Download C. Between 100000 and 8000 years ago, the last Ice Age left a land

Chapter 11
The Americas 400-1500
I.
Section 1 The Peoples of North America
A. The first inhabitants of the Americas were hunters and gatherers, while later inhabitants also
practiced farming.
1. Because of the great variety of climate and geographic features, many different cultures
emerged in the Americas.
2. Maize, or corn, which originated in the Americas, is now one of the most widely distributed
of the world’s food plants.
3. Only wheat exceeds it in acreage.
4. Although the United States produces about half the world’s total output of corn, a corn
crop matures somewhere in the world every month of the year.
B. The Americas stretch about nine thousand miles from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn at the tip of
1. Ice-covered lands, dense forests, river valleys ideal for hunting and farming, coastlines,
tropical forests, and deserts are all part of the Americas.
2. Two major mountain ranges–the Rocky Mountains and Andes–run along the western side
of the Americas.
3. Broad valleys with fertile farmland run between these ranges and eastern mountains.
4. Two great rivers are the Mississippi and the Amazon.
C. Between 100,000 and 8,000 years ago, the last Ice Age left a land bridge between Asia and North
America in the Bering Strait.
1. Hunters and gatherers, probably pursuing herds of bison and caribou, crossed the bridge as
the glaciers receded.
D. About 3000 B.C., the Inuit moved into North America from Asia. Most settled into the cold, harsh,
treeless tundra on the coasts south of the Arctic.
1. They became skilled hunters and fishers, using harpoons and spears of antler or narwhal
tusk.
2. Homes were made of stones and turf.
3. Igloos, made of snow, were only temporary shelters for travelers.
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E. West of the Mississippi River basin, Plains Indians cultivated the “three sisters” and hunted
buffalo, often by driving a frightened herd over a cliff.
1. The Plains Indians ate the meat, used the skins for clothing, and made tools from the
bones.
2. They also made their circular tepees from buffalo skins stretched over wooden poles.
F. The Anasazi established an extensive farming society in the Southwest, a dry part of North
America covering present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
II. Section 2 Early Civilizations in Mesoamerica
A. Early Mesoamerican civilizations flourished with fully-developed political, religious, and social
structures.
B. The Aztec state succumbed to diseases brought by the Spanish.
1. Mesoamerica is the name for areas of Mexico and Central America that were civilized before
the Spaniards arrived.
2. The Olmec civilization began around 1200 B.C. in the hot, swampy lowlands on the coast
south of Veracruz, Mexico.
3. Olmec peoples farmed along the area’s muddy riverbanks.
4. The Olmec had large cities, such as La Venta, that were centers of religious festivals.
5. The Olmec carved colossal stone heads, probably to represent the gods.
6. Around 400 B.C., the Olmec civilization declined, then collapsed.
C. Teotihuacán (“Place of the Gods”) was Mesoamerica’s first major city.
1. It was the capital of a kingdom that arose around 250 B.C. and collapsed about A.D. 800.
2. Most inhabitants were farmers, but the city was a trade center as well.
3. Tools, weapons, pottery, and jewelry were traded as far as North America.
4. Built near modern Mexico City, Teotihuacán had as many as 200,000 residents.
D. On the Yucatán Peninsula east of Teotihuacán, the highly sophisticated Mayan civilization
flourished between
A.D. 300 and 900.
1. On the Yucatán Peninsula east of Teotihuacán, the highly sophisticated Mayan civilization
flourished between A.D. 300 and 900.
2. Mayan cities were built around a central pyramid topped with a temple to the gods.
3. Nearby were temples, palaces, and a sacred ball court.
4. Mayan civilization was composed of city-states governed by a hereditary ruling class.
5. Captured nobles and war leaders were used for human sacrifice.
6. The belief that all life is in the hands of divine powers was crucial to Mayan civilization.
7. Like other ancient peoples in Central America, one way the Maya appeased the gods was
through human sacrifice.
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8. Human sacrifice was also performed on certain ceremonial occasions.
9. The Maya created a writing system using hieroglyphs, or pictures.
III. Section 3 Early Civilizations in South America
A. The Inca developed a well-organized, militaristic empire.
1. Incan communities undertook sophisticated buildinag projects and established a high level
of cultural development.
2. The Incan state was built on war.
3. All young men had to serve in the army, which numbered two hundred thousand.
4. Supplies were carried on the backs of llamas because, like other cultures in
the Americas, the Inca did not use the wheel.
5. Once the Inca controlled an area, the inhabitants learned Quechua–the Incan language.
B. Forced labor was an integral part of the state.
1. All subjects were responsible for labor service several weeks each year.
2. Laborers were moved to other parts of the empire to take part in building projects. Incan
society was highly regimented. Men and women had to marry someone from their own social
group.
3. Women either worked in the home or were priestesses.
4. In rural areas, the people farmed on terraces watered by irrigation systems.
5. The Inca were great builders.
C. The first Spanish expedition arrived in the central Andes in 1531, under the command of Francisco
Pizarro.
1. Though he had only a small band of about 180 men, Pizarro had some things the Inca did not:
steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses.
2. The Incan Empire experienced a smallpox epidemic.
3. Like the Aztec, the Inca were not immune to European diseases.
4. The emperor died of smallpox.
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CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING:
A.
longhouse
__ 1. a circular tent made by
stretching buffalo skins
over wooden poles
B.
clan
C.
tepee
D.
adobe
E.
pueblo
F.
Mesoamerica
G.
hieroglyph
H.
tribute
I.
maize
J.
quipu
__ 2.
a group of related families
__ 3.
sun-dried brick
__ 4. Iroquois house about 150 to
200 feet (46 to 61 m) long built of
wooden poles covered with sheets of
bark and housing about a dozen
families
__ 5. a multistoried structure of the
Anasazi that could house up to 250
people
__ 6. a picture or symbol used
in a system of writing
__ 7. goods or money paid by
conquered peoples to their
conquerors
__ 8. the name used for areas of
Mexico and Central America that
were civilized before the arrival of
the Spanish
__ 9. corn
__ 10. a system of knotted strings
used by the Inca people for
keeping records
Answers: 1-C, 2-B, 3-D, 4-A, 5-E, 6-G,
7-H, 8-F, 9-I, 10-J
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