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The Americas400–1500
Key EventsAs you read this chapter, look for the key events in the history of the Americas.
• The early inhabitants of the Americas probably traveled from Asia across a Bering Strait land bridge produced by the Ice Age.
• The Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations developed and administered complex societies.
• Diseases that Europeans brought to the Americas contributed to the downfall of several cultures.
The Impact TodayThe events that occurred during this time period still impact our lives today.
• The Anasazi culture and the Anasazi’s descendants influenced adobe dwellings and handcrafted pottery made today in the southwestern United States.
• The Iroquois League was a model for the British colonies.• As in the Incan Empire, compulsory military service has been used in the United States and is used in other countries of the world.
World History Video The Chapter 11 video, “Mesoamerican Civiliza-tions,” chronicles the development of cultures and societies in the Americas.
5,000 B.C. 2,500 B.C. 1500 B.C. 500 B.C.
10,000 B.C.People migratefrom Asia to Northand South America
400 B.C.Olmeccivilizationdeclines
1000 B.C.Farmingvillages appearin EasternWoodlands
c. 900 B.C.Moche culturethrives
1200 B.C.Organizedsocieties begin in Central andSouth America
Olmec ceremonialax of jade
10,000 B.C.
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Art or Photo here
A.D. 600 A.D. 800 A.D. 1000 A.D. 1600A.D. 1200 A.D. 1400
c. A.D. 500Anasazisocietyestablished
c. A.D. 800Mayancivilizationdeclines
c. A.D. 1000Cahokiaflourishes
A.D. 1519Cortés landsat Veracruz
A.D. 1530Pizarroarrives incentral Andes
A.D. 1535Pizarroestablishescapital inLima
A.D. 1200Aztec migrateto the Valleyof Mexico
HISTORY
Chapter OverviewVisit the Glencoe WorldHistory Web site at
and click on Chapter 11–ChapterOverview to preview chapter information.
wh.glencoe.com
Mississippian burial mound
Anasazi pottery with bird motif
Archaeologists study the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Dos Pilas in northern Guatemala.
Two Cultures Collideernal Díaz, who accompanied Hernán Cortés on a Span-ish expedition to Mexico in 1519, could not believe his
eyes when he saw the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán in centralMexico:
“When we beheld so many cities and towns on the water, andother large settlements built on firm ground, and that broad cause-way running so straight and perfectly level to the city of Tenochti-tlán, we were astonished because of the great stone towers andtemples and buildings that rose up out of the water.”
To some of the soldiers accompanying Cortés: “all thesethings seemed to be a dream.”
The Aztec were equally astonished, but for quite differentreasons. One wrote, “They [the Spanish] came in battle array,as conquerors, and the dust rose in whirlwinds on the roads,their spears glinted in the sun, and their flags fluttered likebats. Some of them were dressed in glistening iron from headto foot; they terrified everyone who saw them.”
Within a short time, the Spanish had destroyed the AztecEmpire. Díaz remarked, “I thought that no land like it wouldever be discovered in the whole world. But today all that Ithen saw is overthrown and destroyed; nothing is leftstanding.”
B
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Mask of an Aztec god
Why It MattersThe first organized societies hadbegun to take root in Central andSouth America by 1200 B.C. One keyarea of development was on theplateau of central Mexico. Anotherwas in the lowland regions alongthe Gulf of Mexico and extendinginto modern-day Guatemala. A thirdwas in the central Andes. Othersocieties were just beginning toemerge in the river valleys andgreat plains of North America.
History and You Using theInternet and traditional printsources, research the cities, innova-tions, and cultural contributions ofthe Aztec, Mayan, and Incan civiliza-tions. Create a database that showsboth the similarities and the differ-ences among the three.
c. A.D. 500Anasazi beginfarming societies
Guide to Reading
The Peoples of North America
Preview of Events
A.D. 700Mississippian cultureprospers
✦400 ✦500 ✦600 ✦700 ✦800 ✦900 ✦1000
One Sioux sacred woman said:
“All of this creation is sacred, and so do not forget. Every dawn as it comes is aholy event, and every day is holy, for the light comes from your Father Wakan-Tanka,and also you must always remember that the two-leggeds and all the other peopleswho stand upon this earth are sacred and should be treated as such.” A Native Amer-ican song says, “The whole Southwest was a House Made of Dawn. It was made ofpollen and of rain. The land was old and everlasting. There were many colors on thehills and on the plain, and there was a dark wilderness on the mountains beyond. The land was tilled and strong and it was beautiful all around.”
—The Native Americans: An Illustrated History, Betty and Ian Ballantine, eds.,1993
As these words illustrate, the first peoples who inhabited North America had greatrespect for the earth and its creatures.
The Lands of the AmericasThe Americas make up an enormous land area, stretching about nine thousand
miles (more than fourteen thousand km) from the Arctic Ocean in the north toCape Horn at the tip of South America. Over this vast area are many differentlandscapes: ice-covered lands, dense forests, fertile river valleys ideal for huntingand farming, coastlines for fishing, lush tropical forests, and hot deserts.
Voices from the Past
People
Region
Types of food
Shelter
Main Ideas• The first inhabitants of the Americas
were hunters and gatherers, while laterinhabitants also practiced farming.
• Because of the great variety of climateand geographic features, many differentcultures emerged in the Americas.
Key Termslonghouse, clan, tepee, adobe, pueblo
People to IdentifyInuit, Hopewell, Iroquois, Plains Indians,Anasazi
Places to LocateAmazon, Bering Strait, Gulf of Mexico,Cahokia, Mesa Verde
Preview Questions1. Who were the first inhabitants of
the Americas?2. What archaeological evidence remains
of the Anasazi culture?
Reading StrategySummarizing Information As you readthis section, complete a separate chart foreach of the five major peoples discussedin this section. Identify the characteristicslisted below for each group.
CHAPTER 11 The Americas 347
c. A.D. 850Cahokia is establishedas seat of government
Sioux warrior shirt withbeads and fringe
Along the western side of the Americas are twomajor mountain ranges: the Rocky Mountains inNorth America and the Andes in South America.Lower ranges, the Appalachian Mountains in NorthAmerica and the Brazilian Highlands in South Amer-ica, run along the eastern coasts. Between the moun-tains of the western and eastern coasts are broadvalleys with rich farmland. Through the valleys rungreat rivers, such as the Mississippi in North Amer-ica and the Amazon in South America.
Identifying What different kinds oflandscapes are found throughout North and South America?
The First AmericansAs you will read in the following
section, people gradually spread throughout the NorthAmerican continent. By 10,000 B.C., people had reachedalmost as far as the tip of South America.Between 100,000 and 8,000 years ago, the last Ice
Age produced low sea levels that in turn created aland bridge in the Bering Strait between the Asianand North Americancontinents. Many schol-ars believe that smallcommunities of peoplefrom Asia crossed thisland bridge. Most likely,they were hunters whowere pursuing the herdsof bison and caribou that moved in search of grazingland into North America as the glaciers receded. Thesepeople became the first Americans. Scholars do notagree on exactly when human beings first began livingin the Americas. They do know, however, that thesefirst Americans were hunters and food gatherers.
Summarizing According to scholars,why did hunters cross the land bridge into North America?
The Peoples of North AmericaNorth America is a large continent with varying
climates and geographical features. These differentgeographical areas became home to various peoples.
