700 words You will keep notes about the course content in your Blackboard journal. To give flexibil

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15

Empires and Alternatives
in the Americas 1430–1530

531

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World in the Making Perched on a granite ridge
high above Peru’s Urubamba R iver, the Inca site
of Machu Picchu continues to draw thousands of
visitors each year. First thought to be the lost city of
Vilcabamba, then a convent for Inca nuns, Machu
Picchu is now believed to have been a mid-fifteenth-
century palace built for the Inca emperor and his
mummy cult. It was probably more a religious site
than a place of rest and recreation.

Many Native Americas
FOCUS What factors account for the diversity of
native American cultures?

Tributes of Blood: The Aztec Empire,
1325–1521

FOCUS What core features characterized Aztec
life and rule?

Tributes of Sweat: The Inca Empire,
1430–1532

FOCUS What core features characterized Inca
life and rule?

COUNTERPOINT: The Peoples of
North America’s Eastern Woodlands,
1450–1530

FOCUS How did the Eastern Woodlanders’
experience differ from life under the Aztecs
and Incas?

backstory
By the fifteenth century the Americas had

witnessed the rise and fall of numerous

empires and kingdoms, including the classic

Maya of Mesoamerica, the wealthy Sicán

kingdom of Peru’s desert coast, and the

Cahokia mound builders of the Mississippi

Basin. Just as these cultures faded, there

emerged two new imperial states that

borrowed heavily from their predecessors.

The empires discussed in this chapter, the

Aztec and Inca, were the largest states ever

to develop in the Americas, yet they were

not all-powerful. About half of all native

Americans, among them the diverse peoples

of North America’s eastern woodlands, lived

outside their realms.

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In 1995, archaeologists discovered a tomb on a peak overlooking Arequipa, Peru.
Inside was the mummified body of an adolescent girl placed there some five hun-
dred years earlier. Evidence suggests she was an aclla (AHK-yah), or “chosen
woman,” selected by Inca priests from among hundreds of regional headmen’s
daughters. Most aclla girls became priestesses dedicated to the Inca emperor or the
imperial sun cult. Others became the emperor’s concubines or wives. Only the most
select, like the girl discovered near Arequipa, were chosen for the “debt-payment”
sacrifice, or capacocha (kah-pah-KOH-chah), said to be the greatest honor of all.

According to testimonies collected after the Spanish conquest of the Incas in 1532
(discussed in the next chapter), the capacocha sacrifice was a rare event preceded
by rituals. First, the victim, chosen for her (and rarely, his) physical perfection,
trekked to Cuzco, the Inca capital. The child’s father brought gifts from his province
and in turn received fine textiles from the emperor. Following an ancient Andean
tradition, ties between ruler and ruled were reinforced through such acts of
reciprocity. The girl, too, received skirts and shawls, along with votive objects. These
adorned her in her tomb, reached after a long journey on foot from Cuzco.

As suggested by later discoveries, at tomb-side the aclla girl was probably given a
beaker of maize beer. In a pouch she carried coca leaves. Coca, chewed throughout
the Andes, helped fend off altitude sickness, whereas the maize beer induced sleepi-
ness. Barely conscious of her surroundings, the girl was lowered into her grass-lined
grave, and, according to the forensic anthropologists who examined her skull,
struck dead with a club.

W hy did the Incas sacrifice children, and why in these ways? By combining ma-
terial, written, and oral evidence, scholars are beginning to solve the riddle of the
Inca mountain mummies. It now appears that death, fertility, reciprocity, and
imperial links to sacred landscapes were all features of the capacocha sacrifice.
Although such deadly practices may challenge our ability to empathize with the
leaders, if not the common folk, of this distant culture, with each new fact we learn
about the child mummies, the closer we get to understanding the Inca Empire and
its ruling cosmology.

The Incas and their subjects believed that death occurred as a process, and that proper
death led to an elevated state of consciousness. In this altered state a person could
communicate with deities directly, and in a sense join them. If the remains of such a
person were carefully preserved and honored, they could act as an oracle, a conduit
to the sacred realms above and below the earth. Mountains, as sources of springs and
rivers, and sometimes fertilizing volcanic ash, held particular significance.

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In part, it was these beliefs about landscape, death, and the afterlife that led the
Incas to mummify ancestors, including their emperors, and to bury chosen young
people atop mountains that marked the edges, or heights, of empire. Physically
perfect noble children such as the girl found near Arequipa were thus selected to
communicate with the spirit world. Their sacrifice unified the dead, the living, and
the sacred mountains, and also bound together a far-flung empire that was in many
ways as fragile as life itself.1

But this fragility was not evident to the people gathered at the capacocha sacrifice.
By about 1480, more than half of all native Americans were subjects of two
great empires, the Aztec in Mexico and Central America and the Inca in South
America. Both empires subdued neighboring chiefdoms through a mix of violence,
forced relocation, religious indoctrination, and marriage alliances. Both empires
demanded allegiance in the form of tribute. Both the Aztecs and Incas were greatly
feared by their millions of subjects. Perhaps surprisingly, these last great native
American states would prove far more vulnerable to European invaders than their
nonimperial neighbors, most of whom were gatherer-hunters and semi-sedentary
villagers. Those who relied least on farming had the best chance of getting away.

1. In what ways was cultural

diversity in the Americas related

to environmental diversity?

2. Why was it in Mesoamerica

and the Andes that large

empires emerged around 1450?

3. What key ideas or practices

extended beyond the limits of

the great empires?

