TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Mesoamerican Civilizations

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The first people to arrive in America may have walked over a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska during the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. They walked or possibly paddled southward along the coast.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Neolithic people began to domesticate animals and raise crops between 8500 B.C. and 2000 B.C. In tropical parts of Mesoamerica they raised beans, squash, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and maize. The first people found a wide range of environments in the Americas. Mesoamerican farmers had settled into villages by about 1500 B.C.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The earliest American civilization emerged in the tropical forests along Mexico’s Gulf Coast. Olmec civilization lasted from 1500 B.C. to 400 B.C. Archaeologists know little about the Olmecs. Most Olmec remains are carvings, from small figures of gods and goddesses to colossal stone heads. Through trade, Olmec art styles spread to other peoples of Mesoamerica.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Maya civilization flourished on the Yucatán Peninsula and through much of Central America. By 300 B.C., the Maya had built cities. The golden age of Mayan culture began in about A.D The Maya never formed an empire, but they had many powerful city-states. Tikal and Calakmul were the strongest.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Agriculture was the basis of Mayan civilization. Two farming methods allowed the Maya to thrive in their tropical environment. Farmers cleared forests to plant crops. When land became infertile, farmers moved to another site to let the soil recover. Along river banks, farmers planted on raised areas of land to keep crops above the high-water mark during the rainy season.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Mayan cities traded along roads made of packed earth. They traded food items such as honey and fruit and luxury goods such as jaguar pelts, feathers, and jade.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Most Mayan leaders were men, though women did rule at times in some cities. Nobles served as military leaders and administrators. Most Mayans were farmers. They paid taxes and worked on city construction projects. Merchants may have formed a middle class. Scribes, painters, and sculptors were a respected class of workers. Slaves were commoners captured in war.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Mayan culture included sculpture and stone architecture. Stone temples on pyramid-shaped platforms were used for sacrifices and other religious ceremonies. Tall stone stelas preserved images of gods and rulers.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The Mayan civilization declined after A.D. 900, but their descendants still live in Guatemala and Mexico. Mayan Achievements Scribes recorded events in stone using carved hieroglyphics. Scribes made books of bark pages, but most of these were destroyed by Spanish priests. Mayan priests developed a 365-day calendar and a numbering system with place values and a zero.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. About A.D. 1200, Aztec nomads settled in the Valley of Mexico. In 1325, they built their capital at Tenochtitlán on Lake Texcoco. Tenochtitlán

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Aztec farmers supported a large urban population. Tenochtitlán was built on an island connected to the mainland by stone causeways. They built artificial islands called chinampas to allow farming on the shallow lake.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. This Spanish sketch of Tenochtitlán, made in the 1500s, shows crowded buildings and causeways.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The Aztecs had a structured society: The emperor was the military leader. Nobles were government officials. Great warriors became nobles. Priests were a separate class. The middle class included wealthy traders. Serfs and slaves were prisoners of war and debtors. The largest group, commoners, were mostly farmers.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Teotihuacán dominated valley life from A.D. 200 to A.D The two groups worshiped some of the same gods, including Quetzacoatl, the god of earth and water, and Tlaloc, the rain god. Aztecs believed the gods had created their world in Teotihuacán. Aztec religion was influenced by the previous culture at Teotihuacán.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Like the Maya, the Aztecs developed a 365-day solar calendar. Priests used herbs and other medicines to treat illness and heal wounds. The Aztecs made advances in learning, including astronomy and mathematics.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The Aztecs were frequently at war. Conquered neighbors were forced to pay tribute. Prisoners of war might be sacrificed to Nanahuatzin, the sun god. Neighboring tribes allied themselves with the Spanish in the 1500s to gain revenge on the Aztecs.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. South American Civilizations

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. The first cultures of South America developed in the Andes Mountain region along the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile. Beginning along the coast, people moved inland, first into river valleys and then onto the high plateaus.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Over 2,000 years, several civilizations arose. The Chavín 900 B.C.–200 B.C. Built a large temple complex; may have united the people of northern and central Peru. The Moche A.D. 100–A.D. 700 Built adobe structures, roads, and irrigation canals in Peru; artists created fine ceramics, textiles, and gold works. The Nazca 200 B.C.–A.D. 500 Etched huge, mysterious geoglyphs of animals into the desert by moving miles of soil and rocks.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Over 2,000 years, several civilizations arose. Hauri A.D. 650 A large city east of the Nazca; it controlled much of Peru’s mountain and coastal area. Tiahuanaco A.D. 700 Became a powerful city south of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia; it ruled over parts of Peru, Argentina, and Chile, and traded with Hauri.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. From his capital of Cuzco, Pachacuti began the conquest of an Andean empire that stretched 2,500 miles. It was continued by his son Topa Inca Yupanqui. In 1438, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui proclaimed himself Sapa Inca, or emperor. The Inca built the largest and most powerful Andean civilization.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. He owned all land, herds, and mines in the empire. Since there was no private property, all people worked for the Sapa Inca doing public works. The Sapa Inca exacted a labor tax and efficiently organized and fed his people. The Coya, his queen, ruled in his absence. The Sapa Inca had absolute power. He claimed to have descended from the sun. Gold, the “sweat of the sun,” was his symbol.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Quipus were collections of knotted strings that represented various numbers. The Inca had no writing system. Nobles ruled the provinces along with local chieftains. Officials enforced the law and organized labor. Specially trained officials kept records on quipus. The Inca rulers ran an efficient government.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. All citizens had to use the language, Quechua, and practice the Inca religion. An extensive network of over 14,000 miles of roads crossed the empire. Ordinary citizens could not use the roads, and trade was limited. Bridges over high gorges, tunnels, and numerous military outposts allowed troops to move quickly. The Inca unified their empire using language, religion, a system of roads, and their army.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. People from all over the empire lived in Cuzco. They practiced many traditional crafts. In the heart of the city was the Sun temple, which had walls lined with gold. The Inca system of roads all led to Cuzco, the capital. Forts and temples were constructed of huge stones placed so precisely that they have withstood centuries of earthquakes.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Machu Picchu, a city high in the Andes, remains as a marvel of Inca stonework.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. In each village, an ayllu assigned jobs, organized work, and even arranged marriages. Farmers worked for their community, with the government allotting shares of the harvest. Farmers also worked on construction projects, such as the terraces used for hillside farming. The Inca strictly regulated the lives of the millions of people who lived in their empire.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. In addition to their skills as stonemasons, the Inca were experts in metalwork using copper, gold, tin, silver, and bronze. The Inca mastered the art of weaving, using cotton and wool from llamas and alpacas. Inca doctors cleansed wounds for surgery and used a drug to make the patient unconscious. The Inca were skilled in many fields.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Religion and ritual were central to Inca life. A powerful class of priests served the gods, especially the sun god Inti. Special attendants called Chosen Women prepared ritual food and drink and wove garments for the Sapa Inca and the Coya. Each month had its own festival, marked by ceremonies, sports, and games.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. North American Cultures

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Scholars have categorized early North American people into ten different culture areas. Early Americans adapted differently to each environment.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Before the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500s, there were hundreds of distinct cultural groups, or tribes, in North America.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Some of the first permanent farming settlements developed in the Southwest. They built temples similar to those found in Mesoamerica. They left their settlements in the 1400s. Around 300 B.C. the Hohokam built irrigation systems and farmed near the Gila and Salt rivers in Arizona.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Between 1150 and 1300, the Anasazi, ancestors of the Pueblo, built cliffside villages. The largest, at Mesa Verde in Colorado, had more than 200 rooms. The cliffs provided protection from raiders.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Remains of the largest pueblo, the Pueblo Bonito, were found in New Mexico. It contained 800 rooms and housed about 3,000 people. Stone and adobe bricks were used to create the five-story structure. A large underground chamber, or kiva, was constructed for religious ceremonies and political meetings. Drought forced the people to leave in the late 1200s. Their descendents, the Pueblo, still live in the Southwest.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Farming cultures in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys left behind giant earthworks. The Adena and Hopewell heaped earth into large mounds. Some were used for burials; others were the base for temples. Objects found in the Hopewell mounds were traded from as far away as the Rocky Mountains. The Great Serpent Mound twists like a snake for a quarter mile.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. By A.D. 800, the early mound builders disappeared. A new group, the Mississippians, appeared and built ever-larger and more elaborate mounds. Cahokia, in present- day Illinois, housed about 20,000 people around A.D Temples and the homes of nobles sat atop the mounds. The Mississippians disappeared, but their descendents, known as the Natchez, continued a tradition of sun worship.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. They lived in small bands, hunting and fishing to survive in a cold climate with limited resources. The Inuit used small kayaks in open water and dog sleds for moving over ice. Some built partially buried sod homes or igloos of snow and ice. In the far north, the Inuit, or Eskimos, adapted to life in the Arctic.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. They fished in the Pacific, hunted deer and bear in the forests, and built large permanent villages with homes made of wood. Trading allowed people to accumulate possessions. In a ceremony called a potlatch, wealthy families distributed lavish gifts to their guests. The people of the Northwest Coast had an environment rich in natural resources.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas. Many Native American groups lived in the forests of the Northeast, including the Iroquois. Each Iroquois village was governed by an all-male council, but clan mothers could add or remove members. The Iroquois were made up of five tribes—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. In the 1500s, they formed a unique political alliance, the Iroquois League, to keep the peace among the tribes.