Arctic and Northwest: The Inuit About 4000 B.C.,a group of people called the Inuit moved into NorthAmerica from Asia. They had to learn unique ways tosurvive in such a cold and harsh environment. MostInuit settled along the coasts of the tundra region, thetreeless land south of the Arctic.
Reading Check
Reading Check
With a variety of harpoons and spears, made fromantler or narwhal tusk, the Inuit became skilled athunting seal, caribou, and fish, which provided themwith both food and clothing. In winter, the Inuit builthomes of stones and turf. The traditional igloo, madeout of cut blocks of hard-packed snow, was only atemporary shelter used during traveling.
Eastern Woodlands: The Mound BuildersAround 1000 B.C., farming villages appeared in theEastern Woodlands, the land in eastern NorthAmerica from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.People here grew crops but also continued to gatherwild plants for food. Best known are the Hopewellpeoples in the Ohio River valley, who extended theirculture along the Mississippi River. The Hopewellpeoples, also known as the Mound Builders, areespecially known for the elaborate earth mounds thatthey built. Mounds were used as tombs or for cere-monies. Some were built in the shape of animals.
A shift to full-time farming around A.D. 700 led toa prosperous culture that was located in the Missis-sippi River valley from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinoisdown to the Gulf of Mexico. Among the most com-monly grown crops of this Mississippian culturewere corn, squash, and beans grown together to pro-vide plants with nutrients, support, and shade.
Cities began to appear, some of them containingten thousand people or more. At the site of Cahokia,near the modern city of East St. Louis, Illinois,archaeologists found a burial mound over 98 feet (30 m) high with a base larger than that of the GreatPyramid in Egypt. Between A.D. 850 and A.D. 1150, aflourishing Cahokia was the seat of government formuch of the Mississippian culture. In the thirteenthcentury, for reasons unknown, Cahokia collapsed.
Eastern Woodlands: The Iroquois To the north-east of the Mississippian culture were peoples knownas the Iroquois. The Iroquois lived in villages that con-sisted of longhouses surrounded by a wooden fencefor protection. Each longhouse, built of wooden polescovered with sheets of bark, was 150 to 200 feet (46 to61 m) in length and housed about a dozen families.
Iroquois men hunted deer, bear, caribou, and smallanimals like rabbits and beaver. They were also war-riors who protected the community. Women ownedthe dwellings, gathered wild plants, planted theseeds, and harvested the crops, the most important ofwhich were the “three sisters”—corn, beans, andsquash. In addition, women cooked, made baskets,and took care of the children.
348 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
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Wars were common, especially among groups ofIroquois who lived in much of present-day Pennsyl-vania, New York, and parts of southern Canada. Leg-end holds that sometime during the 1400s, theIroquois peoples seemed about to be torn apart bywarfare. Deganawida, an elder of one of the Iroquoisgroups, appeared and preached the need for peace.One who listened was Hiawatha, a member of theOnondaga group.
From the combined efforts of Deganawida andHiawatha came the Great Peace, which created analliance of five groups called the Iroquois League.One of the 13 laws of the Great Peace made clear itspurpose: “In all of your acts, self-interest shall be castaway. Look and listen for the welfare of the wholepeople, and have always in view . . . the unborn ofthe future Nation.”
A council of representatives (a group of 50 Iro-quois leaders) known as the Grand Council metregularly to settle differences among league mem-bers. Representatives were chosen in a special fash-ion. Each Iroquois group was made up of clans,groups of related families. The women of each clansingled out a well-respected woman as the clanmother. The clan mothers, in turn, chose the malemembers of the Grand Council.
Much was expected of these men: “With end-less patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their
firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness fortheir people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodg-ing in their minds, and all their words and actionsshall be marked by calm deliberation.”
The Grand Council, an experiment in democracy,brought the Iroquois a new way to deal with theirproblems. Some scholars believe that in 1754, Ben-jamin Franklin used the Iroquois League as a modelfor a Plan of Union for the British colonies.
Peoples of the Great Plains West of the Missis-sippi River basin, the Plains Indians cultivated beans,corn, and squash along the river valleys of the easternGreat Plains. Every summer, the men left their vil-lages to hunt buffalo, a very important animal to thePlains culture. Hunters worked together to frighten aherd of buffalo, causing them to stampede over a cliff.
The buffalo served many uses for Plains peoples.The people ate the meat, used the skins for clothing,and made tools from the bones. By stretching buffaloskins over wooden poles, they made circular tentscalled tepees. Tepees provided excellent shelter; theywere warm in winter and cool in summer.
Peoples of the Southwest: The Anasazi TheSouthwest covers the territory of present-day NewMexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Conditionsare dry, but there is sufficient rain in some areas for
349CHAPTER 11 The Americas
Arctic (Tundra)
Culture areas:
California/GreatBasin/Plateau
Great Plains
Eastern Woodlands/Southeast
Southwest
Northwest Coast
Subarctic
Cultures of North America, 4000 B.C.–A.D. 1500
The different geographicalareas of North Americabecame home to a variety ofpeoples.
1. Applying GeographySkills What conclusionscan you draw about thesimilarities and differencesin the lifestyles of the firstAmericans? Identify themajor geographical fac-tors that would have mostinfluenced the lives ofthese different peoples.
farming. The Anasazi peoples established an exten-sive farming society there.
Between A.D. 500 and 1200, the Anasazi usedcanals and earthen dams to turn parts of the desertinto fertile gardens. They were skilled at making bas-kets and beautifully crafted pottery. They used stoneand adobe (sun-dried brick) to build pueblos, multi-storied structures that could house many people.
At Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico,they built an elaborate center for their civilization. Atthe heart of Chaco Canyon was Pueblo Bonito, alarge complex that contained some six hundredrooms housing more than a thousand people. Thisflourishing center, however, could not survive a 50-year series of droughts, which led the Anasazi toabandon it.
The Anasazi culture itself did not die. To the north,in southern Colorado, a large community hadformed at Mesa Verde (today a United Statesnational park). Groups of Anasazi there built aremarkable series of buildings in the recesses of the cliff walls. However, a prolonged drought in thelate thirteenth century led to the abandonment ofMesa Verde.
Examining What caused the Missis-sippian culture to prosper? What was the result?
Reading Check
350 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
Checking for Understanding1. Define longhouse, clan, tepee, adobe,
pueblo.
2. Identify Inuit, Hopewell, Iroquois,Plains Indians, Anasazi.
3. Locate Amazon, Bering Strait, Gulf ofMexico, Cahokia, Mesa Verde.
4. Describe how settling in the tundraaffected Inuit lifestyles.
5. List the major sources of food for thePlains Indians. Also list the many differ-ent ways in which the Plains peoplesmade use of the buffalo.
Critical Thinking6. Evaluate The Iroquois League is con-
sidered “an experiment in democracy.”What do you think this means?
7. Summarizing Information Use agraphic organizer like the one below tohighlight features of Anasazi culture.
Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photograph of the
Anasazi ruins shown on this page. Fromthis photograph, what conclusions canyou draw about the daily life of thepeople who lived at this site?
9. Expository Writing Identify theleadership roles that women took inthe Iroquois society and comparethose roles with women’s roles inAmerican society today. Write a one-page comparison after doing yourresearch.
