1.2: Native Societies before 1492

Question 1

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

Answer 1

• AZTECS
• Central America
• Tenochtitlan w/ 300,000
• irrigation
• MAYA
• Yucatan Peninsula
• irrigation and water storage
• giant stone temple for rulers
• INCA
• South America: Andes
• 16 million
• cultivation of fertile mountain valleys
• potatoes
• ALL
• cultivated maize
• nutritious
• spread into America
• supported economic development, settlement and irrigation

Question 2

NORTH AMERICA

Answer 2

• PUEBLO
• Mexico and Arizona
• sedentary
• adobe and masonry homes
• highly organized w/ administrative offices and religious centres
• UTE
• Great Plains and Great Basin
• nomadic
• region = arid so hunter-gatherers
• small, egalitarian, kinship based bands
• CHINOOK
• Pacific Northwest
• fishing villages
• relied on elk
• cedar trees for large houses
• HOPEWELL
• Mississippi River Valley
• fertile soil and therefore farming societies
• extensive trade
• CAHOKIA
• MRV
• powerful Chieftans who centralized gov
• IROQUOIS
• Northeast
• maize, squash and beans
• longhouses