A Tale of American History

Episode 8: The Mayas, Aztecs and Incas Were Here First (I)

In our last episode, we talked about how Columbus, a great figure in history, quietly passed away, like a fallen autumn leaf.

一

In my opinion, Columbus was both lucky and unlucky. Unlucky in the sense that he didn’t accomplish most of what he pursued throughout his life: no wealth, no route to Asia, no title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and in the end, not even the naming rights to the American continent.

But at the same time, he was also a lucky man. After all, it’s impossible to bypass him when talking about the history of America and the United States. There is even a common holiday in the Americas, ‘Columbus Day’, to commemorate him.
There’s also a country—‘Columbia’—in America, which literally means ‘the country of Columbus.’

You should know, it’s incredibly rare, extremely rare, to name a country after a civilian.

There are over 70 cities and towns in the U.S. named after him. He was also the namesake for numerous buildings, bridges, roads, and products. To me, these are great honors for a person, much greater than the title of ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’.

Secondly, there is no doubt that Columbus was a great and strong-willed navigator. He may not have been a person who changed the course of history, but he definitely was an important figure who pushed forward the development of history. After all, Europeans began exploration of the Americas following his footsteps.  

Finally, there is an ongoing debate to this day as to whether Columbus was the first man to discover America. There are many theories: some believed Leif Erikson, a Viking from northern Europe, arrived in America as early as 1000AD,  while some believed Zheng He from China arrived in America 70 years before Columbus.

To me, this is an issue of discourse power. Based on historical records we have today and current studies, all historians know that it wasn’t Columbus, nor Zheng He, nor Leif but the indigenous people—referred to as “Indians” by Columbus—who arrived in America first. These people included several groups, such as the Maya, Incas and Aztecs. Unfortunately, most of these groups were wiped out, and only a small number remain today, living in reserves on the American continent. To them, competing for the title of  “first to discover America“  is meaningless. 

二

If you have been to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, you may have noticed an astonishing fact in the Aboriginal exhibit hall: they bear a striking resemblance to Chinese people. It is not surprising that you would draw this conclusion, as most modern historians agree that the indigenous peoples—the Indians—arrived in the Americas from Northeast Asia, crossing the Bering strait between about 15,000 and 70,000 years ago. 

So, why do they and the Chinese look alike?

Because both are of Mongoloid race.   

Why were they able to cross the Bering strait? Was it because they had advanced shipbuilding technology? The answer is no. It is because it was the time of the last Ice Age and the sea level had dropped by about 130 to 160 meters. The water depth was only a few tens of meters and a land bridge appeared across the Bering Strait connecting Northeast Asia to what is now Alaska in America.  

Hunters from Northeast Asia may have followed trails of some animals and crossed the Bering strait. They came to America and became the ancestors of the ancient America civilizations.

These Asian didn’t come to America together. Different tribes migrated to America over different distances and different times. The furthest they went was South America where they established the Inca civilization.
Some traveled shorter distance and went to Central America where they established the Maya civilization and its successor, the Aztec civilization. These three are referred to as the three early civilizations of America.

Of course, some travelled even shorter distances and at a later time. They were the Eskimos and the Inuit, who lived in what is now modern-day Canada, but they are not the focus of our program.

三

Out of the three ancient civilizations, the Maya civilization was probably the one Chinese people are most familiar with. There was once a very popular prophecy that the world would end in 2012 and the Maya were the “root cause” of this disastrous prophecy—or joke—because they were so advanced in astronomy.  

How advanced?

In Chinese stories, some super-smart and resourceful people in ancient China, such as Liu Bowen or Zhuge Liang, were often described as “knowing everything 500 years before they were born and 500 years after they are dead”.

Well, the Maya were even smarter than that. They knew everything that happened a thousand years after. They developed a calendar that extended all the way to December 22, 2012, and it was remarkably accurate.

Some people had nothing better to do and started to ponder why the calendar was only drawn up to this day. It had to be a very special day. After much pondering, they came up with an explanation: this calendar was a doomsday prophecy. With many psychics fueling the frenzy, a lot of people chose to believe it, some even committed suicide because of it. But of course, it’s well past 2012 now, and this prophecy can be totally discarded.

The Maya lived in Central America for a very long time. Then in 800AD—about 700 years before Columbus landed in America—they suddenly and completely disappeared overnight, leaving behind many unfinished palaces, cities, and buildings. To this day, we still don’t know why and how they disappeared. 

This was truly mythical. Even a group of 10,000 people moving away suddenly would leave some traces behind—let alone a few million, but the Maya left with such determination that no clue was left for future generations. A good research topic if you are interested.

四

About 200-300 years after the disappearance of the Maya, a shabby-clothed tribe came from the north and settled in central America where the Maya used to live, in what’s now modern-day Mexico. They inherited parts of the Maya Civilization, and this was the first American civilization that Columbus and the Spanish came in contact with —and ultimately destroyed—when they arrived in America, the Aztec civilization.

The Aztec Civilization

The destruction of the Aztecs was rather mythical and dramatic. In 1519, 27 years after Columbus landed in America, a Spanish troop of fewer than 1,000 soldiers arrived in Central America. The leader was Hernán Cortés. In less than 5 years, his troop conquered the Aztec empire, occupied the capital city, and then tore it down completely.  A new city was later built on top of the ruins, which became the modern-day Mexico City.  

The Spanish troop had fewer than 1,000 soldiers.  What was the population of the Aztec Empire? An embarrassing 12 million! The Capital city alone had a population of 200,000 and was one of the largest cities in the world at the time. “Clean, tidy, and orderly”, these were the words used to describe the capital city from a journal written by a Spanish soldier.

But the result?  The 1,000 Spaniards came in and crushed the 12 million Aztecs.

Total victory for the former. Why?

五

Before we get to that, let me first introduce the last civilization of the Native Americans and how it was destroyed.

The last indigenous civilization, the Inca civilization, was in South America. In 1533, Francisco Pizarro, also a Spaniard, led a troop of 169 Spanish soldiers—or, we might say, pirates, and captured Atahualpa, the king of the Inca empire which had a population of 10 million.  

Several tens of thousands of Incas watched as their noble king was taken by the Spaniards. Pizarro then negotiated with the Incas: he would release their king if the Incas filled a room—6.6m in length, 5.5m in width and 2.7m in height—with gold.

Imagine, if a 36-square-meter of bedroom in your house were filled with sun-shining gold, from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, how would that make you feel?  

The Incas agreed to this term. But regrettably, the Spaniards broke their promise, as they had done many times before, and hanged the King of the Inca.

Hadn’t the Westerners been known for honoring agreements, you may wonder. Well, you should know that agreements work best when both sides are evenly matched. If one person has an automatic rifle in hand while the other has no weapon but is covered in gold jewelry, it would be naïve to think any agreement they made would hold.

The Spaniards were certainly quite merciful. Before hanging Atahualpa, holding a Bible in his hand, the Spaniards asked the King “Are you willing to convert to Christianity?” The Inca king, thinking that conversion would make him one of them and ensure his release, quickly nodded yes.

The Spanish Friar nodded coldly and said, ‘Now that you are converted, you are spared from burning‘, then strangled him to death. The Incas collapsed completely. It was said some of the Incas, unwilling to give in, fled into the deep mountain, while the majority were taken as slaves by the Spaniards.  

Now you know, before the Europeans came to America, there were three civilization and two empires on the continent. After the Spaniards arrived, in less than 20 years, all of that had disappeared, leaving only numerous slaves and countless mining pits they had dug up.

Why couldn’t such a huge number of indigenous people resist a few Europeans? 

The answer to be revealed in our next episode.