Life in the New World Prior to European Contact

Before the Spanish arrived to Latin America, the New World, life had been extremely different. Horses were not roaming around and empires were killing citizens to make sure that the sun would rise. The Spanish had no idea about the New World or groups of people who lived there. The people who inhabited the New World were the Mayans, Incas, Olmecs, and Aztecs. These groups occupied the land until their empires fell or the Spanish took over, around 1500s. Life in Latin America prior to the European contact portrayed a duality because the indigenous Americans were knowledgeable and artistic hitherto violent and lacked knowledge in technology.

In Latin America, the groups of civilization built temples for their rulers and for human sacrifice. The significance of the temples included more than just religious rituals. One group, the Mayans in particular, built temples, which coordinated with the movement of the sun and stars. The Mayans had the understanding of the movement of the sun and stars along with the constellations. The Mayans built their temples very intricately and the temples involved an abundance of knowledge. According to the movie, Engineering an Empire, El Castillo, stated that the Temple of Kulkulkan had four sides. Each side represented each of the four eclipses. The Temple of Kulkulkan had 365 steps; one for each day of the year and the time it takes the Earth to complete a full circle around the sun. El Castillo additionally had 52 panels for the 52 week cycle. The knowledge the Mayans had about stars and the movements of stars was incredible. The Mayans had sharp astronomy skills as well as knowledge about math. In fact, the Mayans had been the first civilization to have a math system. They represented the zero an...

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...t actually move from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. Another empire that was behind in technology was the Aztec. The Aztec used wheels for their children’s toys, but not as a means of transportation. They incorporated the wheel just not in the smartest way. These empires had the potential of being overpowering with technology; they just did not utilize it in the smartest ways.

Before the Spanish had arrived in Latin America, many different rituals and religion practices were occurring. Some empires defeated themselves while the Spanish defeated others. Life in Latin America prior to the European contact portrayed a duality because the indigenous Americans were knowledgeable and artistic hitherto violent and lacked knowledge in technology.

Works Cited

"The Maya Mathematical System." The Maya Calendar. N.p.. Web. 13 Nov 2013. .