Chapter 21 Flashcards
In November 1519, what did a small Spanish people do?
They entered Tenochitlan in search of gold as they had heard many reports about the wealth of the Empiire.
Who was the Spanish explorer that wrote about that Aztec Empire
Bernal Diaz del Castillo
What did Castillo write about teh city
It sat on the water of Lake Texcoco, connected to the surrounding land by three broad causeways and as in venice, canoes went into many other parts of the cities.
What were the two most impressive signts to Diaz.
The markets and temples of the city. The markets because of their size and the variety of goofd, and there was gold
How did the temples strick Bernal Diaz?
THe saw the rituals involving human sacrifice. It was hard for other foreigners to look at
During the 8th century, what was Mesoamerica in?
An era of war and conquest in the eight century CE.
Where was the great wealth?
It had accumuated in Teotihuacan. That was the largest early city in MesoAmerica
Attacks on Teotihuacan opened what?
A long era of militarization and empire building in Mesoamerica that lasted until Spanish forces conquered the region in the sixteenth century
During the 9th and 10th centuies after the collapse of Teotihuacan, what was the political map like?
Several regional states dominated portions of th ehigh central valley of Mexico.
Although successor states and their societies shared the religious and cultural traditions of Teotihuacan, what did they do?
They fought relentlessly among themselves
With the emergence of the __ and the later Mexica, much of the central region came under what?
Toltecs, Control
Where did the Toltecs come from?
They came from the arid land of mnorthewestern Mexico and settled mostly at Tula, about 50 km northwest of modern MExico City
How did the Toltecs survive in such unfertile land
They tapped the waters of the nearbyt River Tula to irrigate crops of maize, beans, peppers, tomatos, chiles, andcoton. At i
When was the Toltec’s high point, and what population did it support?
The toltec’s higjh point was between 950-1150. IT supported a population of about 60 thousand
What did the Toltecs maintain?
A powerful army that campaigned periodically throughout central Mexico. They built a compact regional state that maintained fortresses for some time
What did residents of the Toltec empire live in?
In stone, adobe, or mud, on spacious houses
The city of Tula became an important center for what
weaving, pottery, obsidian work and residents imported large quantities of jade, turquuoise, animal skins, exotic bird fethers and other luxury goods from elsewhere
Who did the toltecs maintain close relations with ?
With the Maya city of Chichen Irza
When did the Toltec empire start to face difficulties?
In 1125
Howwas the toltec empire aving difficulties?
It was conflicts between the ethnic groups and nomadic incursion that hurt it
When did the Toltec state collapse
1175
ARhaeological evidence suggests what about the Toltec state?
That Tula was destroyed by a fire about the same time.
What was one group of migrants that were drawn to Central MExico?
The mexica
What did the Mexica build?
THey built the Aztec empire
Where does the word Aztec derive from and what does it mean?
The word Axtec drrtives from Aztlan or the place of the seven legendary caves, which the MExica remembered as home of the ancestors
When did the Mexica arrive in Emxico?
in the middle of the 13th century
What reputation did the Emxica have?
The reputation of kidnapping women from nearby communities and seizing land already cultivated by others. Occasionally, they were forced to move
Arond 1345, what did the Mexica do?
They settled on anisland in a marshy region of Lake Texaco
What did Lake Texaco give?
It gave many fish, frogs,and water fowl.
What was the chinampa system?
The mexica put fertile muck from the lake’s bottom and then put it on the land known as chinampas
During the dry season, how did the Chinampa season work?
Cultivators tapped water from canals leading form the lake to their phots and in themperate climate, they grw maize, beans, squashes, tomatos, peppers, and chiles
What did the lake serve for the MExica
Natural defense
BY the 15th century, how were the Mexica
They were powerful enough to overcome their immediate neighbors and demand tribute from their new subjects
During the middle decades, under the military elite that ruled Tenochitlan, they launched many military campaigns. Who were some rulers?
Obsidian Serpent Itzacoatl (1428-1440) and Motecuzoma I (1440-1469_ je was also known as Moctezuma.
After conquoring the city and slaying many of its inhabitents, MOtexuzoma did what
Populated Oaxaca with colonits and the city became a pace for the MExica empire
When the Mexica turned their attention to wuere?
To the Gulf Coast whose tropical products made welcome trubute items in Tenochitlan. They also conquored other high plateaus. They made a joined force with two neighboring cities—Texcoco and Tlacopan
Where how much people did the Mexica conquor
12 mil
What was the main objective of the triple alliance?
IT was to exact tribute from subject peoples.
What did the Mexica recieve from nearby peoples?
textiles, rabbit fur blankets, embroidered clothes, jewelry and the obsidian knives.
What was the tribute owed by Tochtepec?
9600 cloacks, 1600 womens garments 200 loads of caoco, 16000 rubber bals etc
Ruling elites entrusted some of this tribute to who?
Officially recognied merchants who took them to distant lands and exchanged them forlocal products. These items included translucent jade, emeralds, tortoise shells, jaguar skins, parrot feathers, seashells, and game animals
What did the lowlands supply?
Cocoa and chocolate
What was the Aztec government system?
There was no elaborate administration. Instead, the MExica and their allies simply conquuered their subjects and assessed tribute leaving local governance and the collection of tribute in the hands of the conquered peoples.
Did the allies maintain military garrisons?
No, they did not keep a peranent standing army. They simply assembled foces as needed.
At the high poits of the Aztec empire, how much tribute flowed in?
489/ The population of the capital was about 200 thousand
The principal market had dealings in what?
It was in animal skins, cotton cloth, shoes, animals skins, turkeys, dogs, wild game, maize , beans,peppers cacao and fruits
More information survives about the MExica and their subjects than
about many other people from the pre Columbian era
Do some Mexica books survive?
Yes they do, they ofer a drect extimony abou tthe MExica way of life. TA great deal of information survives from lengthy interviews conducted by Snanish missionaries
What was the MExica social Structure
IT was ridgidly hierarchial with public honors and rewards going to the most militariy elite. The Mexica looked up at all Male people as warriors and the men of noble birth recieved careful instruction and intense training in military affairs
Where were Mexica honors showered on to?
The miliary elite. Accomplished warriers recieve ectensive land grants as well as tribute from ommoners fror their support.
The most successful warriors formed a council and what happened?
They selected the ruler and discussed public issues and filled government positions. They ate the best foods-turkey, pheasant, duck,d eer, boar, and rabit. They conumed many luxury items like vanilla and caoco.
How did dress relfect status?
Sumptuarly laws required commoners to wear coarse, burlaplike garments made out of henequen but permitted aristocrats to drape themselves in cototn . Warriors could wear brightly colored capes
Although women played no role in the Mexica society what did they do?
They wielded influce within their families and enjoyed high honor as mothers of wariors. They did not inherit property or hold official positions, And although tye were subject to control by the men of the house, they were in the market places.
What was the principal function of women
To bear children. And it was equal to being a warrior
In adddition to the military aristocracy
A priestly class also rankd among the MExica elite.
Priests received a special education in
calendrical and ritual lroea nd they presided over religious ceremonies tha tthe MExica viewed as crucial to the contiuation of their world
Whowas one priest that became a king
Motexcuzoma II
The bulk of th eMExica of commoners who lived in hamlets and cultivated chinampas were called what?
Calpulli.
Whatwre Calpulli?
They were clans or groups of families claiming descent form common ancestors. With the passage of time, they became less important. But tall of them lived in a similar communities and organized their own affairs
Did some people work on others fams
Yes, culvivators delivered periodic tribute payments to other state agenst who redistributed a portion of what they collected to the elite class.,
MExica artisians particularly did what?
They worked with gold, silver cotton textiles saand tropical bird feathers. Mercahtns sometimes specialized in long distance trae.
What did the Mexica speak?
The nahuatl language which had been the prevalent tongue in the region since th eitm eof the toltecs.
