Download sol 11 a, b mesoamerica

WHI: SOL 11a, b
Mesoamerica
Early inhabitants
• Migrated from Asia during the last Ice Age, crossing the
Bering Strait by foot
• Hunter-gatherers:
• During global warming, they migrated east and south to
follow the herds.
• Different cultures formed as they spread out.
• Cut off from Asia as Ice Age ended, they developed
independently from cultures in the Eastern Hemisphere.
• Technology:
• Metal was rarely used; many cultures were still in the Stone
Age.
• Wheel was used, but not for transportation.
Olmec Civilization
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Name means “rubber people.”
Parent or base culture of Mesoamerica:
Settled along the Gulf Coast
Influenced area through trade; evidence of trade confirmed by
Olmec jade carvings found throughout Central America
Polytheistic religion:
Performed ritual sacrifices
Played pok-a-tok game
Built temple and pyramids
Went on pilgrimages
Constructed “Colossal Heads”
Achievements:
Calendar
Mayan Civilization
• Located in the Mexican and Central American rain
forests on the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day Mexico,
Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize)
• Economy based on agriculture (including irrigation) and
trade
• Groups of city-states ruled by kings:
• Represented by Chichén Itzá, the premier city-state
• Priests, nobles, and warriors—upper class
• Everyone else— peasants who paid taxes to the king
(using corn)
• No rights for women
Mayan Civilization
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Polytheistic religion:
Pyramids
Priest preoccupied with concept of time
Human sacrifices
Achievements:
Hieroglyphics
Complex 365-day calendar system
Astronomy
Number system
Between 850 and 1000 A.D. (C.E.), city-states
abandoned
Aztec Civilization
• Located in arid valley in central Mexico
• Represented by the capital Tenochtitlan, an island city
in Lake Texcoco
• Government:
• Ruled by an emperor with absolute power
• Indirect rule; trade and tribute from conquered
peoples held empire together.
• Empire built by the conquest of fierce warriors;
conquest provided prisoners and slaves for religious
sacrifices
• Right of slaves to buy freedom
Aztec Civilization
• Economy:
• Based on agriculture (beans, squash, tomatoes, and peppers)
• Chinampa farming (practice of draining swamps and building up
fields in shallow lake beds)
• Polytheistic religion:
• Chief god—the sun god
• Priests, a special social class
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Recorded knowledge and ran schools
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Served as astronomers and mathematicians
• Ritualistic ceremonies performed daily
• Based on warfare
• Pyramids
• Frequent sacrifices
Aztec Civilization
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Achievements:
Causeways
Aqueducts
Canals
Dams
Incan Civilization
• Location:
• Developed in the Andes Mountains
• Area includes primarily present-day Peru and
northern Chile, as well as smaller area in
southern Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and
northwestern Argentina
• Important cities:
• Cuzco, capital
• Machu Picchu
Incan Civilization
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Government:
Ruled by an emperor with absolute power
Direct rule
– Government arranged marriage.
– Citizens were required to have passes for
travel.
• – Government controlled harvest.
• – Conquered people were forced to adopt Incan
ways
Incan Civilization
• Economy:
• Based on high-altitude agriculture (potatoes,
beans, squash, peanut, cotton, llamas, guinea
pigs, and alpacas)
• Used terrace-farms
• Polytheistic religion:
• Chief god—the sun god
Incan Civilization
• Achievements:
• Kept records on quipus, a system of knotted
strings
• Demonstrated themselves to be superb
engineers
• Created vast network of roads linking entire
empire