Deck 6: The Americas

Question 1

What environmental effects contributed to the decline of ancient American civilizations? Explain.

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

How and when do scholars now think that the first people came to the Americas? To what degree are places, times, and peoples now firmly determined? Cite evidence to support your conclusions.

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
polygyny

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Carthaginians, Lost Tribes of Israel, and Atlantis

Question 5

Discuss the political, social, and cultural structures of the Inka. How did these factors help or hinder them when they encountered the Spanish invaders?

Question 6

Discuss the nature and role of religion within the various cultural groups of the Americas. In what ways did their beliefs differ? Where do you see similarities? Why do you think that is?

Question 7

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
San Lorenzo and La Venta

Question 8

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Mesoamerica

Question 9

Why, and why then, were the Aztecs able to create and rule an empire where they did? What were the most important factors helping them to do so?

Question 10

"The lack of extensive written records has seriously inhibited extensive knowledge of New World societies." Discuss, pro and con, with examples.

Question 11

Give examples of some of the New World societies that had not reached the state-building stage by the 1500s. How likely were they to have done so if outside peoples had not taken over their territories? Why or why not?

Question 12

What was the purpose of pyramids in Mesoamerican cultures and how does this compare to other societies known for pyramid construction?

Question 13

What role did the concept of virginity play in Inka society and what can it tell us about the status of women among the Inka?

Question 14

Compare and contrast the development of the Aztec empire with that of the Roman Empire. What are the similarities and what are the differences?

Question 15

What were some of the elements that the Western Hemisphere lacked that would have made state building quicker and more complete? Why?

Question 16

"Olmec civilization was the prototype for all later Mesoamerican civilizations." Do you agree or disagree? Cite evidence.

Question 17

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Bering Strait

Question 18

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Monte Alban

Question 19

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Yucatan Peninsula

Question 20

What were the strengths and what were the weaknesses of the Aztec and Inkan civilizations on the eve of their encounter with European societies?

Question 21

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Aztlan and Aztec

Question 22

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
cacao

Question 23

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
rubber

Question 24

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Mexica

Question 25

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Teotihuacán

Question 26

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Olmec

Question 27

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Zapotec

Question 28

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Chaco Canyon

Question 29

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Tikal, Palenque, Uxmal and Chichen Itza

Question 30

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Maya hieroglyphs

Question 31

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Toltecs

Question 32

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
obsidian

Question 33

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Valley of Mexico

Question 34

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Pyramid of the Sun

Question 35

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Lake Texcoco

Question 36

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
ball courts

Question 37

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
pulque

Question 38

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Tenochtitlán

Question 39

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Mayan Long Count

Question 40

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
chinampas

Question 41

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
calpullis

Question 42

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Hopewell culture

Question 43

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Pachakuti/Pachacutec

Question 44

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Moche

Question 45

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Cuzco and Machu Picchu

Question 46

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Cahokia

Question 47

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
the Inka

Question 48

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
El Nino

Question 49

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Mesoamerican Pyramids

Question 50

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Amazon River

Question 51

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Amerindians

Question 52

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Andes Mountains

Question 53

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Virgins with red cheeks

Question 54

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
pueblos

Question 55

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Topa Inka and Huayna Inka

Question 56

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
quipu

Question 57

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Caral

Question 58

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
kingdom of Chimor

Question 59

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Chavin de Huantar

Question 60

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli

Question 61

Archeologists call the region in which the first New World civilizations began

A) Mexico.
B) Central America.
C) Mesoamerica.
D) South America.
E) the Amazon basin.

Question 62

What did archeologists discover beneath the Pyramid of the Sun?

A) Seeds and traces of key agricultural crops
B) Gold and other precious metals
C) Bits of rubber
D) Urns used for Pulque, a liquor derived from the agave plant.
E) Human remains

Question 63

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Mesa Verde

Question 64

Mayan civilization

A) had such a sophisticated religious system that it was adopted by the Spanish invaders.
B) may have been composed of approximately thirty million people at its height.
C) was located in the northern part of the Valley of Mexico.
D) was never wealthy.
E) declined in the eighth or ninth centuries C.E.

Question 65

In the aftermath of Columbus and voyages of encounter, Europeans believed the first humans in the Americas might have been

A) Chinese pirates.
B) the lost tribes of Axum.
C) Phoenician seafarers from Carthage.
D) Mongol tribesmen.
E) ancient Sumerians.

Question 66

The two commodities that enabled the Maya to develop trade relations with other civilizations in its region were

A) cotton and silver.
B) yams and manioc.
C) obsidian and cacao trees.
D) gold and silver.
E) manioc and turpentine.

Question 67

The famous Mesoamerican ball games

A) have been found to have had no religious significance.
B) resulted in sacrificing the losing team to the gods.
C) are no longer played today.
D) were played in octagonal stadiums.
E) were played mostly by women.

Question 68

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Amazonia

Question 69

The chinampas

A) were agricultural plots built on swampy islands.
B) were built to maintain industrial production.
C) provided farmers with a means of growing waterfowl for export to South America.
D) were to be found only in the semi-arid areas of northern Mesoamerica.
E) were part of Inka religious culture.

Question 70

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Apache and Navajo

Question 71

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Pueblo Bonito

Question 72

The first civilization in Mesoamerica was the

A) Toltec.
B) Olmec.
C) Maya.
D) Aztec.
E) Moche.

Question 73

What was true about Teotihuacán?

A) It did not engage in trade because of its infertile lands.
B) It produced great industrial structures.
C) It met its demise possibly due to drought or overuse of the land.
D) It was conquered by the Maya.
E) It left no historical records.

Question 74

Where did the Maya civilization develop?

A) The Valley of Mexico
B) The Pacific coastal region of northern Mexico
C) The mountainous areas of Nicaragua and Honduras
D) Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula
E) The Montenegran Plateau

Question 75

Currently available evidence has shown the first humans in the Americas

A) arrived at least 15,000 years ago.
B) came at least 725,000 years ago.
C) arrived, according to genetic evidence, from Antarctica in 7219 B.C.E.
D) came from the island of Honshu during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
E) came from Polynesia approximately 1000 C.E.

Question 76

During its peak years, Olmec society

A) did not construct pyramids of any kind.
B) was constantly at war with the Aztecs.
C) extended from Mexico City to El Salvador and possibly to the Pacific Ocean.
D) was known for its development of wheat and rice.
E) relied on a limited trading network.

Question 77

In which areas were the Mayan and Aztec civilizations similar?

A) They both practiced human sacrifice.
B) Both had religious practices and beliefs brought from Asia in the eleventh century.
C) Both used sophisticated alphabets with thirty-nine letters.
D) They were both seafaring societies.
E) Volcanic eruptions destroyed both civilizations.

Question 78

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
the Anasazi peoples

Question 79

Instructions: Identify the terms and briefly state their historical significance.
Arawak

Question 80

Which civilization lived in terraces cut out of a mountainside located in the central Mexican highlands?

A) Chavin
B) Olmec
C) Zapotec
D) Inka
E) Maya