The Olmec and Teotihuacan

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The Olmec and Teotihuacan

• Signs of Mesoamerica before the Spaniards arrived
  first appeared around 1200 BCE
• Mesoamerica is the name used for Mexico and
  Central America.
• The Olmec people were located in the swampy
  lowlands along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
  south of Veracruz.
• They farmed along the muddy riverbanks in the area

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Mesoamerica

• The first major city in Mesoamerica was
  Teotihuacan. Known as the place of the Gods.

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Teotihuacan

• Located near Mexico City in a fertile valley,
  Teotihuacan had as many as 200,000 inhabitants at
  its height.
• The pyramid of the sun, rose in four tiers to a
  height over 200 feet.

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Pyramid of the Sun
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The Maya and the Toltec

• Far to the east of Teotihuacan, on the Yucatan
  Peninsula, another major civilization had arisen.
• It was known as the Maya and flourished between
  CE 300 and 900.
• It was one of the most sophisticated
  civilizations in the Americas.

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Mayan Pyramid
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Mayan

• Mayan cities were so protected they were not
  discovered until the 19th and 20th century.
• Location and the jungle being the reason

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Writings and Calendar
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Mayan cities

• Cities were built around a central pyramid topped
  by a shrine to the Gods.
• Some scholars believe that urban centers such as
  Tikal in present day Guatemala may have had
  100,000 inhabitants.
• Mayan cities were always at war. Captured
  soldiers became slaves and captured nobles were
  used for human sacrifice to the Gods.

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Temple at Tikal
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Mayan people

• Most Mayan people were peasant farmers
• Most Mayan people believed that all life was in
  the hands of divine powers.
• The name of the supreme God was Itzamna. It means
  Lizard House

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Picture of Itzamna
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Writings and Calendar

• The Maya created a sophisticated writing system
  based on hieroglyphs or pictures.
• The Spanish conquerors in the 16th century made
  no effort to decipher the language or respect the
  Mayans writings.
• One of the most important collections of Mayan
  hieroglyphs is at Palenque

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The Toltec

• The Toltec were a fierce and warlike people who
  extended their conquests into the Mayan lands of
  Guatemala.
• The center of the Toltec empire was at Tula,
  built in present day Mexico

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The Aztecs

• The origins of the Aztecs are uncertain.
• They had a long migration and finished with their
  capital in Tenochtitlan.
• They eventually ran to Lake Texcoco which was
  made up of swamps after running from an attack.
  They bulit there for the next 100 years.
• Huitzilopochtli was the Aztec God of War
• Tenochtitlan also means place of prickly pear
  cactus

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The aztecs
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Aztecs cont

• Tribute was something Aztecs were big believers
  of
• Tribute was goods or money paid by conquered
  peoples to their conquerors
• By 1500 as many as four million lived in the
  valley of Mexico and the surrounding valleys of
  central mexico

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The legend of Quetzalcoatl

• Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec God and was known as a
  feathered serpent.
• According to tradition he had left his home in
  the tenth century promising to return in triumph.
• The story told of a prince whose return from
  exile would be proceeded by the sign of an arrow
  through a sapling.

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Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec God
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Spanish conquerors

• When the Aztecs saw a similar crest from the
  Spaniards they thought that represenatives of
  Quetzalcoatl had returned.
• Were they right or wrong?????

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Aztec Religion

• The Aztec religion was based on a belief in an
  unending struggle between the forces of good and
  evil throughout the Universe.

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Here comes Cortez

• In 1519, a Spanish force under the command of
  Hernan Cortes landed at veracruz on the Gulf of
  Mexico.
• 550 soldiers and 16 horses was all he had
• He made alliances with the enemies of the Aztecs
  along the way

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Montezuma

• Montezuma was the ruler of the Aztecs who offered
  the Spaniards gold and a beautiful palace to live
  in.
• Tensions rose and the Europeans brought a very
  powerful weapon with them!!!
• In 1520 city fell and the Spanish now ruled what
  is modern day Mexico.

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Montezuma was the Aztec Ruler
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Montezuma
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Section 3

• Early Civilizations in South America

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Moche

• Sometime around 200 BCE another advanced
  civilization appeared near the Pacific coast just
  south of the border of Ecuador.
• It was known as Moche and had the Moche river
  which flowed from the Andes into the Pacific
  Ocean.
• Corn was known as Maize to these people of this
  area

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The Inca

• The Inca civilization took place about 1000 CE in
  the mountains of Southern Peru.
• Most lived at Cuzco a city that was located
  11,000 feet high.

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Picture of Maccu Pichu
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The main man of the Inca empire

• The powerful ruler of the Inca empire was a man
  named Pachacuti.
• He launched a conquest that brought the entire
  region around them under control.
• He ruled in the 1440s

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Pachacuti

• His empire extended the boundaries of the Incan
  empire as far as Ecuador, central Chile,and the
  Edge of the Amazon basin.
• The Incan empire at this time had as many as 12
  million people in it.

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Statue of Pachacuti
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Quecha

• Quecha was the language people were forced to use
  once they were conquered by the Incas.
• A noble of high rank was sent out to govern the
  region.

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Machu Picchu

• Nothing shows the genius architecture of the
  Incas more than Machu Picchu.
• Machu Picchu was built 8,000 feet off the ground
  and was surrounded by mountain tops.
• Quipu was the Incas writing system that was used
  by a system of knotting strings

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The fall of the Inca

• In 1531, the Spanish attackers of 180 men led by
  Francisco Pizzaro attacked the Incan people.
• He used horses, Gun powder and small pox to kill
  the Incas.
• By 1535, Pizzaro had established a new capital
  for Spain after matching on Cuzco in modern day
  Lima.

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These Inca are nothing to me!