Terms : Hide Images
| 14748921305 | Silk Road | A network of trade routes connecting China and the Middle East across Central China. | 0 | |
| 14748949249 | Parthians | Iranian ruling dynasty between ca. 250 B.C.E. and 226 C.E in northeastern Iran. These people originated from east of the Caspian Sea and had recurring wars with Greeks and Romans. Since they established a kingdom in an integral part of Central Asia, their connections with steppe nomads in the east allowed them to facilitate trade along the Silk Road. | 1 | |
| 14748978641 | General Zhang Jian | A Chinese general that, in 128 BCE, explored on behalf of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty across deserts and mountains of Inner Asia, reaching Ferghana, where he found west-ward flowing rivers and horse breeders. These two discoveries were essential to the Chinese demands for products from the west, especially horses. | 2 | |
| 14748996268 | Silk Road | Horses, Chinese silk, alfalfa. wine grapes and other crops, jasmine oil, oak galls, sal amonic, copper oxides, zinc, religions, and precious stones were products traded across what trade network? | 3 | |
| 14749013034 | Sasanid Empire | Iranian empire (224 - 600), originated as nomads from the southwest, established Zoroastrianism as their state religion. | 4 | |
| 14749059624 | Zoroastrianism | The state religion established by the Sasanid Empire, originating from the prophet Zoroaster. The religion consisted of a single deity, Ahuramazda, and demanded that humans choose sides in the struggle between good and evil; those who chose good were promised to be rewarded in the afterlife, while those who chose evil were to be punished. This religion emphasized truth-telling, purity, and reverence for nature. | 5 | |
| 14749140990 | Zoroastrian high priest | Persecutions of Christians, Jews, and Buddhists were carried out by who? | 6 | |
| 14749147371 | Nestorian Christians | These were Christians that believed a human nature and a divine nature coexisted in Jesus because Mary, they believed, was his mother. In 431 a council of bishops called by the Byzantine emperor declared these Christians heretics for their beliefs, and so these Christians sought refuge under the Sasanid shah and partook in missionary activities along the Silk Road. | 7 | |
| 14749160828 | Manichaeism | Founded by a preacher, Mani, he preached a dualist faith on the struggle between good and evil (similar to Zoroastrianism). He and his followers were martyred in 276, but through the Silk Road, his teachings passed on. | 8 | |
| 14749216204 | stirrup | A device for securing a horseman's feet, enabling him to wield weapons more effectively. This originated from the Kushan people who ruled northern Afghanistan (~100 CE); a device that gave riders more stability in the saddle and the use of this invention spread through the SIlk Road, benefitting traders, travellers, and soldiers. | 9 | |
| 14749239696 | IOMS | A trade network across the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, one that formed strong economic and social ties between the coastal lands of East Africa, southern Arabia, the Persian Gulf, India, Southeast Asia, and southern China. Chinese, Malay, Indian, Arab, and Persian traders and sailors utilized this network for trade. This network was less popular compared to the Silk Road due to the long voyages across sea, leading to the establishment of socially distinctive colonies. | 10 | |
| 14749311575 | IOMS | Exotic animals and wood from Africa; ivory from North Africa, India, and Mesopotamia; aromatic resins from the scrubby trees of northern Somalia and southern Arabia; pearls from the Persian Gulf; spices and manufactured goods from India and China--these products were traded along what trade network? | 11 | |
| 14749365721 | lingual and cultural | Because women seldom accompanied seafarers on long voyages, these seafarers and sailors and merchants often married local women in port cities. The families established here were bi-____ and bi-_______. | 12 | |
| 14749375819 | trans-saharan trade routes | These trade routes were set in the Saharan desert, only known to desert nomads due to the scarcity of water, and helped connect sub-Saharan Africa to the Sahara. | 13 | |
| 14749396754 | Sahel | The southern borderlands of the Sahara; the farmers of this region helped mediate trade of salt from southern traders to the people of sub-Saharan Africa and forest products (kola nuts and edible palm oil) from the equatorial forest zone to trading centers near the desert. | 14 | |
| 14749417038 | sub-saharan africa | The portion of Africa south of the Sahara, isolated from the rest of the world by a handful of geological obstacles. | 15 | |
