WHAP

UNITS 1 and 2

What made Ghana, Mali, and Songhai powerful?

Their location along trans-Saharan trade routes, especially control of gold and salt exchange.

How did trade help create centralized African states?

States gained wealth by taxing trade, then used that wealth to protect routes, support armies, establish currencies, and strengthen rulers.

Who founded Mali?

Sundiata Keita, traditionally credited with founding the Mali Empire in the thirteenth century.

Who was Mansa Musa?

Mali’s famous ruler whose 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca displayed enormous wealth, strengthened Islamic ties, and made Mali known across Afro-Eurasia.

Why was Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage historically significant?

It advertised Mali’s gold wealth, increased connections with Islamic scholars and merchants, and helped make Timbuktu a learning center.

What was Timbuktu?

A major West African city known for trans-Saharan commerce and Islamic scholarship, manuscripts, and education.

Why did most West Africans not fully convert to Islam?

Islam was influential among rulers, merchants, and urban elites, but many communities maintained traditional religions or blended Islamic practices with local beliefs.

What caused the decline of Great Zimbabwe?

Environmental strain such as overgrazing, resource depletion, shifting trade patterns, and political change likely contributed to its decline.

What was Great Zimbabwe’s source of wealth?

Cattle, gold production, and connections to Indian Ocean trade through southeastern African ports.

What made Swahili city-states wealthy?

Their Indian Ocean ports linked African goods—gold, ivory, and enslaved people—to merchants from Arabia, Persia, India, and China.

What is Swahili culture?

A coastal East African culture shaped by Bantu-speaking peoples and Indian Ocean trade; the Swahili language mixes primarily Bantu grammar with many Arabic words.

How did bananas affect Sub-Saharan Africa?

Bananas introduced from Southeast Asia increased food production in some regions and supported population growth.

Why was the camel saddle important?

It made trans-Saharan travel more practical by helping camels carry goods over long desert routes.

What were the major trans-Saharan trade goods?

West African gold, ivory, and enslaved people were exchanged for North African salt, cloth, copper, and manufactured goods.

What were the three major forms of slavery listed for Africa?

Chattel slavery: people treated as property. Domestic slavery: enslaved people worked within households. Debt bondage: labor required to repay debts.

What was the Zanj Rebellion?

A major revolt by enslaved East African laborers in Iraq during the ninth century, showing resistance within Islamic slave systems.

Who were griots and griottes?

West African oral historians, musicians, storytellers, and keepers of community memory.

SAQ: How did trade shape African states?

Gold and salt trade produced wealth; rulers used wealth to tax and protect routes, build authority, and connect with Islamic merchants. Mali under Mansa Musa is the clearest example.

Which major American societies should you compare for 1200–1450?

The Maya, Aztec, Inca, Mississippian peoples at Cahokia, and societies of the North American Southwest such as Chaco and Mesa Verde.

How was Maya political organization different from Aztec and Inca organization?

The Maya were organized into independent or competing city-states. The Aztec and Inca built larger centralized empires.

How did the Aztecs maintain power?

Through military conquest, tribute demands, intimidation, alliances, and leaving many local rulers in place as long as tribute continued.

How did the Inca maintain power?

Through direct administration, provincial organization, roads, state labor requirements, storehouses, and the mita system.

What was the mita system?

A mandatory labor obligation in the Inca Empire. Communities supplied workers for roads, agriculture, mines, construction, and other state projects.

Compare Aztec and Inca systems of control.

Aztec: tribute empire; local rulers often stayed; war brought captives and tribute. Inca: more direct rule; mita labor, roads, provincial administration, and bureaucracy.

Why did Aztecs conduct warfare?

To expand tribute, demonstrate power, and capture people for human sacrifice.

How did Aztec religion legitimize rule?

The state used a theocratic system and human sacrifice to show that rulers sustained cosmic order and repaid the gods.

How did Inca religion legitimize rule?

The Sapa Inca was linked to the Sun God; ancestor mummies and sacred places called huacas reinforced royal authority and expansion.

What were chinampas?

Intensively farmed raised fields in shallow lakebeds around Tenochtitlan, often called “floating gardens”; they supported dense Aztec urban populations.

What was Tenochtitlan?

The Aztec capital, founded in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco; it became one of the largest cities in the world before Spanish conquest.

What was quipu?

An Inca system of knotted cords used for recordkeeping, accounting, census information, and administration.

Why were Inca roads important?

Their enormous road network connected the empire, enabled troop movement and communication, and supported centralized rule across difficult terrain.

