EXPLORATION AND THE AMERICAS:

Voyages of Discovery and the New World

UNIT SUMMARY:

The Age of Exploration started for economic reasons as powerful people desired to find new trade routes to India and China, but the discoveries that were found changed people’s view of the world forever. Whether to gain wealth or spread the word of God, explorers during this time used Renaissance ideas of observation and asking questions to test the limits of their knowledge. Sailors braved dangerous voyages and often died to see if their ideas were true. In this unit we will learn about some of these figures and how their efforts changed the face of the globe forever with the rediscovery of a landmass called the “New World” that Europeans were not aware of.

Today, we know the ‘New World’ as the continents of North and South America. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers arrived, they encountered the Aztecs in Mesoamerica and the Inca in South America. These meetings did not go well for the natives, but they did introduce the world to new and interesting cultures. We will learn about the belief systems and achievements of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca cultures.

During this unit you will focus on four different aspects of the Age of Exploration and use the information you gather to help prepare for the unit assessment at the end. Our focus will include:

• An understanding of the motivations for European explorers and their achievements.

• Learning about the Columbian Exchange and the various things that were traded among the continents and how it impacted people around the world.

• The location of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca empires and how the Spanish conquered the Aztec and Inca.

• Understanding the achievements of the Maya, Aztecs, and Inca civilizations.

The Age of Exploration

How did the Age of Exploration change the way Europeans viewed the world?

Introduction

The Age of Exploration was a period of discovery that lasted from about 1418 to 1620. During this time, European explorers made numerous daring voyages that changed the world.

A major reason for these voyages was the desire to discover ocean routes to East Asia, which Europeans called the Indies. When Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean, he was looking for such a route. Although he thought he had reached the Indies, Columbus had actually reached the Americas. Eventually, Europeans would realize that Columbus had found what they called the “New World,” and the Indies in the Atlantic became the West Indies. European nations soon rushed to claim lands in the Americas and elsewhere.

Early explorers often suffered terrible hardships. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan departed South America with three ships to cross the Pacific Ocean. He had guessed, correctly, that Asia was located west of South America. However, Magellan was unaware of how big the Pacific Ocean was. He thought his crew would sail for several weeks at most, but the crossing lasted three months. While the ships were still at sea, the crew ran out of food, nearly starving to death. One sailor wrote about the terrible time. “We ate biscuit . . .swarming with worms . . . We drank yellow water that had been putrid [rotten] for days . . . and often we ate sawdust from boards.”

Why did explorers brave such dangers? In this lesson, you will discover some of the reasons for the Age of Exploration. You will learn about the voyages of explorers from Portugal, Spain, and other European countries. You will also learn how the Age of Exploration changed the way people viewed the world.

The Causes of European Exploration

Why did European exploration begin to flourish in the 1400s? Two main reasons stand out. First, Europeans of this time had several motives for exploring the world. Second, advances in knowledge and technology helped to make the Age of Exploration possible.

Motives for Exploration:

GOLD: For early explorers, one primary motive for exploration was the desire to establish new trade routes to Asia. By the 1400s, merchants and Crusaders had brought numerous goods to Europe from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Demand for these goods increased the desire for trade and the amount of money that could be made.

Europeans were especially interested in spices from Asia. They had learned to use spices to help preserve food during winter and to conceal the taste of food that was no longer fresh.

GLORY: Other motives also came into play. Many people were excited by the opportunity for new knowledge, while explorers sought the chance to earn fame and glory, as well as wealth. As new lands were discovered, nations wanted to claim the lands' riches for themselves.

GOD: A final motive for exploration was the desire to spread Christianity beyond Europe. Both Protestant and Catholic nations were eager to make new converts, with missionaries of both faiths following the paths blazed by explorers.

Advances in Knowledge and Technology:

The Age of Exploration began during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of new learning when a number of advances occurred that made it easier for explorers to venture into the unknown.

One key advance was in cartography, the art and science of mapmaking. Discoveries by explorers provided mapmakers with new information to use. In turn, better maps made navigation easier. The most important Renaissance geographer, Gerardus Mercator (mer-KAY-tur), created maps using improved lines of longitude and latitude, which were a great help to navigators.

An improved ship design also helped explorers. By the 1400s, Portuguese and Spanish shipbuilders were making a new type of ship called a caravel. These ships were small, fast, and simple to maneuver and had special bottoms that made it easier for explorers to travel along coastlines where the water was shallow.

Along with better ships, new navigational tools helped sailors travel more safely on the open seas. By the end of the 1400s, the compass, which sailors used to find their bearing, or direction of travel, was much improved. The astrolabe helped sailors determine their distance north or south from the equator.

Finally, improved weapons gave Europeans a huge advantage over the people they met in their explorations. Sailors could fire their cannons at targets near the shore without leaving their ships. On land, the weapons of native peoples often were no match for European guns, armor, and horses.

Portugal Begins the Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration began in Portugal, a small country located on the Iberian Peninsula. Its rulers sent explorers first to nearby Africa and then around the world.

Key Portuguese Explorers:

The major figure in early Portuguese exploration was Prince Henry, the son of King John I of Portugal. Nicknamed “the Navigator,” Prince Henry was not an explorer himself, but he encouraged exploration and planned and directed many important expeditions. Beginning in about 1418, Henry sent explorers to sea almost every year. He also started a school of navigation where sailors and mapmakers could learn their trades. His cartographers made new maps based on the information ship captains brought back.

In July 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail with four ships to chart a sea route to India. Da Gama's ships rounded Africa's southern tip and then sailed up the east coast of the continent and arrived in the port of Calicut, India, where he obtained a load of cinnamon and pepper. He found a sea route to trade with India/Asia! His trip increased the Portuguese's eagerness to trade directly with Indian merchants.

Portugal's control of the Indian Ocean ended Muslim and Italian control over Asian trade. With the increased competition, prices of Asian goods—such as spices and fabrics—dropped, enabling more Europeans to afford them.

During the 1500s, Portugal also began to establish colonies in Brazil. The native people of Brazil suffered greatly as a result, in part, because the Portuguese forced them to work on sugar plantations, or large farms. They also tried to get them to give up their religion and convert to Christianity. Missionaries sometimes tried to protect the native people from abuse, but countless natives died from overwork and from European diseases. Others fled into the interior of Brazil.

Spain's Early Explorations

In the late 1400s, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were determined to make their country a powerful force in Europe.One way they thought to do this was to sponsor explorations to claim new lands for Spain.

Key Explorers for Spain:

It was Ferdinand and Isabella who sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus. The Italian-born Columbus thought that the Indies, or eastern Asia, lay on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and believed sailing west would be the easiest route to reach it and Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to pay for the risky voyage. They wanted to beat Portugal in the race to control the trade wealth of Asia. They also wanted to spread Christianity.

In August 1492, three ships left Spain under Columbus's command. For the crew, venturing into the open ocean was frightening. As the weeks passed, some of the men started to fear they would never see Spain again. Then, on October 12, a lookout sighted land. Columbus went ashore on an island in the Caribbean Sea and claimed it for Spain. For three months, Columbus and his men explored nearby islands with assistance from native islanders, whom the Spanish called Taino (TY-noh). Thinking they were in the Indies, the Spanish soon called all the local people “Indians.”

In March 1493, Columbus arrived back in Spain and proudly reported that he had reached Asia. Over the next ten years, he made three more voyages to what he called the Indies. He died in Spain in 1506, still insisting that he had sailed to Asia. Many Europeans, however, believed that Columbus had actually found a land mass between Europe and Asia, the Americas.

Ferdinand Magellan (muh-JEL-uhn), a Portuguese explorer. believed he could sail west to the Indies if he found a strait, or channel, through South America. The strait would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, allowing ships to continue on to Asia. Magellan won Spain's support for a voyage to find the strait and, in August 1519, set sail with five ships and about 250 men. Magellan looked for the strait all along South America's east coast and finally found it at the southern tip of the continent. Today, it is called the Strait of Magellan.

Magellan's crew sailed on to the Spice Islands. Three years after the expedition began, the only ship to survive the expedition returned to Spain. The 18 sailors on board were the first people to travel completely around Earth.

The Impact of Early Spanish Exploration:

The early Spanish explorations greatly changed Europeans' view of the world. The voyages of Christopher Columbus revealed the existence of the Americas, and Magellan's expedition opened up a westward route to the Indies. It showed that it was possible to sail completely around the world. It also proved that Columbus had indeed found a “New World” — one that Europeans had not realized was there.

Columbus's voyages marked the beginning of Spanish settlement in the West Indies, which earned Spain great wealth.Settlers mined for precious minerals, such as gold and silver, and started sugar plantations. The Spanish also brought new crops, such as sweet potatoes and pineapples, to Europe.

For the native people of the West Indies, however, Spanish settlement was extremely detrimental. The Spanish forced native people to work as slaves in the mines and on the plantations, and priests forced many of them to become Christians. When the Spanish arrived, perhaps one or two million Taino lived on the islands. Within 50 years, fewer than 500 Taino were left, with most having died of starvation, overwork, or European diseases.

Like Portugal, Spain looked to West Africa for new laborers.From 1518 through the mid-1800s, the Spanish brought millions of enslaved Africans to work in their American colonies.

Biological and Cultural Exchanges During the Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration brought together people from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, often for the first time. When people meet, they often exchange something. It can be a thing (a piece of silk) or an idea (the way to make silk). It can even be a disease.

Two main types of exchanges took place during the Age of Exploration. Biological exchanges include living things such as plants, animals, and diseases. Cultural exchanges include goods, technology, and ideas. The most important of these exchanges, the Columbian Exchange, involved both biological and cultural factors, and led to changes in economies, diets, and social organization in many places.

These exchanges also encouraged new scientific ideas. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, science was closely related to religion.The discovery of new information, new plants, and new animals from the Americas challenged traditional thought. Scientific information was traditionally drawn from a few sources, namely the Bible, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek authorities. Because of the discovery of new species, philosophers and scientists began to challenge traditional scientific ideas about the universe. The exchanges that began during this period affected the way people lived on every continent.

Biological Exchanges: Plants, Animals, and Diseases

The spread of plants, animals, and diseases was one of the biggest effects of the Age of Exploration. Let's look at some examples of how biological exchanges affected people around the world.

The Americas

Explorers and conquistadors brought many new plants to the Americas. They brought European crops such as barley and rye. They brought wheat, which was originally from the Middle East. They brought plants that had originally come from Asia, including sugar, bananas, yams, citrus fruit, coffee, rice, and sugarcane.

New plants created new economies in the Americas. They also contributed to the creation of huge slave societies. By the 1600s, the Portuguese were growing sugar, bananas, and citrus fruit on large plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. They began importing African slaves to work on these plantations. This was the beginning of a slave trade that uprooted millions of Africans over the next few centuries. Later, African slaves were brought to the American South to grow cotton, tobacco, rice, and other crops.

In addition to plants, Europeans brought domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses. Eventually, people began to breed horses, cattle, and sheep in North America, Mexico, and South America. With the introduction of cattle, many people took up ranching as a way of life. Cattle took over native grasslands as well as areas that Americans Indians had used for growing food.

In North America, the horse dramatically changed how many American Indians lived. They soon learned to use horses for hunting and warfare.Several groups gave up farming and became nomads who hunted buffalo.

Europe, Africa, and Asia

Diseases and animals from the Americas had relatively little impact on other continents. However, new plants and crops from the Americas changed people's lives all over the world.

Europeans brought many native plants from the Americas back to Europe. People in Europe were introduced to maize (a type of corn), potatoes and sweet potatoes, beans and squashes, tomatoes, avocados, papaya, pineapples, peanuts, chili peppers, and cacao (the raw form of cocoa).

New crops from America changed how Europeans lived and farmed. The potato, for example, had an enormous impact. It was nutritious and easy to grow. It helped people create a stable food supply. As a result, the population surged. Eventually, the growth in population contributed to major social changes, such as the Industrial Revolution.

Plants and crops from the Americas also spread to Africa and Asia. They transformed people's diets and lives on those continents, too. Maize became a staple food in North Africa, Egypt, southern Africa, China, and India. Peanuts and cassava (an edible root) provided new foods to West Africa. The chili pepper became a popular ingredient in Asian cooking. American crops such as these helped to grow and stabilize the Chinese economy.

The potato influenced Asia as well as Europe. Because potatoes grow well in the mountains, the Chinese were encouraged to settle in mountainous areas. The sweet potato became the third most important crop in China, after rice and wheat.

Cultural Exchanges: Goods, Technology, and Ideas

Increasing contact between people led to many exchanges of goods, technology, and ideas. Here are some examples of how cultural exchanges affected people's lives around the world.

The Americas

The arrival of Europeans in the Americas had many long-lasting effects. One devastating impact was the destruction of the Aztec and Inca Empires. Guns, a European technology, helped the conquistadors conquer these great empires. Over time, guns also changed American Indian warfare and enabled Indians to fight more effectively against white settlers.

Two other important imports from Europe were language and religion. In southern North America, Central America, and South America, many native people learned Spanish and Portuguese. They often combined these languages with their own to create new dialects. Many also became Roman Catholic because of the influence of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. New forms of religion arose as native people blended Christianity with their own beliefs. New communities and cultures also arose as people, languages, and religions were exchanged. These communities continued to grow as enslaved Africans were forced to migrate to the Americas. The enslaved population outnumbered the Europeans in the Americas well into the 19th century.

Europe

The desire for riches was a major reason that Europeans explored the Americas. As you learned in Lesson 32, gold and silver from the Americas changed European economies. Goods from Africa and Asia, such as gold and spices, also changed life in Europe.

Over time, Europeans established colonies in the Americas. Many natural resources and luxury items flowed from the colonies to Europe. From North America, Europeans got tobacco, fish, furs, and whale oil. Raw materials such as cotton fed the growth of manufacturing industries and trade. Europeans also acquired new knowledge. For example, they learned farming techniques from American Indians that helped them survive in the Americas.

Africa

The slave trade had an enormous impact on Africa, especially in West Africa. Slavery forever changed the lives of millions of enslaved Africans who were taken to the Americas. It also affected the lives of other Africans. Tribal wars erupted as chiefs sought captives to sell as slaves. Europeans interfered in African political affairs as they supported one chief over another in the hope of getting slaves. With the loss of so many people to the slave trade and tribal wars, tropical Africa experienced severe economic and demographic disruptions.

European religion and languages had a relatively small impact on most of Africa during this period. Some Africans became Christians. Some also learned Portuguese. Europeans would have a much larger effect on African life when they established huge colonies in Africa in the 1800s and 1900s.

Asia

In Asia, contact with Europeans led to the spread of the Christian religion. European missionaries made converts in India, China, Japan, the East Indies, and the Philippines. In Indonesia, Islam also spread as Muslims competed with the Portuguese for control of trade.

At various times, both China and Japan resisted the influence of foreign traders and missionaries. As a result, Europeans had a limited impact on these countries during this period. As you have learned, some Japanese and Chinese adopted Christianity. Warfare in Japan changed as the Japanese learned about guns from Europeans. Europeans also imported new goods into Japan, including tobacco. The Chinese learned about new scientific instruments from European missionaries. Some European books were published in Chinese, especially scientific books.

In many ways, the Age of Exploration was the beginning of today's global society. Can you think of examples of biological and cultural exchanges that are happening today?

American Civilizations

The Maya

What led to the rise, flourishing, and fall of the Maya civilization?

The Maya civilization, which lasted from about 2000 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E., included lands located in present-day southern Mexico and large portions of Central America. Visitors can still see the ruins of some amazing stone cities built by the Maya (MY-uh). The ruins of the ancient city of Tikal (tee-KAHL), shown here, lie deep in the jungles of present-day Guatemala.

Picture yourself standing at the heart of this city in the year 750 C.E. You are in a large, open plaza surrounded by eight soaring temple-pyramids. On the ground, as far as you can see, are brightly colored structures on raised platforms. Nearby, in the center of the city, you see large palaces made of limestone blocks that serve as the homes of the ruler, priests, and nobles. Farther out are the stone houses of the merchants and artisans, whom you might see making colorful murals or statues of different Maya gods.

