Maya Civilization and Agriculture

The Americas

• The Maya inhabited the highlands of Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula in present-day Mexico and Belize.

The Maya

• The Archaic period (prior to 2000 BC) saw early developments in agriculture and villages.
• The Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) marked the establishment of complex societies and the cultivation of staple crops like maize, beans, squash, and chili peppers.
• Maya cities developed around 750 BC and by 500 BC possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades.

Yucatan Peninsula

• Limestone formations created deep natural wells called cenotes.
• Cenotes were critical sources of water, essential for farming, and became important religious and spiritual sites.

Maize and other food-stuffs

• Maize was the staple crop, often grown in small remote plots called milpas, along with beans, squash, chili peppers, root crops, and fruit trees.
• Farming on raised rectangular plots was common, built above seasonally flooded low-lying land bordering rivers.

Maya City-States

• The Maya region may have had as many as 14 million inhabitants.
• Sites like Uxmal, Uaxactun, Copan, Piedras Negras, Tikal, Palenque, and Chichen Itza emerged as independent city-states, each ruled by a hereditary king.
• These cities produced polychrome pottery, featured altars, engraved pillars, masonry temples, palaces for nobles, and pyramids.
• Tikal, the largest site, may have had 40,000 people, and served as a religious and ceremonial center. A hereditary nobility owned land, waged war, traded, exercised political power, and directed religious rituals.

The organization of the Maya

• Maya civilization was organized in City-States.

Examples of Mayan culture

• Maya ball game

Spanish influence on Maya history

• In the 16th century Spanish authorities viewed Maya books as demonic and ordered them to be destroyed. Only a handful survived.
• These surviving texts offered a glimpse into religious rituals, practices, and Maya astronomy.

The Decline of the Mayan Society

• Between the 8th and 10th centuries, the Maya abandoned their cultural and ceremonial centers.
• Archeologists attribute the decline to agricultural failures (drought, land exhaustion), overpopulation/disease, and constant wars.
• Widespread destruction, worsened by agricultural problems, saw royalty also suffer from the decline in civilization.
• The loss of powerful kings led subjects to turn against them.

Maya new farming communities

• The decline did not mean disappearance, Maya continued farming in communities.
• Construction of monumental architecture ceased around 900 CE. This was likely because of the era or rule by powerful kings who could mobilize the labor required to build it.
• Farming communities helped preserve culture and language.

The Vanishing strategy

• The Maya used a vanishing strategy against the Aztec army and later against Spanish conquistadores.

The Aztec Empire

• Between 1300 and 1345, a group of Nahuatl-speaking people (the Mexica) migrated to central Mexico, settling around Lake Texcoco, forming the Aztec Empire.
• The Aztec Empire was a vast and rapidly expanding empire centered around twin cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.
• It was a network of alliances and tributary states, with the Mexica at its core.

The Mexica and the Tepanecs

• At the arrival of the Mexica, the Tepanec Alliance controlled much of the valley.
• The Mexica negotiated the right to settle on an island in Lake Texcoco in exchange for military service.
• They adopted the customs of the Tepanecs, organizing clan-based communities, and incorporated their deities.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo

• A description of the appearance of the Aztec cities and towns.
• They were astonished, seeming like an enchanted vision.

The Calpolli

• Clan-based communities organized by the Mexica.

The Defeat of the Tepanec

• In 1428, the Mexica formed a coalition with other cities in the Valley of Mexico, besieged the Tepanec capital, and defeated it.
• A new powerful alliance, the Triple Alliance, with the Mexica as the key partner, emerged.
• This alliance, and a new history drafted by Itzcoatl and his nephew, Tlacaelel, formed the foundation of the Aztec Empire, with Huitzilopochtli as the patron deity.

Huitzilopochtli

• The Hummingbird of the South, was a god unique to the Mexica who, according to their new official origin stories, instructed them to march south until they reached an island with the sign of an eagle eating a serpent.

The new Imperial Order

• Combined government, military, and political functions.
• Formalized the roles of noble and common classes.
• Secured five sacrificial victims = common soldier entering the lower nobility.
• Publicly display new status: feathers and flowers.

The End of the Aztec Empire

• Between 1519 and 1521, the Aztec Empire, under Moctezuma II, fell to Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes.
• Cortes and men took Moctezuma prisoner.
• Tenochtitlan rose up to drive away Spanish, causing Moctezuma to be killed.
• Though the Spaniards were driven out, they introduced smallpox, which devastated the Aztec population in 1520.

Warriors and Sacrifices

• The need for sacrifice and glorification of warriors was central to the expansion of the Aztec Empire.
• The Aztecs viewed the warrior cult as a central observance and believed they were the chosen people.
• They believed that the apocalypse could be forestalled by the sacrifices of humans.

Explore the rich history of the Maya civilization, focusing on their agricultural practices and societal developments. This quiz covers the Archaic and Preclassic periods, the significance of maize, and the role of cenotes in Maya culture. Test your knowledge about the impressive achievements of the Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula.