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Paragraph 2.3. America before Columbus. Machu Picchu. 1911: Machu Picchu was discovered: Ruins in the Andes Mountains in South America. It is an ancient Inca city. Which had been abandoned for hundreds of years. Incas had founded an Empire in 1438.
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Paragraph 2.3 America before Columbus
MachuPicchu • 1911: Machu Picchu was discovered: • Ruins in the Andes Mountains in South America. • It is an ancient Inca city. • Which had been abandoned for hundreds of years. • Incas had founded an Empire in 1438. • Leader: The Inca: emperor descended from the sun.
In the 16th century, Spaniards have conquered and destroyed the Inca Empire. • But they never found Machu Picchu.
Columbus seesIndians • 1492: • Columbus arrives in “India”. • It appearestobe a new country: America. • The local/indiginouspeoplewerecalledIndians.
Indians: • Lived in an agricultural society. • But there were several cultures: • North and South: Indians who were hunter-gatherers. • Modern day America and Brazil: agriculture, hunting and fishing and gathering. • Andes and Central America: highly developed agricultural societies.
Plantsandanimals • 200 million years ago, all the continents were one piece. • America tore loose and was separated from the rest. • Yet there are people living? How can that be? • We guess: people walked during an ice age on the dried up sea between Siberia and Alaska.
These people have discovered agriculture themselves and have not copied it from Europe. • So did the Indians in two places, separately: • Central America and Andes. • They had no contact with each other because of jungles.
After 200 million years, in America there were other plants and animals than in Europe. • So Indians cultivated other plants on their fields than the rest of the world: • Corn and tomatoes in Central America • Tobacco: Amazon. • Potatoes in the Andes. • America had no cows, sheep, pigs and horses.
Indians had some llamas that they could use to carry stuff. • Other animals, such as bison, you could not tame. • They had no animals that they could use to carry a cart or plow. ( draught animals) • They have never invented the wheel.
All kinds of Indian tribes lived in America, including: Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. These 3 were the best developed before the Europeans came.
MayansandAztecs. • 1800 BC: agricultural societies in Central America. • 200-900 AD: Mayans had a highly developed society. • They lived in separate city-states, like the ancient Greeks. • 29 nations were often at war with each other, but they shared the same culture. • They used a hieroglyphic script, and knew a lot of mathematics and astronomy. (First nation with such a complete script in America!)
They also made calendars. • They believed in many gods, and sacrificed to their gods. • In 900 AD: the cities went into decline • We think; wars and droughts made the Maya move to other areas, until 1500.
They have lived in cities for a long time, until Columbus came. • Then the Spaniards started to take over areas. • There are still now about 8-9 million Mayans living in Mexico and Guatemala.
Aztecs: • Founded a great empire in Mexico in the 14th century . • Tenochtitlan was their capital, and they went to conquer other nations. • Like Mayans and Incas they worshiped many gods. • Especially the sun was worshiped.
Around 1500, Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world. • = 200,000 inhabitants . • Wide streets and canals, ornate temples and aqueducts. • And there were markets that sold stuff from over the whole area. • The city was destroyed in 1521 by Hernando Cortés. • The city is now called Mexico City
Summarized : • Inca: Peru and West Coast of South America, 1438- 1532 • Maya: Central America, 2000 BC to 1500. • Aztecs: In Mexico, from 1325 to 1521.
