A. Geography II. Mesoamerican Civilizations

A. Geography

Central America is part of North America and contains the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. It is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. To the south is the continent of South America. Central America is an isthmus, or land bridge, which connects the two larger bodies of land.

South America is the fourth-largest continent. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean and to the west, the Pacific Ocean. The Caribbean Sea borders South America to the north. The Andes Mountains range from north to south on the far western side of South America. The northern portion of the continent, including much of Brazil, is covered by tropical rainforest.

Brazil

Brazil covers almost half of the South American continent and is the fifthlargest country in the world. Brazil is so large that it borders all but two (Chile and Ecuador) of the other 12 countries in South America. The word Brazil comes from the name of a tree found in the Amazon rainforest. Brazil lies mostly within the tropical zone, so its climate is mainly warm and wet.

Most of the people live in urban areas and about 30 percent of the population lives on the coastal plain, a narrow strip along the Atlantic Ocean. About 700,000 native Americans live within the rainforest, but many others live in cities and urban areas. The overall population is a mix of descendants of Portuguese, native Americans, and Africans. Brazil was conquered by Portugal, unlike most of South America, which was conquered by the Spanish. Its official language is Portuguese.

Argentina

Argentina is the second-largest country in South America. A long, narrow country, Argentina extends east and south of the Andes and south of Paraguay and Uruguay. The Andes form the boundary between Argentina and Chile. The Gran Chaco, a region of low forests and grasslands, dominates Argentina's northern region. The south is a collection of barren plateaus, known as Patagonia. The major economic area of Argentina is the Pampa (also known as the Pampas) in the center of the country. This region of tall grasslands and temperate climate is famous for its cattle ranches. About 70 percent of the population lives in this area.

Most Argentines are descendants of Spanish colonists and Spanish is the official language.

Amazon River

The Amazon River forms at the junction of the Ucayali [OOH-cah-yah-lee] and Mara??n [marn-YEOWN] Rivers in northern Peru and empties into the Atlantic Ocean through a delta in northern Brazil. The Amazon is the secondlongest river in the world after the Nile, but has the largest volume of water of any river in the world. Hundreds of tributaries feed into it. The Amazon River Basin drains more than 40 percent of South America. With no waterfalls, the river is navigable almost its entire length.

The Amazon flows through the world's largest rainforest. This rainforest is home to more than 2.5 million species of insects, tens of thousands of plants, and over 1,000 species of birds. In fact, almost half of all of the world's known species can be found in the Amazon. Curious mammals in the Amazon rainforests include the tapir (a hoofed mammal), the nutria (an otterlike creature), the great anteater, and various kinds of monkeys. Insects include large, colorful butterflies. Birds include hummingbirds, toucans, and parrots. A famous reptile dweller is the anaconda, a huge snake that squeezes its victims to death; alligators are also common. Fish include flesh-eating piranhas and the electric eel, capable of discharging a shock up to 650 volts. In recent years environmentalists have grown concerned about threats to the ecosystem posed by logging and deforestation in this rainforest.

The Amazon was named by a Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana, who explored the river in 1541 and named it after women warriors he encountered who reminded him of descriptions of the Amazons in ancient Greek mythology.

Andes Mountains

The Andes Mountains are over 5,000 miles (8,047 km) in length, the longest mountain system in the Western Hemisphere. The mountains begin as four ranges in the Caribbean area on the northeastern coast of South America. In Peru and Bolivia, the mountains form two parallel ranges that create a wide plateau known as the Altiplano. The Andes then form a single range that separates Chile from Argentina.

With an average height of 12,500 feet (3,810 m), the Andes are the secondhighest mountain range in the world. (The Himalayas are the highest.) The tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere is the Andes' Mount Aconcagua, which rises 22,834 feet (6,960 m) above sea level. Many of the mountains are volcanoes, either active or dormant.

Approximately 50 to 60 percent of Peru's people live in the Altiplano. About a third of the country's population lives in the narrow lowlands between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. Because the Andes run north to south along the entire length of Chile, most Chileans live in the Central Valley region between the Andes and low coastal mountains. The Central Valley, a fertile area, is home to large cities, manufacturing centers, and agriculture.

