246

The Peoples of Central America

p When America was discovered and conquered by European colonisers it was peopled by numerous Indian tribes whose level of social and cultural development varied considerably. Some of them had attained a high level of civilisation while others lived in extremely primitive societies.

p The Maya culture, the oldest known on the American continent, developed in the north-western part of Central America. Initially it was centred on the shores of Lake Peten Itza and in the area to the south-east, along the valley of the river Usumacinta (northern Guatemala and the modern Mexican state of Tabasco). Later, however, the centre of Maya culture was to shift to the Yucatan peninsula, where in the tenth century the city-states of Chichen-Itza, Mayapan, Uxmal and others arose, between which bitter feuds were to be waged for several centuries.

p The composition of Maya society in its period of decline ( tenthfifteenth centuries) was far from homogeneous. The nobility and priesthood made up the ruling strata. The nobility owned the cocoa plantations, apiaries and salt deposits and possessed many slaves. There was also a separate class of traders. The inhabitants of each settlement lived in a community which retained various features of clan society. The common people were obliged to work the nobles’ fields and pay them rent in kind and also to build roads, temples, noblemen’s houses and other buildings. The slaves, consisting of prisoners of war, criminals, debtors and orphans, were used for the most gruelling work. Thus, while maintaining a number of institutions typical of clan society, life in the Maya settlements began to exhibit various features of a slave-holding society.

p Maya culture exerted a considerable influence on the neighbouring peoples. Agriculture, bee-keeping, crafts and trade were well 247 developed and a highly original art flourished (architecture, sculpture and painting). There were astonishing achievements in mathematics and astronomy. At the beginning of our. era a hieroglyphic script was invented—the first writing on the American continent-

p The Maya’s neighbours included the Zapotecs, Olmecs and Totonacs. The north-east coast of Mexico was inhabited by the Huastecs who, although they spoke a Maya language, had not attained anything like such an advanced level of culture.

p In Central Mexico, known at that time as the Anahuac valley (meaning "land of water" in the Nahua language), the Toltec culture made impressive advances in the second half of the 1st millennium A.D. Large cities grew up (the largest of which was Teotihuacan) with monumental buildings and sculpture and welldeveloped trade. This people also had writing and a calendar, both based on the Maya’s.

p The Toltec civilisation was wiped out at the beginning of the 2nd millennium A.D. as a result of invasions of the Anahuac valley by war-like Nahua tribes. One of the most important of these tribes at this period were the Culhuas, whose central city Culhuacan was situated on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco. Another important city-state was Texcoco on the eastern shore of the lake. In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries the Tepanecs rose to prominence and succeeded in subjugating Culhuacan, Texcoco and the subject states of the latter in the Anahuac valley. They also conquered Tenochtitlan situated on an island in Lake Texcoco and founded in about 1325 by the Aztecs (who belonged to the same group of tribes, spoke a Nahua language and who had come to the valley in the twelfth century).

p In 1426 the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan formed an alliance with the Texcoco and Tlacopan tribes (the latter came from the western shores of the lake). After overthrowing Tepanec rule, the allies started to wage war against the neighbouring tribes and eventually succeeded in gaining control over the whole of the Anahuac valley. Soon the Aztecs became the leaders of the alliance and in the course of various wars that followed they brought the whole of Mexico under their sway. In addition to these military achievements they also assimilated the complex culture which had grown up by that time in the Anahuac valley. This culture flowered at the beginning of the fifteenth century after the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan had asserted themselves as the leading Central American tribe.

p The basis of Aztec agriculture was cultivation made possible by irrigation systems. The main crop was maize which grew well despite the extremely backward farming methods based entirely on manual labour. Beans, pumpkins, tomatoes, cocoa, cotton and tobacco were also grown. The most important crafts practised by 248 the Aztecs were pottery, weaving and metalwork. Building techniques were fairly advanced which enabled this people to build dams, canals and fortress-like dwelling houses made of rough bricks or stone. Barter trade was carried on in the busy markets of Tenochtitlan and other cities.

