ANCIENT AMERICA

1
ANCIENT AMERICA

• AZTEC
• MAYA
• INCA

2
THREE QUESTIONS

• ECONOMIC SOCIAL SYSTEMS?
• SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION?
• LEGACY?

3
EPOCHS

• MAYA 250-900 (CLASSIC)
• AZTEC 1430 (TRIPLE ALLIANCE) - 1521 (FALL OF
  TENOCHTITLÁN TO CORTÉS)
• 1111 (DEPARTURE FROM NORTH)
• 1218 (ARRIVAL)
• 1344 (BEGIN TO BUILD TENOCHITLÁN)
• INCA 1438-1533
• 1438 IMPERIAL EXPANSION
• 1533 CUZCO FALLS TO PIZARRO

4
AZTECS

• WAR AND CONQUEST

5
HARSH ORIGINS

• 100 years of wanderings.
• Settled on marshy lands
• Wars

6
CLASS STRUCTURE

• Emperor
• Priesthood
• Nobility
• Warrior-nobles
• Merchants
• Commoners who owed tribute, labor, and military
  service. Serf-like. The majority.
• Slaves
• Vast inequalities

7
CLASS STRUCTURE

• EMPEROR
• Divine origin
• Absolute authority
• Selected by council from relatives of previous
  ruler
• Splendor

8
CLASS STRUCTURE

• PRIESTHOOD
• Calendar regulates agriculture
• Lore and history
• Intercession
• Celibate, austere, wise.
• Human sacrifice
• Prisoners of war
• So that the sun will rise

9
CLASS STRUCTURE

• NOBILITY
• Four great nobles council emperor.
• Assisted in selection of emperor
• Landed estates with tenant farmers
• Outstanding warriors

10
CLASS STRUCTURE

• WARRIORS
• Militarist society wars for
• Conquest
• Punishment
• Sacrificial victims
• Empire built by conquest.
• Landed estates.

11
CLASS STRUCTURE

• MERCHANT CLASS
• Trade
• Spies
• Diplomatic services

12
CLASS STRUCTURE

• ARTISANS
• Carpenters, potters, stone-masons, silversmiths,
  featherworkers fishermen, hunters, dancers,
  musicians.
• No mobility
• Guilds
• Professions hereditary

13
CLASS STRUCTURE

• COMMONERS
• Tribute
• Labor
• Military service
• Tenant farmers render tribute and service to
  nobles.

14
CLASS STRUCTURE

• SLAVES
• Punishment for theft, etc.
• Assumed by poor for food
• Personal service
• Sacrificial offerings.

15
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• WAR AND CONQUEST
• Tribute
• Prisoners for sacrifice
• Lands for support of crown, priesthood,
  officials, warriors
• Steward garrisons for tax
• Otherwise, autonomy

16
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• Agriculture
• Intensive-chinampas (artificial garden beds
  dikes, canals, aqueducts).
• Extensive-slash burn / rotation
• Artisans/manufacturers
• Trade
• Transportation network

17
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• Exchange
• Money cacao beans, cotton mantles, quills filled
  witgold dust, small copper axes.
• Barter
• By count and measure-no scales
• Officials checked fairness
• Merchants court

18
MORAL CODE

• True face and heart.
• Life is short and filled with hardships, and all
  comes to an end.
• Impeccable civility modesty.

19
LEGAL CODE

• Hierarchy of courts
• Severe punishments
• Death for murder, rebellion, adultery.
• Slavery for first theft,
• Hanging for second.

20
MAYA

• CULTURE

21
CLASS STRUCTURE

• Hereditary ruler
• Aristocracy (bureaucracy)
• Intellectual specialists (architects, priests,
  scribes)
• Artisans (potters, sculptors, stoneworkers,
  painters, etc.)
• Common laborers peasants
• Vast inequalities

22
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• Agriculture
• Slash burn
• Intensive
• Kitchen gardens
• Arboriculture
• Terracing
• Raised fields

23
CULTURE

• Surpassing architecture temples pyramids
• Corbeled vault
• Great façades
• Ornamental roof combs
• Paintings
• Sculpture

24
CULTURE

• Mathematics
• Calendar
• Almanacs
• Astronomy
• Religion
• Urbanism
• Personal qualities

25
DECLINE

• 550 a.D. Breakdown of centralized authority.
• Ceremonial centers over-burdened commoners.
• Growing population-shortages
• War
• External attacks

26
INCA

• ADMINISTRATORS
• BUILDERS

27
Nature of Society

• Socialist?
• Welfare state?
• Totalitarian

28
Physical Environment

• Mountains
• Desert Coastal Plain
• Lack of Rainfall
• Rivers
• Fertile soil
• Fish
• Guano on islands--fertilizer

29
Crops

• Maize (Lower levels)
• Potatoes and quinoa (higher)
• Fodder (highest
• Llamas and Alpacas
• Meat
• Wool

30
Origins

• 1000 A.D.
• Cities
• Irrigation
• Chimu kingdom
• Adobe brick house

31
Origins

• 1438 A.D.
• Inca imperial expansion
• Pachacuti Inca
• Claims of divine aid
• Fair promises
• Threats
• Force
• Territorial divisions
• Adminstrative bureaucracy

32
Origins

• 1527 A.D.
• Inca impire ruled by Atahualpa
• 9 million people
• Authority
• Language (Quechua)
• State religion
• Incorporating chieftains
• Resettlementdeportation loyals
• Roads

33
Economy

• Irrigation agriculture
• Advanced irrigation, terracing, and fertilization
• Implements foot plow, how
• Crops maize, cotton coca beans and other plants

34
Economy

• Crops Vertical economy
• Potato and quinoa (high)
• Maize (lower),
• Plants cotton, coca, beans, etc (lowest)

35
Economy

• Regulated exchange
• Tribute redistribution

36
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

• Inca 12 lineages
• Nobility
• Priesthood
• Warriors
• Local chieftans
• Commoners
• Great class divisions / revolts

37
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• CONQUEST--IMPERIALSIM
• Claims of divine aid fair promises threats
  force.
• Territorial divisions.
• Elaborate bureaucracy.

38
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• CONSOLIDATION
• Language
• State religion
• Incorporating chieftains
• Resettlement
• Roads

39
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• AGRICULTURE
• Intensive
• Permanent kitchen gardens, terracing, raised
  fields.
• Extended irrigation, terracing, fertilization.
• Implements foot plow and hoe.
• Extensive slash burn

40
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• AGRICULTURE
• Regulate exchange of multiple environments
  through tribute redistribution.

41
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• AGRICULTURE
• Unpaid forced labor
• Till state and church lands
• Create new arable land
• Roads, irrigation channels, fortresses, mines
  (mita).
• Cloth
• Military service

42
ECONOMIC SYSTEM

• Reciprocity
• Maintain order
• Surplus grain in storehouses released during
  shortages.
• Note the inca built roads, not pyramids

43
SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION

• Exploited, lower classes will revolt if given the
  chance.
• Other?

44
LEGACY

• Class division
• Forced labor
• Revolt
• Other?