Chapter 8MesoamericaSection 4 Path to the Americas

Essential Understandings

• The Olmec and the Maya invented many new ideas, including forms of writing and a calendar

• The Aztec and the Inca built complex civilizations that lasted until the time of European arrival in the Americas

• What kinds of civilizations developed in Mesoamerica• What life was like for the Inca of South America

Path to the Americas

• No people existed in the Americas until 25,000 years ago

• Hunter-Gatherer bands crossed frozen ice bridge btw Alaska & Asia from last Ice Age (Bering Strait)

• Bands followed grass-grazing animals to eat• Ice Age ended by 7000 B.C.• Deserts took the place of grasslands; large animals died• By 6000 B.C. farming developed in Mexico• By 3000 B.C. thousands of small-farming villages • Most important crop: maize, or corn

• Routes of Ancient Americas

Mesoamerica

• Great Civilizations in Mesoamerica

• Olmecs – Began 1000 B.C. & Disappeared 900 years later• Called the “mother culture”• Developed planned cities, hieroglyphic writing, & a calendar

• Farmed; built stone cities—religious centers• Cities stood on top of huge hills

• The people lived in nearby villages

Olmec Temple

• Began in 500 B.C. • Peaked between 300 & 900

A.D.• Farming villages surrounding

religious cities– Temples & Houses for priests and

nobles

• Great traders• Paved, linked roads • Busy marketplaces

• Mayan mathematicians discovered idea of zero

• Counting system based on 20

• Civilization disappeared by 900 A.D.

• No one knows why

The Mayans

The Sculpted Throne

The Aztecs

• Aztecs rose around 1200 A.D.• Expanded empire thru military

conquest• 5 million ppl by 1400 A.D.• Capital: Tenochtitlan

• War-like people• War & religion connected: • Worship of two major Gods

– Rain God (represented peaceful life of farming)

– Sun God (represented war and expanding empire)

• Believed the Sun God needed human sacrifices

• Felt if sacrifices were not made, the sun would not rise

– Prisoners of war were the victims– Early 1500s: Spaniards attacked

and destroyed Aztec empire

Chapter 8MesoamericaSection 6 The Incas

The Incan Empire

• Incas established empire stretching 2,500 miles on coast of South America

• By 1500, 12 million people

• Farmers/shepherds built villages on rocky slopes of Andres Mountains

• Grazed alpacas and llamas

Incan History

• Inca ruler Pachacuti conquered neighbors in 1438

• Ordered people to worship Inca sun god

• Made Inca language Quechua official

• Spread Inca culture, quelled rebellion

– System of stone-paved roads to move supplies

• Way of Life• Land belonged to ruler, not villagers

working the land • Villagers paid taxes thru labor & tax• No written language, special

accountants used quipus or counting devices to keep track of people and goods

• Long string necklace made of knots that represented items thru different color strings, the knots represented tens, hundreds, etc.

• Spanish destroyed Incas in early 1500s thru their desire for wealth – gold & silver

Questions

• Which Mesoamerican civilization would you choose to live in and why?

• Who directed and controlled the Incan way of life?

• What were the quipus, and how did the Inca use them?