Early Modern World:

1. Early Modern World: First Americans and the Maya

2. The First Americans • How did they get here? • Land Bridge connected Asia to Alaska • Migrated down through Canada, North America, Mexico, Central America, and South America

3. Main Migration Routes to the Americas

4. The First Americans • Native Americans learned to grow corn (maize) and other crops. • Several complex civilizations emerged in Mesoamerican (present-day Mexico and Central America). • Historians refer to these civilizations as Pre-Columbian because they existed before the arrival of Columbus. • Native Americans did not emerge in river valleys.

5. The Maya (1500 BC-1546 AD) • The Olmecs and Toltecs were the earliest civilizations. • Over 3000 years ago, the Maya developed a complex civilization in present-day Yucatan. • Each Maya city had its own chief ruler who was seen as half man, half god. • Most Maya were peasant farmers.

6. Map of the Maya World

7. The Maya • The Maya focused on • War • Human Sacrifice • Chichen Itza- important city • Around the 9th Century, the Maya disappeared into the jungle and no one knows why

8. Chichen Itza

9. Maya Achievements • Builders • huge cities in the jungles • pyramids • temples • Writing System • Math and Science • complex numbering system, use of zero. • calendar with 365 days • Artistry • colorful murals • ball game

10. Early Modern World: The Aztecs and Incas

11. The Aztecs (1200-1521) The Aztecs were an alliance of local peoples living in Mexico. Around 1300 they settled on an island in the Valley of Mexico where they grew corn in “floating gardens”

13. The Aztecs • Developed a highly complex social organization. • Emperor • Nobles (priests, army, government) • Commoners (farmers, warriors, craftsmen) • Slaves

14. The Aztecs Worshipped many gods, with the most important, the Sun god. Constructed accurate calendars of stone. Believed the Sun god needed human blood to continue his daily journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifice on a massive scale—captured warriors from other tribes or Aztec volunteers.

17. Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan

19. The Inca Empire ( 1200-1535) • Lived in the Andes Mountains in present day Peru • Farming • terraced mountains • grew potatoes • kept llamas for their meat, wool and to carry goods

20. The Inca Empire • Built stone roads over 10,000 miles. • No writing system • used quipu—bundles of knotted and colored ropes to count, keep records, and send messages.

21. quipu

22. The Inca Empire Machu Picchu Built stone buildings with no cement, but fit stones together perfectly.

23. Machu Picchu

24. Art Stone sculptures Ceramic bowls carved with human and animal forms

27. Gender Roles in Mesoamerica At birth, boys were given a machete by their fathers and girls received a stone instrument from their mothers. Women harvested grain, prepared food, and cared for animals. Aside from having babies, the main job of a woman was to grind maize into flour. Women could have jobs like selling goods, making crafts, or being priestesses in the temple.

28. Smallpox

29. Early modern World: The Columbian Exchange

30. Age of Discovery • The writings of Marco Polo had increased European interest in trade with Asia. • Europeans wanted to find new routes to Asia, especially all-water routes. • The spirit of inquiry of the Renaissance was leading Europeans to explore the oceans.

31. The Age of Discovery • 2 countries who started the Age of Exploration • Spain • Portugal • Prince Henry the Navigator • develop a new, lighter sailing ship • sponsored expeditions • Spain’s rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, wanted to spread the Christian faith

32. The Voyages of Christopher Columbus • Christopher Columbus, from Italy, was convinced he could reach Asia by sailing west. • He finally persuaded the rulers of Spain to provide him with three ships in 1492. • After two months at sea, his men almost mutinied. • They accidentally landed in the Americas instead of reaching the East Indies. • His “discovery” of the Americas provided new sources of wealth and raw materials that forever altered the economy of Europe.

34. The Columbian Exchange • Columbian Exchange • Exchange of goods and food between the Old and New World • From the Americas to Europe--tomatoes, corn, potatoes, peppers, squash, pineapples, chocolate, turkeys and tobacco. • From Europe to the Americas--wheat, sugar, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and grains.

36. Later Explorers • Vasco da Gama • Sailed around the southern tip of Africa • Ferdinand Magellan • First to circumnavigate the world • John Cabo • claimed land for England in North America. • Jacques Cartier, Samuel Chaplain, and Robert de la Salle • explore the St. Lawrence River, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River. • Henry Hudson • Northwest Passage

37. Early Modern World: The Conquest of the Americas

38. Conquest of Mexico • The arrival of Europeans greatly affected Native Americans. • Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) and priests arrived soon after the first explorers to seize gold and silver, obtain natural resources, and convert the natives to Christianity.

39. The Conquest of Mexico • Spanish conquered the main Caribbean islands. • In 1519, Hernan Cortés sailed to Mexico in search of gold and silver. • Cortés met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma. • The Aztecs believed that Cortés was a god. • Cortés soon left Tenochtitlan and made allies with the enemies of the Aztecs.

40. The Conquest of Mexico • Cortés, with a few hundred Spaniards and several thousand Native Americans, attacked Tenochtitlan in 1521. • The Aztecs fought with clubs, spears, and bows. • The Spanish had guns, steel swords, shields, dogs, horses, and cannons. • The Aztecs were also worn down by an outbreak of smallpox.

42. The Conquest of Peru • In 1530, Francisco Pizarro set out to conquer the Inca of Peru. • Pretending friendship, Pizarro invited the Inca emperor to visit him, then ambushed the Incas and murdered the emperor and conquered the capital in 1533. • The Spanish treated the conquered Indians harshly by forcing them into labor and the Christian religion.

44. Colonial Latin America • Although the explorations did not find the cities of gold they were looking for, they dominated the areas. • The region became known as Latin America—a fusion of European and Native American cultures.

45. Colonial Government • Spain now ruled an American empire many times larger than Spain itself. • Special royal governors, known as viceroys, were sent to rule in the colonies in the king’s name.

46. Colonial Society • Soldiers that owned the land forced Native Americans to till the land and work the mines—called an encomeindia system. • Priests sought to convert Natives to Christianity. • The Jesuits built schools, founded hospitals, and taught agricultural skills, but in 1767, were expelled from Latin America.

47. Colonial Society • Social System • Peninsulares • noble officials and landowners born in Spain • Creoles • Those with a Spanish background born in the New World • Mestizos • mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry • Native Americans

48. Colonial Society • Native American populations declined because they had no immunity to diseases from the Eastern Hemisphere like measles and small pox. • With the decline of workers, Spanish landowners began importing Africans as slaves.