-
-
The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava.
-
-
The largest part of the population, the commoners, worked the land belonging to their kinship groups, paid taxes, traded in the markets, owned homes, and were citizens. However, they could also be drafted to work on public projects. Peasants worked as tenant farmers, household servants, and soldiers.
-
-
From 1100 to 1300 the Inca moved north into the fertile Cuzco Valley.
-
At the top of the social hierarchy was the king. He was assisted by a great staff of professional administrators and advisers, all of noble birth, who formed the highest class.
-
This vast empire was a theocracy, organized along socialistic lines and ruled by an Inca, or emperor, who was worshiped as a divinity.
-
during the reign of Inca Roca, they had conquered all areas close to Lake Titicaca in the south as well as the valleys to the immediate east of Cusco.
-
Incans had established their own small kingdom in the valley.
-
by 1500s the empire stretched for 2500 miles
-
Because the Inca realm contained extensive deposits of gold and silver, it became in the early 16th century a target of Spanish imperial ambitions in the Americas.
-
Pizzaro kills incan Emperor and brings spanish to the inca empire
-
between six and 14 million within an area extending from Colombia to Chile, in 1532 when the Spanish arrived.
-
Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people.
