Transcript Early Civilizations in the Americas

Early Civilizations
in the Americas
Olmec, Maya, Aztec
&
Tiwanakans, Moche, Inca
Human Origins in the Americas
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Humans have been in the Americas since
between 10,000-33,000 years ago.
Bering Strait Land bridge during the Ice Age
The people were hunter and gatherers
 Stone weapons and tools
 hunted the large mammals: mammoths,
mastodons, ground sloth's, saber tooth
cats, bison.
 Big game died off around 8000 yrs ago
Human Origins in the Americas
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Transition to sedentary life…
sedentary – this means a settled lifestyle.
Hunt and gather in a smaller space, and spend
more time in one place.
Allowed creation of things like pottery, nets,
baskets, etc.
This led to the domestication of food.
Human Origins in the Americas
Agriculture:
 Domestication around 8500 BC
 Occurs when people actively
pick and select for traits in
the food they grow.
 This changes the plant to be
dependant on the people to
re-seed it each year, harvest
it, and it changes the form of
the plant.
 maize, beans and squash
 llamas and alpacas for food
and wool
Human Origins in the Americas
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So how do we get from traveling bands to
civilization?
Olmec, Maya, Aztec
Olmec
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Developed around 1200BC
Lived in the area between the Gulf of
Mexico and the Tuxtla mountains in the
south.
Two major centers: La Venta and San
Lorenzo.
At its height there were around 10,000
people and covered an area of 6,000 –
7,000 mi
They traded widely throughout
Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
La Venta
Olmec
Farming
 Lived in a swampy and dense jungle.
 Used a slash and burn style of farming
 Grew squash, gourds, beans, avocados,
peppers, and maize.
Olmec
Olmec Society
 There were two distinct classes, seen in the
art and burials
 Upper elite class
 Huge heads of stone – show a division of
labor was needed to produce them
 Heads are probably portraits of leaders,
because each helmet is marked with
unique symbols.
 Elaborate stone tombs, with carved
figures, and jewelry from jade, amethyst,
other stones
 Lower commoners.
 Simple burial sites, crudely prepared with
few ornaments for the commoners.
Olmec
Olmec rulers
 They were priest-kings: brave warriors, civil leaders, and religious
leaders.
 Believed the kings were direct descendants from Gods and had the
power to protect them from enemies and cause good weather for
crops.
 Had 15 gods, but jaguar-man was probably the most important god
 They performed rituals to please the gods: sacrificing animals and
humans
Olmec – the downfall
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San Lorenzo was destroyed and vandalized around 900BC
La Venta was destroyed around 400 BC
Olmec transferred their ideas of civilization to others:
Teotihuacán - 200BC a strong empire in the valley of Mexico this
lasted till around AD650. A vast capitol with broad streets, markets,
plazas, temples, etc.
Toltec’s next ruled the
lands north and west
of the valley of Mexico,
and they passed on in
legend and lore to the
Aztec, who claim to
have descended from
them
Maya - Geography
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Highlands:
 In the south along a mt range, active volcanoes
 long rainy season, deep fertile soil so good for farming.
Lowlands:
 Central and north part
of the Yucatan peninsula.
 forest and rough dry grass
 rich in limestone = bad
for farming but good for
building.
Maya
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Farming in the area started around 1800BC
Btw 100BC -200AD villages grew into cities with huge palaces and
pyramids.
Height of the Maya, 250-900AD – approx. 3 million people
Ball Court
Un-excavated Pyramid
Maya - Economy
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Terraced the hills to create more farming land.
Built raised fields in the swampy lowlands
burned off vegetation to clear the land in areas densely forested
Traded surpluses and imported things like
salt, honey, fancy cloth, and jaguar skins,
jade, bird feathers, cacao beans.
Terraced farming
Maya - Society
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Cities were built around religious centers with
huge limestone pyramids, surrounded by large
open plazas, and on top of them were temples,
where the priests performed religious ceremonies.
TIKAL
Maya - Society
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Their gods controlled the sun, rain, etc.