Anasazi Culture
History through Architecture
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National ParkThe group of buildings shown here once housed asmany as 400 people. Why do you think the Anasazibuilt their homes in such inaccessible sites?
Analyzing Primary and Secondary SourcesWhy Learn This Skill?
Suppose for a moment that a devastating tor-nado has struck a nearby town. On television thatnight, you watch an interview with an eyewitness.The eyewitness begins to cry as she describes thedestruction of her own home and neighborhood. The next day, you read a newspaper account thatdescribes the tornado’s path. Is one of theseaccounts of the same event more accurate than the other?
Learning the SkillTo determine the accuracy of an account, you
must analyze its source. There are two main types ofsources—primary and secondary.
Primary sources are produced by eyewitnesses toevents. Diaries, letters, autobiographies, interviews,artifacts, and paintings are primary sources. Becauseprimary sources convey personal experiences, theyoften include the emotions and opinions of partici-pants in an event.
Secondary sources use information gathered fromothers. Newspapers, textbooks, and biographies aresecondary sources. Secondary sources, written later,help us to understand events in a larger context ortime frame.
To determine reliability of a source, consider thetype of source you are using. For a primary source,determine who the author is and when the materialwas written. An account written during or immedi-ately after an event is often more reliable than onewritten years later. For a secondary source, look forgood documentation. Researchers should cite theirsources in footnotes and bibliographies.
For both types of sources you also need to evalu-ate the author. Is this author biased? What back-ground and authority does he or she have? Finally,compare two accounts of the same event. If theydisagree, you should question the reliability of thematerial and conduct further research to determinewhich can be corroborated with other reliablesources.
Practicing the SkillRead the following excerpts and answer the
questions:
“Finally the two groups met. . . . When all wasready Montezuma placed his feet, shod in gold-soled,gem-studded sandals, on the carpeted pavementand . . . advanced to an encounter that would shapeboth his own destiny and that of his nation. . . . Montezuma had servants bring forward two neck-laces of red shells hung with life-size shrimps madeof gold. These he placed around Cortés’s neck.”
—from Cortés by William Weber Johnson, 1975
“When we had arrived at a place not far from thetown, the monarch raised himself in his sedan. . . .Montezuma himself was sumptuously attired, had on a species of half boot, richly set with jewels, and whose soles were made of solid gold. . . . Montezuma came up to Cortés, and hung abouthis neck a chaste necklace of gold, most curiously
worked with figures all representing crabs.”—from an account by Conquistador
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, 1519
1 What is the general topic of the two sources?
2 Identify the primary source.
3 Is one account more reliable than the other? If so, why? How do you know?
351
Applying the Skill
Find two accounts of a recent event or a historicalevent. Analyze the reliability of each. Be sure to docu-ment how you reached your conclusions about the reli-ability of the sources.
Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive Workbook,Level 2, provides instruction and practice in keysocial studies skills.
A.D. 300Mayan civilizationbegins
A.D. 800Teotihuacáncollapses
A.D. 1325Aztec build Tenochtitlánon Lake Texcoco
A.D. 1520Aztec begindecline
Guide to Reading
Early Civilizations in Mesoamerica
Preview of Events✦300 ✦500 ✦700 ✦900 ✦1100 ✦1300 ✦1500
Bernal Díaz, a Spaniard who arrived in Mexico in 1519, wrote:
“Let us begin with the dealers in gold, silver, and precious stones, feathers, cloaks,and embroidered goods, and male and female slaves who are also sold [in the mar-kets]. . . . Next there were those who sold coarser cloth, and cotton goods and fabricsmade of twisted thread, and there were chocolate merchants with their chocolate. Inthis way you could see every kind of merchandise to be found anywhere in Mexico,laid out in the same way as goods are laid out in my own district of Medina delCampo, a center for fairs.”
—The Conquest of New Spain, John M. Cohen, trans., 1975
Díaz described the city markets of the Aztec with amazement. He and otherSpaniards were astonished to find that these markets were larger and better stockedthan any markets in Spain.
The Olmec and TeotihuacánSigns of civilization in Mesoamerica—a name we use for areas of Mexico and
Central America that were civilized before the Spaniards arrived—appearedaround 1200 B.C. with the Olmec. Located in the hot and swampy lowlands alongthe coast of the Gulf of Mexico south of Veracruz, the Olmec peoples farmed alongthe muddy riverbanks in the area.
Voices from the Past
Main Ideas• Early Mesoamerican civilizations flour-
ished with fully-developed political, religious, and social structures.
• The Aztec state succumbed to diseasesbrought by the Spanish.
Key TermsMesoamerica, hieroglyph, tribute
People to IdentifyOlmec, Maya, Toltec, Aztec, HernánCortés, Montezuma
Places to LocateTeotihuacán, Yucatán Peninsula, Tikal,Chichén Itzá, Tenochtitlán, Lake Texcoco
Preview Questions1. What are the principal cultural devel-
opments of Mayan civilization?2. What caused the Aztec to settle in
Lake Texcoco?
Reading StrategySummarizing Information Create achart describing the characteristics of theOlmec, Mayan, Toltec, and Aztec cultures.
352 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
Aztec turquoise mosaic serpent
People
Location
Religion
Architecture
Year/Reason Declined
The Maya and ToltecFar to the east of Teotihuacán, on the Yucatán
Peninsula, another major civilization had arisen.This was the civilization of the Maya, which flour-ished between A.D. 300 and 900. It was one of themost sophisticated civilizations in the Americas.The Maya built splendid temples and pyramids anddeveloped a complicated calendar. Mayan civiliza-tion came to include much of Central America andsouthern Mexico.
The Mayan civilization in the central YucatánPeninsula eventually began to decline. Explanationsfor the decline include invasion, internal revolt, or anatural disaster such as a volcanic eruption. A morerecent theory is that overuse of the land led toreduced crop yields. Whatever the case, Mayan cities were abandoned and covered by dense jungle growth. They were not rediscovered until thenineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Political and Social Structures Mayan cities werebuilt around a central pyramid topped by a shrine tothe gods. Nearby were other temples, palaces, and a
sacred ball court. Somescholars believe that urbancenters such as Tikal (inpresent-day Guatemala)may have had a hundredthousand inhabitants.
Mayan civilization wascomposed of city-states,each governed by a heredi-tary ruling class. TheseMayan city-states wereoften at war with eachother. Ordinary soldierswho were captured in bat-tle became slaves. Cap-tured nobles and warleaders were used forhuman sacrifice.
Rulers of the Mayancity-states claimed to be descended from thegods. The Mayan rulerswere helped by nobles and a class of scribes who may also have beenpriests. Mayan society also included townspeoplewho were skilled artisans,officials, and merchants.
353
The Olmec had large cities that were centers fortheir religious rituals. One of these was La Venta,which had a pyramid that towered above the city.The Olmec carved colossal stone heads, probably torepresent their gods. Around 400 B.C., the Olmec civ-ilization declined and eventually collapsed.
The first major city in Mesoamerica was Teoti-huacán (TAY•oh•TEE•wuh•KAHN), or “Place of theGods.” This city was the capital of an early king-dom that arose around 250 B.C. and collapsed aboutA.D. 800. Most residents were farmers, but the citywas also a busy trade center. Tools, weapons, pottery,and jewelry were traded as far as North America.
