UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
THEME : Governance
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain how and why states in the Americas developed and changed over time.
How is state building going in the Americas from 1200-1450?
MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS
First let’s start our little tour in Mesoamerica . And if you’re interested in a little historical
context then let’s back it up before 1200 and get acquainted with the Maya Civilization
which ran from about 250-900CE.
The Maya were insane: they built huge urban centers, had the most sophisticated writing
system in all the Americas during that time, and got real complex with all their mathematics, including
but certainly not limited to, using the concept of zero .
Their state structure was basically a decentralized collection of city-states that were
frequently at war with one another. And when the Maya fought to expand their power , their
goal wasn’t to gain more territory necessarily, but rather to create a vast network of tributary states
among neighboring regions. And that just means that local powers conquered by the Maya remained
somewhat independent , but they were required to send tribute payments to the Maya rulers
including things like textiles and military weapons and various building materials .
One key feature of Maya culture was its emphasis on human sacrifice . They believed
that the sun was a deity and was constantly losing energy in its struggle against darkness and therefore
required the life-giving energy of human blood .
But maybe at this point you’re like, why are you talking about a civilization that isn’t even part of
the time period covered in the course?
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UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS cont’d.
You need to know something about the Maya because as we move into our time period 1200-1450, you
need to understand how states during this period demonstrated continuity and
innovation compared to those states that came before.
It’s time to get to know the Aztec Empire which ran from 1345 to 1528.
But this empire had much more humble beginnings. The Mexica people were a semi-
nomadic peoople who migrated south around the beginning of the 14th century and began building
up their military prowess and strategically marrying into more powerful families.
By 1428 they had consolidated a ton of power in the region and entered an alliance
with two other Mesoamerican states thus establishing the Aztec Empire with an aggressive program of
expansion . Don’t get confused: the Mexica and the Aztecs are not two separate empires or states. The
Mexica ethnic group were the folks that established the Aztec Empire. Mexica , Aztec, are
the same.
The Aztec ruled their massive empire in a few ways that demonstrate continuity with older
Mesoamerican states, like the Maya .
The political power structure of the Aztecs was decentralized , meaning that all the
various peoples they conquered were set up as tributary states. So again, for the privilege of being a conqueree of
the Aztecs , the various peoples under their power had to provide regular payments of food
and animals and building materials. And this was how the Aztecs administered their
vast and rapidly expanding empire.
But their wars of expansion also had religious motivations too. The sun god needed blood and so
human sacrifice remained a key motivator for extending their power over more and more states.
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UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS cont’d.
In order to secure their legitimacy as rulers over all these people, the Mexica claimed
heritage from older, more renowned Mesoamerican people. And this is a theme you’ll see
in empires and states across the world: people from outside come in and grab hold of power and in
order to keep that power they claim relations to ancient peoples that everyone reveres.
I should also mention that the city building projects of the Aztec were pretty magnificent. The
seat of power and religious authority was located in their magnificent capital city of
Tenochtitlan which boasted a population of something like 150-200,000 people. And within this city
vast marketplaces were set up, which tells you that their economy was commercialized like
we saw with Song China. There were also elaborate palaces for rulers and pyramid temples ,
one of which was 200 feet tall.
SUMMARIZE the previous section in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
ANDEAN CIVILIZATIONS
Let’s move south and consider the Andean Civilizations . From ancient times, a series of
societies were developed along the Andean mountains and in their valleys and coastlands.
One of the most significant of these earlier societies was known as the Wari which collapsed around 1000
CE. Now I mention them because by the mid-1400s the Inca Empire would be established in roughly
the same area as the Wari, and the Inca borrowed a lot from those older civilizations.
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UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
ANDEAN CIVILIZATIONS cont’d.
The Inca established their empire and in some ways it was similar to the way the Aztecs established
theirs. The Inca were also a group of outsiders who because of their military prowess quickly
rose to power in the region, and expanded their empire rapidly with said military prowess.
But whereas the Aztec power structure was decentralized and relied on tributary relationships,
the Incas centralized their power structure. What I mean is, in order to rule such a vast
and diverse empire, the Inca set up a massive bureaucracy to ensure that the will of the ruler was
followed in all parts of the empire.
The Incas also made requirements of the people they conquered, but not so much tribute payments, as
labor requirements. It was known as the mit'a system and it meant that the Inca state required
the labor of all people for a period of time each year to work on state projects like mining or
military service. Additionally, the Inca made prodigious use of systems employed by earlier civilizations
like the Wari and others, not least their religion-centered political structure and the use and expansion
of infrastructure including a vast network of roads and bridges.
SUMMARIZE the previous section in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
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UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
NORTH AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS
The last stop on our tour of American civilizations will take us to North America. First let me introduce
you to the Mississippian Culture which emerged around the 8th or 9th century CE. It was established
in the Mississippi River Valley and represented the first large-scale civilization in North America. And
because the soil in this valley was very fertile, their society developed around farming , or
agriculture .
Their political structure was dominated by powerful chiefs known as the Great Sun which
ruled each town and extended political power over smaller satellite settlements . In short, their
society was thoroughly hierarchical . One of the things these cultures are most known for is
their extensive mound-building projects.
They were mostly memorial in nature, acting as burial sites for important people, and they hosted
religious ceremonies on the tops of the mounds. Each major urban area in the
civilization was surrounded by these mounds, and it should tell you something about the political structure of
these settlements that they were able to marshall enough people to construct such massive public
projects . And the biggest and most significant of all these mounds was built in the urban
center of Cahokia , which was the largest urban center of the Mississippian culture.
Going westward , we have the occasion to meet the Chaco and Mesa Verde
societies. They established themselves in the Southwest portion of what we today call the United States
after the rise of the Mississippian culture.
This region very dry. So these people developed innovative ways of transporting and storing
water . And because it’s so dry, there aren’t many trees to provide timber for
buidling structures. So what did they do?
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UNIT 1 TOPIC 4
State Building in the Americas
NORTH AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS cont’d.
The Chaco carved sandstone blocks out of massive quarries, imported timber from distant
locations, and built massive structures that were some of the largest ever built in North America.
The Mesa Verde people solved this problem by building housing complexes into the sides of
cliffs using sandstone, and they are magnificent.
SUMMARIZE the previous section in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
RESPOND to the learning objectives with an evidence-based, argumentative thesis.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain how and why states in the Americas developed and changed over time.
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