The American Kingdoms

Review of the Eastern Hemisphere

Now, let’s look at Central America.

I’m still mad over that “America” thing. Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci called America a new world because they had never seen it before. I’m still mad over that “America” thing. Whiner.

The Native Americans that had been living there for thousands of years are sometimes still called Indians because Columbus called them that, thinking he had landed in India.

Central America had its own empires during the Middle Ages – and those empires fought wars with each other, just like the empires over in Europe and Asia!

The first great empire of Central America was the Mayan Empire.

The Mayans built great cities at the time Rome was falling apart, but not all Mayans lived in them. Only the most powerful people – kings, noblemen, and governors – lived in the cities.

The less important people, such as farmers and craftsmen, lived in the jungles, and only came to the city to trade and worship the gods.

The Mayans built great stone pyramids with temples on the top and steps that led all the way to them.

When the kings were babies, their mothers would tie pieces of wood tightly around their heads. The wood made their skulls grow up into a peak. A king’s mother would also tie a little toy to the front of her baby hair, so the baby would develop crossed eyes looking at it.

To make the king appear more godly, he would file his teeth into points and paint his face. He would also pierce a body part to let blood out before a battle, as a door for the gods.

The Mayans practiced human sacrifices to the gods to help with crops, battles, and fertility.

Mayan games were just as bloody. You did NOT want to be a loser!

Eventually, the Mayan cities grew too big for the grounds around to support them. There wasn’t enough food, and hurricanes and earthquakes swept across the Yucatan Peninsula, destroying the cities.

By the time Columbus arrived, the Mayans were only small tribes living in the jungle, and the Aztecs had become the greatest nation in Central America.

We don’t know where the Aztecs came from, but as they wandered through the Central America, they fought battle after battle, and forced conquered tribes to give them food, money, and soldiers.

When an Aztec priest saw an eagle on a cactus holding a snake, the priest declared it was a sign that they should build their capital city there.

Say it with me, foolish children: After MANY land improvements of moving dirt, piling mud and plants, and driving down poles into the swampy ground, the city of Tenochtitlan was built. Say it with me, foolish children: teh NOCH teet lan

Canals were created with rocks and stone so people could go from one place to another by canoe.

Although some Aztecs grew tomatoes, corn, squash, and beans on the outskirts of town, many learned how to grow crops on floating mats covered with soil.

The Aztecs also learned how to make chocolate!

The Aztecs sacrificed humans much like the Mayans, only they did it even moreso. Sometimes a thousand men, women, and children were sacrificed in a day!

They believed the blood would nourish their gods, such as Quetzalcoatl.

When the Spanish and Portuguese explorers landed in Central America, they met the flourishing Aztecs and the scattered Mayans. But when they traveled south, down to the continent of South America, they found another great civilization: The Incas.

Like the Mayans, the Incas believed that their king was descended from the sun god.

The Incas told a story about how their civilization came from help from the gods.

Cuzco was the capital city of the Incan Empire.

Cuzco is in the shape of a Puma, an animal sacred to the Incas.

The Incas didn’t learn to write, and they didn’t keep historical records, but we do know that Huayan Capac became king in 1493 – a year after Columbus first landed in the Americas.

He ruled over a vast expanse of land, built roads, encouraged trading, and sent messages via a complicated code of knots in ropes, called quipus.

When Huayna Capac died, he divided his empire between his two sons When Huayna Capac died, he divided his empire between his two sons. One ruled the north, and the other ruled the south. Soon, these two brothers began to fight with each other, and when the Spanish came, they found a weakened kingdom – and destroyed it.