The American Continents.
"The Americas" refers to what?
The continents of North America & South America.
What did the Mayans use as currency?
Cocoa beans.
How did the Aztecs treat the people they conquered?
They demanded that they pay tribute and would sacrifice them if they refused.
What did the Inca use as currency?
Labor.
Or...
They did not have the concept of currency and instead worked for goods and services.
Who was Hernan Cortez?
The Spanish conquistador who led the Spanish to victory against the Aztecs.
How do scientists think that the first humans came to the Americas?
They crossed a land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska.
What is "Slash-and-Burn" agriculture?
When people burn down trees and plants to use the ash as fertilizer.
Why did the Aztecs perform human sacrifice?
It was an important part of their religion, since they believed their gods needed blood to survive.
Or...
They used it to control their conquered people through fear.
Where was the Inca Empire located?
The Andes Mountains of South America.
Or...
In what we now call Peru.
Why was it so easy for the Spanish to conquer the Inca Empire?
By the time the Spanish arrived, millions of Inca had died from Smallpox.
Or...
The Inca were distracted and weakened by a civil war.
What was the civilization that came BEFORE the Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula?
The Olmecs.
Or...
The Zapotecs.
The Mayans used hieroglyphics. What are hieroglyphics?
A system of writing that uses images to convey words or ideas.
Why did the Aztecs build Tenochtitlan on a lake?
It was easy to defend the capital on a lake.
Or...
The water allowed them to grow enough food for their people.
Or...
They believed that the gods sent a vision about an eagle with a snake.
How were the Inca able to farm in the Andes Mountains?
They carved terraces into the mountainside.
Why did the Spanish choose to conquer Mesoamerica and South America?
They wanted access to the resources there like gold.
Or...
They wanted to spread Christianity.
Or...
They wanted to make their empire stronger.
What is a "civilization"?
A society with developed social organizations, culture and ways of life.
In what ways was the Mayan calendar similar to our modern calendar?
It has 365 days.
In Aztec society, ______ were considered just as important and powerful as the priests.
What was the Mita System?
It was how the Inca divided their land, labor and resources as a form of taxes.
How were the Spanish able to defeat the Aztecs despite the Aztecs being great warriors?
The Spanish had better technology.
Or...
The Spanish convinced the other Mesoamericans to help them beat the Aztecs.
Or...
European diseases killed millions of Aztecs.
The Aztecs & Mayans lived in what we now call Mexico & Central America. Historians also call this area ______.
Mesoamerica.
How did the Maya civilization collapse?
It is a mystery and no one knows for sure.
How did the Aztecs feed the people of Tenotchitlan?
They built floating man made gardens called chinampas.
What was unique about Incan architecture?
They were able to build buildings without mortar.
Why did many native people of Mexico choose to help the Spanish attack the Aztecs?
They were tired of paying tribute and being used as sacrifices by the Aztecs.