Located near Mexico City in a fertile valley, Teoti-huacán had as many as 150,000 inhabitants at itsheight. Along its main thoroughfare, known as theAvenue of the Dead, were temples and palaces. All of them, however, were dominated by the massivePyramid of the Sun, which rose in four tiers to aheight of over 200 feet (60 m).
Explaining What does the termMesoamerica mean, and who were some of the first inhabi-tants of Mesoamerica?
Reading Check
CHAPTER 11 The Americas
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Cultures of Mesoamerica, 900 B.C.–A.D. 1500
Mayan civilization,A.D. 900
Aztec and Mayan
Aztec civilization,A.D. 1500
Olmec heartland,900 B.C.
Toltec heartland,A.D. 900
Mesoamerican civilizations developed in Mexico and CentralAmerica.
1. Interpreting Maps Identify and locate the capital of theToltec Empire.
2. Applying Geography Skills Identify any pattern(s) yousee in the locations of the different cities, and explainwhy the pattern(s) may have developed.
Most of the Mayan people were peasant farmers.They lived on tiny plots or on terraced hills in thehighlands. There was a fairly clear-cut division oflabor. Men did the fighting and hunting, women thehomemaking and raising of children. Women alsomade cornmeal, the basic food of many Mayans.
Crucial to Mayan civilization was its belief that allof life was in the hands of divine powers. The nameof their supreme god was Itzamna (eet-SAWM-nuh)(Lizard House). Gods were ranked in order of
importance. Some, likethe jaguar god of night,were evil rather thangood. Like other ancientcivilizations in CentralAmerica, the Maya prac-ticed human sacrifice asa way to appease thegods. Human sacrificeswere also used for spe-cial ceremonial occa-sions. When a male heirwas presented to the
throne, war captives were tortured and thenbeheaded. In A.D. 790, one Mayan ruler took histroops into battle to gain prisoners for a celebrationhonoring his son as his heir apparent.
Writings and Calendar The Maya created asophisticated writing system based on hieroglyphs,or pictures. Unfortunately, the Spanish conquerors inthe sixteenth century made no effort to decipher thelanguage or respect the Maya’s writings. Instead, theSpaniards assumed the writings were evil or of novalue. Bishop Diego de Landa said, “We found alarge number of books in these characters and, asthey contained nothing in which there were not to beseen superstition and lies of the devil, we burnedthem all, which they regretted to an amazing degree,and which caused them much affliction.” In their col-onization of the New World, the Spanish wouldrepeat this behavior over and over. They wouldapply their own religious views to the native civi-lizations with which they came in contact. TheSpaniards’ subsequent destruction of religiousobjects, and sometimes entire cities, helped bring an
CHAPTER 11 The Americas
The Deadly Games of Central America
Mayan cities contained ball courts.Usually, a court consisted of a
rectangular space surroundedby walls with highlydecorated stonerings. The wallswere covered withimages of war andsacrificial victims. The contestantstried to drive a solid rubber ballthrough these rings. Ball players,usually two or three on a team,used their hips to propel theball (they were not allowed touse hands or feet). Players
donned helmets, gloves, andknee and hip protectorsmade of hide to protectthemselves against thehard rubber balls.
Because the stone ringswere placed 27 feet
(more than 8 m)above the ground, ittook considerableskill to score a goal.Some scholarsbelieve that makinga goal was so rare
354
HISTORY
Web Activity Visitthe Glencoe WorldHistory Web site at
andclick on Chapter 11–Student Web Activity to learn more aboutearly civilizations in theAmericas.
wh.glencoe.com
This Mayan athlete is shownwearing protective padding.
end to these civilizations. The Maya wrote on bark,folding it like an accordian, then covering the outsidewith thin plaster. Four of these books have survived.Maya writing was also carved onto clay, jade, bone,shells, and stone monuments.
Mayan hieroglyphs remained a mystery to schol-ars for centuries. Then, modern investigators discov-ered that many passages contained symbols thatrecorded dates in the Mayan calendar known as theLong Count. This calendar was based on a belief incycles of creation and destruction. According to theMaya, our present world was created in 3114 B.C. andis scheduled to complete its downward cycle onDecember 23, A.D. 2012.
The Maya used two different systems for meas-uring time. One was based on a solar calendar of365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days each,with an extra 5 days at the end. The other systemwas based on a sacred calendar of 260 days dividedinto 13 weeks of 20 days each. Only trained priestscould read and use this calendar. They used it toforetell the future and know the omens associatedwith each day.
Many Mayan hieroglyphs record important eventsin Mayan history, especially those in the lives ofMayan rulers. One of the most important collectionsof Mayan hieroglyphs is at Palenque (puh•LEHNG•KAY), deep in the jungles in the neck of the Mexicanpeninsula. There, archaeologists discovered a royaltomb covered with hieroglyphs that record theaccomplishments of a ruler named Pacal, whosebody was buried in the tomb.
The Toltec The center of the Toltec Empire was atTula, built on a high ridge northwest of present-dayMexico City. The Toltec were a fierce and warlikepeople who extended their conquests into the Mayanlands of Guatemala and the northern Yucatán. TheToltec were also builders who constructed pyramidsand palaces. They controlled the upper YucatánPeninsula from their capital at Chichén Itzá for sev-eral centuries, beginning around A.D. 900. In about1200 their civilization, too, declined.
Describing How did the Mayameasure time?
Reading Check
355CHAPTER 11 The Americas
that players were rewarded withclothing and jewelry from the watching crowds.
The exact rules of the game areunknown, but we do know that itwas more than a sport. The ballgame had a religious meaning. Theball court was a symbol of the world,and the ball represented the sun and the moon. Apparently, it wasbelieved that playing the game oftenwould produce better harvests. Theresults of the game were deadly. Thedefeated players were sacrificed inceremonies held after the end of the game. Similar courts have beenfound at sites throughout CentralAmerica, as well as present-day Arizona and New Mexico.
CONNECTING TO THE PAST
1. Summarizing Why was great skill required of theathletes who played the Mayan ball game?
2. Describing Explain the symbolism of the Mayanball game.
3. Writing about History What other sporting eventshave you read about that could result in the deathof the losing participant?
A present-day soccermatch featuring
Brazil and Canada
356CHAPTER 11 The Americas
The AztecThe origins of the Aztec are uncertain. Sometime
during the twelfth century A.D., however, they begana long migration that brought them to the Valley ofMexico. They eventually established their capital atTenochtitlán (tay•NAWCH•teet•LAHN), on anisland in the middle of Lake Texcoco, now the loca-tion of Mexico City. There, they would rule until con-quered by the Spaniards in the 1500s.
Rise of the Aztec According to their legends, whenthe Aztec arrived in the Valley of Mexico, other peoplesdrove them into a snake-infested region. The Aztec sur-vived, however, strengthened by their belief in asign that would come from their god of war and ofthe sun, Huitzilopochtli (wee•tsee•loh• POHKT•lee).The god had told them that when they saw an eagleperched on a cactus growing out of a rock, their jour-ney would end.
In 1325, under attack by another people, they weredriven into the swamps and islands of Lake Texcoco.On one of the islands, they saw an eagle standing ona prickly pear cactus on a rock. There they builtTenochtitlán (or “place of the prickly pear cactus”):
“Now we have found the land promised to us. Wehave found peace for our weary people. Now wewant for nothing.”
For the next hundred years,the Aztec built their city. Theyconstructed temples, other pub-lic buildings, and houses. Theybuilt roadways of stone acrossLake Texcoco to the north,south, and west, linking themany islands to the mainland.
While they were buildingtheir capital city, the Aztec, whowere outstanding warriors, con-solidated their rule over much of what is modernMexico. The new kingdom was not a centralizedstate but a collection of semi-independent territoriesgoverned by local lords. The Aztec ruler supportedthese rulers in their authority in return for tribute,goods or money paid by conquered peoples to theirconquerors.
Political and Social Structures By 1500, as manyas four million Aztec lived in the Valley of Mexicoand the surrounding valleys of central Mexico.
356 CHAPTER 11 The Americas 356CHAPTER 5 Rome and the Rise of Christianity
Using the Past to Create a New FutureIn the 1920s, after a successful revolution, the new
Mexican government sought to create a new image ofthe Mexican nation and a new sense of national identityfor the Mexican people. The revolutionary governmentenlisted the support of artists to make Mexicans awareof their glorious past.
Diego Rivera, one of Mexico’s leading artists,accepted the government’s challenge. Between 1920and 1950, he completed a series of massive paintingson the walls of Mexico’s schools and government build-ings. In his murals, Rivera used his knowledge of Mex-ico’s past to achieve an imaginative re-creation of theworld of the ancient Aztec.
Rivera showed an idealized version of the wonders ofthe Aztec, as well as their betrayal by the Spaniards: peo-ple in the busy markets of the capital city of Tenoch-titlán; Aztec doctors performing operations; Aztecpeople playing instruments and engaged in native artsand crafts; Aztec women grinding corn and preparing
tortillas; and Spanish knightsarmed with guns crushingthe Aztec people.
Rivera wanted Mexicansto be aware of their past. Healso sought, however, toencourage modern Mexicansto create a civilization aspure, simple, and noble ashe imagined that of the Aztecto have been.
Causeways
LakeTexcoco
GreatTemple
Tenochtitlán
LakeXochimilco
LakeChalco
LakeZumpango
LakeXaltocan
356
Murals and tapestries have long been used to recordhistorical events. Using outside sources, select onewell-known historical mural, painting, or tapestry,such as the tapestry of Bayeux. Compare the historicevent recorded in the painting or tapestry to a writtenrecord of the same event. How are the visual and thewritten sources similar and different, and why?
� The Aztec World by Diego Rivera
Power in the Aztec state was vested in the handsof the monarch, who claimed that he was descendedfrom the gods. The Aztec ruler was assisted by acouncil of lords and government officials.
The rest of the population consisted of common-ers, indentured workers, and slaves. Indenturedworkers were landless laborers who contracted towork on the nobles’ estates. Slaves, people capturedin war, worked in the households of the wealthy.Most people were commoners, and many common-ers were farmers. Others engaged in trade, especiallyin the densely populated Valley of Mexico, wherehalf of the people lived in cities.
From the beginnings of their lives, boys and girlsin Aztec society were given very different roles. Assoon as a male baby was born, the midwife whoattended the birth said, “You must understand thatyour home is not here where you have been born, foryou are a warrior.” To a female infant, the midwifesaid, “As the heart stays in the body, so you must stayin the house.”
Women in Aztec society were not equal to men butthey were allowed to own and inherit property andto enter into contracts, something not often allowedin other world cultures at the time. Women wereexpected to work in the home, weave textiles, andraise children. However, they were also permitted tobecome priestesses.
Religion and Culture The Aztec believed in manygods. Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and of war, was particularly important. Another import-ant god was the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl
(ket•suhl• KWAH•tul). According to Aztec tradi-tion, this being had left his homeland in the Valleyof Mexico in the tenth century, promising to returnin triumph. The story of Quetzalcoatl became partof a legend about a Toltec prince whose return fromexile would be preceded by the sign of an arrowthrough a sapling. When the Aztec saw the Spanishwith a similar sign—the cross—on their breast-plates, the Aztec thought that representatives ofQuetzalcoatl had returned.
Aztec religion was based on a belief in an unend-ing struggle between the forces of good and evilthroughout the universe. This struggle had led to thecreation and destruction of four worlds, or suns. Peo-ple were living in the time of the fifth sun. However,this world, too, was destined to end with the destruc-tion of the earth by earthquakes.
In an effort to postpone the day of reckoning, theAztec practiced human sacrifice. They believed thatby appeasing the god Huitzilopochtli they coulddelay the final destruction of their world.
A chief feature of Aztec culture was its monumen-tal architecture. At the center of the capital city ofTenochtitlán was a massive pyramid dedicated toHuitzilopochtli. A platform at the top held shrines tothe gods and an altar for performing human sacrifices.
The Destruction of Aztec Civilization For a cen-tury, the Aztec kingdom ruled much of central Mexicofrom the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. Most local offi-cials accepted the authority of the Aztec king inTenochtitlán. In the region of Tlaxcala to the east, how-ever, the local lords wanted greater independence.
357CHAPTER 11 The Americas
This mosaic depicts the meetingof Montezuma and Cortés. Howhas the artist shown that, whileoffering a gift, Cortés is also athreat to the Aztec?
History
Areas that had never been conquered wanted toremain free of the Aztec.
In 1519, a Spanish force under the command ofHernán Cortés landed at Veracruz, on the Gulf ofMexico. Cortés marched to Tenochtitlán at the headof a small body of troops (550 soldiers and 16 horses).As he went, he made alliances with city-states thathad tired of the oppressive rule of the Aztec. Particu-larly important was the alliance with Tlaxcala.
When Cortés arrived at Tenochtitlán, he received afriendly welcome from the Aztec monarch Mon-tezuma (also spelled Moctezuma). At first, Mon-tezuma believed that his visitor was a representativeof Quetzalcoatl, the god who had departed from hishomeland centuries before and had promised that hewould return. Montezuma offered gifts of gold to theforeigners and gave them a palace to use while theywere in the city.
Eventually, tensions arose between the Spaniardsand the Aztec. The Spanish took Montezuma hostageand began to pillage the city. In 1520, one year afterCortés arrived, the local population revolted anddrove the invaders from the city. Many of the Span-ish were killed.
The Aztec soon experienced new disasters, how-ever. With no natural immunity to the diseases of theEuropeans, many of them fell sick and died. Mean-while, Cortés received fresh soldiers from his newallies, the state of Tlaxcala alone provided fifty thou-sand warriors. After four months, the city surren-dered. The forces of Cortés leveled pyramids,
358 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
Checking for Understanding1. Define Mesoamerica, hieroglyph,
tribute.
2. Identify Olmec, Maya, Toltec, Aztec,Hernán Cortés, Montezuma.
3. Locate Teotihuacán, Yucatán Penin-sula, Tikal, Chichén Itzá, Tenochtitlán,Lake Texcoco.
4. Explain how Mayan hieroglyphs havehelped us to understand Mayan culture.
5. Summarize the different categories ofAztec society.
Critical Thinking6. Evaluate What was the importance
of trade for the early American civilizations?
7. Summarizing Information Create atable like the one below listing themajor civilizations and principal citiesthat developed in Mesoamerica.
Analyzing Visuals8. Compare the sculpture of a Mayan
athlete shown on page 354 with thephotograph of modern athletes shownon page 355. What inferences can youdraw about the status of athletes in Mayan culture? What status do athletes in America have today?
9. Informative Writing Imagine thatyou are the first Aztec warrior to seethe perched eagle in Lake Texcoco.Write a paragraph about what theeagle means and why it is importantto you and your culture.
Mesoamerica
Civilizations Cities
Montezumac. 1466–1520—Aztec ruler
Montezuma became the Aztecruler in 1502. He was a strong leaderwho enlarged the Aztec Empire. OneSpaniard observed, “The great Mon-tezuma was about forty years old, ofgood height and well proportioned, slen-der but of the natural color and shade of anIndian.” At first, Montezuma believed that Hernán Cortéswas a representative of Quetzalcoatl, the god who haddeparted from his homeland centuries before. Mon-tezuma offered gold to the foreigners and gave them apalace to use while they were in the city. Too late he real-ized that Cortés and his men wanted land and treasure.The Spanish claimed that his own people, angry with hispolicies, killed Montezuma.
temples, and palaces and used the stones to buildgovernment buildings and churches for the Spanish.The rivers and canals were filled in. As we will see,throughout the Americas, Europeans, using gunpow-der first developed in Asia, were able to destroy pow-erful civilizations weakened by European diseases.The Aztec city of Tenochtitlán was no more.
Summarizing What aspect of Aztecculture is reflected in their architecture?
Reading Check
c. 700Moche civilizationcollapses
c. 1400Incan ruler Pachacutibuilds empire
1535Pizarro conquersthe Inca
Guide to Reading
Early Civilizations in South America
Preview of Events✦700 ✦850 ✦1000 ✦1150 ✦1300 ✦1450 ✦1600
In their capital city of Cuzco, the Inca built a temple dedicated to the sun. A Spanishobserver described it as follows:
“[The temple] is built of smooth masonry, very level and smooth. The roof was ofwood and very lofty so that there would be plenty of air. It was covered with thatch:they had no tiles. All four walls of the temple were covered from top to bottom withplates and slabs of gold. Over what we have called the high altar they had the imageof the Sun on a gold plate twice the thickness of the rest of the wall-plates. The imageshowed him with a round face and beams and flames of fire all in one piece, just as heis usually depicted by painters. It was so large that it stretched over the whole of thatside of the temple from wall to wall.”
—Royal Commentaries of the Incas: And General History of Peru, Harold V. Livermore, trans., 1966
Known as accomplished builders of impressive structures, the Inca flourished inSouth America during the 1400s.
Early CivilizationsCaral has been identified as the oldest major city in the Americas. Caral is
believed to be one thousand years older than the ancient cities previously knownin the Western Hemisphere. Located in the Supe River valley of Peru, the city
Voices from the Past
Main Ideas• The Inca developed a well-organized,
militaristic empire.• Incan communities undertook sophisti-
cated building projects and establisheda high level of cultural development.
Key Termsmaize, quipu
People to IdentifyMoche, Inca, Pachacuti, Francisco Pizarro
Places to LocateEcuador, Cuzco, Machu Picchu,Urubamba River
Preview Questions1. What does Moche pottery tell us
about the Moche people?2. What method did the Inca use to
enlarge their empire?
Reading StrategyOrganizing Information As you readthis section, complete a pyramid diagramshowing the hierarchy of the Inca’s politi-cal organization.
CHAPTER 11 The Americas 359
The Sun Temple at Cuzco
contains buildings for officials, apartment buildings,and grand residences, all built of stone. The inhabi-tants of Caral also developed a system of irrigationby diverting a river more than a mile (1.609 km)upstream into their fields. Caral was abandonedbetween 2000 and 1500 B.C.
Sometime after 1000 B.C., another advanced civi-lization appeared near the Pacific coast not far southof the border of Ecuador. At Moche (MOH•cheh), a major urban center arose amid irrigated fields inthe valley of the Moche River, which flows from the foothills of the Andes into the Pacific Ocean.Farmers in the area grew enough maize (corn),peanuts, potatoes, and cotton to supply much of thefood for the region.
Moche was the capital of a powerful state. Theauthority of the Moche rulers extended far along thecoast. The people of Moche had no written language,but their pottery gives us some idea of their interests.Among other things, the pottery shows that theMoche, like peoples in Central America, led livescentered around warfare. Paintings and pottery fre-quently portray warriors, prisoners, and sacrificialvictims.
Explaining What was the importanceof the Moche River to the people who lived near it?
The IncaAfter the collapse of the Moche civilization around
A.D. 700, a period of decline set in until the rise of anew power about three hundred years later. Thispower, the kingdom of Chimor, dominated the areafor nearly four centuries. It was finally destroyed bypeople who created an even more spectacularempire—the Inca.
In the late 1300s, the Inca were only a smallcommunity in the area of Cuzco (KOOS•koh), acity located high, 11,000 feet (3,352.8 m), in themountains of southern Peru. In the 1440s, how-ever, under the leadership of the powerful rulerPachacuti, the Inca launched a campaign of con-quest that eventually brought the entire regionunder their control.
Political Structures Pachacuti and his immediatesuccessors, Topa Inca and Huayna Inca (the wordInca means “ruler”), extended the boundaries of theIncan Empire as far as Ecuador, central Chile, and theedge of the Amazon basin. The empire included per-haps twelve million people.
The Incan state was built on war, so all young menwere required to serve in the Incan army. With sometwo hundred thousand members, the army was thelargest and best armed in the region. Because theInca, like other people in the early Americas, did notmake use of the wheel, supplies were carried on thebacks of llamas.
Once an area was placed under Incan control, thelocal inhabitants were instructed in the Quechua(KEH•chuh•wuh) language. Control of new territo-ries was carefully regulated. A noble of high rankwas sent out to govern the new region. Local leaderscould keep their posts as long as they were loyal tothe Inca ruler.
To create a well-organized empire, Pachacutidivided it into four quarters, with each ruled by a
Reading Check
360 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
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Cultures of South America,A.D. 700–1530
The Moche, Chimor, and Incan peoples developed advancedcivilizations in South America.
1. Interpreting Maps Estimate in miles the length of theIncan Empire.
2. Applying Geography Skills Create your own map ofthe Incan Empire. Using your text as a guide, add theIncan system of roads to your map.
Incan civilization, A.D. 1530
Moche civilization, A.D. 700
Kingdom of Chimor, A.D. 1400
Mocheruler �
Social Structures Incan society was highly regi-mented. So, too, were marriage and the lives ofwomen. Men and women were required to select amarriage partner from within their own socialgroups. After marriage, women were expected tocare for the children and to weave cloth. For women,there was only one alternative to a life of working inthe home. Some young girls were chosen to serve aspriestesses in temples.
In rural areas, the people lived chiefly by farming.In the mountains, they used terraced farms, wateredby irrigation systems that carried precise amounts ofwater into the fields. These were planted with corn,potatoes, and other crops. The houses of the farmers,built of stone or adobe with thatched roofs, werelocated near the fields.
Building and Culture The Inca were great builders.The buildings and monuments of the capital city ofCuzco were the wonder of early European visitors.These structures were built of close-fitting stoneswith no mortar—the better to withstand the frequentearthquakes in the area.
Nothing shows the architectural genius of the Incamore than the ruins of the abandoned city of MachuPicchu (MAH•CHOO PEE•CHOO). Machu Picchu,elevation 9,000 feet (2,743.2 m), was built on a loftyhilltop surrounded by mountain peaks far above theUrubamba River. It was a small city, containing onlyabout two hundred buildings.
In one part of Machu Picchu, a long stairway leadsto an elegant stone known to the Inca as the “hitch-ing post of the sun.” Carved from the mountain, this“hitching post” may have been used as a solar
governor. In turn, the quarters were divided intoprovinces, each also ruled by a governor. Eachprovince was supposed to contain about ten thou-sand residents. At the top of the entire system wasthe emperor, who was believed to be descended fromInti, the sun god.
Forced labor was another important feature of thestate. All Incan subjects were responsible for laborservice, usually for several weeks each year. Labor-ers, often with their entire communities, were movedaccording to need from one part of the country toanother to take part in building projects.
The Inca also built roads. A sys-tem of some 24,800 miles (around40,000 km) of roads extended fromthe border of modern-day Colom-bia to a point south of modern-daySantiago, Chile. Two major road-ways extended in a north-southdirection, one through the Andesand the other along the coast, withconnecting routes between them.
Rest houses, located a day’swalk apart, and storage depotswere placed along the roads. Vari-ous types of bridges, includingsome of the finest examples of sus-pension bridges in premoderntimes, were built over ravines andwaterways.
361
Pachacutic. 1438–1471—Incan ruler
Pachacuti was the founder of theIncan Empire. Through his conquests,he expanded the small Incan state heinherited into an empire. He also cre-ated a highly centralized governmentand insisted that its officials be honest. Hedecreed that “any judge who permitted himselfto be bribed should be regarded as a thief and, as such,punished with death.”
Pachacuti made visits to the various parts of hisempire. On these trips, he traveled in litters—coveredcouches used for carrying passengers—surrounded byguards and carrying jewels and riches with him. Pacha-cuti was also a builder. The capital of Cuzco was trans-formed from a city of mud and thatch into an imposingcity of stone during his reign.
The 50-foot-tall stone walls of Cuzco were built without mortar by the Inca.
362 CHAPTER 11 The Americas
Checking for Understanding1. Define maize, quipu.
2. Identify Moche, Inca, Pachacuti,Francisco Pizarro.
3. Locate Ecuador, Cuzco, Machu Picchu,Urubamba River.
4. Describe the Incan system of forcedlabor.
5. List evidence historians use to supportthe claim that the Moche led livescentered around warfare.
Critical Thinking6. Evaluate How did Pachacuti expand
the Incan state into an empire?
7. Summarizing Information Create agraphic organizer like the one below to summarize the ways that the Incansystem of roads unified the empire.
Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photograph of the Incan
temple at Cuzco, Peru, shown on page359. What architectural elements doesthe Incan temple have that are alsoseen in buildings from other culturesyou have read about?
9. Expository Writing Write an essayin which you explain the advantagesand the disadvantages of the politicalsystem of the Inca.
Incan Road System
observatory. During the sun festivals held in Juneand December, the people of Machu Picchu gatheredhere to chant and say prayers to Inti, the sun god.
The Inca had no writing system but instead keptrecords using a system of knotted strings called thequipu. However, the lack of a fully developed writingsystem did not prevent the Inca from attaining a highlevel of cultural achievement.
The Inca had a well-developed tradition of courttheater, consisting of both tragic and comic works.Plays often involved the recounting of valiant deedsand other historical events. Actors were not profes-sionals but rather members of the nobility or seniorofficials who memorized their parts. Poetry was alsorecited, often accompanied by music played on reedinstruments.
Conquest of the Inca The Incan Empire was stillflourishing when the first Spanish expeditionsarrived in the central Andes. In December 1530, Fran-cisco Pizarro and a small band of about 180 menlanded on the Pacific coast of South America. Pizarrobrought steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses. TheInca had seen none of these.
The Incan Empire experienced an epidemic ofsmallpox. Like the Aztec, the Inca had no immunitiesto European diseases. All too soon, smallpox wasdevastating entire villages. Even the Incan emperorwas a victim.
When the emperor died, each of his two sonsclaimed the throne for himself. This led to a civil war.Atahuallpa (AH•tuh•WAHL•puh), one of the sons,defeated his brother’s forces. Pizarro took advantageof the situation by capturing Atahuallpa. Armed onlywith stones, arrows, and light spears, Atahuallpa‘ssoldiers provided little challenge to the charginghorses, guns, and cannons of the Spanish.
After executing Atahuallpa, Pizarro and his sol-diers, aided by Incan allies, marched on Cuzco andcaptured the Incan capital. By 1535, Pizarro hadestablished a new capital at Lima for a new colony ofthe Spanish Empire.
Describing How did the Inca farm inthe mountains?
Reading Check
This Peruvian print from 1609 shows an Incan manusing the quipu. What information about the pastcan historians gain from this image?
History
363
Analyzing Primary Sources
1. What did the quipu record? Whatwas it unable to record?
2. In what other ways and from what other sources was the history of the Inca preserved?
THE INCA DID NOT POSSESS A WRITTENlanguage. To record events and other aspects oftheir lives that they wished to remember, theyused a system of knotted strings, called the quipu.This is a sixteenth-century description of theprocess.
“These men recorded on their knots all thetribute brought annually to the Inca, specifyingeverything by kind, species, and quality. Theyrecorded the number of men who went to the wars,how many died in them, and how many were bornand died every year, month by month. In short theymay be said to have recorded on their knots every-thing that could be counted, even mentioning bat-tles and fights, all the [ambassadors who] had cometo visit the Inca, and all the speeches and argumentsthe king had uttered. But the purpose of the [diplo-matic visits] or the contents of the speeches, or anyother descriptive matter could not be recorded onthe knots, consisting as it did of continuous spokenor written prose, which cannot be expressed bymeans of knots, since these can only give numbersand not words. To supply this want they used signsthat indicated historical events or facts or the exis-tence of any [diplomatic visit], speech, or discussionin time of peace or war. Such speeches were com-mitted to memory and taught by tradition to theirsuccessors and descendants from father to son. . . .Another method too was used for keeping alive inthe memory of the people their deeds and the[ambassadors] they sent to the Inca and the replies[the king] gave them. The philosophers and sagestook the trouble to turn them into stories, no longerthan fables, suitable for telling to children, youngpeople, and the rustics of the countryside: they werethus passed from hand to hand and age to age, andpreserved in the memories of all. . . . Similarly theirpoets composed short, compressed poems, embrac-ing a history, or [a diplomatic visit], or the king’s
reply. In short, everything that could not be recordedon the knots was included in these poems, whichwere sung at their triumphs. Thus they remembered their history.”
—Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentariesof the Incas: And General History of Peru
The quipu wasmade from woven
strands of different-colored yarn.
The Quipu
CHAPTER 11 The Americas364
Using Key Terms1. The Iroquois built , made of wooden poles and cov-
ered with bark, to house many families.
2. The Inca used knotted strings, called the , to keeprecords.
3. Within each Iroquois group were , groups of relatedfamilies.
4. Circular tents, or , were made of buffalo skinsstretched over wooden poles.
5. Sun-dried bricks are called .
6. were multistoried structures built by the Anasazi.
7. The Aztec ruler allowed others to rule semi-independent ter-ritories if they paid , goods or money paid by thoseconquered.
8. The areas of Mexico and Central America that had civilizations before Europeans arrived are called .
9. The Mayan system of writing was based on pictures called.
Reviewing Key Facts10. Geography Name two major mountain ranges in the west-
ern portion of the Americas.
11. Culture How many people did some of the urban centers ofthe Hopewell people contain?
12. Culture What were the names of the “three sisters” cropsfarmed by the Iroquois?
13. Government The phrase “self-interest shall be cast away”comes from which Iroquois statement?
14. History How did the Plains Indians capture buffalo withoutusing weapons?
15. History What did the Spanish bring to the Americas thatcontributed to the destruction of the early civilizations?
16. Science and Technology According to the Mayan calendar,when will the world complete its downward cycle?
17. Religion What did the Aztec believe when they saw thecrosses on the Spanish breastplates?
18. Geography At what altitude did the Inca build Cuzco?
19. Culture Why did the Inca use the quipu?
Critical Thinking20. Making Comparisons How are the pyramids of the Amer-
icas similar to the pyramids of Egypt? Why is this style ofbuilding found around the world?
21. Evaluating How are the houses of the North American peo-ples a reflection of the geography of their regions?
22. Drawing Conclusions Why did Incan rulers insist that allconquered peoples be taught the Quechua language?
The table below summarizes the factors that helped shape early cultures in the Americas.
Eastern Woodlands
Central Plains
Southwest
Mesoamerica
South America
Mound Builders,Iroquois
Plains
Anasazi
Olmec, Maya,Aztec
Moche, Inca
Hunting and gathering,some agriculture
Hunting and gathering
Extensive farming
Farming, trade
Farming, trade
Longhouses, someurban centers
Tepees
Cliff dwellings
Large cities, religiousand political structures
Large cities, religiousand political structures
People Economics ArchitectureLocation
Analyzing Maps and ChartsEuropean visitors were amazed by the buildings and monumentsof the Incan capital at Cuzco. Use the above map to answer thefollowing questions.
29. Approximately how long was the city of Cuzco?30. What natural boundaries surround Cuzco? Where did the
Inca build boundaries? Why were man-made boundariesneeded?
31. The Inca developed a vast road system. What do you noticeabout the roads leading out of Cuzco?
32. How might geographical factors have influenced the place-ment of buildings in Cuzco?
Self-Check QuizVisit the Glencoe World History Web site at
and click on Chapter 11–Self-CheckQuiz to prepare for the Chapter Test.wh.glencoe.com
HISTORY
Directions: Choose the best answer to thefollowing question.
The League of Iroquois was important because it
A protected the Aztec from Hernán Cortés.
B was created by Deganawida and Hiawatha.
C was an early American form of the democraticassembly.
D established the Mayan calendar.
Test-Taking Tip: Some answer choices are better thanothers. Be sure you have read all the choices carefullybefore you pick your answer.
CHAPTER 11 The Americas 365
Writing About History23. Expository Writing Choose a Mesoamerican society
from this chapter and write a brief essay describing howgeography affected the following: how food was obtained,the materials used for homes and other structures, the sizeof communities, the need for trade, the impact of naturalboundaries such as mountains and bodies of water, and thesources of drinking water.
Analyzing SourcesRead the following quote by Bernal Díaz who accompaniedCortéz on his expedition to Mexico in 1519.
“When we beheld so many cities and towns on thewater, and other large settlements built on firm ground,and that broad causeway running so straight and per-fectly level to the city of Tenochtitlán, we were aston-ished because of the great stone towers and templesand buildings that rose up out of the water.”
24. Which early civilization built the city of Tenochtitlán?
25. Why were the Spanish so “astonished” by what they saw?
26. What was the final result of this encounter between theSpanish and the civilization described in the quote?
Applying Technology Skills27. Using the Internet Access the Internet to locate a Web site
that has information about the ancient Incan Empire. Use asearch engine to help focus your search by using phrasessuch as Incan Empire, Mesoamerican civilization, or NativeAmericans. Create a bulletin board using the informationfound on the Web site and incorporate illustrations of Incanculture and artifacts. Include captions with your photos andillustrations.
Making Decisions28. Early civilizations had to survive with little technology,
knowledge of the world, or grocery stores. Imagine that youand a group of friends are stranded on a deserted island.Make a list of things you hope you will find on the island inorder to survive, and how you will stay alive until you arerescued.
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Five Poemsby Li Bo
Li Bo was born in A.D. 701 in western China.People began praising his beautiful poemseven before he reached adulthood.Throughout his life he traveled extensively inChina, amazing people with his ability tocompose insightful, touching poems. Hewrote about the world around him, the peo-ple he met, and the emotions he felt. By thetime of his death in A.D. 762, he wasregarded as one of China’s greatest poets, adistinction he still holds today.
In the following poems, Li Bo interpretsparting from a friend, life as a journey, andhis experience with his homeland.
Read to DiscoverAs you read, note the ways in which Li Bodraws the reader into his descriptions. Whatemotions do his poems evoke in you?
Reader’s Dictionarybrooklet: a small brook or creek
sparse: few and scattered
thrush: a type of small to medium sizedbird that is an excellent singer
Taking Leave of a FriendBlue mountains to the north of the walls,White river winding about them;Here we must make separationAnd go out through a thousand miles
of dead grass.
Mind like a floating wide cloud,Sunset like the parting of old acquaintancesWho bow over their clasped hands at a distance.Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing.
Clearing at DawnThe fields are chill, the sparse
rain has stopped;The colours of Spring teem
on every side.With leaping fish the blue pond
is full;With singing thrushes the green
boughs droop.The flowers of the field have
dabbled their powdered cheeks;The mountain grasses are bent
level at the waist.By the bamboo stream the last
fragment of cloudBlown by the wind slowly
scatters away.
� This painting is titled DawnOver Elixir Palace.
Hard Is the JourneyGold vessels of fine wines,
thousands a gallon,Jade dishes of rare meats,
costing more thousands,I lay my chopsticks down,
no more can banquet,And draw my sword and stare
wildly about me:
Ice bars my way to crossthe Yellow River,
Snows from dark skies to climbthe T’ai-hang Mountains!
At peace I drop a hookinto a brooklet,
At once I’m in a boatbut sailing sunward . . .
(Hard is the Journey,Hard is the Journey,So many turnings,And now where am I?)
So when a breeze breaks waves,bringing fair weather,
I set a cloud for sails,cross the blue oceans!
Listening to a Flute in Yellow Crane PavilionI came here a wandererthinking of homeremembering my far away Ch’ang-an.And then, from deep in Yellow Crane Pavilion,I heard a beautiful bamboo fluteplay “Falling Plum Blossoms.”It was late spring in a city by the river.
In the Mountains on a Summer DayGently I stir a white feather fan,With open shirt sitting in a green wood.I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone;A wind from the pine-tree trickles on my bare
head.
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1. What detail in Taking Leave of a Friend reveals a custom specific to Li Bo’s times?
2. What happens between the beginning of the firststanza and the end of the second stanza of Hard Isthe Journey?
3. What is the significance of the last line of Listeningto a Flute in Yellow Crane Pavilion?
4. CRITICAL THINKING Li Bo describes beauty andpeace and luxury in Hard Is the Journey. Why doyou think he calls the journey “hard”?
Applications Activity Write a poem describing your hometown. Make sure to include a description of something unique to that area.
Landscape of the Four Seasons by Shen shih-Ch’ung �
