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TRANSCRIPT
160 CHAPTER 6
Ancient Civilizations of Latin AmericaMany ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptian, developed in river valleys and thrived there. The rivers provided water for both irriga-tion and transportation. In Latin America, however, some ancientcivilizations flourished far from rivers. For example, the Maya ofMexico and Central America built cities in dense jungles. TheAztec of Mexico constructed their capital on a swampy island.The Inca of South America built cities high up in the Andes.
TERMS & NAMES
hieroglyph
chinampa
Machu Picchu
Hernán Cortés
Montezuma II
Francisco Pizarro
Atahualpa
Columbian Exchange
The ancient cultures of LatinAmerica established civilizations in challenging geographic settings.
These cultures serve as models forhow successful civilizations develop.
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW
EL MIRADOR, GUATEMALA, 200 B.C.—In El Mirador
today, a council of the city’s leaders made a major
announcement. Next month, construction will begin
on a massive building complex for the city’s center.
The plans include an enormous pyramid made
of three smaller pyramids
sitting atop a large stepped
platform. The council
expects to employ thousands
of people to cut and carry
the stone slabs that will be
used to build the structure.
The project is expected
to take many months to
complete.
Ancient Latin
America
Ancient Latin
America
TAKING NOTES
Location
Dates
Maya Aztec
Use your chart to take notes about Latin America.
Place • An artist made
this drawing to show
what El Mirador’s
three-part pyramid
will look like. .
Image not available for use
on this CD-ROM. Please
refer to the image in the
textbook.
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The MayaIn the areas that are today southern and easternMexico, western Honduras, Guatemala, ElSalvador, and Belize, the ancient Maya built awidespread civilization. Small Maya communi-ties existed as early as 1600 B.C. From A.D. 250to A.D. 900, the Maya established one of LatinAmerica’s most important civilizations.
Maya Intellectual Advances The ancient Mayastudied math and astronomy extensively. TheMaya were among the first civilizations in theworld known to understand the advanced math-ematical concept of zero. They also had an intricate calendar system that included a 260-day calendar of sacred days, a 365-day calendarbased on the sun’s movement, and a calendarthat measured the number of days that hadpassed since a fixed starting point.
The Maya established the best-developed writ-ten language in ancient Latin America. The basicunits of the writing system were symbols calledhieroglyphs, or glyphs. Each glyph represented a word or a syllable.The U.S. lawyer John Lloyd Stephens, while traveling through theMaya area in the 1800s, described his awe at seeing the glyphs andnot being able to read them because no one had yet deciphered them.
Maya Agriculture Farming was essential to Maya life. Using amethod called slash-and-burn agriculture, the Maya cut down andburned trees, planting crops in their place. After a few years, they letthe forest grow back, so the soil could regain its nutrients. Later thearea could again be cut, burned, and farmed.The Maya also built upridges of farming land on floodplains. The floodplains were richwith nutrients, and the ridges kept the crops from getting too wet.
Latin America: Its Land and History 161
Many of the Maya hieroglyphshave now beendeciphered.
Culture • The Mayaoften carved hiero-glyphs on stonemonuments. m
A. DrawingConclusions Howdoes having a system of writing help a civilizationsurvive?
A VOICE FROM LATIN AMERICA
These structures . . . these stones . . . standing as they do in
the depths of a tropical forest, silent and solemn, strange in
design, excellent in sculpture, rich in ornament . . . their
whole history so entirely unknown, with hieroglyphics
explaining all, but perfectly unintelligible.
John Lloyd Stephens
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Decline of Maya Civilization Around A.D. 900,the Maya way of life began to change. Forunknown reasons, the construction of massivetemples and stone monuments stopped. Citieswere abandoned. However, the Maya people didnot disappear—they just spread out. More than6 million Maya people still live in Guatemala,Belize, and southern Mexico and speak dialectsbased on the languages of their Maya ancestors.
The AztecWhere modern Mexico City now stands, thewaters of Lake Texcoco once lapped the shoresof an island city called Tenochtitlán (teh•NOHCH•
tee•TLAHN). With as many as 200,000 inhab-itants, Tenochtitlán served as the capital of theAztec Empire.
