Early History of the Americas

1. Early History of the Americas Maya, Aztecs, incas

2. 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

3. The Maya

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Trade • Cotton • Cacao (chocolate) • Valuable stones

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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???

19. The Aztecs

20. 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

21. 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

22. What made the Aztec empire so strong? • War • Tribute • Trade • By 1400s, most powerful state in Mesoamerica • THE AZTECS WERE FIERCE WARRIORS THAT WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR HARSH PUNISHMENTS AND TREATMENT OF THEIR ENEMIES OR THOSE ENCOUNTERED DURING WARFARE

23. 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

24. Tenochtitlan Chinampas

25. Maya Empire in Green Aztec Empire in Gold

26. Hierarchy of Aztec Society • Emperor, highest position • Nobles • Warriors/Priests • Merchanta/Artisans • Farmers/Laborers • Slaves, lowest position

27. 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)

28. 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

29. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. Hernando Cortez Quetzalcoatl Moctezuma

34. 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

35. 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

36. The Incas

37. 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

38. Location of The Incas • South America • Country of Peru • Capital city was Cuzco

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

47. 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

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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