Early History of the Americas

MAYA, AZTECS, INCAS

The Maya

VOCABULARY

• Maize
• Palenque
• observatories

What’s The Big Idea????

• Maya developed an advanced civilization that thrived in Mesoamerican from about 250 until the 900s
• Geography helped shape the lives of the early Maya
• During the Classic Age, the Maya built great cities linked by trade
• Maya culture included a strict social structure, a religion with many gods, and achievements in science and the arts
• The decline of Maya civilization began in the 900s

Where is Mesoamerica?

• Region that stretches from the central part of Mexico south to the northern part of Central America
• This is the region where the Maya developed their civilization

Maya Begin Settling

• 1000 B.C. began settling in the lowlands of northern Guatemala
• Thick forests covered most of the land
• Cleared areas to farm
• Grew variety of crops
• Beans, squash, avocados, maize (corn)
• Forests provided sources of food
• Deer, rabbits, monkeys
• Forests provided building materials
• Trees, plants
• Wooden poles, vines, mud used to build their homes

Villages & Cities

• Early Maya lived in small, isolated villages
• Eventually villages started trading with one another and with other groups in Mesoamerica
• Trade increased causing villages to grow
• By AD 200, Maya begun to build large cities in Mesoamerica

What Was The Classic Age?

• Time period when Maya civilization reached its’ height
• AD 250-AD 900
• Maya territory grew to include more than 40 large cities
• Each had its own government and its own king
• No ruler united the cities into one empire
• Instead of being brought together under one empire, the cities were linked through trade
• Exchange of goods that were not available locally

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Trade

• Cotton
• Cacao (chocolate)
• Valuable stones

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Mayas Are Known for Their Buildings and Architecture

• They obtained building products from others
• Maya cities had grand buildings, palaces decorated with carvings and paintings
• Built stone pyramids topped with temples
• Temples honored local kings

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Chichen Itza

• Mayan city, located in center of Yucatan Peninsula
• One of the most powerful Mayan cities
• Most likely the religious center for the region
• Some buildings/temples in the city have survived
• Today it is the second most visited site of Mexico

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Maya Were Builders

• Built canals
• Paved large plazas (open squares for public gatherings)
• Farmers used stone walls to shape hillsides into flat terraces
• Grow crops on them
• Every city had a stone court
• Area where they played a special game
• Players used only their heads, shoulders or hips and they tried to bounce a heavy rubber ball through stone rings attached high on the court walls
• Winners received jewels and clothing
• Losers were often KILLED

Daily Lives

• Heavily influenced by two main forces
• 1. social structure
• 2. religion

Social Structure

• King held highest position
• Believed kings were related to the gods
• Kings had religious and political authority
• Upper Class
• Priests, rich merchants, noble warriors
• Lower class
• made up of farming families
• Lived outside the cities
• Women cared for children, cooked, made yarn, wove cloth
• Men farmed, hunted, and crafted tools

Social Structure

• Lower Class
• Had to pay their rulers by giving the rulers part of their crops and goods
• Cloth and salt
• Had to help construct temples and other public buildings
• If city went to war, had to serve in the army
• If captured in battle, became slaves
• Slaves carried goods along trade routes or worked for upper class as servants or farmers

Religion

• Worshipped many gods
• Each one controlled a different aspect of daily life
• Sun God, Moon Goddess, Maize God
• Gods could be helpful or harmful
• Please the gods to get their help
• Believed Gods needed blood to prevent disasters or the end of the world
• Offered blood by piercing tongue or skin
• Special occasions they made human sacrifices

Achievements

• Religious beliefs led them to make advances in science
• Built large observatories (buildings where people could study the sky) so priests could watch the stars and plan best times for religious festivals
• Gained knowledge on astronomy
• Developed 2 calendars
• (1) 365 days
• Guided planting and harvesting
• (2) 260 day calendar
• Used to keep track of religious events

Skilled Mathematicians

• Able to measure time accurately
• Created a number system
• Helped them to make complex calculations
• Among first people with a symbol for “0”
• Used number system to record key dates in their history
• Developed writing system
• Symbols represented both objects and sounds
• Carved into large stone tablets to record their history
• Wrote in books
• Passed down stories and poems orally

More Information on Maya Advancements

• Created amazing art and architecture
• Jade and gold jewelry
• Huge temple-pyramids masterfully built
• Lacked metal tools for cutting
• Lacked wheeled vehicles for carrying heavy supplies
• Workers used obsidian tools to cut limestone into blocks
• Rolled giant blocks over logs and lifted them with ropes

Decline

• Began to collapse in AD 900
• Stopped building temples and other structure
• Left cities and moved back to countryside
• Historian not sure why this happened
• Combination of reasons that might have caused their decline:
• Burden on common people, maybe they no longer wanted to be forced to work for the king, decided to rebel against their demands???
• Increased war between the Maya cities could have disrupted trade and cost many lives….people may have fled from cities for their own safety????
• Could not produce enough food to feed everyone???
• Climate change, droughts struck Mesoamerica during the years that they were weakening, this could have led to the decline???

