Transcript Document

Chichén Itzá
I.
The Maya
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
3,000 years ago
Southern part of Mexico
Cleared thick jungles
By 250 AD covered 120,000 square miles
Population: 10 million
A. Skilled Farmers
1. Built terraces to farm hillsides
2. Extra food used for trade
3. Cacao beans used as a type of money
B. City Builders
1. Tall pyramids at the center of most
cities
2. Most lived in one-room homes near
their fields
C. Religion and Science
1. Priests most important people in the
empire
2. Gods thought to control sun, rain, and
other forces of nature
3. Developed accurate maps of star
groups
4. Developed 365-day calendar
5. Developed a system of numbers
including a symbol to represent 0.
D. Cultural Achievements
1. Hieroglyphs developed – writing based
on symbols instead of letters
2. Created paintings and jewelry
E. Mayan Decline
1. At height from 250 to 900
2. Drastic climate changes? No fertile
soil? Invasions?
3. 2 million descendants in Mexico and
Central America
Tenochtitlán
II. The Aztec
1. 1300 to 1520
2. Southern part of Mexico (west and north
of Mayan Empire)
A. Message From the Gods
1. Early Aztec told to settle where they
found an eagle perched on a cactus
2. Named settlement Tenochtitlán, meaning
“Place of the prickly Pear Cactus”
3. Present-day Mexico City
B. Greatness of Tenochtitlán
1. Three large causeways to connect
island capital with mainland
2. Built aqueducts to bring freshwater
from mountains
3. Stone pyramids for the priests
4. Outdoor markets, parks, schools,
barbershops, and a zoo.
5. Floating gardens
C. Conquest and Trade
1. Fierce and well-trained warriors
2. Conquered peoples forced to pay tribute
3. Class system
a. Nobles
i. Inherited position
ii. Government officials, priests, and warriors
b.
c.
d.
e.
Commoners – allowed to own land
Peasant farmers
Enslaved Persons
All paid tribute except nobles
4. Trade
a. Sent blue turquoise & chocolate
b. Traded as far away as southern US
D. Priests and Religion
1. Most important god was the god of
sun and war
2. Had over 1,000 gods
3. Priests kept historic records and
taught children
Machu Picchu
III. The Inca
1. Largest empire in the Americas
2. Stretched 2,500 miles
3. Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and parts of
Argentina and Chile
4. Expanded through peaceful means
5. Capital city Cuzco in the Andes
6. Ruler controlled all goods and
services
7. Farmed corn, beans, cotton, squash
in the valleys
8. Grew potatoes and raised llama and
alpaca in mountains
9. 10,000 mile road system built