America before Columbus

This presentation contains some highlights of life in the Americas

Most of the information is from the book “1491: New Revelations of the America’s before

Columbus.” by Charles Mass

More than just isolated bands of people wandering the country or small, isolated villages with minimal populationGreat civilizations are rising and falling, just like the rest of the world

Rome, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, etc

The last ice-age

Origins of People in America

• Crossed over a Bering Straits land bridge around 11,000 BC, travelling between two glaciers

• Theory emerged in the 1960’s

Traditional

theory

• People may have arrived here thousands of years earlier

• Did they arrive by boat rather than walking across a land bridge?

• Artifacts in Chile may be over 30,000 years old

• Earliest settlements may 50,000 years old

Emerging theory

Neolithic (new stone age) Revolution

Middle East• Farming invented about 9,000 BC• Wheel, metal tools follow• Sumeria invents writing about 3,000 BC

• World’s first great civilization

America• Farming invented about 8,000• Around 1,800 BC the Olmec (in central

America) become America’s first great civilization• Religion, economics, science, writing,

trade, astronomy, 365 day calendar, recorded histories

• Maya will add the “0” by 357 AD

Pre-Columbian Civilizations;Five Examples

• Andes Mountains of South AmericaInca

• Yucatan Peninsula in Central AmericaMaya

• Capitol city is under Mexico CityAztec

• Eastern United StatesThree Mound Building cultures

• New York areaIroquois League

IncaMachu Pichu

What does it take to build this?

IncaBy 1491 it was the world’s largest empireCovered 32 degrees of latitude and every type of terrain

Forest, coastal, desert, alpine, steppe, etc

Terrain limited their contact with the outside except for immediate neighbors

IncaInca absorb/conquer many different languages and beliefs. For record keeping they use a system of knotted ropes (khipu or quipu)

Can be used in an empire with diverse languages

People were forced to donate service to the state

Could be far from home for many months Farmers, builders, soldiers

No money, no markets All food and goods were

supplied by the stateStill being studied – first string may be ones, second string tens, etc.Or may be unique form of writing like a binary code

Incan ConquestsWhen the Inca expanded and a foreign people were conquered, Inca settlers from far away would be brought in and slowly absorb the foreign culture into the Inca.

China does this todayConquered people allowed to keep old customs, clothes, etc, but they had to speak the language of the Inca

Incan TechnologySail boat with cotton sails, could sail 300 miles from shoreMetallurgy focused on ornamentationMonumental architectureWoven fibers as tools

Suspension bridges with cables 1’ thick

Incan WeaponsMulti-layered cotton body armor

Comparable to European plate?Club, mace, bows, javelins, 5’ sling, later bola’s

Sling stones heated in a fire, dipped in pitch and quickly thrown; would burst in to flame in mid-flight

Incan command structure did not allow for individual creativity on battlefield

Slow to develop new tactics Problem when Spanish arrive

MayaMaya and Aztec maps overlaid

Their empires existed at different times

MayaA collection of city-states and surrounding towns, each run by a king

From 526-682 AD the cities of Calakmul (or Kaan) and Tikal (or Mutal) fight for dominance

Tikal will eventually win

Mayan CivilizationArchitecture

Step pyramidsWriting, most complete pre-ColumbianMathematics, and zero

Chichen Itza

Mayan WritingEach picture is a syllableThe most advanced written language in the America’s prior to Columbus

Fall of the Maya (maybe)

Population probably exceeded the carrying capacity of the landCut down much of the regions forests for fuel and agriculture

Loss of tree cover leads to large scale erosion and floodingAs population grows farmers using less productive landSystem is barely hanging one when a long dry spell (about 800-900 AD) hits the areaSociety disintegrates

Civil War?Mayan cities fail in 800’sCivilization collapsed by 900

Aztec or MexicaPart of a triple alliance

Tula, Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan (dominant)By 1519 Tenochtitlan had a population of 200,000

Easily larger than any city in Europe at that time City reached by boat or walking across one of three causeways

Aztec WritingConsists of pictures to interpret, not as advanced as Mayan writing

Almost all Aztec records are destroyed by the Spanish

Aztec ArchitectureAlso build step pyramids

Much of Tenochtitlan will be destroyed by the Spanish

Aztec ReligionThe Aztec/Mexica are the keepers of the cosmic orderAt the top of celestial harmony is Ometeotl (the Lord of the Close Vicinity) who sustains the cosmosOmeteotl has four sons

Huitzilopochtli is a martial god, Aztec patron dietyThe four sons compete for supremacy

History is a record of their struggleOne will eventually wrestle himself to the top and the other three create a balance below

Aztec Religion, cont.

The one in domination links himself to the sun, upon which all life dependsWhen the balance comes apart the brothers resume their struggle, winner reignites the sunAt the time of the Spanish arrival the Aztec were living under the 5th sunEvery day the sun battles across the sky against the moonSome day the sun will loose, but the sun can be fortified by a life force requiring blood/human sacrifices

Cortes estimated 3,000 to 4,000 per year

Sacrificial knives

Mound BuildersCollective term for three successive civilizations

Adena, 1000 – 200 BC Hopewell, 200 BC – 500 AD Mississippians, 800 – 1500 BC

Notice the size of their influence

How did they travel?

HopewellBuilt thousands of mounds from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, Great Plains to the Atlantic coast

Especially dense in Ohio valley Mounds had been built by earlier cultures Most mounds destroyed by westward expansion

Hopewell influence lasts from a few centuries BC to about 400 ADEarthwork walled cities

Most also destroyed

CahokiaCivilization rises after the HopewellAbout 15,000 people lived in CahokiaMonks Mound in Cahokia, around 950-1250 AD

4 stories high 1,000 feet long across the top Base is larger than the Great

Pyramid at Giza Surrounded by about 120 other

mounds Largest building project in

Ancient America

Fall of CahokiaBuild a palisade of 20,000 trees around the central monuments

Increases flooding which ruins harvestsBurn thousands of acres to create farmlandFlooding an ongoing problem, then an earthquake

Destroys the city and part of Monks Mound Will try, unsuccessfully, to repair the mound

Earthquake causes flooding (tsunami) and fires Area descends into Civil War, by 1350 Cahokia is

almost empty

The Great Law of Peace:Iroquois League

Five tribes (later six) involved Seneca, Cayuga, Onandaga, Oneida,

Mohawk, later TuscaroraIncrease in agriculture = bigger populations = fighting between tribesTwo men work to bring peace to these tribes

Deganawidah, the peacemaker, has speech impediment

Ayenwatha (or Hiawatha)They convince the five tribes to form an alliance

Use a visual to break one arrow by hand, then hold five arrows and try to break Example of strength and unity

This Iroquois League may have been formed as early as 1142

Governing within the Five TribesClan heads

Are all female Select the sachems Can replace the sachem if they act poorly

Sachems Are all male Sachems then represent the tribe and the will of the people 50 sachems to represent the five tribes Sachems represent the will of their people, if they act poorly they

can be replaced by the Clan Heads Male sachems act as war chiefs Sachems can only discuss topics approved by the women All decisions by the council of sachems must be unanimous

(consensus) Clan heads (women) could vote down, or veto, any decisions

made by the SachemsInternal affairs are handled within each tribePotential influence on the United States’ Constitution?