Unit 1

Question 1

What were the three major civilizations in Central and South America?

Answer 1

Aztecs, Maya, Inca

Question 2

What did these three civilizations have in common?

Answer 2

-Large urban centers, complex political systems, and well-formed religions
-Maize

Question 3

What was the capital of the Aztec Empire?

Answer 3

Tenochititlan, with a population of 300,000

Question 4

What did Aztec priests do?

Answer 4

Upheld a cult of fertility for the land and people thorugh human sacrifice

Question 5

Where were the achievements of the Mayans?

Answer 5

-Complex irrigation
-Water storage systems
-Built giant stone temples and palaces for their rulers, who their believed were descendants of the gods

Question 6

What were the acheivements of the Incas?

Answer 6

-Cultivation of fertile mountain valleys
-Grew potatoes and other crops watered by elaborate systems of irrigation

Question 7

Why was the cultivation of maize important?

Answer 7

-Supported economic development and the settlement of peoples
-Advanced irrigation and social diversification among societies

Question 8

Who inhabited the Southwest of America?

Answer 8

The Pueblo people

Question 9

What were the triats of the Pueblo people?

Answer 9

-Sedentary population
-Farmers of maize and other crops
-Built adobe and masonry homes

Question 10

Who lived in the Great Plains and Great Basin regions?

Answer 10

Multiple tribes, but Utes are an example

Question 11

What were the traits of the Great Plains Native Americans?

Answer 11

-Nomadic peoples
-Hunter-gatherer-type
-Needed a lot of land to do hunting and gathering because of the aridity of the region

Question 12

Who lived in the Pacific Northwest?

Answer 12

Example would be the Chinook people

Question 13

What were the traits of the Pacific Northwest peoples?

Answer 13

-Lived by the sea
-Settled into fishing villages
-Relied on elk
-Used the forest, cedar wood around them to construct plank houses

Question 14

Who lived in the Mississippi River Valley?

Answer 14

More complex and larger tribe societies, like the Hopewell people

Question 15

What were the traits of the Hopewell and Cahokia peoples?

Answer 15

-Traded extensively with other regions
-Government was led by powerful chieftains who centralized the government

Question 16

Who lived in the Northeast?

Answer 16

Iroquois

Question 16

Who lived in the Northeast?

Answer 16

Iroquis

Question 17

What were the traits of the Iroquois?

Answer 17

-Grew maize, squash, and beans
-Built and lived in longhouses

Question 18

Why did Europeans go exploring?

Answer 18

-Population increase (a rebound after the Black Plague)
-Political unification (the rise of nation-states and powerful monarchs)
-Agriculture and commercial profits gave rise to an upper clase that desired luxury goods

Question 19

Why didn’t Europeans make us of land-based routes to Asia for their luxury, exotic goods?

Answer 19

These routes were dominated by the Muslims, so Europeans were unable to establish an exchange of goods with Asia on their own terms

Question 20

What did Prince Henry the Navigator do?

Answer 20

Went around Africa in search for a passage to Asia and thus established a trading post empire, which allowed them gain lucrative profit from the Indian Ocean trade

Question 21

What technology allowed the Europeans to explore?

Answer 21

-Caravels, used specifically for trade
-Improved navigation using astrolabe and stern-post rudder

Question 22

Why did Spain explore?

Answer 22

For the same reasons as other European countries but also to spread Christianity

Question 23

Why did the Spanish monarchs sponsor Colombus’ travel?

Answer 23

-Portugal controlled African routes
-Italian city states controlled Mediterranean routes

Question 24

Where did Columbus land?

Answer 24

He thought he landed in the East Indies, but it was actually the island of San Salvador

Question 25

Why did Spain continue its exploration of the Americas?

Answer 25

Because of the gold and possible native slaves Colombus found there

Question 26

What was the Columbian Exchange?

Answer 26

Transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, and diseases between Africa, Europe, and the Americas

Question 27

How did Hernan Cortes take down Tenochtitlan?

Answer 27

Disease, most notably smallpox

Question 28

What was the Great Dying?

Answer 28

The way smallpox changed native societies; In 1530, the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas had a combined population of 40 million; 150 years later, they had a combined total of about 3 million

Question 29

What foods came from the Americas to Europe?

Answer 29

Maize, tomatoes, potatoes, cacao, and tobacco

Question 30

What foods came from Europe/Africa to the Americas?

Answer 30

Rice, wheat, soybeans, lemons, and oranges

Question 31

What animals did the Europeans introduce to the Americas?

Answer 31

Horses, pigs, cattle, and chickens

Question 32

What is capatilism?

Answer 32

An economic system based on private ownserhip and the free and open exchange of goods between property owners

Question 33

What people were exchanged in the Columbian Exchange?

Answer 33

Africans, who were packed into ships with unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced to bypass the Middle Passage, and were sold into bondage for labor

Question 34

How did the Spanish finance their expeditions?

Answer 34

Through their mercantilist economic policies

Question 35

What was mercantilism?

Answer 35

The dominant economic system of Europe; Depended on heavy governmental direction and intervention

Question 36

What were Africans exchanged in slavery for?

Answer 36

Guns

Question 37

What thought system was used to justify the purchasing of slaves?

Answer 37

Europeans postulated that Africans were descendants of Canaan, who has been cursed by Noah to be a slave his whole life, so they found their actions biblically justified

Question 38

What was the encomienda system?

Answer 38

A system in leading men called encomenderos were granted a portion of land and all the natives who lived in that land became the coerced labor force

Question 39

Why wasn't the encomienda system working out for the Europeans?

Answer 39

The Great Dying; The natives knew the land better than their captors, so they could escape

Question 40

Why wasn't the encomienda system working out for the Europeans?

Answer 40

The Great Dying; The natives knew the land better than their captors, so they could escape

Question 41

Why were Africans brought in to replace native labor?

Answer 41

-Had better immunity -Knew the land less than the Spanish did

Question 42

What was the caste system?

Answer 42

Used for tax purposes; The lower on the hierarchy, the more the taxes

Question 43

What is hegomony?

Answer 43

The domination of a nation or group by another nation or group

Question 44

What was the mission system?

Answer 44

In which Spain sent missionaires to convert natives to Christianity

Question 45

What tribe converted to Christianity but maintained worship of other gods?

Answer 45

The Pueblo people

Question 46

What was the Pueblo Revolt?

Answer 46

In which the Pueblo people rose against their captors, killed Spanish colonizers, and burned churches, believing that the cause of their trouble was the Spanish and their Christ

Question 47

What was the effect of the Pueblo Revolt and other revolts like it?

Answer 47

King Charles convened a group of priests, philosophers, and jurors to discuss the moral and legal fallout of Spanish conquest in the Americas

Question 48

Who was Batolome de Las Casas?

Answer 48

Argued against brutality and killing of the Native Americans; Suggested instead for Africans to replace native labor