Ancient Mesoamerican Empires

Inca Decline

Spanish conqueror, Francisco Pizarro, attacked the Inca with weapons they did not have like guns and knives. They also fought on horses.

Inca Accomplishments

- Created a long string of roads and bridges to connect every part of their empire -Built many architectures out of rocks. They cut each rock so that they fit together exactly.

Aztec Origins

- Settled on shores - later became the largest empire -took control of valleys and swamps -Settles in North Mexico -Empire centered around Tenochtitlan and Tlateolco - All spoke Nahuatl

Inca Origins

-Andean empire -the sapa inca (king) would rule in the center, Cusco. -Their empire was split up into four territorial parts but were all connected by a long string of roads. -Spoke Quechua

Olmec Decline

-Between 400 and 500 BCE half of the Olmec land had been lost and depopulated. Archeologists speculate that this depopulation is a result of a drastic change in environment. That change caused the region to become unsuitable for large groups of farmers.

Mayan Reign

-Created a lot of pottery such as alters, buildings, and pyramids -Very agriculture oriented -Traded jade, coffee beans, beads, and cloth. This expanded their civilization. -Their empire grew up to 14 million people.

Inca Reign

-Empire grew as each Sapa became ruler -Persuaded their neighboring peoples into joining their fierce army. They would offer them gifts and protection. If their ruler said no the Inca would go in and conquer. -After neighboring people were part of the Inca they would have to pay a tax called mita. People would have to work on public projects for a couple months at a time. -Built storehouses to store grain which would help them through grain shortages

Aztec Accomplishments

-Known for Chocolate -Used their water supply usefully. -They may have created a version of basketball -Became one of the most powerful empires in Mesoamerica

Aztec Reign

-Organized clan-based communities called calpolli -Adopted the farming technique called chinampa -Impressed the Spanish -Became the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica -They wore very traditional clothing and did many traditional dances for their Gods -They asked a very powerful prince to help expand their empire even more. This prince's name was Acamapichtli. He brought the Mexica higher social rankings and the ability to form alliances. -They created alliances which helped their military and their expansion - They believed in a lot of blood sacrifice. They would do blood sacrifices as well as human sacrifices. -Places they conquered were allowed to live the way they used to as long as they payed a tax -Skilled Farmers and craftsmen. Also had thriving trade and commerce swell as loving music, poetry, and art. -Believed in Gods like Quetzalcoatl, god of the Sky or creation

Mayan Origins

-Settled on the highlands of Guatemala and Yucatan. -Created limestone formations which help organize their water supply, agriculture, and religious practices.

Mayan Decline

-Stopped building architecture -disappeared from their city-states because Aztecs were invading - El Ninos and natural disasters

Mayan Accomplishments

-They recored important events of nobles or elites and religious practices in books or sometimes pottery but Spaniards destroyed them -They created the most complex writing system in the Americas. -they created mathematical bars which resulted in creating an accurate 365 calendar with 18 months and 20 days -may have discovered the zero

Mayans

A highly developed Mesoamerican culture centered in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. The Maya created the most intricate writing system in the Western Hemisphere and they are also known for their chocolate.

Aztec Decline

An Aztec leader, Montezuma II, believed a Spanish conquered was the God Quetzalcoatl had taken man and had come. This lead to Spanish conquest. At first the massive Aztec army was able to defend their terrain but a huge outbreak of the smallpox killed almost half the Aztec population.

Olmecs

An early civilization that shaped religion, trade, and technology for later empires in Mesoamerica

Olmec Origins

An early civilization that shaped religion, trade, and technology for later empires in Mesoamericaz

Aztecs

The dominant ethnic group of what is now Mexico, who created an empire based on war and religion that reached its height in the mid 1400s. Their original name was the Mexica but in the ninth century they became know as the Aztecs.

Incas

The name of the dynasty of rulers who built a large empire across the Andes that was at its peak around 1500

Olmec Reign

They settled along rivers and cultivated maize, squash, beans, sweet potato, chocolate, and other plants. They lacked many resources which is why they frequently traded. They traded rubber, cacao, pottery, clay figures, jaguar pelts, and the work of painter or sculptures. They traded for volcanic glass and obsidian, which could be made into weapons. Also, their religious practices were wide spread. they would build large pyramids and buildins by lifting and transporting stones for miles at a time. In these pyramids, sometimes sacrifices, such as blood or human sacrifices, would be held. The Olmec were always believed to worship fire and rain gods, Earth and corn gods, a dragon sky god, a shark god thought to be a deity of the sea, and a Feathered Serpent believed to be the forerunner of the Mayan Kukulcan and the Toltec-Aztec Quetzalcoatl; who was the rain god. He was half human, half jaguar and was the primary god of the Olmec. Olmecs supposedly had 8 powerful supernatural beings that they treated like gods. They also viewed the universe as having three layers: heaven, which was home of the gods, Earth, and a water underworld.

Olmec Accomplishments

They were the first group to have ritually practiced bloodletting, which is the self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body and they created first calendar. They were one of the first people to use a water drainage system and created the compass They also were the first group in the western hemisphere to develop writing and epigraphy. Lastly they were the first group in North America to make sculptures and buildings of stone. Some of the most monumental buildings were temples.