Thought that their rulers could influence the gods
Priests sacrificed food, animals, and even humans to please the gods.
The kings also pierced their own skin and shed their blood, b/c they
thought it would keep the society healthy and productive
Palenque
Maya - Cultural Achievements
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A number system:
 this was based off the number 20 instead of 10 like ours.
 Dot to represent a single
 Line to equal five
 Eye shaped symbol = 0
Mayan Calendar
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__
.. x 400
….
__ x20
__
o
.
__
..
__ x1
__
20
126
.
o
.
0
1
….
. __
__ __
…. __ __ __
4
5
11
19
1092
Maya - Cultural Achievements
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Hieroglyphic writing system – each glyph reps a
sound, and when the picture are put together they
can make part or a whole word.
Maya - Cultural
Achievements
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A two calendar system:
 260 day religious calendar
were each day was given a
name and a number.
 365 day calendar based on
earth orbit around the sun
 18 months of 20 days each plus
5 extra days (these were
thought to be bad luck)
Maya - Cultural Achievements
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codex - priest kings wrote the events of the cities in books
there are three that still exist, b/c the Spanish destroyed all the others.
The codices show the two calendars. And how they used them to
determine when to plant, hunt, and do
religious ceremonies.
Maya - Cultural Achievements
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They also made beautiful art: jewelry out of jade, gold, shells (one
king was found wearing a life size mosaic jade mask) beautiful woven
cloth.
Unlike many other early American cultures, the Mayans survived to
modern day! They live in parts of Mexico,
Guatemala Belize.
Aztec - Origin Myth
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The Aztecs received a command from the god
Huitzilopochtli: “go where the cactus grows,
on which the eagle sits happily...there we shall
wait, there we shall meet a number of tribes
and with our arrow or our shield we shall
conquer them.
After 200 yrs of wandering the Aztec
settled on Lake Texcoco in the Valley
of Mexico. They named their new
home Tenochtitlan, which means “the
place of the prickly pear cactus.”
Aztec - Adaptations
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They lived on a swampy island and had to adapt
They made huts from the reeds and mud from the swamp.
chinampas: “floating gardens.” - narrow strips of land about 300 feet
long completely surrounded by canals.
They grew the threesome corn, beans, squash, and peppers, tomatoes.
Aztec – Rise to Power
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In 1428 they formed Triple Alliance
The empire covered the southern 1/3 of
Mexico, and into Guatemala and be an
area of 375 mi long and 315 mi wide.
Ahuitzotl: 1486-1502 lead these attacks
through Central America
 lighting quick strikes to take the
enemy by surprise.
 Built the great temple for
Huitzilopochtli.
Moctezuma: 1502-1520 when the Aztecs
reached their greatest size with a pop of
about 25 million people.
Aztec – Social Classes
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Calpullis – families of different social
ranks, nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves.
Nobles smallest class, controlled the others.
 govt officials priests and warriors.
 They lived off the tribute by commoners
and conquered people.
commoners
 farmed their own calpulli land and the
noble’s land as well
 Had a calpulli school to learn about
Aztec religion and history.
 Paid a tribute to the govt, this was kind
of a tax paid in goods or services.
Aztec – Social Classes
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Serfs had to work the land but they could not
own it! They made up about 1/3 of the pop
slaves were the lowest, most were captives of
war or commoners who committed crimes, or
had debts.
conquered people : most of the Aztec empire.
 Were allowed to keep its religion, language,
social structure, and customs.
 wealth of the empire was made from the
tribute paid by the conquered tribes
Aztec - Trade
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Merchants traveled throughout the empire and beyond to bring back
exotic goods like feathers, jade, cocoa for the nobles.
They had carriers, usually slaves who carried these loads walking
sometimes more than 250 mi
The marketplace was a center of each city.
Aztec - Religious Views
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Thought that humans must live by the rules of
the spirits or the universe would be destroyed.
Gods required prayer, thanksgiving, rituals,
and sacrifices to keep the world from
destruction.
