Teotihuacan will be the trading, cultural, and religious center of Mesoamerica for several centuries. The Mayans built more than 80 ceremonial centers and other settlements from 300 to 900 C.E. The ceremonial centers had many temples, palaces, and pyramids
The earliest Latin American civilization was the empire of the Mayans during two periods known as the Pre-Classic period from 2000 B.C. to 250 A.D, and the post classic period from 250 A.D. to 900 A.D. They controlled most of the Yucatan peninsula and part of southern Mexico. The Aztec empire first existed as many city-states, but eventually three of them formed a pact known as the Triple Alliance (Townsend, 2000). This Triple Alliance began to expand in earnest by overpowering smaller cities and overtaking the local
Each city had its own ruler and the ruler had many nobles to help him rule. The citizens of the cities had to pay taxes to the nobles; this is how the government was supported. Most men in this empire were farmers and farmers could pay their taxes in food to support the cities. Farmers in the Mayan empire accomplished farming with two different techniques. One was called ‘slash and burn agriculture.’ This technique involved going to an area covered in trees.
Evolution of Colonial Labor Systems The Columbian exchanged offered the exploration, conquest, and settlement of the New World; a new world that with the arrival of Europeans in the Americans resulted in what was perhaps the greatest demographic collapse in history. It is stated that the native population around 1492 have been between fifty to sixty million and by the end of the 16th century it was reduced to five or six million. The decline in the native population and the expansion of other social groups was a consequence of the introduction of old diseases and the arrival of immigrants who set in motion economic, social, and political changes that altered the character and distribution of the population. Through the political aspects
They developed permanent settlements in the rich soil--> Neolithic Revolution. The effect of the Neolithic Revolution is increased population and regional trade. Stable food supply for permanent communities- surplus agriculture through advanced technology led to a diversified workforce. Complex institutions developed leading to a hierarchal socioeconomic structure based on class and wealth. Religion supplanted kinship groups as the political and social structure Epic of Gilgamesh (Poem)-Developmental Complex- the development of complex institutions is influenced by their environment.
They developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered empire consisting of numerous independent city-states During this period the Mayas numbered in the millions, they created a multitude of kingdoms and small empires, built monumental palaces and temples, engaged in grandiose ceremonies, and developed an elaborate hieroglyphic writing system. The political, economic, and culturally dominant ‘core’ Mayan units of the Classic Mayan world system were located in the central lowlands, while its corresponding dependent or ‘peripheral’ Mayan units were found along the margins of the southern highland and northern lowland areas. The Maya civilization participated in long distance trade with many of the other Mesoamerican cultures, including Teotihuacan, the Zapotec and other groups in central and gulf-coast Mexico, as well as with more distant, non-Mesoamerican groups, for example the Taínos in the Caribbean. Archeologists have also found gold from Panama in the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza. [12] Important trade goods included cacao, salt,seashells, jade and obsidian.
THE MAYA INDIANS SETTLEMENT PATTERN According to William Claypole and John Robottom, in their book ‘Caribbean Story’, at the height of their civilization, the Maya Indians occupied 324,000 square kilometers of land which included the Mexican regions of the Yucatan Peninsula, Campeche and Tobasco, as well as the territory of Belize, Guatemala and the western edge of Honduras. Robert Greenwood and Shirley Hamber in their book ‘Amerindians to Africans’ placed the first civilization of the Maya Indians at around 2000 Bc. The authors of this book also mentioned the decline of the Maya civilization after AD 900. They claim that it emerged 300 years later as a modified form of Mayan civilization. Greenwood and Hamber suggested three reasons for the decline in the Maya civilization.
Many transformations were experienced through many periods as early humans began using stones, discovered fire, and gathered wild plants and hunted wild animals. Modern humans appeared first in Africa over150, 000 years ago before spreading throughout the world by the end of the Old Stone Age. This lead to the New Stone Age Revolution about 10,000 B.C., with producing food through the domestication of plants and animals in permanent villages where goods were accumulated and traded. The people of the Western world share with people the world these intricate and complex changes that led to the development of a common drive toward what is called civilization. Civilization is known as urban and includes some formal institutions such as the use of writing, religion, art, monumental architecture, law and the production of metal.
Shaping Civilization In Chapter Two of “Mirror of the world”, Julian Bell traces major development in world civilization from 3100 BEC to 800 BEC. He studies four major areas of the world where these developments first originated; Mexico, Peru, China, India, from 3000 BCE, Iraq, Egypt, 3100~2200 BCE, Central Asia, China, Greece, Egypt, 2000~1350 BCE, Mexico, 1200~800 BCE . He starts with Mexico, Peru, China, India, from 3000 BCE. His first analysis starts in San Lorenzo, near the Mexico’s Gulf coast “where the earliest city in these continents seems to have been built”. As he describes the makings and structural integrities of the so called ‘Lanzon’, he makes a remark stating how strange the stone markings seem.
However, most comparably the Harappans and the Mayans both went through unknown hardships and both quickly demised and disappeared. The Harappans and the Mayans, though quite similar, still have distinguishing differences. The Harappans developed their society sometime around 3000 BC in the Indus River Valley. This Western Asian area is dominated by the Indus River – which has, over the thousands of years, savagely turned on the Harappan society, covering and burying its original artifacts and any other information on the origin of their civilization under tons of fine dirt and