Transcript Three Worlds Collide - Saint Ignatius High School

The Americas in 1491
• Prior to European arrival in the Americas,
there were approximately 50-100 million
native Americans
• Many were complex civilizations with
written language, religions, cities.
• All adapted and shaped their environment.
– South and Central America
• Contained unified empires: Aztec (Mexico) and
Inca (Peru)
• Population of millions
– North America
• Primarily small populations, widely dispersed
• No large scale “civilizations” at time of Euro
arrival
Aztec
• A vast empire Located in presentday Mexico
• Large capital city, Tenochtitlan
– 200,000 people…larger than any
European city
– Built in a large lake.
– Large temples, courts, canals and
causeways.
• Complicated religion which
required human sacrifice
– Huitzilopochtli
– Led to frequent wars in order to gain
captives.
– 20,000 sacrificed to inaugurate a new
temple.
Human Sacrifice…Aztec style
Artistic rendering of Tenochtitlan
Ziggurat style temples in Tenochtitlan
A Spanish map of Tenochtitlan showing the elaborate
system of causeways leading into the city.
Inca
• Large empire that
stretched along the
coast of South
America
– Bigger than any
European nation, the
Ming Dynasty, or the
Ottoman Empire.
– 32 degrees of latitude
• Built huge public works:
– Giant state-run farms
– 25,000 miles of paved roads
• Some are steep stairs that go
straight up mountainsides
(perfect for llama, not horses)
– Suspension bridges (scared
the bejezzus out of the
Spaniards) over huge gorges
• Communication maintained
by a system of runners who
used knotted ropes to
transmit messages.
An Incan suspension bridge
• To adapt to the
steep moutains,
the Inca
constructed
terraces for
farming.
Mound Builders
• Adena & Hopewell Cultures
– Ohio River Valley
– Constructed huge burial mounds, filled with
goods.
– Extensive trading along riverways.
Mound Builders
• Mississipian Culture
– Largest of mound-builders
– Built Cahokia, a city / religious complex
near St. Louis
Monk’s Mound dominates the city known as Cahokia.
The structure is 100 ft high, 16 acres at base
Woodland Indians
• Along the NE coast of
the US
• Language groups:
– Algonquian
•
•
•
•
Massachusett
Wampanoag
Pequot
Narraganset
– Iroquoian
• Six Nations (Iroquois
Confederacy):
Mohawk, Oneida,
Onondaga, Cayuga,
Seneca, Tuscarawas
• Lived in long-houses
Woodland Indians
• Diet
– “Three Sisters” Farming
• Maize (corn), beans, and
squash were grown
together, conserving
space and replenishing
nutrients in the soil
•
Iroquoian farms were perceived as a jumbled mess to Europeans, but the
three sisters technique made wise use of space and replenished needed
nutrients in the soil.
Woodland Indians
• Diet
– Diet was supplemented by food that
was collected (berries, nuts, fruits,
oysters, clams, etc) & hunted (fish,
deer, bear)
• Women tended to farms and to
collection of food, while men
hunted…women provided 90% of
the families food-sources.
Woodland Indians
• Cleared land for farming
and travel by setting fires
to the forest
– Controlled burns
– Cleared out underbrush for
ease of travel
– Killed insects
– Allowed sunlight to get to
the forest floor, allowing
berries to grow and
attracting deer and bear
Woodland Indians
• Used rivers as
highways
• Perfected the
canoe as a mode
of transport.
• War canoes could
carry up to 20
people.
Penobscot Indian birch-bark canoe
Woodland Indians
• Wampum
– Belts made of shells,
used as a currency for
trade.