Chapter 11 Overview

1. The Americas on the Eve of Invasion American societies during the postclassical era remained isolated from other civilizations. By 1500 the Americans were densely populated in many places by Indian people, a term derived from a mistake Columbus made when he thought he had reached the Indies, what Europeans called India and the land beyond. Despite great diversity there were continuities; elaborate cultural systems, highly developed agriculture, and large urban and political units Concentrate on Mesoamerica (central), the Andes, and a few independent peoples Chapter 11 Overview

2. Postclassic Mesoamerica, 1000-1500 c.e. • There was significant political and cultural changes after the collapse of Teotihuacan and the abandonment of the Mayan cities in the 8th century. • In central Mexico nomadic people took advantage of the political vacum to move from the north into the richer lands. • Among these people were the Toltecs who established a large empire with a capital at Tula (968) • Toltec culture adopted many features from the sedentary peoples and added a strongly militaristic ethic. • The Aztecs organized an impressive successor state

3. The Toltec Tradition • Among the legends that survived about the Toltecs were those of Topiltzin, a Toltec leader and priest dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl (the Feathered Serpent). • Topiltzin was involved in a struggle for power, and he and his followers went into exile, promising to return, and may have influenced the Aztecs response when the Europeans arrived. • Around 1000 the Toltecs created an empire that extended to the Yucatan and former Mayan regions • Their commercial influence extended to North American, where many cultural similarities exist from the Anasazi in New Mexico to the Hopewell people in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys

4. b) The Aztec Rise to Power • The Toltec empire collasped(1150) probably due to northern nomadic invasions • The valley of Mexico became the cultural heartland of postclassical Mexico, divided politically into small competing units • The militant Aztecs (Mexica) initially migrated to the region to serve the inhabitants , but by 1325 they had founded the cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco on lake islands and became the dominant regional power by 1434

5. c) The Aztec Social Contract • Under Tlacaelel, an important official who served rulers from 1427-1480, the Aztec became a stratified society under a powerful ruler. • Aztec self image was people chosen to serve gods, and greatly expanded human sacrifice. • Military supplied war captives for sacrifice, Which rulers used as political terror

6. d) Religion and the Ideology of Conquest • Close relationship between the world of Gods and the natural order • Aztecs had hundreds of gods, arranged into 3 groups; • Fertility deities (agriculture, maize, water; Tlaloc, rain) • Creator deities (Tonatiuh, sun /Tezcatlipoca, night) • Warfare and sacrifice (Huitzilopochtli, tribal patron) • Ritual cannibalism accompanied sacrifices • Beneath the surface of polytheism there was a sense of spiritual unity, for example Nezhualcoyotl, the king of Texcoco, wrote hymns to the lord of the vicinity, an invisible force that supported all the gods. • Aztecs had a fatalistic view of history, believed world would be destroyed again

7. e) Tenochtitlan, the Foundation of Heaven • The capital was believed to be a sacred palace, a central zone of palaces and temples surrounded by residential districts and markets • High level of design and architecture, the 5 square mile island city (150,000) was connected by 4 causeways and crisscrossed by canals • Tribute and support came to the imperial city state from allies and dependants

8. f) Feeding the People: The Economy of the Empire • Aztecs had a state controlled mixed economy; tribute, markets, commodity use and distributions were highly regulated • Conquered people lost land and gave tribute • Aztec peasants provided basic foods • Aztecs developed irrigated agriculture, and built artificial floating islands (chinampas) that permitted high yield crops • Great daily market at Tlateloco controlled by pochteca (merchants) and specialized in long distance luxury item trade

9. II) Aztec Society in Transition • The expanding Aztec Empire became increasingly hierarchical • New social classes emerged, but old system based on calpulli (residential groupings) never disappeared • Tribute from subject people was not enough to maintain large Aztec population

10. Widening Social Gulf • By 16th century original 7 calpulli groups based on kinship had expanded to residential groups that included neighbors, allies and dependants. • Calpulli performed vital functions in distributing land, labor, and maintaining temples and schools • A class of nobility (pipilitin) emerged from privileged families, formalized by special clothes and symbols of rank • A new class of workers like serfs were above slaves, and other groups (scribes, healers, artisans) appeared in the large cities

11. b) Overcoming Technological Constraints • Aztec Women assumed a variety of roles; primary work in household but peasants helped in fields, weaving was valued, elder women trained young girls • Marriages arranged, virginity important, polygamy existed among nobility, monogamy among peasants • Women inherited property, but were subordinate to men • Technology limited women, absence of milling meant women had to spend hours grinding maize on stone boards (metates)

12. A Tribute Empire • The ruler of Tenochititlan (The Great speaker) surpassed all other Aztec City states speakers in power • Military virtues became supreme, and need for more captives for tribute drove the Aztecs to further conquests. Defeated local rulers were left alone if tribute and labor obligations were met, revolts were ruthlessly suppressed. • System successful because it aimed for political domination not direct control, but in long run growing stress of terror and tribute contributed to empire’s collapse.

