Pre-Counquest Americas Dbq

Pre-conquest Americas Pre-conquest Americas was a intricate period before the Europeans arrived and colonized it. Before the conquest of the Americas it's safe to say everything during this period was based on religion; a strong respect and obedience to their gods, an imperative social structure, and a hefty tributary system. It relied and thrived on these main systems. Without their gods they had no meaning, without their social structure they were humans divided amongst themselves, without their tributary system they had anarchy and loss of power. The question is, how did all these aspects tie into each other? Prior to 1492, the Americas didn't have to live to up to any certain religions, they were polytheistic, they believed in many gods. One of these gods was Popol Vuh. He was the ultimate diety. Passage 1 explains why corn was so important to the Mesoamericans, Mayans in particular. Popo helped create the first humans from corn. The inhabitants were very loyal and obedient to the gods. Huitzilopochtli was a god of war, he was ultimately praised for sacrifice. He helped Mexicans find their native capital in Central Mexico. For this he was vastly honored. Mexicans have built huge temples to honor this god of war and sacrifice. From my knowledge I remember that these pyramids/temples consisted of huge sacrifices occurring over a short span of days. This just emphasizes the importance that gods had on pre-conquest Mesoamericans. Life revolved around the gods. We can also see the important role of sacrifice in religion in the 4th and final passage. "..communicated that human sacrifice sustained the gods and maintained cosmic order." Even with everything happening around the, pleasing the gods was always a main priority that still happens to this day. Mesoamericans had a strong social structure. It's safe to say that they were a patriarchal society. Man was always in charge and women were inferior. Pride was very important in this aspect. This is shown in 2nd passage. Once Coatl (Huitzilopochtli mother) got pregnant from a feather her sons found out and became infuriated with rage. They attempted to kill her but ultimately failed when Huitzilopochtli was born and slayed them off. This gives us a great example on how prideful and vengeful the Americas were before the conquest; not that they ever stopped. Social ranks must of been established in order to separate the commoners from the nobles. It also shows the low ranks of women among the men. Coatl become pregnant when she was sweeping as an act of penance, what must she have done wrong for her doing this act? So many questions arise but not enough answers. It's just known that Mesoamerica's social structure was strong but not in the aspect of women. It favored the males rather than the females. Within all these two aspects of religion and social structure, a tributary is tied in. With the mass population of Mesoamerica there was plentiful farmers bound to their lands. Having rich soil they were able to yield high agriculture. Tribute was paid in the form of the agriculture they produced. Power was based on economic and religious sanctions, such as the right of tribute collection. Without tribute a king or chief ruler couldn't be able to hold power. The tributary system basically vested power on rulers by allowing them to collect the farmers produce. We can see in passage 3, the farmers were essentially slaves. They got a bum deal out of it. They gave their produce and got nothing in return except the right to give their produce again. Passage 3 also shows us that tiquitlato, which were seekers of tribute, helped administer the crop yields by the farmers. However if a farmer wasn't able to produce his share of the yield he would be sold in a market as a slave as punishment. It was a forced labor system. You either abided by it or were sold off. Passage 4 also gives us another perspective of the situation. It shows us that even with tribute systems the local Mesoamerican Indians had a large cooperative work base. Honest, loyal workers were rewarded live animals, meat, etc. So there were some perks on being in a slave system. All in all, pre-conquest Americas was full of many things happening at the same time. It could have been really crazy at times, from sacrificing people for an unknown wise deity, to having a wrathful social structure, to having a really strict tributary system. There was no winning in this situation. But at the same time they depended on these three things, they intertwined with each other. Mesoamericans were capable of art, architecture, mathematical, astronomical systems and much more. They were highly advanced for their time. Like any other society, they need a guiding force that shows them right from wrong, even if that wrong is somehow right. Analyzing the state of the Americas before the European conquest… They were doing really good before they came. It's just a matter of the Europeans being there at the right time and the right place.