What is this about?
What states developed in the Americas and how they changed over time
- About Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans
The Mississippian Culture
- Emerged in North America in 700s/800s specifically in the Mississippi River Valley
- Built enormous earthen mounds
- Largest was Cahokia
- Had variety of purposes: they served as sites for religious ceremonies, temples, houses, and burial sites
Government and Society
- Were a matrilineal society
- Means that one derived their social standing from the woman’s side of the family
- Social Structure:
- Great Sun at the top: this was a chief who ruled a town
- Next is priests and nobles
- Then farmers, hunters, merchants, artisans
- At the bottom were enslaved peoples, who were usually prisoners of war
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Decline of Mississippian Society
- No one knows the specific factor that caused their decline but they declined in 1450-1600
- Some say its because of European diseases, other say because of flooding and other weather extremes
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The Aztecs
- Also known as the Mexicas
- Were originally hunter-gatherers who migrated to central Mexico and founded their capital Tenochtitlán in 1325 in modern day New Mexico
Capital City
- Tenochtitlán was on an island in the middle of a swampy lake
- Was one of the largest cities in the world at the time with over 200,000 people
- Built a network of aqueducts to supply water throughout the city
- Built floating gardens called chinampas used to grow crops
- Reason they did this is so that they could increase the space they had to produce food
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Government, Economy, and Society
- Developed tribute system as Aztecs expanded their empire
- Conquered peoples forced to pay tribute through goods such as food, cloth, and luxury items like feathers and beads
- Also conquered peoples forced to pay military service
- Empire had no elaborate bureaucracy
- Aztecs made local rulers in charge of collecting tribute
- Other than that local rulers were largely in charge of governing
- This allowed Aztecs to maintain control over their empire without direct administrative control
- Aztec Empire was a theocracy
- Ruler of the empire, known as the Great Speaker, was also the “divine representative of the gods”
Social Hierarchy
- Great Speaker (ruler of the empire) at the top
- Military elite next in line
- Aztec society heavily valued the military in their society
- Most rewards went to them
- For example most of the landowners were part of the military elite
- Scribes and healers
- Craftspeople and traders
- Special merchant class called pochteca traded in luxury goods
- Peasants and soldiers
- Enslaved peoples
- People could be enslaved for committing crimes or because they didn’t pay debts
Religion
- Worshiped hundreds of deities
- Human sacrifice
- Believed that the gods sacrificed themselves to create the world
- Aztecs believed human sacrifice was required in order to ensure the continuation of the world and to pay respects to their gods who sacrificed themselves
Role of Women
- Had lots of power at home
- Made the valuable cloth that the Aztecs demanded for tribute
- Believed that their main function was to bear children and take care of the house
- Although they were treated much better than women in, say, Europe, their society was still a patriarchy
- Were forced to obey their fathers and husbands
- Did not play a role in political affairs
Decline of the Aztecs
- Aztecs treated their subjects terribly
- Their demand for tribute and use of conquered peoples as sacrifice victims made lots of conquered peoples angry at Aztec rule
- The subjects were ready to rebel when they were given a chance (and they were given one and took it when the Spanish came)
- Inefficient system of agriculture
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The Inca
- Pachacuti = founder
- Conquered a bunch of tribes and lands near modern day Cuzco, Peru
- Consolidated all of them into the Incan Empire
Government, Economy and Society
- Split empire in four provinces, where each province had a governor and bureaucracy that managed its own affairs
- No tribute system
- Had mit’a system (mandatory public service) instead
- Men from conquered peoples aged 15-50 required to provide labor to Incan government
- Examples would include agriculture production, building roads, etc
Religion
- Rulers considered to be the gods’ representatives on Earth
- Most important god was Inti the sun god
- In fact “Inca” means people of the sun - that’s how important Inti was
- Royal ancestor veneration
- Even after death, rulers continued to “rule” and still owned their property, possessions, even servants
- Incan rulers could not expect to inherit stuff, which was also a reason why leaders were so willing to constantly expand the empire
- Priests were consulted before every action as it was believed they could determine god’s will
- Gave them a lot of power in Incan society
- Had some elements of animism
- Belief that things in nature had supernatural powers
- Huaca = Incan name for the spirts that inhabit or actually are physical phenomena such as waterfalls, mountains, or man-made shrines
Technology
- Quipu = Inca device consisting of a series of knotted cords used for recording numerical and other types of data
- Developed sophisticated terrace systems for growing crops like potatoes and maize
- Used a technique called waru waru in which beds and canals were raised to prevent floods from destroying crops while redirecting and storing the water so it could be used in dryer times
- Built massive system of roads called Carpa Nan
- Used mainly by government and military
Decline
- Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532
- When he arrived, the Incan Empire was in the midst of a civil war
- One factor that caused the decline was the weakening of Incan military forces as a result of the war which allowed the Spanish to swoop in and defeat everyone
- The real thing that killed the Incas was disease such as smallpox
