Mayan civilization began to develop around 250 AD.

Maya developed written language, art, architecture, and the dreaded calendar.

Mayan Architecture and art was rival to anything the Europeans had created during this time period.

While Mayans were creating an advanced civilization, Europeans were mired in the Dark Ages.

The Aztecs

Aztec Civilizations

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

Often the term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan.

From the 13th century Valley of Mexico was the core of Aztec civilization

The Height of Power

Downfall The Aztecs exacted financial tribute from their

client states, but also forced these states to provide human sacrifices.

This resentment led dozens of different small states and tribes to ally with Cortes and give his forces similar numbers to the Aztecs.

Cortes’ first attempt to take Tenochticlan failed, and his forces laid siege for over a year.

Finally, disease wiped out most of the people in the city, allowing the Spanish to conquer it.

Aztec Culture

Aztec Traditions Today

The Aztecs did not have a written language, but did have written records in the form of hieroglyphics.

Aztec tradition has left Mexico with their national symbol, their Flag.

Upon seeing the eagle clutching the serpent, the Aztecs believed it to be an omen, and built Tenochticlan on that site.

The Mississippians

The Mound Builders

The Mississippians – also known as Mound-Builders – developed and advanced civilization organized around the city of Cahokia in Illinois between 600-1450 AD.

The cultural traits which were similar to all Mississippian groups were: Earthwork mounds, maize-based agriculture,

highly developed chiefdoms, highly stratified societies, river based ceramics.

The Mississippians had no written language or stone architecture.

Cahokia

So, on the eve of European exploration there were over five hundred individual cultural groups and civilizations.

Most estimates place the population of the Americas at more than 100 million, including between 25-40 million in North America.

Many of these groups had developed religions, political structures, and social networks that rivaled Europe.

They were most certainly NOT SAVAGES!

The Old World Comes to the New

We know that Columbus, nor any other European, discovered America.

But, did you know that Columbus was not even the first European – or even outsider – to discover the Americas?

Much like the history of the Native Americans, history books have overlooked the voyages, or evidence of those voyages, of numerous other explorers.

Beginning around 1000AD, Viking ships landed in Newfoundland, Canada, just north along the Atlantic coastline from New England.

Structures like this one, found in Rhode Island, are evidence that people of Norse descent established a habitat in what is now America.

In 1412 – 80 years before Columbus – an emperor from the Mali Empire in West Africa named Mansa Bakaray stepped down from his throne.

Bakaray and 15000 of his followers decided to leave.

They chose to follow ESTABLISHED trade routes into the Atlantic Ocean riding the ocean currents.

Evidence suggests that they made landfall in Brazil.