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Chapter 6 The New World. Peoples and Cultures of North America
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Peoples and Cultures of North America 1. In the Great Basin (Nevada and Utah) the environment was not suited to agriculture due to the terrain and lack of adequate rainfall. The bands of hunter-gatherers in the area were small due to the difficulty of finding food for more than a few people. In contrast, where large game was more plentiful, such as buffalo, the food supply was more certain and the hunting lands much larger. This would be the case of present-day Canada and the region of the Great Plains of the present United States. 2. In the more favorable northeast, southeast, and parts of the southwest and northwest, agriculture was accompanied in varying degrees with hunting, gathering, and fishing. The more agricultural a people were the less mobile due to the attention required by the fields. In the Southwest, the Pueblo people began practicing agriculture by 3000 B.C.E. Their main crops were squash and beans. Apparently agriculture spread slowly from here north and east. By 800 B.C.E., cultivation of squash had reached modern-day Michigan. Whereas, the Pueblos resided in cliff dwellings and utilized irrigation and terracing, the eastern agriculturist such as the Iroquois and Algonquins resided in villages consisting of covered structures, long houses, which were protected by wooden palisades and ditches. 3. Greater populations led to congregation in areas. The largest population center north of Mexico was Cahokia, located near present St. Louis. Flourishing from 950 to 1250, it was a center of trade and had perhaps 30,000 residents. Notable was an enormous central mound one hundred feet high and a heavy log stockade surrounding its central sections. 4. Overall, the population north of Mexico was perhaps four million. Questions: 1. What was the significance of the buffalo for the Native Americans? 2. Why would large population centers emerge? 3. What was the significance of trade in the spread of culture, particularly agriculture? Peoples and Cultures of North America
Peoples and Cultures of Central and Latin America 1. The first wave of immigrants to reach South America were primitive hunters and gatherers. The second wave brought big game hunters. Lush vegetation that supported game began to decrease with the last glacial retreat around 9000 B.C.E. To supplement the decline of animals for food, the people turned to agriculture. Its beginning was apparently in the highlands of Middle America, the Andean altiplano, and on the desert coast of Peru. Here soil was rich and was often put under cultivation leading to a larger population. Irrigation projects required cooperation and regulation that gave rise to centralized governments that eventually extended their authority over large areas. 2. The tribal level of organization was found in difficult environments where production was limited such as dense forests, plains, or the extremely wet, dry, or frigid areas. These were hunting and gathering non-sedentary people. Chiefdoms involved intensive agriculture supporting a dense population living in large villages ruled by chiefs. State organization required intense agriculture and maintained a large territory and commerce between regions. Increased agricultural demands were accomplished by merging political and religious authority into one individual. 3. True cities developed and became centers of population, administration, and religion. Questions: 1. How did agriculture develop and what were the consequences? 2. What were the various forms of social organization? Peoples and Cultures of Central and Latin America
The First Americans • Bering Strait • Nomads • Agriculture, 5000 B.C.E. • Early Civilizations in Central America • Olmecs • Monte Alban • Teotihuacán • 150,000 people
Mesoamerican Civilizations 1. The Olmecs along the northeastern coast of Mexico are regarded as the mother culture of the Maya and other tribes of Mesoamerica. La Venta, the most significant of the Olmec sites, flourished from 800 to 400 B.C.E. It was located eighteen miles inland from the Gulf on an island in a swamp and probably supported a population of 18,000. It featured a complex of ceremonial mounds stretching out over one and a half miles. In addition to a huge four-sided clay pyramid, there is also present forty Colossal Heads up to eight and a half feet tall, weighing several tons each, and having Negroid features. 