Download Amicus Brief Americas United Nations World Court of Historical

Amicus Brief
Americas
United Nations World Court of Historical Affairs
Post-Classical Situation Report
The United Nations is charged with the maintenance and order of world affairs. Keeping in line with this
mission to provide stability and justice in the world the UN Council on Historical Affairs has compiled the
following brief to serve as an overview of cultural affairs on the planet from 600 C.E. to 1450 C.E.
The UNWCHA will be charged with hearing evidence from the seven regions of the planet outlining their
behaviors in creating frameworks of socio-cultural behaviors to provide for their people.
In the interest of full disclosure this amicus brief will provide litigation teams with all information already
gathered by the court on each of the seven cultures. The following is that evidence.
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Teotihuacan: Valley of Mexico
• The city of Teotihuacan
• Built in the highlands of Mexico
• Colossal pyramids
• Between 400 and 600 C.E., the city had 200,000 inhabitants
• Teotihuacan society
• Rulers and priests dominated society
• Two-thirds of the city inhabitants worked in fields during daytime
• Artisans were famous for their obsidian tools and orange pottery
• Professional merchants traded extensively throughout Mesoamerica
• Cultural traditions
• Inherited Olmecs' culture
• Honored an earth god and a rain god
• Decline of Teotihuacan
• Military pressure from other peoples since 500 C.E.
• Began to decline 650 C.E.; Invaders sacked city, mid-8th century
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Americas
Mayan World:
Decentralized
Aztec Empire
1325 C.E. –
1520 C.E.
100 B.C.E. – 900 C.E.
Aztec Geography: The Aztecs were located in the middle of the Mexico Valley in the middle of Lake
Texcoco. The valley was very marshy and scattered with islands. The islands were unwanted and solid
ground was needed so the Aztecs began sinking large trees and then covering them with mud and
boulders creating a solid surface. Streams and mountains surrounded the city. The mountains
surrounding the capital city created great natural barriers. The empire was spread along the Gulf of
Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The empires land would reach as far south as the boarder of Guatemala.
At the height of the empire, it was around 5 million people. The Aztec Empire of 1519 was the most
powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time.
Aztec Politics: With the demise of the great city of Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico (ca.750 C.E.) and
the abandonment of Mayan cities in the Yucatán peninsula by around 800 C.E., the Toltec rose to power.
The Toltec Empire grew to be extensive, stretching over much of central Mexico and the former Mayan
territories. Evidence of trade between the Toltec and their neighbors to the north suggests that the
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Toltec’ influence reached far beyond the limits of their political control, perhaps even to regions as
distant as the Mississippian culture in North America. Following the collapse of the Toltec in about 1150,
city-states in the Valley of Mexico competed with one another to become the Toltec’ heirs. Known for
their skill as warriors, the Aztecs (or “Mexica,” as they called themselves) gradually established
dominance over rival groups in the Valley of Mexico, where in the aftermath of the Toltec collapse the
population was concentrated around a string of life-sustaining lakes. Claiming Toltec ancestry to
legitimize their conquests, the Aztecs continued the Toltec interest in genealogy and militarism, along
with religious rituals, including human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism.
Aztec Religion: The Aztec religion drew on common Mesoamerican traditions, including those of the
Olmec, the Mayas, and the Toltec, providing an identity rooted in the past that could be adapted to the
needs of a new political order. The most important ideological change associated with the Aztec
transition from wandering warrior groups to empire was the elaboration of ancient Mesoamerican
religious beliefs and practices relating warfare to human sacrifice. Combining the Aztec patron god
Huizilopochtli (the sun) and their own military ambitions with an ancient vision of a constant struggle
among the forces of the universe, Aztec belief made the regular appearance of the sun dependent on
the continuation of military exploits and human sacrifice. The sacrifice of humans was tied to the sun
god’s demand for ritual offerings, and war was necessary to provide sacrificial victims. Warfare was
imagined as the earthly reenactment of the titanic battle waged across the skies, the sacred war of the
sun, which daily had to fight evil to make its way from east to west. Only human sacrifice could assist in
the positive outcome of this sacred event and thus ensure the daily rising of the sun. The Aztec ruler
eventually became identified with both secular authority and divine power, a representative of the gods
on earth. In Aztec theology, human sacrifice and wars of conquest were combined with the political
authority of the ruler as aspects of a state cult. Aztec rulers believed that two things were necessary to
maintain the empire: tribute in food and raw materials from conquered peoples in outlying provinces,
and sacrificial victims. Warfare provided both. The tribute gained was a major consequence of the
warfare waged on behalf of the empire, which included most of Mesoamerica. It has been estimated
that millions of pounds of maize, beans, and chocolate, and millions of cotton cloaks, war costumes,
feathers, shields, and precious stones, were drawn to the Aztec center at Tenochtitlán each year.