At the very edge of the city are thousands of small, thatched-roof house-mounds where the peasants live. The peasants might be farming or weaving, or may even be building elaborate temples. You might notice that people from different classes performed specific duties, but all contributed to ancient Maya society.

Tikal was only one of more than 40 Maya cities. How did the Maya create such great cities and such an advanced civilization? In this lesson, you will trace the development of Maya civilization and some of its most important achievements. You will also take a closer look at several aspects of Maya culture, including class structure, family life, religious beliefs and practices, and agricultural techniques.

The Aztecs

How did the Aztecs rise to power?

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people who built a vast empire for nearly 100 years in what is today central Mexico. Their empire flourished from 1428 C.E. until 1519 C.E., when it was destroyed by invaders from Spain.

The Aztecs told a legend about the beginnings of their empire. Originally a wandering group of hunter-gatherers, the Aztecs believed that one day they would receive a sign from the gods in the form of an eagle perched on a great cactus with “his wings stretched out toward the rays of the sun.” In its beak, the eagle would hold a long snake. When they saw this eagle, the Aztecs would know they had found the place where they would settle and build a great city.

In the mid-1200s C.E., the Aztecs entered the Valley of Mexico, a fertile basin in present-day central Mexico. Several times, other groups pushed the Aztecs away from their lands in the valley.

In 1325, the Aztecs took refuge on an island in Lake Texcoco, where Aztec priests saw the eagle on the cactus, just as the gods had promised. The Aztecs set about building a city on the site, which they called Tenochtitlán (tay-nawh-tee-TLAHN), and made use of the land's abundant resources. Its name means “the place of the fruit of the prickly pear cactus.” In time, the island city became the center of the Aztec Empire.

The Incas

How did the Incas manage their large and remote empire?

The Inca Empire was a complex society that developed in the Andes Mountains of South America. It flourished in what is now present-day Peru between the 1400s C.E. and 1532, when the Incas were conquered by Spanish explorers.

From north to south along the South American continent, the Inca Empire stretched for over 2,500 miles and included millions of people. To communicate across this vast distance, the Incas used runners called chasquis (CHAHS-kees) to relay messages from one part of their territory to another.

Picture yourself as a young chasqui. From your messenger station along the Royal Road, you see another chasqui racing toward you carrying an important message from the emperor.

You dart out of the messenger station and run alongside the other runner while he hands you a set of strings called a quipu (KEE-pooh). You quickly study the knots tied at different places in the strings, which stand for numbers that will help you remember the message. The other chasqui also gives you a verbal message. Once he is certain that you have both parts of the message, he stops running. Now that his work is over, it is up to you to get the message to the next station as quickly as possible.

This remarkable relay system helped the Incas manage their far-flung empire. In this lesson, you will explore how the Incas built and maintained their empire.

Civilizations of the Americas:

In this unit, you will learn about the civilizations that developed in Mexico, Central America, and South America. This region is also known as Latin America.

If you could fly over this entire region in just a few hours, what would you see? Beginning in Mexico and Central America, and flying south, you would see mostly rugged mountains. In the middle of the country, these highlands include volcanoes and vast farmlands that span for miles. In the southernmost part of this region, the land becomes very narrow, only 30 miles wide.

This thin land bridge leads into South America. From your plane, you would see a dramatic mountain range called the Andes, which extends along nearly the entire western coast of South America.East of the Andes, in the central part of the continent, are rainforests, deserts, and grasslands. You would glimpse rivers like the Amazon, the longest river in South America, flowing through the rainforests. As you complete your flight, you would cross over the pointy tip of South America, a flat area that rises from the Atlantic to the Andes.

Mexico, Central America, and South America were home to several advanced early civilizations. In the Andes, a group known as the Incas developed the largest empire in the Americas. To connect their huge mountain empire, they constructed roads and bridges across deep ravines and raging rivers.

Two groups of people lived in Mexico and Central America: the Maya and the Aztecs. The Maya survived by learning to grow food in the hills, swamps, and forests they inhabited. The Aztecs also used their natural resources and developed an elaborate system of canals by which they traded with distant lands. You will begin your exploration of these early civilizations with the Maya.

Conquering the Aztecs and Inca:

After Columbus's voyages, Spain was eager to claim even more lands in the New World. To explore and conquer “New Spain,” the Spanish turned to adventurers called conquistadors, or conquerors. The conquistadors were allowed to establish settlements and seize the wealth of natives. In return, the Spanish government claimed some of the treasures they found.

Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs:

In 1519, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés (er-NAHN koor-TEZ) and a band of fellow conquistadors set out to explore present-day Mexico. Native people in Mexico told Cortés about the Aztecs, who had built a large and wealthy empire in Mexico.

With the help of a native woman named Malinche (mah-LIN-chay), Cortés and his men reached the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán (tay-nawh-tee-TLAHN). The Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, welcomed the Spanish with great honors. Determined to break the power of the Aztecs, Cortés took Montezuma hostage.

Cortés now controlled the Aztec capital. In 1520, he left the city of Tenochtitlán to battle a rival Spanish force. While he was away, a group of conquistadors attacked the Aztecs in the middle of a religious celebration. In response, the Aztecs rose up against the Spanish. The soldiers had to fight their way out of the city, and many were killed during the escape.

The following year, Cortés mounted a siege of the city, aided by thousands of native allies who resented Aztec rule. The Aztecs ran out of food and water, yet they continued to fight desperately. After several months, the Spanish captured the Aztec leader, and Aztec resistance collapsed. The city was in ruins, and the mighty Aztec Empire was no more.