| 14749426001 | great traditions | Cultural heritages that were shared by the educated elites within each region, consisting of written languages, common legal and belief systems, ethical codes, and other intellectual attitudes, adhered to by diverse societies over a broad geographical area. T | 16 | |
| 14749469951 | small traditions | a localized, usually nonliterate, set of customs and beliefs adhered to by a single society, often in conjunction with a "great traditions". T | 17 | |
| 14749496749 | cultural unity | Sub-Saharan Africa's _____ ______ rested on the "small traditions" developed during the region's long period of isolation from the rest of the world. The characteristics of these "small traditions" that were shared by many popular cultures led to this ____ ___. | 18 | |
| 14749523611 | Africanity | Qualities of cultural unity (common traits in language, religion, customs, etc, which were related to Bantu migrations) that existed despite the large size of the African continent. | 19 | |
| 14749549644 | camels | The domestication of and herding of these animals enabled people to move away from the Saharan highlands and travel around the desert. | 20 | |
| 14749559890 | steppes | Treeless plains, especially the high, flat expanses of northern Eurasia, which usually have little rain and are covered with coarse grass. They are good lands for nomads and their herds. Good for breeding horses. These plains were paramount to the Silk Trade, as they influenced nomads to settle in these plains along the Silk Trade routes, which progressed and popularized trade with the movement of these nomads. | 21 | |
| 14749577538 | 2,000 | Africa is home to how many languages? | 22 | |
| 14749583817 | Bantu | Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. It is theorized that these people, living near the modern boundary of Nigeria and Cameroon, migrated southward and transferred their traditions and practices into the preexisting societies present in sub-Saharan Africa. | 23 | |
| 14749605295 | Buddhism | the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth. This religion/philosophy was passed along the Silk Trade and IOMS routes. | 24 | |
| 14749609869 | Hinduism | A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms. This, along with Buddhism, spread through the Silk Trade and IOMS popularly. | 25 | |
| 14749622821 | Daoism | A religion in China which emphasizes the removal from society and to become one with nature. | 26 | |
| 14749627983 | Confuscianism | A philosophy of ethics, education, and public service based on writings of Confucius. founded in 6th century BC | 27 | |
| 14763785013 | Berbers | A member of a North African, primarily Muslim people living in settled or nomadic tribes from Morocco to Egypt | 28 | |
| 14806212688 | tang empire | Empire following the Sui Dynasty that was built (in 618) by the Li family, which retained many of the old Sui governing practices while also incorporating it with the Turkic culture they descended from. | 29 | |
| 14806243129 | Chang'an | The Tang capital, which became the center of a continent-wide system of communication and the center of the empire's tributary system. | 30 | |
| 14806279636 | cosmopolitan | Historians use this term to describe a state or society or empire in which multiple cultures, languages, beliefs, and such coexist. This term is used repeatedly to describe certain empires, such as the Tang and Tibetan empires. | 31 | |
| 14806308180 | grand canal | The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and was completed during the Sui Empire. | 32 | |
| 14806320811 | tributary system | A system first established during the Han Dynasty to regulate contact with foreign powers. Independent countries would acknowledge the Chinese emperor's supremacy were required to send embassies to the capital that would pay tribute. | 33 | |
| 14806333550 | Canton | One of the many coastal towns of south China, where historical sources link the bubonic plague to in the early 600s. | 34 | |
| 14806349228 | bubonic plague | Also called the Black Death; is believed to be the deadly disease that spread through Asia and Europe and killed more than a third of the people in parts of China and Europe. | 35 | |
| 14806359890 | silk | China, during the Tang's developing culture and society that was influenced by Inner and Central Asian influences, remained the source of superior ______. Tang factories created more and more complex styles, partly to counter foreign competition. Along with this, China also became the source of porcelain to West Asia. | 36 | |
| 14806398245 | Uighurs | A group of Turkic-speakers originating from modern Mongolia who (between 600 and 751), along with the Tibetans, established large rival states in Inner Asia to compete with the Tang over control of the land routes west of China. | 37 | |
| 14806427126 | Tibetans | These people, along with the Uighurs, established large rival states in Inner Asia to compete with the Tang over control of the land routes west of China. This empire stretched into northeastern India, southwestern China, and the Tarim Basin. Its critical position in the crossroads of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia contributed to the variety of cultural influences this empire experienced and the cosmopolitan culture it developed. | 38 | |
| 14806455421 | Li Shimin | One of the founders of the Tang Empire and its second emperor. He led the expansion of the empire westward into Inner Asia, and his reign lasted from 627 - 649. | 39 | |
| 14806472093 | Kongjo | A Tang princess who, in 634, was sent to the Tibetan Empire to marry the Tibetan king and cement an alliance between the two empires. She brought Mahayana Buddhism to Tibet (which eventually led to the beheading of the next Tibetan king), and in response, ambassadors and students were sent to the Tang imperial capital. | 40 | |
| 14806494759 | 840 | In the year ___, classified as a 'year of disintegration,' the Tang government moved to crush the Buddhist monasteries on Confucian claims that Buddhism undermined the Confucian idea of family. This led to the demolition of 4,600 temples and the forcible conversions of 26,500 monks and nuns into ordinary workers. With the removal of these monasteries came the returning of an enormous amt of land and 150,000 workers (poor people that sought work at Buddhist institutions). | 41 | |
| 14806547134 | An Lushan Rebellion | This rebellion in 755 was led by a Tang regional commander on the north-east frontier. In response to the military demoralization and underfunding they received from the dependent empire, he led 200,000 soldiers in a rebellion that forced the emperor to flee Chang-an and execute his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei. His rebellion preceded his death in 757 but was suppressed by provincial military governors and by the assistance of the Uighurs. This rebellion, however, inspired others that eventually ended the line of empires and ended the Tang empire. | 42 | |
| 14806585940 | Huang Chao | A member of the gentry, who was inspired by the environment of political disintegration and cultural decay set by the An Lushan Rebellion, and led an uprising from 879 - 881. This rebellion overlook villages and, once attracting hundreds of thousands of poor farmers and tenants (motivated with the new hatred of "barbarians"), wiped out thousands of foreign residents in Canton and Beijing. This rebellion, along with An Lushan's, weakened the Tang Dynasty and consequently ended the empire when local warlords ended the rebellion and the line of emperors in 907. | 43 | |
| 14806749169 | Song empire | One of the 3 new states built to compete for the inheritance of the Tang Empire's legacy. This Chinese-speaking empire, built in 960 in Central China, developed sea connections with other states in East Asia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia, but was forced south of the Yellow River to their new capital, Hangzhou, after their former Jurchen allies turned on them. This empire, however, made strong innovations in engineering, astronomy, navigation, military weaponry/armory, paper printing, and money/credit. | 44 | |
| 14806773395 | Liao empire | One of the 3 new states built to compete for the inheritance of the Tang Empire's legacy. This empire was built by the Khitan people, pastoral nomads related to the Mongols, in the north. | 45 | |
| 14817724136 | wu zhao | A woman who married into the imperial family, seized control of the government in 690, and declared herself emperor. She was able to stake her political influence on her claiming to be a bodhisattva. She, among other powerful women in the Tang period, was another reason Confucian elites began looking down upon Buddhism for its encouragement of women engaging in politics. | 46 | |
| 14817987329 | jin empire | This empire was established by the Jurchens of northeastern Asia after enlisting the Song's help to destroy the Liao capital in Mongolia. These people grew rice, millet, and wheat, and also hunted, fished, and tended to livestock. The Jurchens picked up on the Khitan's military arts and political organization, which helped them become formidable enemies of the Song empire. After a campaign in 1127 at the Song's capital, Kaifeng, they forced the Song down south of the Yellow River to a new capital, leaving the Jurchens in control of northern and central China. | 47 | |
