America: The Post-Classical Era n 1000-1500 B.C. n collapse of Teotihuacan n collapse of classical...
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Transcript of America: The Post-Classical Era n 1000-1500 B.C. n collapse of Teotihuacan n collapse of classical...
America: The Post-Classical Era
1000-1500 B.C. collapse of Teotihuacan collapse of classical Mayan civilization
NATIVE AMERICANS Pre Columbus:
PALEO INDIANS The first arrived 40,000 years ago traveling
from Siberia, across the Bering Straight. migrations began during the Ice Age, but
later evidence suggests that there have been other migrations as well. They followed big game like mastodons, mammoths and others.
8000 BC and 1500 BC what is called the Archaic period
the Native American populating grew and experienced booms in agriculture and culture.
Developed social dynamics, hunting, gathering. Women gathered and cared for the children. Developed specialized tools. Trade developed.
With trade came exchange of religious ideas, marriages across groups, spread of customs, traditions, laborers etc.
THE DEVELOPMENT of Agriculture
booms when the needs of groups outstripped the hunting.
Farmers in both south and North America learned to cultivate peppers, bean, pumpkins, squash, avocados, sweet and white potatoes, tomatoes, and some groups in Mexico grew cotton. Corn and Bean cultivation spread across the continent.
When farming improved, populations grew. Permanent villages appeared.
Mesoamerican Natives
Arctic and Subarctic were nomadic groups that followed big game and fishing. Fashioned tools from bones, clothing and hides from animal skins.
In densely populated North America groups like the Kwakiutls and Chinooks, lived in large communal houses. Had rivers to provide them with salmon and other fish, and cultivated plant life.
Present Day California- hunter gatherers lived in smaller villages ruled by chiefs.
Groups
Mayans- (peeked AD 150-900) in the southern Yucatan- created advanced writing and calendar systems and developed the concept of zero.
Toltec, warrier people dominated after the demise of the Myans
Aztecs- Cultures of North America:
North America/ Carribian
Ancestral Pueblosans- lived in villages (new Mexico Chaco Canyon) Hopis, Zunis established trade with planes or nomadic Indians. Farmed corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers.
Plains Indians- moved frequently. Hunters. Mandan, Pawnees
Mound Building cultures- developed as agriculture spread. Cahokia dominated the Mississippi river Valley.
Great Lakes areas: Iroquois and Huron— Iroquois had five nations: Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayuga, and Seneca joined to create the Great League of Peace and Power around 1450.
Caribbean Islanders- an
estimated 4 million people lived in the Caribbean before the arrival of Columbus.
The Toltecs
adopted sedentary agricultural practices added a strong military and imperial
culture– conquest of neighboring peoples
ritual wars– war....capture...sacrifice
“givers of civilization”
Toltec empire
central Mexico expansion into former Mayan territories northern Mexico
– trade with the American Southwest– Chaco Canyon ???
Contacts with North America
Hopewell culture ?? Mississippi culture maize, beans, squash ritual sacrifices and executions??? Cahokia
Quetzalcoatl
The Feathered Serpent Topiltzin: a priest
– religious reformer– opposed to human and animal sacrifice
exiled to the east, with a promise to return on a specific date
same year as Cortez and the Conquistadors
The Aztecs
collapse of the Toltecs: 1150 A.D. influx of nomadic invaders form the
north shift of power to central Mexico
– large lakes– fertile agricultural areas
contests for control
The Aztecs: Origins
obscure background claimed to have live in the area
originally exiled to the north to Aztlan actually, nomads from the North took advantage of the Toltec collapse wrote history to suit their purposes
Origins
group who settled near Lake Texcoco 1325 A.D. competed with other Chichimec
immigrants small states
– claiming connections to the Toltecs– speaking Nahuatl
Lake Texcoco
several tribes small city-state Azcapotzalco, Culhuacan Culhuacan: control by diplomatic
marriage complex alliances, constantly shifting
Aztecs
new group used as mercenaries and occasional
allies constant movement around the lake
shore– driven by stronger powers
reputation: good warriors and religious fanatics
Aztec Settlement
the legend: an eagle on a cactus, holding a rattlesnake
an island in Lake Texcoco Tenochtitlan
– 1325 A.D.– Tlateloco: a second settlement
Aztec expansion
more active role in regional politics rebelled against Azcapotzalco emerged as an independent power political merge: 1434
– Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlacopan – Aztecs dominated the alliance
Social and Political Change
imperial expansion subject peoples paid tribute, surrender
land, and do military service stratified society
– under the authority of a supreme ruler– Tlacaelel: advised rulers and rewrote histories– the Aztecs had been chosen to serve the gods
human sacrifice greatly expanded
Human sacrifice
role of the military role of expansion flower wars means of political terrorism cult of sacrifice united with the political
state
Religion and Conquest
little distinction between the natural and supernatural
traditional gods and goddesses 128 major deities
Gods
male/female dualism different manifestations five aspects
– four directions – the center
gods as patrons complex ceremonial year
Gods, con’t
gods of fertility and agriculture gods of creation
– cosmology and philosophical thought gods of warfare Huitzilopochtli: their tribal deity
– identified with the Sun God
The Sun God and Sacrifice
a warrior in the daytime sky fighting to give life to the world enemy of the forces of night the sun needs strength 52 year cycle of the world
– required blood to avert destruction
The Sun God, con’t
sacrifice for sacrifice the gods need nourishment
– human blood and hearts adoption of longstanding human
sacrifice expansion to “industrial” proportions
– 10,000 people on one occasion
The Empire: the Economy
high population density combination of tradition and innovation
– chinampas– 20,000 acres– four crops a year
food as tribute
The Fall
20 million people large cities appearance of the Spanish disease and European military
technology
South America: the Incas
Cuzco: original home– 1350 A.D.
expansion by 1438 Incan empire
– ruled 10-13 million people
Religion and expansion
cult of ancestors “split inheritance”
– position to successor– land and wealth to descendants to care for
the dead new land necessary for each ruler
The Empire con’t
infrastructure: roads and bridges communications by runners
– 10,000 purpose: land and labor little actual tribute
Inca “socialism”
empire claimed all resources redistributed them evenly to all peoples local independence access to new goods and services