THE MAYAN, AZTECS AND INCA

MAYAN

Stretched from southern Mexico into northern Central America

Maya Create Urban Kingdoms

• By 250, culture had flourished because they took on Olmec influences, blending these with local customs

• 250-900 is known as Classic Period

• Built spectacular cities

• Independent city-states ruled by a god-king and serving as center for religious ceremonies and trade

• Pyramids, temples, palaces, and elaborate stone carvings dedicated to gods and rulers

• People lived in residential areas surrounding the city center

• Ball court= stone-sided playing field– Played a game for religious and political significance– Would maintain the cycles of the sun and moon and bring

life-giving rains

Agriculture and Trade• City-states linked through alliances and trade

• Exchanged salt, flint, feathers, shells, and honey

• Used cacao as a uniform currency

• Maize, beans, and squash provided basis for life

• Practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, planted on raised beds above swamps, and on hillside terraces

• Led to wealth and development of social classes– Mayan king (regarded as holy figure; position of heredity)– Nobel class (priest and leading warriors)– Merchants– The peasant majority

Religion Shapes Mayan Life

• Believed in many gods who inhabited 13 layers of the sky and 9 layers of the underworld

• Gods of corn, death, rain and war• Gods associated with four directions and colors• Prayed and made offerings of food, flowers and

incense• Pierced bodies, offered their blood and carried out

human sacrifice

• Religious beliefs also led to:– Calendar– Mathematics– Astronomy

• Time was a burden carried on back of a god– Day would be lucky/unlucky depended on nature

of god– Needed calendar to see what god was in charge

• 2 calendars– 260 day religious calendar with 20 13-day months– 365 day solar calendar with 18 20-day months

• Told them when to plant crops, attack enemies, or crown new rulers

Written Language

• Consisted of 800 hieroglyphic symbols or glyphs– Glyphs can stand for whole words or represent symbols

• Carved in Stone or in a bark-paper book (codex)– Only three of these ancient books have survived• Most famous is the Popol Vuh, which recounts Maya’s version

of the story of creation

Mysterious Mayan Decline

• Maya ended in mystery • Late 800s, suddenly abandoned many cities• Invaders from north (Toltec) moved into the

lands • Many theories from historians, but no one

really knows for sure

AZTECS

Valley of Mexico • A mountain basin 7,000 feet above sea level

and served as the home base of several powerful cultures

• Teotihuacan and Toltecs both took advantage of the basin from the first century AD to 1200 – Shared several similarities with the Aztecs

Aztecs Build an Empire

• Arrived in Valley of Mexico around 1200• Made up of a few city-states that survived collapse

of Toltec rule• Were poor nomadic people from deserts• Aztecs’ sun god, Huitzilopochtli told them to found

own city and they chose small Island on Lake Texcoco in 1325 and called it “Tenochtitlan”

• 1428 made Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan to increase strength

• Empire divided into 38 provinces and had between 5 and 15 million people

• Based off military conquest and getting tribute from conquered people

• Tolerant and let local rulers govern own regions as long as they paid tribute with products– If failed to pay tribute, Aztecs brutally responded by

destroying villages and slaughtering inhabitants

Social Classes

• Emperor- was an absolute ruler and treated like a god

• Noble class- consisted of military leaders, government officials and priests

• Commoners- included merchants, artisans, soldiers, and farmers

• Lowest class- slaves that were captives who did many different jobs

Trade• Extensive trade network that brought many

products from faraway regions• Economic heart of the city was the huge

market of Tlatelolco which was in the capital• Hernando Cortés (the Spanish conqueror of

Mexico) said this market was larger than any in Spain

• Provided the food needed for a huge urban population

Tenochtitlan: A Planned City• 1500’s, 200,000 people were in the city, which was

bigger than London at the time• Connected island to mainland by building three

raised roads called causeways over the water• Palaces, temples, markets, and residential districts

were connected by streets and avenues • Canals divided the city, allowing canoes to bring

people and cargo directly to city center• Aqueducts funneled fresh water in from mainland

Religion• Major role in society and adopted many gods from Toltecs• Held public ceremonies to communicate with gods and win

their favor• At ceremonies, priests made offerings to gods and

presented rituals• Sun god “Huitzilopochtli made the sun rise everyday only

when he was nourished by human blood• Human sacrifice on massive scale – Would carve hearts out using knives – Sent army on new conquest so they could sacrifice the captured

Problems in the Aztec Empire

• 1502 Montezuma II becomes ruler and Aztec empire begins to weaken

• Population bigger because of conquering and ruler calls for more sacrifice– Leads to rebellions – Reduced government officials– Tension continued– Spanish arrived

• New Southern empire emerges

INCA

Inca Come to Power

• Inca originally name of ruling family of group living in high plateau of Andes

• Settled in fertile lands in the Valley of Cuzco and developed small kingdom by 1200

• Thought Incan ruler was descendent of sun god who would bring prosperity and greatness

• Orejones- “big ears” bc large plugs in earlobes– Only men from 11 noble families could be descendents

of the sun god (Orejones)

• In 1438, Pachacuti took throne and Inca expanded quickly by conquering

• 1500, empire was 2,500 miles • Called empire Thuantinsuya or “Land of the Four

Quarters”• 80 provinces and 16 million people• Strong military, but very tolerant– Most people surrendered instead of going to war

Government • Extraordinary organizers and administrators• Built roads and all roads led to capital, Cuzco – Masterful engineers (temples, plazas and palaces)

• Ayllu (small groups of people) worked together for common good building irrigation canals and agricultural terraces

• Divided families into groups and each had a leader• Everyone had to pay tribute– Mita= labor tribute; required everyone to work a certain

number of days every year• Roads symbolized power– 14,000-mile-long network of roads and bridges– Runners known as “chasquis” traveled roads as a kind of

postal service, carrying messages

The Economy• State controlled economy – Regulated production and distribution of goods– Very little private commerce or trade

• Citizens expected to work for state and the state would provide for them

• Divided on state lands, religious lands and community lands (each grew different goods)– Farmed on all three and stored water for dry seasons

• Kept records through “quipu,” a set of knotted threads

Religion • Focused on the moon, the stars and thunder• Gods by importance– Viracocha (creator)– Inti (sun god)– King (descendant of Inti)

• Priest led sun-worship with help from “mamakuna” or virgins of the sun

• Sacrifice of llamas

Decline of the Inca• In 1525, King Huayna Capac died from disease and

civil war broke out due to who claimed the throne• Capac’s son won but war tore empire apart• Spanish would soon arrive taking advantage of the

weakened empire