Most mesoamerican people played
a ball game and had a callender of 365 days
Who were the two Mexica gods
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl
Who was Tezcatiloca
A powerful figure, th eigiver and taker of life and patron deity of warriors
Who was Quetzalcoatl?
he had a reputation for artisians, carts and agriculture
Life their predecessors, what did the MExica believe about their gods
Thet the gods hadd set the wold in motion through acts of individual sacrifice. By letting their blod flow, they had given moisture to the earth. To keep that going, the mexica people continued to perform acts of self sacrifice
Th eMExica priests also presided over the sacrificial killing of human victims in honor of what?
Huitzilopochtil. The patron deity.M likitary successes shoed that the god supported them
What did the Mexica view the sacrificial killings?
They viewed it as the way to survive in this world
Beyond Mexico, the people of North America did what?
developed a rich variety of political, social, and cultural traditions.
What did many north American people depend on?
hunting, fishing, and collecitng edible plants
In the arctic and subarctic region, what did diets include
Sea mammals such as whale, sea, and walrus supplemented by land mamals such as moose and caribou
What did people in North American coastal regions eat?
They hunted large animals such as bison and deer. Throughout the continent, nuts, berries,roots and grasses suhc as wild rice were there
NaIn several regions of North America, agricultural economies enabled people to do what
maintain settled societies iwth a large populaiton
What did the Pueblo and Navajo people do to get water
they tapped river waters to irrigate crops of maize, which consitituted to as much as 80 percent of their diet
What did the Pueblo and Navajo also cultivate?
They cultivated beans, squashes, and sunflowers and they supplemented their crops with wild plants and small gaeme such as rabbit.
How did the hot environment play a role in the Pueblo and Navajo life?
It periodically brought abut drought and famine into the area
When did the Pueblo and the Navajo begin to construct permanent stone and adobe buildings
700 CE
Where did Large agricultural societies emerge in North America
In the woodlands east of the Mississippi River.
Woodlands people cultivated what?
maize and beans during the early centuries C.E. and after about 800 these cultivated foods made up the bulk of their diets.
Where did the wooldands people live?
They lived in wooden palisades which served as defense walls.
Owasco people
Established a distinct society in what is now upstate New York and by 1400 Iriquois nations ewre there
What were women in charge of in Iroquois society?
They were in charge of villages and longhouses in which several related families lived together and supervised cultivation of fiedls usrrounding their settlements
What were the most impressive structures of the woodlands?
The enormous earthern mounds tha tdotted the countryside throughout the eastern half of North America
What did the Woodlands people use those mounds for?
As stages for ceremonies and rituals, often as platforms for dwellings and occasionally as burial sites.
Where is the largest surviving tructure? (mound)
Cahokia near East St. Louis Illinois
Descrive Cahokia
It is more than 30 meters high, 300 meters long, and 200 meters wide.Itwas the 3rd larges structure in the western hemisphere beefore the arrival of the Europeans
Because people of North MExicohad no writing, how did you get info about their societies
form archaeological discoveries.
What ddi burial sites reveal about the people of Mexiica
that mound building people had various social classes, bestowed grave, differed qualities and quantities on their departed kin. Archaeologiests have shown thattrade linked widely separated regions and peoples of North America
What have archaeologists found forom the the mound builders and other such people
They found seashells from Florida, munerals from the upper reachs and mica form the south Appalacian mountains
Indicates trade
South american people had no what
script and tradition of writing before the arrival of Spanish invader sin the early sixteenth century
Why are South America societies much more idfficult to recover than those of MEsoamerica
Becayse there is not much writing. However, some Spanish conquests make it possible to kind of get an idea about their societies
After the disappearance of the Chavin and Moch societies, what ahppened in South MAerica
A series of autonomous regional states organized public affairs in Andean South America. The states frquety clashed
After the 12th century, what kingdom dominated South America
The kingdom of Chucuito
Where was Chucuito?
It was on the highlands region around Lake Titicaca which straddles the border between the modern highlands region around Lake Titicaca.
What is Chucuito dependent on?
The cultivation of potatoes and the herding of llamas and alpacas,. I
What did llamas and alpacas provide the highlanders with?
Wool, hides, and dung, widely used as fuel in a land with few trees. In exchange for potatoe
What did highlanders obtain in exchange for potatoes and woolen textiles
maize and cocoa leaves
In the lowlands, whe powerful kingdom of what?
