America before Columbus

6. AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS -

WHO WERE THE NATIVE AMERICANS IN 1492?

The native inhabitans of America were descendants of people who crossed from Asia to North America many thousands of years before.

They lost the contact with the rest of the world, but they mde similar innovations.

They invented writing and astronomy They discovered agriculture and made ceramics.

They did not discover the wheel.

There were many types of society in America: - Some peple lived in small clans led by chieftains.

- There were also great civilisations: 1. Maya civilisation (which had declined before the arrival of the Spaniards).

2. The Aztecs ( in present-day Mexico) 3. The Incas (in present-day Peru).

6. AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS -

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THE MAYAS They lived in Central America, in the present-day countries of Guatemala Honduras, Belize and southern Mexico.

They reached their peak between the 3rd and 9 th centuries AD. The society was hierarchical and it was based on important cities like Tikal and Palenque.

They built palaces and temples The most important monuments were the stepped pyramids.

They created fine carvings and reliefs They learned to use writing and wrote hieroglyphic inscriptions on stone monuments listing their rulers.

Maya agriculture incluede the cultivation of corn and other crops.

They were fine craftsmen and traded with other civilisations.

Their civilisation declined in the 9 th century, before of the arrival of the Spaniards.

Its collapse was connected to natural disasters and climate change.

6. AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS -

THE AZTECS They were from central Mexico and created a great empire which existed when the Spaniards reached the region.

The capital city was Tenochtitlan.

The society was hierarchical and it was dominated by noble warriors and priests.

The society was organised for war and practised human sacrifice.

Some peoples were conquered by the Aztecs, and these peoples had to pay tribute. For hat reason they rebelled during the Spanish conquest.

In agriculture, they grew crops on teraces and made land fla in mountainous areas.

They traded with precious stones, cotton and other products which were carried long distance by merchants called pochteca.

They were polytheists and worshipped Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the Sun. They had a form of pictorial writing

6. AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS THE INCAS -Inca civilisation began in the highlands of Peru in the 13 th century.

- They created a great empire that controlled most of present- day Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and parts of Chile and Argentina.

- Its capital was in Cuzco - The Incas had a hierarchical society and were polytheistic.

- Their emperor was a leader and a god.

- They built a very good road system to control their empire and tax and census records were kept on knotted strings called quipu.

- The economy was based on agriculture.

- The region is very mountainous so they built terraces to create flat agricultural land where they grew corn and potatoes.

- Inca architecture was great. They built great stone temples.

- The Incas spread the Quechua language through their empire, and today is still spken by many people in the Andes.