The Pre-Columbian Age
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 Before
Christopher Columbus opened the way, few Europeans knew of the New World's true splendor. Sadly, today, it seems
many still are unaware of the fabulous feats accomplished by Pre-Columbian civilizations. Did you know that these
ingenious people built more, and bigger pyramids than found in Egypt, and they started 800 years before the Egyptians!
The Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl still stands today as the world's largest monument. Many of these structures were brilliantly
constructed, with secret stairs going down into subterranean passages below the pyramid.
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Most pyramids served as platforms for temples in which priests carried out human sacrifice.
European explorers were frightened and horrified by this barbaric practice, yet few questioned the thousands killed
in their own god's name during the Crusades, or the far crueler practices of the Inquisition. Many cultures indulged
in human sacrifice at some time in their past. It is important to view the practice in historical context.
The Aztecs
These fierce warriors dominated central and southern Mexico from the 14th to the 16th century
and established an elaborate and wide-ranging empire. After the fall of the Toltec civilization, which flourished
from the 10th to the 11th century, waves of immigrants flooded into Mexico's central plateau area around Lake Texcoco.
As late arrivals, the Aztecs were forced to occupy the swampy area on the western side of the lake. By 1325 they
founded the city of Tenochtitlán (located on the site of present-day Mexico City). The Aztecs converted
the shallow lake bed into gardens by piling up mud from the lake bottom to make islands. As a result of its location
and superior organization, the city flourished. Religious structures, such as giant stepped pyramids on which temples
were erected, dominated the landscape.
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 Aztec society
was divided into three classes: slave, commoner, and nobility. In the Aztec religion numerous gods ruled over daily
life, and human and animal sacrifices were important. For warriors, the ultimate honor was to be slain in battle
or to volunteer for sacrifice in a major ritual. The Aztec language belongs to the Nahuatlan branch of the Uto-Aztecan
family. The Aztecs used pictographic writing that was recorded on paper or animal hides.
By the time the Spanish, led by Hernán Cortés, began their conquest in 1519,
the Aztecs had a flourishing empire. Goods were traded in other parts of the Aztec Empire and Central America.
The Aztecs formed military alliances with other groups, creating an empire that extended from central Mexico to
the Guatemalan border. However, because of tribal divisions and internal strife within the Aztec Empire, Cortés
was easily able to defeat the empire by 1521. Modern Aztecs live in the vicinity of Mexico City and number well
over 1 million. They are the largest aboriginal group in Mexico. They retain the Aztec-Nahua language, and their
religion is a blend of Aztec and Roman Catholicism.
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The Mayas
Knowledge of the Mayan civilization's origins depends on conflicting interpretations of archaeological
evidence. The civilization formed at least as early as 1500 BC. About AD 300 to 900 a more or less uniform civilization
spread throughout the Mayan territories. Great ceremonial centers included Palenque, Tikal, and Copán, but
they were mysteriously abandoned about 900. From that time until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century,
Mayan civilization centered in Yucatán. Chichén Itzá and Mayapán were prominent cities
but were abandoned after a period of civil war and revolution.
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 Player kneels to strike ball
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Central to Mayan culture was a game, a cross between soccer and basketball, which was played
on a long stone ball courts. Winners were treated like gods, and the losers were often sacrificed. If a player
scored one particularly rare type of goal, he was entitled to take the jewelry of everyone in the audience (the
crowd would usually flee when this happened).
The Mayas developed an extremely accurate calendar called "The Long Count". They
believed that the universe had been, and would continue to be, created and destroyed multiple times, and that each
such cycle lasted somewhat longer than 5000 years. By their estimate, the current universe will be destroyed in
the equivalent of the year AD 2012.
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The Spanish easily overcame the major
Mayan groups, although the Mexican government did not succeed in subduing the last independent communities until
1901. Today the Maya make up the bulk of the peasant population in their former lands. Yucatec, the language of
the Maya proper, is spoken by about 350,000 people in Yucatán, Guatemala, and Belize.
The Incas
Also known as the "Quechua", the The Inca were established in the Peruvian Andes
by 1100 AD. In the middle of the 15th century they began to undertake imperialistic expansion under their eighth
ruler, Viracocha Inca. In a period of about 30 years, the Incan domain was enlarged and unified more than a thousandfold.
The empire reached its peak in early 1500s.
Quechuan culture was one
of the most advanced in the western hemisphere. Under the Incan Empire major advances were made in social organization,
architecture, engineering, and military science. The Incan state, an agriculturally based theocracy, was dominated
by the all-powerful, semidivine King.
Authorities in Cuzco kept
in extremely close touch with developments throughout the empire; a great network of stone roads connecting all
parts of the realm made swift communication possible. The Inca made many other remarkable achievements in engineering
including the construction of vast public works, temples, and fortresses.
In 1532 the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro arrived on the coast. He took advantage of existing civil strife
and gained control of the centralized Incan state by taking Atahualpa (the King) prisoner and later executing him.
Since the 16th century the descendants of the original Quechua people have retained many elements
of their culture and have accepted few European customs. In 1975 the Quechua language was recognized as an official
language in Peru. It is spoken by several million people in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and northwest Argentina.