The Andes Mountains were the home of the Inca people, whom students in Core Knowledge schools studied in Grade 1 and will study again as part of this unit. Core Knowledge students should also have learned about Mount Aconcagua and the Andes during the Grade 4 geography subsection "Mountains and Mountain Ranges."

B. Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations

The Maya

The Maya are a native people who settled in the rainforest of the Yucat?n Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, Belize, much of Guatemala, and parts of El Salvador and Honduras. The dates of their arrival in the area are disputed, but it is generally agreed that their culture reached its apex around 300?900 CE.

The Maya cultivated maize (corn), beans, and squash. Maya farmers used a variety of farming methods, including what is called the "slash-and-burn" method of farming. Farmers cleared their cornfields by cutting bushes and trees and then allowing the cut plants to dry under the hot sun. After drying was complete, the farmers burned the cuttings and planted corn in the ashes, working around the remaining tree stumps.

The Maya built impressive cities in the midst of the rainforest. The largest buildings--tall temple-pyramids, royal palaces, and ball courts--were concentrated in the city centers. These stone structures required an extensive knowledge of architecture and engineering. Many buildings were covered with hieroglyphs that recounted the history of the city's dynasty and their patron gods. People lived in small houses scattered through the jungle on the outskirts of the city.

The Maya worshipped a variety of gods. Many Maya buildings are decorated with the face of Chac, the Maya rain god. For a society that depended on its harvests, rain was vitally important. Some important Maya myths and traditions are recorded in a sacred book called the Popul Vuh.

Most people were farmers who lived in cities or in villages near their fields, while hereditary kings ruled the centers. The principal cities were Tikal, Tuluum, Coba, Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Chichen Itza, Labna, Mayapan, Uaxact?n, Cop?n, Bonampak, Palenque, and R?o Bec. Many of these sites can be visited today, and they are popular tourist destinations.

The Maya developed advanced systems of astronomy and mathematics. They worked out a calendar of 365 days and could accurately predict eclipses. They also developed the concept of zero, a very important advance in mathematics. Their system of hieroglyphs for writing and keeping records was a complex system of ideographs--symbols representing ideas--that archaeologists have only partly decoded. It has long been one of the great mysteries of linguistics. Maya buildings, especially their temple pyramids, were massive structures built of limestone blocks.

A ball game called pok-a-tok had a prominent role in Maya culture. Players tried to drive a rubber ball through a stone ring set about 30 feet (9 m) in the air, but were not allowed to use their hands or feet. The game had religious significance, with the winners richly rewarded and the losers sometimes offered as sacrifices to the gods.

Sometime about 900 CE, the Maya abandoned many of their ceremonial centers. Experts speculate that an epidemic struck and killed much of the population, a drought occurred, or perhaps the Maya had exhausted the soil and moved on. It is possible that the people simply moved away if the farmers could no longer support a center's population. No one knows for sure what happened.

Although the Maya culture seems to have fallen on hard times, many Maya people survived. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, the large cities were in ruin and a much smaller population lived scattered throughout the jungle. Some Maya survivors were subjugated by the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo in about 1549.

As you may have noticed, the word Maya can be used as a singular and a plural form, and also as an adjective. However, usage differs. Some writers prefer "Mayas" as the plural noun and "Mayan" as an adjective.

The Aztecs

By 1325 CE, the Aztec (who called themselves the Mexica) had moved south to Lake Texcoco [TESH-co-co] in the Valley of Mexico. They were originally a small nomadic group, but their warrior culture enabled them to grow and eventually dominate their neighbors. They established an empire that in time encompassed south and central Mexico. The Aztec ultimately came to dominate 400?500 city-states and over 5,000,000 people. They did not directly govern these other city-states; instead, they established a tribute system. In order to maintain some level of independence, the subjugated peoples paid taxes and labor to the Aztec. The Aztec Empire was similar to a union of city-states, a concept that should be familiar to students from their study of the Greek city-states in Grade 2. This lack of centralized organization, along with the tribute system and the fear that the Aztec engendered among their subjects, created a great hatred of the Aztec. The Spanish were able to capitalize on this hatred when they set out to control the Aztec Empire in the early 1500s.

