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Who were the original people of mesoamerica or middle america ?
The Olmecs, Mayan, Toltec, Aztecs, Mestiza.
Most anthropologist agree that the Olmec civilization was the first to rise in the central Mexican Valley in approximately 1200 BC. According to a book called MICROPEDIA the Olmec were the original developers of the counting system that uses dots to represent ones, lines to represents fives, and shell symbols to represent zero.
The Mayan make their appearance in the Yucutan peninsula soon after the Olmec. They show a more advanced writing system and quickly spread throughout Mexico and Guatamala. The same source describes the Mayan civilization as being the most advanced in terms of achievements amongst all of the cultures of mesoamerica in the pre-Columbian era.
By 300 BC a ceremonial center named Teotihuacan had been erected near present day Mexico city to honour the "lord of all the waters"; Tlaloc.
The Mayan were using advanced calendrical systems by 300 AD to determine cosmic cycles such as the orbit of Venus, etc.
By 600 AD the Teotihuacan had to be rebuilt by the Mayan after it was invaded, possibly by the Toltec. New Teotihuacan included temples dedicated to "white Tezcatlipoca"; Kukulkan later known as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, as well as a sun pyramid and a moon pyramid.
By 900 AD the Mayan had built many great cities such as Tikal, Uxmal, Chichen Itza and each of these cities was marked by temples, pyramids, merchant courts, and living quarters and agricultural lands.
The Toltecs come along in 930 AD and overthrew Chichen Itza. By this time the Mayan population had suffered greatly in number due to mysterious reasons. The Toltecs later renamed Chichen Itza to Tollan, aka. Tula or the city of the reeds.
The Aztecs were the Mexica and the Tenochca. Initially they were nomadic and brutal warring tribes who live in poverty in the Aztlan region of north-west Mexico. By 1168 however the Mexica had overpowered the Toltecs and they settled the city of Tenochtitlan in the valley of Mexico near Lake Texcoco.
Tenochtitlan transcribes to "stone rising above water" and it was the core city of the Aztec Empire of Anuhuac.
By 1440 the Aztec ruled all of the Valley of Mexico which held a population of some 12 million souls. The Aztecs were looking for the return of the white Tezcatlipoca or Quetzalcoatl. This was a prophecy that found it's roots in the age of Kukulkan and the Mayan.
By 1519 the Aztecs were sacrificing some 50 thousand souls yearly by cutting out the heart has a ceremonial offering to the sun god. They found their Quetzalcoatl when Hernan Cortez arrived in Tenochtitlan in November of 1519.
While the Aztecs were fierce and brutal warriors who could conquer and rule through political and religious tyranny, they were no match for the Sparniards who had flint, gunpowder, and horseback soldiers. They later had the backing of the late Roman Empire.
The Aztec nation was overthrown by the Spaniards who brought with them the Franciscan monks who were ordained by the papal bulls of Rome and the conversion of the pagan mesoamericans to monotheism went full forward.
The gold and other metals were sent to Spain and then to Rome. Many mesoamericans were held as slave servants and hostages or prizes of war.
However the natives were not great workers or at least they were not as tough as the black African slaves who would be brought to the American continent to replace them.
Meanwhile the Spaniards found no problem with the feminine mesoamericans who provided fertile wombs for the birth of a new world order where the half breed "Mestiza" would come to be the norm rather than the exception.
Today all is well in the valley of Mexico and the world is enthralled by the possibility that the new Quetzalcoatl and the next phase of yet another prophecy might just bring on more massive changes.
The world is watching 2012 to see if the winter solstice of December 21, 2012 will be anything more than just another day that would have been celebrated by pagans in some type of ceremonial rituals.
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