Meso and South America

AMERICAN HISTORY

Ancient Mexico was part of a region often referred to as “Mesoamerica”, or middle America.

MESOAMERICA

It is a cultural region which includes all of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, extending into parts of Honduras.

Mesoamerica , particularly the Valley of Mexico, was the heartland for the earliest of civilizations in America.

MesoamericaMesoamerica

The subarctic regions of North America have long been believed to be the gateway for prehistoric people migrating into the Americas.

These migrations across the Siberian peninsula and Bering Strait may have occurred as early as 25,000 years ago over a land bridge that existed during the last Ice Age.


There is also the belief that some peoples may have crossed over to the Americas by water, constituting many trans-Pacific crossings over a long period of time.

Thousands of years the people of the Americas took place, with migrations traveling as far south as Central and South America.


However the means of arrival, the early people in the Americas were hunter-gathers following the migrations of the big game animals. The woolly mammoth and American bison were staples of their diets.

The people themselves were dark skinned, having dark hair and dark eyes with an epicanthic fold which links them to their Mongolian/ Siberian origin.


By approximately 5,000 b.c.e., the early beginnings of agriculture were apparent in Mesoamerica.

Building cities in ancient Mexico was a slow process for the Mesoamericans as they never developed the use of the wheel.


The stones used to build these structures would be carried by human porters.

As early as 1500 b.c.e., urban and ceremonial centers were being built in the Gulf Coast lowlands of Mexico by a people known as the Olmecs.

They are often referred to as the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica.


Generally, the broad periods of cultural growth and change in Mesoamerica are defined as formative, classic and post-classic.

Although there was a rise in social and political structure around this time, most Mesoamerican cultures remained agricultural.

Food such as beans, squash, corn, sweet potatoes, peppers and tomatoes were cultivated, many of which were indigenous to the Americas.


The Mesoamericans lived in a theocratic society and were polytheistic, believing in multiple gods.

The development of religion in Mesoamerica was also permanently intertwined with agriculture, as many of the gods were associated with sun, rain, fertility and crops.


The people of ancient Mexico portrayed their belief in the creation of the world and of the gods living in the underworld through the ballgame.

The ballgame can be traced back over 2,000 years to its origin with the Olmecs.


Trade was an important factor affecting growth and social change in Mesoamerica.

A merchant class began to rise as well as regional trade markets.

The long-distance merchants were called “pochteca”.

Objects of trade included items such as silver, gold, jade, macaw and parrot feathers, jaguar skins, cocoa and various food items.


The Mesoamericans also practiced astronomy, studying the moon, stars and night sky movements.

Out of these studies they developed a highly accurate calendar.


The first evidence for the use of calendars in Mesoamerica occurs around 500 b.c.e., but it was nearly 1,000 years later that it reached its height of perfection with the Maya.


Writing in Mesoamerica also reached it height with the Maya.

The Classic Maya are considered the first “fully” literate culture in the Americas, leaving behind a complex writing system of carved glyphs documenting and recording their history.


The last of the great civilizations in ancient Mesoamerica were the Aztecs.

Around 1300 a.d., they established their capital in central Mexico.

By this time, the other great cultures, including the vast empire of the Maya were at the end of their reign.


The Aztec culture flourished only about two-hundred years or until 1519 when the Spanish arrived.

With the introduction of weapons and disease, the great Aztec culture would soon fall, marking the end of over 2,000 years of Mesoamerican civilization.


Mesoamerica developed complex systems of government, religion, science, architecture, writing & art, astronomy and precision calendar.

By 2000 b.c.e Mexican crops included corn (maize), beans, chili peppers, tomatoes, avocados, cotton and cacao (used to make chocolate).


SOUTH AMERICA

People first came to South America probably around 20,000 years ago. They were probably traveling south from North America, though some people may also have come by boat across the Pacific ocean.

South America

These earliest people, like other people elsewhere in the world at that time, knew how to make stone spearpoints and axes, and how to make fires.

South America

They lived by gathering plants, mainly wild grasses like teosinte and mesquite, and by hunting mammoth and other animals.

Around 10,000 BC some new people seem to have arrived in South America, also coming from North America.

South America

Possibly these new people killed off the people who were already there, or they may have mixed peacefully. In any case these people soon had to deal with a new problem: the big animals like bears and mammoths which they were used to hunting all died off, probably because the world became a little warmer and not enough of the plants these animals ate grew anymore.

South America

People had to learn to hunt smaller animals like rabbits and llamas and alpaca.

Because people arrived later in South America than in Africa or Asia or Europe, it was not as crowded there, and so people could get plenty of food by hunting and gathering and did not need to begin farming as early.

South America

There were also some environmental problems for beginning farmers: for instance, the best places for planting corn also happened to be the best places for gathering wild mesquite, so people didn't want to destroy a good food supply in order to try out a new risky idea.

South America

But by around 2000 BC people in Central and South America did begin farming anyway.

Soon they began to form bigger states. The first of these was the Olmec civilization, which began around 1200 BC. It was mainly in Central America (the southern part of modern Mexico) although Olmec-type monuments are found as far east as modern Guatemala.

South America

The Olmec civilization collapsed (we're not sure why) about 400 BC. The problem may again have been climate change, but there are also signs of invasions.

Soon other people, or perhaps descendants of the Olmec people themselves, created new states in the same area. Best known of these are the Maya. Another one is the Zapotec.

South America

Early signs of the Maya state began as early as 1000 BC, but the main Maya period began about 600 BC, with the decline of the Olmec's.

The Maya gradually established a powerful kingdom or kingdoms, which extended over most of Central America (modern Guatemala).

South America

Perhaps under the influence of the Maya state, other states like the Moche began to rule different parts of South America.

When the Maya state began to decline, about 1300 AD, two other important kingdoms formed near them. One was the Aztecs, whose kingdom was to the north of the Maya, in what is now Mexico.

South America

The other was the Inca, whose kingdom was to the south of the Maya, in what is now Ecuador and Peru.

In the other parts of South America, there were fewer people, and so they still had plenty of land for hunting and gathering, and most people preferred to remain hunters and gatherers instead of beginning to farm and developing complicated governments.

South America

Although the Maya state was clearly in decline by the 1400s, all three of the big states -the Maya, the Aztec, and the Inca - were still there when the first invaders came from Europe to South America just after 1500 AD.

South America

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Meso and South America