Download Civilizations of Middle America

Civilizations of Middle America
Chapter 7.1
The Aztecs of Middle America evolved a complex system of religious beliefs. Their
religions, like those of many other people, included a belief that the world would someday
come to a fiery end.
According to the Aztec Legend of the Five Suns, the universe had been created and
destroyed four times in the past. People living under the First Sun had been destroyed by
jaguars. People living under the Second Sun were swept away by wind. People living under
the Third Sun perished in the fire and ash of volcanoes, while those living under the
Fourth Sun had been swallowed by water. The Fifth Sun represented the time of the
Aztec empire:
"This is our sun, the one in which we now live. And
here is its sign, how the Sun fell into the fire, into
the divine hearth. . . And as the elders continue to say,
under the Sun there will be earthquakes and hunger,
and then our end shall come."
The Legend of the Five Suns reflects the important role of the sun in Aztec religion.
It also suggests a feeling of helplessness in the face of the harsh forces of nature.
Despite this sense of impending doom, the Aztecs were able to create a remarkable
civilization. In order to do so, they built on the achievements of earlier peoples. To
understand more about these early American civilizations, we must go far back in time to
the arrival of the first people in the Americas.
I. Geography: The Americas
Perhaps as early as 30,000 years ago, small family groups of Paleolithic hunters and
food gatherers reached North America from Asia. This great migration took place during
the last ice age. At that time, so much water froze into thick ice sheets that the sea level
dropped, exposing a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. Hunters followed herds of
bison and mammoths across this land bridge. Other migrating people may have paddled
small boats and fished along the coasts.
A. Global Warming
About 10,000 B.C., the Earth's climate grew warmer. As the ice melted, water levels
rose, covering the land bridge under the Bering Strait. The global warming, along
with the hunting skills of the first Americans, may have killed off large game animals
like the mammoth. People adapted by hunting smaller animals, fishing, and gathering
fruit, roots, and shellfish. These nomadic hunter-gatherers slowly migrated
eastward and southward across the Americas.
B. Regions
What lands did the first Americans explore and settle? The Americas are made up
of the continents of North America and South America. Within these two
geographic regions is a cultural region that historians call Middle America. Middle
America, which includes Mexico and Central America, was home to several early
civilizations.
Great mountain chains form a spiny backbone down the western Americas. In
North America, the Rocky Mountains split into the East and West Sierra Madre of
Mexico. The towering Andes run down the length of South America. The continents
are drained by tow of the world's three longest rivers, the Amazon of South
America and the Mississippi of North America.
The first Americans adapted to a variety of climates and resources. Far to the
north and south, people learned to survive in icy, treeless lands. Closer to the
Equator, people settled in the hot, wet climate and thick vegetation of the Amazon
rain forests. Elsewhere, hunters adapted to conditions in deserts like the Atacama
of Chile, in woodlands like those in eastern North America, and on the fertile plains
of both continents.
C. The Agricultural Revolution
In the Americas, as elsewhere, the greatest adaptation occurred when some people
learned to cultivate plants and domesticate animals. Archaeologists think that
farming was partly a response to the disappearance of the large mammals. With
fewer animals to hunt, people came to depend more on other food sources. In
Mexico, or perhaps farther south, Neolithic people began cultivating a range of crops
from corn and beans to sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and squash. These
changes took place slowly between about 8500 B.C. and 2000 B.C.
Early farmers learned to domesticate animals. In South America, domesticated
animals include the llama and other creatures valued for their wool. However, the
Americas had no large animals such as oxen or horses that were capable of bearing
heavy loads or pulling wagons. This lack of draft animals would limit development in
some areas.
In the Americas, as in Africa and Eurasia, the agricultural revolution helped to
cause other changes. Farming people settled into villages. Populations expanded.
Some villages grew into large religious centers and then into the great cities of the
first American civilizations.
II. The Olmecs
The first American civilization, the Olmecs, emerged in the tropical forests along the
Mexican Gulf Coast and lasted from about 1400 B.C. to 500 B.C. Archaeologists know very
little about the Olmecs, but rich tombs and temples suggest a powerful class of priests
and aristocrats. The Olmecs did not build true cities, but rather they built ceremonial
centers made up of pyramid-shaped temples and other buildings. People came from nearby
farming villages to work on the temples or attend religious ceremonies.
The most dramatic remains of the Olmec civilization are the giant carved stone heads
found in the ruins of a religious center at La Venta. No one knows how the Olmecs moved
these colossal 40 ton stones from distant quarries without wheeled vehicles or draft
animals.
