Rise and Fall of Toltecs and Aztecs: Pre-Columbian Empires in Central Mexico

1. AP World HistoryPeriod 1 / Chapter 6Developments in the Americas

2. Toltecs: Precursors to the Aztecs • Pre-Columbian: before the voyages of Columbus and the conquests of the Spanish • Groups develop in isolation • Toltec Empire (968-1150) • Central Mexico • 968: Capital at Tula established • Long-distance trade, even to American SW • Belief in Quetzalcóatl (feathered serpent; one of the main Pre-Columbian gods) • Heavily militaristic (sacrifice, war) • 1150: Collapse, probably caused by northern nomadic attacks

4. Aztecs (AKA Mexica)12th – 15th centuries • After Toltecs collapse, political power and people move to shores along Lake Texcoco • One of those groups are the Aztecs in the early 13th c • Lake Texcoco provides fishing, farming, and transportation • Valley by Lake Texcoco inhabited by groups organized into city-states • Many vie for control of lakes  winners are Aztecs • Who are the Aztecs? • Speak Nahuatl (Toltec language) and worship Quetzalcóatl; lends legitimacy to rule • 1325: Aztecs found Tenochtitlan (city on island in center of Lake Texcoco) • 1434: Aztecs dominate central valley; conquer other city-states to make tribute empire (demand financial payments and prisoners to use for Aztec human sacrifices)

5. Tenochtitlan: Aztec City State • Included: • Temples • Royal palace • Canoes and canals • Farming • Zoo and aviary • Bustling markets selling chocolates, textiles, parrots, feathers, stones, slaves

6. What helped the Aztecs establish power in the Central Mexican valley? • Describe the newly established Aztec Empire. Quick Review Question

7. Aztec Society • As the Aztecs became solidified as the most powerful group around Lake Texcoco, Aztec society transformed into a rigidly hierarchical society • Ruler • Head of state/religion • Representative of gods on earth • Nobles • Peasants • Slaves (war captives) • Clans (calpulli) dictate social status • A large gap emerges between nobility and commoners

8. Aztec Tribute Lists • Tribute lists show what items that tribute territories (controlled by the Aztecs) would send to the Aztecs • Way of organizing tribute items • Common items: • Bird feathers • Greenstone or jade • Animal hides

9. Aztec Religion • Highly motivated by religious zeal • Dedicated to service of gods • Spiritual and natural world seamless • Hundreds of deities • Mostly focused upon fertility, agriculture, water/rain • Aztecs worshipped gods through festivals, ceremonies, feasting, dancing, warfare, and sacrifice • Sacrifice: a component of worship • Huitzilopochtli (deity of war, sun, and human sacrifice) needs strength • Patron of Tenochtitlan • Motivated by religious conviction? Or terror and political control? • Includes ritual cannibalism • War captives supply Aztecs with sacrificial victims

11. Aztec Economy • Mostly an agrarian community • Chinampas: man-made floating islands that yielded large amount of crops, constructed to provide additional farming land upon the lake • Maize, corn, and beans • No use of wheel or laboring animals • Merchants worked in daily markets

12. Gender and Aztec Society • Aztec women’s responsibilities: household care, cooking, weaving • Women had to grind corn by hand on stone boards; time-consuming • No wheels or suitable animals for power like Europe • Lack of appropriate technology • Women could own/inherit property and will it to their heirs • Arranged marriages were common • Elite were often polygamous • Commoners were monogamous

13. What belief necessitates Aztec sacrifice? • What is the agricultural innovation the Aztecs use to increase available farmland? Quick Review Question

14. Inca Empire • Precursors were the Chimor Kingdom (900-1465) • Control of north coast of Peru • Incas conquer Chimors by taking over irrigation systems and cutting off access to water • Inca Empire (Twantinsuyu) • Quechua-speaking clans from southern Andes Mountains • By 1350, Incas live centered around and in Cuzco (capital city) • Control other regions by 1438, • Led by Pachacuti (ruler, or inca) • Centered around Lake Titicaca • Fishing, irrigation, farming • Aggressive expansion for 60 years by Pachacuti, his son, and grandson

