Download Maya, Aztec, Inca

Empires of the
Maya, Aztec, and Inka
Laura Drummond
HIST 8420
September 14, 2016
Maya
Aztec
Inka
https://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/5565
EMPIRE
Empires are polities which extend relations of power
across territorial spaces over which they have no prior
or given legal sovereignty, and where, in one or more of
the domains of economics, politics, and culture, they
gain some measure of extensive hegemony over those
spaces for the purpose of extracting or accruing value.
Paul James and Tom Nairn,
Globalization and Violence, Vol. 1: Globalizing Empires, Old and New,
London: Sage Publications, 2006, p. xxiii.
Patterns & Periods of Indigenous Life
• Nonsedentary
– Hunters & gatherers 11000 – 7000 BCE
• Semisedentary
– Archaic 7000 – 2500 BCE
• Fully Sedentary
– Pre-Classic 2500 BCE – 1 CE
– Classic 1 CE – 1000
– Post-Classic 1000 – 1500
Components of Empire
• Permanent agricultural base
• Urbanization
– Eventually the forms of cities reflected the distinct
areas of work, worship, administration as well as
the social hierarchy
• Specialization of labor
• Stratified society
• Commerce across a large region
Mesoamerican Climate Zones
Mesoamerica’s diverse
geographic and climatic
zones
The Maya city of Palenque, located
deep in the lowland rain forest in
the northeast of the state of
Chiapas, in the Tierra Caliente, was
reclaimed from the jungle.
Teotihuacán pre-dates the Aztec
empire, within the territory later held
by the. It is located about 30 miles
northeast of the site of Tenochtitlan,
the Aztec capital, on a dry plain
surrounded by distant mountains, in
the Tierra Fría.
Resplendent Quetzal
and
Quetzalcoatl, “the
feathered serpent,” the
God of Wind and
Wisdom
Components of Empire
• Expansion of the empire by military
aggression
– After conquest, colonization
• Exaction of tribute in the form of
goods and labor
• Identity of religious cult with
government
Religion and Empire
• Religion was an effective tool of
imperialism
– Mexicas claimed to be the successors to
Quetzalcoatl, the ancient plumed serpent god,
who was supposed to return and inaugurate a
new golden age
– Mexicas claimed the Sun God had to be sustained
by offerings of beating human hearts, justifying
their constant warfare and taking of victims to be
sacrificed
Mesoamerica
Maya Empire 331 CE-1000 CE
Maya Culture
• Skillful sculptors and painters
• Architecturally advanced, used corbeled arch
• Developed the codex from folded bark cloth
paper
Maya Religion
• Distinctive world view: they were living in the
last era which would have a catastrophic end
• To stave that off, they sacrificed humans
• Their end times beliefs led them to develop:
– Complex calendrical systems
– Astronomical and astrological knowledge
– Sophisticated mathematics— including zero, base
20 numeric system, numeric symbols so they
could count into the billions
The world did not end on December 21, 2012.
The Maya never said that it would.
Maya Decline
•
•
•
•
•
Collapsed between 750 and 900
Nobles challenging divine right of kings
Warfare
Demographic stress—too many people
Ecological stress—incapable of sustaining
large populations
Climate Change
• Climate deterioration caused by human
deforestation which altered vegetation in
ways that mimic climate shifts
• 800-1000 was the driest of the middle to late
Holocene epoch, which coincided with the
collapse of Classic Maya civilization
Resistance to Spanish Domination
•
•
•
•
1525 Guatemala; 1546 Yucatan
Maya culture has transformed over time
Mayas still speak Maya
Maya revolutionaries
– 1761 Canek, a Yucatec Maya, led brief revolt
against the Spanish
– 1992 Rigoberto Menchú, a Quiché Mayan woman
of Guatemala, won the Nobel Peace Prize for
calling world attention to the atrocities of
Guatemala’s dirty war.
– 1994 Maya Zapatistas resisted NAFTA
Aztec Empire 1325-1521 CE
Tenochtitlán / Mexico City
in the middle of Lake Texcoco
Chinampas –
“floating islands”
in Xochimilco
today
Land reclamation
technique for
intensive
agriculture
Tenochtitlán “The Venice of America”
Mesoamerican Ball Game
Ullamaliztli / Pok-to-pok
Ceramic
ballcourt
model,
Nayarit,
Mexico, 200
BCE – 500 CE
(Loser?) Ballplayer Sacrifice
Inka
Civilization
1200-1546
The largest
American
pre-Columbian
empire
Inka Empire
• Levied tribute upon the conquered, mostly in
the form of forced labor
• Created a more sophisticated central
bureaucracy to administer the system in
reaction to the contrasts of climate and terrain
within the empire
• Vertical archipelagos: Dispersed, specialized
labor for production of different products
throughout the varied ecological tiers 
necessity of redistribution and reciprocity
Inka Religion &
Empire
• Cult of the Sun God required sacrifice (by live
burial) of youths and children who had to be
physically perfect
• Food and animal sacrifices were routine
• High priests were relatives of the supreme Inka
ruler
• Close identification of religion with government
gave great power to the state
• Feats of building demonstrate the empire’s
ability to mobilize human labor
Ancient
terracing still in
use near Pisac,
Peru
Irrigation
system at
Tipon, Peru
Dry-laid stone
(no mortar)
from the
Fortress of
Sacsayhuaman
on the
outskirts of
Cuzco
Qhapaq Ñan
“the great road”
• Built without metal, the wheel,
or stock animals
• 17 types of bridges, including
rope suspension bridges
• Spanned complicated terrain
• Had no engineering instruments
• Had no conventional writing
system
Vicuña fawn
Pre-Columbian America never:
•
•
•
•
•
Invented the wheel
Discovered how to smelt iron
Developed a phonetic alphabet
Domesticated draft animals
Built ships
This just in: The Grolier Codex is real!
• 13th century Maya
codex
• Discovered by looters
• Long believed to be a
20th century fake
• Confirmed as genuine
by carbon dating, dye
analysis and recent
scholarship
• Reported 09/12/2016