Section 1

Working together using this wiki

 

Chapter 11: Early Americas

 

Tenochtitlan - Kimberly Martinez

 

·         Tenochtitlan it was approximately 8 to 13.5 kilometers on the Lake Texcoco.

·         It was the Aztec beautiful city in 1325. It was built and created based on a prophecy their people had believed.

·         The prophecy told that should they see an eagle eating a cactus, this is where they must have their city.

·         The Aztec people seeing this started building the city, now its forever in the heart of the Mexican people for it is not only in the coat of arms but also in the flag.

·         In 1519 a Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes came to what was considered to be the biggest city compared to Paris among others.

·         After many months and many fights Cortes finally concquered the city and destroyed it.

·         It was destroyed in 1521, the people didn’t fight from the beginning for they believed that Cortes was a god they had belived would come and visit.

 

"Tenochtitlan ." Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 11 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan>.

 

 

Chinampas - Rebecca Overcash

 

• Method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.
• Often referred to as "floating gardens."
• Stationary artificial islands that usually measured roughly 30 by 2½ meters, but are sometimes longer.
• They were created by staking out the shallow lake bed and then fencing in the rectangle with wooden strips.
• The fenced-off area was then layered with mud, lake sediment, and decaying vegetation, eventually bringing it above the level of the lake and often trees were planted at the corners.
• Separated by channels wide enough for a canoe to pass.
• Fertilized using lake sediments as well as human excrement.
• Primary crops grown using chinampas are maize, beans, squash, amaranth, tomatoes, and chilies, and are also used to grow flowers.
• The word chinampa comes from the Nahuatl language word chinamitl, meaning "square made of canes".
• The earliest fields that have been recorded are from the Middle Postclassic period, 1150 – 1350 CE.
• Researchers such as assume they were constructed by a planned program over a short period of time, since many of the chinampas regions show a uniformity of size and orientation.

The lake system within the Valley of Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest, showing distribution of the chinampas.

"Chinampa." Wikipedia. 02 Sep 2008. 30 Oct 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa>.

Orti, Gianni. "Aztec Chinampas." msn encarta. 30 Oct 2008 <http://encarta.msn.com/media_461543847_761593151_-1_1/Aztec_Chinampas.html>.

 

Pochteca -  Abby Pardue

-The Pochteca was a small class within the Aztec Empire that communicated information accross the empire and beyond its borders.

-They were professional long-distance traveling merchants.

-They were used to trade among other civilizations in Mesoamerica.

-Because of their knowledge of the land and empire, they were sometimes employed as spies.

-The Pochteca were below the noble class for they provided the nobles with the items used to demonstrate their wealth. -

This is a piece of art that displays the pochteca. They carry their goods on their backs as they travel.

http://portal.sre.gob.mx/meetmex/images/stories/pochteca.gif-there was no artist or city attached to this particular image.

 

Inca Socialism - Lise Ross

-Government took taxes from the people in forms of labor and tribute from conquered peoples

-Mita: mandatory public service to the government

-Government took resources created/grown and redistributed them equally to the people

+The government took the excess grown in a certain territory and redistributed it to a territory that didn’t have enough of that particular item

-Each community worked for the whole state itself

-The goal of the government was NOT to create a classless society

 

The ruins of an ancient Incan civilization

 

Stearns, P: "World Civilizations, The Global Experience, Fourth Edition, AP Edition", pages 254-255. Pearson Education, 2006.

 

Split Inheritance – Andrew Steiner

 

-         An Incan royal practice where all political power and titles of the ruler went to a ruler’s successor following his death but all palaces, wealth, land and possessions were given to his descendants to support the cult of his mummified body for eternity

-         This practice was born from an ideology of veneration of ancestors within the Incan culture, as deceased rulers were treated as intermediaries with the gods

-         Spawned a self-perpetuating need for expansion as each new ruler would have to secure land and wealth, usually through new conquests, to ensure his place for eternity

-         The policy led to an overexpansion of the Incan Empire and aided its collapse

 

  This picture depicts an Incan ritual ceremony held for a king following his death. 

 

Schwartz, Stuart. "World of the Incas." International World History Project. 2002. History World International. 30 Oct 2008 <http://history-world.org/inca.htm>.

 

Temple of the Sun- Elayne Monjar

·         Center of the Inca state religion

·         Held the mummies of past Incas

·         Belonged to the cult of the sun, which spread throughout the empire

·         In the cult of the sun, the highest deity was the sun and the Inca was the sun’s representative on earth

Adas, Michael, Marc Jason Gilbert, Stuart Schwartz, and Peter Stearns. World Civilizations: The Global Experience, Single Volume Edition, Atlas Edition. New York: Longman, 2006.

 

 

This is a picture of the Temple of the Sun. 

 

"Temple of the Sun."  www.ancientwisdomteachings.com/gallery.htm 31 March 2009

 

Quipu "writing" system - Cameron Tripp

• The Quipu was constructed of llama or alpaca hair
• Had anywhere from a few to two thousand strands.
• Could be used to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Used to keep track of economic output, labor performed, and population.
• Used by historians to tell stories

 

 An Inca Quipu (Talking Knot)

"Quipu." Wikipedia. 29 Oct 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu.

 

Machu Picchu and Cuzco – Russell Stewart

• Machu Picchu was an Incan city in the 15^th and 16^th centuries
• Although it was abandoned in the 1500’s, the site was not rediscovered until 1911 by Hiram Bingham
• The city is located in the Urubama mountain range in modern-day Peru
• It is suspected that the site was abandoned following a Small Pox epidemic during the time of Spanish conquest in South America
• The site is significant because it was undiscovered by Spanish conquistadors and therefore was not plundered—salvaging many artifacts of Incan culture
• Cuzco was the Incan capital city
• It is located only 80 kilometers from Machu Picchu
• The city is shaped like a puma
• Cuzco fell with the Spanish conquistador conquest of the Incan Emire

 

Ruins of Machu Picchu 

"Machu Picchu." Wikipedia. 29 Oct 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu>.

 

Vidal, Carlos. "Cuzco in History and its Message." Cusco.net. London Partners. 29 Oct 2008 <http://www.cusco.net/articulos/cuscoinca.htm>.

 

Tambos--Sara Toomey

• were along the complex system of roads
• about a days walk apart.
• served as inns, storehouses, and supply centers
• were also relay points for messangers of the empire
• there were probably more than ten thousand tambos at one time

 

 

 

this picture shows an Incan tambo

 

 Stearns, Peter, Michael Adas, Stuart Schwartz, and Marc Gilbert.World Civilizations: The Global

     Experience. '4thEd'. Pearson Education, Inc., 2006.