Mesoamerica

Teotihuacan

Mayan

Aztecs

Incas

Chronology: Early America

Arrival of Human Beings: At least 15, 000 years ago

First organized societies (Andes) c.6000 B.C.E.

Agriculture first practiced c. 5000 B.C.E.

Rise of Olmec First Millennium C.E.

Origins of Mayan First Millennium C.E.

Teotihuacan Civilization c. 300 B.C.E – 800 C.E.

Moche Civilization c. 150 C.E. – 800 C.E.

Decline of the Mayan c. Ninth Century

Chimor c. 1100-1450

Aztecs c. Fifteenth Century

Inca – takeover in Central Andes c. Fifteenth Century

Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico 1519

Pizarro’s Conquest of the Inca 1532

Olmec Civilization

• Along the Gulf of Mexico• Intensive agriculture around riverbanks• La Venta – stands 30 foot high pyramid• Olmec had wide-spread trading network• Had Religious rituals• (undeciphered) writing system of hieroglyphics• Crops of corn and beans and fished and hunted• Ceremonial game on a stone ball court• Declined around 5th C B.C.E.

Teotihuacan: America’s First Metropolis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sqsrz_XSSA

Quick Notes

• Products of Trade: cacao, rubber, feathers, various vegetables and meats, pulque

• Obsidian – volcanic glass used for tools, mirrors, and blades for knives

• Bulk of wealth mostly agricultures• Decline due possibly to overcrowding,

human waste, unclean water, and drought, then fire.

Maya

• Formed in the Yucatan peninsula (older and just as sophisticated as Teotihuacan)

• Major Good: Cacao – chocolate used as drink for the wealthy and currency

• Slash and burn to swamp agriculture• Most important city-states: Tikal (100,000) and Copan• As cities grew so did the Middle Class = artisans and

traders. • Most were farmers!• At its height the Mayan Empire was roughly 3 million

people!

Mayan Continued!

• Farmers lived on “chinampa” plots – terraces in the hills• Gender: Male = fighting and hunting

Women = homemaking and prep of cornmeal.

• Religion – Polytheistic – Itzamna (Lizard House) and Jaguar god (evil deity)

• Ceremonial beheadings as sacrifices to the gods was common Preface Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_99mcINufQ

• Ball Court – played and may have had religious undertones.

Mayan Writing Examples Page 162 Text

• Mayan hieroglyphs were both ideographic and phonetic • Temple of Inscription – Pacal(mid-7th C), west of Yucatan

• Sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and the passage of time!

The Aztecs

• Location:

Religion

• Polytheistic – Huitzilopochtli– The guiding patron over the

population– Worship of the Sun and the Moon– The 5 Suns (pg. 168)

Aztec Rulers were similar to Egyptian rulers in that they were considered to have divine and secular power and claimed descent from gods.

Succession was not a birth right but chosen from the family group.

The Stone of the Sun

Political Structure

• Government run mostly by the leading family whose male children would be taught warrior, religious, and academic skills.

• Central Government – authoritarian– Tribute (a tax) paid by rulers of territories.

• Tributes often slaves or goods

Political Structure

• King• Nobility (Hereditary) – ran gov’t bureaucracy or priests

• Commoners – had family groups called “calpulli” • Indentured Workers

• Slaves – not born into slavery

Writing

• Again the use of hieroglyphs that represented an object or concept.

Destruction of the Aztecs

• In 1915 Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez landed in Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.

• Demand denunciation of current religion and accept Christianity.

• Result: Cortez kidnaps Moctezuma and burns temples. He is chased out of the city by the population.

• With the help of Tlaxcallan Cortez was able to destroy and conquer the rest of Tenochtitlan.

• Guns, Germs and Steel!

Moche and Chimor

• Found in the Andes along the Moche River Valley. – Arid land requiring a massive, complex

irrigations system to support citizens.– Trade often done by wind-powered boats

traveling up and down the cost trading:• Jewelry, beads, and metal goods

The Inca (The Rulers)

• Chimor kingdom was succeeded in the late 15th C by Pachakuti a powerful and authoritarian Inca ruler.

• At its height the kingdoms boundaries extended as far as Ecuador, central Chile, and the edge of the Amazon basin

– (See map 6.2 page 173)

POLITICAL STRUCTURE!

• Highly centralized state divided into 4 quarters – Tahuantinsuyu then divided into provinces and districts.

• 1 Province = 10, 000 residence (approx.)

• Governors over the areas were related to the king

• The capital city: Cuzco was also divided into 4 sections dividing up society into classes.

Inca Infrastructure

Page 174

Inca Infrastructure

• Highways extended from modern day Colombia to the southern location of Santiago, Chile.

• Built for official business: military and political curriers.

• Information could travel 140 miles in a single day due to relay technique!

Agriculture• In the mountains used terraced

agriculture watered by irrigation systems

• Crops: maize, potatoes and other crops

• Tilled by collective labor regulated by the states hmm…communism? (just a joke)

• Other strict regulations were with marriage.

- Women maintained chastity or were severely punished – “Chosen Virgins”

Inca Culture

• Built on war – 200, 000 man army raised by universal male conscription.

• Once peoples were conquered they were instructed in the Quechua language and introduced to the state religion!

• Writing system – knotted strings called quipu (pg 175)