Empires of the Americas:The Aztecs and Incas

Unit 7, Lesson 2

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Stop and Jot:

Make your best guess based on prior knowledge and logic…

• How were the empires of the Aztec’s and Inca’s similar to the empires of Afroeurasia (Rome, Han, Islamic Caliphates, etc.)?

• How were they different?

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Civilizations in the Americas Before Common Era

• 6500-5000 BCE Agriculture began in Mesoamerica, including maize (a variety of corn)

• 2000 BCE Early civilizations develop across Mesoamerica

• 1300-400 BCE Olmec civilization in Mexico

• 1200-400 BCE Chavín civilization develops in the Andes Mountains of South America

• 31 BCE Early evidence of Olmec monument building and early glyph writing in Mesoamerica

• 500 CE to 300 CE Pre-classic Maya period, development of Mayan civilization

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The Americas

Mesoamerica

South America

Common Era 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500

Mesoamerica

Pre-classic Maya Classic Maya

Teotihuacan

Toltecs

Aztecs

South

America

Tiahuanaco

Wari

Inca

Turn and Talk: Which civilizations do you think built off of the beliefs, systems, and structures (government, religion, roads, etc.) of which other civilizations?

Why do you think we often learn about only the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, and why do you think people often learn about them together, even though they really belong in different historical eras (Maya in an earlier era)?

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Stop and Jot: We know why the Aztec empire ended, but aren’t sure why Teotihuacan declined. Why do you think we know more about some groups than others?

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Turn and Talk: Why do you think that both the Tihuanaco and Wari civilizations were so damaged by drought? Why was rain so important?

http://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_maya_inca.php

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Turn and Talk:

Why didn’t the Aztecs trade with the large city-states of the Mayan civilization?

Why do you think both groups had no significant contact with the civilizations of the Andes like the Inca?

https://mccainsocialstudies.wikispaces.com/D1.+Geography

The Aztecs

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire

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Turn and Talk:

In a previous unit, you learned about tribute.

What do you think Tributary States are?

This drawing, from the 16th century Florentine Codex, shows Aztec warriors brandishing macuahuitls

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Macuahuitls are made of wood and a volcanic stone called obsidian.

A piece of obsidian.

Stop and Jot:

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What do these images tell you about Aztec weapons and technology? What guesses can you make?

Model of the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TenochtitlanModel.JPG14

Turn and Talk: This is a model of the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. What do you notice? What does this make you think?

• Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer—the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center

15http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec

Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer—the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center

The Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Aztec Calendar Stone, at National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.

Stop and Jot: What inferences can you make about Aztec religion from these pictures and the captions?

Stop and Jot

• Based on what you already know, and based on the images you just saw, what questions do you have about the Aztecs?

• As you learn more about the Aztecs, pay attention to the answers to your own questions!

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IncansThe Inca Empire at its greatest extent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inca_Empire.svg17

• Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (or Pachacutec), Sapa Inca from 1438 to 1471 or 1472

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapa_Inca 18

Turn and Talk: This picture shows Pachacuti, one of the most important Incan emperors.

How is this picture similar to pictures of other leaders (kings or emperors) that you have seen?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:80_-_Machu_Picchu_-_Juin_2009_-_edit.2.jpg

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Stop and Jot, then Turn and Talk:

This picture shows the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. What do you think the Incan empire would have needed – what types of resources - to build this city?

20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_mythology

Viracocha, is the great creator god in Inca mythology

Deities

List of some Incan deities:

Viracocha, is the great creator god in Inca

mythology

•Apu Illapu – Rain God, prayed to when they need

rain

•Ayar Cachi – Hot-tempered God, causes

earthquakes

•Illapa – Goddess of lightning and thunder (also

Yakumama water goddess)

•Inti – sun god and patron deity of the holy city of

Cusco (home of the sun)

•Kuychi – Rainbow God, connected with fertility Stop and Jot: What inferences can you make about Incan religion from the picture and information on this slide?

Stop and Jot

• Based on what you already know, and based on the images you just saw, what questions do you have about the Inca?

• As you learn more about the Incans, pay attention to the answers to your own questions!

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Videos on the Aztecs, Incas

• Aztecshttp://www.history.com/topics/aztecs/videos/aztec-aqueductshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUAJbOcubM• Incashttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knpzNN258_0&list=PLsEXWHR-N_4S2_exf5F6BpwaVfH7gFCgyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcMHwLTURqU

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Looking for larger patterns…

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Turn and Talk: Do you think the Aztecs and Incas followed this pattern? Why or why not? 24

Looking back to patterns in Era 3 Afroeurasia…1000 B.C.E. to 500 C.E.

