Chapter 11 Key Terms Flashcards

Chapter 11 Key Terms from the Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (Third Edition) (Advanced Placement Edition) by Bulliet, Crossley, Headrick, Hirsch, Johnson, and Northrup.

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78969133	Teotihucan	A city center that was at the height of its power in 600 C.E. With between 125,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, it was the largest city in the Americas and larger than all but a few contemporary European and Asian cities.	0
78969134	Chinampas	Narrow artificial islands constructed along lake shores or in marshes. They permitted year-round agriculture because of subsurface irrigation and resistance to frost and thus played a crucial role in sustaining the religion's growing population.	1
78969135	Maya	They developed an impressive civilization in the region that today includes Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and southern Mexico. Although they shared a single culture, they were never unified politically.	2
78969136	Toltecs	They were originally a satellite population that Teotihuacan had placed on the northern frontier to protect against the incursions of nomads. They then created the first conquest state based largely on military power, and they extended their political influence from the area north of modern Mexico City to Central America.	3
78969137	Aztecs	They were among the northern peoples who pushed into central Mexico in the wake of the collapse of Tula. At the time of their arrival they had a clan-based social organization.	4
78969138	Tenochtitlan	One of the twin capitals built by the Aztecs around 1325 C.E. Its urban plan was organized around the clans, whose members maintained a common ritual life and accepted civic responsibilities such as caring for the sick and elderly.	5
78969139	Tribute System	Its imposition helped relieve some of the pressure of Tenochtitlan's growing population. One-quarter of the Aztec capital's food requirements was satisfied by tribute payments of maize, beans, and other foods sent by nearby political dependencies.	6
78969140	Anasazi	A Navajo word meaning "ancient ones" used to identify a number of dispersed, though similar, desert cultures located in what is now the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. By 600 C.E. They had a well-established economy based on maize, beans, and squash.	7
78969141	Chiefdom	The ruling by a chief, a hereditary leader with both religious and secular responsibilities, over a territory that had a population as large as 10,000. Chiefs organized periodic rituals of feasting and gift giving that established bonds among diverse kinship groups and guaranteed access to specialized crops and craft goods.	8
78969142	Khipu	A system of knotted colored cords that was used to aid administration and record population counts and tribute obligations. Large-scale drainage and irrigation works and the terracing of hillsides to control erosion and provide additional farmland led to an increase in agricultural production.	9
78969143	Ayllu	The clan which provided the foundation for Andean achievement. Members of the clan held land communally.	10
78969144	Mit'a	A rotational labor draft that organized members of ayllus to work the fields and care for the llama and alpaca herds owned by religious establishments, the royal court, and the aristocracy. The laborers built and maintained roads, bridges, temples, palaces, and large irrigation and drainage projects.	11
78969145	Moche	They had developed cultural and political tools that allowed them to dominate the north coastal region of Peru. Their identity was cultural in character.	12
78969146	Tiwanaku	Ruins standing at nearly 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) on the high treeless plain near Lake Titicaca in modern Bolivia. Its urban center was distinguished by the scale of its construction and by the high quality of its stone masonry.	13
78969147	Wari	A contemporary site located about 450 miles (751 kilometers) to the northwest of Tiwanaku, near the modern Peruvian city of Ayacucho. It shared elements of the culture and technology of Tiwanaku, but the exact nature of this relationship remains unclear.	14
78969148	Inca	They developed a vast imperial state, which they called "Lands of Four Corners." By 1525 the empire had a population of more than 6 million and stretched from the Maule River in Chile to northern Ecuador and from the Pacific coast across the Andes to the upper Amazon and, in the south, into Argentina.	15