American Civilizations (abridged)

Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans)

Native American people who lived in present-day Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; built cliff dwellings such as those at Mesa Verde

Mississippian culture

mound-building Native American civilization in the present-day Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States; flourished c. 800-1600 CE; featured large towns linked by loose trading networks; largest city was Cahokia; lacked stone architecture

Cahokia

important mound-builder religious center near present-day St. Louis; largest Native American settlement in pre-Columbian present-day United States; population 25,000-40,000 in 1200 CE

Iroquois

Native American confederacy of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes in northeast North America

Mexica

Native American people who migrated into the central valley of Mexico c. 1300 and founded the city of Tenochtitlan

Aztecs

Mesoamerican culture in central Mexico c. 1300-1521 CE; a political confederation of three city-states formed in 1421 CE: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan

Tenochtitlan

capital city of the Aztecs built in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco in central Mexico; one of largest cities in the world at the time of Spanish arrival; modern Mexico City is built on its ruins

Triple Alliance

political partnership of the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan and Texcoco

Quetzalcoatl

Toltec deity; Feathered Serpent; adopted by Aztecs as a major god

chinampas

raised fields or floating gardens constructed by the Aztecs along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields

Huitzilopochtli

Aztec tribal patron god; central figure of cult of human sacrifice and warfare; identified with old sun god

Itzcoatl

Mexica king who laid the foundation of the Aztec Empire

Montezuma I

(r. 1440-1469) expanded the Aztec Empire; made Tenochtitlan the dominant partner of the Aztec Triple Alliance

pochteca

special merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in long-distance trade in luxury items

Inca

group of clans centered at Cuzco that created an empire incorporating various Andean cultures; term also used for the leader of the empire

Pachacuti

ruler of Inca society from 1438 to 1471; launched a series of military campaigns that gave Incas control of the region from Cuzco to the shores of Lake Titicaca

Cuzco

capital city of the Incan Empire, Located in present-day Peru

mita

Andean system of forced labor for the Incan state lands and religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control

quipu

arrangement of knotted strings on a cord used by the Incas in place of a writing system to record numerical information for censuses and financial records

chasquis

Incan messengers able to read quipus; runners relayed messages up to 150 miles per day

Inti

Incan god of the sun; Incan emperors claimed to be descended from him

Machu Picchu

abandoned city high in the Andes mountains that showcases the architectural genius of the Inca

Huayna Capac

Inca ruler (1493-1527); expanded empire to its greatest size from Peru into Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, and Colombia

Atahulapa

last Inca ruler (1532-1533); won civil war against Huascar; executed by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1533 marking the end of the Inca empire