Chapter 9 The Americas Section 3: Mesoamerica and Andean South America

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Chapter 9 - The Americas Section 3 Mesoamerica
and Andean South America
Maya and Aztec Empires
Inca Empire
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• The Story Continues
• In the 1500s people from Spain came in contact
  with the Inca Empire in Andean South America. One
  Spanish priest described the idol the Inca had
  made to represent their sun god It was an
  impressive image ... All worked in finest gold
  with a wealth of precious stones, in the likeness
  of a human face ... The suns rays reflected from
  it so brightly that it actually seemed to be the
  sun. The Incas were just one of the early South
  American peoples to create advanced civilizations.

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I. The Olmec and Chavin

• The Olmec culture began about 1200 B.C.
• disappeared between 400 and 200 B.C.

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I. The Olmec and Chavin

• Olmec society included farmers and a small
• military, political, and religious elite

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I. The Olmec and Chavin

• The Olmec carved giant heads from basalt that
• came from 50 miles away

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I. The Olmec and Chavin

• The Chavín was the oldest culture in S.America
• began around 1500 BC and died out around
• 200 BC

Chavin Warrior, c. 700 BC
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II. The Maya

• The Maya, among the most advanced people in
• the Americas, occupied the Yucatán peninsula

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II. The Maya

• Skilled Mayan architects and engineers built
• large, pyramid-shaped temples

The Great Plaza (center) and North Acropolis
(top) at Tikal
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II. The Maya

• Mayans developed a written language based on
• pictograph characters called hieroglyphs

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II. The Maya

• Religion was important to society - it was
• complex and involved worshipping many gods

The shaman is about to perform a cha-chac
ceremony a petition to the god, Chac, to send
rain
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II. The Maya

• The Maya studied astronomy, devised a
• calendar, and used the number zero in their
• counting system

Calendar Stone, also called Sunstone
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III. The Toltec

• About A.D. 800 the Toltec, ruled by a military
• class, invaded central Mexico from the north

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III. The Toltec

• The Toltec erected pyramid-shaped temples
• and spread the worship of their god,
• Quetzalcoatl

City of the Toltecs
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IV. The Aztec and Inca Empires

• In about A.D. 1200 Aztec warriors from the
• north gained control of central Mexico

TYPICAL AZTEC WARRIOR AND WEAPONS
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IV. The Aztec and Inca Empires

• By A.D. 1400 the capital city of Tenochtitlán
• had temples, marketplaces, palaces and a
• population of 200,000

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IV. The Aztec and Inca Empires

• The military dominated Aztec society and
• human sacrifices fed their sun god

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V. The Inca

• The Inca Empire arose in the Andes and
• included most of the west coast of S. America

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V. The Inca

• The Inca worshipped the sun and moon and
• Inca emperors held absolute power

Atahualpa, the 13th and last Inca emperor (c.
1502 1533)
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V. The Inca

• They built fortresses, irrigation systems, roads,
• and storehouses for surplus food

Machu Picchu
Major highways of the Inca Empire
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V. The Inca

• An educational system taught the Quechua
• language and Inca laws, religion, and history

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V. The Inca

• The Inca kept records using a quipu, a series of
• knots on parallel strings