Aztec Society
Aztec society was profoundly urban. In the fifteenth century, approximately one-quarter of the
population of the Valley of Mexico resided in cities and towns. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, the site
of modern Mexico City near the ancient center of Teotihuacán, was built on swampland in the Valley of
Mexico. This and other urban centers were supported by the rural populations of the surrounding areas,
who were required to pay tribute and engage in trade. A specialized class of long-distance traders
functioned as “advance men,” or merchant-spies, on behalf of the state. They would be followed by
warriors whose military success ensured a steady flow of goods. The successful maintenance of the
relationship between the urban center and the hinterland, compelled by military control exercised by
Aztec warriors, was essential to the empire’s survival. The administration of the Aztec Empire was
carried out by an elaborate bureaucracy of officials, including tax collectors, judges, priests,
ambassadors, treasurers, and a security force. Occupants of such positions were appointed by the Aztec
ruler from either the nobility or warrior classes. Each status carried with its title well-defined privileges,
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duties, and powers. They were distinguished by observable differences in dress, accommodation, diet,
and the respect accorded them. A good way of assessing the distribution of power and the allocation of
social status is by comparing the tribute commitments of various groups. In Aztec society, which may be
visualized as a pyramidal structure, tribute was based on class affiliations and economic specialization.
The nobility, at the apex of the pyramid, provided military service, as did the class of professional
warriors, who through bravery could achieve a higher status than the one into which they had been
born. Further down the pyramid were commoners and farmers. Their labor and production supported
those above. Merchants and craft specialists provided the goods that flowed through the arteries of the
empire. In the more distant reaches of the empire, trade was conducted and tribute paid in regional
specialties, such as feathers or obsidian. The much larger population at the pyramid’s base was
composed of persons with limited or almost no rights. Slavery existed as both a temporary condition,
into which destitute individuals voluntarily sold themselves or their children to pay debts or were sent
as punishment for crimes, and as the permanent status of prisoners of war. Prisoners of war often
became the unfortunate victims of ritual torture and sacrifice by the state.
Aztec Economy
The Aztec economy was based on a system of highly intensive agriculture. Agricultural workers were
attached to large rural estates, where they labored in fields belonging to the nobility and warrior classes.
Irrigation works, effectively controlled rural labor, and an elaborate series of canals, dams, and terraces
helped to feed the empire. While the grandeur of large monumental architecture and the rich, colorful
material culture of the upper classes have impressed and captured the attention of scholars, the Aztec
Empire was sustained by the agricultural labor of the masses, who received from the empire little
protection or spiritual sustenance in return. The rulers of the Aztec Empire explained the need for wars
as a means of obtaining slaves for sacrifice, rather than as an economic enterprise. A kind of circular
logic maintained that sacrificial victims could be obtained through war, while war could be waged
successfully only by sacrificing victims. Equally important were the complex systems of roads and
waterways that brought goods and peoples to central markets. The complex tributary empire was a
violent world in which war was deemed necessary and duly glorified.
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Mayan Geography
The Mayan was usually divided into 3 zones, the southern Mayan highlands, the central lowlands, and
the northern lowlands. The Mayan culture spread through present-day Mexico, Belize, most of
Guatemala, and parts of El Salvador and Honduras. The furthest region it reached was the Petén Jungle
in Guatemala. In the south, pine forests covered the mountain highlands. In the northern and central
regions rainforests, grasslands, and swamps covered those areas. These areas are known as the
lowlands. The topography varied in the regions of the Mayan empire. The south and the lowlands were
covered by thick dense rainforest. Mayan resources were very scarce. It was hard to find surface water
and good soil. The different regions had different techniques at farming. In the south they would slash
and burn. Then in the northern mountains they would terrace farm the hills.
Mayan Dynasty Overview
The Mayan Dynasty began around 2600 B.C., and had many great accomplishments such as creating a
calendar and creating the idea of zero as a place holder. The calendar helped the Mayans keep track of
important dates as well as astronomical discoveries. The Mayans invented zero because they found it
necessary to have an object as a place holder. The concept of zero helped make their math very
accurate and complex.
