Chapter 7.1: Civilizations of the Americas

• What were the requisite steps in the process?

• A. At least 30,000 years ago the

Earth grew much cooler

• 1. Earth’s water froze in to

expanding polar ice caps

• 2. ice caps and glaciers caused

oceans and seas (water) levels to

drastically drop

• 3. lower sea levels exposed land

that is underwater today

• 4. hunter-gatherer (Paleolithic)

peoples followed their food source

and migrated

• B. humans enter North, Central, and South America

between 70,000 and 15,000 years ago via Bering

Strait

•1. humans either walked across following their food

•2. followed closely to the coast line and sailed across

• C. global warming began in 10,000 BCE

• 1. a world-wide temperature increase

• 2. exposed land (Bering Strait) is submerged back under water thus

stranding “Americans”

• 3. ice-age animals die off due to climate change and human hunters

• A. Americans begin farming and domesticating animals

between 8,050 and 2,000 BCE

• 1. maize (corn), beans, sweat potatoes, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes,

and squash

• 2. guinea pigs and…

• B. Americas have NO horses, cow, pig, sheep, or other large “work”

animals

• 1. less protein in their diets

• 2. rely on human muscle power to build civilizations of the Americas

• A. Regions

• 1. North America = Canada, United States and Mexico

• A. Regions

• 2. Central America = Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,

Nicaragua, and Panama

• A. Regions

• 3. South America =

• Argentina,

• Bolivia,

• Brazil,

• Chile,

• Columbia,

• Ecuador,

• Guyana,

• Paraguay,

• Peru,

• Surinam,

• Uruguay,

• Venezuela and

• French Guiana

A. Regions

• 4. Caribbean = the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,

Jamaica (Greater Antilles) and dozens of other islands as part of the Lesser Antilles

• B. Major Mountain Ranges

• 1. Rocky Mts., Sierra Madres, Andes, and Appalachian Mts.

• C. Major Rivers

• 1. Mississippi in North America

• 2. Amazon in South America

• A. 1400 BCE to 500 BCE

• B. along the Gulf of Mexico; tropical rainforest

• C. built ceremonial centers for worship; not “cities” but rather meeting

places

• D. ruled by powerful priest rulers

• E. mysterious Olmec giant heads

• 1. at La Venta, each head weighs 40-tons (no animals

or wheels to move!)

• 2. giant heads have interesting and confusing features

• F. extensive trade network made Olmec cities

wealthy

• 1. first to use the grinning jaguar and serpent in

mythology/art

• 2. introduce the idea of a “cyclical” calendar

• 3. introduce the trend of powerful priest rulers who

demand tributes and sacrifices

• A. controlled territory from 300 CE to 900 CE

• B. mostly in Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico and Guatemala

• C. cleared large fields within the rainforest

• 1. rainforests are notoriously difficult to farm

• 2. used slash and burn agriculture

• 3. built large bowl-shaped fields to manage water and add fertilizer

• 4. produced hundreds of varieties of maize (corn)

• D. Mayan Temples and Palaces

• 1. Tikal, Chichen Itza, etc.

• 2. large “cities” in the middle of the rainforests

• a. tallest structures in the Americas until Chicago skyscrapers in 1903!

• 3. used for sacrifices

• 4. stone carvings tell us much about the Maya

• 5. Mayan wealth was based on extensive trade networks and their control of them

• a. honey, cocoa, cotton cloth, feathers, jade and shells

• E. Mayan Social Classes

• 1. each city had its own ruling priest

• 2. educated priests and warriors = aristocracy

• a. power of priests comes from their knowledge of how and when to perform

critical sacrifices and ceremonies

• F. Mayan Advances in Knowledge

• 1. had a hieroglyphic writing system

• a. mostly destroyed by the invading Spanish

• 2. expert mathematics

• a. understood the concept of zero and used a

base 20 counting system

• 3. amazingly accurate calendars

• a. a 365-day solar calendar

• b. a 260-day calendar based on the orbit of

Venus

G. Mayan Decline

• 1. abandoned their cities around 900 CE

• a. cities not rediscovered until modern times!

• 2. Causes:

• a. frequent wars and high taxes imposed to fight them

• b. overpopulation lead to overproduction of land = not enough food / no

surplus

• c. cost of temples and palaces on poor farmers (remember, human power)

• d. many may have simply decided to leave and go back to hunting and

gathering in small societies

• 3. Mayan culture and language still exists today

• 1. What domesticated plants and animals were available to the indigenous humans in the Americas?

• maize (corn), beans, sweat potatoes, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and squash

• llamas, alpacas and guinea pigs

• 2. What MAJOR domesticated plants / animals did the native humans to the Americas NOT have?

• Horses, cows, pigs, sheep, oxen, southeast Asian water fowl

• Wheat, rice and other cereal grains

• 3. Explain, in detail using evidence, how humans came to populate the Americas.

• Ice Age - drastically colder temperatures - causes water to freeze on land as glaciers - ocean levels drop – land is exposed (Bering Strait) – plants and animals migrate –Paleolithic gathers and hunters follow food source = Americans

• 4. Explain how the Maya farmed.

• used slash and burn agriculture

• built large bowl-shaped fields to manage water and add fertilizer

• produced hundreds of varieties of maize (corn)

• 5. Why did the Maya civilization collapse?• frequent wars and high taxes imposed to fight them

• overpopulation lead to overproduction of land = not enough food / no surplus

• cost of temples and palaces on poor farmers (remember, human power)

• many may have simply decided to leave and go back to hunting and gathering in small societies

• 6. Why have human societies performed sacrifices within religious traditions?

