Geography
What are Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina?
This form of entertainment was also a catalyst for religious sacrificial ceremonies.
What is the Mayan ballgame?
The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is now the home to this modern city.
What is Mexico City?
This was the official language of the Incan Empire.
What is quechua?
These three G's motivated European exploration of the Americas.
What are God, Glory, and Gold?
The area of Mexico in which the Maya resided.
What is the Yucatan peninsula?
Describe the government structure of the Maya.
Decentralized government - independent city-states each ruled by a King
True or False: The Aztec government is an example of a theorcracy.
True = the Aztecs believed that their King was a representative of the Gods on Earth
The Incas did not have a system of writing, instead they used ____ as a system of keeping records.
What is quipu?
This economic system, practiced by European powers from the 16th to 18th centuries, aimed to maximize exports and minimize imports, often through colonial exploitation.
What is mercantilism?
Why were Chinampas a necessary environmental adaptation for the Aztecs?
Provide THREE cultural achievements of the Maya.
Constructed monumental temples
Created Mayan calendar
Created hieroglyphic writing system
This Spanish explorer conquered the Aztec Empire.
This Spanish explorer conquered the Incan Empire.
Who is Francisco Pizzaro?
Religion = European missionaries forced conversion of Native populations to Christianity
Food = exchange of plants and animals allowed for the creation of dishes that blend New and Old world ingredients
Provide TWO ways in which the Incas adapted to their environment.
Earthquakes = used no mortar in building Machu Picchu so stones could move during quakes and fall back into place
Mountains = used terrace farming, built roads to travel along mountains
This technique was a necessary environmental adaptation for the Maya to clear land in their dense, tropical environment.
What is slash and burn agriculture?
Why was human sacrifice an essential part of Aztec religion?
Aztecs believed that sacrifice is what have the Gods power and enabled the survival of their empire.
What was the purpose of storehouses in the Incan Empire?
Storehouses held supplies and food stuffs. Provinces could use food in storehouses in years where output was lower, and replace the food the following year. Traveling armies also had access to supplies in storehouses.
Explain how AND why the Columbian exchange impacted demographics of the New World and the Old World.
New World = diseases like smallpox decimated Native populations who had no previous exposure or immunity to these diseases
Old World = increase in food supply and variety of food stuffs from the New World led to the use of staple crops that sustained larger populations and improved the diets of European peasants
This treaty signed in 1494, divided the New World along the Line of Demarcation, granting everything east to Portugal and west to Spain.
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas?
Provide three reasons historians believe Mayan cities declines in the 900s CE.
Drought = led to decline in resources
Overpopulation = meant short supply of resources were stretched even thinner
Warfare = city-states competing for resources led to increased fighting
Territories provided tribute for the Aztecs, and sacrifical victims when first conquered. Aztecs allowed local rulers to maintain positions and autonomy.
Mita = labor tax in which individuals would work on a project that would benefit the empire (farming, road building, priesthood, etc.) for a period of time.
How did interactions with the Middle East encourage/enable European exploration? Give TWO reasons.
Technology = Technologies like the astrolabe and lateen sails enabled Europeans to create vessels that could withstand and navigate oceans
Trade = Europeans wanted direct access to Asian markets with luxury goods, without having to pay the middleman (Middle Eastern merchants)