2. The ancient Maya lived in what constitutes present-day southeastern Mexico, almost all of Guatemala, the western part of Honduras, all of Belize, and the northern half of El Salvador. The height of the civilization came between 250 and 900 C.E. in the tropical forest lowland region of Guatemala at the base of the Yucatan Peninsula. The area was rich in game and building materials (limestone and hardwoods). There was no metal, water was uncertain, and communication difficult. Numerous ceremonial and administrative centers were erected throughout the region yet it remained disunited. At Tikal, the ceremonial precinct was surrounded by dense suburbs that extended from the center for several miles. The population may have numbered as much as 100,000. At Palenque there were a number of temple-pyramids characterized by vaulted galleries, courtyards or patios, and use of stucco work. The principal complex, called the Palace, is about 300 feet long and 240 feet wide with a corbel vaulted aqueduct underneath which carried fresh water. The brilliance of this Classic Mayan civilization faded in about the eighth or ninth century for unknown reasons. Some scholars suggest their demise may have come as a consequence of not only rebellion against increasing demands by the noble and priest class for larger and more ornate ceremonial centers but also greater agricultural production to support a growing population. The latter put strains on the commoners and may also have led to warfare and militarism. These pressures perhaps led to a collapse as the people moved further and further from the centers. 3. The Post Classic Maya flourished from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century and centered on the YucatánPeninsula. The peninsula is a limestone shelf, mostly without surface rivers. The soil is thin and water is taken from cenotes (sinkholes created by collapse of underground caverns). The Yucatec Maya were influenced by forces from central Mexico, the Toltecs. Mexican legend told of a king-priest being forced from Tula (near Mexico City) at the end of the tenth century. He and his followers proceeded to the Gulf and then to the Yucatan Peninsula and introduced the harsh traditions of the Mexican northwest as well as their art and architecture. The Toltecs were centered at Chichén Itzá which exercised influence and control. Decline set in between 1200 to about 1450. 4. Teotihuacán was a center of Mesoamerican civilization from 100 to 900. By 500 it covered about eight square miles. The dozen springs and rich agricultural fields (utilizing irrigation, terracing, and canals) supported a population of about 200,000. The city was centered on a two mile long, 150 feet wide avenue off of which branched streets and alleys containing more than three thousand structures including temples, palaces, ball courts, dwellings, and two impressive pyramids, the largest of which was 700 feet on each of the four sides and two hundred feet high. Apparently, Teotihuacán used its agricultural surpluses to trade for raw materials that could be turned into manufactured goods. Trade in these finished products extended to both coasts and south to Guatamala. Around 700, Teotihuacán was destroyed by semi-barbarians from the southwest. Question: 1. What were the characteristics of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations? Mesoamerican Civilizations
The Maya • City-states • Tikal • Copan • Religion • Ball game • Hieroglyphics • Decline • New urban centers on Yucatan • Migrations from Tula
The Valley of Mexico under Aztec Rule 1. The Aztecs (Mexica) arrived in the crowded Valley of Mexico sometime in the early first millennium C.E. They received a cold reception due to their disgusting habits such as human sacrifice. Nevertheless, they were useful mercenaries. From the 1270s to 1319 the Aztecs resided on the hill of Chapultepec until driven from there by other cities. The survivors escaped by concealing themselves in the marshes along the lakeshore until it was safe to come out. Subject to the Culhuacan, the remaining Aztecs again served as mercenaries until their unsavory practices caused them to be scattered again. Once more they took refuge in the swamps in about 1345 occupied a small island which was enlarged by dredging the lake bottom. Here the Aztecs built the great city of Tenochtitlan and to the north an offshoot of the Aztecs from Azcapotzalco built Tlatelolco. In 1473 Tlatelolco was incorporated into Tenochtitlan. All told, Tenochtitlan covered some 2500 acres (Rome covered 3423 acres). The combined Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco had between 60,000 and 120,000 household, and a population