Pre-Columbian Mexico

The pre-Columbian (or prehispanic) history of the territory now making up the country of Mexico is known through the work of archaeologists and epigraphers, and through the accounts of Spanish conquistadores, settlers and clergymen as well as the indigenous chroniclers of the immediate post-conquest period.

Many matured into advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purépecha, Totonac, Toltec, and Aztec, which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before the first contact with Europeans.

These civilizations are credited with many inventions and advancements including pyramid-temples, mathematics (such as the development of the concept of zero as early as 36 BC and working with sums of hundreds of millions), astronomy (measuring the length of the solar year to a high degree of accuracy), medicine, and theology.

For example, in Paquimé, a site connected to the Mogollon culture, there have been found ceremonial structures related to Mesoamerican religion, similar to the juego de pelota.

While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mexico can be said to have had seven major civilizations: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, the Aztec, Zapotec, Mixtec, and the Maya.

[8] The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, roughly in what are the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, such as Monte Albán, Cerro de las Mesas, Matacapan, Tikal, and Kaminaljuyú.

While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico.

The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and writing that became the pinnacle of Mexico's scientific achievements.

The Mayan city of Chichen Itza was also in contact with the Toltec civilization were powerfully influenced by central Mexicans as noted by the use of the Chac Mool, Atlantean figures, feathered serpents, and skull platforms.

The Toltecs were about to melt and work precious metals such as gold and silver, they cultivated maguey and produced both pulque and clothes from the plant, and they were the employed cocoa beans in trade.

[12] Désiré Charnay theorized Toltec migrations originated from Asia due to similarities to Japanese architecture, Chinese decoration, Malaysian language, and Cambodian dress.

[citation needed] Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Aztecs thought of themselves as heirs to the prestigious civilizations that had preceded them, much as Charlemagne did with respect to the fallen Roman Empire.

The revolt was successful, and the Aztecs, through cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, managed to pull off a true "rags-to-riches" story: they became the rulers of central Mexico as the leaders of the Triple Alliance.

[5] The westward expansion of the empire was stopped cold by a devastating military defeat at the hands of the Purépecha (who possessed state-of-the-art copper-metal weapons).

The empire relied upon a system of taxation (of goods and services) which were collected through an elaborate bureaucracy of tax collectors, courts, civil servants, and local officials who were installed as loyalists to the Triple Alliance (led by Tenochtitlan).

The empire was primarily economic in nature, and the Triple Alliance grew very rich: libraries were built, monumental architecture was constructed, and a highly prestigious artistic and priestly class was cultivated.

Quite the opposite: the engines of warfare and empire in Central Mexico required that all participants understand and accept common cultural "rules" in order to make the flow of imperial wealth as smooth as possible.

Also, many of the kingdoms conquered by the Aztecs provided soldiers for further imperial campaigns such as: Culhuacan, Xochimilco, Tepeacac, Amecameca, Coaixtlahuacan, Cuetlachtlan, Ahuilizipan.

[17][18][19][20][21] In July 2020, archaeologists unearthed two pre-Hispanic stone monuments believed to have been built by the Zapotecs 1500 years ago on top of the Cerro de Peña mountain in Puebla state.

Examples of such ingredients are: Chocolate, Tomato, Maize, Vanilla, Avocado, Guava, Chayote, Epazote, Camote, Jícama, Tejocote, Nopal, Sapote, Chipotle, many varieties of modern Beans.

[27] Because the Mexica spoke Nahuatl (the most common language at the time of Spanish arrival)[citation needed] their terms and names were widespread as descriptors of cities, regions, valleys, rivers, mountains, and many cultural objects.

[citation needed] The art, architecture, and symbols of the Mexica civilization exert such a unique identity that they are commonly used in advertisements for tourism to Mexico.