become important people, if less frequently.

In general, the economy of the kingdom was based on growing food and producing usable commodities like tools, pottery, and cloth. Most of these goods were produced from raw materials grown on rural land owned by communities who then sold it in markets to merchants. But once again, religion played an important role. It was the obligation of the wealthy and poor alike to offer expensive goods like rare cloth and luxury animal products and food to the gods, and that meant that merchants were active in finding and trading these products. Some also came from tribute paid by conquered people to the state.

But what does all this mean for the young people of Tenochtitlan and the other principal Aztec cities? As with other states in the period, most youth spent a lot of their time helping with economic activities around the household. Boys helped with farming, fishing, and crafts while girls cared for younger siblings, cooked, and wove. But religious ceremonies were also very important, and in many cases, young people were supposed to make offerings of their own. There was free time, of course, for playing board games or sports. But as teenagers, most boys went to school, at least part time, where they were educated in war and religion. The sons of nobles went to a special school called a calmenac, where they were prepared to be religious-political leaders. Daughters of the wealthier classes might also attend schools where they learned both the arts and their own roles in maintaining the cosmic balance.

The education of teenagers in the heart of the kingdom of Mexica was meant to prepare them to fulfill their duties in helping the empire expand and helping to maintain the balance of the cosmos. Of course, that doesn’t mean that those teenagers were thinking about big issues all the time. They were probably most interested in their hobbies, their relationships with friends and potential partners, and things like that. But they couldn’t help but be influenced by the big ideas of war, religion, and economics that shaped their parents’ lives—just like you can’t totally ignore the big ideas of our society, even if they’re not the main thing that interests you.

The Inca Empire of Tawantinsuyu

Just like Mexica youths, teenagers in the Inca Empire were trained in adult responsibilities like herding, domestic work, and making crafts. They also spent some of their time serving the state by building roads, or by serving in the military. And they played roles in rituals, especially some girls who went from their families to the acllawasi (houses of the chosen), to learn to participate in religious practices dedicated to the Sun god Inti and the Earth goddess Pachamama. Because sacrifices were also part of Inca society, a select few were sacrificed in ceremonies to mark sacred events. But there’s lots of evidence that most teenagers spent their free time playing games, including sports using rubber balls and board games using dice and boards.

To understand how the lives of teenagers reflected the society around them, we need to look at the way the Inca state functioned. First, we should say that the state was known to its people as Tawantinsuyu (Land of Four Parts) in the Quechua language. Tawantinsuyu emerged in the early fifteenth century in the Andes Mountains of South America. We call it the Inca Empire because it was ruled by the Inca, the title given to the emperor, who claimed to be descended from the Sun god. The empire emerged partly because of the development of several technologies: military organization, infrastructure like roads and storehouses, and a unique writing system known as the qipu. These technologies helped a series of competent Inca leaders unify and control their expanding territory. The early Inca leaders were skilled at using religion and diplomacy to unite people living in valleys along the vast chain of the Andes Mountains. The rise of the Inca was also made possible by the decline or disorganization of neighboring societies, such as the Wari and Tiwanaku, which was probably caused by decades of droughts. In many ways, the Inca filled the power vacuum these societies left behind.

Like many states of this period, Tawantinsuyu was built on deep religious and social beliefs that connected politics with the sacred. The Inca ruler, called the Sapa Inca (Unique Inca), was believed to be the son of the Sun god (Inti) and a living deity himself. His power was seen as divine, and loyalty to him was a sacred duty. The Inca viewed the world as shared by the living, the dead, and the spirits of nature. Dead emperors were mummified and continued to “live” in palaces, attend feasts, and influence politics through cults led by their descendants.

Inca political power was also maintained by a set of cultural values that emphasized reciprocity—the idea that everyone had obligations to give and receive support. This didn’t mean everyone was equal, but rather that the common people were supposed to support their leaders, while the leaders had obligations to ensure the safety and security of the people. This idea of mutual responsibility extended upward, helping to justify the Sapa Inca’s power: Just as a local lord helped the people, the emperor—and his dead ancestors—were believed to help all of society through gifts, protection, and sacred leadership.

As the Inca spread their rule to new areas, they began to encounter—and eventually conquer—peoples who were quite different from themselves. This led them to adapt their political system to one that balanced the central control of the Sapa Inca and local traditions. The empire was divided into four main regions called suyus, each ruled a governor. Under these governors, the Incas used a decimal system of administration. Local leaders were in charge of 10, 50, 100, 500, or even 10,000 households, depending on their rank. They were obliged to provide some labor from these households, known as mit’a, to build the roads needed to cross high mountains and to serve in the military. Inspectors and messengers sent from the state checked on local leaders to ensure the empire was being served, but also to check on the welfare of the families in these distant regions. While the system was strict, it was also flexible, adapting to local customs and allowing some local elites to remain in power as long as they pledged loyalty to the Inca.

The mit’a system was key to keeping the empire together. The Inca economy was based on agriculture, herding, and state-controlled labor, but unlike many other empires, it did not use money or markets. Instead, it functioned through the system of reciprocity described above. Farmers grew crops like potatoes, maize, and quinoa, and raised llamas and alpacas for meat, wool, and transport. Their taxes were their labor, governed by the mit’a system, not goods or money. From these taxes, the state collected food, cloth, and other resources and stored them in large storehouses across the empire. These supplies were then distributed back to the people during festivals, emergencies, and military campaigns. In this way, the Inca built a centrally managed economy that supported a vast empire without money or private markets.

Again, this didn’t mean that Inca society was egalitarian. It was very much a strict social hierarchy, with the power of nobles and the Sapa Inca pretty much unquestioned. But the principle of reciprocity meant that the powerful owed the common people as much as they were owed by those beneath them, at least in theory. Commoners gave their labor to farm state lands, build roads, and serve in the army, and in return, the state provided food, clothing, and public works from massive storehouses. Even the emperor, or Sapa Inca, had to reward his nobles with gifts to keep their support. In this way, Inca society functioned like a massive web of interlocking obligations—from farmer to emperor—based on shared responsibility and the constant exchange of labor, goods, and respect. Sometimes, this system broke down, but the evidence is that it generally worked.

The end?

The Inca and Mexica Empires both seem to have been working pretty well in the early sixteenth century. So why did they collapse? There is a simple answer in both cases: The Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, defeated both states, conquered them, and ruled them as colonial possessions.

The real answer is somewhat more complex. There were some factors within both societies that made it a little easier for the Spanish to defeat them. The Inca Empire’s system of reciprocity was great, but it demanded that local people be totally obedient to the Sapa Inca and put all power in his hands. So, when the Spanish captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa, things fell apart quickly. The Aztec, meanwhile, dealt harshly with the people they conquered. This meant that some groups they controlled were willing to assist the Spanish and turn on the leadership in Tenochtitlan.

But it’s likely a bigger problem was one totally out of the empire leaders’ control. It wasn’t technology—the role of Spanish iron weapons, guns, and even horses has probably been overstated in the past (although not all historians agree on this). Rather, it was diseases brought by the Spanish, to which neither the Mexica nor the Inca had immunity. These diseases spread faster than the Spanish themselves, killing millions before the fighting started. A smallpox epidemic may have killed up to half the population of Tenochtitlan in 1520–1521. Another caused the death of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac in 1525.

Diseases like smallpox robbed these large states of their leaders but also disrupted the things that held them together—religious rituals, economic systems, and faith in the leaders of the state. Maybe you can imagine what someone your age might have felt as they watched their leaders die, saw society fall apart around them, and faced an invasion by people quite different from themselves. That, too, is a historical experience.