Did the Incas and Maya ever have knowledge of each other?

by [deleted]
NoviaOG

No, they didn't. The Incas were in Peru, whereas the Maya were in Yucatán, and they never ventured far enough to know of each other. Additionally when the Spaniards came over to Peru, the Inca civilisation was booming, whereas the Mayans had peaked maybe a century and a half ago, and had since been in decline - so their chances of meeting were even less.

The Incans didn't know about the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) either, although the Aztecs and the Mayans did know each other - Diego de Landa, a Spanish missionary, wrote in his Affairs of Yucatán (a defence of his using the inquisition in Yucatán on the Mayans) that: 'the Mayans had frequent mercantile relations with these powerful neighbors, they borrowed many words from the Nahuatl tongue [Aztec language], and single chiefs in Yucatán formed alliances with the Aztec rulers, and introduced Aztec warriors even into Mayapan, as is shown by the Chronicles in this work, and also by the fact that a small colony of Aztecs, descendants of these mercenaries, was living in the province of Canul, west of Merida, when the Spaniards conquered the country.' Although of course this statement may be questioned, given that by suggesting the Mayans traded with the Aztecs, he is implying that the Mayans were rational beings because they had a trade economy, and therefore could convert to Christianity, and should be subject to the inquisition. It is reasonable to take from this that the Mayans and the Aztecs knew of each other though.

Edit: grammar Edit 2: grammar again

[deleted]

Not really. First, typically what people think of as the Maya civilization is the Classic Period Maya (200-800 AD). The Inca empire was founded in the 15th century AD. Now, there were Maya people (and even Maya cities) that were contemporary with the Inca, but when you look at most of the famous Maya archaeological sites like Tikal or Palenque, they weren't contemporary.

Second, the Maya were part of a region known as Mesoamerica, which was also home to other civilizations like the Olmec, the Zapotecs, the Aztecs, the Tarascans, etc. The Inca were in the Andes of South America, a region that also includes civilizations like the Chimu, the Wari, Tiwanaku, etc. Although these two regions may have had some limited contact (see the FAQ), they did not have much in the way of direct communication. It's conceivably possible that, through maritime trade on the Pacific, a few Mesoamerican people may have learned of the existence of the Andes. However, this was not common knowledge, and even if a few people were aware of the other region they were not likely to have known much about it. I like to compare the interaction between Mesoamerica and the Andes to the historical interaction between Europe and China. There was trade between the two regions by proxy groups, and there may have been limited direct contact, but it was neither frequent nor sustained. Mesomerican people did not have meaningful knowledge of the people in the Andes, and vice-versa.