The Ancient and Medieval
World HST 108 The Early Americas
| Andes Mountains |
Moche |
Lake Texcoco |
chinampa |
| Olmecs |
El Niños |
Toltecs |
Norte Chico |
| obsidian |
Inca |
Mexica |
Wari (Huari) |
| Hohokam |
Pachacuti |
Tepanecs |
Itzcoatl |
| Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans) |
Chimu |
Tenochtitlan |
Nazca |
| Mississippian Culture |
Huayna Capac |
Triple Alliance |
Tiwanaku |
| Cahokia |
Atahualpa |
Aztecs |
huaca |
| Monks Mound |
Huascar |
Ahuitzotl |
aclla |
| Cahokia Woodhenge |
Francisco Pizzaro |
Moctezuma |
Machu Pichu |
| ayllu |
small pox |
Hernan Cortes |
kiva |
| Chavin |
Maya |
Tlaxcala |
Chaco Canyon |
| khipu |
Teotihuacan |
shaman |
pit-house |
| Mesoamerica |
|
| Pre-Classic Period |
2000 BCE - 250 CE |
| Classic Period |
250-900 CE |
| Post-Classic Period |
900-1539 CE |
| North America |
|
| Formative Period |
1000 BCE - 500 CE |
| Classic Period |
500-1200 CE |
| Post-Classic Period |
1200-16th c. CE |
| South America |
|
| Early Horizon Period |
1200-200 BCE |
| Early
Intermediate Period |
200 BCE - 500 CE |
| Middle Horizon Period |
500-1000 CE |
| Late
Intermediate Period |
1000-1470 CE |
| Late Horizon Period |
1470-1534 CE |
A. the Americas
1. North America [MAP]
2. South America [MAP]
3. Mesoamerica [MAP]
B. human arrival
C. agricultural settlements emerge around 5000 BCE
1. domesticated corn (maize), beans, potatoes
2. fish, but not much other meat
D. lack of big, domesticatable animals
1. wave of extinctions between 13,000-8,000 BCE
2. possibly because of recent human arrival
E. lack of wheel development
1. no need for it
2. no horses/oxen to pull plows, carts, wagons, etc.
3. terrain too steep in the Andes
4. still developed complex societies with massive public works
F. lack of disease development
1. no big animals to domesticate and catch diseases from
2. thus, no immunity to major diseases
3. thus, the European arrival resulted in devastation of the native
population
II. Early Societies
A. Mesoamerica (Pre-Classic Period)
1. dominated by the Olmecs between 1500-300 BCE [MAP]
2. Olmec society
a. built cities
b. grew corn, beans, squash
c. traded rubber, cacao, pottery for obsidian
3. rubber
a. Olmec means the "rubber people" in Nahuatl
b. extracted latex from the rubber tree
c. mixed the latex with the juice of a vine to make rubber
d. probably the first to make the rubber balls used in ball games all
over Central and North America
4. vast trade networks that spread goods and ideas
a. religious practices (gods with human/animal form)
b. pyramid-shaped temples [great pyramid at La Venta]
c. solar calendar with 365-day year
B. North America
1. southwestern US [MAP]
a. Hohokam
1. modern state of Arizona
2. by 300 BCE, complex society with irrigation canals, farming
terraces, etc.
3. planted corn, beans, squash, cotton, tobacco
4. large ceremonial platforms
5. various games with rubber balls
b. Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans)
1. modern four-corners area
2. dominant during the Classic Period
3. famous for cliff wall buildings (e.g., Mesa Verde)
4. numerous other planned communities/villages
5. Spanish called them the Pueblo People (village people)
2. eastern US
a. Mississippian Culture [MAP]
b. society
1. dominated during the Classic Period
2. settle agriculture: corn, beans, squash, etc.
3. vast trade networks
4. mound building
c. Cahokia
1. modern Illinois
2. urban center
a. up to 40,000 people
b. six square miles
c. about 120 mounds
3. mound building
a. burial chambers (e.g., Mound 72)
b. platform mounds (e.g., Monks Mound)
4. timber circles
a. Cahokia Woodhenge
b. reconstructed views: from above, ground level
C. South America
1. Andes Mountains
2. society
a. kinship and ancestor worship
b. ayllu (clan)
c. huaca (shared ancestor); dead relative or animal spirit
d. kuraca (clan leader)
3. Early Horizon Period (1200-200 BCE)
a. the Chavin people dominated [MAP]
1. controlled much of the northern Andes
2. capital at Chavin de Huantar near modern Lima, Peru
b. great weavers
1. this knowledge spread throughout the region
2. they used the khipu (quipu) to record information
a. system of dyed, knotted cords
b. different knots/colors represented different numbers
4. Early Intermediate Period (200 BCE - 500 CE)
a. regional states arose
b. the Moche were organized in small city-states [MAP]
1. built irrigation systems
2. built ceremonial centers with pyramids and palaces
3. up to 10,000 people in larger city-states
c. several El Niños brought extreme weather, which led to drought
and flooding
5. Middle Horizon Period (500-1000 CE)
a. Wari controlled the north [MAP]
b. Tiwanaku controlled the south
c. then more El Niños brought more devastating weather
6. Late Intermediate Period (1000-1470 CE)
a. regional states rose to power again
b. they fought each other for control
7. Late Horizon Period (1470-1534 CE)
a. in the context of that warfare, the Inca rose to power
b. they created an empire that stretched nearly the entire length of
the Andes Mountains
III. Empire Building
A. The Incas [MAP]
1. rise to power
a. inca means ruler/lord in local Quechua language
b. referred to the ruling family in the Cuzco area
c. they rose to power in 13th and 14th centuries
2. imperial expansion [MAP]
a. Pachacuti (r. 1438-1471)
b. ancestor worship
1. the dead emperor's spirit remained after death
2. that spirit was worshiped through his mummy
c. split inheritance
1. borrowed from the Chimu
2. the empire was split between dead emperor and new one
a. the dead emperor kept the lands he conquered
b. the lands were administered by his relatives
c. the new emperor got the imperial title
d. the new emperor had to conquer new lands
d. this tradition forces quick imperial expansion
1. they expanded to Ecuador and Columbia in the north and half
way through Chile in the south
2. the empire covered about 350,000 square miles
3. controlled about 16 million people
3. imperial control
a. facilitated communication by forcing people to adopt the
Quechua language
b. facilitated cultural unification by forcing people to accept their
gods
c. human sacrifice facilitated cultural unification
1. common in the Americas, just as in other areas of the world
2. recent excavations discovered possibly the largest example of
child sacrifice in world history
3. they were trying to appease their gods
4. in this case, El Niños brought severe flooding that probably
overwhelmed irrigation systems and destroyed crops
5. thus, they hoped the sacrifice would make the gods stop the
flooding
d. labor tribute
1. built huge temples
2. built a massive system of roads (about 25,000 miles)
4. fall of the Inca
a. overextension
1. forced by split inheritance
2. expansion into the Amazon forest led to military disasters
b. arrival of the Europeans
1. disease arrived before the Europeans themselves
2. in 1525, Huayna Capac contracted what was probably
small pox and died
3. his sons Atahualpa and Huascar fought for control
4. Atahualpa gained control, but the civil war had weakened the
empire
5. in the midst of this chaos, Francisco Pizzaro and the Spanish
arrived (1532)
6. Atahualpa tried to make peace at Cajamarca, but the Spanish
ambushed him, took him prisoner and executed him
7. the Inca engaged in armed resistance for a few decades, but
they died by the thousands (mainly from disease)
B. The Maya [MAP]
1. technically NOT an empire
a. the Maya controlled a vast territory during the Classic Period
b. but they were organized into independent city-states that were
essentially separate mini-kingdoms
c. many of these city-states were very large
1. populations as high as 40,000
2. extensive public works
3. extensive trade network
2. writing system
a. logographic system with glyphs/symbols
b. wrote on bark paper, pottery, etc.
c. numerical system included zero
3. calendar
a. developed a 365-day calendar that was more accurate than the
Julian calendar used in Europe
b. used in conjunction with a 260-day calendar
4. decline
a. constant warfare
b. drought
C. Teotihuacan and the Toltecs
1. Teotihuacan [MAP]
a. dominated central Mexico during the 4th-7th centuries
b. massive city on Lake Texcoco; about 250,000 people
c. controlled the local obsidian trade
d. built huge stone monuments, such as the Pyramid of the Sun
e. economic competition led to downturn and unrest
2. the Toltecs [MAP]
a. dominated central Mexico during the 10th-12th centuries
b. capital at Tula
c. dominate through warfare; statues of Toltec warriors
d. little else known about Toltec society
e. drought, famine and warfare brought about their decline
D. The Mexica (Aztecs)
1. arrival
a. migrated into central Mexico from the north in the 14th century
b. area was controlled by the Tepanec alliance
c. acquired the right to settle on an island in Lake Texcoco in
exchange for military service to the Tepanecs
2. Tenochtitlan [MAP]
a. built up the swampy island into their capital city
b. chinampa agriculture
1. packed mud and reeds to expand the shoreline
2. this made more land to grow more crops
3. created canals between the plots for transportation
4. grew wealthy and powerful from successful agriculture
3. the Triple Alliance - beginning of the Aztec Empire [MAP]
a. Tepanec king died and civil war ensued (1420s)
b. the Mexica made an alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan
c. used the alliance to defeat the weakened Tepanec
4. the term Aztec
a. from the Nahuatl world aztecatl (the people from Aztlan)
b. Aztlan was their legendary place of origin
c. the term was not used at the time
d. originated with 19th-century historians as a way to distinguish
between the Mexica and modern Mexicans
e. since then, it is commonly used to refer to the empire created by
the Mexica and all the inhabitants of that empire
5. Aztec society
a. warrior aristocracy
1. those who distinguished themselves in battle became the
military and social elite
2. warrior class
a. all free men could be warriors
b. at 6, boys went to school to train for war
c. at 18, they fought in their first battle
1. if they capture 1 enemy, they become a warrior
2. if they capture 4 enemies, they become a noble
3. if they fail, they become a commoner
b. common people
1. farmers
2. laborers
3. slaves
c. women
1. subordinate
2. relegated to domestic sphere
6. overextension
a. expansion necessary for new kings
1. council of nobles chose king's successor
2. new king had to prove his worth with military victory
a. some failed; e.g., Tizoc (r. 1481-1486)
b. some succeeded, e.g., Ahuitzotl (r. 1486-1502)
b. expansion necessary to provide sacrificial victims
1. believed that they were in the fifth and final cosmic stage
2. believed that they had to fortify the fifth and final sun with
the energy found in blood
c. no one left to conquer except their fiercest rivals
1. tribute and sacrificial victims declining
2. unrest growing
3. also, bloated noble class was a drain on the state
d. Moctezuma (r. 1502-1520)
1. reduced noble privileges
2. made it more difficult to achieve nobility
3. his reforms led to unrest
7. the Spanish arrival (1519)
a. led by Hernan Cortes
b. the Spanish used the Aztec enemies against them
c. arrived with about 600 Spanish and tens of thousands of
Tlaxcalan warriors
d. Moctezuma received them as guests because he didn't have the
support to field a large army quickly enough to attack
e. he was taken prisoner and killed
f. the people of Tenochtitlan rose up and expelled the Spanish
g. but small pox ravaged the city in the following year
h. in the ensuing years, all of central Mexico was ravaged by
disease