Name __________________________________
Date ___________________________________ Act 7.1 Key
Title: How Did Geography Influence the Societies of the Aztec and the Spanish? Author: Levin, Moline and Redhead
Source: Our Worldviews: Explore, Understand, Connect Pages: 228-229
First Reading
Second Reading
Third Reading
Fourth Reading
Paraphrase of first and
last paragraph of section
“The Aztec”
Choose 5 key words that
you need to understand
this section and define
them.
Paraphrase of the topic
sentence of each
paragraph.
Important information
from section
Mexico has varied
geography.
Only 10% of Mexico can
produce crops.
Mexico consists of
deserts, mountains,
tropical rainforests,
ranchlands, fertile
farmland and seacoasts.
It is bordered by the
U.S. to the North, the
Pacific Ocean to the
South and West and the
Gulf of Mexico to the
East. Rivers generally
flow into the gulf.
The multitude of
ecological zones led to a
market system of
distribution for the
variety of foods
produced from varied
farming techniques.
These foods relied on
canals and other
waterways for their
transportation.
Summary of Article
Plateau: a large
raised level piece of
land.
Pre-Columbian: A
time predating
Columbus’
exploration
Saline: Salty
Ecological Zone: An
area with similar
climate, soil, and
altitude that affects
its plants and
animals.
Northern Mexico is
basically a desert.
The central plateau of
Mexico has most of its
mountains.
Southern Mexico
features tropical
rainforest with many
waterfalls.
There were many preColumbian societies in
Meso-America.
The Aztec settled in
the Valley of Mexico.
The Mexican basin has
many ecological zones.
Green Light
Yellow Light
The Valley of Mexico offer
year round Spring like
weather in an area of
60km x 80km.
The V of M had plenty of
water with the saline Lake
Texcoco being the largest
but the surrounding area
was not suitable for
agriculture.
As cities grew, the nobility
lived in them relying on
farmers in outlying areas
to produce their food.
Given the variety of
ecological zones produced
many different kinds of
foods; transportation
networks using rivers and
canals developed in order
to bring food to city
markets.
Red Light
Mexico is a land of a many ecological zones ranging from deserts in the North to
rainforests in the South with a large mountain range through its center. The
Valley of Mexico offered the Aztec year round Spring like weather with plenty of
water to act as transportation networks allowing outlying farmers to bring
produce to markets for sale to the urban nobility.
Name __________________________________
Date ___________________________________ Act 7.1 Key