Homework #1: Vocab

State Building

The process of creating and strengthening political institutions and authority to rule a territory and people.

Maya City-Sates

Independent Maya cities, each with its own ruler and government, linked by trade and culture but not unified under one empire.

Bloodletting Rituals

Ceremonies where elites intentionally drew blood to honor the gods and legitimize their rule.

Mexica (Aztecs)

A Nahua people who built a powerful empire in central Mexico in the 14th–16th centuries, often called the Aztecs.

Tenochtitlán

The Mexica capital built on an island in Lake Texcoco, with canals, temples, and nearby chinampas.

Triple Alliance

The alliance of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan that formed the core of Aztec imperial expansion.

Tribute Systems

Arrangements where conquered peoples regularly provided goods or labor to a dominant state.

Chinampas

Man-made raised fields, often called floating gardens, built in shallow lake beds for intensive farming.

Inca Empire

The largest pre-Columbian state in the Americas, a highly centralized Andean empire ruled by the Sapa Inca.

Sapa Inca

The Inca emperor, regarded as the divine son of the sun god and the supreme ruler of the empire.

Mit’a System

A rotational labor tax where communities provided workers for state projects like roads, farming, and mining.

Qhapaq Ñan

The Inca Empire’s 18,000+ mile road network connecting regions across the Andes.

Terraced Agriculture

Step-like fields carved into hillsides to farm steep terrain while conserving soil and water.

Quipus

Sets of knotted cords used by Inca officials to record numbers and information.

Cahokia

A major Mississippian urban center near the Mississippi River with large earthen mounds and a hierarchical society.

Chaco Canyon

A Southwest ceremonial and administrative center with Great Houses, roads, and astronomical alignments.

Mesa Verde

Cliff-dwelling settlements in the Southwest with kivas and farming on mesas and canyon rims.