OVERVIEW QUESTIONS

The major global development in this chapter: The diversity of societies and
states in the Americas prior to European invasion.

As you read, consider:

Many Native Americas

FOCUS What factors account for the diversity of native
american cultures?

Scholars once claimed that the Western Hemisphere was sparsely settled prior to
the arrival of Europeans in 1492, but we now know that by then the population of
the Americas had reached some sixty million or more. A lthough vast open spaces

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remained, in places the landscape was more intensively cultivated and thickly
populated than western Europe (see Map 15.1). Fewer records for nonimperial
groups survive than for empire builders such as the Incas and Aztecs, but scholars
have recently learned much about these less-studied cultures. Outside imperial
boundaries, coastal and riverside populations were densest. This was true in the
Caribbean, the Amazon, Paraguay-Paraná, and Mississippi R iver Basins, the
Pacific Northwest, and parts of North America’s eastern seaboard.

Ecological diversity gave rise in part to political and cultural diversity. A merica’s
native peoples, or A merindians, occupied two ecologically diverse continents.
They also inhabited tropical, temperate, and icy environments that proved
more or less suitable to settled agriculture. Some were members of egalitarian
gatherer-hunter bands; others were subjects of rigidly stratified imperial states. In
between were traveling bands of pilgrims led by prophets; chiefdoms based on fish-
ing, whaling, or farming; regional confederacies of chiefdoms; and independent
city-states.

Political diversity was more than matched by cultural diversity. The Aztecs and
Incas spread the use of imperial dialects within their empires, but elsewhere hundreds

of distinct Amerindian lan-
guages could be heard. Modes of
dress and adornment were even
more varied, ranging from total
nudity and a few tattoos to highly
elaborate ceremonial dress. Lip
and ear piercing, tooth filing,
and molding of the infant skull
between slats of wood were but
a few of the many ways human
appearances were reconfigured.
Architecture was just as varied,
as were ceramics and other arts.
In short, the Americas’ extraor-
dinary range of climates and nat-
ural resources both reflected and
encouraged diverse forms of ma-
terial and linguistic expression.
Perhaps only in the realm of reli-
gion, where shamanism persisted,
was a unifying thread to be found.

Canadian War Club This stone war club with a fish motif was excavated from
a native A merican tomb in coastal British Columbia, Canada, and is thought
to date from around 1200 to 1400 C.E . Such items at first suggest a people at
war, but this club was probably intended only for ceremonial use. Modern
Tsimshian inhabitants of the region, who still rely on salmon, describe the
exchange of stone clubs in their foundation myths.

M a ny N a t i ve A m e r i c a s 535

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0

0 650 Kilometers

650 Miles

PACIFIC
OCEAN

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

Caribbean
Sea

Rio de
la Plata

Gulf of
Mexico

Lesser A
ntilles

Greater Antilles

Amazo n R
.

O
rin

oc
o R.

Pa
ra

ná
R

.
R

i o Grand
e

M
isso

uri R.

M
ississip

p
i R

.

R
o

ck
y

M
o

u
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in

s

A p

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n

M
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.

MESOAMERICA

Main areas of se�lement, c. 1492

Major trade route

Main Se�lement Areas in
the Americas, c. 1492

Principal crops
Amaranth

Beans

Cacao

Chilies

Co�on

Maize

Manioc

Potatoes, sweet potatoes

Quinoa

Squash, pumpkins, gourds

Sun�owers

Tobacco

Tomatoes

Peanuts

NORTH AMERICA

SOUTH
AMERICA

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Equator

30ºN

120ºW 90ºW 60ºW 30ºW 0º

30ºS

MAP 15.1 Main Settlement Areas in the Americas, c. 1492 Most native Americans settled in regions that supported
intensive agriculture. The trade routes shown here linked peoples from very different cultures, mostly to exchange rare
items such as shells, precious stones, and tropical bird feathers, but seeds for new crops also followed these paths.

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Shamanism consisted of reliance on healer-visionaries for spiritual guidance. In
imperial societies shamans constituted a priestly class. Both male and female, sha-
mans had functions ranging from fortune teller to physician, with women often
acting as midwives. Still, most native American shamans were males. The role of
shaman could be inherited or determined following a vision quest. This entailed a
solo journey to a forest or desert region, prolonged physical suffering, and controlled
use of hallucinogenic substances. In many respects Amerindian shamanism resem-
bled shamanistic practices in Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Often labeled “witch doctors” by Christian Europeans, shamans maintained a
body of esoteric knowledge that they passed along to apprentices. Some served as
historians and myth keepers. Most used powerful hallucinogens to communicate
with the spirits of predatory animals, which were venerated almost every where in
the Americas. Animal spirits were regarded as the shaman’s alter ego or protector,
and were consulted prior to important occasions. Shamans also mastered herbal
remedies for all forms of illness, including emotional disorders. These rubs, washes,
and infusions were sometimes effective, as shown by modern pharmacological
studies. Shamans nearly always administered them along with chants and rituals
aimed at expelling evil spirits. Shamans, therefore, combined the roles of physician
and religious leader, using their knowledge and power to heal both body and spirit.

The many varieties of social organization and cultural practice found in the
Americas reflect both creative interactions with specific environments and
the visions of individual political and religious leaders. Some Amerindian
gatherer-hunters lived in swamplands and desert areas where subsistence agricul-
ture was impossible using available technologies. Often such gathering-hunting
peoples traded with—or plundered—their farming neighbors. Yet even farming
peoples did not forget their past as hunters. As in other parts of the world, big-game
hunting in the Americas was an esteemed, even sacred activity among urban elites.

