Mesoamerica is a historical and cultural region mostly located within modern-day Mexico, as well as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Belize. Around 7,000 years ago, farmers in this region became quite proficient in the cultivation and harvesting of corn, which became the staple crop in the region. They also farmed chilies, beans, tomatoes, squash, and cocoa. The Olmecs, who were first discovered from their many large carved stone heads they left behind, were the first to develop a written language in the Americas. Large cities, pyramids, ritual ballgames, chocolate drinking, a complex calendar, and a pantheon of animal gods were all features of the Olmec culture, which would be passed on to the successor Miss of American civilizations. More than any other material object, the Olmecs prized jade above all else. They created expansive trading networks hundreds of miles to the north and south to obtain this precious mineral. The Olmec civilization was destroyed in just as mysterious a manner as they appeared.

A successor civilization maintaining their culture in a diminished fashion endured for several hundred more years in the northwest. But as the Olmecs faded away, several prominent civilizations began their ascent along the old Olmec trading network. To the south, the Zapotec arose from a union of three distinct populations who, after waging war on each other for hundreds of years, either banded together or united forcibly by one of these groups, forming the basis of the Zapotec Empire. On a mountaintop bust riding the three valleys, a magnificent capital city was built. At its height, the Empire ruled over 1,000 cities and towns administered from 15 Palace complexes. The Zapotecs developed an early calendar system and, as many scholars have postulated, the earliest glyphic script in the New World, beginning possibly before 600 BC and directly related to all other major scripts in the region. The Zapotec stand out in Mesoamerican history as the longest continuous civilization in the region. Their Empire's capital for well over a

millennium fell into disuse and gradual abandonment after 1000 AD. Although their empire would deteriorate after a long period of intermittent decline in foreign domination, they would continue to exist as a smaller Kingdom until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. To the Zapotec southeast, the pre-classic Maya developed large urban cities, monumental architecture, a Mayan script, and political institutions including divine kingship. In contrast to the unity of the Zapotecs, the Mayas would primarily compete with and wage war on other rival mine kingdoms to the north. The city of Teotihuacan began to dominate, beginning as a religious Center. It attracted a flood of migrants from all over the region. The metropolis had a staggering population of over a hundred thousand and perhaps as much as 250,000, making it one of the most populous cities on earth at that time. In contrast to nearly all ancient metropolises around the world, the citizens of Teotihuacan enjoyed permanent stone dwellings, often

large, spacious multifamily apartments among the city's population. There were many foreign quarters in the city, including a Zapotec district, whom the Teotihuacan appear to have enjoyed good relations with. Around 550 AD, virtually all the temples atop the pyramids and palaces in the city were burnt and/or destroyed. Although initially, archaeologists had surmised this was due to a foreign invasion, the fact that the rest of the stone houses where the city's vast population lived seems to have remained unscathed and inhabited for a few hundred more years seems to indicate that the destruction may have been caused by an internal mass uprising against the city's religious and political leadership. As the Teotihuacan faded from history, a tribe from the north moved to the same region, initially appearing to be a vassal state of the Teotihuacans, and then they seem to have been involved with Terra Khan's eventual collapse. They were the Toltecs. This were like people founded a

capital Tula. They are not known as the builders of the greatest cities like the Teotihuacans or the innovators like the Zapotecs or Olmecs, but they should be known as perhaps the greatest conquerors of the Americas. But back to them in a moment. To the south, as the Teotihuacans fell, so did the Zapotec Empire, and they would be dominated by one of their vassal states, the Mixtecs. And for centuries, this highly populated area of Mesoamerica would be consumed by their rivalry, as one would gain the upper hand and then the other. In the east, the pre-classic Maya suffered a Dark Age, depopulation, and the mysterious abandonment of their cities. Following this was a period where the emerging Maya states seemed to have been under the influence of Teotihuacan, who installed puppet rulers for a short time. And then the Maya embarked upon a Golden Age of advancement in mathematics, city planning, and scientific achievement, often compared to Renaissance Italy.

