Aztec Warfare

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Aztec Warfare
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The Aztecs were a powerful war society. 

• From the moment in which you were born, you were
  a potential warrior. 
• All of the soldiers that made up the military
  were ordinary people.
• Once that child turns to the age of about six or
  seven, he would be sent off to a military school
  for the Aztecs. 

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A boy would become a man only after he captured
his first prisoner.

• After all of the extensive training that the
  future warrior would go through, he would then be
  sent out to fight in his first battle in order to
  capture his first man after becoming a  warrior. 

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• The Aztec's courage and strength helped them
  build their empire
• and establish themselves as the fiercest of all
  the tribes in the Valley of Mexico.
• They easily defeated attacks from neighboring
  tribes.
• Declarations of war were greeted with joy
• it was seen by Aztec warriors as a time to show
  their skills in battle.

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Soldiers dressed in costumes designed to scare
their enemies

• such as the jaguar warriors who wore ocelot skins
  
• and eagle warriors who
• wore a helmet shaped like
• the beak of a bird of prey.

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Aztec jaguar and eagle warriors were members of
the nobility.

• Their elaborate costumes were worn to show the
  wearer's strength and importance in the Aztec
  society.
• The warrior's leather or wooden shield was
  decorated with brightly colored feathers.
• Below the warrior's shield hung leather strips to
  protect his legs.
• Their wooden clubs were edged with extremely
  sharp blades of obsidian.

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The Aztecs and their enemies used spears, slings,
bows, and arrows to fight at close range.

• Razor sharp blades were chipped from obsidian and
  mounted on weapons.
• A freshly made obsidian blade was sharper than
  the Spaniards steel swords.
• But, obsidian blades soon lost their edge and
  were easily broken.

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The Aztecs wore close-fitting cotton breastplates
and used wooden shields for protection.
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The Spaniards used steel swords, guns, and
cannons that could take out many Aztecs at a
time.
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Tenochtitlan
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Tenochtitlan
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Tenochtitlan
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Tenochtitlan
Chinampa, also called floating garden,  small,
stationary, artificial island built on a
freshwater lake for agricultural purposes.
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Incan Civilization
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Incan Roads

• Possessing neither horses, wheeled vehicles, nor
  a system of writing, authorities nevertheless
  managed to keep in extremely close touch with
  developments throughout the empire.

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Other remarkable achievements in engineering
included the construction of rope suspension
bridges
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Some nearly 328 ft in length
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Among the most impressive features of Incan
civilization were vast temples, palaces,
fortresses, and public works
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Machu Picchu
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Machu Picchu was most likely a royal estate and
religious retreat.
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The houses had steep thatched roofs and
trapezoidal doors windows were unusual.
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The houses, in groups of up to ten gathered
around a communal courtyard, or aligned on narrow
terraces, were connected by narrow alleys.
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At the center were large open squares livestock
enclosures and terraces for growing maize
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The terraces stretched around the edge of the
city.
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The Maya
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Of the many pre-Columbian civilizations of the
western hemisphere, the Maya civilization alone
developed a writing system

• they are the only indigenous people of the
  Americas with a written history.
• While only four of their folding-bark books
  survived the fanatical purges of the Spanish
  priests, their writings in stucco, stone and
  pottery remain.
• But the voices of the ancient Maya stood silent
  for centuries, waiting for the advances in
  decipherment made in the past three decades.

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In addition to their writing system, they had a
calendar systemthat consisted of a Long Count
divided into five cycles
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along with a 260 day ritual calendar
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365 day solar calendar.
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The Mayans developed impressive cities
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Many with huge temples
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300 AD and 800 AD, the Maya flourished
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Then the great Maya centers fell into ruin
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abandoned and left to be reclaimed by the
surrounding rainforest.
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But What Happened?
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By the time of the Spanish Conquest

• the Maya civilization had reverted to scattered
  city-states.
• It was this lack of cohesion that would thwart
  the Spaniard's attempts to conquer the Maya.
• Contrary to the "Divide and Conquer" maxim, it
  was the Mayas fractured political structure that
  thwarted attempts by the Conquistadors to conquer
  them.
• Cortez could take down the entire Aztec Empire,
  by simply toppling Tenochttilan.
• But conquest of the Maya would require winning
  battles with hundreds of individual clans
  scattered throughout the Yucatan.
• The Spanish easily overcame the major Mayan
  groups,
• although the Mexican government did not subdue
  the last independent communities until 1901.

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What could have happened?
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Theories Include

• over-population,
• extensive warfare,
• revolt of the farmer/laborer class,
• or any number of devastating natural disasters.

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We may never know what happened.