Pre-columbian+Civilizations+in+America

toc This page has been created by Anna C. Smurawski, María Esgueva and Laura Ibañez, students from 2ºESO bilingual section of IES Parque de Lisboa.

=** 1.-How America was organized before Columbus' discovery? **= [|The history of the Americas] is the collective of the American landmass, which includes [|North America], [|South America] , [|Central America] and [|Caribbean]. It begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an [|Ice age]. The ancestors of today's [|American Indigenous peoples] are [|Paleo-Indians]. The most popula theory said that migrants came to the Americas via the lan mass covered by the cold ocean waters in the[|Bering Strait]. Groups of people may also traveled into North America on shelf or sheet ice along the northern Pacific coast.

Cultural traits brought by the first immigrants later envolved and produced cultures. These cultures later developed into [|Civilizations]. Cultures that may be considered advances include: [|Norte Chico] ,[|Cahokia], [|Zapotec] , [|Toltec] , [|Olmec] , [|Maya] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Aztec] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Inca] and some other civilizations.

The three most important civilizations of the Americas were the Incas, tha Mayas and the Aztecs. In this page we are going to explain how Inca and Aztec life, religion and culture was.

The Inca culture was begun to create in the valley of the river Urubamba from the culture Aymara. With the extension of the empire, this one was absorbing new cultural expressions of the annexed peoples and was located in the current territories of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

The Aztec culture is characterized for being good at the administration, in fact, they were basing the division of his territory on 38 tributary provinces and his social organization. In the high of this pyramid they were the Nobles and the Priests. After these, there were the merchants and the warriors. Finally, in the base of the pyramid, were the farmers and later the slaves. The principal cultures that the Aztecs were practising were the maize, the fruit, the tobacco and the chicles.

Cities of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas were as large and organized as the largest in the Old World, with an estimated population of 200,000 to 350,000 in <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Tenochtitlan], the capital of the Aztec empire. The market established in the city was said to have been the largest ever seen by the conquistadors when they arrived. The capital of the Cahokians, <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Cahokia] - located near modern <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|East St. Louis, Illinois] may have reached a population of over 20,000. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia may have been the most populous city in North America. <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Monks Mound], the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric New World.

These civilizations developed agriculture as well. Potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, avocados, corn, and chocolate were the most popular of the pre-Columbian agricultural products. The civilizations did not develop extensive livestock as there were few suitable species, although alpacas and llamas were domesticated for use as beasts of burden and sources of wool and meat in the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Andes].

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