| 14818049533 | industrial revolution | Historians claim that the Southern Song was the closest between the three empires to initiate an _____ ______. In this time period, the Song became famous for its many advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. | 48 | |
| 14818084274 | compass | Chinese scholars and inventors of the Song empire utilized their work in astronomy and mathematics and celestial coordinates to develop this navigating tool suitable for seafaring. This tool became popular, improving navigation along with the Greek astrolabe throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. | 49 | |
| 14818122383 | junk | A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel. | 50 | |
| 14818129764 | gunpowder | Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century. The Song used this to counter cavalry assaults and propel clusters of flaming arrows, but later developments introduced a new weapon that launch shells from Song fortifications. | 51 | |
| 14818147075 | neo-confucianism | This term was used for new interpretations of Confucian teachings during and after the Song Empire that developed a systematic approach to cosmology that focused on the central conception that human nature is moral, rational, and essentially good. Thinkers like Zhu Xi reemphasized individual moral and social responsibility and adapted the spiritual idea of universal sagehood. | 52 | |
| 14818276093 | sage | A person who could preserve mental stability and serenity while dealing conscientiously with troubling social problems. This person was considered the human ideal of neo-Confucian thinkers. | 53 | |
| 14818286950 | zen | AKA Chan Buddhism, was a branch of Buddhism that asserted mental discipline alone could win salvation. Meditation became a key practice in this religion, as well as in Confucianism. | 54 | |
| 14818355002 | civil service exams | These were exams used to recruit the most talented men for government service, consisting of questions that required memorization of Confucian classics, but were related to economic management and foreign policy. Since these exams were mostly taken by men from wealthy families, the stakes of succeeding and failing these exams here of high importance to these men's psychological, social, and familial life. | 55 | |
| 14818394724 | movable type | An advancement in paper printing that evolved from woodblocking. Blocks of metal or wood, each bearing a single character, were arranged to make up a page for printing, and allowed cheaper printing of many kinds of informative books and test materials. This type of printing allowed for mass production of exam preparation books to influence young men to take the civil service exams. In addition, this cheaper version of printing eventually led to a sharp increase in population during Song times as landlords and villages learned from books on innovations in agriculture and battling malaria. | 56 | |
| 14818451827 | Tang law code | used during the Tang Dynasty in China. It synthesised Legalist and Confucian interpretations of law. | 57 | |
| 14818461789 | credit | aka flying money, was based off of given certificates that could be exchanged for coinage at different locations. The practice of credit called for rapid economic growth, as it replaced land as a source of wealth. | 58 | |
| 14818485972 | women | the subordination of _______ in Song China intensified with the revival of Confucianism, in which they suffered cultural subordination, legal disenfranchisement, and social restriction. Though many wives were left to manage their husband's property (in their absence), their own property rights suffered legal erosion. | 59 | |
| 14818531932 | footbinding | Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women's feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household, but made society consider them as status symbols and much more susceptible to marriage prospects. | 60 | |
| 14818556525 | koryo | The ruling house in Korea which, after the fall of the Tang Empire (since the Silla Kingdom relied heavily on their Tang support), united the peninsula and established a relationship with the Song Dynasty. | 61 | |
| 14818580521 | Koguryo kingdom | A Korean kingdom in the north than eventually ended (618) after prolonged conflict with the Sui and Tang. After this kingdom ended, the Silla took over. | 62 | |
| 14818590813 | Silla | A kingdom in the southeast of the Korean peninsula that, after the fall of the Koguryo kingdom, took control of much of the Korean peninsula. | 63 | |
| 14818647202 | Yamato regime | This regime (Honshu island of Japan, 600s) and its rulers implemented key features of the Tang government (learned from embassies they sent to Chang'an), such as a legal code, an official variety of Confucianism, and an official reverence for Buddhism, into their regime. | 64 | |