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Mayan Political Systems
 City states united in a loose confederacy
 Ruled by powerful semi-divine kings called halach uinic ("True Man") and his lesser nobles
 Nobles own most of the land and are the important merchants
 Priests
 Maintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and
mathematics
 Population largely rural used cities for primarily religious centers
 War
 Mayan kingdoms fought constantly with each other and warriors won tremendous prestige by
capturing high-ranking enemies
 Captives were usually made slaves, humiliated, tortured, and ritually sacrificed
 Tikal is the capital city
 Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries
 Meeting place for all Mayan city states on important astronomical/religious dates
 40,000 people lived here
Mayan Economic Systems
 Agricultural society
 Terrace farming
 Shifting cultivation
 Grew Maize, cacao
 Architects, sculptors, Potters
 Cacao used as money
 Merchants traded in luxury goods like jade, fancy textiles and animal pelts
Mayan Religion
 Polytheistic; gods made people out of maize and water
 Human Blood Sacrifice and ceremony keep the gods happy so they keep the world going and
agriculture good
 Mayan Ball Game
 Winners live losers sacrificed to the gods
 Human Sacrifice and
Bloodletting Rituals
 Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals
 Bloodletting involved piercing the tongue and/or genitals and dripping the blood down a rope
into a bowl before offering it to the gods
 Religious Ritual
 Killing animals, slaves, children, and prisoners of war were important parts of their culture
 Occurred on important dates, when priests demanded it, or as punishment for crimes.
 Burned copal resin along with the sacrifice, creating more smoke and a sweet smell.
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Offerings to the spirits were to insure agricultural success.
Priests –
o Responsible for keeping calendar, holding ceremonies to the gods and Human sacrifice
o Most important Priest called Ah Kin Mai ("The Highest One of the Sun")
o Ruled over priests below him (called Ah Kin , "The Ones of the Sun").
There were two special priestly functions involved in human sacrifice: the chacs, who were
elderly men that held down the victim, and the nacon, who cut the living heart from the victim.
Mayan After life
The Mayas believed in an elaborate afterlife, but heaven was reserved for those who had been
hanged, sacrificed, or died in childbirth. Everyone else went to xibal, or hell, which was ruled
over by the Lords of Death.
Mayan Social Hierarchy
 King and ruling family
 Priests
 Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)þ
 Warriors
 Professionals and artisans
 Peasants
 Slaves
Mayan beauty
 prized a long, backward sloping forehead
 Infants would have their skulls bound with boards.
 Crossed-eyes favored
 Infants would have objects dangled in front of their eyes in order to permanently cross their
eyes (this is still practiced today).
Mayan Intellectual Developments
 astronomy, calendrical systems, hieroglyphic writing, ceremonial architecture, and masonry
without metal tools
 Could plot planetary cycles and predict eclipses of the sun and moon
 Invented the concept of zero and used a symbol to represent zero mathematically, which
facilitated the manipulation of large numbers
 calculated the length of the solar year at 365.242 days– about 17 seconds shorter than the
figure reached by modern
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Maya Number System
 Mayan Calendar
 Interwove two kinds of year
 A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle
 A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty “months” of
thirteen days each
 Mayan Art
 Writing
 ideographic elements and symbols for syllables
 Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and
astronomical records
Maya Timeline
 c. 1500 Olmec Civilization
 c. 750 Writing is developed in Mesoamerica.
 c. 420 The earliest known solar calendars
 100 The city of Teotihuacán forms; cultural, religious and trading center of Mesoamerica.
 c. 150 The decline of the Olmec.
 400 The Maya highlands fall under the domination of Teotihuacán, and the disintegration of
Maya culture and language begins in some parts of the highlands.
 500 Tikal becomes the first great Maya city
 751 Long-standing Maya alliances begin to break down. Trade between Maya city-states
declines, and inter-state conflict increases.
 899 Tikal is abandoned.
 900 The Classic Period of Maya history ends, with the collapse of the southern lowland cities.
Maya cities in the northern Yucatán continue to thrive.
 1224 The Northern Maya city of Chichén Itzá is abandoned by the Toltec.
 The Itzá people settle in the deserted area.
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Incan Geography
The Incan empire was centered in Cuzco, Peru. The empire was stretched along the west coast of
Southern America. It stretched along almost the whole range of the Andes Mountains. The Andes were
one of the tallest mountain ranges in the whole world. So it serves as a great natural barrier on the
eastern side warding off other empires. It passed through present-day Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and
Bolivia. The territory was 2,500 miles long. It reached from Columbia to Chile and from the Atacama
Desert to the Amazonian rainforest. It was called the land of four quarters because the climate and
geography was so different, from the high mountains to the rainforests and deserts.
