military: The Americas 693 The rise in power of Mali seems to have encouraged a number of Hausa states in western Africa to use imported weaponry and tactics in their own war of colonial expansion This was also done by the kingdom of Kongo in modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola This trend toward importing weapons became noticeable during the last decades of the 15th century when Portuguese traders had started to arrive in western Africa and Kongo, bringing with them the technology for the use of musketry and cannons Similarly, in East Africa, contact with Arab traders allowed people in and around modern-day Zanzibar to import Turkish weaponry As a result of this imported technology, from the 1430s until the 1490s there was a dramatic change in the power balance throughout much of Africa The city of Timbuktu was sacked by the Tuareg in 1431, Ewuare the Great of Benin (fl 1440–80) massively expanded his kingdom, the Songhai under Sonni ‘Ali sacked Timbuktu in 1468, and the Mossi continued their lightning cavalry attacks on the Sonni, leading to the battle of Kobi in 1483 when the Mossi were finally defeated During the 1480s contact between the Portuguese and the kingdom of Kongo allowed the latter to gain new technology, leading to the creation of one of the first “secondary empires” in Africa The Americas by J J George The best information regarding military systems in the period from 500 to 1500 correlates with the largest and most organized societies of the time: the 15th- and 16th-century Aztec and Inca civilizations as well as the city of Teotihuacán, which had an institutionalized military by at least 500 Like other developed social institutions, military institutions are intended to organize values, attitudes, and interests in the service of social needs An organized military implies a sophisticated authority structure often attributed to advanced societies and is thus linked to the origin of civilization Regardless of whether the military is necessary for the transition to state organization and civilized life, it is very close to the core of civilizations as they have developed The Americas was no exception After 500 Teotihuacán, centered 40 miles northeast of contemporary Mexico City, began to decline Teotihuacán introduced the use of quilted-cotton body armor, which the Aztec later adopted Other innovations used by the military of Teotihuacán was the atlatl (spear-thrower), thrusting spear, and rectangular shield, all of which were standardized and thus indicative of mass recruitment and an organizational capability usually reserved for advanced societies Murals at Teotihuacán also depict warriors as eagle and jaguar deities, suggesting individual ritualized battle as part of a growing war cult and of sacrificial practices meant to indulge the gods, a practice especially common among the Toltec and later the Aztec Teotihuacán fell by 750, and in the ensuing power vacuum, regional centers emerged in central Mexico, many in fortified hilltops, including Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and Teotenango Tula (800–1150), or Tollan, the center of the Toltec, emerged as a major city and regional power, of which militarism was a major feature Military prominence is reflected in carvings of giant warriors, the prominent positions of the military orders of eagles and jaguars, and the introduction of new weaponry The Toltec introduced a short, curved wooden sword, about 18 inches long, with inset stone blades Armed with the atlatl, quilted-cotton armor, and a shield, the Toltec warrior was effective both as a projectilist and hand-to-hand combatant Toltec weaponry appears to have been standardized, suggesting state control, formal units, military societies, and a chain of command Legends told by the Aztec and recorded by the Spanish further reveal Toltec military prowess, though some of these are exaggerations by the Aztec to ennoble themselves by adopting the Toltec legacy as part of their own ancestry The Aztec, or more specifically the Aztec-Mexica, were originally a pugnacious, wandering people from the north Their legends describe them leaving Tollan around 1250 and entering the Mexico basin around 1325 to settle a swampy, virtually uninhabitable island in the middle of Lake Texcoco This island became their great capital city of Tenochtitlán and then Mexico City after the Spanish arrived in 1521 Their reputation as soldiers served them well Initially they hired themselves as mercenaries to local polities in need of extra punch By the mid-15th century they had organizes themselves and were a legitimate civic enterprise with a confident military institution Aztec armies were extremely well managed and supplied The army was typically divided into commands of 8,000 men, who could march up to 12 miles a day carrying rations for an eight-day campaign All males, regardless of their place in the rigid social hierarchy, were born as potential warriors and had a chance to rise to high warrior status by attending the military schools (calpulli) in their city districts The men were warriors, not soldiers in the traditional sense, expected to fight because of a place in society and not because of pay or obligation The typical warrior was a novice fresh from training and one of a group organized to learn how to take captives A unique feature of the Aztec war machine was that its goal was not to kill enemies but to take them hostage to realize ritual sacrificial requirements Warriors were graded according to