The Maya From Mexico And Axum From The Horn Of Africa

Submitted By Fluffymexican96
Words: 717
Pages: 3

In the early instances of the classical era, civilizations in both Africa and in Mesoamerica started to increase in size and power. The Maya from Mexico and Axum from the Horn of Africa both used grain/cereal- based agriculture and surrounding resources to find trade connections, and once they found those trade connections, they gained revenue with the taxes they imputed. One difference though, they took the meaning of religion to different extents, to the Maya, it laid a foundation for city development. Although, these two civilizations were in different parts of the world, they had similar means of evolving due to their environmental surrounding and geographical location.
The Maya and the Axum depended greatly on the existing resources that were available in their surroundings. The diffusion of maize throughout Teotihuacán and the Yucatan Peninsula made it simple for the Mayans to utilize it for economic purposes. Even with their slash-and-burn, their milpas proved to be profitable. Along with maize, the Mayans crafted and controlled key minerals such as obsidian. With these, the Mayan trades routes expanded to Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and within their own civilization. In Axum, the use of cereal-based agricultural also presided. Wheat, barely, millet, and other grains were considered unique to the region in which Axum was located. Additionally, their coast port, Adulis was the focal point for traders in the interior of Africa, seeking Axum’s animal hides, ivory, and rhinoceros horns were they were added to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean commerce. The similarity depicted here was caused by the uniform geographical location, the Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula and close to the volcanoes that gave them obsidian; Axum along the Red Sea, where animals may seek water sources.
Once these two civilizations found these new trade routes, they found a way to seek a form of revenue from their own subjects and from the traders they dealt with. In the Maya case, a form of revenue, what they asked from the merchants was a tax, for later uses in trade with cocoa beans, for their trade partners as well as slaves, to act in human sacrifices and religious rituals. In the latter case, Axum did the same to gain revenue to expand their civilization. Eventually, the Aksum kingdom began to trade with the Roman empire as well as the Persian empire, trading iron and gold, but mostly focusing on salt trade with the Mediterranean. The revenue gained helped the Axumite state grow exponentially. The reason to this expansion of trade and taxes imposed was due to the geographical location of these civilizations in accordance to others in its radius.
Although the Axum civilization did not have any significance in religion affecting the evolution of Axum, it was surely depicted in the