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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Maize-teosinte.jpg

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/Tenochtitlan-2.jpg

https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/mayanruin.jpg?w=1200&h=675&crop=1

http://a2.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTE5NDg0MDU0OTMzMDQ2Nzk5.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/20041229-Olmec_Head_(Museo_Nacional_de_Antropolog%C3%ADa).jpg

http://mexdesc.impresionesaerea.netdna-cdn.com/sites/default/files/styles/adaptive/public/nodes/2889/tula_ago11.jpg?itok=ewqbGBDB

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/field/image/Teotihuacan-mexico.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Region_Mesoamerica.png

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In between the collapse of the Maya and the founding of Tenochtitlan in 1350 lies the Post Classic Period in Mesoamerica. Though the name Post Classic implies a decline, and it is true there were no massive empires during this time, though there were still powerful cities and cultures in various places, just none that have captured the imagination and attention the way that the Maya or Aztecs have. These included the Toltecs, their capital Tula and the mysterious city Chichen Itza. Tula was considered paradise by the Aztecs and played as great a role if not greater in their legends than Teotihuacan. �The Toltecs were a mythical people, masters of all crafts and peaceful and wise. According to Aztec legends the great city fell when its people were tricking and instead of worshipping the benevolent Quetzalcoatl, god of the Toltecs, they began to worship the evil god Tezcatlipoca. (Scarre) Our knowledge of Chichen Itza is less thorough. We do know it was considered the greatest Post Classic city by many of the peoples and was most likely a rival to the Toltecs and Tula.

Statues at Tula.

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Very little is known about the people and society that inhabited Teotihuacan because they left no written record, but we do know the city rose in prominence around 300 B.C. in part due to volcanic eruptions in the surrounding areas that forced people to migrate to Teotihuacan. In its heyday it held as many as 125,000 people, and was one of the largest cities in the entire world. Its influence also extended far beyond its great size and time. For the Aztecs it was a revered place where the world was created, nearly 1000 years after its demise. For the first few centuries of the 1st millennia, Teotihuacan served as the epitome of Mesoamerican culture and a mythical place. (Cowgill). To be from Teotihuacan was to be special and to have possessions from Teotihuacan was to be powerful.

Teotihuacan as it exists today.

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Because of the Eurocentric view of civilization, the great cultures and cities of the western hemisphere have often been considered as somehow lesser than their European counterparts. Many students are still taught that Columbus discovered the new world in 1492, but at the time of his landing and just a few hundred miles south was a massive city of over 100,000 people with thriving architecture, language, and society. When Cortes landed in 1519 he came to a culture that was in many ways like his own, a literate, hierarchical and ordered place, nothing like the "savages" he expected. And at the same time it lacked some of the basics of European society that had been in place for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years such as domesticated animals, coins, and metal tools. And if we were telling this story in the other direction, the discovery of Europe by Mesoamerican explorers, I am sure we would wonder how the Europeans could have gotten along without some Mesoamerican necessities. The similarities and the differences between the old world and the new will forever be a curiosity and a subject of debate by researchers. How do we explain the independent convergences in societal evolution that occurred across the ocean from one another?

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Mesoamerica is a ethnically, geographically, and culturally diverse region stretching from what we now call Central Mexico south to El Salvador. This report is focused on the time period between the first signs of agriculture (roughly 5000 B.C.) to the arrival of Cortes in 1519. While one civilization never controlled all of this area, during various periods powerful societies periodically rose and fell, exerting large amounts of influence on various regions. Almost all Mesoamerican people and societies did share some characteristics though. "Local societies broadly shared writing, shamanism, the use of 260- and 365-day calendars, a reverence for jade and other green stones, human sacrifice, traditions of multiple world creations..." (Scarre) Scarre also says that while these similarities could be interpreted as believing all Mesoamerican societies derived from a single source, the more likely reality is the traits were shared through cultural diffusion and trade, which was extensive.

Map of Mesoamerica

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There is evidence that in Mesoamerica as opposed to many other parts of the world, there was a significant time gap between the development of agriculture and the creation of permanent stable communities. This is in part because it took many many generations or human interference for maize to transform from its wild counterpart, teosinte, to its domesticated form. In addition, the first plant domesticated in Mesoamerica was a type of squash and it required little cultivation, enabling humans to mass plant the seeds, continue their nomadic lifestyle and come back to the plant later in the season, negating the need for consistent plant tending and stable home life. Maize would eventually become one of the most important staple crops of Mesoamerica and would dominate the physical as well as the spiritual lives of the people.