classical Greece, with multiple city-states, engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. Just as with classical Greece and Renaissance Italy, a few powerful city-states were able to control the region and beyond. During this period, Copán and Palenque remained independent and prosperous, but just as with Athens and Sparta, Naples and Milan, two dominant powers emerged in the classical Maya world. Calakmul, the populist snake kingdom, dominated the northern Mayan states, while Tikal dominated the southern states. Their political, economic, and military means. Tikal also found in it are sponsored several colonies over a widespread area to increase their influence in the region. During the Classical Mayan, most of the city-states were entangled in a network of alliances and marriages with either Calakmul or Tikal. As the Maya built their cities and waged war on each other in the West, the Toltecs were developing a society built around religious war. A permanent standing army with different warrior castes was established. Their armies were

disciplined, drilled, and highly trained forts, garrisons, reserve units, and supply depots would be hallmarks of Toltec warfare that they used to great effect in conquering a swath of kingdoms, city-states, villages, and towns throughout Mesoamerica. Near the beginning of the 10th century, the semi-mythical leader of the Toltecs, Kukulcan, conquered the Yucatan Peninsula and extended Toltec political influence over much of the Mayan world. Toltec trading networks and culture spread far to the south and as far north as modern-day Arizona. Seventy years later, the Toltecs lost control of the Yucatan, and it descended into widespread chaos, famine, and civil war. After a great famine that lasted seven years, the Toltec influence further contracted. For the next century, the Toltecs were plagued with further cycles of famine, civil war, and widespread uprisings. In a grand finale of chaos, the Toltec capital of Tula was burned to the ground in 1122 after the collapse of the

Toltecs. There was a 60% decrease in the population in central Mexico after emerging from that period of chaos. The Maya formed the League of my. Upon the new city-states that emerged to lead it were greatly diminished compared to the great cities of their classical Maya predecessors. During the centuries following the collapse of the Toltec Empire, many tribes moved from the north into central Mexico. One of these was the Mexica. According to legend, they wandered the earth seeking an eagle with a snake in its beak perched on a prickly pear cactus. Wherever they saw this would be the sign for where their people would live. In the early 14th century, they found this sign on an island in Lake Texcoco. Here, they built a magnificent capital city to at LAN with a massive population not seen since the Teotihuacan site. This was a well-planned city with crisscross canals separating the marketplaces, gardens, plazas, ball courts, sprawling apartments, and many temples. The Mexica

quickly gained control of the other city-states surrounding Lake Texcoco through alliances and conquest. Although the Aztec empire was initially conceived as and called the Triple Alliance, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan quickly became dominant militarily and politically. In the 14th century, two other powerful states developed in the region: the Tarascan state and another northern people who had migrated south and spoke completely different dialects. They quickly gained many allies and were seen as benevolent rulers. The Tlaxcalan state arose, which was a republic ruled by a Council of Chiefs drawn from all classes of society who had gained their position by service to the state, usually through effectiveness in warfare. Over the next century and a half, the Tarascan and Mexica empires would rapidly grow, and they would be in a state of near-constant war with one another. In the East, the Maya Confederation collapsed, and the cities went into further decline and abandonment. In the South, the Zapotecs in

the mixed ex finally got along with each other, and such was the state in Mesoamerica when the Spaniards arrived in 1519. After landing, Cortes ordered the ships to be scuttled so that the men would know there was no possibility of retreat, only conquest, and then moved inland. There, the Spaniards encountered the Tlaxcalans, who fought to a stalemate with them. After three days of battle, they were then able to negotiate a peace with the Tlaxcalans, who were thrilled to find out that the Spaniards were there to conquer the Mexica. Together with over a hundred thousand Tlaxcalan allies, the Spaniards were able to conquer the Mexica. The Spaniards were also aided by the fact that they had brought several diseases from the Old World that the Mesoamericans had no immunity to, and a Great Plague preceded them wherever they went. After and during the conquest of Mexico and then the Yucatan Peninsula, the conquistadors were horrified by the human sacrifice that was practiced and

sought to wipe it out in all traces of the religion, culture, and history of Mesoamerica, burning many thousands of books, with only a small handful surviving till today. And that is a brief history of ancient Mexico, Mesoamerica region. I wanted to focus a lot on the civilizations other than just the Aztec in classical Maya and show how they fit into the entire big picture of Mesoamerican history. Even then, I was not able to cover many of the fascinating kingdoms and cities that existed in this area. All too often, there are only the Aztecs and the Maya that get covered, which are very fascinating civilizations, but by no means the only people shaping the history of this region. My goal with this video is for you to get a big picture of the whole timeline of this region, and if you find any little area or time period interesting, then you could do more research from there. One thing that makes this area of the world's history so exciting is that there's so much being discovered all the time here and new

history is being brought to light almost every year now. Exciting times. I also want to give a big thanks to all my patrons on Patreon, where you can support this channel and its content, and I super appreciate each and every single one of you guys. This has been a fami. Theas like and subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon to see more videos like this in the future. Thanks. [Applause]

History of ancient Mexico, Mesoamerica Toltec, Maya, Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec history

History of ancient Mexico, Mesoamerica Toltec, Maya, Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec history