American History-Pre Columbian

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American History-Pre Columbian

• Amerindians
• First arrival migration of peoples across the
  Bering St. 15,000-30,000 yrs ago
• Group of hunter gathering nomads

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Development of Permanent Societies

• First development of farming approx. 8,000 yrs.
  Ago
• Great societies develop in America without
  contact from old world
• Myth of Amerindian
• Great advanced societies in modern day Mexico,
  Guatamala and along the Andes
• Also in N.America along Miss. River valley and
  along Eastern seaboard

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Olmecs and MesoAmerica

• Intensive agriculture with corn, beans , squash
• Stone carvings and monuments
• Widespread trading network and had rudimentary
  written language
• Will be ancestors and of course influence Mayas
  and Aztecs

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Mayas

• Centered on Yucatan Peninsula in modern Guatamala
• Height of Maya influence during first millenium
  A.D. up to 3 million
• Most are farmers but there are large urban areas
  such as Tikal which has up toward 50,000 people
  and was the size of Manhatten
• Maya religion is polytheistic with several
  pyramids for human sacrifice

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Mayan interpretations

• Unknown people until 1800s as they are not
  around when Europeans arrive
• First finds of huge stone temples and remains of
  urban areas many assume must be from? Great
  cultivation and refinement
• Recognition that Maya were advanced.had great
  astronomical knowledge and mathematical ability
• Maya used to be viewed as peaceful, priestly
  group who glorified knowledge and science and
  tragically their empire ended for no apparent
  reason
• Bloody warlike people a la the Aztecs with many
  sacrifices

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Mayan Achievements

• Great urban areas
• Central pyramids with temples, palaces and
  housing for thousands
• Ball courts where loses are rewarded with
  sacrifice
• Advanced writing system 1/5 in world but most are
  burned during Spanish times
• 1945 as German libraries burn key book found and
  picked up by Russian officer which has Maya
  hieroglyphs.eventually he and his wife work to
  decipher Maya language
• Calendar and astronomyknowledge so precise
  scientists today at a loss
• Maya calendar has beginning point of world
  thousands of yrs ago and an ending date
• Empire lasts from about 200-900 A.D. but declines
  for unknown reasons

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Tenochtitlan

• Center of Aztec world on an island connected by
  many bridges
• Consolidate control over region throughout much
  of modern Mexico as they are noted as great
  warriors
• Aztecs arrive in twelth century and become
  dominant group by 1400s
• Several million under sway with one god
  Huitzilopochtli.still not centralized state
  completely
• Huge population center with several thousands and
  temples and pyramids and canals and extensive
  trading networks
• Authoritarian state creates ill will amongst the
  conquered according to Spanish accounts

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Tenochtitlan

• One of largest cities of world with over 200,000
  inhabitants
• Most of lake eventually drained
• Pre columbian city interlaced with canals and
  bridgesGreat ex. Of city planning
• Fresh water with aquaducts
• Major roads in cities supposedly wide enough for
  10 horses
• Specialized markets
• Public buildings, temples and schools
• Many Spaniards mention city as greatest most
  efficient they have ever seen

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Aztec World

• Borrowed heavily from earlier societies in region
• Farm extensively of three sisters of crops
• Use obsidian to cut precisely
• Huge city and great wealth described with awe by
  Spaniards
• Massive pyramid devoted to Sun God where human
  sacrifices occur with paintings and sculptures
• World destroyed with arrival of Spanish in 1519

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Aztec Society

• Hereditary nobility sons schooled by the state to
  become priests, military or govt.
• Divided into nobility, slaves, ind. Servants and
  commoners
• Rigid stratification of classes
• Almost half of pop in Valley live in urban areas
  so many work in stonecutting, commerce or weaving
• Polytheistic society with lots of human sacrifice
  to appease Gods.gruesome with hearts ripped out
  for the Gods

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S.America

• Older urban areas known of than in MesoAmerica
• Difficult environment
• Several empires or peoples settle and urbanize
  and develop before Incas perfect it
• Incas come in early 1000s to control region

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Farming and Society

• Dealing with elements
• Great stone foundations still stand today
• Huge bridges and terraced farming growing corn
  and beans and cocoa plants and tomatoes and
  potatoes
• Society built for war as universal male
  conscription for huge well trained army
• Kept records with Quipu by knotting strings of
  diff. colors and lengths
• Machu Picchu undiscovered Inca ruins for hundreds
  of years after Spanish arrival
• Many buildings, a playing field, aqueducts,
  terraces
• All forced to marry, state controls land, mining
  and trade are nationalized, huge warehouses of
  food for famine times
• Incas conquered in 1530s by Spanish

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North America

• Longer period of hunter-gathering societies
• Anasazi in West or cliff dwellers have large
  groups of people in settled areas
• Eastern Woodland Indians adopt permanent villages
  along the rivers of East Coast.grow corns and
  other crops and hunt and fish
• No domesticated animals or written language or
  iron tools but in Virginia as in other places in
  Eastern Woodlands high level of advanced
  governments develop
• Powhatan Indians throughout our region

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Powhatans

• Government with 30 or so tribes loosely linked
  together with one overall chief
• Tributes paid to leader who is in contact via
  canoes and rivers
• Polytheistic religion
• Stone and bone tools
• Gender roles defined

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Mississippi Valley Indians

• From first millenium A.D. up until about 1200
  Cahokia serves as central spot of society for
  long while
• Great farming ability
• Administrative center with upwards of 20,000
  people
• Contacts far and wide

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