Through trade, Olmec influence spread over a wide area. The grinning jaguars and
serpents that decorate many Olmec carvings appear in the art of later peoples. The
Olmecs also invented a calendar and used carved inscriptions as a form of writing. But
their most important legacy may have been the tradition of priestly leadership and
religious devotions that became a basic part of later Middle American civilizations.
III. The Mayas
Among the peoples influenced by the Olmecs were the Mayas. Between A.D. 300 and
900, Mayan city-states flourished from the Yucatan on southern Mexico through much of
Central America.
Scientists have recently determined how Mayan farming methods allowed them to
thrive in the tropical environment. Mayan farmers cleared the dense rain forests and then
built raised fields that caught and held rainwater. They also built channels that could be
opened to drain off excess water. This complex system produced enough maize and other
crops to support rapidly growing cities.
A. Temples and Palaces
Towering pyramid temples dominated the largest Mayan city of Tikal (tee KAHL), in
present-day Guatemala. Priests climbed steep temple stairs to perform sacrifices on
high platforms, while ordinary people watched from the plazas far below. Some
temples also served as burial places for nobles and priests. They Mayan pyramids
remained the tallest structures in the Americas until 1903, when the Flatiron
Building, a skyscraper, was built in New York City.
Tikal also boasted large palaces and huge stone pillars covered with elaborate
carvings. The carvings, which usually record events in Mayan history, preserve
striking images of haughty aristocrats, warriors in plumed head dresses, and captives
about to be sacrificed to the gods.
Much of the wealth of Tikal and the other Mayan cities came from trade. Along
roads made of packed earth, traders carried valuable cargoes of honey, cocoa, and
feathers across most of Middle America.
B. Social Classes
Each Mayan city had its own ruling chief. He was surrounded by nobles who served
as military leaders and officials who managed public works, collected taxes, and
enforced laws. Rulers were usually men, but Mayan records and carvings show that
women occasionally governed on their own or in the name of young sons. Priests held
great power because only they could conduct the elaborate ceremonies needed to
ensure good harvests and success in war
.
Most Mayans were farmers. They grew corn, beans, squash – the basic food crops
of Middle America – as well as fruit trees, cotton, and brilliant tropical flowers. Men
usually cultivated the crops, while women turned them into food. To support the
cities, farmers paid taxes in food and helped build the temples.
C. Advances in learning
Along with their magnificent buildings and carvings, the Mayas made impressive
advances in learning. They developed a hieroglyphic writing system, which has only
recently been deciphered. Mayan scribes kept their sacred knowledge in books made
of bark. Though Spanish conquerors later burned most of these books, a handful
were taken to Europe and survive in European museums.
Mayan priests needed to measure time accurately in order to hold ceremonies at
the correct moment. As a result, many priests became expert mathematicians and
astronomers. They developed an accurate 365-day solar calendar, as well as a 260day calendar based on the orbit of the planet Venus. Mayan priests also invented a
numbering system and understood the concept of zero long before Europeans
acquired this idea from India through the Arabs.
D. Decline
About A.D. 900, the Mayas abandoned their cities, leaving their great stone palaces
and temples to be swallowed up by the jungle. Not until modern times were these
"lost cities" rediscovered.
No one knows for sure why Mayan civilization declined. Possibly, frequent
warfare forced the Mayas to abandon their traditional agricultural methods. Or
overpopulation may have led to overfarming, which in turn exhausted the soil. Heavy
taxes to finance wars and temple building may have sparked peasant revolts. Still,
remnants to Mayan culture have survived. Today, millions of people in Guatemala and
southern Mexico speak Mayan languages and are descended from the builders of this
early American civilization.
Ms. Croft-Crossland examing the Mayan ruins
in Copan, Honduras, circa 1996
IV. The Valley of Mexico
Long before Mayan cities rose to the south, the city of Teotihuacan (tay oh tee wah
KAHN) had emerged in the Valley of Mexico. The Valley of Mexico is a huge oval basin
ringed by snow capped volcanoes, located in the high plateau of central Mexico.
Teotihuacan dominated a large area from A.D. 100 to 750.
A. Teotihuacan
The city of Teotihuacan was well planned, with wide roads, massive templess, and
large apartment buildings. Along the main avenue, the Pyramid of the Sun and the
Pyramid of the Moon rose majestically toward the sky. Citizens of Teotihuacan
worshiped a powerful nature goddess and rain god, whose images often appear on
public buildings and on everyday objects. Teotihuacan eventually fell to invaders, but
its culture influenced later peoples, especially the Aztecs.