Just as hunting remained important to farmers, agriculture could be found
among some forest peoples. Women in these societies controlled most agricultural
tasks and spaces, periodically making offerings to spirits associated with human
fertility. Amerindian staple foods included maize, potatoes, and manioc, a lowland
tropical tuber that could be ground into flour and preserved. With the ebb and
flow of empires, many groups shifted from one mode of subsistence to another,
from planting to gathering-hunting and back again. Some, such as the Kwakiutl
(K WA H-kyu-til) of the Pacific Northwest, were surrounded by such abundant
marine and forest resources that they never turned to farming. Natural abundance
combined with sophisticated fishing and storage systems allowed the Kwakiutl to
build a settled culture of the type normally associated with agricultural peoples.

shamanism 
Widespread system
of religious belief and
healing originating in
Central Asia.

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Thus, the ecological diversity of the Americas helped give rise to numerous cul-
tures, many of which blurred the line between settled and nomadic lifestyles.

Tributes of Blood: The Aztec Empire 1325–1521

FOCUS What core features characterized aztec life and rule?

Mesoamerica, comprised of modern southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El
Salvador, and western Honduras, was a land of city-states after about 800 C.E .
Following the decline of Teotihuacán (tay-oh-tee-wah-KAHN) in the Mexican
highlands and the classic Maya in the greater Guatemalan lowlands, few urban
powers, with the possible exception of the Toltecs, managed to dominate more
than a few neighbors.

This would change with the arrival in the Valley of Mexico of a band of
former gatherer-hunters from a northwestern desert region they called Aztlán
( ost-LAW N), or “place of cranes.” As newcomers these “Aztecs,” who later called
themselves Mexica (meh-SHE-cah, hence “Mexico”), would suffer humiliation by
powerful city-dwellers centered on Lake Texcoco, now overlain by Mexico City.
The Aztecs were at first regarded as barbarians, but as with many conquering
outsiders, in time they would have their revenge (see Map 15.2).

Humble Origins, Imperial Ambitions
Unlike the classic Maya of preceding centuries, the Aztecs did not develop a fully
phonetic writing system. They did, however, preserve their history in a mix of oral
and symbolic, usually painted or carved, forms. Aztec elders maintained chronicles
of the kind historians call master narratives, or state-sponsored versions of the past
meant to glorify certain individuals or policies. These narratives related foundation
myths, genealogies, tales of conquest, and other important remembrances. Though
biased and fragmentary, many Aztec oral narratives were preserved by young
native scribes writing in Nahuatl (NA H-watt), the Aztec language, soon after the
Spanish Conquest of 1519–1521 (discussed in the next chapter).

W hy is it that the Spanish victors promoted rather than suppressed these
narratives of Aztec glory? In one of history’s many ironic twists, Spanish priests
arriving in Mexico in the 1520s taught a number of noble Aztec and other
Mesoamerican youths to adapt the Latin alphabet and Spanish phonetics to vari-
ous local languages, most importantly Nahuatl. The Spanish hoped that stories of
Aztec rule and religion, once collected and examined, would be swiftly discredited

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and replaced with Western, Christian versions. Not only did this quick conver-
sion not happen as planned, but an unintended consequence of the information-
gathering campaign was to create a vast body of Mesoamerican literature written
in native languages.

The Aztecs were a quick study in the production of written historical docu-
ments, and most of what we know of Aztec history relies heavily on these hybrid,
sixteenth-century sources (see Seeing the Past: An Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán).
Aside from interviews with the elders, several painted books, or codices, marked
with precise dates, names, and other symbols, survive, along with much archaeo-
logical and artistic evidence. In combining these sources with Spanish eyewitness
accounts of the conquest era, historians have assembled a substantial record of
Aztec life and rule.

0

0 150 Kilometers

150 Miles

PACIFIC OCEAN

Gulf of
Mexico

Caribbean
Sea

Cozumel I.

G
ri

ja
lv

a
R

.

A
to

yac R
.

Usum
acinta R.

Ba
lsa

s R
.

Pá
nu

co
R

.

Papalo a p
an

R
.

Sierra Madre Del Sur

Sierra M
adre O

riental

YUCATAN
PENINSULA

VALLEY OF MEXICO

MAYA
HIGHLANDS

TA�SCAN MAYA

ZAPOTEC

MIXTEC

MEXICA
(AZTEC)

TLAXCALAN

COLHUA
OTOMI

Chichén
Itzá

Tenochtitlán
See inset map

TABASCO

By 1440

Added by 1481

Added by 1521

�e Aztec Empire,
1325–1521
Aztec territory

100ºW 90ºW

20ºN

Tropic of Cancer

Lake
Texcoco

Texcoco

Xochimilco
Coyoacán

Tlacopán

Tenayuca

Tenochtitlán
Atzcapotzalco

Xaltocán

Ixtalapapa

Chalco

Valley of Mexico

Causeway
Dike

MAP 15.2 The Aztec Empire, 1325–1521 Starting from their base in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the
Aztecs quickly built the most densely populated empire in the A mericas. Their first objective was the Valley of Mexico
itself. A lthough a line of kings greatly extended the empire, not all peoples fell to the Aztec war machine, including
the Tlaxcalans to the east of Tenochtitlán and the Tarascans to the west. A lso unconquered were the many nomadic
peoples of the desert north and the farming forest peoples of the southeast.