15. Techniques of the Inca • Highly centralized • Inca ruler; governors of four provinces; bureaucracy • Local rulers maintain their positions providing they defer to Inca rule • Integrated various ethnic groups into an tribute empire • Quechua is spread as language to unite empire • Military: System of roads, pay stations (tambos), storehouses • Extensive irrigated agriculture; large building and irrigation projects • “Split inheritance” necessitates conquest • Power goes to eldest male; wealth and land to other sons

16. Inca Culture • Viracocha (creator/sun god) is highest • Temple of the Sun at Cuzco is center of state religion • Local gods allowed to survive • Cult of ancestors, deceased rulers mummified • Inca gods are animistic • Cultural Achievements • Metallurgy (copper, bronze) • No writing system but knotted strings (quipu) for accounting • Monumental architecture (steep slopes) • Farming: potato; maize

17. Inca sun temple of Cuzco(Qorikancha) • Temple of Qorikancha was dedicated to the Inca sun god, Inti • Inti provides for and powers all life on earth • In front would have been a life size sculpture garden giving thanks to Inti by revealing the Inca empire in miniature (maize cobs; Inca people; llamas) • The temple was covered entirely with gold • When the Spanish conquer the Inca, they destroy all but one wall of the temple (after removing the gold), then build the Church of Santo Domingo on top of it

18. Comparison of Inca and Aztecs

19. What similarities do the Aztecs and Inca have? • What differences? Quick Review Question

20. Peoples of the Americas • Great variety; adapt to region • Only two large states/empires formed • Aztecs and Inca • Weakened by European contact • Long distance/regional trade common • By 1500: 200 languages • Agriculturalists; nomads • Communities are technologically behind Europeans, Chinese, Arabs Major Linguistic Groups in North America

21. Maya2000 BCE – 900 CE • Developed the most sophisticated writing system in the Pre-Columbian Americas • Enormously important and dominant Mesoamerican civilization • Unlike other groups, Maya were all clustered in one geographic area • At peak, Maya may have reached 2 million people • Known for art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system • Especially in the Classical Period: 250 – 900 CE • Mayans are not centralized – there is no Maya empire to speak of. They were broken and divided into warring Maya city states. • Maya rule was based on ritual authority of the ruler • This means that rulers were ill-equipped to quickly address trade and food distribution • Maya collapse around 900 CE: major political tumult; abandonment of cities; overpopulation; drought

22. Chaco Canyon • Part of the Ancestral Puebloans of the American SW, the Anasazi constructed underground buildings (kivas) in New Mexico • The large Anasazi community at Chaco Canyon had a population of about 15,000 people • Practiced hunting, trade, and irrigated agriculture. • Multi-level (5 story) buildings could hold 800+ people • Indicates tremendous labor of stonecutting and masonry • Lived here for about 350 years beginning around 900 CE (marks an explosion of activity across the region) • The Anasazi civilization declined in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a result of drought, overpopulation, and warfare. • Sometimes called the Chaco Phenomenon  the Anasazi built 700 miles of roads. The purpose is not known. • They had no beasts of burden nor wheeled wagons/flatbeds

23. Mesa Verde • Ancestral Puebloans known as the Anasazi resided in the Mesa Verde Canyon in Colorado • Agriculturalists who lived in Colorado, New Mexico, & Arizona • Famous for the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwelling within a canyon • Known as a pueblo: communal village of flat-roofed structures • Some were 5-6 stories tall • Built into the side of the cliff using stone and mud mortar • Why move here? • Did canyon provide protection from tribes? Spiritual significance? Protection from elements? • Abandoned in 1300 CE – why? • Unclear – drought, lack of resources, violence?

24. Cahokia • Native American tribe called the Mississippians resided in modern-day Ohio and the surrounding area. • Economy was based on hunting and gathering and was supplemented by agriculture. • Largest settlement/city called Cahokia north of Mexico • Had 30,000 people living there • Built large mounds both as burial sites and as platforms upon which temples and residences of chiefs were constructed. • Over 120 earthen mounds; meant moving 55 million cubic feet of earth • Cahokia was abandoned around 1250 perhaps because of climate changes and population pressure (related to waste disposal and food distribution)

25. Can you name one distinguishing characteristic of each of the following? • Maya • Chaco • Mesa Verde • Cahokia Quick Review Question

26. SUMMATIVE GROUP ACTIVITY • Pretend you are a rival of the Aztecs and you hear that they use human sacrifice. What would you think about them? Write out a paragraph explaining your reaction when you learn of this.