Period 3: The Americas

Question 1

What were characteristics of the Maya?

Answer 1

• organized in city-states ruled by a single king
• largely agricultural peasant population was bound to nobility by ties of loyalty and religion
• occupied poorly drained lowlands in Central America and adapted by building terraces to trap the silt drained by numerous rivers
• decline is debatable
• began to abandon cities around 800

Question 2

What were characteristics of the Aztecs/Mexica?

Answer 2

• built capital at Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) in central Mexico in the mid-1200s
• expansionist policy and professional army allowed the Aztecs to dominate nearby states and demand heavy taxes and captives
• conquered areas were allowed to govern themselves as long as they paid tributes (similarly to the Romans)
• roads were built to link the huge empire (similarly to the Romans)
• trade flourished

Question 3

What was the Aztec social structure like?

Answer 3

• warriors were the elite

- the majority of the people were peasants and slaves

Question 4

How were women treated in the Aztec empire?

Answer 4

• subordinate public role but could inherit property
• charged with running the household
• involved in skilled crafts, especially weaving

Question 5

What was religion like in the Aztec empire?

Answer 5

The Aztec religious system was tied to the military because one of the purposes of the military was to obtain victims for human sacrifice.

Question 6

What were characteristics of the Inca empire?

Answer 6

• set in the Andes Mountains in Peru
• capital at Cuzco
• expansionist
• used professional army, an established bureaucracy, a unified language, and a complex system of roads and tunnels
• no large animals (like the Maya and Aztecs) so prime source of labor was human
• peasants were expected to give a proportion of their harvest to support the ruling classes and to provide famine relief

Question 7

How were women treated in the Inca empire?

Answer 7

• expected to help work the fields, weave cloth, and care for the household
• could pass property on to their daughters and even played a role in religion

Question 8

What was religion like in the Inca empire?

Answer 8

• polytheistic
• Inti, the sun god, was the most important and was at the center of the state religion
• practiced human sacrifice (but less than the Aztecs by choosing to sacrifice material goods or animals instead usually)
• emphasized rewards for good behavior and punishments for bad
• Inca rulers were mummified after death and became intermediaries between the gods and the people (similarly to the Egyptians)

Question 9

What was the role of the ruler of the Inca empire?

Answer 9

• the ruler was viewed as having descended from the sun and owned everything on Earth so private property didn’t exist
• each new ruler needed to ensure his place in eternity by securing new land which means conquest so the military was important
• the nobility manned the state bureaucracy which controlled the empire by traveling on a complex system of roads

Question 10

What innovations were from the Inca empire?

Answer 10

• the Inca were excellent builders, stone cutters, and miners
• built the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco and the temples of Machu Picchu
• never developed a system of writing
• recorded census data and kept an accounting of harvests on quipu, a set of knotted strings