The Pre-Columbian civilizations: Aztecs, Maya and Incas
Aztecs
History
Before Cortés arrival in 1519, the Aztecs held control of all of south-central Mexico, either through direct occupation or through vassalage ties with the chiefs of neighboring cities. According to ancient legends, in 1168 a migration led the Aztecs to the valley of Mexico, where they had to face pressure from more powerful populations. Only in 1325 the Aztecs occupied some islets of Lake Texoco and built what was to become the largest and most populous city of pre-Columbian America: Tenochititàn. The political-military rise of the Aztecs began in 1427, when the great king Itzcoatl, allied with the kings of Texoco and Tlacopàn, defeated the Tepanecs.
Under successive monarchs (Montezuma I, Axayacatl, Tizoc, Ahuitzotl, Montezuma II), the military and political power of the Aztecs increased considerably and led to dominance over almost all the populations of central-southern Mexico.
The Aztec Confederacy
The Aztecs sanctioned their dominion through the imposition of tributes and the allocation of garrisons: they avoided annexing the occupied territories and forming a unitary state. Tenochititlàn, together with the cities of Texoco and Tlateloco, dominated a territory that extended up to present-day Guatemala. At the end of the reign of Moctezuma II the internal struggles and the ingenuity of the king himself facilitated the Spanish conquest.
Religion
The deities had a profound influence on the daily life of the Aztecs; the most important divinities were: Quetzalcoatl, Uitzilopochtili, Coyolxauhqui, Tlaloc.
Sacrifices, both animal and human, were an integral part of the Aztec religion: it was a source of pride for a warrior to die in battle or to be offered as a sacrificial victim.
Society
Aztec society was divided into three classes: slaves, commoners, and nobles. Slaves, who were slaves by birth, could win freedom; commoners could own their parcels of land for life; the nobles remained so for life. Warriors, in case of special merits, could be raised to noble rank.
Maya
The Maya are settled in a territory between Honduras, some regions of Mexico and most of Guatemala. The population from which the linguistic group takes its name is located in the Yucatán peninsula. The Maya are divided into various subgroups based on the dialects they speak. These populations are the descendants of one of the most developed pre-Columbian civilizations. Maya agriculture was the basis of the Maya economy; the breeding of dogs and turkeys was also very flourishing.
The Maya did not know the wheel; they used copper bells and coffee beans as units of exchange. They were very skilled in working metals and stones to produce ornaments. The groups were governed by chiefs who inherited the title in the male line.
History
The Maya civilization was probably formed in 1500 BC and in the period between 300 and 900 AD, also called the classical period, the Maya culture spread evenly throughout their territories. In 900 the major centers of Maya culture (Palenque, Tikal, Copàn) were abandoned and most of the population moved to Yucatán, where the civilization of the following period had its centre. The most prosperous cities were Cichén Itzá and Maypàl, but they were quickly abandoned. The Spanish quickly defeated the Maya, by then weakened by infighting and epidemics.
Architecture and art
The Maya were very skilled in the architectural field: there are numerous ruins of complexes of buildings intended for worship, which included pyramidal mounds surmounted by temples gathered around open squares.
The pyramids were built with rubble covered with stone blocks; there were rather steep stairways that allowed to reach the top. Bas-relief techniques were highly prized by ancient Maya sculptors; ceramic manufacturing techniques were also highly developed.
Writing
The Maya used a hieroglyphic method of writing, in which they recorded history and myths on stone slabs.
They also used the agave leaves to make a kind of paper to write on.
Calendar
The Maya calendar was very precise: the year, made up of 365 days, was divided into 28 weeks of 13 days each and began on July 16th.
Incas
History
The Incas were originally a small warrior population who lived in the highlands south of the Peruvian cordillera. Around the year 1200 they moved to the Cuzco region, where they exercised a strong dominion over the local populations by imposing tributes, but without creating a real kingdom.
The empire was born under the reign of Viracocha, the eighth ruler, who turned his policy towards expansionism.
In 1525 the kingdom of Huanyna Capàc included present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia; extending as far as Argentina and Chile. The hard struggle for the succession between the two sons of Huanya Capàc greatly weakened the empire, which was easily conquered in 1532 by Francesco Pizarro. The Inca people did not put up much resistance as they were convinced that the invaders were of a divine nature.
Culture, economy and society
The Inca empire was held up thanks to a rigid and hierarchical political system, based on the military activity of the aristocracy and on the exploitation of the subject populations. The ruler, believed to be the incarnation of the sun god, was the supreme ruler; in last place there was instead the great mass of peasants and artisans. The empire was divided into four large regions, which were in turn divided into provinces, and into a system of social and economic organizations up to family ownership, called ayllu.
The exploitation of the ayllu was controlled by the central authority: state officials controlled the sowing and taught the peasants cultivation techniques. Most of the harvest was withheld for the needs of the royal family or was stored. The main agricultural products were corn and potatoes; llamas were used as pack animals and alpacas were domesticated and bred for wool.
The Inca civilization did not know the use of writing and the wheel: teams of couriers quickly traveled the dense road network. The imperial officials carried out censuses and inventories thanks to the quipus, strings knotted in a particular way.
Architecture
Despite the technological backwardness, the Incas were skilled in building stone buildings: temples, palaces, fortresses (Macchu Picchu, Cuzco), rope bridges, aqueducts and canals.
Religion
The main Inca deity was Viracocha creator of the world and all living things. Other important gods were those who represented the Sun, the Moon, the Earth. Ritual ceremonies were connected with agricultural activities; during their performance live animals were sacrificed (human sacrifices were not frequent).
