Inka Empire

Question 1

Coya

Answer 1

wife of the Inca king. In later times, she was required to be his full sister.

Question 2

Chasqui

Answer 2

messengers that were sent by road throughout the Inca empire to relay information. They would often carry quipus.

Question 3

Sapa Inca

Answer 3

“Sole” Inca, i.e., the supreme Inca leader, or emperor.

Question 4

Mita

Answer 4

a form of labor tax required in the Inca empire. Labor projects would be construction of roads, houses, and military service.

Question 5

Panaca

Answer 5

consists of all the wives, children, and descendants of a Inca emperor, except the current Inca emperor. They will care for the royal mummy and often create original songs about their ancestors to bring them joy and glory.

Question 6

Ayullu

Answer 6

a group of related individuals and family, who exchange labor and cooperate in ritual and subsistence activities. It is the basic socio-economic unit of Andean society.

Question 7

Cumbi

Answer 7

The finest grade of cloth, a fine fabric (alpaca, vicuna) made for the nobles of the Inca empire.

Question 8

Huaca

Answer 8

a place or object invested with sacred power. Huacas could be a certain mountain, cave, or a temple.

Question 9

Quipu

Answer 9

a knotted cord used in Inca accounting. Specific placement of knots, and variety in colors and lengths carried the numerical meaning and kind of goods.

Question 10

Coricancha

Answer 10

The most important temple in Cuzco. It was called the Temple of the Sun.

Question 11

Puna

Answer 11

In the Andes an environmental zone lying above 11,500 feet altitude. Typically a puna can be described as a grassland found in the Andes mountains that lacks trees.

Question 12

Amautas

Answer 12

Teachers at the Inca school for young men in Cuzco. Also any wise man.

Question 13

Acllaconas

Answer 13

The Chosen Women. a special class of workers who made cloth, beer, and other products for the empire.

Question 14

Council of Indies

Answer 14

supreme governing body of Spain’s colonies in America (1524–1834). Composed of between 6 and 10 councillors appointed by the king, the council prepared and issued all legislation governing the colonies in the king’s name, approved all important acts and expenditures by colonial officials, and acted as a court of last resort in civil suits appealed from colonial courts. (Taken from Britannica website).

Question 15

The flota (“Fleet”) in the Carrera de Indias (“the Indies run”)

Answer 15

the trading fleet intended to sail annually from Spain to New Spain (Mexico) and back for most of the colonial period.

Question 16

The Spanish Main

Answer 16

Refers to the coastlines and mainlands the Spanish controlled. The area would be from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of Venezuela. They named this area The Spanish Main to distinguish it from the Caribbean islands also known as The West Indies.

Question 17

Galeones in the Carrera de Indias

Answer 17

for most of the colonial era, the trading fleet intended to sail annually from Spain to the Caribbean side of the Isthmus of Panama carrying goods for the west coast of South America, and returning goods from there to Spain.

Question 18

Caste system, Castas

Answer 18

a social hierarchy encoded in law and based on inherited characteristics, real or imagined. Latin America’s caste system corresponded more or less to what we call race.

Question 19

Encomienda

Answer 19

an institution whereby groups of indigenous people were “entrusted” to a Spanish conqueror for the duty of paying him labor and/or tribute. In return the holder of the encomienda (the encomendero) was to provide instruction in the Christian religion.

Question 20

Norte Chico or Caral-Supe

Answer 20

the most ancient Peruvian pyramid city and dates back from the same time period as the ancient Egyptian civilization.

Question 21

Tahuantinsuyu

Answer 21

the Quechua name for the fourfold Incan empire.

Question 22

Viceroy

Answer 22

a ruler in place of the king. A viceroy rules over a viceroyalty

Question 23

Maroons

Answer 23

Enslaved Africans who had freed themselves and escaped into the backcountry and selvas (jungles) of South America.

Question 24

Palenque

Answer 24

runaway black community, sometimes fortified

Question 25

Conversos

Answer 25

Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism in Spain.

Question 26

Marranos

Answer 26

a label for Jewish conversos suspected of continuing to practice Judaism in secret. Marranos signifies pigs.

Question 27

Ladinos

Answer 27

the Jewish population of Medieval Spain and Portugal who developed a Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, language that mixes Spanish and Hebrew.

Question 28

Quilombo

Answer 28

a settlement where escaped slaves lived outside of Brazilian slave owners’ control.

Question 29

Criollo

Answer 29

a person of Spanish descent born in the New World.

Question 30

Viracocha

Answer 30

creator god of Inca

Question 31

Pampas

Answer 31

fertile and well-watered grasslands of Argentina. It was a region that was similar to the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia.

Question 32

Encomendero

Answer 32

This was the title of the conquistador “entrusted with” an encomienda.

Question 33

Corregidor

Answer 33

Were administrators of villages and cities in the Americas appointed by the Spanish crown.

Question 34

Audiencia

Answer 34

regional court of appeal, and administrative tribunal, in colonial Spanish America.

Question 35

Ejido

Answer 35

common lands belonging to a town or village (used in Mexico).
Pedro Alvares Cabral: The Portuguese captain who (somehow) landed in Brazil on his way to India via Africa in 1500, just 7 years after Columbus’s first voyage to the Caribbean.

Question 36

Viceroyalty

Answer 36

the largest administrative subdivision of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in America, ruled by a viceroy who acted in place of the king.

Question 37

Bandeirantes

Answer 37

“pathfinders” of the interior of Brazil, pursuing Native American slaves and precious metals, and active mainly in the seventeenth century.

Question 38

Cacique

Answer 38

Native American leader, applied to native leaders of all levels on the mainland.

Question 39

Carrera de Indias

Answer 39

the “Indies run,” or shipping of goods to and fro between Spain and America in the officially permitted flotas and galeones.

Question 40

Casa de Contratación, (“House of Commerce”)

Answer 40

central trading house and procurement agency for Spain’s New World empire from the 16th to the 18th century. Organized in 1503 by Queen Isabella in Sevilla (Seville); it became an instrument of the Spanish crown’s policy of centralization and imperial control. (From Britannica website)