Ancient Latin America Children’s Book

Directions: You will create a children’s book about the Maya, Inca, and Aztec Empires of Ancient Latin America. You must make sure to do the following:

  • Book format
  • Written for 5-7 year olds
  • Pictures on each page (hand drawn only)
  • Nice, neat, colorful, easy to read
  • Story (NOT just summarizing)
  • A minimum of 6 pages
  • A front cover page (title, author, illustrator)
  • A back cover page (short summary of book, picture)

*Interesting Fact-Evidence has been uncovered that suggests both the Maya and Aztecs performed human sacrifices.

Maya Empire

The Maya is a Mesoamericancivilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD), according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period (c. 250 AD to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, Northern El Salvador and to as far as central Mexico, more than 1000km (625 miles) from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.

The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanishconquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures.

Inca Empire

As ancient civilizations sprang up across the planet thousands of years ago, so too the Inca civilization evolved. As with all ancient civilizations, its exact origins are unknown. Their historic record, as with all other tribes evolving on the planet at that time, would be recorded through oral tradition, stone, pottery, gold and silver jewelry, and woven in the tapestry of the people.

The Inca of Peru have long held a mystical fascination for people of the western world. Four hundred years ago the fabulous wealth in gold and silver possessed by these people was discovered, then systematically pillaged and plundered by Spanish conquistadors. The booty they carried home altered the whole European economic system. And in their wake, they left a highly developed civilization in tatters. That a single government could control many diverse tribes, many of which were secreted in the most obscure of mountain hideaways, was simply remarkable.

No one really knows where the Incas came from that historic record left in stone for archaeologists to unravel through the centuries that followed.

The Inca Empire was quite short-lived. It lasted just shy of 100 years, from ca.1438 AD, when the Inca ruler Pachacuti and his army began conquering lands surrounding the Inca heartland of Cuzco, until the coming of the Spaniards in 1532.

Aztec Empire

The Aztecs were people who were had strong religious beliefs. They were cultured people who also had strong beliefs about their heritage. They carried their strength in the knowledge and worship of their pluralistic gods. Aztecs would often bring gifts to the capital Technotitlan to decorate and honor it. Some of these gifts were food, feathers, salt, arrows and luxuries from trade.

Religious activities were mainly focused on within the temples. These walled precincts contained dorms, schools, sacred pools, altars, gardens, arsenals, and ball courts. These temples usually contained the shrine to the deity in which it was dedicated to as well.

This civilization had outstanding craftsmen and sculptors. A period of expansion and prosperity occurred during the rule of Montezuma, who was ruler when the Spanish overthrew the Aztecs, leaving them vulnerable. When their lands were threatened and taken away from them, many Aztec families became nomadic. The Aztecs were proud of their people and of their land, but because of their hardships, survival became their main concern.