Mesoamerica: the Maya and the Aztecs
Mesoamerica, stretching from central Mexico to Central America, produced sophisticated civilisations with cities, writing, and advanced astronomy.
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan, near modern Mexico City, was one of the largest cities in the world around 400-500 CE, with perhaps 100,000 or more residents. Its Pyramid of the Sun and Avenue of the Dead were laid out on a grand plan. It declined around 550-650 CE, but later peoples, including the Aztecs, revered its ruins.
The Classic Maya
The Maya flourished in southern Mexico and Central America, with a Classic period from about 250 to 900 CE. They built city-states such as Tikal, Palenque, and Copán, ruled by divine kings, with stepped pyramids, palaces, and ball courts. Maya cities were often rivals and fought frequent wars.
Maya knowledge
The Maya developed the most complete writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas, combining logographic and syllabic signs, much of it deciphered since the 1970s-1980s. They used a base-20 number system including a symbol for zero and created precise calendars, including the Long Count, and tracked the movements of Venus.
The Classic Maya collapse
Between about 800 and 950 CE, many southern lowland Maya cities were abandoned. Likely causes include prolonged droughts, shown by lake sediments and cave formations, along with warfare, overpopulation, and environmental strain. Maya people and culture continued, with northern cities such as Chichen Itza flourishing afterward; millions of Maya live in the region today.
The Aztec Empire
The Mexica, better known as the Aztecs, founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325. Through the Triple Alliance with neighbouring cities, they built an empire that collected tribute from conquered peoples across central Mexico. By 1519, Tenochtitlan may have had 200,000 or more inhabitants, larger than most European cities.
Aztec society and religion
Tenochtitlan had causeways, canals, and chinampas, artificial island gardens producing abundant crops. Aztec society included nobles, priests, warriors, merchants, commoners, and enslaved people. Religion centred on gods such as Huitzilopochtli (sun and war) and included human sacrifice, which the Aztecs believed sustained the cosmos.
The Spanish conquest
In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived with a few hundred Spaniards. He allied with peoples who resented Aztec rule, especially the Tlaxcalans, and was helped by the translator Malintzin (La Malinche). A smallpox epidemic devastated Tenochtitlan in 1520. After a long siege, the city fell in 1521.
Worked example
How could a few hundred Spaniards defeat an empire of millions? Historians point to several factors together: tens of thousands of Indigenous allies who wanted to escape Aztec domination, epidemic disease that killed many defenders, Spanish steel weapons, horses, and guns, and political divisions within the empire. Indigenous allies made up the vast majority of the conquering forces.
Key takeaways
Teotihuacan was a huge early city. The Classic Maya built city-states, a full writing system, base-20 maths with zero, and precise calendars; many southern cities were abandoned around 800-950 CE, likely due to drought and conflict, though the Maya endured. The Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan in 1325 and ruled a tribute empire. Cortés, with Indigenous allies and aided by smallpox, conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.
Flashcard
Huge city near Mexico City
Check your understanding
Which factor was most important in helping a few hundred Spaniards conquer the Aztec Empire?