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The Americas. Pre-Columbian Empires. The Empire of the Americas. While complex civilizations were emerging in Asia, Africa, and Europe, equally striking developments had occurred in the Americas
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The Americas Pre-Columbian Empires
The Empire of the Americas • While complex civilizations were emerging in Asia, Africa, and Europe, equally striking developments had occurred in the Americas • Two halves of the worlds collided in 1492 and this encounter of Europeans with the peoples of the Americas brought the major civilizations of the world together for the first time • This encounter had a profound impact on all peoples
The First Americans • Scientists believe that during the last Ice Age, Asia and Alaska were attached by a land-bridge where the Bering Straits are found today • As long as 25,000 years ago, groups of Asian hunters crossed this land bridge in search of food, following the migrations of animal herds
Apply it! • How might modern scientists look at DNA to prove migration along the Bering land bridge? • What, just on the surface, can you see in common with peoples of both “sides”?
The First Americans • From Alaska, these earliest Americans spread southwards • Overtime these peoples multiplied and spread throughout North America, Central America, the islands of the Caribbean and South America • While separated from each other from mountains and jungles, these people developed their own separate language and cultures • Of course, they settled along lakes and rivers
The First Americans • “Native Americans” experienced their own Neolithic Revolution in which they learned to grow corn (maize) and other crops • Several complex civilizations emerged in Mesoamerica (present day Mexico and Central America) • Historians refer to these civilizations as pre-Columbian because they existed before the arrival of Columbus in 1492
The First Americas • Unlike the early civilizations of Africa and Eurasia, the first Native American civilizations did not emerge in river valleys • Instead, they lived in warm and humid rain forests of Mesoamerica • Corn, unknown to the rest of the world, became the basic food crop of the Americas • Corn supported the development of permanent settlements and large cities
Before the Maya • The earliest civilizations in the region were the Olmecs and the Toltecs • The cultures of these peoples influenced many others in the area
Apply it! • How were peoples without modern tools, or even the wheel able to carve and move such large and intricate statues? • What does this say about their complexity and advancement? • There are similar statues on Easter Island…hmmm, weird!
The Maya 1500 B.C.-1546 A.D. • The Maya developed a complex civilization in present-day Guatemala • Each city had its own chief ruler, who was considered half-man and half-god • Most Maya were peasant farmers who lived in thatched huts
The Maya • The Maya had a small class of craftsmen • The nobility were a hereditary class • Performed sacred ceremonies and assisted rulers • Maya astronomers measured the movement of the sun, moon, and Venus in order to predict the future
The Maya • The Maya engaged in frequent war and practiced human sacrifices • The Mesoamerican Ball Game
The Maya • Around the 9th Century, Maya culture experienced a great crisis • Archaeologists do not know the cause • Food shortage, epidemic, or great war?? • -The Maya moved northward on the Yucatan Peninsula and created new city-states • Here they built the well-preserved Chichen Itza
The Maya • Constant warfare from the 13th and 16th Centuries, as well as pressure from wandering neighboring peoples, led to the final decline of the Maya
Apply it! • Were the Maya a civilization? How do you know? • What are some achievements of the Maya? • How can we compare the long fall of the Maya with that of the Indus River Valley? Or even Rome?
The Aztecs1200-1521 • The center of Mexico, an an area called the Valley of Mexico, there is a high elevation and temperate climate • This location is excellent for growing crops
The Aztecs • The Aztecs were an alliance of several local peoples • Around 1300, they settled on an island in the center of the Valley of Mexico
The Aztecs • The Aztecs learned to grow corn from their neighbors • They grew crops in “floating gardens” in wet, marshy lands.
The Aztecs • They made careful observations of the sky and aligned their temples based on the movements of the sun and moon • The Aztecs frequently went to war to conquer other peoples in the region • These conflicts continued until the arrival of the first Europeans
The Aztecs • Like other Native American cultures, the Aztec were polytheistic • The most important God was the Sun God • The Aztecs believed the Sun God needed blood to continue his journey across the sky • This led to human sacrifice on a massive scale… • Often times warriors from conquered tribes
Apply it! • Compare the Aztecs with the Mesopotamians • Why might the Aztecs had felt a “need to conquer”? • What other civilizations can we compare the Aztec social structure to?
The Inca1200-1535 • Early people in South America developed a civilization along the Pacific Coast and in the Andes Mountains • Here they practiced terrace farming (potatoes), kept llamas and alpacas (for wool and meat
The Inca • The Inca built upon the achievements of these early peoples and began extending their rule across the Andes, eventually covering much of modern-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile • The Inca built stone roads over ten thousand miles to unite their empire
The Inca • The Inca stored foods in storehouses along the roads • They never developed carts with wheels (probably due to the rugged terrain) • They never developed writing • Instead they used quipu—bundles of knotted and colored ropes to count, keep records and send messages
The Inca • The Inca constructed vast stone buildings high in the Andes • They had no cement but fitted stones together perfectly Machu Picchu!
Apply it! • Compare the Inca with the Roman Civilization • In what ways can we categorize the Inca as advanced? What about “behind”?
Pre-Columbian Art • Art was highly developed • Maya, Aztec, and Inca artists made stone sculptures to decorate the sides of temples and palaces • They made ceramic bowls carved with human and animal forms for religious ceremonies • Used to ward off demonic spirits believed to be lurking in the afterlife
Gender Roles in Mesoamerica • Gender roles were established at birth • Boys were given a machete by their fathers to establish their masculinity • Girls received a mortar and pestle type stone tool • Boys were taught crafts, girls were taught to cook
Women in Mesoamerica • Women held various roles in the family • Harvesting grains, preparing food, caring for animals • Aside from childbearing and raising children, one of the women’s major jobs was making maize into flour • Flour was used to make dough • Women could hold jobs outside the home • Skilled artisans, merchants, priestesses
Apply it! • How did the roles of women in Mesoamerica reflect traditional beliefs? • In what was were they progressive for the time? • What were some other gender progressive civilizations?
