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GREAT CULTURES OF MESOAMERCA - Coggle Diagram
GREAT CULTURES OF MESOAMERCA
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS
Like the Old Worldempires, those in America had common features, although there were also differences
Theywere born after an evolution of centuries. They reached their peakand declined. Some of them declined abruptly.
Its rulers proclaimed themselves intermediaries with the Gods or directly as sons of God.
These Gods were represented as mythological beings, a mixture of man and animal or of different animals.
They usually made humansacrifices to these Gods.
Society was divided into very marked social classes.
The subjugated people were enslaved and provided large contingents of labor for the cultivation and construction of cities, buildings, and pyramids.
The conquered peoples were forced to givetributes in minerals or agricultural products
They based their subsistence on agriculture.
There were important political organizations(empires) in two zones: Mesoamerica, which is a region that stretchesfrom central Mexico to Costa Rica, and the Andean America. Some of these organizationswere really impressive for thequality of their architecture and art.
In the coastal empires, fishing was an essential part of theirdiet.
They built large and complex irrigation systems
Common images in art: fish, toads, snakes, felines, eagles, condors and trophy heads of their defeated enemies.
Similar techniques in ceramics, metallurgy, weaving and feather art.
Permanent exchange between regions, for the variety of ecological floors.
THE OLMECS, THE FIRST TO FORM STATES
It was the first culture to emerge on the coast of Mexico, around 1200 BCand it would have to be the longest lasting: one thousand years. In its main city (today known as “La Venta”) the first Mesoamerican pyramid was built, around 1000 BC. They leftmonumental human heads carvedin stone, four meters high, weighing several tons each.This culture influenced in all Mesoamerican civilizations.
Following the Olmecs, they all made human sacrifices; they built pyramids; they used the calendar (365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days plus five days at the end of the year). They were great sculptors in stone and practiced the ritual game of the ball. Its peakcame around the year 800 a. c. and about five centuries later, this civilization was in decline.
THE ZAPOTECAS
Their ancestors began around 600 B.C.in the south and southeast of Mexico,and expanded in the Peten area, currently Guatemala and Belize (200 B.C.), with cities such as Nakbe, El Mirador ( that has the highest pyramid in America), Cival, etc.
Around 300 A. D., began the well-known Classic Period. The Mayan city-states expanded from southern Mexico to El Salvador. From this period that lasted until the seventh century, are Tikal, Quirigua, Uaxactin, Palenque, Copan, Rio Azul, etc.
They improvedastronomy, mathematics. They invented zero and also writing logograms. They were great architects. They reached their maximum splendor in the 8thcentury (VIII century). But in the 9th century, as quickly as incomprehensible, these magnificent cities were completely abandoned, thus the Mayan collapse occurred
The current indigenous populations of Guatemala, Honduras and southern Mexico are descendants of the Maya. Some historians assume that these cities were abandoned due to a prolonged drought of several years caused by deforestation for the cultivation of corn. The resulting famine caused the population to reveal itself against its rulers who could no longer fulfill the promises to attract rain every year
In Yucatan, other Mayan cities emerged, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Palenque, whichreached their peak around 950, but were also abandoned in the 11th century.
MEXICAS OR AZTECS
Where today the city of Mexico is located, there were important pre-Columbian culturesin the past. The Teotihuacan pyramids were located very closewhere the current city of Mexico is placed. It was a product of a civilization that was developed from 300 B.C. up to 650 A.D. This civilization emerged again and declined in950.
The Toltecs dominated the central valley from 950 to 1200; and its capital was Tula. Then, a dynasty of Mexican rulers emerged who dominated the valley of Mexico around 1210 and founded its capital, Tenochtitlan in the middle of the lagoon of Mexico, around 1325. Through the Triple Alliance (between the city-states of Texcoco, Tlacopan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan) towards 1427, the expansion of the Aztec Empire began.
The Mexicas reached their peakunder Moctezuma I (ca. 1425), subjecting not only the central valley, but large areas of east, north and south of Mexico. This empire ended with the Spanish conquest.