B. Arrival of the Aztecs
In the late 1200's, bands of nomadic people, the ancestors of the Aztecs, migrated
into the Valley of Mexico from the north. According to Aztec legend, the gods had
told them to search for an eagle perched atop a cactus holding a snake in its beak.
They finally saw the sign on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco. Once settled, the
Aztecs shifted from hunting to farming. Slowly, they built the city of Tenochtitlan
(tay nawch tee TLAHN), on the site of present-day Mexico City.
As their population grew, the Aztecs found ingenious ways to create more
farmland. They built chinampas, artificial islands made of earth piled on reed mats
that were anchored to the shallow lake bed. On the "floating gardens," they raised
corn, squash, and beans. They gradually filled in parts of the lake and created canals
for transportation. Wide stone causeways linked Tenochtitlan to the mainland.
C. Conquering an Empire
In the late 1400's, the Aztecs greatly expanded their territory. Through a
combination of fierce conquests and shrewd alliances, they spread their rule over
most of Mexico, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. By 1500, the Aztec
empire numbered about 30 million people.
War brought immense wealth as well as power. Tribute, or payment from
conquered peoples, helped the Aztecs turn their capital into a magnificent city.
V. The World of the Aztecs
When the Spanish reached Tenochtitlan in 1519, they were awestruck at its
magnificence. Henan Cortex described the city as it looked then:
"The city has many squares where markets are held
and trading is carried on. There is one square. . .
where there are daily more than 60,000 souls,
buying and selling, and where are found all the
kinds of merchandise produced in these countries,
including food products, jewels of gold and silver,
lead, brass, copper, zinc, bones, shells, and feathers."
From its temples and palaces to its zoos and floating gardens, Tenochtitlan was a city of
wonders. It was also the center of a well-ordered empire.
A. Government and Society
Unlike the Mayan city-states, each of which had its own king, the Aztecs had a single
ruler. The emperor was chosen by a council of nobles and priests to lead in war.
Below him, nobles served as officials, judges, and governors of conquered provinces.
They enjoyed special privileges such as wearing luxurious feathered cloaks and gold
jewelry. Next came the warriors, who could rise to noble status by killing or
capturing enemy soldiers. The majority of people were commoners who farmed the
land.
At the bottom of society were the slaves, mostly criminals or prisoners of war.
Despite their low status, slaves' rights were clearly spelled out by law. For example,
slaves could own land and buy their freedom.
Protected by Aztec power, a class of long distance traders ferried goods across
the empire and beyond. From the highlands, they took goods such as weapons, tools,
and rope to barter for tropical products such as jaguar skins and cocoa beans. They
also served as spies, finding out new areas for trade and conquest.
B. Religious Beliefs
The priests were a class apart. They performed the rituals needed to please the
many Aztec gods and prevent droughts, floods, or other disasters. The chief Aztec
god was Huitzilopochtli (wee tsee loh POHKT lee), the sun god. His giant pyramid
temple towered about central Tenochtitlan.
Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs believed, battled the forces of darkness each night
and was reborn each morning. As the Legend of the Five Suns shows, there was no
guarantee that the sun would always win. To give the sun strength to rise each day,
the Aztecs offered human sacrifices. Priests offered the hearts of tens of
thousands of victims to Huitzilopochtli and other Aztec gods. Most of the victims
were prisoners of war, but sometimes a noble family gave up one of its own
members to appease the gods.
Other cultures such as the Olmecs and Mayas had practiced human sacrifice, but
not on the massive scale of the Aztecs. The Aztecs carried on almost continuous
warfare, using the captured enemy soldiers for a regular source of sacrificial
victims. Among the conquered peoples, discontent festered and rebellions often
flared up. When the armies from Spain later arrived, they found ready allies among
peoples who were ruled by the Aztec empire.
C. Education and Learning
Priests were the keepers of Aztec knowledge. They recorded laws and historical
events. Some ran schools for the sons of nobles. Others used their knowledge of
astronomy and mathematics to foretell the future. The Aztecs, like the Mayas, had
an accurate calendar.
Like many other ancient peoples, the Aztecs believed that illness was a
punishment from the gods. Still, Aztec priests used herbs and other medicines to
treat fevers and wounds. Aztec physicians could set broken bones and treat dental
cavities. They also prescribed steam baths as cures for various ills, a therapy still in
use today.
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