Page 108 - Key to Social Studies 6
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Mesoamerican Civilizations The Teotihuacan
• Teotihuacan, located in present-day Mexico, was the largest and most in uential city in the history of
Famous civilizations developed in Mesoamerica before European explorers arrived in the fteenth
the Americas. The people of Teotihuacan built a huge capital city with town squares, wide streets, and
century. Archeologists and historians have studied the buildings, the art, and other things those
open plazas, which served as a marketplace and a meeting area.
civilizations left behind to form theories about the way people lived thousands of years ago.
• The name of the city of Teotihuacan, which means "Birthplace of the Gods," was given by the Aztecs
Mayan Civilization
centuries after the city's fall around 600 C.E.
• A group named the Mayans started to settle in the land near what is now the Mexico/Guatemala border
and in the Yucatan Peninsula around 1800 B.C.E. • The city fell because of either an invasion or an internal uprising. Whatever the cause, the people of
Teotihuacan moved on, after thriving for around 750 years.
• Over time, the Mayans began to build cities with decentralized governments. Most of the Mayan cities
shared the same culture, but each was ruled by a separate small local government. The Toltecs
• The Toltecs attacked areas of Mesoamerica around 800 C.E. and built their own city, named “Tula.” They
• The Mayans achieved great discoveries in many elds of science such as astronomy, medicine, and
were renowned as erce warriors. They were traders of obsidian, a volcanic glass that was used for
mechanics. They developed a 360-day calendar to plan for religious ceremonies, as well as the yearly
weapons and tools, which was excavated, which means removing earth from a place in order to nd old
harvest, or the process of gathering crops.
objects buried there, by miners. But this civilization was ended by invaders who destroyed their capital
• They created a written language named “glyphs” or “hieroglyphs,” which was used in Mesoamerica until
around 1100 C.E.
the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century.
The Aztecs
• The Mayan civilization declined around 900 C.E. for unknown reasons. Historians have some theories for
• The Aztecs were nomadic hunters who migrated to Mesoamerica in search of food and settled in what is
the collapse, including invasion, internal strife, drought, and deforestation. After this, the Mayans
now Mexico around 1200 C.E.
themselves spread through the Yucatan Peninsula.
• They built a great city, which they named “Tenochtitlan,” on an island in Lake Texcoco.
• As the number of people on the island increased, it became too small. The Aztecs decided to expand the
island by building oating land covered with mud, which was used to grow crops. Floating means that
Mayan Temples at Tikal National Park, Guatemala
the new area was on top of water and could not be settled permanently.
• The Aztecs ruled through a very strong centralized government headed by an emperor.
• They succeeded in building a strong army that enabled them to conquer people of the surrounding
areas and to build one of the largest empires in Mesoamerican history, stretching from the Paci c
Ocean in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east.
• In 1521 C.E., the people who were ruled by the Aztecs wanted to end their harsh rule and the high taxes
that were imposed on them. They agreed to help the Spanish explorers and attacked the Aztec capital
to overthrow the Aztec Empire.
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