Aztec Empire
This triple alliance of city-states formed the foundation of the Aztec Empire.
What is Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan?
The Inca emperor was believed to be the descendant of this sun god.
Who is Inti?
The Swahili Coast grew wealthy primarily through involvement in this ocean's trade networks.
What is the Indian Ocean?
This explorer landed on Ayiti (Hispaniola) in 1492, leading to the devastation of the Taino population.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
This term describes the transatlantic transfer of plants, animals, disease, people, and ideas.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The Aztecs required conquered peoples to pay this, often in goods, labor, or human sacrifice.
What is tribute?
This mandatory labor system required all able-bodied subjects to work on state projects.
What is the mit'a?
This term describes the blending of African, Arab, Persian, and Indian influences on the Swahili Coast.
What is Swahili culture (or cultural syncretism)?
This conquistador defeated the Aztecs with the help of Mesoamerican allies who resented Aztec rule.
Who is Hernán Cortés?
This was the most devastating effect of the Columbian Exchange on Native American populations.
What is the spread of European diseases (e.g., smallpox)?
These professional merchants also served as spies for the Aztec state.
Who were the pochteca?
The Inca built over 25,000 miles of these to facilitate trade, communication, and military movement.
What are roads (the Qhapaq Ñan)?
The Ancestral Puebloans traded this blue-green stone over long distances.
What is turquoise?
This conquistador defeated the Inca, aided by a recent civil war between Atahualpa and Huáscar.
Who is Francisco Pizarro?
These two non-military interactions between Europeans and Native Americans had significant cultural effects.
What are trade and religious conversion?
This Aztec god of war and the sun was believed to require human sacrifice to sustain him.
Who is Huitzilopochtli?
This term describes the Inca system of provincial administration overseen by imperial officials.
What is a bureaucracy?
This joint-stock company dominated Indian Ocean trade in the 17th century and was heavily involved in the slave trade.
What is the Dutch East India Company (VOC)?
This system granted Spanish colonists the right to demand labor and tribute from Indigenous peoples.
What is the encomienda system?
This animal, introduced by Europeans, transformed Native American societies on the Great Plains.
What is the horse?
This best explains why the Aztecs did not establish a large bureaucratic empire like the Inca.
What is their reliance on tribute and the threat of warfare rather than direct administration?
This best explains how the Inca justified both political and religious authority in one person.
What is the belief that the Sapa Inca was the son of Inti (divine right)?
This Portuguese system required merchants to purchase a pass to trade in the Indian Ocean.
What is the cartaz system?
This best explains why French colonists in the Great Lakes region generally had better relationships with Native Americans than English colonists did.
What is the French focus on the fur trade and diplomacy rather than land settlement?
This best evaluates the overall demographic impact of the Columbian Exchange on the Americas.
What is a catastrophic population decline (up to 90%) due to disease, warfare, and forced labor?