Period One Quiz Study Guide

Importance of maize in Native American culture * Helped natives settle down instead of being nomadic * Allowed for larger and more dense populations * More socially diversified societies (people specialized work) * Prompted economic growth and development of irrigation systems * Mayas and Aztecs
Role of agriculture in Native American society * East of the Mississippi River, the Woodland American Indians prospered with a rich food supply * Some farming techniques in northeast settlements exhausted soil and people had to move to fresh land * Depending on the environment, natives grew different crops * Tropical islands grew sugar * Forests raised animals * Land with fertile soil grew maize * People in dry regions created irrigation systems * Those in forested regions used fire to clear land for agriculture
Role of men and women in Native American culture * The men made tools and hunted for game * The women gathered plants and nuts or grew crops such as corn (maize), beans, and tobacco * European women had little role in public life, while Native American women in some tribes held decision-making positions * The Iroquois had a matriarchal society
The Natchez Indians * One of the last American Indian groups to inhabit the area now known as southwestern Mississippi * The Natchez Indians were successful farmers, growing corn, beans, and squash * They also hunted, fished, and gathered wild plant foods * The Great Sun, the hereditary chief of the Natchez, held a largely ceremonial position of leadership * Group membership was determined by heredity through the female line * Moundbuilding was an expression of the complex tribal religion with the mounds serving as bases for sacred buildings
Tenochtitlan * The capital of the Aztecs * Located in present-day Mexico City * 100,000 warriors and canals * Human sacrifice, zoos, violent Aztec ball game
Class system for the Aztecs * Royalty * Nobility * Military leaders, priests, lords, land owners, judges * Warriors * Commoners * Farmers, artisans, merchants * Slaves and Serfs
The Columbian Exchange - maize, horses, etc. * Natives to Europeans - maize, potatoes, tobacco, fruits, vegetables * Europeans to Natives - horses, cattle, smallpox * Smallpox killed over 90 percent of the natives
Where Columbus thought he was and what he was looking for * Columbus believed he was in India * He was looking for a short passage to India * He wanted silks, spices, and gold
The 3 Gs * Gold, God, and Glory
Cortes and Moctezuma * Cortes meets Moctezuma, king of the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan * Believing Cortes may be Quetzalcoatl, he invites Cortes in * When the Spaniards want to go home (Aztec activities + no gold), Cortes burns down the sails and attacks the city * The entire city is sick with smallpox and cannot fight well despite their large numbers * Moctezuma dies and there is no leadership * The Aztecs are conquered, but the Spanish forces are almost wiped out
The social classes in Spanish colonies * Peninsulares – born in Europe * Creoles – descendants of Europeans born in Latin America * Mestizo – Native American and Europeans * Mulattoes – Europeans and African Americans * At the top were pure-blooded Spaniards * In the middle were several levels of people ordered according to their mixture of European, Native American, and African heritage * At the bottom were people of pure Indian or Black heritage
Iroquois longhouses, agriculture, villages * Hunting and gathering * Slash and burn agriculture * “Three Sisters” - Corn, squash, beans * Their homes were 10-30 meter-long ‘longhouses’ made of wood and covered with bark that each housed three to five families * They enjoyed a milder climate than most of their Algonquian neighbors that permitted the most northerly extension of indigenous agriculture in North America, growing corn, squash, beans, sunflowers and tobacco
Native American warfare * Warfare was most intense along the Missouri River in the present-day Dakotas * Ancestors of the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras were at war with each other * Towns inhabited by as many as 1,000 people were often fortified with ditch and palisade defenses * In the east, from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes area, Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples mingled and divided the available resources * Some conflicts were waged for economic and political goals, such as gaining access to resources or territory, exacting tribute from another nation or controlling trade routes
Cartier * French claims to American territory were based on the voyages of Jacques Cartier (1534–1542), who explored the St. Lawrence River extensively * Cartier is also credited with naming Canada * The purpose of the voyage was to find a northwest passage to Asia, as well as to collect riches such as gold and spices along the way
Bartholomew de las Casas * Dissented from the views of most Europeans toward Native Americans * He had owned land and slaves in the West Indies and had fought in wars against the Indians but eventually became an advocate for better treatment for Indians * He persuaded the king to institute the New Laws of 1542 * Ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the encomienda system that kept the Indians in serfdom