Aztec Origins The Aztec were composed of anumber of tribes of wandering warriors. Ofthese, the Mexica (MEH•hee•KAH) were domi-nant. Mexico took its name from the Mexica.During the 1200s, the Aztec gradually grew innumbers and military strength until they con-trolled the region. They dominated until theearly 1500s, when the Spanish conquered them.
Aztec Warfare and Religion The Aztec Empire centered on war-fare. All able men, including priests, were expected to join the Aztecarmy, for two reasons. The first was to maintain a powerful empire,but the second was religious. The Aztec believed that anyone whodied in battle had the great honor of dying for Huitzilopochtli
(WEE•tsuh•loh•POHCH•tlee), the Aztec god of war.
Aztec Agriculture The Aztec held great powerover their empire. One reason for their success
was that the island location of their capital pro-tected them from attack. However, much ofthe island was marsh, posing a major challengeto farming. The resourceful Aztec built float-ing gardens, called chinampas (chee•NAHM•
pahs), on which they grew crops. First, theypiled up plants from the water. Then they
anchored these rafts between trunks of willow trees.
Culture • Thisstone carvinghonors the Aztecsun god, whoseface is shown in the center. .
Colossal Olmec Heads Mexico’s
oldest known civilization is called
the Olmec, which flourished from
about 1200 to 600 B.C. The Olmec
are famous for the colossal heads
(like the one shown below) that
they carved from a type of stone
called basalt.
Thought to be portraits of Olmec
rulers, some of these heads stand
over nine feet tall. Each weighs thou-
sands of pounds. All of Mexico’s later
Native American cultures were influ-
enced by the Olmec. However, only
the Olmec produced these giant
stone monuments.
162 CHAPTER 6
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Finally, they heaped the lake’s fertile mud on the piles to createplots for farming. The Aztec grew many crops, such as maize,beans, squash, avocados, tomatoes, peppers, and flowers. Theyalso raised turkeys, ducks, geese, and dogs for food.
The IncaAround 1400, high in the Andes of Peru, a group of people calledthe Inca rose up to conquer the people of the surrounding areas.From their capital, Cuzco, the Inca soon ruled a huge empire thatincluded parts of what are now Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia,northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina.
Inca Agriculture To farm on the steep mountainsides, the Incabuilt stone terraces. These gave the Inca large areas of flat land tofarm. The terraces also helped prevent erosion of the soil. In thedesert lands to the west, the Inca built irrigation canals to watertheir crops. Some of these canals spanned entire valleys. Becauseof terracing and irrigation, Inca farmers were able to grow cropssuch as potatoes, maize, and a grain called quinoa.
Latin America: Its Land and History 163
Willows
Mud Plants
Crops
Aztec Chinampas
Human-EnvironmentInteraction •This infographicshows how theAztec built andfarmed the chinampas. m
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1. Analyzing MotivesWhy did people living in the
Andes need to build terraces
and canals?
2. Recognizing EffectsWhat role did agriculture
play in the building and
maintenance of the Inca
Empire?
THINKINGTHINKING
C
ritically
Andean AgricultureLong before the rise of the Inca Empire, people living in the
Andes had learned to farm the steep valley walls by building
terraces into the sides of the mountains. They had also learned
to build canals, many of them lined with stone, to carry
water to their crops. The Inca improved and expanded
the existing terraces and canals until they could
feed 15 million people, with enough food
left over to put away stores for three
to seven years.
In the Andes, valley walls
rise as high as 10,000 feet
and temperatures can span
a 55-degree range.
The Inca grew maize, hundreds of kinds of potatoes,
and many other crops. Farmers had to plant crops
adapted to many different climates because of the
great variations in altitude and temperature.
Workers directed by royal
architects built stone retaining
walls. Inside the walls, they placed
layers of stone, clay, gravel, and
topsoil. This combination allowed
water to slowly work its way to
lower terraces.
The Inca had few farm tools. The most
widely used was the taclla, or digging
stick. It consisted of a pointed hardwood
pole with a footrest for pushing the
tool into the ground. Some tacllas had
metal tips. The other main tools were
hoes and clubs.
164 UNIT 3 Latin America
Inca canals stretched for
miles. They were often
lined and covered with
stones. Some were cut
through solid rock.
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Inca Weaving The Inca had no formal written language, but they
used weaving as a means of representing ideas. Using wool sheared
from llamas and alpacas, as well as many colorful plant dyes, the Inca
wove images into the fabrics they wore and traded. Concepts related
to the passing of seasons, agricultural practices, and history were all
represented in the weavings. In Peru today, Edwin Sulca Lagos is
famous for his Inca-inspired weavings. This one is covered in designs
from the Inca calendar.
THINKING CRITICALLY
1. HypothesizingWhat sorts of images might the Inca have used to convey conceptssuch as time or seasons?
2. Identifying ProblemsWhat risks did the Inca face by recording ideas only on fabric?
Communicating Across the Inca Empire Stoneroads were a major technological feat of the Inca.These roads are still in use today. Having no writ-ten language or knowledge of the wheel, Incarulers ordered roads built on which runners car-ried verbal messages to distant places.The runnersworked in relay teams stationed along the roads.One runner told the message to the next.Messages could travel 150 miles a day along thestone roads. This system of communication was important to theInca because their empire spread out over thousands of miles.
Inca Stonework The Inca are known for their stonework. Theyerected many massive buildings, some with stones weighing asmuch as 200 tons. Wooden rollers were used to move these heavystone blocks. The most remarkable of Inca stonework is the cityof Machu Picchu (MAH•choo PEEK•choo), which still standsalmost 8,000 feet above sea level. The walls of Machu Picchuwere constructed so that they appear to emerge from the moun-tainsides. Around them, terraces connected by stairways rundown the steep slopes. (See photograph on pages 140–141.)
Latin America: Its Land and History 165
B. RecognizingEffects How didbuilding stoneroads improve theability of the Incarulers to control alarge region?
Culture •The Inca keptrecords bytying knots in aseries of stringscalled quipu
(KEE•poo). b
For more on Inca weaving, go to
CL AS SZONE .COM
RESEARCH LINKS
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166 CHAPTER 6
Imagine you live in Tenochtitlán and have spent the day constructing chinampas.Write a letter to a friend describing the process.
SECTION ASSESSMENT
Terms & Names
1. Explain the signifcance of: (a) hieroglyph (b) chinampa (c) Machu Picchu (d) Hernán Cortés
(e) Montezuma II ( f ) Francisco Pizarro (g) Atahualpa (h) Columbian Exchange
Using Graphics
2. Use a chart like the one below tolist effects of the Spanish arrivingin Latin America.
Main Ideas
3. (a) Describe the writing systemthat the Maya developed.
(b) How did the Inca pass impor-tant messages across great distances?
(c) What was the ColumbianExchange and how did it work?
Critical Thinking
4. Recognizing Effects
How did the Maya, Aztec, and Incadevelop agricultural methods thatresponded to the environments inwhich they each lived?
Think About
◆ physical surroundings
◆ available resources
1.
2.
3.
4.
Effects of Spanish Arrival in Latin America
Culture •Montezuma IIwas a greatwarrior whowas fearedthroughout theAztec Empire. m
The Spanish in Latin AmericaUntil about 500 years ago, Latin America was populatedsolely by Native Americans. In the 1500s, the Spanish arrivedin the region. One famous Spanish soldier, Hernán Cortés(ehr•NAHN kawr•TEHS), captured the Aztec ruler,Montezuma II (MAHN•tih•ZOO•muh), in 1519. Heclaimed the Aztec Empire for Spain in 1521 and renamedit New Spain. A decade later, another Spanish soldier,Francisco Pizarro, defeated the Inca ruler, Atahualpa(AH•tuh•WAHL•puh), and claimed Atahualpa’s empire forSpain.
Time of Change Once in control of Latin America, the Spanishenslaved many Native Americans and forced them to do labor,such as mining silver.The Spanish also worked hard to convert theNative Americans to Christianity.
Latin America and Spain also exchanged culture. Ships carryingLatin American goods sailed to Spain. The Spanish soon begangrowing corn, peppers, and tomatoes—crops they had never seenbefore. Manufactured products from Spain, especially textiles, werealso shipped to Latin America. So were foods and animals, such aspeaches and pigs. This trade was part of the Columbian Exchange,or the exchange of goods and ideas between European countries andtheir colonies in North and South America.
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