The Aztecs

VOCABULARY

• Tenochtitlan
• Causeways
• conquistadors

What’s The Big Idea????

• The strong Aztec Empire was located in Central Mexico, was founded in 1325
• Social structure, religion, and warfare shaped life in the empire
• The Aztec Empire fell when the Spanish, led by Hernando Cortez, conquered them in 1521

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The First Aztecs

• Farmers who migrated from the north to Central Mexico
• 1325
• Good farmland was occupied, they built their capital on island in Lake Toxcoco
• To gain more farmland, conquered surrounding towns
• Very fierce people, strong in war
• Demanded tribute payments from people they conquered
• Cotton, gold, food that was given to them helped their economy to grow
• Controlled a large trade network
• Merchants carried goods to different areas of the empire
• Some worked as spies to keep rulers informed on what was happening

What made the Aztec empire so strong?

• War
• Tribute
• Trade
• By 1400s, most powerful state in Mesoamerica

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• THE AZTECS WERE FIERCE WARRIORS THAT WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR HARSH PUNISHMENTS AND TREATMENT OF THEIR ENEMIES OR THOSE ENCOUNTERED DURING WARFARE

Tenochtitlan

• Aztec capital
• Maginificent city, home to 200,000 at its peak, huge temples, grand palace
• Faced geographical challenges while building the capital
• Difficult to get to and from
• Built causeways (raised roads across water or wet ground) to connect island to the lakeshore
• Built canals that crisscrossed the city
• Both made travel and trade easier
• Limited amount of land for farming due to capital’s location
• Created floating gardens (chinampas)
• Large rafts piled with soil on the top, anchored to trees that stood in the water

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Tenochtitlan

Chinampas

Maya Empire in Green� Aztec Empire in Gold

Hierarchy of Aztec Society

• Emperor, highest position
• Nobles
• Warriors/Priests
• Merchanta/Artisans
• Farmers/Laborers
• Slaves, lowest position

Aztec Society

• Emperor
• Looked over the law, trade, tributes and warfare
• Nobles
• collected the taxes, acted as judges and filled other government positions
• positions passed down from fathers to sons
• Young nobles attended school to learn their responsibilities
• Warriors/Priests
• Warriors highly respected, had many privileges
• Priests were more influential (Led religious ceremonies, keepers of the calendar, decided when to plant and harvest)

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Aztec Society

• Merchants/Artisans
• Farmers/Laborers
• Made up a majority of the population
• Many didn’t own their own land
• Paid a lot in tribute, making it difficult to survive
• Slaves
• Bottom of society
• Struggled a bit more than farmers and laborers

Religion

• Worshipped many Gods
• Believed Gods controlled both nature and human activities
• To make the Gods happy they made human sacrifices
• Those being sacrificed were battle captives or slaves
• Bloody ceremonies
• Priests would slash open the victims’ chest to “fed” human hearts and blood to the gods
• Sacrificed about 10,000 people every year
• To ensure they would have enough people to sacrifice, Aztec warriors fought battles with neighboring peoples

Aztec Culture

• Architects and sculptors created fine stone pyramids and statues
• Artisans used gold, gems and bright feathers to make jewelry and masks
• Women embroidered colorful designs on the what they wore
• Valued learning
• Studied astronomy
• Devised calendar similar to the Maya
• Kept detailed written records of historical and cultural events
• Strong oral tradition/story telling
• Passed on stories and history through generations this way

Spanish Arrival

• Late 1400s, Spanish arrived in Americas
• Looking for adventure, riches, land and people to convert to the Catholic religion
• Conquistadors, Spanish conquerors
• Hernando Cortez
• Reached Mexico in 1519
• Looking for gold, land, and convert people to Christianity
• Moctezuma, Aztec emperor at the time of Spanish arrival
• Welcomed Cortez and his men
• Believed that Cortez to bet he God Quezalcoatl
• He had left Mexico and promised to return in 1519

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Hernando Cortez

Moctezuma

Quetzalcoatl

Aztec and Spanish Fighting

• Moctezuma gave Spanish gold and gifts
• Cortez wanted more, took emperor prisoner
• Aztecs angered, react by attacking the Spanish
• Drove out the conquistadors
• Moctezuma killed
• Cortez and his men returned one year later
• Gained support from other people living in the Aztec region who resented the Aztec people, due to their harsh rule
• Spanish prepared with better weapons (armor, cannons, swords)
• Spanish horses frightened the Aztec warriors, had never seen horses before

The Unseen Enemy

• Spanish unknowingly brought diseases with them to the Americas
• Smallpox
• Diseases weakened, killed thousands of Aztecs
• 1521 Aztec empire came to an end

The Incas

VOCABULARY

• Cuzco
• Quechua
• masonry

What’s The Big Idea???