SEEING THE PAST

An Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán
Named for Mexico’s first Spanish viceroy, the

Codex Mendoza was painted by Aztec artists

about a dozen years after the Spanish Conquest

of 1519–1521. It was commissioned by the viceroy

as a gift for the Holy Roman emperor and king

of Spain, Charles V. After circulating among the

courts of Europe, the Codex Mendoza landed in

the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, where it

remains. Much of the document consists of trib-

ute lists, but it also contains an illustrated history

of Aztec conquests, crimes and punishments, and

even a map of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital. This

symbol-filled map is reproduced here.

According to legend, the Aztec capital came into ex-

istence when an eagle landed on a cactus in the middle

of Lake Texcoco. This image, now part of the Mexican

national flag, is at the center of the map. Beneath the

cactus is a picture of a stone carving of a cactus fruit, a

common Aztec symbol for the human heart, emblem

of sacrifice. Beneath this is a third symbol labeled after-

ward by a Spanish scribe “Tenochtitlán.”

The city, or rather its symbol, marks the meeting

of four spatial quarters. In each quarter are various

Aztec nobles, only one of whom, Tenochtli (labeled

“Tenuch” on the map), is seated on a reed mat, the

Aztec symbol of supreme authority. He was the

Aztecs’ first emperor; the name “Tenochtli” means

“stone cactus fruit.”

The lower panel depicts the Aztec conquests of

their neighbors in Colhuacan and Tenayuca. Framing

the entire map are symbols for dates, part of an

ancient Mesoamerican system of timekeeping and

prophesying retained by the Aztecs. Finally, barely

legible in the upper left-hand corner is the somewhat

jarring signature of André Thevet, a French priest

and royal cosmographer who briefly possessed the

Codex Mendoza in the late sixteenth century.

Examining the Evidence
1. W hat does this map reveal about the Aztec worldview?
2. How might this document have been read by a common Aztec subject?

Tenochtitlán, from the Codex Mendoza

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The Aztecs apparently arrived in the Valley of Mexico some-
time in the thirteenth century, but it was not until the early
fourteenth that they established a permanent home. The most
fertile sites in the valley were already occupied, but the Aztecs
were not dissuaded; they had a reputation for being tough and
resourceful. Heeding an omen in the form of an eagle perched
on a cactus growing on a tiny island near the southwest edge
of Lake Texcoco, the refugees settled there in 1325. Reclaim-
ing land from the shallow lakebed, they founded a city called
Tenochtitlán (teh-noach-teet-LAW N), or “cactus fruit place.”
Linked to shore by three large causeways, the city soon boasted
stone palaces and temple-pyramids.

The Aztecs transformed Tenochtitlán into a formidable
capital. By 1500 it was home to some two hundred thousand
people, ranking alongside Nanjing and Paris among the world’s
most populous cities at the time. At first the Aztecs developed
their city by trading military services and lake products such as
reeds and fish for building materials, including stone, lime, and
timber from the surrounding hillsides. They then formed mar-
riage alliances with regional ethnic groups such as the Colhua,
and by 1430 initiated imperial expansion.

Intermarriage with the Colhua, who traced their ancestry
to the warrior Toltecs, lent the lowly Aztecs a new, elite cachet.
At some point the Aztecs tied their religious cult, focused on
the war god Huitzilopochtli (weetsy-low-POACH-tlee), or
“hummingbird-on-the-left” to cults dedicated to more widely
known deities, such as the water god Tlaloc. A huge, multilay-

ered pyramid faced with carved stone and filled with rubble, now referred to by
archaeologists as the Templo Mayor, or “Great Temple,” but called by the Aztecs
Coatepec, or “Serpent Mountain,” became the centerpiece of Tenochtitlán. At its
top, some twenty stories above the valley floor, sat twin temples, one dedicated to
Huitzilopochtli, the other to Tlaloc. Coatepec was built to awe and intimidate. In
the words of one native poet,

Proud of itself
Is the City of Mexico-Tenochtitlán
Here no one fears to die in war
This is our glory
This is Your Command
Oh Giver of Life

B

A

D

C

0

0 0.5 km

0.5 mi

Lake Texcoco

Tlatelolco

Tenochtitlán

Causeway
Major road
Major canal
Aqueduct

Great Temple
Ritual center
Palace
Assembly hall

A
B
C
D

Lake Texcoco and Tenochtitlán, c. 1500

Lake Texcoco and Tenochtitlán, c. 1500

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Have this in mind, oh princes
W ho could conquer Tenochtitlán?
W ho could shake the foundation of heaven?2

The Aztecs saw themselves as both stagehands and actors in a cosmic drama
centered on their great capital city.

Enlarging and Supplying the Capital
With Tenochtitlán surrounded by water, subsistence and living space became
serious concerns amid imperial expansion. Fortunately for the Aztecs, Lake
Texcoco was shallow enough to allow an ingenious form of land reclamation called
chinampa (chee-NA HM-pah). Chinampas were long, narrow terraces built by
hand from dredged mud, reeds, and rocks, bordered by interwoven sticks and live
trees. Chinampa construction also created canals for canoe transport. Building
chinampas and massive temple-pyramids such as Coatepec without metal tools,
wheeled vehicles, or draft animals required thousands of workers. Their construc-
tion, therefore, is a testimony to the Aztecs’ power to command labor.

Over time, Tenochtitlán’s canals accumulated algae, water lilies, and silt.
Workers periodically dredged and composted this organic material to fertilize
maize and other plantings on the island terraces. Established chinampa lands
were eventually used for building residences, easing urban crowding. By the mid-
fifteenth century the Aztecs countered problems such as chronic flooding and high
salt content at their end of the lake with dikes and other public works.

