Early Civilizations in MesoAmerica

​Early Civilizations in MesoAmerica

​Do Now

​Answer the following in 3-5 sentences

How do you think humans got to North and South America?

How do you think they lived disconnected from the rest of the world?

​First North American People

• ​Came from Asia

• ​Crossed the Bering land bridge

• Frozen over with Ice

• ​Currently covered with water and called the Bering Strait

• ​Followed the animals who they were hunting

From hunter-gatherers to farmers

• ​Over the course of hundreds of years, the large animals that the people were hunting started to die off

• ​People had to find another way to get food

• ​They started learning to grow their own food (agriculture)

Multiple Choice

What was the MAIN reason that the first people traveled from Asia to North America across the Beringia land bridge?

• They were exploring new lands.

• They were following the animals.

• They were searching for people to trade with.

Olmec​

• ​Lived in southern Mexico

• ​Built temples and carved huge stone statues

• ​Created a calendar and a writing system

• ​Played ball games

• Aztec word for rubber people

• Carved Stone heads are most recognizable artifact from Olmec

• One of first to build towns

• had a vast trading network, and by 400 B.C they no long existed.

​Mayans

• ​Lived in southern Mexico

• ​Built great palaces and huge pyramids covered with carvings called hieroglyphs

• ​Created a calendar

• Mayan Calendar (2012)

• ​Their civilization died off since there was not enough food for all of the people

Multiple Choice

Mayan astronomers created three

• star charts.

• mathematics.

• observatories.

• calendars.

The Aztecs Build an Empire

● Aztecs used war to rise to power

-Conquered people had to pay tribute

-tribute was a payment to the Aztecs

-cotton, gold, food

● War, tribute, and trade were key factors to the Aztec rise

-1400 most powerful tribe in Mesoamerica

-Capital was Tenochtitlan which was an Island

The capital of the Aztec empire was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

What would the advantages and disadvantages of this be?

Tenochtitlan

Life in the Empire

Government
● Emperor was most important person

-Central government controlled everyone

● Trusted Nobles-Tax collectors and judges
Complex social structure (many classes)
● Emperor
● Warriors and Priests-Led ceremonies, calendars, when

to plant

● Merchants & Craftspeople
● Farmers - most of the people
● Slaves (conquered people) - lowest in society

• Around the 1200s, the Incas were a small tribe in South America. In the 1400s, they began taking over nearby tribes. Soon the Inca Empire was one of the largest, richest empires in the world. It included parts of present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

• Taxes were based on the census. A census is a count of all the people and how they make a living. Men paid their tax by doing some work for the governent each year. They built palaces, public buildings, thousands of miles of well-paved roads, and set up trade routes.

​Incas

Archeological Record
Reveals History

• Most of what is known about pre-Columbian

civilizations (means before Columbus came to
Americas) like the Olmec and Zapotec comes
from their archeological record.

• These are the monuments, statues, ruins, and

small daily items that have survived the
millennia.

In this photo from 2007, researchers excavate a
site that shows clear Olmec influence, despite
being hundreds of miles from the center of the
Olmec territory.

Multiple Choice

Cultural area in central America that extends from central Mexico through what is now Belize

• Mesoamerica

• Assimilate

• Terrace farming

• House of Burgess

Multiple Choice

What group of people did the giant stone heads belong to?

• Aztec

• Olmec

• Maya

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​Ed Puzzle

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