Four factors contributed to the defeat of the Aztec Empire. First, Aztec legend had predicted the arrival of a white-skinned god. When Cortés appeared, the Aztecs welcomed him because they thought he might be this god, Quetzalcoatl. Second, Cortés was able to make allies of the Aztecs' enemies. Third, their horses, armor, and superior weapons gave the Spanish an advantage in battle. Fourth, the Spanish carried diseases that caused deadly epidemics among the Aztecs.

Francisco Pizarro and the Inca:

Aztec riches inspired Spanish conquistadors to continue their search for gold. In the 1520s, Francisco Pizarro received permission from Spain to conquer the Inca Empire in South America. The Incas ruled an empire that extended throughout most of the Andes Mountains. By the time Pizarro arrived, however, a civil war had weakened that empire.

In April 1532, the Incan emperor, Atahualpa (ah-tuh-WAHL-puh), greeted the Spanish as guests. Following Cortés's example, Pizarro launched a surprise attack and kidnapped the emperor. Although the Incas paid a roomful of gold and silver in ransom, the Spanish killed Atahualpa. Without their leader, the Inca Empire quickly fell apart.

Mayan Arts and Architecture

The Maya were gifted in the arts. We can see the artistry of Maya painters in the Bonampak murals, which were found in Chiapas, Mexico. The murals, made with colors mixed from minerals and plants, show nobles and priests, as well as battle scenes, ceremonies, and sacrifice rituals.

The Maya also constructed upright stone slabs called steles(STEE-leez), which they often placed in front of temples. Most steles stood between 5 and 12 feet tall, although some rose as high as 30 feet. Steles usually had three-dimensional carvings of gods and rulers. Sometimes, the Maya inscribed them with dates and hieroglyphics in honor of significant events.

Another important art was weaving. We know from steles and paintings that the Maya wove colorful fabric in complex patterns.Women made embroidered tunics called huipiles and fashioned lengths of cloth for trade. Maya women still make their huipiles in traditional designs using similar techniques today. People from different towns can be distinguished by the colors and patterns of their garments.

In architecture, the Maya built temple-pyramids from hand-cut limestone bricks. An unusual feature of Maya buildings was a type of arch called a corbel vault, which was made when builders stacked stones so that they gradually angled in toward each other to form a triangular archway. At the top of the arch, where the stones almost touched, one stone joined the two sides. The archway always had nine stone layers, representing the nine layers of the underworld (the place where souls were thought to go after death).

Mayan Religious Beliefs and Practices

Religion was very important to the Maya, who built their cities around religious and ceremonial centers. Their magnificent temple-pyramids rose high above the jungle canopy, like mountains reaching into the sky. Temple plazas provided gathering places for people to attend rituals and ceremonies.

Scholars have learned about the Maya religion from studying present-day Maya practices, ancient artifacts, and documents written during the Post-Classic period. Here are some things they discovered.

Beliefs and Rituals:

The Maya religion was polytheistic, which means it included many gods. The Maya believed in more than 160 gods, but the primary Maya gods were forces or objects in nature that affected people's daily lives, such as rain, corn, and death.Many gods had animal characteristics. The jaguar was especially important to the Maya.

The Maya believed that the gods had created the world and could influence or even destroy it. The same god that sent life-giving rain could also ruin the crops with hailstones. So, it was extremely important to honor the gods.

According to Maya beliefs, only priests could explain divine signs and lead people through rituals aimed at pleasing the gods. Priests performed sacrifices and conducted ceremonies. They consulted sacred books, read omens, interpreted signs, and predicted the future. No decision was made without seeking the gods' advice, and no action was taken without first honoring the gods.

The Maya honored their gods with offerings such as plants, food, flowers, feathers, jade, and shells. The Maya believed that blood gave the gods strength, so they also made blood offerings by sacrificing animals and, sometimes, humans. The people who were sacrificed were usually orphans, slaves, or nobles captured during war.

Human sacrifice also played a role in an ancient Maya game called pok-a-tok. Every Maya city had at least one ball court where the game took place. Scholars believe that the game was played between two teams of nobles who tried to hit a solid rubber ball through a stone ring by using their leather-padded elbows, wrists, and hips. People from all levels of Maya society attended the popular games. Unfortunately, the outcome often had serious results. Surviving art from the ball courts shows members of the losing team being sacrificed and the captain of the defeated team being beheaded.

The Sacred Calendar:

The Maya used their knowledge of mathematics and astronomy to develop a complex calendar system composed of two main calendars for religious and other purposes.The first was a daily calendar, based on the solar (sun) year that divided the year into 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 “unlucky” days. This totaled 365 days, as our calendar does.

The second calendar was the sacred, or ritual, calendar called the tzolkin (TSAWL-keen), or Sacred Round. The Sacred Round was based on 13 months of 20 days each, making 260 days in all. It had two cycles that worked together to identify a particular day. One cycle was made up of the numbers 1 to 13, while the other cycle was a set of 20 day names. Each of the day names represented a particular god. Every 260 days, a given combination of numbers and day names, such as 1 Ik, would occur.

Only priests could “read” the hidden meaning of the Sacred Round. Priests used the sacred calendar to determine the best days to plant, hunt, cure, do battle, and perform religious ceremonies. To this day, there are calendar priests in southern Mexico who still use the 260-day calendar in this way.

Like Maya art and architecture, the calendar system reflects a highly advanced civilization. This high level of civilization was possible due to the ability of the Maya to create a stable food supply.