Earlier, in the fourteenth century, an adjacent “twin” city called Tlatelolco
(tlah-teh-LOLE-coe) had emerged alongside Tenochtitlán. Tlatelolco was the
Aztec marketplace. Foods, textiles, and exotic goods were exchanged here. Cocoa
beans from the hot lowlands served as currency, and products such as turquoise
and quetzal feathers arrived from as far away as New Mexico and Guatemala, re-
spectively. Though linked by trade, these distant regions fell well outside the Aztec
domain. A ll products were transported along well-trod footpaths on the backs of
human carriers. Only when they arrived on the shores of Lake Texcoco could trade
goods be shuttled from place to place in canoes. Tlatelolco served as crossroads
for all regional trade, with long-distance merchants, or pochteca (poach-TEH-cah),
occupying an entire precinct.

Aztec imperial expansion began only around 1430, less than a century before
the arrival of Europeans. An alliance between Tenochtitlán and the city-states of
Texcoco and Tlacopan led to victory against a third, Atzcapotzalco (otts-cah- poat-
SAUL-coh) (see again Map 15.2). Tensions with Atzcapotzalco extended back to
the Aztecs’ first arrival in the region. The Aztecs used the momentum of this vic-
tory to overtake their allies and lay the foundations of a regional, tributary empire.

chinampa A terrace
for farming and house
building constructed
in the shallows
of Mexico’s Lake
Texcoco by the Aztecs
and their neighbors.

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Within a generation they controlled the entire Valley of Mexico, exacting tribute
from several million people. The Nahuatl language helped link state to subjects,
although many subject groups retained local languages. These persistent forms of
ethnic identification, coupled with staggering tribute demands, would eventually
help bring about the end of Aztec rule.

Holy Terror: Aztec Rule, Religion, and Warfare
A series of six male rulers, or tlatoque (tlah-TOE-kay, singular tlatoani), presided
over Aztec expansion. W hen a ruler died, his successor was chosen by a council of
elders from among a handful of eligible candidates. Aztec kingship was sacred in

Aztec Human Sacrifice This image dates from just after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, but it was part of a codex
about Aztec religious practices and symbols. Here a priest is removing the beating heart of a captive with a flint knife as
an assistant holds his feet. The captive’s bloody heart, in the form of a cactus fruit, ascends, presumably to the gods (see
the same icon in Seeing the Past: A n Aztec Map of Tenochtitlán, page 539). At the base of the sacrificial pyramid lies an
earlier victim, apparently being taken away by noble Aztec men and women responsible for the handling of the corpse.

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that each tlatoani traced his lineage back to the Toltecs. For this, the incorporation
of the Colhua lineage had been essential. In keeping with this Toltec legacy, the
Aztec Empire was characterized by three core features: human sacrifice, warfare,
and tribute. A ll were linked to Aztec and broader Mesoamerican notions of cosmic
order, specifically the human duty to feed the gods.

Like most Mesoamericans, the Aztecs traced not only their own but all human
origins to sacrifices made by deities. In origin stories male and female gods threw
themselves into fires, drew their own blood, and killed and dismembered one
another, all for the good of humankind. These sacrifices were considered essential to
the process of releasing and renewing …

Introduction
World History? Since 1500?
History 111 – World History since 1500

Spring 2022

Jorge Minella ([email protected])

An Empire’s Map
On Exactitude in Science
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, translated by Andrew Hurley.

…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map

of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the

Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no

longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire

whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point

with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of

Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless,

and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the

Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there

are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the

Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

—Suarez Miranda,Viajes devarones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658

Art by Tim Brumley – https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGPkww

Overview

Historical orientation.

Patterns and trends.

Change and ruptures.

What and how?

World
Civilizations

 Triumph of Western
Civilization?

 Civilization paradigm.

 Rise and fall.

Crusader Kerak Castle, Jordan.

New Approaches to World History

 Zones of interaction.

 Global processes.

 New understandings
of modernity.

Bosphorus Strait, Turkey.

Zones of
Interaction

 Seas and oceans.

 Various types of
encounters.

 Flows of people, goods,
capital, ideas, technology,
diseases, plants, animals,
etc.

Chinese Map (Kangnido Map), 1402.

Global Processes
and Local Realities

 Local

 Global

 Multiple perspectives.

Detroit Industry murals, by Diego Rivera,
1933..

Modernity

 Triumph of the “West”?

 Democracy, freedom, and
material prosperity?

 Exploitation.

Cutting the Sugar-Cane, 18th Century
Caribbean.

Agency

 Uneven, but not one-
sided modernity.

 Agency: to act and
shape historical
circumstances.

 Historical recognition.

 Complexity of History.
Map of Quilombo of São Gonçalo, a maroon
community in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1769. National
Library (Brazil).

Afro-Eurasia in Fifteenth Century

 Economic recovery.

 Rise of maritime trade.

 Rise of the Ottomans in the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Land Silk Roads and Maritime Trade

Constantinople, the
crossroads of Eurasia
 Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 1453 – Fall of Constantinople (current day Istanbul).

 Taken from the Christian Byzantine Empire by the
Islamic Ottoman Empire.

 Military innovation.

 Relatively tolerant religious policy.

 Changes in trade.

 New actors.

 Search for new routes.

Le siège de Constantinople (1453) by
Jean Le Tavernier after 1455

Upcoming Lectures

 The Americas before European arrival.

 Colonization of the New World.

 Fall of Constantinople (1453); Contact between Europeans and Native
Americans (1492).

