The Americas Incas , Aztecs, and Mayas

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The Americas Incas , Aztecs, and Mayas
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The Aztec Indians

• The Aztecs were an Indian people who lived in
  Central and Southern Mexico. They lived from the
  14th to the 16th century. They made a huge empire
  based on conquest, paying tribute, and religious
  sacrifice of humans and animals. The Aztecs made
  terraces, which were steps descending down a hall
  to control the flow of water. This kept their
  crops from flooding. Like the Olmec civilization,
  the Aztecs also used a slash and burn method of
  farming. Chinampas, artificial islands made by
  weacing giant reed mats and covering them with
  muded and plants, were used to extend crops into
  the swamp. Although they seemed to float, the
  chinampas were anchored to the ground by plant
  roots. All this helped the Aztecs grow and
  abundance of corn, chili peppers, squash,
  tomatoes, beans, and other kinds of food. They
  used pictographic writing. They wrote on paper
  and animal hides. Some of these writings exist
  today..

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Aztecs continued

• In the Aztec religion, several gods ruled over
  their daily life. Some of them were Vitzilopochtl
  the sun god, Coylxauhqui the moon goddess, Taloc
  the rain god and Quetzalcoatl the inventer of
  Aztec writing and their calenders. An Aztec myth
  says that the moon goddess was murdered by her
  brother the sun god. Human and animal sacrifices
  were a big part of the Aztec religion. For
  worriors, the ultimate honor was to die in battle
  or to volunteer in a major ceremony. Prisoners
  would be used for less important ceremonies. The
  Aztevs tried to please their gods by sacrifice.
  Later a drought wiped out many of the Aztecs, so
  the priests thought the gods were angry. To
  please them, the Aztecs started to kill hundreds
  of people. After a few years the drought ended.
  Priests still made sacrificial killings so it
  wouldn't happen again. The thousands of victims
  of sacrifice would climb the steps of the pyramid
  where priests would stretch them across a
  outwardly curved stone and rip their hearts out
  with a sharp knife.

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Aztecs

• They used a calendar system made by the Mayan
  Civilization. It had 365 days, 18 months of 20
  days, and 5 ÒhollowÓ days which they thought had
  extremely bak luck. They used another calendar
  with 260 days, 20 months of 13 days, which was
  used in their religion. The Aztecs had an
  excellent strategy for conquering enemies. When
  Aztec merchants travelled hundreds of miles the
  warriors would follow them. After the merchants
  visited the new area, they would report to the
  warriors about the military and its resources. If
  the report looked good they would conquer the
  enemy..

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Aztecs

• The Aztec society was divided into 3 classes.
  They were called slave commoner, and nobility.
  The children of poor parents could be sold,
  usually for only a certain time period. Slaves
  could buy back their freedom. The slaves that
  escaped and reached the royal palace without
  being caught were given their freedom instantly.
  Commoners were given lifetime ownership of an
  area of land. The lowest group of commoners were
  not allowed to own property. They were tenant
  farmers, they just got to use the land and never
  be owners. The nobilties were the people who were
  nobles by birth, priests, and those who earned
  their rank. The Aztecs made the conqured people
  pay tribute. The conquered people had to accept
  the Aztecs as their rulers. The Aztecs usually
  demanded tribute, which was like taxes, in form
  of bird feathers, corn, or gold. If the enemy did
  not do this, The Aztecs would capture them and
  later kill them at Tenochtitlan, where they were
  sacrificed to gods

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Aztecs

• The priests reported signs of doom, but
  Montequma, the Aztec ruler, Thought Cortes was a
  returning god. When the spanish saw the gold
  presents Montezuma offered to them as presents,
  they wanted to conquer the city. The Spanish
  defeated the Aztecs and the Catholics felt that
  it was their duty to destroy every trace of the
  Aztecs. The few Aztecs that remain have carried
  on their culture today.
• The Aztecs controlled the flow of water to their
  crops.
• They built their city on marshes.
• They had their own form of writing.
• They had an interesting religion full of
  sacrifices.
• They had a society divided into 3 sections that
  covered almost all of Mexico.

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Aztecs

• Family life was important to the Aztecs. When
  babies were born the delivery was assisted by a
  midwife. Midwives were highly regarded
  professionals. As Aztec women married when they
  were as young as fifteen the first birth was
  often to a teenage girl of a young age. The
  midwife would cut the umbilical cord, wash the
  baby, and then offer a prayer to Chalchiuhtlicue
  "Jade-Her-Skirt". Baby boys were told that life
  was difficult and full of suffering and that they
  were likely to die in battle or as sacrifices.
  The umbilical cord of boys was given to warriors
  to be buried on the battlefields. Boys were
  educated at home by their fathers until they were
  about ten when they started school. The umbilical
  cord of girls was buried by the hearth. The
  domestic role was seen as the most important part
  of a woman's life. The women generally stayed
  within the home and cooked and made clothing.
  When girl babies were born they were told by the
  assisting midwife that they were to the house as
  the heart was to the body. Girls stayed in the
  home with their mothers and began their
  "training" when they were four. By the age of
  twelve they were accomplished weavers. The women
  dressed in wraparound skirts and sleeveless
  blouses. Women often coloured their faces in a
  pale yellow ochre powder to enhance their
  attractiveness.

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Incas

• The Incas were one of the last great
  civilizations to live in South America. The
  civilization started in about 1200 A.D. and ended
  in about 1530 A.D. when the Spaniards arrived.
  The Inca Empire stretched from Ecuador to Chile
  or about 2,500-3,000 miles.
• The Incas had an irrigation system with channels
  of water that may flow hundreds of miles. They
  grew many different kinds of vegetables and the
  potato was originally grown by the Incas in Peru.
  The people used fertilizer of animal manure and
  thought that bird droppings, known as guano, were
  the best to use. The people that lived in the
  desert lowlands grew tomatoes, tropical fruit,
  and cotton, and people that lived in the
  mountains grew potatoes. People that lived in
  such high elevation where you couldn't grow crops
  herded llama and alpaca which supplied food and
  wool. The Incas also grew peppers, peanuts,
  avocados, and beans. Orchids were grown for
  medicine and people chewed the leaves of coca to
  help fight thirst, hunger, and pain. The Incas
  built terraces on the mountainsides, which look a
  lot like steps on stairs, held up by stone walls.

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Incas

• The Incas were one of the last great
  civilizations to live in South America. The
  civilization started in about 1200 A.D. and ended
  in about 1530 A.D. when the Spaniards arrived.
  The Inca Empire stretched from Ecuador to Chile
  or about 2,500-3,000 miles.
• The Incas had an irrigation system with channels
  of water that may flow hundreds of miles. They
  grew many different kinds of vegetables and the
  potato was originally grown by the Incas in Peru.
  The people used fertilizer of animal manure and
  thought that bird droppings, known as guano, were
  the best to use. The people that lived in the
  desert lowlands grew tomatoes, tropical fruit,
  and cotton, and people that lived in the
  mountains grew potatoes. People that lived in
  such high elevation where you couldn't grow crops
  herded llama and alpaca which supplied food and
  wool. The Incas also grew peppers, peanuts,
  avocados, and beans. Orchids were grown for
  medicine and people chewed the leaves of coca to
  help fight thirst, hunger, and pain. The Incas
  built terraces on the mountainsides, which look a
  lot like steps on stairs, held up by stone walls.

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Incas

• The Incas built a 10,000-20,000 mile road system
  including pontoon and suspension bridges. The
  Incas invented the quipua, a string counting
  device, used by tying knots with different colors
  of ropes representing different things. One
  important accomplishment was that the Incas
  conquered other tribes which is how the Inca
  Empire grew larger. The Incas were brilliant
  craftsmen and made gold masks, pots, textiles,
  ceramics, ear plugs, jewelry, trumpets, flutes,
  drums, bells, and tambourines. They sent messages
  and packages from runner to runner and might
  cover 350 miles a day. They weapons the Incas
  used were spears and whips.
• The Incas built a 10,000-20,000 mile road system
  including pontoon and suspension bridges. The
  Incas invented the quipua, a string counting
  device, used by tying knots with different colors
  of ropes representing different things. One
  important accomplishment was that the Incas
  conquered other tribes which is how the Inca
  Empire grew larger. The Incas were brilliant
  craftsmen and made gold masks, pots, textiles,
  ceramics, ear plugs, jewelry, trumpets, flutes,
  drums, bells, and tambourines. They sent messages
  and packages from runner to runner and might
  cover 350 miles a day. They weapons the Incas
  used were spears and whips.

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Incas

• The Incas believed in life after death and signs
  from the gods would tell them what to do. After
  kings died, they were mummified, and buried in
  the palace along with the servants. People would
  sacrifice by giving food and drink offerings from
  huaca, giving plucked hairs, expensive cloth,
  gold charms, animals, and giving lives to please
  the gods.
• The Inca had one language (Quechua), one ruler,
  and one way of life. They developed strong lungs
  and wore simple clothing of wool or cotton. Every
  man had to marry by age 20 and at a wedding the
  bride and groom would hold hands and exchange
  sandals. Babies were called wawa and at age two
  they were given a nickname and at age 13-14 they
  were given a permanent name. The houses were one
  large room of stone held by mud, with grass
  roofs, and had a woolen cloth in the doorway.
• In 1532 Spaniards arrived and people thought they
  were their gods. Many people died from diseases
  they brought over. The Incas were defeated by the
  guns which were no match against them. The Inca
  developed a culture that still exists today.