14 CHAPTER 1 ANCIENT AMERICA
peasant revolts caused by excessive tribute de-
mands are among the explanations that have been
advanced for the collapse of the great Classic city-
states and kingdoms.
A Time of Troubles, of obscure struggles and
migrations of peoples, followed these disasters.
Then new civilizations arose on the ruins of the
old. The Postclassic stage, from about 1000 to
1500 CE, seems to have repeated on a larger, more
complex scale the rise-and-fall pattern of the pre-
vious era. Chronic warfare, refl ected in the number
of fortifi cations and fortifi ed communities, and an
increased emphasis on urban living were distin-
guishing features of this stage. Another was the
formation of empires through the subjugation of a
number of states by one powerful state. The domi-
nant state appropriated a portion of the production
of the conquered people, primarily for the benefi t
of its ruling classes. The Aztec and Inca empires
typify this era.
No important advances in technology occurred
in the Postclassic period, but in some regions, the
net of irrigation works was extended. The continu-
ous growth of warfare and the rise of commerce
sharpened economic distinctions between nobles
and commoners, between rich and poor. The war-
rior class replaced the priesthood as the main rul-
ing class. Imperialism also infl uenced the character
of religion, enhancing the importance of war gods
and human sacrifi ce. The arts and crafts showed
some decline from Classic achievements, with a
tendency more toward standardization and mass
production of textiles and pottery in some areas.
After reaching a peak of power, the empires
displayed the same tendency toward disintegration
as had their Classic forerunners. The Tiahuanaco
civilization and the Inca Empire in Peru may have
represented two cycles of empire growth, whereas
the fi rst true Mexican imperial cycle, that of the Az-
tec conquests, had not ended when the Spaniards
conquered America.
Three high civilizations, the Maya of Central
America, the Aztecs of Mexico, and the Incas of
Peru, have held the center of attention to the vir-
tual exclusion of the others. This partiality is under-
standable: we know more about these peoples and
their ways of life. The Aztec and Inca civilizations
still fl ourished at the coming of the Spaniards, and
some conquistadors wrote vivid accounts of what
they saw. The colorful story of the Conquest of
Mexico and Peru and the unhappy fate of their em-
perors Moctezuma (Montezuma) and Atahualpa
have also served to focus historical and literary at-
tention on the Aztecs and the Incas. Unfortunately,
the fame and glamor that surrounded these peo-
ples obscured the achievements of their predeces-
sors, who laid the cultural foundations on which
the Maya, Aztecs, and Incas built.EARLY AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS
As early as 1000 BCE, the inhabitants of the Val-
ley of Mexico lived in small villages set in the midst
of their maize, bean, and squash fi elds. They culti-
vated the land with slash-and-burn methods, pro-
duced simple but well-made pottery, and turned
out large numbers of small clay fi gures that sug-
gest a belief in fertility goddesses. By the opening
of the Old World’s Christian era, small, fl at-topped
mounds had appeared, evidence of a more formal
religion and directing priesthood.
Much earlier (perhaps spanning the period
1500 to 400 BCE) there arose the precocious and
enigmatic Olmec civilization of the gulf coast low-
lands, whose infl uence radiated widely into the
central Mexican plateau and Central America. The
origins, development, and disappearance of the Ol-
mec culture remain a mystery.
Important elements of the Olmec civilization
were its ceremonial centers, monumental stone
carving and sculpture, hieroglyphic writing, and
probably a calendrical system. The principal Olmec
sites are La Venta and Tres Zapotes, in the modern
state of Veracruz. Discovery of Olmec culture and ev-
idence of the wide diffusion of its art style have made
untenable the older view that Maya civilization was
the fi rst in Mesoamerica. It seems likely that Olmec
culture was the mother civilization of Mesoamerica.
The technical, artistic, and scientifi c advances
of the Formative period made possible the climactic
cultural achievements of the Classic era. In Mex-
ico’s central highlands, the Classic period opened
in splendor. About the beginning of the Christian
era, at Teotihuacán, some twenty-eight miles from
Mexico City, mighty pyramids named for the Sun
and the Moon arose and towered over clusters of