of more than 500,000 but less than a million (Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs, p. 9). From the island the Aztecs built causeways to the mainland and a three mile aqueduct from Chapultepec for drinking water. In 1428 Tenochtitlan joined Texcoco and Tacuba (Tlacopan) to throw off the tyranny of Azcapotzalco. The victory in 1430 led to the formation of the Triple Alliance. By the 1470s Tenochtitlan dominated the alliance and the lake. 2. The shore of the bay opposite Tenochtitlan was dotted with towns and villages. Lake Texcoco was a great salt lake, bordered on the south by the fresh-water lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco. There were numerous other islands in the bay, especially the island of Tlatelolco immediately to the north of Tenochtitlan which would be linked by a bridge. in 1449 a north-south dike of ten miles was built from Iztapalapan to control flooding of Lake Texcoco. 3. The Spaniards under Cortes entered Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, by way of the causeway of Itzapalapan. The Spaniards would be forced to flee on the night of June 30, 1520, by the Tacuba causeway. 4. Northeast of the lake was the great ancient city of Teotihuacan which had begun to emerge as a center of culture by about 200 B.C.E. Covering about eight square miles, it was a carefully planned city on a grid pattern featuring a main thoroughfare 150 feet wide and more than two miles long. It contained perhaps 150,000 people. The community was probably built on trade that extended throughout central Mexico and may have constituted an empire. By about 800 it fell to its enemies. Questions: 1. Why had the Aztecs settled in Lake Texcoco? 2. What were the strengths and weaknesses of Tenochtitlan? The Valley of Mexico under Aztec Rule
The Aztecs • Mexica • Lake Texcoco • Tenochtitlán • Politics and society • Monarch • Tribute • Calpulli • Religion and culture • Huitzilopochtli • Quetzalcoatl • Art and sculpture • Destruction of the Aztecs • Hernán Cortés
The Inca Empire about 1500 C.E. 1. About 600 C.E. the focus of Andean civilization was the highlands of modern Bolivia at Tiahuanaco just south of Lake Titicaca. A great ceremonial center, Tiahuanaco was the capital of a military state eventually controlling all of southern Peru. By about 1000, the state had collapsed, being replaced by a number of smaller states. 2. In the eleventh century the kingdom of Chimor emerged in the Moche River valley where ancient Moche had been located. The capital, Chan Chan, had a population of about 30,000 and covered about twelve square miles. The kingdom was destroyed in the late fifteenth century as the Incas expanded north from Cuzco. High in the mountains of southern Peru, Cuzco was only a small community in the late fourteenth century. Under Pachakuti Inca, who was crowned in 1438, expansion began. With the aid of his son Topa Inca, the Inca's campaign of conquest extended north beyond modern Quito by 1527 and south to modern Santiago. Brought under the domination of the Incas were perhaps nine million people. Political and military control was complimented by linguistic domination as Incan Quechua became the language of the people (as it remains today for more than 80 percent of the central Andean Indians). Also holding the empire together was an elaborate road system consisting of 24,800 miles of footpaths, rope bridges, and paved stretches. These, however, were used onlt by the military, administrators, and merchants. They were not traveled by ordinary people. 3. One of the most important keys to the Incan Empire was its intensive agriculture based on irrigation and terracing. It supported the army, the administrative bureaucracy, the priesthood, and was sufficient enough to put away a surplus for hard times. 4. Machu Pichu was an Incan fortress-city high in the AndesMountains northwest of Cuzco. It covered one hundred acres and on the terraced hillsides there was intensive agriculture. It served as a retreat for the last Inca rulers after their defeat in the middle of the sixteenth century. Questions: 1. How were the Incas able to control such a vast empire? 2. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Incan Empire? The Inca Empire about 1500 C.E.
South America • Andes Mountains • Chavin • Moche • Chimor • Inca • Pachakuti • Tahuantinsuyu • Highways and roads • Culture • Army • quipu • Conquest • Francisco Pizarro
Example of early South American ceramics. Sixth To ninth centuries, Peru.
Stateless societies • North America • Hopewell culture • Cahokia • Anasazi • Zuni and Hopi • South America • Arawak