Chimu emerged in the 10th century
How much of the peruvian coast did Chimu dominate
900 km
What type of society did CHimu govern?
A large and thriving society
How was Chimu large and thriving?
Irrigation networks tapped the rivers and streams flowed from the Andres mountains watering he fields in the lowands and heloign to generate abundant yields of maize and seet potatoes
Where was Chimu’s capital
At Chanchan whose ruins lie near Trujulo.
What was the populaiton of Chanchan?
It was about 50. IT had many buildings
How did Chanchan reflect the cities social order
each block belongd to an individual clan that superivsed affairs of its memeners and coordinated their efforts with several other clans
What does the word Inca refer to?
The title of the ruler s of a small kingdom in the valley of Cuzco. In modern
In modern usage, what does the term Inca mean
It means the person who spoke the Quechua anguage
Where did the Incas finally settle?
They settled in the region around Lake Titicaca about mid 13th century. Af first, they lived as one among many peoplen habiting th eregion.
About 1438, the inca ruler Pachacuti launched what?
A series of military campaigns tha tvastly expanded the Incas authorty
Pachacuti
menas earthshaker. He was a fierce warrior. According to Inca legends, he fought os furiously in one ealry battle tha the inspire d the stones in field to stand up and combat his ememies.
Where did Pachacuti first extend Inca control?
Over the southern and northern highlands and then turned his forces on the coastal kingdom of Chimu.
How long was the inca empire
4000 hilometers
How did the Incas rule?
As military and administrative elite. Tehy led armies composedof mostly conquered peoples and they staffed the bureaucracy that managed the empires political affairs.
How did the Inca people sought obedience?
They took ostages from their rulin class and forced them to live at the Inca capital
When Inca conquored peoples became restive or uncooperative, what did the Incas do?
Sent loyal subjects as colonists and provided them with choce land and economic benefits
How did he Incas administer their vast empire?
Implemented taxes to support inca rulers and administrators and he organized a system of state owned storehouses to stock agricultural surpluses. He also made roads
What was quipu?
It was a mnemonic aid to keep trak of respnsibilities
What did QUipu consist of?
An array of small cords aof various colors and lenghths all suspended form one large thick cord. Experts tied a series of knots on the small cords which sometimes numbered a hundred or more to help them remeber some info
What did most quipu record?
They recorded statistical information having to do with population, state property, taxes and labor services that communteis owed to the central government
What did the city of Cuzco serve as?
The administrative, religious and ceremonial center of the Inca emire/
Describe Cuzco
There was a huge plaze with white sand transported from baches. There were red stone buildings that were cut very precisely. It was a ceremonial center with about 40 thousand inhabitants
What enabled administration of the Inca empire?
A extensive road system tha tenabled the central government to commuicate with all arts oftth f
How many roads were there?
There were two/ It could accomodate 8 horseman. Corps of officials went there
Incas and their subjects bartered surplus..
among themselves
Inca long distance trade was…
under the supervision of the central government. Administrators organized exchanges of agricultural products, textiles pottery, jewlery and craft goods.
What did Inca Laws not allow
They development of independent merchants
The main classes in Inca society were what?
The rulers, the aristocrats, the priests and the peasant cultivators of common birht.
What did the INcas consider their chief ruler?
A deity descended form the sun. The god kng ownded everythnig: all and, livestock and property in which he governed
HOw did rulers rule?
They often debated certain politcy in the prescence of mummies so as to benefit from their counsel.
How did Aristocrats live?
Consumed fine food and dressed in embroidered cloths. rovided by commoners.
Inca aristocrats had the right to dowhat?
Wear large ear spools
WHere did priests come from?
Royal adn aristocratic families and they led ascetic lives
What was the influence that priests had?
They deeply influenced Inca society because of their education and thier responsibilituy for overseeing religious rituals
The cultivators who were mostly what
easants
Where did the inca cultivators live?
Ayllu which was a basic community that consisted of several familites who lived together. They shared land, tools, animals, crops, and work
How did peasants support ehmseves?
