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Mesoamerica
Chapter 6
Remember to fill in your
Mesoamerica Notes as we progress
through today’s PowerPoint.
Olmec
Known as the “Mother Civilization” because it was
the first great Mesoamerican civilization
Farmed maize (corn), beans, squash, & other crops
seen throughout all Mesoamerican civilizations
Had a theocracy where the priests & government
officials were the most powerful in society and the
main leader was considered a god
Olmec
Used & traded honey,
salt, jade, obsidian, &
basalt
Sculpted giant heads to
represent their sacred
rulers
Developed a number
system, a writing system,
a calendar, & a naturebased religion that show
up in later
Mesoamerican
civilizations
Maya
Lived in large & advanced cities, like Tikal & Chichen Itza,
where they built observatories, palaces, plazas, baths,
reservoirs, & aqueducts (long structures used to carry water
from countryside into city – supports large urban
populations)
Also had a nature-based religion, a theocracy (remember:
leader is considered a god), a calendar, number & writing
systems, and farmed the same crops as Olmec
Like the ancient civilizations of Egypt &
Mesopotamia, Mesoamericans built
massive pyramids. Mayan pyramids
served as sacred religious temples. After
the decline of the Maya, the Aztec also
built pyramids in Mesoamerica – they
became famous sites for hundreds of
thousands of human sacrifices made to
appease the gods.
Maya
Very interested in astronomy, creating a precise calendar,
& predicting events in the future
Observatories allowed their priests to observe the sun,
stars, moon, & planets and record astronomical events
Mayan calendars not
only tracked the days,
months, & years – they
also included dates for
eclipses &
astronomical events
prophesies that
predicted events in the
future.
Take out your
Americas Notes from
Monday!
Aztec
Aztecs
Played ulama (the Mesoamerican ballgame) like Olmec & Maya
Focused on math & astronomy, and farmed corn & squash
The game of ulama dates
back almost 4,000 years in
Mesoamerica. Players
bounced a heavy rubber ball
off their hips, knees, &
elbows with the goal of
putting it through hoops –
the team that scores the
first 8 points wins. While
most games were stopped
after 2 hours, one game in
history lasted 8 days before
a winner was declared!
Aztec
Tenochtitlan
Capital city based on man-made islands in Lake Texcoco – site
of the modern-day capital of Mexico, Mexico City
Aztecs built chinampas (man-made islands for farmland) &
causeways (bridges)
Aztec
Leaders
Moctezuma I expanded Aztec Empire and brought wealth & power
Moctezuma II led a wealthy empire until Hernando Cortes, the
Spanish conquistador, came & conquered the empire
Aztec
Leaders
Cortes was able to conquer the mighty Aztec empire
with only a few hundred men because he had guns,
horses, and steel swords & armor. An ancient Aztec
myth claimed their gods had pale skin, which led
some Aztecs to believe the conquistadors may have
been messengers of the gods.
Moctezuma II, however,
was suspicious of Cortes – when Cortes first met
him, he rode his horse and stopped within inches
of his face. Cortes remained still & unafraid to
show his strength. Cortes would later defeat his
army, take him captive, & execute him.
Aztec
Religion
Had a polytheistic religion –
believed in many nature-based
gods
Famous for sacrificing humans
to appease the gods – believed
that if the gods are happy, then
the people will be blessed with
good weather & numerous crops
Inca
Chapter 7
Remember to fill in your South
America Notes as we progress
through today’s PowerPoint.
inca
Geography
Settled in the
Andes Mountains in
Western South
America (modernday Peru & Chile)
inca
Machu Picchu
Mountain-top city that was a religious center
of the Inca with temples & mummies
inca
Machu Picchu
While the Inca often made crop & animal sacrifices to
appease the gods, they did not make as many human
sacrifices as the Aztec. However, 3 recently discovered
mummies showed that the Inca did sometimes practice
human sacrifice – with children. The 3 mummies that
were found were all children from poor families, who had
been dressed in traditional Inca clothes & headdresses,
fattened with llama meat, and heavily drugged before
being sacrificed to the
gods. Archaeologists
believe one may have died
a
after they left her to freeze
to death in the mountains,
while another may have
been suffocated.
inca
Cuzco
Inca capital city & center of learning & culture
Inca made alliances (rather than fighting wars) to
grow & expand into a vast empire
The Inca have relied on
llamas for centuries for
their wool, meat, & labor
in transporting goods
across long distances &
mountainous terrain.
They care for them very
well – just like we do with
our pets today.
inca
Empire
Achievements – Inca built hundreds of miles of roads
and became very skilled stoneworkers. The blocks of
stone used in their structures were cut to fit together so
perfectly, not even the blade of a knife could fit between
them.
People who joined the empire paid taxes through land,
labor, or participating in the Inca army
While the Inca never created a
writing system, they recorded
important government decrees, taxes,
& crop production information with
their quipu system. A quipu was a rope
with various lengths & colors of cords
that could be knotted together in
various ways to symbolize different
distances, amounts, or objects.
inca
Francisco Pizarro
Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador who
conquered the Inca with only 167 men due to having
guns, steel swords, armor, and horses.
Advantages:
Guns – can shoot enemy soldiers
at long distances
Steel swords – more durable than
American Natives’ weapons
Armor – provided protection from
weapons like arrows & spears
Horses – allowed Spanish to
quickly travel long distances & to
charge into battle & fight from
horseback
North America
Chapter 8
Remember to fill in your North
America Notes as we progress through
today’s PowerPoint.
North America
Anasazi
 “Mother” civilization of the Southwest – influenced all
Pueblo Native tribes that came after
 Used irrigation to farm in hot, dry climate
 Excellent craftsmen – made pottery, turquoise jewelry, &
woven baskets
North America
Anasazi
 Lived in pueblos – large apartment-like buildings made from
adobe bricks
 Pueblo Bonito – the heart of the Anasazi civilization featuring
a pueblo with more than 800 rooms
North America
Mississippian
 “Mother” civilization of the Southeast – influenced all Eastern Woodlands
tribes that came after
 Farmed in the Ohio Valley region
 Made copper jewelry & fine pottery
 Built massive temple mounds topped by temples or houses of tribe leaders
 Cahokia – largest city centered on 100-foot-high, 14-foot-wide mound near
modern-day St. Louis
North America
Adena & Hopewell
 Eastern Woodlands tribes
 Built huge burial mounds that grew taller over time as people died & were
buried by their loved ones
 Practiced large-scale farming and trade in a network that stretched west to
Wyoming, south to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Ocean, & north to
the Great Lakes
The Adena & Hopewell tribes
became known as the “Mound
Builders” because of their massive
burial mounds. They learned this
practice from the Mississippian
civilization that came before them.