1. Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations

2. Essential Ideas:
Mayan civilization was grouped by city-states.
The Aztecs controlled their empire through one central government (Tenochtitlan).
The Incans built a road system to connect their empire.

3. Early American Civilizations
Mesoamerica – ancient region including most of Mexico and Central America
Farming in Mesoamerica expanded populations, forming great cities and religious centers
The Maya and Aztec are the most well-known Mesoamerican civilizations

4. The Maya
Mayan civilization included Yucatan Peninsula and northern Central America
Kings ruled city-states
served as religious centers
Around 900 A.D., abandoned cities
Theories exist, but real cause is unknown
Popular theory= rebellion against priests and nobles
Many ancestors killed by crop failures, war, disease, drought, and famine
Millions of Mayas still live in C.America

5. Mayan Civilization Maize most important crop
Temples decorated with Hieroglyphics
System of writing using signs or symbols
All carving done with stone tools
No metal used in Mayan times

6. Inventions: Developed a 365-day calendar to keep track of the sky
Invented the concept of Zero
Considered their greatest invention
Developed a system of counting based on 20

7. Mayan Numbers
No single digit for 20
After 19, numbers go vertical

8. Maya today
More than 2 million Maya people live in Guatemala and southern Mexico today
Maya people today live in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize.

9. The Aztecs Arrived in the valley of Mexico about 1250 A.D.
Wandered looking for a permanent home until 1325
Found the site promised by their god Quetzalcoatl
Told to look for an Eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake

10. Tenochtitlan Found on an island on lake Texcoco
Swampy
Island way too small for all the Aztecs
Thought to be around 200,000 at the time of the conquest
More than double any European city at that time
Had to expand the island
How in the world does that happen?

11. Tenochtitlan
Aztecs built floating islands by piling soil from the bottom of the lake on top of rafts
Roots from trees and grass grew down to the bottom of the lake
This made the “homemade” islands stay put

13. Fall of the Aztecs
Hernán Cortés led the Spanish invasion of the Aztec empire
Aztecs feared Cortés was their god
Quetzalcoatl returning home
Did not attack the Spanish right away
Smallpox weakened the Aztec
Spanish took control in 1521
Hernán Cortés – Spanish conquistador

14. The Inca Home in the Andes mountains of South America
Centered in present-day Peru
Capital city Cuzco center of the empire
Became the largest ancient empire in the Americas

15. Governing an Empire Incans required to learn Quechua,
Incan language
System of roads covered the empire
travel and trade
14000 miles of roads
Developed tax system
Quipu - rope with knotted cords of different lengths and colors
Used to keep records

16. Aqueducts A pipe or channel to carry water from a distant source
Allowed them to irrigate land that normally would have been too dry to farm

17. Hiram Bingham

18. Machu Picchu, Peru Inca ruins “Old Peak” 7,000 ft. above sea level
Eastern slope of the Andes Mountains
New Seven Wonders of the World
picchu.com/
Inca ruins

19. Conquest of the Inca
Francisco Pizarro set out to find an empire filled with gold for Spain
Invited the Incan emperor, Atahualpa, to a meeting and took him hostage
Pizarro had conquered most of the Incas by 1535
Conquest of Incan lands in Peru led to Spanish rule over most of South America
Francisco Pizarro- Spanish conquistador