BY working on lands allocated to individual families by theri ayllu. Instead of pyaing taxes, peasants also worked on state land administered by aristocrats
Much of the production oform the statelands went to do what?
Suppor the ruling, aristocratic and priestly classes. The rset whent in the support of others who could not cultiviate land.
Who was the Inca sun god?
Inti
Viracocha
creator of the world, humankind and all else in the universe.
The Inca cult of the Sun
outshone all others. Inwhose temple attracted pilgrims from all parts.
What was the Inca moral dimension?
They taught that religion had a strong moral dimesion. Concept of sin as a violation ofht eestablished social or natural oder and they believed ina life beyond death, during which individuals would recieve rewards or punishments based on the quality of their earthly lives
AFter teha boriginal people of Australia learned how to exploit the resources of the continents varied regions, what dod they do?
THey led lies that in some ways changed little over the centuries.
Did the peoples of Australia turn to agriculture?
No. The poepelof NG began to herd swine and cultivae root crops.
As a result of their noadic way of life, what happened to Asutralians
They frquently met and interacted wiht peopels of eighboring societies. Becau
BEcause asutralia is a contient of enormous elimaticand ecological diversity, what happened to the people
Different poeple enjoyed acces to food and other resources unknown to others.
Individuals did not do what in Australia
They did not travel along all the trade routes Good passed from one aborigianl community to another until they were in rest soemwhere else
What were popular Australian trade items?
Pearly oyster shells were among the most popular trade items.
Did Aboriginal people come accross food stuffs?
Yes, they did, but the food was generally too perishable for them to carry back.
What was a popular item to trade in Australia
the Spears because they were very effective?
What item came to Australia
Iron metallurgy
Although the many migrations with other aborigianal societies, did cultural traditions spread?
No, they did not. Aboridginal people payed close attention to the prominent geographic features of the lands around them. Rocks, mountains, forests, mineral deposits, and bodies of water were crucial stories for their survival
What was the last inhabitable region on this planet
New Zealand
In the central and western regions of the pacific, where several clusters of islands are relatively close to one another, whthappened?
Mariners linked the island societies
Island trade networks facilitated exchanges of useful good ssuch as
axes and pottery, exotic items such as shells, and decorative ornaments
How did these regional trade networks help, politically
They helped regional kings maintain their relations wiht other people.
Did trade networks emerge int he eastern Pacific Ocean
No, but mariners took leghnthy voyages on an intermittent basis sometimes with bade results
Afte rth esettlement of Easter Island,
Polynesian mariners probably ventured to the western coast of South America. This is where they learned aout the cultivation of Sweet Potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes became the staple crop where
In new zealand
Havawii was related to what
Tahiti
What did islanders throghougt the pacific cultivate?
bananas, taro, yams, sp, coconuts
What did Hawaiins use to harvest fish
fishponds
Population groups might have exceeded what?
They might have exceeded five hundred thousand
Dense populations led to what
environmenta degradation and social strife on small islands with imited resources. Easter island was the site of these problems. Polynesian migrants origianlly settled Easter Island in the early cneturies…
On thPohnei, what happened
Sandeleur ynasty built a powerfuls tate. Nan Modol
What were some Pacifci social statuses
Workers became more specialized, some concentrated on crops, fish. Those, people had distinct classes that emerged and rulign elites decided on the course of punic affairs in their society.
High chiefs, lesser chiefs and commoners. Hawaiin society also had distinct classes of priests and skilled artisians
In addition to idstinct social classes, what did island societis generate?
strong political leadership. Ruling chiefs generally oversaw public affairs in portions of an island sometmes in an entire island.
IN Hawaii, what was the class of high chiefs known as/
Alii nui. They intermarred and ate the best foods and kapu
What isKapu
Taboo
High chiefs worked closey with priests who did what
served as intermediaries between human communities and the gods.
What gods were common?
agriculture and war. Individual islands and island groups recognized deities particular to thier own regions and intersts. Mara
Marae: had several terraced floorswith rock or coral wall designated that sacred place.
THe largest was Mahaiatea on Tahiti
