Download Maya, Aztec and Inca.

Mesoamerica – advanced native civilizations of
Central America – Maya, Aztec and Inca.
 Where did humans first originate?
 How did people first come to America?
Maya – 300 – 900 A.D bloody civilization on the
Yucatan peninsula (Mexico).
Lived in the rainforest and built
cities in the jungle
*Gods fed on and survived
on human blood– human
sacrifice.
*Built pyramids
Huge cities – many cities. Some with
over 40,000 people
 Chichen-Itza – sacred Mayan religious center.
.
Chichen-Itza
 Pok-a-tok – sacred ball game of the
Maya.
 Using only head, knees and elbows get a rubber
ball through a hoop thirty feet off the ground.
 Winners win great prizes.
 Losers are sacrificed.
Brutal but brilliant
 Hieroglyph writing system –
 One of only five original writing systems
invented.
 Maya math – used zero. Used a form of
decimal system
= five
= one
 Great astronomers - predict eclipses of sun and moon.
Believed the earth moved through cycles of birth and
destruction.
 December 23rd, 2012 – Mayan Day of Doom – The end
of this cycle according to the Maya.
 Around 900 A.D. the Maya abandon their cities and return
to the jungle. No one knows why.
•Inca -
1200-1500 A.D. 2,500 mile long, 12 million people
empire in the Andes Mountains in S. America.
 Empire ruled by an emperor
 Capital city of Cuzco
 Bodyguards wore golden
armor
Farmed the Andes Mts.
 Lived and farmed
on the sides of
mountains –
potatoes and corn
 Terrace farming –
cutting steps into
mountain sides for
farming.
Inca never invented the
wheel!
 Never invented the wheel – used llamas as
work animal.
Great road system
 Road system – suspension
bridges, way stations, runners to
carry messages.
No written language
 Quipas – no written language – knots and
colored ropes to keep track of goods and
records for business.
All Inca cities destroyed
except…
 Machu Picchu – religious
city in the clouds.
 Not discovered until 1911.
 50 ton blocks cut precisely
 No mortar! Everything
cut perfectly.
 Incan mummies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK0PVKfN7M0
Aztecs – 1200 – 1500 A.D. – warlike
empire conquered all of Mexico.
Huitzilopochtli – sun and
war god of the Aztecs.
Demanded constant feeding
of human blood.
FEEEEDDD!!!! MEEEEE!
 Flowery Death – the honor of dying and
feeding the god!
 Aztecs sacrificed sometimes thousands a day.
 Some were volunteers. Others were captured
from war.
Aztecs conquer an empire
 Obsidian swords – didn’t have metal. Made
swords from volcanic rock obsidian.
 Extremely sharp swords but brittle. Also wore cotton
quilt armor.
What do you do with an
empire?
 Tribute – nation is forced to pay
heavy taxes to prevent invasion.
 Gold and in captives for sacrifice.
Aztecs were hated by the people
they ruled.
Put all that cash into the
Aztec capital city!!!!
 Tenochtitlan –great capital city of the Aztecs built in the
middle of a lake. Held 300,000 people with canals for
streets.
•Aqueducts brought
water to the city
•Hundreds of pyramids
to different gods. Some
coated in gold!
•Where present day
Mexico City is
Spanish invasions!
 Conquistadors: conquerors. Given the right
by Spain to hunt for treasure.
 keep 1/5 of all treasure found.
What treasure be there?
 El Dorado: legendary 7 cities
of gold in the Americas.
Hernando Cortez – Spanish
conquistador who landed in Mexico
in 1519 A.D. Has an army of 500
men, 16 horses and 14 cannon.
Conquer or die!
 Cortes lands in Mexico. Burns his
ships.
 Befriends native tribes.
 Met by emissaries of the Aztecs.
Cortes asks if they have any gold.
They say lots.
 “Bring it to us, for I and my companions
suffer from a disease of the heart that can
only be cured by gold.”
Cortez welcomed into
Tenochtitlan!
 Montezuma: Aztec emperor!
Believes whites represent powerful
nation.
 Cortes also shows up in the year of
the god Quetzalcoatl
 Quetzalcoatl: white skinned god
who once ruled over the Aztecs.
 Spanish have horses, guns, and
armor. Could Cortes be
Quetzalcoatl?
 Spanish horrified by sacrifice and
order it stopped. It is. Montezuma
taken prisoner.
 Months pass becomes obvious
Cortes just greedy white guy.
Aztecs chase them out.
 A year later Cortes returns with a
native army of 100,000.
 But, most of the Aztecs are
dead…
Smallpox
 Pizarro: Conquistador who
conquers the Incas with 350
men. Tons of Gold.
 Gold, gold, gold flows into
Spain making Spain a
superpower.
Spanish empire!
Columbian exchange
– gifts
exchanged by the Old World and the New World.
 Europe gets

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



Tomatoes
Corn
Potatoes
Squash
Chocolate
Tobacco
 America gets

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Slavery
Smallpox
Conquest
Horses