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The Americas, 400-1500
The People of
North America
Early
Civilizations in
Mesoamerica
Early
Civilizations in
South America
The Peoples of North America
Objectives:
1. Identify and describethe first inhabitants of the
Americasthe huntersand gatherersand
describe later inhabitants,who practiced farming
2. Discuss the greatvariety of climate and
geographic features thatcontributed to the many
different cultures thatemerged in the Americas
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The Lands of the
Americas
The Americas, 9,000 milesfrom the Arctic Ocean to Cape
Horn
Various landscapes: ice-covered lands, dense forests,
river valleys, coastlines,tropical forests, and deserts
Major mountain ranges: RockyMountains and Andes
Major Rivers: Mississippi and*Amazon
The First Americas
Between 100,000 and 8,000years ago, the last Ice Ageproduced a low sea level
and created a land-bridgein the *Bering Strait
between Asia and NorthAmerica
Hunters pursued herds ofbison and caribou into
North
The first Americans werehunters and food gatherers
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The Peoples of
North America
Arctic and Northwest: The
Inuit
About CE, a group of peoplecalled the *Inuit moved intoNorth America from Asia
learned unique ways tosurvive in a cold environment
Harpoons and spears madefrom horns and tusks; homes
of stone and turf
Iglootemporary shelter
Eastern Woodlands: The Mound
Builders
Arounds 1000 BCE, EasternWoodlands, from the Great
Lakes to the *Gulf of Mexico
The *Hopewell people in theOhio River valley, known as the
Mound Builderselaborateearth mounds: tombs for the
wealthy
*Cahokia, near the modern cityof East St. Louismassive burialmound civilization; In the 13thcentury, the Cahokia collapsed
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Eastern Woodlands:
The Iroquois
The *Iroquois lived in villagesthat consisted of *longhouses
surrounded by a woodenfence for protection
hunted deer, bear, caribou,and small animals
Women owned the dwellings,gathered wild plants, plantedthe seeds, and harvested thecropsthree sisters (corn,
beans, and squash)
Wars were commonAccording tolegend, Deganawida appeared and
preached the need for peace
The Great Peace alliance of
five groups called the IroquoisLeague
A council of representatives knownas the Grand Council which met tosettle differences among the league
Women of each *clan selected themale members of the GrandCouncilthe experiment in
democracy
Peoples of the Great
Plains
The *Plains Indianscultivated beans, corn
and squash
Every summer, the menleft their villages to hunt
buffalo (stampede over acliff)
Ate the meat, used theskin for clothing, and
tools from bones*tepees from skin
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Peoples of the Southwest: The
Anasazi
Conditions are dry in theSouthwest territories (Mexico,Arizona, Utah, and Colorado)
sufficient raining forfarming
*Anasazi peoples establishedan extensive farming society:
500 and 1200 CE
Skilled at making baskets andpotterystone and *adobe(sun-dried brick) to build
*pueblos
Chaco Canyon(Pueblo Bonito) in
New Mexico was thecenter of their
civilization50 yeardrought destroyed
them
A large communityemerged at *Mesa
Verde (buildings inthe recesses of the cliffwalls)drought led to
its abandonment
Objectives:
1. Identify and describethe first inhabitants of the
Americasthe huntersand gatherersand
describe later inhabitants,who practiced farming
2. Discuss the greatvariety of climate and
geographic features thatcontributed to the many
different cultures thatemerged in the Americas
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The Americas, 400-1500
Objectives:
1. Characterize earlyMesoamerican
civilizations thatflourished withfully developed
political, religious,and social structures
2. Explain how theAztecs succumbedto diseases brought
by the Spanish
The Olmec and
Teotihuacan
*Mesoamericaareas of Mexicoand Central America: civilizedbefore the Spaniards arrived
*Olmec c. 1200 BCE: swampylowlands and coasts of the Gulf of
Mexico south Veracruz; Large citieswere centers for religious rituals
The Olmec carved colossal stoneheads, probably to represent theirgods; Around 400 BCE, the Olmec
civilization declined
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*Teotihuacan (Place of theGods)the first major city
in Mesoamerica
Capital of an earlykingdom from 250 BCE to
800 CE
Trade center located nearMexico City
Pyramid of the Sun, fourtiers to a height of over 200
feet
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The Maya and
Toltec
The civilization of the *Mayaarose on the *Yucatan Peninsula
from 300 to 900 CE
The Maya built splendid templesand pyramids and developed a
complicated calendar
Decline occurred for unknownreasons; theories include
invasion, internal revolt, ornatural disaster
Overuse of the land led toreduced crop yields; Cities were
abandoned and covered by densejungle growth
Political and Social Structures
Mayan cities were builtaround a central pyramidtopped by a shrine to the
gods
The urban centers such as*Tikal may have had a
hundred thousandinhabitants
Ordinary soldiers werecaptured in battle and