Huitzilopochtli - god of sun and war
Tlaloc - the god of rain
Human sacrifices were common:
 To keep gods happy and universe from
ending
 to frighten enemies
 If sacrificed you would become a divine
being
Aztec - War
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To get captives to sacrifice, control the valley of Mexico, get more
land to support the expanding population
ruthless fighting methods - When Aztec attacked a city they attacked
all, not just the soldiers. The Aztecs fighter fought w/o fear of death
b/c they thought their deaths would keep the world going.
Aztec – the downfall
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The Spanish first appeared on the American shores early 1500s. At
this time there was a time of unrest and civil, war for the Aztec.
Tlaxcalans and others rebelled
Aztecs were forced to fight in many areas at once which great
spread their armies very thin, so they won few battles.
Aztec – the downfall
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Moctezuma thought that the Spanish, led by Cortes, might be
Quetzalcoatl, the ancient god come back to claim the kingdom. So
welcomed them
Cortes took Moctezuma hostage
La Malinche (who the Sp called Dona Marina)
the scapegoat translator…
Aztec rebel, kick out the Sp
In May 1521 Spanish laid siege to Tenochtitlan,
and left the city w/o supplies, this help/started
a epidemic in the city, after this happened on
Aug 13 1521, with most of the warriors dead
from the epidemic, starvation, etc the Aztec
gave up.
Tiwanakans,
Moche, Inca
Tiwanakans
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This civilization prospered btw 300BC-1200AD.
Area of 1500 sqmi from the plateaus of Peru and Bolivia down the
southern coast of Peru and into Chile
They lived high up on the altiplano is the high barren plateau up in the
Andes.
Tiwanakans
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Living in this harsh enviro they had to adapt
with inventive ways of farming with raised
planting beds to keep plants watered in the
day, and warm in the cold night
They grew high altitude and hardy crops like
potatoes and grain.
Tiwanakans - Lifestyle
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common people: performed most of the hard labor. Paid taxes in food
and labor of building miles of roads to connect the villages to make
trading easier.
The holy city was Tiwanaku. It was the center of trade and religion.
Gateway of the Sun: huge “doorway” where people probably came to
worship.
Tiwanakans honored the condor.
Tiwanakans
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But then btw 1100 – 1300AD the city was abandoned. Those who had
lived in the city resettled around the area in smaller groups.
Archaeologists disagree about why people left the city. Some think a
drought destroyed the fragile agriculture. Other say that Lake Titicaca
may have flooded making the fields unusable. Still other idea is that
outsiders invaded the city.
Gateway of the Sun
Moche
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They flourished from 100-700AD
Thin strip of desert along the coast of
Peru.
Small rivers than run through the
desert from the runoff from the Andes
down into the ocean, these rivers
allowed the Moche to rise, and use the
water to irrigate the fields.
Moche
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Adaptions for the environment:
 Hundreds of miles of aqueducts to carry the water from the rivers
to the fields
 Terracing on the steep slopes in the Andes foothills
 They grew corn, beans, peanuts, hot peppers, and squash.
 They also gathered shellfish and ate and used llamas and pigs.
Moche - Lifestyle
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The ancient city of Moche was civic and religious center.
probably used a large number of laborers from the lower classes to do
most of the work. They dig and maintained the aqueducts. And built
the large temples and pyramids.
Commoners - farmed and fished and hunted for food.
Elite - were mostly the priests, artist, warriors, and engineers.
The wealth of the elite is seen in the excavation of a Moche tomb
mound in Sipan – called the “lord of Sipan”
Moche
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Like the Tiwanakans the decline of the Moches is
questionable: some thing they were absorbed by of
the Andean cultures, or conquered by outsiders, but
its remains unknown.
But around 600 AD they abandoned their towns
and moved to other areas.
Sipan
Inca
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Cuzco Valley in central Andes diverse terrain
1438 Inca began to gain control of the
Cuzco Valley.
Pachacuti – 7th ruler of the Incas
launched a huge campaign of
conquest.
By 1525 the Inca Empire covered
parts of what is Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, and Chile.