 Some of the watershed moments opening the modern era.

 Global consequences.

The Americas before the
Colonial Encounter
History 111 – World History since 1500

Spring 2022

Jorge Minella ([email protected])

Introduction – Lecture Parts

 Native Latin American Civilizations.

 Guiding Typology.

 Mesoamerica and the formation of the Aztec Empire.

 The Andes and the formation of the Inca Empire.

 Brazil and the Caribbean.

Guiding Typology of Native Societies

 Concentrated Sedentary.

 Segmented Sedentary.

 Semi-Sedentary.

 Nomadic.

Guiding Typology of Native Societies

 What is the use of the typology?

 Make sense of territory.

 Understand the patterns of colonization and Native reaction to
colonizers.

 Late fifteenth century: ~60 million people, half of it under Aztec or
Inca rule.

Mesoamerica
 Concentrated sedentary / Segmented sedentary.

 Monumental architecture.

 Regional trade networks.

 Astronomy: agriculture and religion.

 Social stratification.

 Ritual sacrifices.

 Writing systems.

Ruins of Teotihuacan.

The largest structure is
the Pyramid of the
Moon.

Ruins of Tikal, Guatemala.

Mexica – Aztec
Empire

 1320s – Mexica founded
Tenochtitlan.

 1428 – Initiated expansion.

 Tribute network and
military harassment of
neighbors.

 Tlaxcala resistance.

Andes
 Concentrated sedentary / Segmented sedentary.

 Monumental architecture.

 Regional trade networks.

 Astronomy: agriculture and religion.

 Social stratification.

 Rare ritual sacrifices.

 No writing system; knotted strings (khipu) to keep records.

The Kingdom of Cusco

 1438 – Initiated expansion.

 Pachacuti, the world changer.

 Formed the Tawantinsuyu Empire.

Pachacuti, the 9th Inca.

Inca Empire
(Tawantinsuyu)

 Sophisticated centralized
administrative structure.

 Road network.

 Labor tribute and tax: mit’a.

 Mandatory public service.

Brazil and the Caribbean

 Semi-sedentary societies.

 Difficult to know their pre-colonial histories.

 Noticeable differences among the many groups.

 De-centralized chiefdoms.

Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean

 Social stratification: elites and commoners.

Elites

Commoners.

 Intensive agriculture, still for subsistence.

 Some trade of ‘luxury’ goods among elites of different groups.

 Social stratification apparent in village organization, personal
ornaments, and privileges.

Brazil
 Main language groups.

Tupi; Gê; Carib; Aruak.

 Tribes organized in villages or sets of villages.

 Lack of social stratification.

More communal approach to land and resources.

 Subsistence agriculture, hunting, and gathering. No trade.

 Migration

Brazil

 Socially peaceful
villages.

 Frequent wars.

19th century depiction of a Tupi village during war, based on Jean de
Léry’s 16th century description.

Ferdinand Denis. Attaque d’un village fortifié = Angriff auf ein
befestigtes Dorf. Paris [France]: Firmin Didot frères et Cie, 1846.

Concluding thoughts

 Mesoamerica and the Andes

 Concentrated sedentary and segmented sedentary societies.

 High population density.

 High levels of social stratification.

 Political centralization.

 Northern North America, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Circum-Caribbean Zone.

 Semi-sedentary.

 Lower density.

 Political de-centralization.

 How did these pre-colonial characteristics shape conquest and colonization?
What about world history?

19th century depiction of the foundation of Rio de Janeiro (1565). Antonio Firmino Monteiro. Biblioteca Nacional (Brazil)

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Spring 2022
HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 (Gen. Ed., HS, DG)

University of Massachusetts Amherst
College of Humanity and Fine Arts, Department of History

University Without Walls
Instructor: Jorge Minella

[email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course, students are invited to explore the continuities, connections, trends, and
ruptures in world history from the late fifteenth century to the present. Throughout the
semester, we will investigate the historical processes that formed the modern world,
including cross-cultural interactions, capitalism, global migration, colonization and
decolonization, nationalism and imperialism, trade networks, revolutions, and war. The
course emphasizes the multiple perspectives and experiences that shaped world
history, including the determinant role played by non-European societies in making the
modern world. Course readings include a textbook and a set of primary sources that
provide a window into the diverse human experiences in history. Course assignments
include quizzes, primary sources and film discussion, and a final essay.

General Education (HS, DG)
General education courses aim to broaden the students’ minds and experiences by
equipping them to act thoughtfully and responsibly in society, make informed
judgments, and live lives dedicated to service, continued learning, and the joys of
intellectual pursuits for a lifetime. This specific course offers students an overview of
world history since 1500, broadening their cultural, historical, and philosophical
perspectives. Additionally, course assignments are designed to improve critical and
analytical skills essential to students’ intellectual and professional success. This course
fulfills the Historical Studies (HS) and Global Diversity (DG) requirements, as described
below.

Historical Studies (HS): The course’s readings, lectures, and assignments will expose
students to historically significant events, developments, or processes that formed the
modern world as a way of teaching them to understand the present and inquiry into the
future. The course assignments are centered on the collective discussion of historical
documents, allowing students to understand history as an exercise of rigorous research
and interpretation, rather than a collection of facts, dates, and names, or simply a matter
of opinion.

