Aztecs also had a lot of harsh punishments for certain crimes. For the following crimes the punishment was death: adultery, wearing cotton clothes (cotton clothes were only for the nobles), cutting down a living tree, moving a field boundary making your land bigger, making someone else's smaller, major theft and treason.
The Incas were a civilized empire in western South America. The Incas are called a "pre-Columbian" empire. This means that their country was here before Christopher Columbus. They ruled parts of South America around what is now Peru for a little over 100 years, until the Spanish invasion in the 16th century.
The Incan empire or , meaning "four regions" in Quechua, only lasted for about 100 years as the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532 conquered them. Their main language was Quechua, but as the Incas were basically made up of many different groups there were probably many other different languages.
Their capital was in the city of Cusco, or Qosqo, in what is now southern Peru.
Manco Capac founded the first Inca state around 1200. It covered the area around Cusco. In the 1400s, Pachacuti began to absorb other people in the Andes. The expansion of the Inca Empire had started. The Inca Empire would become the biggest empire in the Americas before Columbus.
In 1532, the civil war ended. The brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, fought for who would succeed their father. During this time, the Spanish conquerors took possession of the Inca territory. They were led by Francisco Pizarro. In the following years the conquistadors managed to extend their power over the whole Andean region. They suppressed successive Inca rebellions until the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Perú in 1542 and the fall of the resistance of the last Incas of Vilcabamba in 1572. The Inca civilization ends at that time, but many cultural traditions remain in some ethnic groups as Quechuas and Aymara people.
Ancient Egypt and Carthage are well known civilizations of ancient Africa. But because there are not many written sources in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the history of Africa is not easy to write about. But with new techniques such as the recording of oral history, historical linguistics and archeology knowledge has improved, not only for the empires and kingdoms of Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nubia, Kush and Kerma.
Colonization happened after Christopher Columbus came to the Americas. European countries such as England, France, and Spain built colonies in the Americas. These settlers fought the Native Americans to take over their land. The colonisation of the Americas was the beginning of modern times.
An important part about contact with the Americas was the Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange brought new foods, ideas, and diseases to the Old World and New World, changing the way people lived. Historians believe that almost everyone as far as Asia was affected in some way by the Columbian Exchange.
Protestant Reformation started with Martin Luther and the posting of the 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. At first he protested against corruption such as simony or the sale of indulgences. But then it became clear that he had different ideas about the church doctrine. He thought that Christians should only read the Bible to find out what God wants from them. That meant that they did not need priests (see: Five solas). The three most important traditions that came directly from the Protestant Reformation were the Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist, Presbyterian, etc.), and Anglican traditions.
The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was the Catholic Church fighting the Protestant Reformation. New religious orders, such as the Jesuits were founded and missionaries sent around the world. Decisions were taken at the Council of Trent (1545–1563).
The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain. It brought many advances in the way goods were produced. These advances allowed people to produce much more than they needed for living. The early British Empire split as its colonies in America revolted to establish a representative government.
The French Revolution lead to massive political change in continental Europe, as people following the ideas of Enlightenment asked for human rights with the slogan "liberté, egalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity). That led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, but also to terror and the execution of King Louis XVI. The French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, conquered and changed Europe through war up to 1815. As more and more small property holders were granted the vote, in France and the UK, socialist and trade union activity developed and revolution gripped Europe in 1848. The last vestiges of serfdom were abolished in Austria-Hungary in 1848. Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861. The Balkan nations began to regain their independence from the Ottoman Empire. After the Franco-Prussian War, Italy and Germany became unified in 1870 and 1871. Conflict spread across the globe, in a chase for empires. The search for a "place in the sun" ended with the outbreak of World War I. In the desperation of war, the Russian Revolution promised the people "peace, bread and land". The defeat of Germany came at the price of economic destruction, which was written down in the Treaty of Versailles.
From 1644 to 1912 the Qing or "Manchu Dynasty" ruled China. The dynasty was founded by the Manchu clan in northeast China (Manchuria). It expanded into China proper and its surrounding territories, establishing the "Empire of the Great Qing".
Its military power weakened during the 1800s, and faced with international pressure, massive rebellions and defeats in wars, the Qing Dynasty declined after the mid-19th century. It was overthrown in 1912.
During the Edo period, Japan had many small rulers. There were about 200 of them, called the daimyo. Out of them, the Tokugawa clan was most powerful. They ruled from a place called Edo. This place was around the present day’s Tokyo. For fifteen generations they were the most powerful clan in Japan.
Beginning from the early 17th century, the rulers (known as shogunate) started a policy of seclusion (stopping some people coming in), known as sakoku in Japanese language. They suspected that traders, merchants and missionaries wanted to bring Japan under the control of European powers. Except the Dutch and the Chinese, all foreigners, traders and merchants from other countries, missionaries were no longer allowed into Japan.
Still even during the period of seclusion, Japanese continued to gain information and knowledge about other parts of the world.
This policy of seclusion lasted for about 200 years. It ended 1868 with Meiji Restoration, when the emperor took over again and started a lot of reforms.
The Mughal Empire existed from 1526 to 1857. When it was biggest it ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, then known as Hindustan, and parts of what is now Afghanistan. It was founded by Babur in 1526 and ruled until 1530. Its most important ruler was Akbar (1556–1605). After the death of Aurangjeb (1658–1707), the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857. By that time, India came under the British Raj.
Settlement by the Spanish started the European colonization of the Americas, it meant genocide of the native Indians. The Spanish gained control of most of the Caribbean and conquered the Aztecs. So they founded the Spanish Empire in the New World.
The first successful English settlements were in North America at Jamestown (Virginia), 1607 (along with its satellite, Bermuda in 1609) and Plymouth (Massachusetts), 1620. The first French settlements were Port Royal (1604) and Quebec City (1608). The Fur Trade soon became the primary business on the continent and as a result transformed the Native Americans lifestyle. Plantation slavery of the West Indies lead to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade.