''Ad Astra, per aspera''

Less than a hundred years.

The Inca and Aztec empires developed in the Americas from around the same date, the 1430's. They both conquered vast areas of territory in a very short time and ruled over millions of subjects- At the peak of their power the Aztecs had about ten million persons under their control, the Inca about twenty million.
The method of conquest of both empires was as ruthless as their autocratic ruling style- Human sacrifices and torture were part of both the Inca and Aztec states. The victims used in the sacrifice were prisoners belonging to the defeated nations conquered by the empires, including men, women and children. At a single ceremony it is said that the Aztecs killed more than ten thousand sacrificial victims. 
There are many important and puzzling cultural characteristics shared by the Incas and the Aztecs. For example, there is proof that both had knowledge of the wheel and that both refused to use it in anything but children's toys. They also never used pack animals. Both cultures had myths about  the future arrival of white-skinned, bearded strangers that would bring about a new era.  All of this happened despite that, until today, there has not been any proof of communication between the Incas and the Aztecs.
The history of both empires was very short, so brief that in all of their history the Incas only had five emperors, the Aztecs eight. In the early 1520's the Spanish arrived in both empires, in each case they were welcomed as divine beings as per the prophecies.
The Aztecs and the Incas were destroyed at  the same time in a similar way. The Spanish invaders utilized cultures that had been conquered by each empire as foot soldiers to destroy their former rulers and  in both cases their emperors were taken as hostages and eventually murdered by the invaders. Which only proves one thing- Payback is a bitch.

Forty years on (A tale of two movies).

In 1963 the film titled Soldier in the Rain was released. It starred a young up and coming actor (Steve McQueen) as an U.S. Army sergeant during the Cold War involved in petty schemes for profit. The film was a commercial failure, mainly blamed on it being released in the week after the death of President Kennedy. The American public did not seem too interested in its weird sense of humor.
Please pay attention to the hand of Jackie Gleason in the poster for the film.

In 2003 the film titled Buffalo Soldiers was released. It starred a young up and coming actor (Joaquin Phoenix) as an U.S. Army sergeant during the Cold War involved in major schemes of corruption for profit. The film was a commercial failure, mainly blamed on it being released in the weeks after the invasion of Iraq. The American public did not seem too interested in its weird sense of humor.
Please pay attention to the hand of Joaquin Phoenix in the poster for the film.

Welcome to the Center

''There is a view by which it can be shown, or more or less demonstrated, that there never has been a coincidence. That is, in anything like a final sense. By a coincidence is meant a false appearance, or suggestion, or relations among circumstances. But anybody who accepts that there is an underlying oneness of all things, accepts that there are no utter absences or relations among circumstances -- Or that there are no coincidences, in the sense that there are no real discords in either colors or musical notes-- That any two colors, or sounds, can be harmonized, by intermediately relating them to other colors, or sounds.''

From Wild Talents, 1932 by Charles H. Fort