Mesoamerica

1. Chapter 8
Mesoamerica
Section 4 Path to the Americas

2. Essential Understandings
• The Olmec and the Maya invented many new ideas,
including forms of writing and a calendar
• The Aztec and the Inca built complex civilizations that
lasted until the time of European arrival in the Americas
• What kinds of civilizations developed in Mesoamerica
• What life was like for the Inca of South America

3. Path to the Americas
• No people existed in the Americas until 25,000 years ago
• Hunter-Gatherer bands crossed frozen ice bridge btw Alaska & Asia
from last Ice Age (Bering Strait)
• Bands followed grass-grazing animals to eat
• Ice Age ended by 7000 B.C.
• Deserts took the place of grasslands; large animals died
• By 6000 B.C. farming developed in Mexico
• By 3000 B.C. thousands of small-farming villages
• Most important crop: maize, or corn

4. • Routes of Ancient Americas

5. Mesoamerica
• Great Civilizations in Mesoamerica
• Olmecs – Began 1000 B.C. & Disappeared 900 years later
• Called the “mother culture”
• Developed planned cities, hieroglyphic writing, & a calendar
• Farmed; built stone cities—religious centers
• Cities stood on top of huge hills
• The people lived in nearby villages

7. Olmec Temple

8. • Began in 500 B.C.
• Peaked between 300 & 900
A.D.
• Farming villages surrounding
religious cities
– Temples & Houses for priests and
nobles
• Great traders
• Paved, linked roads
• Busy marketplaces
• Mayan mathematicians
discovered idea of zero
• Counting system based on 20
• Civilization disappeared by
900 A.D.
• No one knows why
The Mayans

11. The Sculpted Throne

12. The Aztecs
• Aztecs rose around 1200 A.D.
• Expanded empire thru military
conquest
• 5 million ppl by 1400 A.D.
• Capital: Tenochtitlan
• War-like people
• War & religion connected:
• Worship of two major Gods
– Rain God (represented peaceful
life of farming)
– Sun God (represented war and
expanding empire)
• Believed the Sun God needed
human sacrifices
• Felt if sacrifices were not
made, the sun would not rise
– Prisoners of war were the victims
– Early 1500s: Spaniards attacked
and destroyed Aztec empire

15. Chapter 8
Mesoamerica
Section 6 The Incas

16. The Incan Empire
• Incas established empire
stretching 2,500 miles on coast
of South America
• By 1500, 12 million people
• Farmers/shepherds built
villages on rocky slopes of
Andres Mountains
• Grazed alpacas and llamas

17. Incan History
• Inca ruler Pachacuti
conquered neighbors in 1438
• Ordered people to worship
Inca sun god
• Made Inca language Quechua
official
• Spread Inca culture, quelled
rebellion
– System of stone-paved roads to
move supplies
• Way of Life
• Land belonged to ruler, not villagers
working the land
• Villagers paid taxes thru labor & tax
• No written language, special
accountants used quipus or counting
devices to keep track of people and
goods
• Long string necklace made of knots
that represented items thru different
color strings, the knots represented
tens, hundreds, etc.
• Spanish destroyed Incas in early
1500s thru their desire for wealth –
gold & silver

19. Questions
• Which Mesoamerican
civilization would you
choose to live in and
why?
• Who directed and
controlled the Incan way
of life?
• What were the quipus,
and how did the Inca use
them?