The Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs
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Who Are These People and What Did They Do?
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Mayans
Mayans
- The Mayans were incredibly advanced scientifically. They developed many concepts before their European counterparts. Such concepts and advancements included absolute zero, telepathy, “to be continued…” episodes, and post-rock.
- Like the Aztecs, the Mayans sacrificed humans, including children who they believed to be pure. Too bad they didn’t have Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” on the case!
Incas
Incas
- The Incas dominated a large area of land in what is now modern day Peru. They lacked a written language, but were pioneers in early phonograph recordings, predating Thomas Edison by hundreds of years. Early Inca 45s are prized by music snobs for their raw production value. They can fetch up to twenty bucks on eBay.
- Francisco Pizarro is believed to have conquered the Incas with 180 men, 1 cannon and only 27 horses. He often needed to talk his way out of potential confrontations that could have easily wiped out his party. Try that against a suicide bomber in Iraq!!! :P
- Unlike the Mayans and Aztecs, the Incas were quite agriculturally advanced, having developed a system of irrigation to rival their European counterparts.
Aztecs
The Aztecs
- The Aztec empire was located in what is today known as “Mexico.” They were incredibly advanced agriculturally, having developed irrigation methods well before their European counterparts. Though the empire was vast and wealthy, many Aztecs would flee their country for the possibility of employment in the “new world.”
- Ritualistic sacrifice was known to have taken place in the Aztec empire. Some estimates suggest as many as 84,000 were once killed during a four day period. Puts the Iraq war numbers into perspective, huh? ;)
- Games were especially important to the Aztecs. They played a sport akin to the Mesoamerican ballgame named tlachtli or ollamaliztli. It was a furious sport combining the athleticism of basketball, the brutality of football, and the strategy of baseball. However scoring was very low so it was really boring.
- Aztecs used common items like cocoa beans and cotton for currency. When Europeans were handed the cocoa in exchange for goods they ate the cocoa thinking this was the custom. The Aztecs in turn would ingest European coins and paper money. The Europeans would laugh and the Aztecs would stare back embarrassed, sometimes crying out of shame. Eventually the Europeans, led by Hernando Cortés, would slaughter the Aztecs not ravaged by Smallpox.
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Aztec Sacrifice
Aztec Society Structure
1st Emperor
2nd Priests
3rd Officials
4th Military Leaders
5th Crafts People
6th Merchants
7th Farmers and Slaves
Aztec Warrior
Mexico's Flag
In the early 1300s, so the story goes, the wandering tribe of Mexica people were looking for a home. Persecuted and cast out from other nations, they believed that their god, Huitzilopochtli, would show them a sign - to guide them to their new settlement. The Mexica people (who would become part of the mighty Aztec Empire) believed that they would see an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, and that's where they would build their new city.
But then Mexican flag history took a strange turn. According to the legend the Mexica people did indeed see the sign - but it was on an unlikely spot. A small, swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco.
Just as the Mexican people still are today, the Mexicas were resourceful. They invented the chinampas system, which allowed them to create small garden islands, which would eventually help to dry out the land. As it dried, they built. Causeways were built across the lake to allow access to the island. In 1325, the city of Tenochtitlan was born.
Chinampa- Floating Garden
The Aztec city was only 5 miles and at one point in time was home to 300,000 people. To make space, they created floating gardens.
They grew beans, maize, tomatoes, and chiles to feed the city.
Maguey Plant
Essential to the preparation of Aqui es Texcoco’s lamb barbacoa, the maguey plant has an important role in Mexico’s history as well as its cuisine. Also known as the century plant, the maguey dates back to pre-Columbian Mexico and thrives in dry rocky or sandy soil. This plant of many uses was worshipped by the Aztecs and cultivated by Spaniards, who then introduced it to the Philippines (where its popularity continued to spread across the globe). Though resembling a cactus, complete with thorny edges, the maguey is actually a member of the agave family – a cousin to the Tequila blue agave. Each plant will produce up to 50 leaves about 4” wide and up to 5 feet in length.
The leaves were also mashed into a paper for Aztec “codices,” pictorial books written to pass down their history. The ground, cooked pulp of the maguey leaves were blended with salt and applied to open wounds as a compress in Aztec culture; the sap has antibiotic properties which was also used to kill both staphylococcus aureaus and E. coli bacteri