Global Diversity (DG): This course offers the opportunity to learn about societies,
cultures, and environments beyond the boundaries of the United States. The course
invites students to read about, discuss, and analyze a wide range of social, cultural, and
political perspectives that have shaped the modern world. By discussing global
historical processes, the course explores aspects of the histories of Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and Europe, focusing on the complex interaction among them from the late

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fifteenth century onwards. The primary sources discussed in the assignments include
documents produced by people from different times and parts of the world,
exemplifying diverse experiences and points of view.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Develop an appreciation for historical perspective and global diversity.
• Identify the basic concepts, interpretations, and trends of world history since

1500.
• Discuss the continuities, connections, and ruptures of the historical processes of

modernity.
• Interpret primary sources.

REQUIRED BOOKS

Bonnie G. Smith, Marc Van De Mieroop, Richard von Glahn, Kris Lane. World in the
Making: A Global History, Volume Two: Since 1300. New York: Oxford University Press,
2018.

Additional readings are available on Blackboard Learn, the course’s learning
management system.

ONLINE COURSE EXPECTATIONS (NETIQUETTE)

The course uses Blackboard Learn. Although this course is fully asynchronous, it should
not be a lonely venture. Students benefit more from forming a learning community. A
learning community is a group of people who are willing to help each other. Students
will be required to communicate with each other and the instructor in discussion forums,
e-mail, and other means during the course. Keep in mind that respectful and meaningful
communication is essential to forming a thriving learning community capable of
attaining the course’s goals.

I will communicate with the class through Blackboard’s announcements and a discussion
forum that will remain open throughout the course to exchange ideas, impressions, and
questions about the activities and materials we discuss.

Please, feel free to reach out to me privately at any point during the course. You can use
Blackboard’s Mail Tool or directly write to my e-mail. Please, expect 24 hours for an
answer. Online office hours are available by appointment. I strongly encourage you to
reach me to schedule an online meeting to talk about the readings, assignments, or any
problem that may appear during the course.

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DISABILITY STATEMENT

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to making reasonable, effective
and appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of students with disabilities and
help create a barrier-free campus. If you have a documented disability on file with
Disability Services (www.umass.edu/disability), you may be eligible for reasonable
accommodations in this course. If your disability requires an accommodation, please
notify your instructors as early as possible in the course so that we may make
arrangements in a timely manner.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Please let me know if you have any questions about navigating the course’s learning
management system. Alternatively, if you need assistance with technical support to
participate in this course, please review our Student Orientation & Resource Area or
Contact 24/7 Support. You will have the option of e-mail, live chat, or phone.

ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY STATEMENT

Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education
requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all
students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic
dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and
facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has
committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to
address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has
committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the
appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not
related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate
department Head or Chair. The procedures outlined below are intended to provide an
efficient and orderly process by which action may be taken if it appears that academic
dishonesty has occurred and by which students may appeal such actions.

Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted
standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient
evidence of lack of intent.

For more information about visit http://umass.edu/honesty

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GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS

Students are required to complete the following graded assignments.
All assignments are due on Sundays, at 11:59pm (EST/EDT); see course schedule
below. Please, see Blackboard for further instruction about the assignments.

Personal Journal (four entries, 5% each)
You will keep notes about the course content in your Blackboard journal. To give
flexibility regarding your interests, you can choose the course weeks you will add notes
to the journal. You will be required to complete four journal entries (2 before or by week
6, and 2 after that). Only you and the instructor will have access to the journal.

Try to answer the following questions in each of your journal entries:

• What interested you the most in the week’s course content? Why?
• What about the concepts discussed this week? Did they help you understand the

historical process better, or not? How come? Comment on at least one concept
and related event/process discussed in the textbook or lectures.

• What event, concept, or historical process remained unclear to you? Why?
• How do you evaluate your learning process about world history so far?

Film Discussion (10%)
We will have an informal conversation about the film The Battle of Algiers (1966), which
discusses a process of mid-twentieth century decolonization. The activity uses
VoiceThread, a tool on Blackboard that allows for asynchronous discussion through text,
slides, audio, and video uploads. Students are welcome to participate using the format
they wish. The film’s link is available on Blackboard.

Lecture/Reading Quizzes (15%)
Most of the course weeks include a 5 to 8 questions quiz referring to the week’s lectures
and readings. You will have two attempts on each quiz, and instructions will be provided
in lectures and on Blackboard about the types of questions included in the quizzes. The
average grade of the quizzes comprises 15% of the final grade. Quizzes will be open
between Fridays and Sundays.

Primary Source Activities
The course contains four collections of short excerpts of historical documents that
illustrate specific events and processes discussed in the course. The documents are
available on Perusall, an e-reader accessible from the course’s Blackboard page that
allows for collective annotation of reading material.

The historical documents collections are:

Set 1 – Spanish America
Set 2 – Asia and Global Trade
Set 3 – The Atlantic Revolutions
Set 4 – Decolonization in Africa and Asia

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The activities with the documents are the following:

1) Collective Reading and Annotation (four rounds, 5% each)

Groups of 4 students will work together (asynchronously) on reading and
commenting on the primary sources. Students will use Perusall’s annotation tools to
add highlights, comments, questions, and any thought that arises from the primary
sources’ readings. Together, try to identify and comment on the purpose, the
argument, the presuppositions, epistemology, and the relationships implied in the
documents. If needed, revisit the lecture on primary sources and the Primary Sources
Reading Guide available on Blackboard to help annotate. The collective annotation
of the documents will help students build a base upon which to write the individual
Primary Source Essays.

2) Primary Sources Essay

a) Essay Outline (pass/fail)
b) Essay (20%)

The final essay should discuss one of the primary sources set discussed during the
course. Please, feel free to choose the set that interests you the most among the
available options.