Mayan Science, Technology, and Agricultural Techniques:

The Maya made important breakthroughs in astronomy and mathematics. Throughout Maya lands, priests studied the sky from observatories, where they tracked the movements of stars and planets with great accuracy. The Maya used their observations to calculate the solar year. The Maya figure for their year of 365.2420 days is amazingly precise.

These calculations allowed the Maya to create their solar calendar of 365 days. They also had a sacred 260-day calendar. Every 52 years, the first date in both calendars fell on the same day, giving the Maya a longer unit of time that they called a Calendar Round. For the ancient Maya, this 52-year period was something like what a century is to us.

Maya astronomy and calendar-making depended on a deep understanding of mathematics, and in some ways, the Maya number system was similar to ours. The Maya used place values for numbers, just as we do. However, instead of being based on the number 10, their system was based on 20. So, instead of place values for 1s, 10s, and 100s, the Maya had place values for 1s, 20s, 400s (20 times 20), and so on.

The Maya also recognized the need for zero—a discovery made by few other early civilizations. In the Maya system for writing numbers, a dot stood for one, a bar for five, and a shell symbol for zero. To add and subtract, people lined up two numbers and then combined or took away dots and bars.

The Maya were creative, skillful farmers and used their knowledge of calendars and seasonal change to help them become even better at growing food. But Maya farmers faced many challenges, such as crop failure, which may have played a key role in the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization.

Challenges Facing Maya Farmers

The primary Maya food was maize, or corn. Other typical crops were beans, squash, and chili peppers. Fortunately, beans and squash, when eaten with corn, supply people with a naturally healthful and balanced diet.

One of the most difficult challenges the Maya faced was how to grow enough food to feed their growing population. Farming was difficult in the regions where they lived due to dense forests, little surface water (such as lakes or streams), and poor soil.

The Maya responded to this challenge by developing different agricultural techniques for the various environments in which they lived. In the mountainous highlands, they built terraces, or flat earthen steps, into the hills to make more land available for planting. In the swampy lowlands, the Maya constructed raised-earth platforms surrounded by canals that drained off extra rainwater. This technique helped them to grow more food without having to conquer or clear more land.

A different technique was used in the densely forested lowland areas. In city-states like Palenque (in present-day Mexico), the Maya used slash-and-burn agriculture. First, they cleared the land by cutting and burning plants and trees, and then they planted their crops. Unfortunately, this type of farming wears out the soil. Lowland soil was not very rich to begin with, so land that was planted for two to four years had to be left to rest for two to ten years. Slash-and-burn farmers had to have a lot of land since each year some areas were planted while others were recovering.

The Maya agricultural system worked as long as settlements were spread out and not too large. As populations increased, the Maya had trouble raising enough food to feed everyone. In the constant quest for land, they drained swamps and cleared hillsides.They also used household gardens in the cities to help supplement the food supply.

Aztec Arts and Architecture

The Aztecs practiced a number of arts, including poetry, music, dance, and sculpture. Poets wrote verses to sing the praises of the gods, to tell stories, and to celebrate the natural world. Poetry was highly valued, and Aztec poets sung their poems or recited them to music. Sometimes, actors performed them, creating a dramatic show with dialogue and costumes.

Music and dance were important features of Aztec ceremonies and holidays, and people dressed up for these special occasions. Women wore beautiful blouses over their skirts while men painted their faces, greased their hair, and wore feathered headdresses. The dancers formed large circles and moved to the beat of drums and the sound of rattle bells. The dances had religious meaning, and the dancers had to perform every step correctly. Sometimes, thousands of people danced at one time. Even the emperor occasionally joined in.

The Aztecs were also gifted painters and sculptors. Painters used brilliant colors to create scenes showing gods and religious ceremonies. Sculptors fashioned stone statues and relief sculptures on temple walls. They also carved small, lifelike figures of people and animals from rock and semiprecious stones, such as jade. In technical craft and beauty, their work surpassed that of earlier Mesoamerican cultures.

In architecture, the Aztecs are best remembered today for their massive stone temples. The Aztecs were unique in building double stairways, like those of the Great Temple in Tenochtitlán. The staircases led to two temples, one for the sun god and one for the god of rain. Smaller pyramids nearby had their own temples, where sacrificial fires burned before huge statues of the gods.

Aztec Religious Practices

Religion was central to Aztec life and society because the Aztecs believed that humans needed the gods for survival. It was the gods who granted a good harvest or sent earthquakes and floods if they were displeased, so it was important to please them through elaborate rituals and ceremonies. Priests presented the gods with flowers, ears of maize, clothing, or images made of wood.

The Aztecs were polytheistic and adopted some of their gods from other Mesoamerican groups. For example, Tlaloc, the rain god, was an ancient Mesoamerican god. Quetzalcóatl (“feathered serpent”) had been worshipped by the Teotihuacans. But the Aztecs' own chief god was Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and of war. In fact, the Aztecs called themselves the “people of the sun.”

The Aztecs saw the sun as a warrior who fought each night against the forces of darkness. In Aztec belief, the survival of the universe depended upon the sun winning these battles. The way to keep the sun strong was to offer him nourishment in the form of blood.

For this reason, most Aztec rituals included some form of blood sacrifice. Every morning, Aztec priests sacrificed hundreds of birds to Huitzilopochtli. Priests also pierced their skin with cactus spikes to offer their own blood.