| 14818686188 | Shinto | The native religion of Japan, called the "way of the gods." Leaders of this religion and the prime minister exercised real control in the Japan government. | 65 | |
| 14818701846 | Fujiwara | The members of this family were priests, bureaucrats, and warriors, that controlled power and protected the emperor. Eventually this family fell during the warfare between rival clans, and the emperor was forced to accomodate the new warlords. | 66 | |
| 14818716459 | Kamakura Shogunate | The first of Japan's three decentralized military governments (1185-1333) in eastern Honshu. | 67 | |
| 14818736393 | samurai | Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land. Following the Fujiwara family, this class of warriors absorbed some Fujiwara aristocratic values. | 68 | |
| 14818751850 | dai vet | aka Annam, these were the early Vietnamese that adopted from the Chinese: Confucian bureaucratic training, Mahayana Buddhism, and other aspects of Chinese culture. These people ruled in the Tang style and assumed a new name in 936, while also maintaining good relations with Song China. | 69 | |
| 14818786008 | Champa | A state that rivalled the Dai Vet state, located in modern southern Vietnam. These people were strongly influenced by Indian and Malaysian cultures and, like the Dai Vet, cooperated with the Song. This state's emissaries brought to the Song court tribute gifts like Champa rice. | 70 | |
| 14818818753 | Champa rice | Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state (as part of the tributary system.) | 71 | |
| 14823820544 | the ten abominations | Were a list of offenses under traditional Chinese law which were regarded as the most abhorrent, and which threatened the well-being of civilized society. they consisted of: plotting rebellion, plotting sedition, treason, depravity, irreverence, lack of filiality, what is not right, and incest. | 72 | |
| 14823839888 | Prince Shotoku's Constitution | This consitution was written as principles to influence the Japanese government for many centuries. Within it had many Confucian ideals | 73 | |
| 14865188714 | lady wac-chanil-ahau | A Mayan princess that, in August 682 ce, married a powerful nobleman of Naranjo to cement a military alliance between Dos Pilas and Naranjo, against the region's military power, Caracol. | 74 | |
| 14865211363 | k'ak tiliw chan chaak | Son of Lady Wac-Chanil-Ahau, who ascended the throne of Naranjo as a five year old in 693 ce as a careful diplomat and formidable warrior. | 75 | |
| 14865254940 | Teotihuacan | A powerful city state (600 - 750) northeast of modern Mexico city that promoted a lot of religious architecture (devoted to gods like the Sun, the Moon, and Quetzalcoatl) and the sacred duty of sacrifice. This city also developed a year-round agriculture innovation (Chinampas) for their growing population and the increase in volcanic activity. Unlike other growing civilizations, this city's rulers achieved regional preeminence without subordinating its political life to a powerful ruler/lineage or to a military elite. | 76 | |
| 14886603654 | swidden agriculture | aka slash and burn agriculture; this was a practice of the Mayans where farmers would cut down small trees and bush and burn the dead vegetation to fertilize the land. Though this technique produced high yields for a few years, as it used up the soil's nutrients, people were forced to move to more fertile land. | 77 | |
| 14886614413 | maya cosmos | divided into three layers connected along a vertical axis that traced the course of the sun; | 78 | |
| 14886642207 | bloodletting ritual | a ritual that involves the intentional release of blood,can be a symbolic rebirth or death. this type of ritual was used by the mayans and their rulers to communicate directly with supernatural residents of other worlds and with defied royal ancestors. | 79 | |
| 14900216578 | quezalcoatl | A feathered serpent god worshipped in Teotihuacan (Mayans) that was believed to be the originator of agriculture and the arts. | 80 | |
| 14900275781 | human sacrifice | Mesoamericans viewed this type of sacrifice ritual as a sacred duty towards the gods and as essential to the well being of society. Concerning the Aztecs, these tended to be war captives, criminals, slaves, and people provided as tribute. In addition, other civilizations purposed their armies with securing captives for this kind of sacrifice. | 81 | |
| 14900287946 | chinampas | aka floating gardens; these were artificial islands introduced in Teotihuacan that were constructed along lakeshores or in marshes; these were used to feed the city's growing population and recover from the rising volcanic activity. | 82 | |