p The Aztecs lived in clans with elected leaders. Land was owned by communes whose members worked it. The main military commander of the Aztecs (Tlacatecuhtli) who was elected from among the members of a given tribe was in practice the tribe’s supreme ruler in times of peace as well as war. He also carried out important religious functions. The Aztec commander and his council exercised control over war operations carried out by all members of the alliance. Engels described the federation led by the Aztecs as "a confederacy of three tribes, which had made a number of others tributary, and which was governed by a Federal Council and a federal military chief".

p The constant wars waged by the Aztecs eventually led to unequal distribution of property, since those warriors who distinguished themselves most in battle started to receive more than their 249 fellows when booty was distributed and conquered territory was divided up among the victors. Often those taken prisoner after battle were made to work as slaves. As this inequality increased, some of the Aztecs became slaves of the richer members of their own tribe. Slavery became an essential institution of Aztec society. The emergence of a clan nobility also progressed rapidly and incessant wars consolidated the supreme ruler’s power, which was in practice soon to become hereditary.

p All this bears witness to the disintegration of the clan structure of Aztec society. At the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, this society was in the midst of a gradual transition to a class society with the appropriate forms of state power.

p At this period the art of the Aztecs reached impressive heights particularly in the fields of architecture and sculpture. The Aztecs used a solar calendar based for the main part on the Mayan calendar. Writing was still at the formative stage at this time and was of a pictographic variety including some hieroglyphs.

p As the last vestiges of the clan system gradually disappeared, the Aztec ruling class intensified the plunder and exploitation of the poor of its own tribe and the enslaved members of subject peoples. In the course of the numerous wars which they waged throughout the greater part of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Aztecs not only defeated the other peoples inhabiting the Anahuac valley, but pushed across the mountains to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast. They exacted tribute from the conquered tribes and sometimes seized part of their lands and took large numbers prisoner. Many of these prisoners were sacrificed to the Aztec gods, while the rest were put to work as slaves, tilling the land, building temples and other edifices or working as house slaves.

This treatment of the subject peoples led to frequent uprisings and served to strengthen the resistance on the part of the tribes the Aztecs tried to subdue. The position grew particularly acute during the reign of Montezuma II (1503-1520) who tried in vain to halt the disintegration which had set in.

The Peoples of South America

p The ancient civilisations of South America developed in the Andes, inhabited by the Quechua, Aymara and other peoples who attained a high level of material and cultural development. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Incas (who belonged to the same language group as the Quechua) led by Pachacutec, Tupac Yupanqui, and Huayna Capac subjugated a number of tribes in that area and set up a large state making Cuzco their 250 capital. This state was led by the Sapa Inca (“Only Inca”), who regarded himself as the son of the Sun and who was worshipped as a god. The official language of the Inca state was Quechua, dialects of which were spoken by many of the subject tribes.

p The Incas were fairly advanced in agriculture, stockbreeding, crafts (metal-working, pottery, weaving, etc.) and architecture. They achieved notable successes in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and other sciences, and used a hieroglyphic script. Roadbuilding and trade were also advanced.

p The main social unit in the land of the Incas was the ayllu or commune, the members of which worked together to till the land, which was distributed among the individual families. However, the Sapa Inca was considered owner of all the land; a large part of the crop harvest and animal produce was required for state and religious purposes.

The Pueblo Indian tribes (Hopi, Zuni, Tano, Keres, etc.) inhabiting the valleys of the Rio Grande del Norte and Colorado rivers; the Tupi, Guarani, Caribans, Arawaks and Brazilian Caiapo in the Orinoco and Amazon basins; the war-like Mapuche from the pampas and the shores of the Pacific Ocean (called the Araucans by the Europeans); the tribes in various parts of present-day Peru and Ecuador—the Colorados, the Jivaros and the Zaparos; the tribes of La Plata (Diaguita, Charrua, Querandi, etc.); the Patagonian Tehuelche and the Indians of Tierra del Fuego (Ona, Yahgan, Chono)—all lived in primitive societies at different stages of development. This also applied to the numerous Indian and Eskimo tribes of North America. Many of these tribes united to form inter-tribal groups and alliances—the Algonkins, Iroquois, Muskogi, Sioux, Athapascans, etc.

