1. Mesoamerican Cultures: Maya, Aztec, Inca Global History: Spiconardi

2. Maya  Periods Pre-classic: (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) Classic: (c. 250 AD to 900 AD) Post-classic: (900 AD to 1500s AD)

3. Maya  Location: Modern day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras

4. Maya  Social Structure King Nobles: Priests & Warriors Merchants Peasants Slaves

5. Maya  Religion Believed each day was a living god Had to please the gods via sacrifice  Piercing of bodies with needle  Also done to show fierceness of a warrior  Flowers & incense

6. Maya  Religion (Con’t.)  Human Sacrifice  Sacrificed prisoners of war, slaves, and children  Children were preferable as they were pure  Victim painted blue, had chest cut open, and heart removed  Drug Use  Smoked a strong tobacco w/hallucinogenic effects  Drank fermented water, honey, and tree bark drink

8. Maya  Farm, Trade, and Agriculture Slash-and-burn farming Slash-and-burn farming  clear land by burning current vegetation and planting new crops in the ashes No Formal Currency…Used the cocoa beans as $  Counterfeit cocoa beans  Some merchants would remove the cocoa from the bean and refill it with wax

9. Maya  Achievements Hieroglyphic symbols  Only Mesoamerican culture to have a complete writing system Concept of zero & counting system Calendar  Only.0002 days short; extremely accurate  Predicted the end of the world 12/2012

10. MesoamericanMesoamerican Ballgame

11. Maya: Collapse Theories Non-ecological  Overpopulation?  Peasant revolts?  Foreign invasion?  Disruption of key trade routes? Ecological  200 year drought?  Overuse of slash & burn?  Disease?

12. The Aztec

13. Aztec  Tenochtitlan A group of people first known as the Mexicas, later the Aztecs, found the city of Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico City) in 1315. Tenochtitlan became an urban center that was larger than European capitals  Dubbed the “Venice of the New World”

14. Aztec  Tribute System The Aztecs ruled their empire by indirect means  Instead of exerting their supreme authority on conquered people, they demanded tribute.  Conquered leaders were even restored to their positions i.e. feathers, greenstones, cloth, firewood, and food

15. Aztec  Cocoa Plant Like the Maya, the Aztec used cocoa as currency  20 beans a year could support a commoner  A man could sell his daughter as a sacrifice or sex slave for upwards of 500 beans Beverages  First accounts of chocolate beverages were noted by the Spanish  Thickened with maize flour and seasoned with a chilies

16. Aztec  Social Structure Nobility  Not hereditary. Being born to noble parents did not necessarily mean you would become a noble Peasants  Very few farmers. Mostly artisans and warriors. Slaves  Prisoners of war, criminal punishment, or payment of a debt

17. Aztec  Social Structure Like the Maya, Aztecs also intoxicated themselves, but…  ONLY ELDERS WERE ALLOWED TO GET DRUNK

18. Aztec: Social Structure  Education From ages 0-14, parents guided education At age 15, both boys and girls (of all classes) went to school  Aztecs were one of the first civilizations to require all children go to school.  The Schools Telpochcalli  Military training Calmecac  Taught writing, astronomy, theology, etc.  But girls were taught domestic skills & religion.  Not taught to read or write.

19. Aztec  Religion As an agricultural people, the Aztec depended heavily on the forces of nature and worshiped them as gods The Aztec believed that the benevolent gods must be kept strong to prevent the evil gods from destroying the world  Human Sacrifice  Victims of sacrifice were usually prisoners of war, some Aztec warriors would volunteer for the more important sacrificial rituals  The god Tlaloc was believed to prefer children as sacrificial victims

20. Aztec Human sacrifice Aztecs took human sacrifice to a new level. According to Ahuitzotl, over the course of four days the Aztec sacrificed some 84,000 people to dedicate the new Great Pyramid.

22. Aztec  Agriculture Tenochtitlan was constructed on swamp land not suited for farming Chinampas Chinampas  “floating gardens;” artificial islands made of soil and reed mats that were placed in Lake Texcoco

24. Aztec  Spanish Conquest In 1519 Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés and more than 500 Spaniards landed in eastern Mexico in search of land and gold Kidnaps Aztec leader Montezuma for a gold ransom Conquered all of the Aztec by 1525  1/3 of population killed  Mostly from small pox  Survivors forced into labor mining for gold or working on the estates of the Spaniards

26. Inca  Government The Emperor owned all people, land, & resources Government had complete control over the economy  Farmers worked on cooperative farms  Early form of socialism/communism Massive bureaucracy  For every 10,000 people there were 1,331 government officials Mita  special tax, but in the form of labor NOT money  All able bodied citizens required to work for the government for a set number of days per year

27. Inca  Religion Worshipping of sun played a major role in the religion  Emperor seen as the son of the sun god Human Sacrifice?  Only on the rarest occasion; usually children or virginal women who dedicated lives to worshipping the sun  Most of sacrifices were guinea pigs and llamas

28. Inca  Religion Believed in reincarnation Moral Code: “ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella”  Do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy  Those who followed those rules went to live in the Sun's warmth while others spent their eternal days in the cold earth Practiced cranial deformation

29. Inca  Achievements Massive Road System  Connected all the people of the Incan Empire  All roads led to the Capital of Cuzco Machu Picchu  Served as religious city and fortress during the Spanish conquest  Could only be reached by bridges over rivers 1,950 feet in the air

30. Machu Picchu

31. Inca  Achievements Terrace farming  What other cultures that we have studied this year have used this method? Quipu  a series of knotted strings used by Incan officials for keeping records  Incans did not have a writing system or advanced calendar

32. Inca  Spanish Conquest Conquered by Pizarro in 1532  Despite getting the ransom of gold and silver he demanded, Pizarro killed Incan ruler  Spanish ruled Inca harshly  Destroyed traditional culture and farming methods  Forced them to mine gold and silver