The transition from wild teosinte to modern maize.

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Hernan Cortes will forever be one of the most polarizing figures in history. Was he a savvy leader and creator of modern day Mexico or a ruthless blood lord that destroyed an entire civilization? At the very least he was very intelligent and cunning. With an initial force of 500 men he conquered a civilization of over 125,000. He did this through a combination of coercion, manipulation and shrewdness, and luck. He landed on the day that Aztec prophets had predicted the return of Quetzalcoatl and Cortes played on this belief. He used rivalries already present in Mesoamerica, to gather support and warriors to use against the Aztecs. "The conquest was a war of Indians against Indians." (Economist).  And he destroyed his own ships upon landing, forcing his soldiers to win or die. Even in modern day Mexico Cortes remains a polarizing figure, and his legacy will forever be in conflict. (Economist)

Hernan Cortes

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The people that we call Mayan flourished between the years 350 A.D. and 900 A.D. on the Yucutan Penninsula. There was never actually a single banner, city, or king the "Maya" united under, instead they were at least 45 different kingdoms that shared similar though not identical writing, language, and architecture. Certainly a powerful force during their time, the Mayans have received an inordinate amount of attention from archaeologists and the public, in part because of the wealth of knowledge we have, thanks to thorough written records left by the various kingdoms. Some of these kingdoms, such as the one at Tikal, have been discovered and excavated, but there are many more waiting to be discovered in the jungles of Central America, and every time a new one is discovered the mystique of the Maya increases.

An ancient Mayan city hidden in the jungle.

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The Olmec civilization was the first great one of Mesoamerica that we are familiar with. They existed from 1200-400 B.C. along the Gulf Coast. Most famous for their signature gigantic carved s�tone heads, there is serious debate amongst archaeologists over their influence on subsequent generations of Mesoamerica. Scarre tells us that some elements of the Olmec culture are confined strictly to their homeland on the Gulf Coast, while other elements, such as their unique artistic style, symbols and dress have been found far from the coast. This juxtaposition has yet to be reconciled with a unified theory and debate over whether or not the Olmecs were the "mother culture" of the great Mesoamerican societies still rages.

A classic example of an Olmec head statue.

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The Archaic and Preclassic Periods occupy the time from roughly 7000 B.C. to the widespread use of writing around 250 A.D. But while I have lumped these groups together, and many archaeologists have done the same. There was a tremendous evolution and learning process that was happening in Mesoamerica, its just that there was no formal writing structure and so it is considered prehistoric. (Scarre) In this time, due primarily to the slow yet steady introduction of agriculture, the people transitioned from hunter-gatherers into small communities that were the precursors of the great civilizations we know about, such as the Mayans and the Aztecs.

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The arrival of Hernan Cortes in 1519 signalled the beginning of the downfall of the Aztecs and Mesomamerica as it had existed for the past 6000 years. But prior to his arrival the Aztec empire was large and still growing. It contained somewhere between 6 and 10 million people over an area of roughly 75,000 square miles. (Scarre) The capital city Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 and held about 125,000 people when the Spanish arrived. Perched on an artificial island in the middle of a lake, it was a great city by any standards and the largest in the New World at the time. And though smaller than some Old World cities it was nonetheless still impressive to the Spaniards with its giant temples and massive palaces and residences. It was unfortunately sacked by Cortes and his army and later demolished by other Spaniards meaning most of our understanding of its majesty is anecdotal.

An aerial view of Tenochtitlan as it would have existed in its heyday.

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Scarre, Chris, ed. The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societes. Thames & Hudson, 2005, 314-316, 594-639

"On the Trail of Hernan Cortes; the Conquest of Mexico." 2014.The Economist, Dec 20, 53. http://search.proquest.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/docview/1640722839?accountid=14784.

Cowgill, George L. 1997. "State and society at Teotihuacan, Mexico." Annual Review Of Anthropology 26, no. 1: 129. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed August 25, 2016).

"Aztec Civilization." New World Encyclopedia. April 15, 2015.