Lesson 1.4 · Unit 1 · CED topic 1.4
State building in the Americas
The Americas in 1200 held complex societies that developed independently of Afro-Eurasia. The CED says that state systems in the Americas, as in Afro-Eurasia, demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, and expanded in scope and reach. This lesson covers the Maya, the Mexica, the Inca, and the societies of the North American Southwest and Mississippi valley.
Learning objective.
- 1I. Explain how and why states in the Americas developed and changed over time.
Historical developments.
- 3.2.I.D.i. In the Americas, as in Afro-Eurasia, state systems demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity, and expanded in scope and reach.
Maya city-states
The Maya lived in southern Mexico and Central America. Their civilization reached a peak between about 250 and 900 CE, when dozens of city-states, such as Tikal and Calakmul, ruled by kings with divine status, competed through trade and war. Maya cities built stepped pyramids, kept a calendar, and used a system of hieroglyphic writing. Many southern cities declined in the ninth and tenth centuries, probably because of drought, warfare, and environmental strain. By 1200 the center of Maya power had moved to the northern Yucatan, where cities such as Chichen Itza and later Mayapan flourished. Maya states were never united into one empire.
The Mexica
The Mexica, often called the Aztecs, were a people who migrated into the Valley of Mexico and, according to tradition, founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, on an island in Lake Texcoco around 1325. In 1428 they joined with two other cities in the Triple Alliance, and over the next century the alliance grew into a tribute empire. Conquered peoples kept their own rulers and customs but had to send tribute, such as cloth, food, and goods, to the Mexica capital, and tribute lists record these demands. The Mexica also relied on chinampas, artificial garden plots built in the lake, to grow food for a city of perhaps 200,000 people. Their religion included human sacrifice, which rulers used to justify wars and to display power, and priests played an important role in the state.
The Inca
The Inca built the largest empire in the Americas. From a base in the highlands around Cuzco, they expanded rapidly after about 1438 under the ruler Pachacuti, until the empire reached from modern Ecuador to Chile. The Inca ruled through several tools.
- Roads. A network of roads, bridges, and storehouses connected the empire. Runners relayed messages along it.
- Mit'a labor. Subjects owed labor service, called the mit'a, to the state, which used it to build roads and terraces and to work in mines and on state lands. The state provided food and support in return.
- Khipu. The Inca had no writing system but kept records on khipu, knotted cords that recorded numbers and probably other information.
- Religion and rulers. The Sapa Inca ruler was believed to descend from the sun god. Conquered peoples were required to honor Inca gods.
North American societies
Large societies existed north of Mexico as well, and the CED lists three. At Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the Ancestral Puebloan people built great houses and roads and traded across a wide area until about 1150. At Mesa Verde in Colorado, Ancestral Puebloans built cliff dwellings in the 1200s and abandoned them before 1300, probably because of drought. At Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, the Mississippian culture built an urban center with large earthen mounds and a population that may have reached 10,000 to 20,000 at its peak around 1100, before it declined by about 1350. These societies were not empires, but they had long-distance trade, planning, and religious centers.
Description of a khipu, a knotted-cord record used by the Inca. This is a description of an object, not a quotation.
A khipu has a main cord with many hanging cords. Knots tied in different positions and styles stand for numbers in a decimal system. Specialists called khipu keepers recorded the state's goods, labor service, and population.
Sourcing (HIPP). The khipu is an artifact made by Inca officials, so its point of view is that of the state. Its purpose was to record information needed for administration, such as how many workers owed service. The audience was other state officials who could read it. Because we can read the numbers but not all of the other information, the khipu shows how the state counted resources more clearly than what rulers or subjects believed.
Claim. The Inca ruled a large empire without a system of writing.
Evidence. Officials used khipu, knotted cords that recorded numbers, to count goods, labor service, and people.
Reasoning. Records of this kind let the state collect resources and assign labor across thousands of miles, which are the tasks writing served in other empires. A limit is that scholars can read the numerical information but not all of the other information that may have been recorded, so the source is incomplete.
Question. Compare one similarity and one difference between the Mexica and Inca states.
Model. Both built large empires that drew on the labor and resources of conquered peoples: the Mexica through tribute and the Inca through the mit'a labor system. A difference is that the Mexica left conquered rulers in place and demanded tribute, whereas the Inca moved populations, built roads, and took labor directly from subjects and organized it through the state.
Learning Objective 1I asks how and why states in the Americas developed and changed. For each state, give the method of rule (Maya: city-states and kings; Mexica: tribute; Inca: mit'a, roads, and khipu) and a cause of change (drought, warfare, or conquest). Stress diversity: there was no single American model.
- What was the Maya political structure?
Show answer
A set of independent city-states ruled by kings with divine status, never united into one empire.
- What was tribute under the Mexica?
Show answer
Goods such as cloth and food that conquered peoples had to send to the Mexica capital, which allowed the empire to rule through local leaders.
- What was the mit'a?
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The Inca system of labor service owed by subjects to the state, used for roads, terraces, mines, and state lands.
- What is a khipu?
Show answer
A set of knotted cords used by the Inca to record numbers and other information, since they had no writing system.
- What were chinampas?
Show answer
Artificial garden plots built in lakes that the Mexica used to grow food for their large capital.
- Name two North American societies of this period.
Show answer
Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, or Cahokia, all of which had large centers and long-distance trade.