Download Topic #4 PP - the America`s vocabulary to know

Vocabulary Terms to Know!
 Mesoamerica
 maize
 Olmec
 stela
 Valley of Mexico
 Tenochtitlán
 chinampas
 Tribute
 Teotihuacán
 Moche
 Adobe
 Sapa Inca
 Cuzco
 quipu
 ayllu
 Inti
 The Americas refers to two continents, North America and South America. Within
these two regions is a cultural region that historians call Middle America, or
Mesoamerica, which is made up of Mexico and Central America. Some of the
earliest civilizations in the Americas developed in Mesoamerica.
 As Neolithic Revolution began, these early native civilizations began growing more
and more crops
 Maize was an important staple for early Native Americans, who ate it, made it into
flour, and used it for ceremonial purposes.
 Maize, Native American name for corn – most important crop, other major crops
where sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and squash
 Considered to be the first American
civilization
 Little is known about them, Olmec
was the name that the Aztecs would
refer to them by
 No true cities built, people lived in
small villages with ceremonial
centers nearby to congregate
 Built and sculpted tall stone
monuments on many of their
buildings, called stela
 Mayans also built stelas
 Around 1200 A.D., bands of nomadic people migrated to the Valley of Mexico, an
area that lies on the high plateau of central Mexico
 Identified themselves as separate tribes, like the Mexica, where Mexico gets it
name
 Tenochtitlan – the capital city of the Aztecs founded in 1325, located in Lake
Texcoco, current modern day Mexico City is at the same location
 To modify their environment for more farming, the Aztecs built chinampas, artificial
islands made of mud piled atop reed mats anchored to the shallow lake-bed with
willow trees
 Maize, squash, and beans all grown like their Mayan predecessors
 War brought wealth to Aztecs, defeated enemies had to pay tribute to the Aztec
 Tribute is a payment from conquered Peoples, helped the Aztecs build more on
Tenochtitlan
 Teotihuacan is another major city for the Aztecs which dominated life in the Valley
of Mexico from 200 A.D. to 750 A.D. The city is a key religious city for the Aztecs as
their mythology believed that is was the city in which the Aztec gods created the
world for the Aztecs to live
 The Moche – named after their most famous city along the north coast of Peru, this
early civilization is a precursor to the Inca. Their roads, ideas, and organized
messaging network would be adopted by the Inca
 The city of Moche had the largest adobe buildings in the ancient Americas
 Adobe is a mixture of clay and plant fibers that becomes hard as it dries in the sun
 The most powerful Andean civilization
 Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui – skilled warrior and political leader declares himself
Sapa Inca or emperor in 1438 – changing Incan way of life, and began conquest
 Cuzco – capital of the Incan Empire, great Temple of the Sun in the heart of the city
 Scribes kept records of the dealings with the government and society on quipu, a
collection of colored strings that were knotted in different ways to represent
various numbers
 Leaders of each Incan village were called the ayllu. They carried out government
orders and strictly regulated the lives of the people living under the Inca
 The chief god of Incan worship was Inti, the sun god. Priests were apart of the
powerful ruling class in Incan society