Central and South Americans Mr. Adamo

The Olmec About 3200 years ago, a group of people called the Olmec lived along the Gulf Coast of what is now southern Mexico. Theirs was the first major culture to develop in Mesoamerica. The Olmec were much like other early civilizations: they began by farming near rivers that often flooded and left rich, fertile soil. With a reliable supply of food, some Olmec were free to do other work. Some became potters or weavers, while others became priests or administrators. By 900 BC, the Olmec began to abandon their cities, though the reasons for this remain unclear. By 400 BC, the Olmec civilization had largely disappeared, but Olmec beliefs and ways continued to influence Mesoamerican culture for many years to come. Many historians consider the Olmec to be Mesoamerica’s mother culture: a way of life that strongly influences later cultures: Olmec art, architecture, religion, and trade helped shape later cultures such as the Aztec and especially the Maya.

The Maya The Maya consisted of groups of Mesoamerican peoples who spoke various forms of the Mayan language; their culture shared many of the artistic and monumental forms of the Olmec. Around 1500 BC, small Mayan agricultural villages began to appear. The Maya lived in highland and lowland areas of what are now Guatemala and Belize, and in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. As with the Olmec, successful farming led to a larger population, the development of cities and more specialized workers. This division of labor in Mayan society led to the development of a class system.

Mayan Class System There were four broad social classes in Mayan society: the ruling class, the nobility, peasants and slaves. The ruling class was made up of kings and their families. Kings governed each of the more than 40 Mayan cities. Kings also performed the religious duties of priests. Mayan nobles were educated and wealthy, and likely worked as scholars, warriors and merchants; they ate better than peasants, in fact some foods, such as chocolate was reserved for the nobility alone. Peasants, who made up the vast majority of the population, lived very differently from nobles: most were farmers who lived in small villages near cities; they grew corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers, and even practiced terrace farming in the highlands. Slaves were mostly criminals, people captured in war, and orphans; slaves were owned by all other classes in Mayan society.

Mayan Cities During the Classical period, between A.D. 250 and 900, Mayan civilization reached its peak. The numerous Mayan cities, such as Copan, Tikal, Palenque displayed magnificent architecture. Each contained plazas, palaces, and pyramids topped by temples. Many cities had large stone monuments called steles. (Stee-leez) On these steles, the Mayans carved glyphs that represented important dates and great events.

Advances in Learning The Maya developed a complex writing system that used glyphs: they used bark as paper. This paper was screen-folded to form a book called a codex. Few of these books still exist. Mayan mathematics were based on the number 20. Our system, is based on 10. The Maya were one of the first people to use the zero. By using their math system, the Maya made great advances in astronomy. For example, they accurately charted the orbit of the planet Venus. Their knowledge allowed them to produce an accurate calendar system. This system allowed the Maya to time their planting and harvesting and allowed them to keep precise records.

A mysterious downfall In the 800s, the Maya began to abandon their cities in the southern lowlands, and at the same time, their population sharply declined. The reasons for this decline are a mystery: possible causes include famine that resulted from decades of overfarming or warfare among cities. By the 1400s, the cities in the northern lowlands and the highlands had been abandoned too. What could have happened to the Mayans?

The Aztecs The Aztecs were once nomadic hunters and gatherers. They lived in what is now the northwest desert of Mexico. In the late 1200s, they began to move south. Eventually, they came upon the Valley of Mexico. Aztec legend said that they would find their new home where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus. In 1325, they found such a place. It was an island in the large Lake Texcoco, there they built their capital, Tenochtitlan. The lands around Tenochtitlan were swampy or mountainous—not ideal for farming. The Aztecs adapted by constructing chinampas, or raised garden beds, on the lake. With a plentiful food supply, the population of Tenochtitlan grew: at its height, it reached about 250,000 people.

Aztec religion and culture Aztec life was dominated by religion, this religion was based on the worship of agricultural gods: the Aztecs believed in about 1000 gods. The most important ceremonies were held to ask the gods for a good harvest. The Aztecs produced two separate calendars by studying the sun, stars, and the planets. One calendar was agricultural and it predicted planting and harvesting times. The other calendar was religious and it set times for the many public ceremonies each year. For the most part, the Aztec writing system did not represent the sounds of the spoken language, instead it used pictures and symbols called glyphs to represent words and ideas. The Aztecs produced codices in a written language made up of glyphs: each codex was filled with colorful pictures detailing everyday life in Aztec society, historians have learned much about the Aztecs from these records.

The Aztec Empire’s Rise and Fall By the early 1500s, the Aztec empire stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and from the Valley of Mexico to what is now Guatemala. Up to 12 million people lived under Aztec rule; from these people, the Aztecs demanded tribute in the form of goods, such as corn, gold and jade. The empire was at its height in 1502 when the emperor Montezuma II came to power. He angered his subjects by demanding more and more tribute and victims for human sacrifice to appease the Aztec gods. Some subjects began to rebel, weakening the empire. In 1519, Spaniards led by Hernan Cortes arrived in the Aztec empire. Hoping to avoid war, Montezuma met with Cortes; but the Spaniards took the Aztec ruler prisoner, and he was later killed in battle. Soon, diseases brought by the invaders weakened the Aztecs. Helped by thousands of rebels, the Spanish used their superior weapons to conquer Tenochtitlan in 1521 and put an end to the Aztec Empire.

The Inca The Inca learned to live in the high and rugged terrain of the Andes Mountains of what is now Peru. Their capital city, Cuzco is in a valley in the Andes more than 11,000 feet above sea level . From Cuzco, the Inca eventually built up the largest empire in the Americas. By the early 1400s, the Inca had expanded their rule over nearby people. In 1438, the ninth Inca ruler, Pachacuti, came to power. Under his rule, the Inca conquered all of Peru and more. By 1500, the Incan Empire had grown further, extending 2500 miles along the west coast of South America. About 12 million people lived in the empire. The geography of the Andes made life challenging for the peoples of the empire. The steep land made farming difficult, so farmers cut terraces into the sides of mountains to the most out of their land. They grew crops such as potatoes and corn and raised animals such as llamas and alpacas, which provided wool and sometimes meat.

Daily Life in the Inca Empire Communication, like farming, was difficult for the Inca people, so they kept up a system of roads by requiring a certain amount of labor per subject each year. At least 14,000 miles of roads crisscrossed the empire; on these roads, runners called chasquis carried messages the length of their empire. Troops and trade moved efficiently. Other Andean peoples could not defeat the Inca as their army was 200,000 strong, well-trained and well equipped. However, the Incan empire was weakened by unrest. In a bitter civil war that began in 1527, a leader named Atahualpa defeated his brother. The war was just ending when Francisco Pizarro of Spain arrived on the coast of South America in 1532.

The Inca Fall to the Spanish Like the Aztecs, the Inca were no match for the Spanish, who rode horses, wore metal armor, and carried steel weapons. The Spanish also carried new diseases that were especially deadly to the Inca. Pizzaro met with Atahualpa, took him prisoner, and later had him executed. After Atahualpa’s death, the Incan empire crumbled. The Spaniards moved on to Cuzco, while conquered peoples rose in rebellion against their Inca masters. By 1535, the Spanish controlled most of the Incan lands and eventually millions of Inca died of European diseases. The last Inca ruler was defeated in 1572, and the Incan empire ceased to exist.