Part of the fear that these other Indian peoples felt was based on the Aztec religious practice of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice did not originate with the Aztec; it had long been a part of religious practices among the natives of Middle America. However, the Aztec sacrificed on a very large scale. One goal of the wars fought by the Aztec was to capture rivals to use for human sacrifice. Prisoners of war were often killed as ritual offerings to the Aztec deities.

Ritual sacrifices took place atop the great Aztec temple-pyramids. The victim was placed on a stone altar and a priest used a stone knife to cut the still-beating heart from a sacrificial victim. The heart was then presented as an offering to one of the Aztec gods, and the body was pushed down the stairs of the pyramid and dragged away.

Human sacrifice appears to have played a role in each of the Aztec 18 major monthly religious festivals. The Aztec believed that the gods had to be appeased with sacrifices. In particular, they believed constant sacrifices were needed to keep the sun moving.

The Aztec worshipped many gods, including some known earlier to the Maya. Key gods and religious figures included Tlaloc, the rain god, Huitzilopochtli, the war god; and Quetzalc?atl, the "feathered serpent." Religious festivals were based on the Aztec calendar, which had 260 days. The Aztec also had a 365-day solar calendar. This last was derived from the Maya calendar and consisted of 18 months of 20 days and an extra five days.

The Aztec were governed by a king known as a "tlatoani" or "speaker." When the Spanish came, the ruler was Moctezuma II (also spelled Montezuma). Moctezuma lived in a 10-acre palace of 300 rooms that provided private living quarters for the king, offices, workshops, and council halls. Moctezuma also had a zoo and many country retreats.

The ruler was assisted by a council of advisors. Below the advisors was a class of nobles and war chiefs. Most Aztec were farmers, but there were also traders and craftworkers. At the bottom of the social structure were slaves. Slaves were often people captured in battle.

Although the Aztec had professional war leaders, armies were made up of all of the able-bodied men available at the time of a campaign. Boys were taught endurance and military skills as part of their schooling. Aztec who took captives and were particularly valorous warriors increased their status in society.

The Aztec were noted for their gold and silver metalwork. Although the chief economic activity of the empire was farming, the empire supported a large and busy network in trade goods--both agricultural products and handcrafts. The Aztec used a system of hieroglyphs to record business transactions, tribute payments, religious rituals, and their history. They recorded information in a special kind of book called a codex.

Tenochtitl?n

The center of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitl?n [te-noch-tee-TLAHN]. It was built beginning in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the center of what is now Mexico. According to legend, the Mexica would wander until they found an eagle with a serpent in its beak perched on a cactus. There they should settle. Supposedly, they saw this sign on an island in Lake Texcoco. The eagle, snake, and cactus are still symbols of Mexico today; you can find them on the Mexican flag.

Four causeways, or bridges, connected the Aztec capital to the mainland; aqueducts brought fresh water into the city. A network of canals enabled people in canoes to move their goods easily around the city. Islands of mud were anchored to the lake floor and used as gardens and agricultural land. The city was carefully planned and governed. Boatmen paddled around on the canals, transporting merchandise and other items.

By 1519, when the Spanish first saw it, Tenochtitl?n was five square miles in size and had a population of more than 300,000. This was larger than most cities in Europe at the time. The city was centered around a large square of palaces and whitewashed pyramids with massive temples atop them. Around this central core were smaller palaces, brick houses, markets, and gardens. One of Cort?s's men, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, gave a memorable description of his first glimpse of Tenochtitl?n:

Here we had a clear prospect of the three causeways by which Mexico communicated with the land, and of the aqueduct of Chapultepeque, which supplied the city with the finest water. We were struck with the numbers of canoes, passing to and from the main land, loaded with provisions and merchandise, and we could now perceive, that in this great city, and all the others of that neighbourhood which were built in the water, the houses stood separate from each other, communicating only by small drawbridges, and by boats, and that they were built with terraced tops. We observed also the temples and adoratories of the adjacent cities, built in the form of towers and fortresses, and others on the causeway, all whitewashed, and wonderfully brilliant. The noise and bustle of the market-place below us could be heard almost a league off, and those who had been at Rome and at Constantinople said, that for convenience, regularity, and population, they had never seen the like.

