Transcript The Americas - Your School

The Americas
Pre-Invasion (ca 1492)
2 Major Regions:
• Mesoamerica
– Maya (cities
abandoned around
8th C.)
– Toltec
– Aztec
• Andean
– Incas
Mayans
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300 BCE-800 CE
Pyramids
City states
Religion and Society:
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Quetzalcoatl
Polytheistic
Human sacrifice
Popol Vuh
Patriarchal
Toltecs
• nomads who settled @ Tula
around 968
• giver of civilization
• Empire reached to Yucatan
• economically reached SW
America: obsidian &
turquoise
• Religion and Society:
– Quetzalcoatl
– Human sacrifice
Aztecs
• Nomadic invasions in central Mexico around
1150
• By 1434, Aztecs were regions’ dominant power
• Capital located on island in Lake Texcoco,
Tenochtitlan (200,000?)
• Religion and Society:
– Highly stratified society under a powerful leader;
military elite was highest strata
– Expanded the practice of human sacrifice
Yes, I said human sacrifice
• Religion and Society con’d:
– Balance of religion and war
demanded conquest
(Huitzilopochtli)
– Warriors provided slaves for
sacrifice
– Human sacrifice expanded to
include cannibalism
– Women: no role in public; high
honor as mothers of future
warriors
Economy of Aztec Empire
• Tribute system
– All conquered people lost land and
gave food in tribute
• Agriculture
– Irrigation system around the capital,
Tenochtitlan
– Chinampas
– Maize, cacao, beans, squash
• Market for exchanging longdistance goods: jade, emeralds,
parrot feathers, vanilla beans
• State-controlled mixed economy
Aztec Social Structure
• Calpulli—Aztec clans; by 16th C, became
residential groupings as opposed to kinship
groups
• Pipiltin (nobility) controlled military and
priesthood
• Military values
• Women inherited property, but subordinate to
men
• Any similarities to other cultures?
Incas
• Emerged as civilization around 1300
• Why did they expand?
– Economic gain
– Political power
– “split inheritance”all titles & power went to
successor, but wealth & land remained in
hands of male descendents for supporting the
mummyjustified endless expansion
Imperial Rule
• The Inca (emperor) considered a god
• Ruled from Cuzco
• Bureaucracy
– Local rulers (curacas) stayed in office in return for
loyalty
– Exempt from tribute, received labor/produce from
subjects
– Conquered peoples could retain culture/leaders
• Quechua
More Incan Policies
• Forced transferkept empire stable
• Administrators:
– Complex public works system
• Roads, bridges, causeways, etc.kept
military mobile
• Built for people when too big for them
to do it themselves (irrigation projects)
– Mitarequired labor shifts
– Conquered peoples provided land and
labor
– Local resources taken and redistributed
• No writing system, but quipu (knotted
strings) helped with accounting
Incan Society & Religion
• Hierarchy: Inca rulers
aristocrats priests peasants
• Women
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Wove cloth
Taken as concubines
Worked in households
Female inheritance
Idea of gender cooperation
Still, male dominance
• Religion
– Sun god, Inti
– Some human sacrifice, mostly animal
– Sin = violation of social order
Aztecs, Incas, and…?
Location of empire
Capital city
Government
Policy toward
conquered
peoples
Religion
Agriculture
technology
On your own piece of
paper, compare the Aztecs,
the Incas, and one other
culture (600-1450), using
the categories at
right…This means, create
a chart!