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Chapter 11The Americas
The Peoples of North America
People from Asia crossed the Bering Strait to get to North America
3000 BC the Inuit moved into N.A. from Asiaskilled hunters, had specific skills to survive the
cold and harsh environment
People of North AmericaEastern Woodlands
HopewellOhio Valley riverMound Builders, built large earth mounds used as
tombs and ceremoniesFarming villages but also gathered wild plants
People of North America• Northeast of Mississippi– Iroquois– villages of longhouses– men hunted deer, bear, caribou and small animals
– women gathered wild plants and grew crops– corn, beans, squash– war was common between Iroquois groups– alliance was created – Iroquois League - five groups
People of North America Plains Indians
West of Mississippi River Hunted buffalo
(important animal) Lived in tepees
People of North America• Southwest– Anasazi• farming society
• used canals and earthen dams to turn the desert into fertile gardens
• lived in pueblos• center of their civilization at Chaco Canyon was Pueblo
Bonito• over 50 year drought, they abandon the center• moved to community in Mesa Verde• eventually abandoned region from long period of
drought
Mesoamerica• Olmec culture (oldest society)• 1st known civilization around 1200 BC• farmed along riverbanks – trade with other
mesoamericans• large cities - religion rituals - oldest city San Lorenzo• skilled workers of stone- around 400 BC civilization
collapsed
• Olmec played a ceremonial game on a stone ball court• Maya culture would continue many of the Olmec
fascination and adopt the calendar and numerical system
Mesoamerica• Major city Teotihuacan• capital of early kingdom around 250 BC – 800• had temples and palaces• most people were farmers• center of trade• for unknown reasons it collapsed and the city was
destroyed and abandoned
Mesoamerica• Maya civilization 300 - 900 AD• East on the Yucatan Peninsula
• built temples and pyramids, complicated calendars• farming people - centered their culture in city-states• Maya cities were built around a central pyramid topped by
a shrine to the gods• city-states were governed by a ruler, may wars between
towns• people - rulers, nobles, townspeople, peasants• crucial to Maya civilization was its spiritual perspective
Mesoamerica• Believed in Gods and had human sacrifice to
appease them• created writing system based on hieroglyphs• calendar was written from the hieroglyphs• called Long Count
• based on a belief in cycles of creation and destruction• Solar and sacred calendar
Mesoamericathey recorded important events in Mayan historycivilization declined and eventually disappear,
researchers believe people overused the land and crops stopped growing
Mesoamerica
• Toltec
•AD 950-1150•Center of empire was at Tula• Aztec later plundered the city and destroyed much historical evidence
Toltecpeople irrigated their
fields - grew beans, maize and peppers
warlike peopleconstructed pyramids
and palaces two important gods -
Quetzalocatl (took two different forms)
Empire to decline AD 125 from fighting among different groups
MesoamericaAztecs
• not sure of their origins• established a capital at Tenochtitlan• ruled until Spanish conquest
Mesoamerica• When arrived in the Valley of Mexico they were told by
their god when they saw an eagle perched on a cactus growing out of a rock, their journey would end
they would be driven by attackers to islands of Lake Texcoco where on one island they saw the eagle
Next 100 years the Aztec built temples, houses, public buildings.
They built roadways of stone across Lake Texcoco linking the island to the mainland
Aztec• state was authoritarian• people - ruler - nobles - commoners - workers – slaves• men in noble families were sent to military school• trade of merchants was big cause of canals built• believed in gods – Ometeotl• with help of two other city-states, Tenochtitlan
formed a Triple Alliance - this enabled Aztec to dominate an empire
Early Civilizations in South America
Inca late 1300s, Cuzco in the
mountains of Peru Ruler Pachacuti launch a
campaign of conquest empire included about 12
million people Inca state was built on
war, all young men were required to serve in army
Inca• Pachacuti divided empire into four quarters each ruled by a
governor• forced labor - important feature of the state• people lived by farming, watered by irrigation systems,
houses built of stone• great builders• roadways over mountains and tunnels through them, bridges and
aqueducts
• famous city Machu Picchu• no writing system, recorded using a system of knotted strings
call quipu