Aztecs, Mayans, Incans, Ottomans

Question 1

Describe the Mayan classical age.

Answer 1

• Cities such as Tikal, Copan, Palenque, Uxmal and Chichen Itza are built.
• Each was its own city-state 
with its own god-kings.
• At least 50 major Mayan cities 
were built during this time.

Question 2

Describe the Mayan diet.

Answer 2

The main diet for the Mayans was maize, beans and squash.

Question 3

What did the Mayan city-states trade with each other?

Answer 3

Items such as salt, shells, honey and cacao.

Question 4

Describe the Mayan religion.

Answer 4

The Maya believed in many gods, some were evil, some good, and sometimes both.

The Mayans believed that each day was a living god whose behavior could be predicted 
with the help 
of a system of 
calendars.

Question 5

Why did the Mayans create a “religious calendar”?

Answer 5

So that they knew which god was in charge of which date.

Question 6

Which group of people through the careful observation of the planets, sun and moon were able to figure out that one year is about 365.24 days?

Answer 6

The Mayans

Question 7

Describe the Mayan written language.

Answer 7

The Mayan writing was incredibly advanced.

The system they utilized consisted of 800 hieroglyphic symbols or glyphs. The Mayans recorded important historical events on stone or a bark-paper book known as codex. Only three codex’s 
have survived.

Question 8

What are some theories in regards to the collapse of the Mayan civilization?

Answer 8

Disaster Theory:
Volcanic eruption, earthquake, spread of a disease.

Warfare Theory:
City-states fought against each other to the point where the entire civilization would crumble.

Famine Theory:
The increasing population could no longer be supported.

Civil Strife Theory:
The lower classes overthrew the upper classes leading towards chaos and a collapse of the civilization.

Environmental Change Theory:
The change in the climate would effect the Mayans in negative ways. The rise in sea level would make the cities sink, and make farming difficult.

Question 9

Describe the early history of the Aztecs.

Answer 9

The Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico around A.D. 1200.

They started off as a nomadic group, but they would eventually join surrounding two city states the Texcoco and the Tlacopan and form the Triple Alliance.

Question 10

How did the Aztecs rule their conquered territory?

Answer 10

They gained territory through conquest.

Newly acquired territory was controlled through forcing those who lived there to pay a tribute, a payment in gold, maize, cacao, cotton.

Question 11

Why did the Aztecs have so many enslaved peoples in their society?

Answer 11

To use for sacrifice. Their sun God was thought to need human blood to thrive.

Question 12

Describe how the Aztec Emperor lived and how people treated him.

Answer 12

The emperor lived in a magnificent palace, surrounded by servants and many wives.

Visitors, even nobles, entered his presence in bare feet and cast their eyes down so as not to look at him.

His power was absolute.

Question 13

Describe the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Answer 13

By the early 1500s, the population was around 300,000. A capital larger than any European capital of the time.

The city was based on an island, in order to connect the island to the mainland the Aztecs built three roads.

Causeways linked the island to the lakeshore and canals reached all parts of the city.

In a sense, it was a “floating city”.

Question 14

Describe the Aztecs sacrifice ritual.

Answer 14

The Aztecs believed that the sun god had to battle the forces of evil to get the next day. To make sure that he was strong, he needed human blood. The Aztecs would offer him blood through sacrificing thousands of people each year.

Those who were sacrificed were usually criminals, prisoners of war or enslaved peoples.

The Aztecs would try to capture opponents alive in wars in order to save them for sacrifices.

When sacrificing an individual. They would bring them to the top of the temple where they would use a jagged object to slice through the individual chest cavity, then pull out the still beating heart of the individual.

Question 15

Who was Montezuma II?

Answer 15

In 1502, Montezuma II is crowned emperor.
The empire would begin to dwindle under his rule.

He demanded that the sun gods required more sacrifices. This would cause those who were ruled by the Aztecs to begin to rebel.

When Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes arrived in 1519, many of his subjects would turn against him, for his very unpopular amongst the Aztecs.

