Civilizations Global

Dilpreet Singh                                                                        4/14/15

Global-pd 2                                                                        Mrs. Boyce

        The civilizations of the Americans in Central and South America during the 300-1500 century had a golden age. A golden age is when a civilization has peace and prosperity. The three civilizations that had a golden age were the Mayans, Aztecs and the Incas. They had new ideas and new ways of trading which helped them succeed and flourish.

        The Mayans had a golden age because of their beautiful architecture. The Mayans built temples in Tikal as shown in Document 1. They built them very tall because they believed that the higher they are in the sky the closer they are to god. Another achievement they had was a calendar, they used their advanced writing system (symbols) as writing on the calendar as demonstrated in Document 2. This was a very good social achievement for the Mayans. Mayans were an organized social class divided in ahau (king), nobles, priests, merchants, artisans, peasants and slaves.

        The 2nd civilization were the Aztecs who had their golden age off “buying and selling” as written in Document 3. In the document it stated that, “The city has many squares where markets are held and trading is carried on,” in which Hernan Cortes described the magnificent Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. He said that there was 60,000 souls daily buying and selling. They sold products like, “jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, zinc, bones, shells, and feathers.” The Aztecs had a powerful army, they were polytheistic meaning they believed in many gods. The Aztecs had their own language called Nahuatl. The language was a major part of central Mexico and in Mesoamerica.