In the primary source essay, students are expected to demonstrate their ability to
critically read a collection of primary sources and relate it to the broader themes,
concepts, and historical processes discussed throughout the course.

Essays should be 4 to 6 pages long (double-spaced). The assignment is divided into
two parts: the essay outline and the essay itself. I will provide extensive feedback on
the essay outline to help you succeed in the final essay.

The essays should coherently discuss:

a) Why is the collection important? What historical process(es) do they reflect?
b) What is the broader historical context of the document’s production? In other

words, what was happening in the world at the time that may have influenced
the how and why of the documents’ production?

c) Briefly comment on each document’s purpose, argument, presuppositions, and
truth content. (See primary source lecture and the Primary Sources Reading
Guide)

d) How do the documents of the collection compare? How does the comparison
help us understand the historical process(es) in question?

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COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1 (01/25 – 01/30) – Course Introduction

Key concepts and ideas: global/world history, agency.

Lectures

• World history? Since 1500?
• The Americas before the colonial encounter.

Readings

• Chapter 15 – Empires and Alternatives in the Americas

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 2 (01/31 – 02/06) – New Worlds

Key concepts and ideas: colonialism, Columbian exchange.

Lectures

• Iberian society and expansion.
• Conquest and early colonization of the Americas.
• Comment on primary sources and related assignment.

Readings

• Chapter 16 – The Rise of An Atlantic World.
• Primary source: “How to read a primary source.” (available on

BlackboardPerusall).

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 3 (02/07 – 02/13) – Western Africa and the Atlantic World

Key concepts and ideas: Atlantic world, slavery and slave trade.

Lectures

• Western African societies.
• Slave trade.

Readings

• Chapter 17 – Western Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1450-1800.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 1) annotation Spanish America due.

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Week 4 (02/14 – 02/20) – Asia and Global Trade Networks

Key concepts and ideas: global trade networks, orientalism.

Lectures

• Trade and intrusion in the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
• Political and cultural consolidation in early modern Asia.

Readings

• Chapter 18 – Trade and Empire in the Indian Ocean and South Asia 1450-1750.
• Chapter 20 – Expansion and Isolation in Asia 1450-1750.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 2) annotation Asia and Global Trade due.

Week 5 (02/21 – 02/27) – Crisis, Reform, and the Colonial Order

Key concepts and ideas: colonial government, emergence of capitalism, environmental
change.

Lectures

• Early modern Europe: crisis and reform.
• The colonial order in the Americas.

Readings

• Chapter 19 – Consolidation and Conflict in Europe and the Greater
Mediterranean 1450-1750.

• Chapter 21 – Transforming New Worlds: The American Colonies Mature 1600-
1750.

Assignments
• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 6 (02/28 – 03/06) – The World so Far ~1500-1750

Lectures

• Review lecture.

Assignments

• Two personal journal entries must have been completed by then.
• Participation in Discussion Board or VoiceThread: mid-semester questions or

comments (bonus points).

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Week 7 (03/07 – 03/13) – The Atlantic Revolutions

Key concepts and ideas: enlightenment, revolution.

Lectures

• The enlightenment.
• French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and Latin America.

Readings

• Chapter 22 – Atlantic Revolutions and the World 1750-1830.

Assignments
• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources (set 3) annotations The Atlantic Revolutions due.

Week 8 (03/14 – 03/20) – The Industrial Revolution

Key concepts and ideas: industrial revolution, social class, gender relations.

Lectures

• Early industrial revolution.
• The industrial revolution and the world.

Readings

• Chapter 23 – Industry and Everyday Life 1750-1900.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 9 (03/21 – 03/27) – Nationalism and Imperialism

Key concepts and ideas: nation-state, nationalism, imperialism.

Lectures

• Nation-Building in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
• Imperial expansion in Asia and Africa.

Readings

• Chapter 24 – Nation-States and their Empires 1830-1900.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 10 (03/28 – 04/03) – Imperial Conflicts, Resistance, and Revolutions

Key concepts and ideas: mass society, state-building.

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Lectures
• Imperialism and modern-state building explode: the Mexican Revolution.
• World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Paris Peace Conference.

Readings

• Chapter 25 – Wars, Revolutions, and the Birth of Mass Society 1900-1929.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 11 (04/04 – 04/10) – The World in Conflict

Key concepts and ideas: economic crisis, mass mobilization, global conflict.

Lectures

• The great depression.
• Global conflict: World War II, perspectives from the center and the periphery.

Readings

• Chapter 26 – Global Catastrophe: The Great Depression and World War II 1929-
1945.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 12 (04/11 – 04/17) – Decolonization and the Global Cold War

Key concepts and ideas: global cold war, global south, socialism, capitalism,
development, decolonization.

Lectures

• The Global Cold War: proxy wars, coups d’état, and revolutions.
• Decolonization and Developmentalism in the “Third World.”

Readings

• Chapter 27 – The Emergence of New Nations in a Cold War World 1945-1970.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Film discussion.
• Primary sources (set 4) annotations Decolonization in Africa and Asia due.

Week 13 (04/18 – 04/24) – The Neoliberal Order and its Challenges

Key concepts and ideas: neoliberalism, globalization.

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Lectures
• The collapse of communism and the neoliberal order.
• Course review and conclusion.

Readings

• Chapter 28 – A New Global Age 1989 to the Present.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.
• Primary sources essay outline due.

Week 14 (04/25 – 05/05) – Final Week

Assignments

• Primary source essay due.
• Four personal journal entries must have been completed by then.

Final available by 05/19