Humans migrate into the Americas from Asia
While civilizations were developing in
Africa, Asia, and Europe, they were also
emerging in the Americas. Human
settlement in the Americas is relatively
recent compared to that in other parts of
the world. However, it followed a
similar pattern. At first the ancient
people of the Americas survived mainly
by hunting. Over time, they developed
farming methods that ensured a more
reliable supply of food. This in turn led
to the growth of the first civilizations in
the AMERICAS.
The OLMEC CIVILIZATION
• Mesoamerica’s first known civilization
(around 1200 B.C.E.). The Olmec
influenced neighboring groups, as well
as the later civilizations of the region,
they’re often called Mesoamerica’s
“mother culture”
• First major city – Teotihuacán “Place of
the Gods”
Early people of Mesoamerica
• Most were farmers who farmed along the
muddy riverbanks in the area; The City
was a busy trade center (tools, weapons,
pottery, jewelry); Temples and palaces,
all dominated by the pyramid of the sun
• Olmec civilization collapsed (reasons are
not fully understood), people believe that
outside invaders caused their
destruction around 400 B.C.E.
THE MAYAS
• On the Yucatan Peninsula east of
Teotihuacan, the highly sophisticated
Mayan civilization flourished between
300 to 900 C.E.
• Cities were built around a central
pyramid topped with a temple to the
gods.
MAYAN CIVILIZATION
• Composed of city-states, each ruled by a
hereditary ruling class
• Ruling chief for each city, believed they
were descended from the Gods
• Captured nobles and war leaders were
used for human sacrifice.
• Other war captives were enslaved.
• Like other ancient peoples in Central
America, one way the Maya appeased the
gods was through human sacrifice.
• Human sacrifice was also performed on
certain ceremonial occasions.
MAYAN SOCIETY
• Rulers claimed to be descended from the
gods.
• Society included nobles, military leaders,
public officials, scribes, townspeople,
artisans and merchants
• Most were farmers
• Labor divided along traditional gender
lines.
A detail from a sacred Maya mural at San
Bartolo — the earliest known Maya
painting, depicting the birth of the
cosmos and the divine right of a king
TIKAL
• Urban centers such as Tikal may have
had a 100,000 inhabitants.
DEADLY GAME
(Pok-a-Tok-Read p. 354)
• Nearby were temples, palaces, and a
sacred ball court
• The game had religious meaning because
the court symbolized the world, and the
ball represented the sun and the moon.
• The defeated team or winning captain
was sacrificed.
MAYAN BALL COURT
Cenote
Chichén Itzá
• The Toltec's built great palaces and
pyramids, controlling the upper Yucatan
Peninsula from Chichén Itzá
• declined around 1200 C.E.
Mayan Contributions
Highly skilled Mayan mathematicians and
astronomers calculated the solar year at
365.2420 days
• 365 day calendar
• understood concept of #0 before the
Europeans
• giant stone heads
• Astronomy
• Pyramids
• hieroglyphics: wrote on bark/ folded in
accordion w/plaster cover
ITZAMNA
• Itzamna was the supreme god of the
Mayans, and some gods, like the jaguar
god of the night were evil.
• belief: all life is in the hands of divine
powers was crucial to Mayan civilization.
HIEROGLYPHS
• The Mayans created a writing system
using hieroglyphs, or pictures.
• Unfortunately, the Spaniards assumed
the writings were evil because they were
not Christian, and they destroyed many
Mayan books, a pattern the Spanish
would repeat throughout their conquest
in the Americas.
MAYAN STELLE
THE TOLTECS
• Began in 900 C.E.
• Center of empire – Tula (Present day
Mexico City)
• Were a fierce and warlike people who
conquered the Mayan lands including
Guatemala and Yucatan
TOLTEC STAR PRINCESS
Toltec Religion
• Polytheistic
• Quetzalcóatl – god of Fertility and Wind
• Xochipilli – god of love, music and song
THE AZTECS
THE AZTECS
• Sometime during the 12th century CE, the
Aztec began a long migration to the
Valley of Mexico.
• Capital – Tenochtitlan on an island in the
middle of Lake Texcoco, where Mexico
City is today.