The Inca

Another civilization that grew powerful about the same time as the Aztec is the Inca. By 1525, the Inca had created a vast empire that stretched from what is today northern Ecuador through Peru and into parts of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. Their capital was Cuzco, Peru, the original homeland of the Inca in the Andes Mountains.

The Inca began their conquests around 1438. They had a labor tribute system to rule their conquered people. People had to work for the empire under the supervision of imperial bureaucrats and administrators. The Inca also used a complex resettlement policy to govern conquered people. Whole villages were split up and relocated to various villages closer to Cuzco; the conquered were settled among loyal subjects to ensure obedience. Loyal Inca took their place in the conquered villages. This strategy helped ensure that rebellions could not be easily organized and executed.

The leader of the empire was called the "Sapa Inca" and was considered the son of the sun god. Below the royal family came the noble class, which was made up of priests, military leaders, and the men who ran the government. When members of the noble class died, their wives and servants were buried with them. Kings were mummified, sometimes entombed in a seated position, and their bodies were preserved and worshipped in temples. For some ceremonies, commoners were mummified in bundles, their bodies set in the fetal position. A number of ice mummies of children have been found in the Andes. In 1995, a particularly well-preserved mummy of a twelve- to fourteen-year-old girl was found in the Andes. Nicknamed Juanita, her body was frozen intact, allowing for many scientific studies.

The Sapa Inca governed with the help of a complicated network of government employees and civil servants. Especially gifted boys were trained to be civil servants. They learned how to record information on a quipu (see p. 132). They also learned religion, governing skills, and math.

An important factor in keeping their vast empire together was the Inca's ability to travel and communicate. The empire had more than 10,000 miles of roads. Suspension bridges made of woven fiber were built where the roads had to pass over river gorges and ravines in the mountains. Messengers, called chasquis [CHAWS-kees] or runners, ran in relays over these roads carrying light items, laws, and news of the empire to distant locations. Rest houses were built one day apart on the roads. People in nearby villages provided food for the messengers, as well as new runners to take up the messages.

Since the Inca had no written language, these messengers could not carry a written note, although they often carried quipus that contained important information. Instead, a runner memorized his message, then sprinted to a rest station, where the next runner was ready for his team member's arrival. Without slowing the pace, the first runner recited the message, and, running alongside, the relief runner repeated it. Then the first runner dropped out, and the new messenger continued on. The system was fast! A message could travel 250 miles a day and the 1,250 miles from Quito to Cuzco, the capital, in five days. In an age of automobiles and airplanes, that may not seem especially fast, but it was very fast for the time. In the 1860s, the famous Pony Express riders of the American West were only able to cover about 200 miles a day--and they rode on horseback!

Farmers, imperial officials, and the army also used the roads. The army used the roads to march quickly from one area to another to quiet unrest among the Inca's subjects.

Farming was the main economic activity of the Inca. Farmers built terraces on the sides of mountains and used irrigation to put more land under cultivation. One of the most important crops was the potato, of which the Inca grew many varieties. Europeans did not know about potatoes until the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire and took potatoes back to Europe. The Inca also raised llamas and alpacas. They made clothing of the animals' wool, ate the meat, and used the animals as beasts of burden.

As has been noted, the Inca did not have a writing system, but they developed a record-keeping system using quipu [kwee-pu]. A quipu was a rope with 40 or so strings attached. The Inca would tie knots in various places on the string to represent groups of 1, 10, and 100. Quipus were very important record-keeping devices, recording everything from tribute contributions, economic reports, war information, and ceremonial details. Civil servants, village leaders, and important heads of households could communicate with each other and keep records using these quipu.

The Inca were also known for their stone work. They built elaborate walls with gigantic pieces of stone carefully cut and fitted together. Some of these walls are still standing today.

Like the word Maya, the word Inca is used as a singular and a plural noun, as well as an adjective. You may also encounter "Incas" as the plural and "Incan" as an adjective.

Machu Picchu and Cuzco

Like the Maya and Aztec, the Inca had urban settlement. A fine example of an Inca site is Machu Picchu, with its terraced fields, palaces, fort, fountains, temples, and stonework staircases. Machu Picchu's exact use is unknown, but it may have been a city, fortress, or one of the many country retreats the Inca emperors built throughout the Andes. Located high in the Andes, the city was never found by the conquering Spanish, and thus was not destroyed.

As all roads in Europe led to Rome, so all roads in the Inca Empire led to Cuzco, its capital. According to one Inca creation myth, two Inca heroes emerged from caves and founded the city of Cuzco. A large fort guarded the city of huge palaces and temple compounds.

C. Spanish Conquerors

Background

Beginning in the 1400s, Europeans set forth in a great wave of exploration. (See Section III, "European Exploration, Trade, and the Clash of Cultures," pp. 139?163.) The Portuguese led the way. Later, they were followed by the Spanish, the French, the Dutch, and the English.

Christopher Columbus was funded by the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus landed in the Caribbean, but he incorrectly thought that he was in India. This is why people started calling native peoples "Indians." The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, sent soldiers, administrators, and colonists to settle these islands. They also sent Catholic missionaries to convert the native people to Christianity.

Another set of men who traveled to the Americas after the initial discoveries of Columbus are known to history as the conquistadors. The word conquistador is Spanish for "conqueror." It refers to a Spanish military leader who took part in the conquest of the Americas in the 16th century. The conquistadors were intent on finding and taking the riches of the Indies. They came from many different occupations and were generally not professional soldiers. They sought glory by finding riches, new land, and subjects for the king.

The leader of a group of conquistadors typically signed an agreement with the Spanish government. Spain agreed to recognize the authority of the expedition in exchange for one-fifth of all treasure found. In addition, there was an expectation that any conquered lands would become Spanish colonies. Each member of the expedition would get a share of whatever the expedition took. These shares might consist of gold and silver, or possibly captured native people whom the Spanish seized, in addition to those precious metals.

By 1520, the Spanish had given up their pursuit of treasure on the Caribbean islands and began looking to the mainland. The conquistadors set out from the Caribbean to explore what is present-day Mexico, Central America, and South America. They launched expeditions against the Aztec and Inca empires, and ultimately brought both empires down.

The conquistadors were successful for several reasons. They were brave and daring men driven by a powerful desire for wealth. In some cases they were very clever. In addition, they had horses, guns, and steel weapons, none of which the native people had. There were no horses in the Americas until the Spanish brought them. Also, native populations were decimated by diseases the Spanish brought, diseases for which the natives had no immunity.

The conquistadors gained large amounts of silver and gold by conquering the Aztec and Inca empires, and even more by setting up mines to dig out the huge deposits of silver discovered in Mexico and Peru between 1545 and 1595. The Spanish mine owners made fortunes, as did the Spanish government, because the monarchy received one-fifth of all the silver mined. Silver mining became the basis of the Spanish colonial economy and established the colonies' role as an importer of goods rather than an exporter.

Hern?n Cort?s and the Aztec

One of the most famous of the conquistadors was Hern?n Cort?s (also spelled Cortez). Cort?s was born in Spain and studied briefly at the University of Salamanca before dropping out. He sailed for the New World in 1504 and took part in the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola (the island which today includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and in 1511 helped conquer Cuba. For his services he was given land and a house, along with native slaves for workers. In 1517 and 1518, expeditions returned to Hispaniola with small amounts of gold and big stories about where more was to be found. Cort?s decided to go for the gold. He sold or mortgaged all his property and organized an expedition.

In 1519, Cort?s left Cuba with 11 ships, about 600 men, and 16 horses. The expedition landed on the coast of the Yucat?n Peninsula near what is now Veracruz. Cort?s sought to gain control of the wealth of the mighty Aztec Empire (see pp. 129?130). To do this, he made friends with the people along the coast and learned from them of the faraway capital, Tenochtitl?n. With the help of an

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