UN2689 Midterm Key Terms

0.0(0)
studied byStudied by 0 people
learnLearn
examPractice Test
spaced repetitionSpaced Repetition
heart puzzleMatch
flashcardsFlashcards
Card Sorting

1/35

encourage image

There's no tags or description

Looks like no tags are added yet.

Study Analytics
Name
Mastery
Learn
Test
Matching
Spaced

No study sessions yet.

36 Terms

1
New cards
Altepetl

A Meso-American city-state that governs hinterland and themselves. They are the political community of the Mexica with low densities.

2
New cards
Functional urbanism

The idea that a civilization can be considered urban based on the amount of functions it serves rather than the amount of people who live in it. Some functions include having a silver mine like Potosí or being a city known for finance/banking like NYC.

This is also the lens we are using in this class to consider certain precolonial and colonial settlements as urban.

3
New cards
Demographic urbanism

The idea that a civilization is urban if it has a large population and is dense.

Also the current view of urbanism used by the US census, for example. In the same sphere, wars, economy, trade are all standards of urbanism that are Western.

4
New cards
Nucleated population

A settlement clustered around a central point (what most precolonial and colonial cities were).

5
New cards
Usnu Complex

Andean platform with a staircase that is always found in the plaza.

On the platform, there is usually a rock and a fissure or hole to connect to a river or some sort of stream of water. These go back to Andean urban myth when a rock was found in a lake.

6
New cards
Kallanka
Andean long, narrow building present on the plaza. Used for tribute collection and has administrative purposes.
7
New cards
Kancha

The main Andean residential unit.

They are an enclosed rectangular compound of buildings. Also would be lined up in a grid formation.

8
New cards
Waka/Waca

An Andean sacred essence that can be incorporated into a mountain, river, a particular Andean temple, or a mummified person. Incan cities are built oriented to these, whether that be a certain temple, mountain, etc.

It was thought to connect the central temple to others.

9
New cards
Andean urban elements
Urban center (including the Usnu complex, Kancha, Kallanka, palace), streets, walls, gates, storerooms, water distribution systems, and Wakas
10
New cards
Aztec urban elements

Temples, markets, palaces, storage systems, aqueducts, dikes (in Tenochtitlan), at times chinampas

11
New cards
Chinampas

Artificial pieces of arable land gardens made to grow crops in Mesoamerica, especially used in Tenochtitlan and Lake Tetzcoco

12
New cards
Aztec Triple Alliance
Political and military agreement formed in early 1400s by 3 cities: Tenochtitlan, Tiacopan, and Tetzcoco.
13
New cards
Ayllu
Clan or community of families used in context of silver cities
14
New cards
Yerba mate
Plant steeped to make a beverage that was one of the main products traded out of Guaraní missions
15
New cards
Viceroyalty

The highest ranking Spanish officials in the colonies who enjoyed broad power over designated regions.

They were also the basis of organization of the Spanish colonies.

16
New cards
Hinterland

The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services.

Especially in precolonial urbanism, this is known for having strong relations with urban centers.

17
New cards
Flota
Fleet of Spanish ships that delivered goods between Spain and its colonies.
18
New cards
Cabildo
Town council of indigenous leaders.
19
New cards
Cacique
Political leaders of smaller groups of houses typically in missions.
20
New cards
Corregidor
Head of the town council
21
New cards
Audiencia
High Spanish colonial courts that led each region. Helped with governing, including judicial, executive, and legislative functions.
22
New cards

Cahokia

The largest city in the present area of the US until NYC during the American Revolution, though it declined by the time it was found by colonizers (in the 16th century).

23
New cards

Bullion and specie

The two biggest transatlantic exports in Havana. They refer to bars of precious metals and money in the form of coins, respectively.

24
New cards

Mitotes

Ancient dance that indigenous groups still performed post-conquest, but that wasn’t liked by the Spanish

25
New cards

Estancias

A nearby designated space the Spaniards made so that the indigenous could raise animals for eating without having to leave the mission too much.

26
New cards

Cacicazgos

Refers to the land ruled by a cacique.

27
New cards

Mita system

The name for the process where the leader of a silver mine would rotate laborers.

28
New cards

Jura

The oath of allegiance (typically in a capital city) when a new Spain king comes to be. These were very rare

29
New cards

Plaza mayor

The central public square in a town or city used for gatherings, markets, and celebrations.

30
New cards

British Navigation Acts

The reason why southern British colonies weren’t as urbanized.

These said that tobacco had to be exported to Britain first before anywhere else, leading to a significant disparity in who visited areas like Virginia and Maryland that had tobacco plantations.

31
New cards

Agrarian urbanism

In the context of Mesoamerican cities, a refers to low-density clusters, intensive agriculture, and dispersed residential areas.

32
New cards
33
New cards

Entrada

Meaning the entrance of the viceroyalty to the city, this includes a chosen route, the oath the viceroyalty takes to be given the key by the cabildo, decorations, and a precise order of procession.

34
New cards

Melting vs. amalgamation

The two methods for silver extraction.

The first, traditional way is to crush rock into small pieces and use a furnace to separate the silver.

The second, more effective way that the Spanish took more control over included mercury. After shattering rocks, mercury was used to separate the silver. The two places they got mercury include Spain for Mexican silver cities and Almaden and Huancavelica in the Andes.

35
New cards

Feitoria

Portuguese trading outposts, many of which were set up on the coast of present-day Brazil.

36
New cards

Traza

This is the pattern, including a grid, that Spanish colonial cities were dictated by, centrally located around the plaza mayor that most of the Spanish lived in initially.

Outside of the it, Mexica continue to live there.