Inca Beginning
After a long time migrating throughout the Andes Mountains the Inca finally settled around Lake
Titicaca. For a while the Inca lived as one of many peoples in the region until Pachacuti came to power
around 1438.c.e. Pachacuti began a series of military campaigns that greatly expanded the Incas
authority. It is said that Pachacuti was a great warrior, so much so that Inca legends state that he fought
battles so furiously that he inspired the stones in the battle field to fight alongside him. This could be
one of the reasons why he was given the name Pachacuti which means “earthshaker”. Pachacuti’s
campaigns were long and brutal but all ended in victory, extending the Inca’s borders even further
across the Andes Mountains.
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Incan Politics
In 1400, the Incan state, one of several small states, was about 200 years old. During the reign of the
Pachacuti (“he who remakes the world”) Inca (r.1438–1471), the expansion that created the Incan
Empire began after a vision in which Pachacuti was told that he would conquer many peoples. The Incan
Empire was vast but short-lived; it is considered to have ended with the Spanish conquest in 1536.
Expanding from their center, Cuzco, the Incas created a vast state spread along the western coast of
South America for more than 2500 miles (4300km), from modern Colombia to modern Chile. The area
contained an estimated 9 to 13 million inhabitants who, prior to the Incan conquest, had resided in
agricultural communities under the leadership of local chieftains. The Incas’ success in establishing
control was only partially the result of their military prowess. If the Incas’ success at empire building
cannot be wholly explained by their military power, it can be understood in terms of their
organizational skill and by the power of their religion. As they conquered, they co-opted,
organized, and converted. They aimed to be beneficent, lenient conquerors, preferring peaceful
incorporation of local communities to the destruction of those who resisted. Those who
acquiesced to Incan control avoided being plundered. Chieftains of conquered areas who did not
resist were adopted into the structure of the empire as it emerged. Some were co-opted by
marriage into the royal family; blood and lineage ties were important. By contrast, those who
resisted the Incas or rebelled were harshly dealt with and subject to severe penalties ranging from
mass removal and redistribution to slaughter. The ideology of conquest claimed that Incan rule
brought reason; that is, it saved people from themselves and lifted them out of savagery and war,
out of the chaos that had existed before the conquest. Those who accepted Incan conquest also
adopted the cult connected with the Incan ruler, for the Incas propagated their religion as they
conquered. The founders of the Incan Empire called their supreme god Viracocha (“Lord”), after
an earlier ruler, and they considered him equivalent to the sun. According to the legends
transmitted by the court historians, the first Inca was created to propagate and spread the cult of
the sun. Pachacuti, who consolidated the empire, worked out a ceremonial order and theology
that elevated Viracocha to a position of supremacy over other gods and that justified expansion
in ways that appeared to serve the interests of both conqueror and conquered.
Inca Politics
 Capital at Cuzco, religious center Machu Pichu
 4000 miles in length
 Made up of hundreds of tribes loosely ruled by the Inca
 Empire included deserts along the coast, jungle and high mountain villages
 Loose confederation of tribes
 Smart captives were trained/brainwashed in Cuzco to rule for Inca and then sent back home to
be Incan governors
 Maintain authority by trading supplies to “good” regions and not to “bad” regions
 Constant need to expand in order to support the trade/bribery with other regions
 Divine Kings
 Emperor and principle wife seen as gods
 Inca nobility dominate the bureaucracy
 Macchu Picchu
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Incan Economy
 Agriculturally based –
 terraced farming,
 different crops based on location and altitude
 Lots of labor/workers necessary for transport of goods
 Excellent Roads/infrastructure for transfer of goods from coastal desert to jungle to mountain
villages
 Trade from different regions provided lots of different food to eat
 Domesticated and bred hundreds of varieties of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers
Incan Religion
 Religious tolerance but must worship Incan gods
 Polytheistic, sun god is most important
 Human sacrifice rare
 Great Inca – emperor, descendant of the sun god
 Inca gods: Inti and Viracocha
 Venerated sun god called Inti
 Considered some other natural forces divine
 Also honored the creator god, Viracocha
 Sacrifices of animals, agricultural products, not humans
 Moral thought
 Concept of sin: violation of established order
 Concept of after-death punishment and reward
 Rituals of absolving sins through confession, penance
Incan Social Life
 Diverse geography = diverse population
 Social hierarchy
 Kings/nobles
 Merchants/rich
 Farmers
 slaves
 land/money split to several heirs kept people more equal in wealth
 “Mita” – obligation to the empire (military service/public works)þ
 women have almost no rights but work hard farming and run the home
Inca Intellectual life and Art
 No writing!