Tenochtitlan
Aztec Legend
• According to legend, the Aztec believed
that a sign would come from the god of
war and of the sun, Huitzilopochtli,
telling them where to settle.
GOD OF SUN
GOD OF WAR
LAKE TEXCOCO
• In 1325 they were driven into the swamps
and islands of Lake Texcoco, where they
saw an eagle standing on a cactus growing
out of a rock with a serpent in his beak,
the sign that had been foretold.
TENOCHTITLAN
• They built a magnificent city of temples,
other public buildings, and roadways
linking the islands and mainland.
TENOCHTITLAN AT TIME OF CONQUEST
Aztec Government
• government: single ruler and nobles
served as officials, judges, and governors
• The Aztec Kingdom was a collection of
semi-independent territories governed
by lords.
• The Aztec ruler supported the lords in
return for tribute—goods or money paid
by conquered people to their conqueror.
AZTEC WAR LORDS PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE KING
VALLEY OF MEXICO
• By 1500 up to 4 million Aztecs lived in
the Valley of Mexico
• Power was in the hands of the god-king,
who claimed descent from the gods.
ANCIENT AZTEC RUINS—VALLEY OF MEXICO
AZTEC SOCIETY
• The Aztec population consisted of
commoners, indentured servants, and
slaves, who were war captives and
worked in the houses of the wealthy. diet
of dried corn;
• Children were taught courtesy, respect
for their elders, truthfulness, and selfcontrol.
• Language: Nahuatl
GENDER DIVISION
• Women were not equal to men, but could
inherit property and enter into
contracts, something not often allowed
in other world cultures of the time.
• They were also allowed to be priestesses.
Aztec Religion
• Quetzalcóatl was the feathered serpent
god.
• According to Aztec tradition, he left his
homeland and vowed to return in
triumph.
• This became part of a legend about a
prince whose return from exile would be
preceded by a sign of an arrow through a
sapling.
SPANISH CONQUISTADORS
• When the Aztec saw the Spanish with a
cross n their breastplates, they mistook
the Spanish for Quetzalcoatl's
representatives because the cross looked
like the sign they had been waiting for.
AZTEC RELIGION
Aztec religion was based on the belief in an unending
struggle between the forces of good and evil, which led
to the creation and destruction of a series of worlds.
• Polytheistic:
• Huitzilopochtli – God of the Sun and War who
demanded human sacrifice (most important)
• Tlaloc – God of rain, demanded sacrifice of
infants
• Xochiquetzal – god of Family
• Chicomecoatl- goddess of Fertility
• Xipe – God of spring
• Tezcatlipoca (father-creator of all, spirit) and
Coatlicue (mother earth) son, Huitzilopochtli
(god of sun), sister Coyolxauqui (goddess of
moon)
HUMAN SACRIFICE
• Aztec religion practiced human sacrifice
to postpone the day of destruction of
their world, the 5th world.
• A massive pyramid at the center of the
capital was topped with shrines to the
gods and an altar for human sacrifice.
In 1519, a Spanish force under the
command of Hernán Cortéz
marched to Tenochtitlán and
conquered them two years later.
THE INCAS
• Around 1400 C.E.
• Equador to Chile
• Cuzco, capital of the Incan empire in
Peru
Government
• God-king had complete control of
everybody and everything
• Emperor who was considered the son of
the sun was also the religious leader
• Gvt built an amazing system of roads to
unify the empire (ordinary people
forbidden on roads) -- Better than that of
the Romans; Had bridges and tunnels
through hills; 12,000 miles of roads
Society/Religion
• Lives were strictly controlled by govt
• Language: Quechua (All people had to
speak the Incan)
• Govt officials decided who had what job
and even arranged marriages
• Polytheistic – linked to the forces of
nature
• Festivals – dance to the young maize to
the festival of the water
• Farmers – gov’t stored grain for hard
times
Contributions
• The Incas constructed Hundreds of miles
of roads
• Ruins in Machu Picchu 7,000 feet above
sea level (discovered in 1911); finest
example of Incan architecture
• Mesoamerica: name given to the areas of
MX and Central America that were
civilized before the Spaniards arrived
• Francisco Pizarro conquers the Incas in
1531 and establishes new capital in Lima