Outline 3 (Americas Columbus)

Question 1

What types of cultures filled the Americas before European conquest?

Answer 1

Diverse cultures including nomadic groups, small settlements, and entire empires.

Question 2

What were the two major empires of the Americas and where were they located?

Answer 2

1) Aztec located in southern North America and Central America
2) Inca located in South America

Question 3

What was the capital of the Aztec Empire?

Answer 3

Tenochtitlan

Question 4

Why was the Aztec empire unstable?

Answer 4

Because it was war-oriented and filled with many unhappy conquered members.

Question 5

What religious ideas did the Aztecs have?

Answer 5

Sacrifices (usually of war captives) connected to ideas of cosmic struggle for order and balance.

Question 6

What was the Aztec economy based on?

Answer 6

Farming (maize, cocoa beans, peppers, tomatoes, cotton) as well as a vibrant market community.

Question 7

What was Aztec society like?

Answer 7

There was a strict social ladder that began with warriors and priests, then went down to merchants, then to farmers and artisans, then to slaves or conquered peoples. It was also a patriarchal society.

Question 8

What was the capital of the Inca Empire?

Answer 8

Cuzco

Question 9

Why was the Inca Empire more stable than the Aztec’s?

Answer 9

They had a gentler policy when it came to imperial policies.

Question 10

Who planned and carried out farming in the Inca empire?

Answer 10

The government and they farmed potatoes, maize, quinoa, beans, and peanuts and raised llamas.

Question 11

What was the Inca religion closely tied to?

Answer 11

nature and agriculture

Question 12

What were four connections that can be made in the Americas?

Answer 12

1) Similarity of legends and religion
2) Commercial exchange between Central and North America
3) Relative isolation in South America
4) Population density and disease

Question 13

Why did European expansion begin?

Answer 13

1) Italy recovered quickly from the Plague

2) Europe’s weak position in global market

Question 14

What trade problems did the West have?

Answer 14

The West was at the end of the trade routes and had nothing to bargain with, China only wanted cash, and Europeans had to pay for several different merchants per product.

Question 15

Ferdinand and Isabella and the Reconquista lead to Spain and Portugal’s ascent. This was partially the reason for what?

Answer 15

Iberian expansion and exploration

Question 16

Name three explorers that made significant discoveries during the 15th century.

Answer 16

1) Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
2) Bartolomeu Dias
3) Vasco de Gama

Question 17

What was this time period of discovery and expansion described as?

Answer 17

The Maritime Revolution of 1500

Question 18

Why was the success of Spain and Portugal in the Atlantic so important in world history?

Answer 18

Before 1500, most ideas, expansion, and technology, flowed East to West. After 1500, power, wealth, wealth and intellectual life behind to shift towards the West.

Question 19

What was Columbus trying to do by sailing west?

Answer 19

He was trying to find a shorter route to the Indies than the Portuguese found to the East.

Question 20

What were common motives behind these maritime voyages?

Answer 20

Gold, God, Glory

Question 21

Who was Columbus funded by?

Answer 21

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

Question 22

What kind of encounters did Columbus initially have?

Answer 22

Friendly encounters from the locals at first.

Question 23

What did Columbus call the natives?

Answer 23

“Noble savage”

Question 24

What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?

Answer 24

A line of demarcation that separated the newly discovered land between the Spanish and the Portugese.

Question 25

What began happening soon after the discovery of the new land (first in Hispaniola)?

Answer 25

Colonization