 Incan Knots (Quipu) used to keep records of taxes, population, trade and names
 Mummies are common
 Nazca lines in the desert sand form animal shapes (possibly festival dancing patterns?)
 Quipu means "to tie".
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A quipu was composed of a rope to which a collection of counting-threads, each about 60
centimeters long, were tied.
Information was recorded on the threads using different materials, colors, ties and placement.
The most important information was placed on the leftmost thread. Yellow, white, and red
represented gold, silver, and soldiers, respectively.
In a population census, men and women were counted on separate quipus, in which the:
o 1st thread recorded persons over the age of 60
o 2nd thread recorded persons between 50 and 60 years ...
o 8th thread recorded babies, 0-1 years.
o When an event was to be recorded, a Quipu was used to store facts. The story itself had
to be memorized and could be retold using the Quipu's recorded facts. Interpretation of
a Quipu was complicated because every counter, Quipucamayo , used his own system of
ties and retold information from the Quipu orally
Inca Roads
The grand and seemingly infinite Inca roads were the empires most important accomplishments,
stretching nearly 4,000 miles across the land. The roads were centuries ahead of their time. So good that
when the Spanish came to the new world they were amazed with the roads, six carts wide, with trees
providing shade for travelers. Some of the Spanish even stated that the Inca roads were better than
those of Spain. Considering the fact that the Inca had not yet invented the wheel thus not having any
carts or chariots you would wonder why their roads would be so wide? Some experts believe the roads
were designed in this way for easy transportation of boulders from the quarry to the building site could
be easier.
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Inca Stone Building Technique
Another huge accomplishment by the Inca was their incredible stone buildings; not only were they able
to build in places that seem inaccessible, like the tops of mountain ridges, but just the way these
buildings were constructed was amazing. The Inca did not have bricks; instead they used stones to
pound the boulders smooth. This way they could be placed between other boulders without the use of
mortar. This is why when looking at an ancient Inca wall it can tend to resemble a puzzle. The greatest
site in which the Incas made that uses this type of building style is known today as Macchu Picchu.
Inca Social Structure and Trade
• Trade
• No large merchant class
• Incas bartered agricultural surplus locally
• Not much specialization
• The chief ruler
• Chief ruler was viewed as descended from the sun
• In theory, the god-king owned everything on earth
• After death, mummified rulers became intermediaries with gods
• Aristocrats and priests
• Aristocrats enjoyed fine food, embroidered clothes, and wore ear spools
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•
•
• Priests led celibate and ascetic lives, very influential figures
Peasants
• Delivered portion of their products to bureaucrats
• Besides supporting ruling classes, revenue also used for famine relief
• Provided heavy labor (mita) for public works
Society ruled as a socialist type centralized state
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Post-Classical Mesoamerica, 1000 – 1500 C.E.
Among the civilizations that followed abandonment of the Maya cities in the 8th centuries C.E. and the
collapse of Teotihuacan were the Toltecs and the Aztecs, who built on the achievement of their
predecessors but rarely surpassed them in except in political and military achievement. The Toltecs
created an empire whose influence extended beyond central Mexico. In the 15th century, the Aztecs
rose to create an empire organized for war, motivated by religion, and based on farming.
Aztec Society in Transition
Aztec society became more hierarchical as the empire grew and differentiated social classes developed,
although the older organization based on the calpulli never disappeared. Tribute was drawn from
subject peoples, but Aztec society confronted barriers that made it difficult to maintain a large
population.
Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas
After about 1300 C.E. in the Andean cultural hearth, a civilization emerged and spread its control over
the whole region. The Inca Empire was a highly centralized system that integrated different ethnic
groups into an imperial state. Extensive agriculture supported a state religion and a royal ancestor cult.
With notable achievements in architecture and metallurgy, the Incas, like the Aztecs, incorporated many
elements of the civilizations that preceded them.
The Other Indians
The civilizations of Mesoamerica and the Andes were high points of an Indian cultural achievement cut
short by contact and conquest. However, the Americas continued to be occupied by peoples who lived
in different ways, ranging from sedentary agricultural civilizations to kin-based bands of hunters and
gatherers.
Conclusion: American Indian Diversity in World Context
By the end of the 15th century, two imperial systems rose to dominate the centers of civilization in the
Americas. Both empires built on achievements of predecessors and both were militaristic. These
empires proved to be fragile, weakened by internal strains and conflicts that any imperial system creates
but also limited by their technological inferiority. The Americas contained a range of societies. In many,
religion played a dominant role in defining the relationship between people and their environment and
between the individual and society. But the Americas developed in isolation and it retarded many
aspects of their development.
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