Question 16

How did the Inca start? Who did they believe were their ancestors?

Answer 16

The Incan started to establish their small Kingdom from around the 1200s.

They believed that they were descendants of the “sun god”, Inti.

Question 17

How is city of Cuzco significant in world history?

Answer 17

It was the capital of the great Incan civilization.

For the Incans, the city was the heart of the empire and had many palaces, plazas, and temples.

Question 18

The Incan used Ayllu, what is this system?

Answer 18

A system where extended family structure managed their people.

Question 19

What is the decimal system? Who used this system.

Answer 19

The Incans used the decimal system, it’s a system where you divide groups of people into 1, 10, 100, 1000 to make it more efficient and easier to govern them.

Question 20

How did the Inca rule over the people they conquered?

Answer 20

The Inca were clever at conquering.

In order to avoid deaths from fighting, they would first offer territories they want to take over through diplomacy.

In order to avoid rebellions and resistance, they would allow conquered territories to retain their cultural practices.

This balance of using a “stick and carrot” is what helped their small empire grow into the largest empire in South America.

Question 21

What is Mita?

Answer 21

The labor tribute the Incans enforced those they conquered to do.
*Those who were not able to work did not have to serve (such as elders).

Question 22

Who were the Chasis? How did they relate to the Incans and the roads they built?

Answer 22

The Chasis were runners who traveled newly built roads by the Incans and carried messages.

It was during this period where the Incans built a 14,000 mile long network of bridges and roads, which would go on to help them communicate as well as be able to mobilize military quickly and efficiently.

Question 23

What do we know about Incans writing and accounting?

Answer 23

Writing:
No system of writing was developed.

Accounting:
Used a system known as quipu, a set of knotted strings to record data. Each string had different colors symbolizing a different category.

Question 24

Who was Francisco Pizzaro?

Answer 24

A Spanish conquistador who 
conquered the Incan empire.

After two failed expeditions, in 
1532 Pizarro defeated the natives at 
the Battle of Cajamarca.

His voyages were backed by the Spanish crown, and he was allowed to keep any of the territories that he conquered.

He was interested in taking Incan land, because of the massive amount of silver that could be extracted.

Question 25

Who were the Ghazis?

Answer 25

Warriors for Islam.

Question 26

Who were the Ottomans?

Answer 26

Osmans followers.

Question 27

Orkan I declares himself as a ___________?

Answer 27

Sultan. A word that would be continued to use to describe Ottoman leaders.

Question 28

The Ottoman Empire grows almost constantly from its inception to the 1600s. However, there is a small halt in their expansion int he 1400s. Why is this?

Answer 28

This is when Tamerlane, also known as “Timur the lame” burned the powerful city of Baghdad and crushed Ottoman forces in 1402.

Question 29

Who was Mehmed? How does he relate to Constantinople?

Answer 29

After taking over the throne, Mehmeds main objective was to take over the Christian city of Constantinople and merge it with the Ottoman Empire.

Through tricky tactics and fierce motivation and genius military strategy he is successfully in bringing down the Byzantine Empire.

Question 30

Why do many historians cite Suleyman I as the greatest Sultant?

Answer 30

During his time in power he was in charge for 46 years and the empire reached its peak size.

Question 31

Describe the Devshirme system and Janisarries.

Answer 31

The staff was made from slaves, who were drafted from conquered Christian territories. They were called devshirme.

Along with staffers, the 
devshirme system created a 
set of soldiers (in this process
 they were also converted 
from Christianity to Islam).

An elite force of 30,000 soldiers, known as janissaries we’re trained to be loyal to the sultan only. They were the heart of the Ottoman war machine.

Question 32

What factors contributed towards the fall of the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 32

Worried that his children would try to take over, Suleyman killed his ablest son and drove his second to exile, leaving only the most incompetent third son, Selim II, to inherit the throne.

This pattern of rulers killing off their children would continue on and weaken the empire. Not only their children, but sultans would often have their brothers murdered when gaining power to avoid having their power taken.