Ms. SheetsAP World

CHAPTER 11: THE AMERICAS ON THE

EVE OF INVASION

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE

• Teotihuacan, early site in Mesoamerica• Collapses, 700s• Causes significant political and cultural

change through influence on rest in region

• Toltecs• Empire in central Mexico• Capital at Tula, 968• Created a large empire whose influence

extends beyond central Mexico• In 15th century, Aztecs rise to create

extensive empire

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE

• Toltecs• Strongly militaristic ethic (cult of sacrifice,

war)• Rule extended to Yucatan, Maya lands,

1000• **Commercial influence to American

Southwest• Trade obsidian (N Mexico) for turquoise

from American SW• Contact eastward?• Possibly Mississippi, Ohio valleys

(Hopewell peoples)• Cultural features seem to suggest

contact

Native American Cultures Before 1500

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE:The Aztec Rise to Power

• Toltec collapse, 1150, probably caused by northern nomads

• Political power, population moves to Mexico valley (shores)• Shores of lakes dotted with settlements• Lakes become cultural heartland: fishing, farming,

transportation• Many vie for control of lakes: winners are Aztecs• Central valley inhabited by mixture of people

• Dominated by tribes organized into city-states• Aztecs, early 14th century, migrate to shores

• Distrusted and disliked, good to have as mercenaries or allies

• Speak Nahuatl, language of Toltecs; lends legitimacy to rule

• 1325, found Tenochtitlan• Dominate by 1434

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE:The Aztec Social Contract

• Transformation from loose clans to hierarchical society• Supreme ruler• Organized for war• Motivated by religious zeal• Resting on agrarian base

• Service of gods• Sacrifice increased, expands into enormous cult• Source of political power and terror• Military supplies Aztecs with war captives as

sacrificial victims• Moctezuma II• Head of state and religion• Representative of gods on earth

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE:Religion and the Ideology of Conquest• Spiritual and natural world seamless: hundreds of deities

• Three groups of deities• Gods of fertility, agriculture, water/rain• Creator gods• Warfare, sacrifice

• Huitzilopochtli, deity of war, sun, and human sacrifice• Patron of Tenochtitlan

• Sacrifice• Sun needs strength• Expands considerably during this period• Motivated by religious conviction or terror and control?• ***Includes ritual cannibalism

• ***Cyclical view of history• world has been destroyed 4 times, will be destroyed

again

Postclassic Mesoamerica: 1000-1500 CE:Feeding the People: The Economy of the Empire

• Agriculture• Chinampas, man-made floating

islands• High yield

• Farming organized by clans

• Markets• Daily market at Tlatelolco• Controlled by pochteca, merchant

class• Highly regulated by state

Aztec Society in Transition• Society increasingly hierarchical; widening

social gulf• Calpulli (clans)

• Transformed from clans to groupings by residence

• Distribute land, labor• Maintain temples, schools• Basis of military organization• Governed by family heads

• Noble class develops from some of most distinguished calpulli• Military virtues give them status• Serf-like workers on their lands• Control priesthood and military leadership

• Social gaps widen (nobility vs. commoners)• Imperial family at head of pipiltin (noble

class)

Aztec Society in Transition• Overcoming Technological Constraints• Women have various roles• Peasant women, weaving, but primary domain

is household• Grind corn by hand on stone boards• Maize is time-consuming• No wheels or suitable animals for power like

Rome/Europe• Can own/inherit property• Still subordinate to men, arranged marriages

• Elite use polygamy, commoners are monogamous

Aztec Society in Transition• ***A Tribute Empire• Speaker: one rules each city-state• Great Speaker: rules Tenochtitlan, considered a

god, great power• Prime Minister: powerful, relative of ruler usually• Old calpulli clans changed; new powerful nobility

with deified and absolute ruler emerges• Subjugated states could remain autonomous• Left unchanged but owe tribute, labor

Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas

• After 1300 CE, a new civilization emerged: Inca Empire (Twantinsuyu)• Highly centralized• Integrated various ethnic groups into an

imperial state• Extensive irrigated agriculture• Achievements in architecture and metallurgy• Utilizes achievements of previous

civilizations

• 1000, several small regional states exercise power

• Chimor (900-1465), emerges as most powerful• Gains control of north coast of Peru

Inca Expansion

Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas• The Inca Rise to Power• Cuzco• Quechua-speaking clans (ayllus)• By 1350, they live in and around Cuzco• Control regions by 1438, under Pachacuti (ruler, or inca)

• For 60 years, Inca armies on the move• Topac Yupanqui, son of Pachacuti• Conquered Chimor by seizing irrigation system• Incan rule extended to Ecuador, Chile

• Huayna Capac• Furthers conquests of Topac Yupanqui• Suppresses rebellions• 1527, death: empire from Colombia to Chile

Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas• Conquest and Religion• ***“Split inheritance”• Power to successor• Wealth, land to male descendants• Result is continual conquest

• Religion• Sun god is highest• Represented by ruler (Inca)• Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, center of state

religion• ***Local gods survive• Cult of ancestors, deceased rulers mummified• Animism: mountains, stones, rivers, caves,

etc., considered holy shrines (huacas)

Twantinsuyu: World of the IncasTechniques of Inca Imperial Rule

• Inca Imperial Rule• Rules from Cuzco• Governors of four provinces• Bureaucracy (almost all nobles involved)• Local rulers (curacas), allowed to maintain their

positions• Unification

• ***Quechua is intentionally spread as language to unite empire

• Military• System of roads, way stations (tambos), storehouses• ***Incas quite like Romans in this sense

• State• Redistributive economy, take land and labor from

subject populations• Building, irrigation projects

• Gender cooperation and complementarity of sexes• Seen in cosmology (Inca’s senior wife links state to

moon)

Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas• Cultural Achievements• Metallurgy (copper, bronze)• Knotted strings (quipu), accounting• Monumental architecture (steep slopes

• Comparing Incas and Aztecs• Similarities• Built on earlier empires that preceded them• Excellent organizers (imperial, military)• Intensive agriculture under state control• Kinship transformed to hierarchy• Ethnic groups allowed to survive

• Differences• Aztecs have better developed trade, markets

The Other Peoples of the Americas• Great variety elsewhere

• Some use irrigation for agriculture• Formed no states• Adapt well to region

• Larger population densities in Mesoamerica, Andes• Different Cultural Patterns

• Caribbean islands: hierarchical societies, divided into chiefdoms• Strongly resembled Polynesian societies

• North America• By 1500, 200 languages in North America• Agriculturalists• Anasazi descendants along Rio Grande

• Two great imperial systems by 1500• Mesoamerica and the Andes weakened• Technologically behind Europeans

Native American Cultures Before 1500

The AnasaziAncestors of the Pueblo People

Anasazi bowl

Anasazi

“Anasazi” – a Navajo word Pre-Columbian Civilizationca. 2100 BP and 700 BP? disappearance ?

Town Dwellers

Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde

Chetro Ketl

Kiva Provides point of contact Emergence of sacred beings Sipapu

Originally humans re-emerge after death

Coyote covered it up.

Anasazi kiva (reconstruction)

Kiva at Chaco Canyon

Location of Mound Builders

They lived in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys.

Picture Credit:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/feature/builder.htm

How the Mound Builders lived?

They grew and ate maize (field corn).

Cities were built on top of mounds of dirt.

Picture Credit:http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/ancienttech/grinding_corn.html

Mound Builder Religion The Mound Builders’ got their name because they would bury people along with their goods in concical mounds on a hill.

Many mounds contain hundreds of people buried on top of one another creating a mountain.

Many of these mounds have tons of dirt and these people didn’t even have horses to help them. The people carried all the dirt!

The largest mound is found in Cahokia, I l l inois and contains about 40,000 people.

Picture Credit:

http://members.tripod.com/~IS335/monks.html