| 14900316384 | maya | Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar. | 83 | |
| 14900329256 | toltecs | These were originally a satellite population that Teotihuacan had placed on the northern frontier to protect against nomads. They migrated south into Central Mexico and borrowed from the cultural legacy of Teotihuacan to create an important postclassic civilization (with their military achievements and political/religious rituals). They created the first conquest state based largely on military power and spread their political influence from north at modern Mexico City to Central America, establishing Tula as their capital. | 84 | |
| 14900369917 | Topiltzin | This man was one of the two Toltec rulers (ruling system where two chieftains/kinds ruled together) and a priest of the cult of Quetzalcoatl. He was exiled with his followers to the east due to the weakening of Toltec power, and following his exile, northern invaders overcame the Toltec capital Tula in 1175 ce. | 85 | |
| 14900404291 | aztec | aka the Mexica, these people were amongst the northerners that pushed into central Mexico following the fall of the Toltec's capital, Tula. At first they began as a clan-based social organization that served powerful neighbors as serfs and mercenaries, but as their strength grew, they transformed their political organization into a monarchical system and relocated to small islands by Lake Texcoco, where they established their twin capitals (1325 ce), Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. | 86 | |
| 14900453328 | Tenochtitlan | This was one of the Aztec's twin capitals that became the foundation for modern Mexico City. Rituals were embedded in this city life and were centered around the twin temple devoted to the Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc gods. | 87 | |
| 14900474591 | Huitzilopochtli | This was a Mesoamerican god worshipped by the Aztecs in their twin temple in Tenochtitlan; this god was viewed as the southern hummingbird, originally associated with war and the Sun. The Aztecs sacrificed many people to this god, believing it required human hearts to sustain him in his daily struggle to bring the Sun's warmth to the world. | 88 | |
| 14900596038 | hohokam | One of the southwestern cultures; these people of the Salt and Gila river valleys of southern Arizona portrayed strong Mexican influence through their pottery, clay figurines, copper bells, and mosaics. In 1000 ce, these people had constructed an elaborate irrigation system with a canal more than 18 miles in length. | 89 | |
| 14900633971 | anasazi | meaning "ancient ones," this term was used to identify the dispersed desert cultures located in what is now the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. These communities had a well-established economy (450 - 750 ce) based on maize, beans, and squash, which allowed for the formation of larger villages and underground buildings (kivas). | 90 | |
| 14900669712 | kivas | underground buildings first introduced by the Anasazi | 91 | |
| 14900693177 | Chaco Canyon | A suggested "colonial appendage" of Mesoamerica, this was an n urban center established by Anasazi located in northwestern New Mexico; this canyon had eight large towns within it and four more on surrounding mesas (a regional population of abt 15,000), with smaller villages located nearby. Each town contained hundreds of rooms arranged in tiers around a central plaza. These towns within and outlying the canyon were connected by a system of roads, suggesting that its towns exterted some kind of political/religious dominance over a large region. | 92 | |
| 14900734407 | Pueblo Bonito | This was the largest town of the Chaco Canyon community built by the Anasazi; it had more than 650 rooms arranged in a four story block of residences and storage rooms. This town had thirty-eight kivas, including a great kiva more than 65 feet in diameter. | 93 | |
| 14900868831 | mound builders | These were people were centered around building mounds of the early Mississippian culture; inhabiting an area stretching from New York to Illinois and Ontario to Florida with large mounds, temples, and villages. These people depended on hunting and gathering supplemented by the cultivation of locally domesticated seed crops. | 94 | |
| 14900901443 | cheifdom | An early North American tradition, wherein a territory with a population of abt 10,000 was ruled by a chief. | 95 | |
| 14900919872 | chief | A hereditary leader with religious and secular responsibilities to organize periodic rituals of feasting an gift giving, in order to establish bonds among diverse kinship groups. This guaranteed access to specialized crops and craft goods. In addition, they managed long-distance trade for luxury goods and additional food supplies. The Mound Builders' political organization was centered around these leaders in a tradition called chiefdom. | 96 | |
