4.  Powerful ruler  Aristocrats  Power based upon ownership of land  Farmed by poor relatives  Small middle class artisans, traders  Majority of pop. farmers  Chiampas Division of labor along gender lines  Men fighting and hunting  Women home

5. Polytheistic  Human sacrifice performed to appease gods Cities built around ceremonial centers  Central pyramid surmounted by shrine to the gods  Nearby temples, palaces, sacred ball court

6.  Urban sprawl Separate suburb Strip mallss for middle class and poor  Hieroglyphs and calendars Calendar  August 3114 BCE ends Dec 21, 2012  Required sophisticated understanding of astronomical events and mathematics  Started w/ these known symbols to decipher script

7.  Possible reasons Overuse of the land Invasion Internal revolt Natural disaster  Older centers abandoned and new centers further N continued

8. Valley of Mexico Less sophisticated than neighbors Excellent warriors No centralized state  semiautonomous territories  Centralized religion

9.  Authoritarian power  Claimed descent from gods  Ruler selected from royal family by a select group of senior officials  King advised by council of lords  Headed by prime minister- served as chief executive and head of bureaucracy  Power of central gov’t limited beyond capital

10.  Hereditary nobility  temple schools  Rest of pop. commoners, slaves, indentured workers  Calpullis  Headed by an elected official  taxes and conscript labor  Farmland held in common  In cities each held a different neighborhood  performed some form of trade

11.  Rigidly stratified Boys train for war Women weaved textiles, raised children  Both sexes in priesthood  Women  Own and inherit property  Enter into contracts  Prearranged marriages

12.  polytheistic cosmology based upon belief of 2 worlds: material and divine  earth material  divine- heaven and hell fatalistic elements

13.  Religious significance Sacred precinct massive pyramid  Painting  Cast gold and silver  Writing Hieroglyphics  Calendar from Olmecs

14.  1519 Hernan Cortes landed in Veracruz Cortes demanded Aztec accept Christianity Disease brought by Europeans eventually wiped out majority of pop Within months entire civilization crumbling

15.  Extended from Ecuador to Central Chile

16.  Tahuantinsuyu  10,000 residents  Ruled by governor  forced labor  Excess inhabitants transferred to other locations  Cuzco  Imposing stone metropolis  no mortar  Temple dedicated to the sun

18.  24,800 miles of roads from Northern Columbia to Santiago Chile  Rest houses and storage depots along roads  Suspension bridges traversed ravines and rivers

19.  Terraced ag irrigation collective labor controlled by state  Marriage strictly regulated vestal virgins

20.  State built on war Universal male conscription move quickly along highway system  No wheeled vehicles  Conquered peoples  Instructed in language and state religion  Writing  quipu

21.  Francisco Pizarro w/ few hundred men  Internal factionalism  Disease of Europeans