• Align the following key concepts and evidence into the

correct corresponding SPICE category:

• Gender Roles

• Family and kinship

• Social and economic classes

• Political structures and forms of government

• Empires

• Revolts / revolutions

• Demography and disease

• Migration

• Patterns of settlement

• Technology

• Religions

• Belief systems, philosophies and

ideologies

• Science and technology

• Art and architecture

• Agricultural and pastoral

production

• Trade and commerce

• A. Teotihuacan

• 1. “the place of those who have

the roads to the gods”

• 2. ruled from 100 CE to c. 700 CE

• 3. controlled Valley of Mexico,

high plateau surrounded by snow-

capped volcanoes

• A. Teotihuacan

• 4. well-planned, grid-like city shows

expert planning

• a. roads

• b. temples of the Sun and Moon

• c. massive apartment complexes

• 5. eventually conquered, but influence

other Mesoamericans like the Aztecs

• B. The Aztecs

• 1. in 1200s CE, the semi-nomadic Aztec tribe sees their prophesy

fulfilled

• B. The Aztecs

• 2. built their capital city, Tenochtitlan, in the shallow Lake Texcoco

• a. modern-day city of Mexico City (DF)

• b. linked to mainland by causeway and canals

• B. The Aztecs

• 3. used new and creative ways to

farm

• a. build chinampas – floating

man-made islands anchored to

the lake bed

• b. grew maize, beans, and

squash

• B. The Aztecs

• 4. conquerors of an empire

• a. in 1400s CE Aztecs begin a policy of imperialism

• i. created an extensive system of conquest and alliances

• b. by 1500 CE, over 30 million humans under Aztec rule

• c. tributes (payment from conquered peoples) helped turn Tenochtitlan into a

magnificent capital of the Aztec empire

• i. many palaces, temples, and floating gardens and zoos

• C. Aztec Government

• 1. emperors were chose by a council of

elders, priests, and nobles

• 2. nobles served as leaders of conquered

provinces

• 3. warriors who could become nobles by

winning wars or by capturing slaves

• 4. most people were common farmers

• 5. slaves were criminals and captured

warriors

• a. could actually own land and buy their

freedom

• D. Aztec Wealth

• 1. aside from riches from conquest, the Aztecs became wealthy by

controlling trade routes and networks just like the Olmecs, Mayas and

countless other civilizations

• E. Aztec Religious Beliefs

• 1. polytheistic

• 2. Huitzilopochtli, the Sun god, was the chief deity

• a. believed to battle Darkness every night

• b. needed human sacrifices to gain strength to

win this fight each night

• c. tens of thousands of humans were sacrificed

to Huitzilopochtli and other Aztec gods

• i. mostly slaves captured in war

• ii. sometimes sacrifices came from important ruling

families

• 3. religious beliefs caused Aztecs to ALWAYS be at

war

• a. made them easy to conquer because they

had so many enemies

• b. Hernan Cortez, a Spanish Conquistador, uses

Roman divide and conquer strategies to defeat

the Aztecs in 1524

• F. Aztec Knowledge

• 1. in many ways, similar to Mayas

• a. mathematics, hieroglyphics, and complex calendar system

• b. moderately advanced medical knowledge

• F. Aztec Knowledge

• 2. a prophecy fulfilled

• – Netzahualcoyotl from The Flute of the Smoking Mirror

• F. Aztec Knowledge

• 2. a prophecy fulfilled

• b. Quetzalcoatl was predicted to return to Earth to claim what was rightfully his

(everything!)

• 1. was a light-skinned god

• 2. shined like the sun

• 3. rode other gods into battle and was covered in monstrous hair...

• Align the following key concepts and evidence into the correct corresponding SPICE category:

• eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in

it’s beak (C)

• Lake Texcoco

• Tenochtitlan

• gathering & hunting

• chinampas

• canals & causeways

• military expansion and conquest

• tribute

• 30 million people

• empire

• jewels of gold and silver, shells and exotic

feathers

• council of nobles and priests

• emperors to lead war

• bureaucratic officials and judges

• governors appointed to rule conquered

provinces

• wearing luxurious feathered cloaks & gold

jewelry

• warriors

• commoner farmers

• slaves (mostly criminals and pows)

• long-distant merchants

• spies

• Huitzilopochtli

• human sacrifice

• priests

• recorded history and legal codes

• schools

• astronomy and mathematics

• accurate calendar

• herbal medicine / setting broken

bones / cavities

• What is the relationship between

Aztec warfare and their religious

beliefs?

• Demography and disease

• Migration

• Patterns of settlement

• Technology

• Ancestral Aztec migration

• Lake Texcoco

• Tenochtitlan (P/E)

• chinampas (E/C)

• canals & causeways (P)

• 30 million people (P/E/S)

• Political structures and forms of government

• Empires

• Revolts / revolutions

• military expansion and conquest

• empire

• council of nobles and priests (S)

• governors appointed to rule conquered provinces

• spies (S)

• Agricultural and pastoral production

• Trade and commerce

• tribute (P)

• jewels of gold and silver, shells and exotic feathers (C/I)

• Gender Roles

• Family and kinship

• Social and economic classes

• gathering & hunting (not Aztecs) (I/C)

• emperors to lead war (P)

• Priests (C)

• warriors (P)

• commoner farmers

• slaves (mostly criminals and pows)

• long-distant merchants (E/I)

• Religions

• Belief systems, philosophies and ideologies

• Science and technology

• Art and architecture

• eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in it’s beak

• Huitzilopochtli

• human-sacrifice

• recorded history and legal codes (P)

• schools

• astronomy and mathematics

• accurate calendar

• herbal medicine (I) / setting broken bones / cavities