The highest form of sacrifice, however, was that of humans. The Aztecs particularly valued the sacrifice of warriors captured in battle because they believed that the blood of strong warriors was especially nourishing to Huitzilopochtli. Scholars think the Aztecs also used human sacrifice to frighten other groups into accepting their rule.

The Aztecs saw the sun as a warrior who fought each night against the forces of darkness. In Aztec belief, the survival of the universe depended upon the sun winning these battles. The way to keep the sun strong was to offer him nourishment in the form of blood.

For this reason, most Aztec rituals included some form of blood sacrifice. Every morning, Aztec priests sacrificed hundreds of birds to Huitzilopochtli. Priests also pierced their skin with cactus spikes to offer their own blood.

The highest form of sacrifice, however, was that of humans. The Aztecs particularly valued the sacrifice of warriors captured in battle because they believed that the blood of strong warriors was especially nourishing to Huitzilopochtli. Scholars think the Aztecs also used human sacrifice to frighten other groups into accepting their rule.

Aztec Science, Technology, and Agricultural Techniques:

One of the Aztecs' most remarkable technological achievements was the construction of their island city, Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs enlarged the area of the city by creating artificial islands called chinampas. Today, flower farmers in Xochimilco, near Mexico City, still use chinampas. Tourists enjoy taking boat trips to see these “floating gardens.”

Just as impressive as the chinampas were the three causeways that connected Tenochtitlán to the mainland. The causeways were often crowded with people traveling in and out of the capital. During the rainy season, when the waters of the lake rose, the causeways also served as dikes.

To manage time, the Aztecs adapted the Maya solar and sacred calendars. The 365-day solar calendar was especially useful for farming, since it tracked the seasons. Priests used the sacred 260-day calendar to predict events and to determine “lucky” days for such things as planting crops and going to war.

One of the most famous Aztec artifacts is a calendar called the Sun Stone, which depicts the face of the sun god at its center. This beautifully carved stone is nearly twelve feet wide and weighs almost twenty-five tons. Today, the Sun Stone is a well-known symbol of Mexico.

As the Aztecs' power grew, their capital city of Tenochtitlán developed into one of the largest cities in the world. When Spanish explorers first arrived at Tenochtitlán in 1519, they were amazed to see a majestic city crisscrossed by canals and boasting impressive temples and palaces. With a huge population for the time of between 200,000 and 300,000 people, Tenochtitlán was larger than London, Paris, or Venice.

How did the Aztecs turn an island into such a great city? First, they reclaimed land from the lake by sinking timbers into the water to serve as walls. Then, they filled in the area between the timbers with mud, boulders, and reeds. In this way, they created small islands called chinampas, or “floating gardens.” Eventually, the Aztecs expanded the city's land surface until it covered over five square miles. They even merged Tlatelolco (tlah-TEH-lohl-koh), originally a separate island, with Tenochtitlán.

Gradually, Tenochtitlán grew into the magnificent city that later amazed the Spanish. At the center of the city lay a large ceremonial plaza where the Aztecs gathered for religious rituals, feasts, and festivals. An eight-foot wall that was studded with sculptures of serpents enclosed this area. The palaces and homes of nobles lined the outside of the wall.

Incan Arts and Architecture

Making textiles for clothing was one of the most important Incan arts. The quality and design of a person's clothes were a sign of status. The delicate cloth worn by Incan nobles often featured bright colors and bold geometric patterns. Incan women also made feather tunics, or long shirts, weaving feathers from jungle birds right into the cloth.

The Incas fashioned valuable objects out of prized gold, which they called the “sweat of the sun.” Gold covered almost every inch inside the Temple of the Sun in the Incan capital city of Cuzco. Incan goldsmiths also fashioned masks, sculptures, knives, and jewelry.

Music was a major part of Incan life, and the Incas played many instruments, including flutes, seashell horns, rattles, drums, and panpipes. Scholars believe that the modern music of the Andes region preserves elements of Incan music.

In architecture, the Incas are known for their huge, durable stone buildings. The massive stones of Incan structures fit together so tightly that a knife blade could not be slipped between them. Incan buildings were sturdy, too—many remain standing today.

Incan Religious Practices

Religion was an important part of Incan life. Like other early groups in the Americas, the Incas believed that the gods influenced their daily lives. As a result, they showed their devotion to the gods through a number of practices.

Religious Beliefs The Incas believed in many gods who controlled various aspects of nature. For example, Illapu was the weather god and rain giver, Paca Mama was the Earth Mother, and Mama Cocha was the goddess of the sea. The Incas believed that all these gods had received their power from a supreme god called Viracocha, the creator of the world.

But to the Incas, the most important god was Inti, the sun god.Inti was important for two reasons. First, Incas believed that the emperor's family was descended from Inti. Second, Inti was also the god of agriculture, which was the basis of Incan life.

The Incas also believed that spirits dwelled in certain sacred objects and places, called huacas. Huacas (WHAH-kuz) included temples, charms, and places in nature such as springs and rocks. Because the Incas believed in an afterlife, the tombs and bodies of the dead were also considered huacas. People often prayed and made offerings to all these huacas.

Religious Practices

The Incan religion was highly formal and required a large number of priests to conduct rituals and ceremonies. Priests worked at temples and shrines devoted to the gods.

The most important temples were those dedicated to Inti. The high priest, a close relative of the Sapa Inca, presided over the Sun Temple in Cuzco. Priests who worked in the sun temples in the countryside came from the families of curacas.