Cities

• Between 1000 BCE and 500 CE in Afroeurasia, cities grew and multiplied.

• People from many cities traded with each other, sometimes across long distances.

• About 100 CE, the world's two biggest cities were almost certainly Rome, with a population nearing one million, and Luoyang in China's Han empire.

• Most cities at this time served many purposes. They were centers of government, religion, trade, manufacturing, education, and art.

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Technology and Expansion

• New technologies allowed rulers to extend their systems of central command farther and farther away from their capitals.

• All across Afroeurasia, armed cavalry (soldiers on horses) replaced chariots as a tool for military conquest and control.

• Soldiers, as well as state messengers, could carry political orders and news across large expanses of land by horseback faster than any other way.

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• Other innovations helped empires grow as well, such as advanced road construction (the Persians and Romans), canal building (the Chinese), and the use of the camel as the main transport animal in arid (dry) lands.

• Iron tools and weapons developed and improved, continuing to change both work and war.

• Iron production and the manufacture of tools and weapons was important for empires.

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Trade

• Long-distance exchanges of products and ideas increased, not just within states but between them as well.

• Between about 300 BCE and 300 CE, merchants extended trade routes across Inner Eurasia on the Silk Roads. They also used ships to carry goods on the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the Indian Ocean.

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Social Hierarchy

• The majority of the world's population were farmers, herders, or foragers. They subsisted on their own production, and they lived short lives compared to today.

• In big cities, and in empires with lots of wealth, the gap between the rich and the poor increased.

• Cities also had groups of merchants, artisans, scholars, and other people with special skills who accumulated wealth, though not necessarily much political power.

• At the bottom of the social scale were slaves. This era witnessed a huge expansion of slavery and an organized slave trade in many parts of the world.

• In all the urbanized societies of this era, adult males dominated political and social life, as far as we know.

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Which of these then were GLOBAL patterns… patterns that applied in both Afroeurasia and the Americas?

Number 1-5 on a piece of paper and write “yes” if you think the pattern applies to both areas, and “no” if not.

1. Growing cities that were centers of power, religion, trade, culture, and science

2. Trade across regions

3. Technological advances

4. Growing military power and conquests by empires

5. Social hierarchy, from monarchs to nobles to farmers to slaves

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ALL of these were GLOBAL patterns… patterns that applied in both Afroeurasia and the Americas.

• Growing cities that were centers of power, religion, trade, culture, and science

• Trade across regions

• Technological advances

• Growing military power and conquests by empires

• Social hierarchy, from monarchs to nobles to farmers to slaves

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Which of these important advances had not yet happened not in the Americas?

• Wheeled vehicles for work and war

• Iron weapons and tools

• Advanced road construction

• Writing systems

• Widespread use of large mammals for transportation, work, and war

• Developed understandings of math and astronomy

• Advanced agricultural (farming) practices

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Afroeurasia the Americas If not, why not?

Wheeled vehicles for work and war

Iron weapons and tools

Advanced road construction

Writing systems

Widespread use of large mammals for transportation, work, and war

Developed understandings of math and astronomy

Advanced agricultural (farming) practices

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Advances Afroeurasia the Americas If not, why not?

Wheeled vehicles for work and war

YES NO Without animals to pull vehicles, wheels never developed in this way.

Iron weapons and tools YES NO Basic metallurgy was known, but iron ore was harder to find and the technology did not develop.

Advanced road construction YES YES

Writing systems YES YES

Widespread use of large mammals for transportation, work, and war

YES NOT REALLY… the only exception was the llama, used as a pack animal only

There were no species of large mammal that could be domesticated for this kind of work.

Developed understandings of math and astronomy

YES YES

Advanced agricultural (farming) practices

YES Yes… although perhaps on a smaller scale

The lack of iron tools and work animals like oxen in the Americas limited production when compared to Afroeurasia.

Exit Pass / Stop and Jot:

• So What?

• Think about the differences between the Americas and Afroeurasia. Why would these differences matter?

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The Americas

Afroeurasia

Sub-SaharanAfrica

Oceania

Turn and Talk: Based on your prior knowledge and your analysis of the differences between the Americas and Afroeurasia… what happened when they met?

These world zones were about to converge and meet!!

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PROPERTY OF OAKLAND SCHOOLS

AUTHORS: DARIN STOCKDILL AND STACIE WOODWARDEDITOR: AMY BLOOM

ACADEMIC REVIEW: IAN MOYER