topic 2.3 the Americas in 1500 in this video we will discuss the nature of the American continents on the eve of the age of exploration including the most significant religious political and cultural transformations although for the Spaniards who first encountered the Americas it was a new world for the millions of people's already living there it was their ancestral homeland indeed they and their predecessors had been living in the Americas for well over 10,000 years by the time the Europeans stumbled along in 1492 this population numbering in the millions was diverse and dis unified among them they spoke many hundreds of languages and dialects and fashioned thousands of distinctive cultures speaking of this population collectively is nearly impossible some of them built permanent communities while others traveled constantly following seasonal migration patterns some developed complex systems of alliances that allowed them to maintain peace with their neighbors while others were constantly engaged in war expansive trade networks linked faraway economies even as some communities live self-sufficiently without engaging in much trade at all cultural expression through art and music varied widely as well and spiritual values and religious practices spanned a whole range too there are however a few things that we can say archaeologists and anthropologists for instance offer us migration histories which explain how the first Americans came out of Africa to live on an entirely new continent 20,000 years ago scholars estimate the last global ice age trapped much of the world's water in enormous continental glaciers these ice sheets some a mile thick captured much of the world's water meaning that global sea levels were much lower and a land bridge connected Asia and North America across the Bering Strait thus between about 12 and 20 thousand years ago native ancestors across the ice waters and exposed lands between the continents of Asia and America the massive glaciers then receded around 14,000 years ago creating a new corridor to warmer climates and new resources leaving some ancestral communities to migrate southward and eastward in the Northwest native groups settled close to massive rivers filled with salmon out on the plains in Prairie lands of North America hunting communities followed bison herds and moved according to seasonal migration patterns when agriculture arose sometime between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago almost simultaneously across the globe communities in modern-day Mexico and Central America relied on domesticated maize or corn to develop the western hemispheres first settled population around 1200 BC corne allowed for the populations of these communities to expand rapidly rich in calories it was also easily dried and stored moreover along Central America's warm Gulf Coast it could sometimes be harvested twice a year corn as well as other Central American crops students spread across North America and achieved an important spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities that persists to this day in north america the indigenous populations shared a few broad traits which differed widely from the europeans whom they would soon encounter though perhaps a little less with the african cultures we discussed although religious beliefs and practices varied widely for instance most North Americans regarded spiritual power as an ordinary part of the natural world spirits in their power were readily accessible and experienced as a routine part of everyday life furthermore most of these communities were built on kinship ties and thus remained relatively small many though not all Native communities assess kinship through maternal ties and what scholars refer to as a matrilineal system so what this means is that family identity was identified through the female line mothers and daughters rather than the fathers and sons which was the norm in Western cultures and in Europe husbands were often expected to become a part of their wives families now the upshot of this is that in many of these communities mothers wielded a great deal of influence at all levels with male identity and power often relying on their ability to claim a relationship to the most influential women in a community as might be expected women were granted a great deal of sexual and marital freedom including the power to choose partners and divorce them in Central and South America many indigenous peoples followed similar patterns of life to their northern counterparts but there also arose several massive empires the scale and power of which dwarfed anything that could be found in the North in Central America for instance the Maya built a complex and enduring civilization which sustain large populations built massive religious temples and produced a written language complex mathematics in a very accurate calendar but Maya civilization although it had not disappeared nevertheless mostly collapsed before European arrival likely because of droughts and other unsustainable agricultural practices the decline of the Maya however only made way for the leader rise of the most powerful native civilization ever seen in the Western Hemisphere the Aztecs conquering their way south from northern Mexico the Aztecs assumed control of the valley of Mexico and then built the largest empire in all of the Americas when the Spanish stumbled into Mexico they found an extensive civilization centered around the massive city of Tenochtitlan located today within modern Mexico City founded in 1325 Tenochtitlan rivaled the world's largest cities in size and grandeur much of the city was built on large artificial islands which the Aztecs had constructed by dredging mud and rich sentiment from the bottom of the lake and then depositing over time to form new landscapes a massive pyramid temple was located at the city center it's ruins actually can still be found in the center of Mexico City the city itself was comprised of over 70,000 buildings housing around a quarter of a million people all built on a lake and connected by cosway's and canals from this island city the Aztecs dominated much of central and southern Mesoamerica extracting taxes from a decentralized network of subject people's the tribute that adds text subjects paid included everything from basic food supplies like corn and beans to luxury goods like jade cacao and gold they were also expected to supply troops to fight in the Empire's armies but the exploitation of vast numbers of people created an unrest which simmered just beneath the surface and European conquerors would happily exploit this in order to seize the Aztecs vast wealth farther south along the Andes Mountains the Quechua or Inca managed a vast mountain empire similar to the Aztec from their capital of Cusco and the Andean Highlands the Incas built an empire that stretched around the western half of the South American continent from present-day Ecuador to central Chile and Argentina they cut terraces into the size of mountains to form fertile soil and by the 1400s they managed a thousand miles of andean roads that tied together around 12 million people but like the Aztec unrest between the Inca and the groups they conquered created temptin and left the empire vulnerable to invaders although Native American populations were diverse and widespread throughout the Americas they were not prepared for the arrival of Spanish explorers and the wave of European colonizers who soon followed in their wake cut off from the immunological history of the eastern hemisphere Native Americans had flourished in part because they lived free from the terrible diseases that frequently ravaged populations in Asia Europe and Africa when Europeans and Africans began arriving on their Shores Native Americans lacked the immunities to defend against smallpox typhus influenza diphtheria and measles and hepatitis that these settlers brought with them plagues decimated Native communities many Native Americans would die in war and slavery but millions more would die in epidemics all told in fact some scholars estimate that as much as 90% of the population of the Americas would perish within the first century and a half of European contact despite the widespread destruction that will be caused by warfare and disease Native Americans found ways to persist by resisting accommodating and adapting to the challenges of colonialism their culture and values would continue to shape the patterns of life throughout the Americas for hundreds of years