The Colonisation of America

p At the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century the natural course of development of the peoples of America was forcefully interrupted by European conquerors, in particular the Spanish conquistadores.

p Writing about the fate of the native population of the American continent, Engels pointed out: "The Spanish conquest cut short all further independent development.”

p The conquest and colonisation of America that was of such fateful consequence for its peoples can be traced back to complex socio-economic processes which were then taking place in European society.

p The development of trade and industry and the emergence of the bourgeoisie and capitalist production relations in the late 251 fifteenth and the early sixteenth century within the feudal society of Western Europe gave rise to the urge to open up new trade routes and seize the incalculable riches of East and South Asia. It was with this aim in mind that a number of expeditions were undertaken, particularly by the Spaniards. The role of Spain in the great discoveries of this period can be explained not only by her geographical position but also by the existence of a large impoverished nobility, which after the completion of the Expulsion of the Moors (1492) was unable to find suitable occupation and feverishly sought means of acquiring wealth, dreaming of discovering the fabulous "golden land" of Eldorado. "Gold was the magic word which drove the Spaniards across the Atlantic,” wrote Engels. "Gold was the first thing the white man asked for on setting foot on an unknown shore.”

p By the beginning of the sixteenth century Columbus and other seafarers had discovered a number of the West Indian islands, charted the Northern coast and a considerable part of the Eastern coast of South America and most of the Caribbean coast of Central America. As early as 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas was concluded by Spain and Portugal to define the two countries’ spheres of colonial expansion.

p A large number of adventurers from the Iberian peninsula, impoverished members of the nobility, mercenaries, criminals, etc., set off for the newly discovered lands. By means of deceit and violence they seized the lands of the local population and proclaimed them Spanish or Portuguese possessions. The conquistadores plundered, enslaved and exploited the Indians and ruthlessly put down any attempts at resistance. They destroyed whole towns and villages with barbarous cruelty. As Marx was to put it, " plunder and violence was the sole aim of the Spanish adventurers in North America".

p The feverish lust for gold spurred the conquerors on to discover more and more new lands. In 1513 Balboa crossed the isthmus of Panama, then known as Golden Castille, and reached the Pacific coast; Ponce de Leon discovered the Florida peninsula, the first Spanish possession in North America.

p A few years later the Yucatan peninsula was discovered and in 1521 Hernando Cortes finally conquered Central Mexico after a war lasting three years. This was accomplished at the expense of the ancient culture of the Aztecs and after the total destruction of their capital Tenochtitlan. It was in this period that Magellan charted the Atlantic coast of the continent south of La Plata and the strait separating the mainland from Tierra del Fuego.

p Soon the conquistadores and their men were to turn their attention to South America. In the early 1530s a Spanish expedition led by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro conquered Peru, 252 wiping out the splendid Inca civilisation. This conquest began with the bloodthirsty repression of the defenceless Indians in the town of Cajamarca, the initiator of which was the priest Valverde. The Inca ruler Atahualpa was taken captive by means of foul trick and put to death; the Inca capital of Cuzco was also taken by the conquistadores. Moving southwards, Almagro and his men made their way into territory they were later to name Chile (1535-1537). Here, however, they found themselves up against the war-like Araucans and suffered a temporary setback. Meanwhile Pedro de Mendoza had embarked on the colonisation of La Plata. Large numbers of Europeans also sought to gain possession of the northern part of South America, where they imagined the mythical land of Eldorado, rich in gold and precious stones, to lie. It was in search of Eldorado that Spanish expeditions led by Ordaz, Jimenez de Quesada, Benalcazar and detachments of German mercenaries led by the Alfinger, von Speyer and Federmann made their way in the 1530s to the Orinoco and Magdalena valleys. In 1538, Jimenez de Quesada, Federmann, and Benalcazar marching from the north, east and south respectively, met up on the Cundinamarca plateau, near the town of Bogota.

p Meanwhile Brazil was being colonised by the Portuguese. At the beginning of the 1540s Orellana reached the Amazon and sailed down it to the Atlantic coast. A new expedition into Chile was also undertaken at that time under Pedro de Valdivia, but by the early fifties it had only succeeded in capturing the northern and central parts of the country.

The penetration into the central parts of the South American continent by the Spanish and Portuguese colonialists went on during the second half of the sixteenth century and the colonisation of some areas, such as southern Chile and northern Mexico, was to take much longer still. However, the English, French and Dutch were also anxious to stake their claims in the vast, rich lands of the New World, and managed to seize lands in South and Central America and the West Indies.