Like the Maya and the Aztecs, the Incas offered sacrifices to the gods. Some sacrifices took place regularly. For example, each day priests threw corn on a fire to encourage the sun to appear. “Eat this, Lord Sun,” the priests said, “so that you will know we are your children.” In many rituals, the Incas sacrificed live animals, usually llamas or guinea pigs. The Incas also practiced human sacrifice, but only on the most sacred occasions or in times of a natural disaster.

In addition to performing rituals and sacrifices, priests practiced divination, or the art of predicting the future. Divination helped the Incas decide upon a course of action. For example, a priest might ask an oracle when the army should attack another tribe.

Chosen Women:

A unique aspect of Incan religion was the role played by women. Each year, government officials visited all the towns in the empire to search for the most beautiful, graceful, and talented girls between the ages of 8 and 10. Selected girls were honored as Chosen Women and taken to live in convents where they studied Incan religion. They learned how to prepare special food and drink for religious ceremonies and wove garments for the Sapa Inca and the Coya.

Around age 15, many Chosen Women left their convents. Some went to work in temples or shrines, while others became convent teachers, called mamaconas. Still, others went to Cuzco and became wives of nobles or secondary wives of the Sapa Inca himself.

A few Chosen Women were sacrificed at important religious ceremonies, but the majority spent almost their entire lives either serving Inti or fulfilling their roles as wives of nobles or the emperor. Only in old age were they sometimes allowed to return to the homes and families they had left so many years earlier.

Inca Science, Agriculture, and Technology

The Incas' greatest technological skill was engineering. The best example is their amazing system of roads. The Incas built roads across the length and width of their empire.To create routes through steep mountain ranges, they carved staircases and gouged tunnels out of rock. They also built suspension bridges over rivers made from thick rope cables anchored at stone towers on either side of the river. Two cables served as rails, while three others held a walkway.

In agriculture, the Incas showed their technological skill by vastly enlarging the system of terraces already in use by earlier Andean farmers. The Incas anchored their step-like terraces with stones and improved the drainage systems in the fields. On some terraces, they planted different crops at elevations where the plants would grow best.

To irrigate the crops, the Incas built canals that brought water to the top of a hillside of terraces. From there, the water ran down, level by level. People in South America still grow crops on Incan terraces.

The Incas also made remarkable advances in medicine. Incan priests, who were in charge of healing, practiced a type of surgery called trephination. Priests operated on the patient—usually an injured warrior—by cutting into the skull to remove bone fragments that were pressing against the brain. As drastic as this sounds, many people survived the operation and recovered full health.

Maya and Aztec Shared Cultural Elements

The earlier Mesoamerican civilization known as the Maya shared many religious elements with the Aztecs. The similarities are not surprising because the Aztecs consciously incorporated the culture of previous groups, including the Maya.

For example, their creation stories have elements in common. Both the Aztecs and the Mayas believed that Earth was the last in a series of creations that sat between 13 heavens and 9 underworlds.

Many Mesoamerican peoples had a calendar system, and the Aztec and Maya civilizations were no exception. According to the Aztec calendar, a solar year was 365 days long, and the sacred year lasted 260 days. Priests used the calendar to know when to perform religious rituals and ceremonies. But the Aztec’s calendar was based on earlier calendars. So it is not surprising to find that the Maya also had a sacred round of 260 days. Their 365-day year was made of 18 months of 20 days each, followed by a 5-day interval.

The Aztecs also borrowed polytheism and the Mayan deity that was a feathered serpent who created humans. But while the Maya knew this god ad Kukulcan, the Aztecs called him Quetzalcoatl.

Ball courts were important religious locations in each society. Aztecs viewed ball courts as a connection to the underworld. In contrast, the Maya saw ball courts as a place to play out their creation myth. Archaeologists theorize that both peoples considered losing a ball court match to be a serious offense. Skull racks, which were used to display the skulls of victims of human sacrifice, and images of decapitation have been found at both Maya and Aztec ball courts.

Both cultures used stone to construct temple pyramids that honored their gods, but experts have found some differences in the decoration and use of these structures. Aztecs typically carved a group of serpents into their temples, but this feature is often missing from Maya structures. On the other hand, archaeological evidence shows that there are burial crypts in Maya temple pyramids that are not present in Aztec ones.

Sun and Sacrifice

Tenochtitlán was built on an island in the middle of central Mexico’s Lake Texcoco. The city’s center was considered to be a sacred area. It contained 78 structures, including various temples dedicated to the Aztec gods. People gathered at Tenochtitlán to celebrate religious rituals, feasts, and festivals.

One of the most imposing buildings was the Great Temple, also known as the Temple Mayor. It stood 150 feet high, with bright sculptures and murals that could be seen from several miles away. The Great Temple had two shrines and two steep staircases. One set of stairs led to the shrine of Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun whom Aztecs also thought of as their chief god. The other staircase reached the shrine of Tlaloc, the rain god.

The Aztecs called themselves the “people of the sun.” To them, the sun was a warrior who fought each night against the forces of darkness. Therefore, the survival of the universe depended upon the sun winning these battles. The way to keep the sun strong was to offer him nourishment in the form of blood.

Each day, Aztec priests sacrificed hundreds of birds to Huitzilopochtli, but the highest form of sacrifice was to offer a human being in a bloody ceremony that involved cutting out a person’s heart. Scholars think the Aztecs also used human sacrifice to frighten other groups into accepting their rule. The blood of strong warriors who had been captured in battle was especially prized. Such blood was considered particularly beneficial to Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on a much larger scale than other Mesoamerican groups because they made sacrifices to other gods as well. A skull rack and a ball court have been found in front of the ruins of the Great Temple.