became slavessome wereused for human sacrifice
Rulers claimed to be
descended from the
gods and all life was in
the hands of the divine
powers
Supreme god
*Itzamna; Jaguar god of
nightevil divinity
Human sacrifice as away to appease the
gods
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Writings and Calendar
The Maya created asophisticated writing system
based on *hieroglyphs
Bishop Diego de Landabelieved this writing was
superstition and lies of thedevil and burned all Mayan
texts he could find
The Spanish applied their ownreligious views to the native
civilization
The calendar was
based on a belief in
cycles of creation and
destruction (3114 BCEto 2012 CE)
Measured time
according to
Astronomysolar
calendar of 365 days
(also used to foretell
the future)
The Toltec
The Northwest of present-day Mexico City who
reigned from 900 CE to1200 CE
They were a fierce andwarlike people who
conquered the Mayanlands of Guatemala and
northern Yucatan
*Chichen ItzaTolteccapital
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The Aztec12th to 16th century CE,establishing their capital
at *Tenochtitlan on anisland in the middle of
*Lake Texcoco
The city featured temples,public buildings, houses,
and roadways
They consolidated their
rule over much ofmodern Mexico *tribute was paid byconquered peoples
Rise of the Aztec
Political and Social Structures
Women in Aztec society
were not equal to men
but they were allowed toown and inherit property
and to enter into
contracts
Women were expected to
work in the home, weave
textiles, and raise
childrenor become a
priestesses
Religion and CultureHuitzilopochtli, the patron war
deity of the Aztec; god of the sun
Quetzalcoatl, feathered serpentgod
The Aztec believed Quetzalcoatlwould return and would be
preceded by the sign of an arrowthrough a sapling treesimilar
to a cross
Aztec religion unending strugglebetween the forces of good andevil throughout the universe;The Aztec practiced human
sacrifice
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The Destruction of Aztec
Civilization
In 1519, a Spanish forceunder *Hernan Cortes
landed at Veracruz with550 soldiers
*Montezuma believed thatthey were representativesof Quetzalcoatl and poured
out gifts of gold
The Spanish tookMontezuma hostage and
pillaged the cityeventually the Aztec drove
them from the city
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Objectives:
1. Characterize earlyMesoamerican
civilizations thatflourished withfully developed
political, religious,and social structures
2. Explain how the
Aztecs succumbedto diseases brought
by the Spanish
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The Americas, 400-1500
Objectives:
1. Describe the well-organized
militaristic empireof the Inca
2.Summarize howIncan communities
undertooksophisticated
building projectsand established a
high level of culturedevelopment
Early Civilization
Caral, located in Peru,has been identified as the
oldest major city in theAmericas (abandoned in
2000 to 1500 BCE)
Buildings includedapartment complexes
and grand residences;complex irrigationsystem
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C. 200 BCE, anotheradvanced civilization
appeared near the Pacificcoast near *Ecuador along
the *Moche River
*Maize (corn), peanuts,potatoes, and cotton were
staples
The Moche people had notwritten language butpottery implies the
dominance of warfare(prisoners and sacrificial
victims)
The Inca
After the Moche civilization,the kingdom of Chimor
emerged only to be replaced
by the *Inca
In the late 1300s, the Inca asmall community in the area
of *Cuzco
The powerful ruler*Pachacuti launched acampaign of conquest,
solidifying the region underhis control
Political Structures
His immediate successorsextended the boundaries of the
empire as far as Ecuador, centralChile, and the edge of the Amazon
basin
All young men were required toserve in the Incan army used tocreate a well-organized empire
divided into four quarters rulered
by governors
The emperor was believed to havedescended from the gods
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All Incan subjects wereresponsible for labor service,
building roads (25 thousandsmiles) and other projects
These roads extended frommodern day Colombia to chile
Social Structures
Incan society was highlyregimented; marriage
was confined socialgroups
Many lived in farmingcommunities and homesbuilt of stone and adobe
Terraced farms wateredby irrigation
Building and Culture
Structures were built of close-fitting stones with no mortara solution to the frequent
earthquakes
*Machu Picchubuilt on alofty hill top surrounded by
mountain peaks 8,000 ft.
The Inca had no writingsystem but kept recordsusing a system of knottedstrings called the *quipu
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Conquest of the Inca
The Incan Empire, stillflourish in the 16th
century, encountered*Francisco Pizarro and
his 180 men
An epidemic of smallpoxdevastated the
civilization
The empire fell into civilwar during which Pizarro
exploited the chaos
Objectives:
1. Describe the well-organized
militaristic empireof the Inca
2.Summarize howIncan communities
undertooksophisticated
building projectsand established a
high level of culturedevelopment