Pre-Colonial Empire
This capital city of the Aztec Empire was built directly on an island inside Lake Texcoco and became one of the largest cities in the world.
What is Tenochtitlan? (Present-day Mexico City)
To grow crops in the middle of a lake, Aztec engineers created these "floating gardens" anchored to the lakebed using woven reeds and mud.
What are chinampas?
The term "Latin America" comes from the fact that European colonizers forced languages derived from this ancient language onto conquered territories.
What is Latin? (Giving rise to Spanish, Portuguese, and French)
The blending of different cultural or religious beliefs, traditions, and practices into a new, combined form as a tool for survival is known as this term.
What is cultural syncretism?
What primary gas do plants absorb from the atmosphere in order to perform photosynthesis?
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Unlike a single centralized empire, this Mesoamerican civilization lived in independent city-states across the rainforests of the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize.
Who are the Maya?
To overcome steep slopes and farming challenges in the Andes Mountains, the Inca carved these step-like fields into mountain cliffs.
What is terrace farming (or terraces)?
Signed in 1494, this treaty drew an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean to divide South American territories between Spain and Portugal.
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas?
This famous Mexican holiday combines ancient Aztec ancestor-honoring rituals with the Catholic All Souls' Day.
What is Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)?
Which ancient civilization is credited with constructing the Great Pyramid of Giza?
The Ancient Egyptians
Spanning high along steep granite slopes in South America, this empire built a massive mountain civilization without relying on written language or the wheel.
Who are the Inca?
To overcome the dense rainforest environment of Mesoamerica, Maya engineers practiced this type of farming.
What is rainforest agroforestry (or slash-and-burn / clearing system)?
Spanish colonizers instituted this land system, granting entire Indigenous villages to Spanish elites and creating a long-lasting land monopoly.
What is the Encomienda system?
Enslaved Africans in Brazil and the Caribbean protected their spiritual traditions under colonial rule by pairing traditional African spirits (Orishas) with these Catholic figures.
Who are Catholic Saints? (In religions like Santería, Vodou, and Candomblé)
What is the largest ocean on Earth?
Pacific Ocean
The Maya cultivated these three staple crops known as the "Three Sisters."
What are corn (maize), beans, and squash?
Known as the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca built a massive network spanning over this many miles to connect their mountain empire across granite cliffs and canyons.
What is 25,000 miles?
In Excerpt 4, Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas used this animal metaphor to describe how Spanish colonizers treated Indigenous populations.
What are wolves, tigers, and lions attacking sheep?
According to Indigenous chronicler Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Quechua villagers kept their traditional songs (harawi) and dances alive by performing them during these events.
What are Christian / Catholic festivals?
In the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, what is the name of Harry's snowy white pet owl?
Hedwig
To ensure survival during times of drought or famine, Inca engineers invented this freeze-dried potato preservation technique to store food for decades in mountain storehouses.
What is ch'uño?
To cross deep river canyons throughout the Andes Mountains, Inca engineers constructed these flexible structures out of woven grass cables.
What are suspension bridges?
Read aloud to Indigenous peoples in 1513, this Spanish decree threatened local populations with war and slavery if they refused to obey the Church and King.
What is The Requirement (El Requerimiento)?
Ancient Incan traditions of community reciprocity (Ayllu) lived on through these shared community work bees where neighbors gather to build roads and shared spaces.
What is Minga (or Mutirão)?
Which layer of the Earth is located directly beneath the outermost solid crust?
Mantle