Latin America
Civilizations of Latin America
Maya
Inca
250-900 AD
1438-1533 AD
Aztec
1325-1521 AD
Maya
Location: Yucatan Peninsula
– Modern day Guatemala
Maya
Government
– Series of city-states
– Each with its own King
• No single unified empire.
– Nobles and Priests were below the King in
social order but helped run the city-state.
Maya
Religion
– Polytheistic
Mayan lightning God
• Gods controlled nature.
• Priests performed rituals and ceremonies
to please the Gods.
– Without such ceremonies Mayans believed the
Gods would send drought, storms, or other
natural disasters.
pok-a-tok• Large stone, square court.
• Similar to basketball –ball through a
hoop
• Ball – size of a softball
– When nobles played the game,
depending on who won, priests
interpreted the result as a message
from God.
Maya
Achievements
– Architecture
– As seen in their buildings
– System of writing
– Hieroglyphics – to record
historical and religious
events.
– Mayan Calender
– 365 ¼ Day Calender –
most accurate during the
time.
– The concept of “0”
Maya
 Decline and Fall
– 800-900
No one is sure the exact reason for decline
 Theories:
– Disease weakened the empire
– War weakened the empire
– High taxes led to a revolt by peasants
Aztec
Location: Central Plateau of Mexico
– Modern day Mexico
Tenochtitlan
•Center of the Aztec Empire
•Largest city in the world (1500 AD)
•150,000 population
Lake Texcoco surrounded Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan
Chinampas
 method of ancient MesoAmerican agriculture which
used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable
land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the
Valley of Mexico.
Aztec
 Government
– 1 ruler
• Chosen by a small group of priests
 Aztecs
– Conquered over 500 city-states
– Left rulers of city-states in place
– City-states were to pay “tributes” or taxes to the main Aztec empire
• Taxes included:
–
–
–
–
Gold
Maize
Tobacco
Precious stones
Aztec
Religion
– Human Sacrifice
• To please the Gods
• Typically captives from war or warriors.
– Quetzalcoatl
• Chief God
Quetzalcoatl
Chief God
– Believed to have
brought maize (corn)
to earth.
• Took the form of a bearded
white man. Tried to give the
Aztec priests a new religion
that ended human sacrifice.
Other priests believed the end
of human sacrifice would
anger the Gods, so they
banished Quetzalcoatl.
Aztec
 Achievements
– Educated men and
women
– Civics
– History
– Religion
• Men
• Art of war
• Women
• Homemaking
– 365 Day Calendar
– Hieroglyphics
– Pyramids
Spanish Motives for Conquering Aztecs and Incas
Wealth
Convert Indians to Christianity
Aztec
 Decline and Fall
– Conquistador – Spanish conqueror
– Conquistador Hernan Cortez arrives in
Mexico in 1519.
– 400 soldiers
– 16 horses
– 14 cannons
• Marched on Tenochtitlan
– A city of 200,000 – 250,000
Montezuma
 Leader of the Aztec Empire
Reluctant to fight:
– Possibly believed Cortez was
Quetzalcoatl
– Cortez won allies with people the
Aztecs had conquered.
– Smallpox and other European
diseases killed thousands of Aztecs.
Additional Spanish Advantages
Rode horses
• (Aztec had never seen horses)
– Metal armor
– Muskets
– Cannons
Inca
 Location: Cuzco –
capital
– Fertile Valley of the
Andes
– Empire stretched
2,500 miles
 Included:
–
–
–
–
Peru
Bolivia
Chile
Ecuador
Cuzco
Capital of the Inca Empire
Inca
Government
Inca emperor owned all the land,
mines, and wealth of the empire.
• Aids: Nobles; Priests
– People:
• Were told what jobs to do.
– Peasants
• Assigned a plot of land to farm
• Taxed were collected on their crops.
Inca
 Religion
 Polytheistic
 Chief God = Sun God
– Inca translates to “children of the sun”
– Royal family believed to be descendants of
the Sun God
– Gold was believed to be the sweat of the
Gods.
Inca
Achievements
– Communications network.
• Runners helped carry news across the
empire.
• Used a network of roads (built by an
earlier people)
• Route for:
– Armies
– Messages
• It was even paved!
Chasqui
Runner that delivered messages
Quipu – knotted string that helped transmit
messages (carried by Chasqui)
Inca
Decline and Fall - 1533
– Conquered by Francisco Pizarro
– Atahualpa
• Inca leader
• Captured and killed by Pizarro
Spanish Success
Spanish were out numbered
– 80,000 to 186
– How did the Spanish win?
• Technology
• Germs (smallpox)