Final answer:
The Inca Empire was situated in the Andes with a harsh, vertical geography, while the Aztecs inhabited a more topographically uniform landscape in Mesoamerica. The Incas developed sophisticated terrace farming and an expansive road system to manage their environment, contrasting with the Aztecs' reliance on flat land and water bodies.
Step-by-step explanation:
The geography of the Incas was distinctly different from that of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Olmecs due to its location in the Andes of South America. The Andean environment presented a rugged, vertical terrain with high mountain peaks and a highland plateau, contributing to a harsh climate with very little rain, especially on the western slopes that border the Atacama desert.
Contrastingly, the Aztecs were located in Mesoamerica with a more consistent topographical landscape, the Mayans in the dense rainforests, and the Olmecs in coastal lowlands with hot and humid weather. These varying geographies resulted in diverse lifestyles and cultural achievements. The Incas had to master their challenging environment, creating terraces for agriculture, irrigation, and erosion prevention. They also cultivated a vast range of crops at different elevations and developed an elaborate road system to connect their expansive empire.
The Aztecs, on the other hand, benefited from a more uniform landscape to expand their empire and relied on trade and agriculture facilitated by the relatively flat land and abundant water supplies from lakes and rivers.