What were terrace farming and waru waru?

Agricultural techniques that adapted farming to Andean highlands: terraces created flat growing areas, while raised fields helped manage water and temperature.

What were pochteca?

Professional long-distance Aztec merchants who traded luxury goods and sometimes gathered information for the state.

Why did conquered peoples help the Spanish defeat the Aztecs?

Aztec tribute demands and military domination created resentment, so some subject peoples allied with Spanish invaders.

What weakened the Inca Empire before and during Spanish conquest?

Civil war, disease, political instability, and the Spanish invasion led by Francisco Pizarro after 1532.

What was Cahokia?

A large Mississippian urban center near present-day St. Louis, known for mounds, trade networks, and a complex society.

SAQ: Compare Aztec and Inca political control.

Both had powerful divine rulers and expanded through conquest. The Aztecs relied heavily on tribute and local rulers; the Inca used mita labor, roads, bureaucracy, and more direct administration.

Who was Temujin?

The Mongol leader who united steppe tribes and took the title Genghis Khan in 1206.

What made the Mongol military effective?

Skilled horse archers, disciplined organization, fast communication, merit-based promotion, psychological warfare, siege engineers, and tactics such as the feigned retreat.

What was a feigned retreat?

A Mongol tactic in which troops pretended to flee, lured enemies into pursuit, then turned and attacked.

How did the Mongols use conquered peoples to expand?

They recruited skilled workers, engineers, administrators, and soldiers from conquered populations, especially for siege warfare and government.

What was the Yam?

The Mongol messenger and relay network that allowed rapid communication across the empire.

What was the Pax Mongolica?

The period of relative stability and protected exchange under Mongol rule, which encouraged travel, trade, and cultural diffusion across Eurasia.

What were the four major Mongol khanates?

The Golden Horde in Russia, the Ilkhanate in Southwest Asia, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, and the Yuan dynasty in China.

Why did the Mongol Empire fragment?

Its huge size, succession disputes, regional differences, conversion to local religions, difficulty governing diverse peoples, and local rebellions divided the empire into separate khanates.

How did the Mongols affect Silk Road trade?

They unified and protected much of Eurasia, encouraged merchants, used paper money, protected roads, and increased the movement of goods, people, and ideas.

What technology and knowledge spread under Mongol rule?

Printing, paper, gunpowder, compass use, Chinese goods, Islamic astronomy, mathematical knowledge, and artistic or scientific ideas across Eurasia.

How did Mongol rule contribute to the spread of the Black Death?

Expanded trade networks and protected routes allowed infected fleas, rodents, goods, and travelers to move quickly across Eurasia.

How did Mongol women differ from women in many sedentary societies?

Mongol women generally had greater mobility and public influence; they could manage households and herds, advise rulers, and did not practice foot binding or veiling.

Why did the Mongols fail to conquer Japan?

Japanese resistance, logistical challenges, and destructive storms during invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281 contributed to failure.

What ended Mongol rule in China?

The Yuan weakened because of economic trouble, rebellions, and Chinese resentment; Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming dynasty in 1368.

SAQ: Explain one cause and one consequence of Mongol expansion.

Cause: superior cavalry, military tactics, and political unification under Genghis Khan. Consequence: increased Eurasian trade and diffusion—but also the spread of plague.

What were the three major trade networks of Unit 2?

The Silk Roads, Indian Ocean trade network, and Trans-Saharan trade network.

Which network mainly carried luxury goods over land?

The Silk Roads carried small, high-value goods such as silk, porcelain, spices, horses, and luxury textiles.

Why were luxury goods common on the Silk Roads?

Long land routes were expensive and difficult, so merchants preferred goods valuable enough to justify high transportation costs.

What technologies supported Silk Road trade?

Camel saddles, caravanserai, paper money/flying cash, improved roads, and protection under states such as the Mongol Empire.

What were caravanserai?

Roadside inns where merchants, travelers, and animals could rest, trade, and exchange information along overland routes.

Which cities were important along the Silk Roads?

Chang’an, Kashgar, Samarkand, and other Central Asian oasis cities.

What was the main environmental effect of Silk Road exchange?

The spread of bubonic plague, especially during the Mongol period.

What made Indian Ocean trade different from Silk Road trade?

It transported both luxury goods and bulk goods because ships could carry far more cargo than caravans.

What environmental knowledge made Indian Ocean trade predictable?

Knowledge of monsoon wind patterns, which changed seasonally and allowed