Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [207]
c. 800 Mayans begin to move from Central America into southern Mexico.
c. 400 Beginnings of Moche civilization in northern Peru.
c. 200 Nazca culture emerges in Peru; famed for “Nazca lines”—geometric and figurative designs etched into the surface of the Peruvian desert and attributed to aliens in pseudoscientific circles. Most likely, the lines were offerings made to the gods of sky and mountains.
c. 150 Great Serpent Mound in Ohio: 1,312 foot (405 meters) snakelike earthen effigy.
c. 150 Mayan “Golden Age” begins in Mesoamerica.
50 Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico is largest city in America.
Common Era
100 Emergence of Anasazi in southwestern North America.
Pyramids of the Sun and Moon constructed in Teotihuacán, Mexico, by unnamed civilization.
c. 420 Moche culture (Peru). Temple of the Sun constructed with 50 million bricks.
600 City of Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) is constructed.
c. 700 City of Teotihuacán burns and is abandoned.
790 Decline of Maya civilization begins as many sites are abandoned.
c. 800 First use of bows and arrows in the Mississippi Valley.
900 Rise of Toltecs, warrior people from central Mexico, as Mayan empire collapses; they dominate central Mexico for the next 300 years.
987 Toltec priests are expelled from city of Tula (modern Hidalgo, Mexico) by a rival cult that favors human sacrifice.
990 Exiled Toltecs take over Maya city of Chichén Itzá on Yucatán peninsula.
c. 1000 Viking voyages to Newfoundland in North America; despite brief settlement, they leave no lasting impact on Native American culture or history.
Incas found Cuzco (Peru).
c. 1100 Fortified cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people are first built in southwestern North America.
c. 1175 Toltec empire destroyed by famine, fire, and invasion.
1200 Entry of people called Mexica (generally known as Aztecs) into
Valley of Mexico. Originally a farming people from western Mexico who became mercenary warriors, they migrate to Valley of Mexico and settle on two marshy islands in Lake Texcoco. Begin to construct city of Tenochtitlán (site of present-day Mexico City) on one of the islands.
Toltec-Mayan city of Chichén Itzá is abandoned.
c. 1300 Anasazi pueblo villages in American Southwest are deserted, possibly due to climate changes.
1410 Inca empire of Peru expands.
1428 Aztec Empire expands.
1440 Moctezuma I is ruler of Aztecs. (Moctezuma’s name is also spelled Montezuma or Motecuhzoma)
1487 Inauguration of great pyramid temple at Tenochtitlán; according to traditional acccounts, 20,000 people are ritually sacrificed there to “celebrate” the temple’s completion.
1492 Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage in search of westward route to Asia, lands in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo).
1496 Columbus establishes first Spanish settlement in Western Hemisphere.
1500 Portuguese reach Brazil and claim it for Portugal.
1502 Beginning of reign of Moctezuma II.
African slaves introduced to Caribbean.
1507 Waldseemüller’s world map names newfound lands in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
1508 Spanish settlers on Hispaniola enslave natives.
1509 Spanish settlement of Central America begins.
San Juan (Puerto Rico) is founded.
1513 Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.
1514 Spanish force the conversion of natives to Christianity under the threat of death.
Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas begins to record the depraved behavior of Spanish colonists toward the natives.
1519 Hernando Cortés lands at Veracruz with 500 men; marches to the Aztec capital. Moctezuma II surrenders without a fight, is held captive and dies, probably executed by the Spanish, in 1520. The Spanish are later driven out by Aztec leader Cuauhtémoc. In 1521, Cortés returns with Indian allies and retakes Tenochtitlán following a smallpox epidemic that devastates the Aztecs. The Spanish level the city and begin to build Mexico City on the ruins. In 1522, Cortés becomes