13. d) In Depth: The “Troubling” Civilizations of the Americas • Judging a civilization is a very complex proceeding • Practices of American Indians did not match European concepts of civilization • Some condemn Aztec sacrifices, others romanticize the Indian past. • Inca socialism is another example, some early Spanish authors portrayed Inca rule as despotic, others saw it as a type of utopia. • While moral judgment is probably inevitable, students should strive to understand a people’s practices in the context of their own time and culture

14. III) Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas • Small regional states exercised power following the disintegration of the states of Tihuanaco and Huari (500-1000) • Warfare amongst states resembled Mesoamerica • Chimor (900) emerged as the most powerful, controlling the north coast of Peru • After 1300, Incas developed a new civilization. • Twantinsuyu, or Inca empire, was a highly centralized system that integrated various ethnic groups into an imperial state.

15. The Rise of the Inca to Power - Many groups fought for power in Andean highlands, with Cuzco winning control under their ruler or inca, Pachacuti (1438) Pachacuti son Topac Yupanqui extended Inca rule into Ecuador and Chile Huayna Capac (1493-1527) consolidated conquests and stretched Inca Empire from Columbia to Chile, eastward to Bolivia and Argentina, with 9 to 13 million people under Inca rule.

16. b) Conquest and Religion Inca political and social life was infused with religious meaning, the sun was the highest deity with the ruler (Inca) god’s representative on earth. Worship of local gods continued, but the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco was the center of state religion Popular belief was based on animism, and prayers and sacrifices were offered at holy shrines (huacas) Incas adopted from Chimor split inheritance, where all of rulers political power went to a successor but wealth and land passed to male decedents for the eternal support of the cult of the dead rulers mummy.

17. c) The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule • The Inca was virtually considered a god, and ruled empire from Cuzco • The empire was divided into 4 provinces, each under a governor • Bureaucracy made of mostly nobles, local rulers (curacas) were exempt from tribute and remained in office in return for loyalty • Complex system of roads, bridges, and causeways, with way stations (tambos) and storehouses helped military movements • Conquered people supplied land and labor, unlike the Aztec the Inca did not demand tribute in kind but rather labor or mita. • In addition to the peasants there was also a class of people, the yanas, who served as servants, artisans, or workers for the Inca nobility.

18. c) The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule (continued) • Though ideology of complementary of sexes was strong, emphasis on military virtue made men dominant • Gods and Goddesses of both sexes were venerated, woman had a special feeling for the moon and fertility goddesses of earth and corn • All local resources were taken and redistributed, there was land for the people, state and religion • There was no distinct merchant class because of the emphasis on self-sufficiency and state management of the economy

19. d) Inca Cultural Achievements • The Inca metallurgy was the most advanced in the Americas, and they produced beautiful pottery and cloth • The lacked the wheel and a writing system, instead using knotted strings (quipu) for accounts and enumeration • The Inca genius was in statecraft and architecture, constructing great stone buildings, agricultural terraces, irrigation projects and road system

20. e) Comparing Incas and Aztecs 16graph • Both empires were built on the civilizations that proceeded them, and excelled in imperial and military organization • In both most important factor was agriculture, which was organized by the state and redistributed to groups based on social class, nobility was the personnel of the state • Both empires were based on conquest of sedentary people, less effective against nomad • Many differences were the result of climate and geography, trade and market were more developed by Aztecs • Other differences were in writing system, metallurgy and social hierarchy

21. IV) The Other Indians • Mesoamerican and Andean Civilizations were the high point of Indian cultural development, the rest of the American continents were occupied by many people living in different ways • The tribal people of the Amazon shared many things with the Inca, including clan divisions • The societies of Northwest United States and British Colombia were based on fishing and hunting and gathering, and did not need the social complexity based on agriculture • In Colorado and South America, Indians practiced irrigated agriculture but did not develop states

22. How many Indians • Much argument over the population of the Americas before invasion • Most scholars now agree that Mesoamerica and the Andes had the largest populations • A total of 67 million in a world population of 500 million (1492) clearly makes up a major segment of society

23. b) Differing Cultural Patterns • Cultural patterns outside the main civilized areas shared with both the Andes and Mesoamerica, by 1500 agriculture was widely diffused throughout America • Some societies combined it with hunting-fishing and gathering, and slash and burn farming caused frequent movement • There were a few nomadic herders, and societies did not possess large numbers, strong class divisions or craft specialization • About 200 languages were spoken in North America

24. b) Differing Cultural Patterns (continued) • In rich environments, complex social organization might develop without agriculture • Sharp differences with European and Asian societies, with kin based communal ownership of resources • Material wealth was not important for social rank, and women, although subordinate, often held important political and social roles and had a central role in crop production • Indians tended to view themselves as part of the ecological system, not in control of it

25. c) American Indian Diversity in World Context 16visual • Two great imperial systems had been created in Mesoamerica and the Andes, but by the close of he 15th century these militaristic states had been weakened by internal strains and technological inferiority • Diversity ranged from great Aztec/Inca civilizations to small bands of hunters • Evolution of American societies was disastrously disrupted by European invasions beginning in 1492

26. d) Global Connections: The Americas and the World • Being isolated from Afro-Eurasia shows America having an absence of key technologies like iron working and the wheel • America also has a smaller number of domesticated animals and a key lack of a great world religion • Most tragically, it shows an absence of immunity to contagious diseases from the Old World. • Still, there are impressive economic, cultural and political achievements ..\..\..\..\My Documents\History\downloads\Mesoamerican_Conflict.asf