The Inca called their empire
Tihuantinsuyu “land of the four
quarters”
At its height that reach about 13
million pop
Inca - Political organization
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Methodically scouted new regions before they attacked.
Controlled the conquered areas:
 1) they held religious idols and local leaders in Cuzco
 2) forced members of the tribes to join the Inca army.
 3) Stationed Inca soldiers throughout the empire
 4) If still rebellious, relocated them closer to Cuzco
 5) If troops were peaceful the Inca let local rulers stay in power.
 6) To create a national
identity they made the Inca
religion the official religion
of the empire and required
all subjects to learn the Inca
language of Quechua.
Inca Architecture
Inca – Social Classes
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Inca ruler: lord of all things – everything belonged to him.
Commoners: most of the pop in the empire was commoners.
 They had little freedom
 Constant work was their tribute to the ruler. Work done in the
fields or building huge public works they built a highway system
Nobility: lived off the tribute from the commoners, worked as
governors of provinces, advisors, and admin.
quipu camayocs - official rememberers
An Inca “Book”
Inca
Highway
System
Inca Coat
Inca - Farming
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The Inca had great farming techniques and allowed them to take the
best advantage of the land. Divided land into thirds:
 1) the commoner’s harvested one to feed govt workers.
 2) One part went to feed the Inca religious leaders.
 3) The last third went to feed the farmers themselves.
vertical economy - crop choice is based on the height of the land. In
the low valleys they grew maize, beans squash. In the mts they raised
llamas and alpacas for wool and meat.
Inca - Religion
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Inti - the god of the sun portrayed him with a golden disk with a
human face
To make sure the crops grew well the Inca prayed to both gods and
their ancestors.
Believed in life after death, and dead rulers played a role in deciding
the fate of the empire. When an Inca ruler died they mummified him
and preserved the body and they looked after his palace and estate.
Inca – the downfall
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Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532 and the Inca fell 11 yrs after the
Aztec
He came in a time of civil war…between two sons Huascar and
Atahualpa fighting for the throne.
After three years of civil war Atahualpa won, but he won a much
weakened empire.
Inca – the downfall
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Pizzaro landed with about 150 men
and tricked Atahualpa into a
meeting.
He attacked after Atahualpa
refused to convert to Christainity.
In the attack Pizzaro killed more
than 5,000 Inca. And Atahualpa
was taken prisoner. The Spanish
later strangled Atahualpa
Inca – the downfall
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Feb. 1536 Manco Inca the last
heir came to the throne, and led
an army of about 200,000 Inca to
Cuzco, but the siege failed b /c
most all the supplies had been
used up in the earlier civil war
Inca retreated into the Andes,
where they held out until 1572
when the Spanish finally defeated
them.
Why did the Inca and Aztec fall so fast?
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1) Disease brought by the European had a
horrible effect on the people in the Americas.
 Small pox and measles, which the Aztec
and Inca had never been exposed to
spread like wildfire
 people were left leaderless
2) Sp took advantage of the already
weakened state b/c of rebellion and civil
war. They used the
resentful subjects to
guide them and help
them win their battles.
Why did the Inca and Aztec
fall so fast?
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3) Spanish weapons were technologically superior.
They used crossbow, and cannon and spears and
swords or iron. The Aztec had bronze, copper
shields, stone knives, and woven cloth armor.
4) They came from very different cultures.
 Moctezuma thought that Cortes
might be a god
 Aztec’s needed to be converted to
christianity
 Aztec usually only fought to get
captives for sacrifice
 Spanish fought to kill.
Why did the Inca and Aztec fall so fast?
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In some areas more than 90% of the pop died from the Sp take over.
However the Aztec and Inca responded diff to the invaders:
 The capture of Tenochtitlan meant the end of the Aztec civilization
b/c it was the center of it all.
 The Inca did not give up after Cuzco was
conquered. Resistance to the Sp rule continued
for 40 yrs.
 The Inca also were able to keep there culture
alive into modern day,
20 million Inca
descendants still speak
quechua today.