• Incas controlled a huge empire in South America
• Strong central government
• Life in the Inca Empire was influenced by social structure, religion and cultural achievements
• Incas were conquered by Francisco Pizarro in 1537

Location of The Incas

• South America
• Country of Peru
• Capital city was Cuzco

Inca Expansion

• Pachacuti, ruler of Incas in mid-1400s
• Began to expand the Inca territory
• Leaders that followed him also focused on expansion
• By early 1500s, Empire was huge
• Stretched from Ecuador to central Chile
• 12 million people lived in the Empire
• Large area to rule
• Formed a strong central government to rule effectively

Central Rule

• Pachacuti did not want o give the people he ruled too much power
• Removed local leaders and replaced them with officials he trusted
• The children of the leaders he replaced had to travel to Cuzco to learn about Inca government and religion
• Later they would be sent back to their villages to teach others about Incas history, traditions and ways of life

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Language to Unify

• To unify the empire, put in place an official language
• Quechua, Inca’s official language
• All official business had to be done in Quechua
• This language still spoken by many people in Peru

Economy

• Well organized
• Strictly controlled by the government
• Incas had to spend mandatory amount of time working for the government
• Labor-Tax System called mita
• People paid taxes in form of labor rather than money
• Farmers would work on their own land, as well as government land
• Villagers made clothes and goods for the army
• Served as soldiers, worked in mines, built roads and bridges

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Distribution of Goods

• No merchants or markets in the Inca Empire
• Government officials would distribute that goods that were collected through the mita
• Leftovers were stored in the capital for emergencies

Social Divisions

• Rulers controlled society, common people had very little freedom
• Government protected everyone in the empire
• Everyone was not treated equally
• 2 Main Social Classes
• Upper Class
• Emperor, government officials and priests
• Lived in stone houses in Cuzco, wore the best clothes
• Did not pay labor tax
• Machu Pichu, royal retreat in the Andes Mts., Inca rulers went there to relax

Social Divisions

• Lower Class: farmers, artisans, servants
• No slaves, Incas did not practice slavery
• Most Incas were farmers
• In warmer valleys grew maize and peanuts
• In cooler mountains carved terraces into hillsides and grew potatoes
• Raised llamas for wool and meat
• Dressed in plain clothes, lived simply
• By law they could only own the goods that they needed to survive
• Most of what they made went to the mita and upper class

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Religion

• Believed the rulers were related to the Sun God and that the rulers never really died
• Brought mummies of former kings to many ceremonies
• People gave royal mummies food and gifts
• Held sacrifices
• Did not sacrifice humans, they sacrificed llamas, cloth and food
• Outside of Cuzco people worshipped other gods at their local sacred places
• Believed locations, such as mountaintops, rocks and springs had magical powers
• Sacrifices took place at these locations as well as temple in Cuzco

Inca Achievements

• Master builders known for expert masonry (stonework)
• Cut stone blocks so precisely that there was no need for cement to hold them together
• Network of roads
• Made pottery, jewelry made of gold and silver
• Weavers made some of the finest textiles in the Americas for that time

Keeping Records

• Nothing was written about the Inca Empire until the Spanish arrived
• Incas had no writing system
• Kept records with knotted cords called quipus
• Knots in cords stood for numbers
• Different cords represented information about crops, land and other important topics
• Passed down stories and history orally
• When Spanish arrived, records were written in Spanish and Quechua

Civil War in the Inca Empire

• Late 1520s the Inca ruler had died
• 2 of his sons, (Atahualpa and Huascar) fought to claim the throne
• Atahualpa claimed the throne in 1532
• Fierce fighting had weakened the Inca Army
• On his way to be crowned king, received news that a band of 180 Spanish soldiers arrived in the Empire
• Conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro
• When Atahualpa went to meet them, the Spanish attacked
• Inca were outnumbered, Atahualpa was captured and thousands of Inca soldiers killed

Spanish Gain Control of Inca Empire

• To win freedom, Atahualpa asked Inca people to fill a room with gold and silver for Pizarro
• The people followed the request, brought in treasures that would be worth millions of dollars today
• Spanish still killed Atahualpa
• Some Incas attempted to fight back
• 1537, Pizarro defeated the last of the Incas
• Spain took control of the entire Inca Empire and ruled the region for the next 300 years