1. By, Jaeden Johnson

3. The Mayas were an ancient civilization in what is now Central America and southern Mexico. They lived and built their empire on the Yucatan Peninsula. It stretched across Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras with huge city-states scattered across the land. They were one of the first civilizations in Mesoamerica to have a written language, artwork, and a main religion. The only major civilization before the Mayas were the Olmecs which is where they got most of their religious traits from. The Maya were known for their beautiful artwork and architecture as well as their huge network of city-states and extremely accurate calendars.

4. Early Maya settlements first showed up in about 1800 B.C. During this time which is called the preclassic period was also the rise of the Olmecs which was the first major civilization. The early Mayas were more agricultural, but they still showed more advanced cultural traits like their architecture, organized city construction, and stone writing.

5. In the Classic period which began at about 250 A.D., the Mayas were at the height of their power. During this period the Mayas developed much artistically, intellectually, and politically. With that and the fall of the Olmecs came the sprout of not only a major civilization but a growing empire.

6. The Mayas had no central form of government, it was just a connection of city-states that governed themselves. Most city-states had their own emperor or another type of political leader. Even though these city-states governed themselves, they still were connected culturally, by trade, and by religion. Mayan cities like Tikal, and Copan were centers of Mesoamerican trade.

7. The most famous monuments from Maya culture were their beautiful stepped pyramids. Resembling the great pyramids of Egypt, that are almost 7,000 miles away. They used these pyramids for religious purposes such as sacrifices and even blood offerings to their gods.

8. The Mayas were not just a bunch of senseless natives. Not only did they have an organized government, Phenomenal architecture, and a written language, but they had a dead accurate calendar more accurate than any European calendar at that time. The Maya people studied the stars deeply and most of their religion was based off of it. They also were very skilled mathematicians even with a base 20 system. The calendar they created based on their knowledge of the stars and Earths revolution around the Sun, not only was correct in calculating the days in a year at exactly 365 days but predicting various events in history including the Spanish arriving in the Americas hundreds of years before. Hopefully predictions like this are simply coincidence because the Mayan calendar also predicts the end of the world to be December 21 of this year.

9. During the 8 th and 9 th century the major Mayan cities were abandoned as the civilization slowly declined. Nobody truly knows why, there are many theories that possibly a civil war broke out or maybe trade roots collapsed, maybe war with other civilizations led to the collapse of city-states. After the 8 th century even city-states like Tikal started to decline. People started to move to more remote areas leaving their huge stone monuments and cities to be forgotten in a jungle that once was dominated by the very same people that abandoned it.

11. The Aztecs were a native civilization in central Mexico. They adopted many of their religious views, architecture, and calendars from civilizations before them like the Mayas. From the 14 th to 16 th century their vast empire dominated Mesoamerica.

12. In the year 650 the dominant city of Teotihuacan (ruled by the Toltecs) went into a decline and the Toltec people migrated south towards Central America. A group of hunter gatherers called the Mexica settled on two islands near the shore of lake Texcoco and started to farm for a living. These people soon founded the great city of Tenochtitlan. This city-state formed a triple alliance with the city- states of Texcoco and Tlacopan and they eventually created a huge empire by conquering other city-states like Tepaneca.

13. The Aztec Empire was built on military conquest and power by trade. The capital of the empire, Tenochtitlan, was probably the most powerful city in Mesoamerica

14. Aztec government was ruled by one emperor for the most part. Conquered territories weren’t under complete control though meaning that laws enforced by the emperor weren’t enforced strongly in distant territories that weren’t in direct contact with the capitol. They just expected laws to be followed and taxes to be paid. Once a city-state was conquered its old leader usually returned to power over that local area and the Aztecs did not interfere.

15. The city of Tenochtitlan is a prime example of the feats of Aztec architecture. Tenochtitlan was built were Mexico City is today but before the land became the home of the capitol of Mexico or the capitol of the Aztec empire it was nothing but a swampy marshland. To build large cities such as Tenochtitlan on such soft watery land took both skill and intelligence. The city was divided into four sections. They built canals running through the city using the water around them as a source of transportation. The large structures such as the temples and palaces were built and carved of stone. In many ways Mayan architecture and Aztec architecture are very similar.

16. One of the reasons the Aztecs ultimately fell as a civilization is because of their belief in religious sacrifice. They would kill thousands of people at one time and offer their blood to their gods. They took bloodshed to a whole new level. These huge killings had to have at least put a large dent if not nearly destroying the population. Another reason they fell was because of Hernando Cortez and his conquistadores. When they landed in Mexico a number of events happened, destroying Aztec civilization. One, the Spanish brought with them from Europe a number of diseases including small pox. This disease killed many of the Aztecs. Two, they also brought war, destroying temples, burning cities and killing rulers in search of gold power and conquest. Not surprisingly the Aztecs stood no chance against the conquistadores advanced weapons.

17. Both the Mayas and the Aztecs were very advanced for their time and considering that they were oceans away from other major civilizations that advanced themselves simply by communication and trade. The Mayas and Aztecs did both of these things but the civilizations around them were no more advanced than they were. Still the things they accomplished were amazing and they did it without the help of anyone.