Latin America Quiz 1

Original migration to the New world

15k years ago

After ice age when ice caps receded but water levels hadn’t risen

From Asia to Alaska via the Bering strait

Old World Technologies lacking in New World

Metalworking - lack of iron smelting led to use of obsidian for blades

Technological inventions

Writing Systems - Old World leisure class recorded history and technological advancements

Domesticated Animals - exceptions were llamas and somewhat turkeys

New World Vulnerability to Diseases

Old World interactions with animals exposes and gives immunity to more diseases

Hunter-Gatherers 1492

Amazon Basin, Southern Tip, and Central United States

Nomadic foragers, didn’t build permanent locations

Village Agriculturalists 1492

Almost everywhere

more stable location, with small villages

limited resources led to conflict, seen in village defenses, kin groups arise

High Civilizations 1492

Valley of Mexico and Peruvian Andes

Stable cities

leads to social stratification

development of organized religion, seen in large hand-moved mounds

Harsh climate impeded large-scale agriculture

kin-groups became more prominent, losing kin-relationship while retaining loyalty

Geography of Mesoamerica

Hot and arid

most populations lived in urbanized cities

various crops grown in small areas: corn, beans, squash, chilis, peanuts; tropically, yams, chocolate, vanilla, tobacco, sap, cactus

V-shaped mountain ranges Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental

altiplano sandwiched in-between; valley of Mexico

Yucatán peninsula around SE of Gulf of Mexico

Chinampas for farming

Chinampa

field made of dredging sediment from water sources

Used especially by the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan

Periods of Mesoamerican history

Olmecs (1600-1200BC)

Classics (300-700AD) (Mayans, Teotihuacán, Monte Albán)

Toltecs/Post Classics (900-1200AD) (Mexica/Aztecs)

Olmecs

1600-1200 BC

First unified culture of Mesoamerica

Stone carvings and ceramics found all across Mexico

Classic Period

300-700AD

First writing systems; developed from pictographs

Numbering system

Religious became record-keepers; used records to predict future giving them status

Little access to metal, Maguey cactus used for cloth armor, obsidian blades

Mayans - Yucatán

Teotihuacán - Valley of Mexico

Monte Albán - Valley of Oaxaca

Toltecs

Northern invaders as part of the Chichimec invasion

later overwhelmed by later invaders

Occupied Valley of Mexico to Valley of Oaxaca to Yucatán

Mexica/Aztecs

Mexica were Toltec tribe that immigrated late in Toltec Period

Established Tenochtitlán where they saw eagle biting serpent on a cactus (1325)

Huitzilopochtli is tribal god; becomes the Sun god later

Spoke Nahuatl

formed Triple Alliance (1428) with Texcoco and Tlacopán forming Aztec empire

Calpulli - kin-structures within Aztec cities

Tenochtitlán

City where Mexica first immigrated

Nahuatl

language of the Mexica and later Aztecs

Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, Tlacopán

Triple Alliance

calpulli

Aztec kin-groups

Social Stratification in 14th and 15th centuries

Advent of cities created hierarchy

Priests, warriors, artisans, workers, captured people

Men gained status from the number and standing of their wives (polygyny)

Codex Borgia

Parchment detailing Aztec religious calendar, shows many Aztec pictographs

Aztec Religion

365 solar year and 260 religious year (noted what sacrifices would please gods)

Sun god gave right to conquest since the sun rises every day

requirement of sacrifice drove conquest

Huitzilopochtli - Aztec Sun god

Mesoamerican gods - Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Tonantzin, Xipe Totec

human sacrifices to give lifeforce to gods (which were mortal and needed them)

not all sacrifices were equally valuable

tributary people would give sacrifices, hearts were most valuable

ritual cannibalism to absorb properties of victim

Templo Mayor major temple of Aztec sacrifices, rebuilt 7 times; heart put in chac-mool for athlete statue to deliver

Huitzilopochtli

Aztec Sun god

Aztecs rewrote story to make significant religious figure

Tlaloc

rain god

Tezcatlipoca

god of thunder (and war)

Tonantzin

mother goddess

male aspect: Ometeotle

Xipe Totec

flayed god

god of spring; worshiped by flaying sacrifice and wearing skin

Flowery Wars

Honorable ritual warfare between Aztecs and Tlaxcala where the loser would be captured and later sacrificed

History of the Conquest of Mexico

History by Bernal Diaz about first interactions with Aztecs

two levels of translation

recorded culture and religions with clear biases for and against respectively

years after events occurred

Geography of the Andes

Coastal deserts exterior of andes

Andes mountain from Chile up to Ecuador

Tropical rainforest on interior side of Andes (by Amazon Basin)

Incans

Began in Lake Titicaca as the Tiwanaku

migrated up to Cuzco (the center of the empire)

Then expanded back to Lake Titicaca (under Pachacuti)

Finally to Quito in Ecuador (the northern center) (under Topa Inca/Topa Yupanqui)

Expanded with conflict and strategic marriages

set up colonies due to varied altitude-dependent resources

ayllu kin-groups grew to large sizes; leaders glorified as almost gods, and were revered even after death

After death, leaders were mummified and priesthoods called panacas looked after their worlds materials

The dead emperors still held much authority which clashed frequently near the end

Incans intermarried with aristocracy to establish rule

Human sacrifice was much less prominent, tributes were usually material goods

conquest driven by diverse material resources near Andes

Pachacuti

first known Incan emperor

ruled from Cuzco

expanded empire back to Lake Titicaca and Andean Highlands

Topa Inca, Topa Yupanqui

Second Incan emperor

Expanded empire up to Quito in Ecuador, which became a northern military base

Huayna Capac

Third Incan emperor

filled in gaps and expanded north

Last emperor before Spanish arrival

his death left Incans in political strife

Panaca

priesthood for a particular Incan ruler

looked over the emperor’s land after his death

tended to his mummified body

conflict occurred between the panacas of different emperors

Chibcha

Tiny polity in northern Colombia

Spanish visitors mistook Bogotá as a supreme leader (he was not)

example of how Spanish records get things wrong

ayllu

Andean kin-groups; leaders became revered as gods

khipus

record-keeping device of beads on dyed string, also used to record stories using mnemonics

Calmecac

schools for aristocratic Aztec men to learn priestly and warrior things

Tiwanaku

original Incan tribe, settled on lake Titicaca

Teotihuacán

city in classic period in valley of Mexico

Monte Albán

classic period city in Valley of Oaxaca

Chichen Itza

City center of Mayans; classic period

Tlaxcala

Polity that resisted Aztec Rule, hosted flowery wars

Quetzalcoatl

Hummingbird, god of learning, historical leader of Tula (of Toltec Empire)