Different Civilization

Inca, Maya &

The Aztec and Maya

Civilization

were Mesoamerican
civilizations, living in
Aztec

Mexico and Central

America, while the Incas
lived in South America
Mesoamerica
• Mesoamerica refers to the diverse civilizations that
shared similar cultural characteristics in the
geographic areas comprising the modern-day
countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica
• Mexico and central America
Difference between Inca, Aztec &
Maya
• These societies were highly complex and had their
own histories long before conquistador showed up

• All are completely unique and distinct to each other

Maya

• thrived in the tropical rainforests of the Yucatán

Peninsula, Belize, Guatemala (Northern part), parts of
mexico and Honduras,from about 200 to 900 CE/AD
• Subsistence farmers around whole time
• Civilization disappeared before spanish came up
• Pictographic writing
• Writing system was syllabic rather than alphabetic
• Difficult to translate writing system
• Maya recorded their own history
Syllables
• Mayan writing written on surfaces like Temple
walls, ceramics, occasional stair case
• Agriculture in Yucatan peninsula developed in
second millennium BC
• Centuries following 250 AD, maya were out in full
force: building giant monuments covered in writing,
connect city with trade
• Hard to live in Yucatan peninsula
• (Exposed coral reef impossible for farm conventionally)
• Had to practice slash and burn agriculture
• (Slash down vegetation and then burn it to infuse the
soil with enough nutrients to sustain crops for few years)
• Rivers not really form in limestones naturally Available
source of water were sinkholes(cenotes)
• Hydraulic engineer went to Yucatan peninsula(minor
miracle to in hospitable land)
• To make them livable
• Maya spent centuries blw 250 -900 Ad
• Not to die of hunger and thirst
• Religion ( Heavy cyclic : believe that world went
through cycle of creation & destruction)
• Series of drought gradual decline of maya culture in
southern YP
• Centuries after maya ppl move towards north
yucatan (water consistently available)
• Cities like chichan itza & mayapan dominant urban
in later centuries
• Mayan calendar, pyramids in north and central
America
Aztec (From 1325 to 1521AD)
Refer to as Maxica
• 1428 maxica formed an alliance
• Triple alliance of city state in central Mexico : (Nahua city state:
tenochtitlan, tetzcoco and Tlacopan)
• Aztec northwest faster history
• 12 &13 century series of independent cities cropping up around
texcoco lake valley today is central maxico
• Build an amazing Capital city in Tencochtitlan 1325
• Unlike Maya Aztec only lasted about hundered years before Spanish
wiped them out
• Pictographic writing ( take long way to figure it out)
• Not create fully freshed writing system because not quite around long
• Spanish christian burned all
• Aztec knowledge came from Spanish (writing about
them)
• City & culture developed
• Trade increase culture & religion influence grow
• New Aztec empire expand territory and conquer
neighbors
• Warriors were skilled (Elite Jaguar and eagle)
• Father of Aztec empire Montezuma who took
power in 1440
• Conquer majority of south maxico
Inca(1438 -1525)
• In south America not maxico
• Expanding in 1438 south America west coast( 2500 coast miles)
• Quechua language used by them
• Lived almost entirely in western coastal Andes mountains for
over a century before the spanish showed up
• Largest empire in pre-Columbian America
• Didn't actually have writing system
• Khipu: a collection of knotted cords of diff lengths & angles used
to record and convey info contain all sorts of numerical info
• Like dates and events
• Other information come from Spanish Regarding incus
• Spanish account of these civilization biased more
likely to portray things in a negative light
• Start from small kingdom of cusco in the mountains
of peru
• Stretched from Ecuador through parts of Peru, Chile,
Bolivia, and Argentina.
• Multiethnic, incorporated ppl through diplomacy
• No writing
• Terrace farming
• Incan civil war & outbreak of small pox
Terrace farming
• Inca built an advanced system of roads to maintain
their empire. Roads, suspension bridges ( made
from woven fibres), and other Infrastructure made
it easier to travel and communicate to administer a
vast empire.
• Figure out how to freeze dry food & perform
consistently successful brain surgery
Olmec 1500 bc-400Ad
• First fancy civilization in mesoamerica
• Flourished for 2000 years
• Olmec art and statuary
• olmecs is the central maxican city of Teotihuacan
huge + well designed (most famous building,
pyramid of the sun was built in first century AD )
End Civilization
• Maya end in 900AD
• The Aztec founded their capital city by 1325.
• Hernán Cortés launched his final attack on
Tenochtitlán in 1521.
• Pizarro began his quest to find the Inca Empire in
1527.