The First Americans

Wisconsin Glaciation, 117,000 - 14,000 y.a.
Bering Strait land bridge likely open between 50,000 and 40,000 y.a. and between 25,000 and 14,000 y.a.

Early Chronologies: Highlight from pre-Colombian Andean Civilization

the oldest site? Monte Verde, Chile

circa 2500 BC       potato cultivated (maize probably introduced from Mesoamerica
                              earlier, maybe as early as 3000 BC); also cotton, squashes, quinoa

200 BC-AD 600   Moche in northern coastal Peru (Intermediate Period)
                                  famous for pottery (esp. sexual motifs); Lords of Sipan, an incredibly rich burial
                                  also the Nasca and their lines
A
D 200-1200       Tiwanaku, Lake Titicaca (Bolivia)


The Inca Empire  (circa AD 1200 - 1572)

1200-1438: pre-imperial phase: one of a number of warring chiefdoms around Cuzco
                        and Lake Titikaka
   
1438-1532: the height of the Inca Empire

           1438: Pachakuti Inca comes to power,  increases the size of the empire:
                                                    
               

        ancestor cult is expanded:
                                         

Machu Pichu:
  

Harvesting, Transporting, and Storing Potatoes:


The following images are from a manuscript written in the early 17th Century by Guaman Poma, a descendent of Incan nobility.
                     

quipu-knots tied in rope to keep records
    

road system
Remains of Inca Roads (over 12,000 miles of roads, with distance markers, rest houses every few miles on the main roads).
In some parts the royal road was between three and eight meters wide, being more narrow in steep places. There were places with stairs, stone-paved stretches, and a variety of retaining walls that were part of the roads.
Incas also built canals and irrigation works which brought water over long distances. This helped to maintain an efficient
agricultural economy on which the empire depended.
The Incas had an organized system of messengers who carried memorized messages along the road. The message runners could guarantee one-day delivery for every 140 miles of road and could travel between Cusco and Quito in less than 1 week.

ayllus: groups related by kinship (a common ancestor), held land in common, and served as a tax unit

mit'a labor 
The majority of the empire's able-bodied citizens sustained its economy with the mit'a, or service tax in the form of agricultural work or of labor in government-owned mines, and on bridges, buildings, and roads.  In return, the system guaranteed that every individual even the old or disabled would receive his or her basic needs. The diverse peoples of the empire were controlled by a highly authoritarian bureaucracy. Potentially rebellious groups were transplanted into the midst of loyalists, while trustworthy subjects were moved to areas of dissent. The military garrisons that dotted the land served as constant reminders of Cuzco's might.

   1493: Huayna Capac (the last undisputed Inca) continues conquering northward
                                         
              1528: Huayna Capac dies (perhaps from smallpox)
                        succession fought over by his sons Huascar (the legitimate heir) and Atahuallpa
                        (Huascar's half-brother)
              
                1532: Atahuallpa meets Pizarro, is captured
                                       
              
                             

Colonial Chronology
1510            mainland settlement in Colombia/Panama
1519            Cortes lands in Veracruz
1524            Council of the Indies established
1524,1526   Early expeditions from Panama south
1531            Pizarro sails from Panama, lands in Peru in Spring 1532
1532            Pizarro meets Atahualpa
1533:           Atahualpa killed, Pizarro installs Manco Inca
                                               
1536-7        Manco leads Indian uprising, eventually retreats to establish Inca kingdom
                                in exile while hiding high in the Andes
1545            mine at Potosí discovered; between 1579 and 1635 about 200,000 pesos of
                                silver a week were mined
1572            Tupac Amaru, the last Inca, killed by Spanish military expedition 
1779            José Gabriel Tupac-Amaru leads revolt
1781            Tupac-Amaru killed
              

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas
justifications of conquest: reconquest, conversion
-encomienda system
-congregaciones
-caste/class system: Spaniards, Creoles, Mestizos, Indians, Africans

Independence Chronology
1811            Venezuela declares independence; other South American countries follow suite
1811-1819  Simón Bolívar leads the revolution fighting Spanish forces
1819            Bolívar crosses the Colombian Andes and defeats Spanish at New Grenada; turning point
                            Bolívar pens a new constitution based on the English Magna Carta
1822            Bolívar meets José de San Martín, who had been leading the revolution north from Buenos Aires
                                              
1824            Bolívar's lieutenant Sucre accepts Spanish surrender
1825            Upper Peru renamed Bolivia

                                              
1850-1930    Export Boom Years: cacao (Ecuador and Venezuela), coffee (Colombia, Brazil, and Central America), bananas (Central America), rubber (Brazil), guano (Peru), tin and silver (Bolivia)

Post World War II: Import Substitution Industrialization plans to try to stimulate local industry, but built up huge debts

1970s-1980s: debt crisis

1980s-1990s: structural adjustment plans, neoliberal reforms (opening markets, reducing regulation and state ownership of industry, balancing budgets, devolving power) . . . the "Washington consensus" backed up by the IMF, World Bank, GATT, and WTO