| 14900953748 | cahokia | A great urban center established near the modern city of East St. Louis, Illinois, by Mound Builders. At the center of this site was the largest mound constructed in North America, a terraced structure 100 ft high and 1,037 by 790 ft at the base. At its height at around 1200 ce, it controlled surrounding agricultural lands and a number of secondary towns ruled by subchiefs. Due to its location on the Missouri, MIssissippi, and Illinois river, its canoe-based commercial exchanges (reaching from as far as the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico) helped spread its political and economic influence. | 97 | |
| 14901026697 | andean civilizations | from 600 - 1500, these civilizations were developed in the Andean region of South America. There were many environmental challenges pitted against them, such as the high altitudes of the mountainous zones, and the arid climate along the Pacific coast, the hot and humid tropical environments of the Amazon headwaters. Native people, however, developed compensating technologies, such as an accurate calendar, to combat these environmental challenges. | 98 | |
| 14901070484 | khipus | This was a recordkeeping system developed by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information through a system of knotted colored cords. This allowed them to aid administration and record population counts and tribute obligations. | 99 | |
| 14901121399 | ayllu | A clan-based model developed by the Andeans to serve as a model for the organization of labor and distribution of goods at every level of Andean society. Members of these clans were expected to provide goods and labor to their hereditary chief and to contribute a set number of workers for specific tasks of the mit'a system each year. | 100 | |
| 14901152430 | mit'a | Developed by the Andeans, this was a rotational labor draft that organized members of the ayllus to work the fields and care of the llama and alpaca herds owned by religious establishments, the royal court, and the aristocracy. This system was an essential part of the Andean region by building and maintaining roads, bridges, temples, palaces, and large irrigation/drainage projects. | 101 | |
| 14901185516 | moche | This civilization in the north coastal region of Peru developed many cultural and political tools to dominate their region. This society had strong distinctions between commoners and their elite, as shown in their housing, diets, burial practices, and more. | 102 | |
| 14901219162 | Tiwanaki | This Andean highland civilization organized large drainage projects through systems of raised fields and ditches for intense cultivation. They also participated in long-distance trade for corn, coca, tropical fruits, and medicinal plants. Scholars portrayed this civilization as a capital of a vast empire and a ceremonial/political center due to its large, disciplined labor in the surrounding region, military conquests, and establishments of colonial populations in ecologically distinct zones. | 103 | |
| 14901320566 | wari | This was another Andean civilization northwest of Tiwanaku that is rumoured to have been related to the Tiwanaku--either as a dependency o as a part of "joint capitals" of a single empire--due to the similar elements in culture and technology. This civilization's city center was surrounded by a massive wall and included a large temple and numerous housing blocks. | 104 | |
| 14901352418 | inca | This was an imperial state called the "Land of Four Corners," that, in 1525, stretched from the Maule River in Chile to Northern Equador and from the Pacific coast across the Andes to the Upper Amazon. This empire became one of the many competing military powers in the southern highlands (in Tiwanaku's place) and was initially organized as a chiefdom, with power dependant on military expansion/conquests. | 105 | |
| 14901398632 | pastoralist | a herder of livestock like horses, llamas, alpacas, etc. Pastoralists were commonly nomads crucial to trade (ex: China and the nomads of the steppes in Eurasia; developed the Silk Road). | 106 | |
| 14902548196 | cuzco | The imperial capital of the Inca built by their highly skilled stone craftsmen. The city was laid out in the shape of a giant puma (mtn. lion). Each ruler would build their own palace in the center amongst the major temples, the richest being the Temple of the Sun, and an imperial pantheon (with representations of gods from conquered regions). The royal court in this capital held hiers of conquered regions' leaders to ensure good behavior. | 107 |
