Honors World History--The Americas

First Americans
First human settlement and development of the Americas
North America
Hunter-gatherers
Following Ice Age herds from Asia
Also, new evidence of two other migrations:
Across Pacific by boat (Polynesian)
Across Atlantic by boat (European)
North America cont.
As people settled, they either adapted to or changed the environment
Ex: Desert Southwest agriculture/irrigation; Eastern Woodland use of available resources
Most advanced culture were the Moundbuilders of the Eastern Woodlands
--urban centers, temple mounds, expansive trade routes
Examples of Animals - Domestic
Dog – everywhere
Turkey – North America
Guinea Pig – Andean
Llama – Andean
Alpaca – Andean
Muscovy Duck –Andean
Tropical Birds – everywhere for feathers. Aztecs made cloaks from humming bird feathers
Raptors – raising eagles for feathers, North America
Turtles – penned and perhaps bred along the Amazon River near large settlements.

What NA Did Not Have
Maya had invented the wheel, but used it only on toys. Wheel was not used in New World.
Strong draft animals.
European-Asian diseases.
Mesoamerica
Beginning 1500 BC, series of civilizations emerged in central America
Olmec (1500 BC-400 BC): first Meso civilization; swampy coast of Gulf of Mexico; foundation for later Meso civilizations; extensive trade; slash/burn farming
Olmecs and Mayans
Olmecs
Earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared near modern day Vera Cruz around 1200 B.C.
Served as the nerve center for the first complex society of the Americas, the Olmecs
"Olmec" was not what the people called themselves
It means "rubber people" and comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region
Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
Intensive agricultural techniques
Area received abundant rainfall so extensive irrigation systems were unnecessary
Still the Olmecs built elaborate drainage systems to divert waters that might otherwise have caused floods
Specialization of labor
Jade craftsmen
Cities
Built around ceremonial centers at San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes
A social hierarchy
Society was probably authoritarian
Common subjects provided labor and tribute to the elite
Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
Organized religion and education
Ceremonial centers, priests, temples, altars, and human sacrifice
Development of complex forms of economic exchange
Imported jade and obsidian and exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of art
Development of new technologies
Excellent astronomers and mathematicians who developed a calendar
Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)
Created colossal human heads sculpted from basalt rock
Decline of the Olmec
Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers at both San Lorenzo and La Venta and then deserted the sites
Statues were broken and buried, monuments defaced, and capitals burned
No one knows why, but some speculate reasons involving civil conflicts or doubts about the effectiveness or legitimacy of the ruling classes
By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it

Olmec Influence on the Mayans
Maize
Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids
Calendar based on the Olmec one
Ball games
Rituals involving human sacrifice
Agriculture
Agriculture
Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility
Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production
Raised maize, cotton, and cacao
Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money
Mesoamerica cont.
The Maya(900 BC-900 AD): began as a collection of city-states in the Yucatan
Advanced society with complex religion, math and science (particularly astronomy), agriculture-based economy
Written language—one of the first in the Americas
Sudden collapse of Mayan civilization—cause unknown (civil war, attack, crops/weather)

Cities

Cities: Tikal
From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers
All had pyramids, palaces, and temples
Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities
The most important was Tikal
Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization
Cities: Tikal
Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries
Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000
The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000
Social Hierarchy
King and ruling family
Priests
Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)
Warriors
Professionals and artisans
Peasants
Slaves
Social Hierarchy
Professionals and artisans
Architects and sculptors supervised construction of the large monuments and public buildings
Peasants
Fed the entire society
Slaves
Provided physical labor for the construction of cities and monuments
Often had been captured in battle
Religion: Importance of Agriculture
Mayan religion reflected the fundamental role of agriculture in their society
Popol Vuh, was the Mayan creation myth that taught that the gods had created human beings out of maize and water
Gods kept the world in order and maintained the agricultural cycle in exchange for honors and sacrifices
Religion: Bloodletting Rituals
Mayans believed the shedding of human blood would prompt the gods to send rain to water the maize
Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals
Religion: The Ball Game
Mayans inherited a ball game from the Olmecs that was an important part of Mayan political and religious festivals
High-ranking captives were forced to play the game for their very lives
The losers became sacrificial victims and faced torture and execution immediately following the match
Object of the game was to propel an 8 inch ball of solid baked rubber through a ring or onto a marker without using your hands
New Technologies: Calendar
Mayan priests developed the most elaborate calendar of the ancient Americas
Interwove two kinds of year
A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle
A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty "months" of thirteen days each
Believed each day derived certain characteristics from its position on both the solar and ritual calendars and carefully studied the combinations
Writing
Expanded on Olmec tradition to create the most flexible and sophisticated of all early American systems of writing
Contained both ideographic elements and symbols for syllables
Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and astronomical records
Mayan Decline
By about 800, most Mayan populations had begun to desert their cities
Full scale decline followed everywhere but in the northern Yucatan
Possible causes include foreign invasion, internal dissension and civil war, failure of the water control system leading to agricultural disaster, ecological problems caused by destruction of the forests, epidemic diseases, and natural disasters
Aztecs
The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries who built an extensive empire. They called themselves Mexicas.This is the believed origin to the name of the country Mexico, which makes up much of where the Aztec civilization used to be.
The nucleus of the Aztec Empire was the Valley of Mexico, where their capital Tenochtitlan was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The capital of the modern-day nation of Mexico, the greater metropolitan area of Mexico City now covers much of the Valley of Mexico and the now-drained Lake of Texcoco.

Aztec civilization and society possessed a vibrant culture which included mandatory education and rich and complex mythological and religious traditions. For Europeans, the most striking element of the Aztec culture was the practice of human sacrifice which was conducted throughout Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish conquest.


In what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs in 1521 thus immortalizing himself and the Aztec king, Moctezuma II (Montezuma II).
The true origin of the Mexica is uncertain. According to their legends, the Mexica's place of origin was Aztlán. It is generally thought that Aztlán was somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it as far north as the Southwestern United States. Others however suggest it is a mythical place, since Aztlán can be translated as "the place of the origin".
At the time of their arrival, the Valley of Mexico contained many city-states, the most powerful of which were Culhuacan to the south, and Azcapotzalco to the west. In 1299, Culhuacan ruler Cocoxtli gave them permission to settle in the empty barrens of Tizapan, where they were eventually assimilated into Culhuacan culture.

In 1323, the Mexica asked the new ruler of Culhuacan, Achicometl, for his daughter, in order to make her a goddess. Unbeknownst to the king, the Mexicas actually planned to sacrifice her. As the story goes, during a festival dinner, a priest came out wearing her flayed skin as part of the ritual. Upon seeing this, the king and the people of Culhuacan were horrified and expelled the Mexicas.
According to Aztec legend, the Aztecs were shown a vision of an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, clutching a snake in its talons. This vision indicated that this was the location where they were to build their home. In any event, the Aztecs eventually arrived on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco where they founded the town of Tenochtitlan in 1325.
The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shore. Over this period, Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance, and the Triple Alliance territories became known as the Aztec Empire.