Name: ____________________________________ Date: _______________ Per: _______
Chapter 11: The Americas on the Eve of Invasion
AP World History I
Longwood HS
Development
• Unlike the peoples of ______________ and Africa, the early societies of North and South America developed in ______________.
– Settled by descendents of ______________ Age travelers who crossed from Asia over a landbridge that joined Alaska with ______________.
– Land-bridge disappeared with the rise in ______________ levels.
• By around 9000 BCE the entirety of North and South America had been ______________.
• Major areas of settlement:
– North America’s ______________ Woodlands
– Desert ______________
– The Open ______________ of North America
– Deserts and ______________ of Mexico and Central ______________
– The ______________ Mountains of South America
• By 600 CE, most of these societies had developed advanced ______________.
– They are unique because most of them developed sophistication without the development of
______________ or the ______________.
• Geographical ______________ will continue until the end of the 1400s.
– The voyages of Christopher ______________ will bring North and South America into sustained contact with others
• The period before 1492 is known as “pre-______________”
North America
• Most Native-Americans were ______________ or semi-nomadic hunter/gatherers around 1000 CE.
– ______________ roles tended to be that of Hunter-Gatherer societies
• Southwest:
– Southwestern culture was ______________, learned from Mexican societies
– The ______________ inhabited the region from about 400 CE to about 1300 CE.
• Lived in complex dwellings known as ______________.
• Belief that life originated from within the ______________, so many religious ceremonies were held in ______________ chambers.
• North and East North America:
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Sophisticated civilizations in the Ohio and ______________ River Valleys.
Large earth mounds
• ______________ Culture: ca 500 BCE – 100 CE
• ______________ Culture: ca. 100 CE – 400 CE
• ______________ Culture: ca. 700 CE – 1500 CE.
– Cahokia: City located in Western ______________ today

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» By 1200, it had population of over ______________ people.
Between 1250 and 1500, the ______________ Culture was in decline.
• Smaller ______________ American tribes emerged…these are the groups the
______________ interacted with upon their arrival.
Mexico and Central America
• Agriculture in the form of ______________ (corn) and potato cultivation took place here as early as
5000 to 3000 BCE.
• Olmecs: ca 1200 BCE – 400 BCE.
– Regions first ______________ society
– Left ______________ and cultural tradition.
– ______________ culture (ca. 1000 BCE – 750 BCE) created one of the largest urban centers in the world.
• Most societies tended to be
– ______________ dictatorships ruled by kings/priests
– Not ______________ nations, but organized ______________ -states
– United ______________
– ______________ active
– At ______________ with each other quite frequently,
• Women were subject to rigidly defined ______________ roles.
– Some women gained status as ______________ or noble status.
• Many constructed elaborate ______________ for religious purposes.
– Not used for the dead, but used for human ______________.
The Maya
• 250 CE: The Maya emerge in present day ______________, Honduras, ______________, and
Southern Mexico.
– At its height, population reached 3 ______________.
– ______________ religion:
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______________ sacrifice
Worship of serpent gods and ______________ ______________
Derived partly from ______________ tradition
– ______________ script, the most advanced in pre-Columbian America
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Superb ______________, mathematicians
– Gifted ______________.
Reasons for decline remain a mystery…
Land ______________
– ______________ activity
– Disease
– Inter-city ______________
• Following the Maya were the ______________ (ca. 968 – 1156 CE)

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Aggressive ______________ society
Conquered ______________ Mexico
Civil War and external ______________ end their civilization.
The Aztecs
• The Aztecs, aka the ______________ was the next great civilization to take control of Central
America and Mexico.
– Aztecs ca. 1300 – ______________ CE
– Chief city of ______________ (Mexico City, today)
• Population of ½ ______________.
• Its ______________ could hold 60,000 people.
– WARLIKE
• 1300’s: Conquered an empire over ______________ square miles.
• Ruled a ______________ of 10 million
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Pyramids to serve as ______________ and worshipped many of the same gods as Mesoamerican societies before them.
– Deities include the jaguar god and the feathered serpent (______________ also appeared as a light-skinned bearded man).
– Sun god, ______________, who took the form of a giant ______________.
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Drew its energy from Human Blood.
By the end of the 1400’s, over 20,000 people per year were ritually ______________.
Aztecs thrive in Central America until the arrival of ______________ in the early 1500’s.
• Spanish conquest, led by Hernando ______________ will lead to the Spanish domination of Mexico and Central America until the ______________.
South America
• ______________ diversity of South America is staggering
– ______________ to cool and arid
– Jungle, ______________, mountains, grassland, and the vast ______________ River basin
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Early Andean Civilizations
• Complex South American societies develop in ______________ territories.
• On the west coast, in the ______________ mountains, civilizations first took shape.
– ______________ conditions leads to a high degree of cooperation and efficient coordination of human ______________.
• ______________ (ca. 850 – 250 BCE)
• ______________ (100 – 800 CE)
______________ (200 – 700 CE)
______________ (500 – 1000 CE)
______________ (ca. 500 – 1000 CE)
______________ (ca. 800 – 1465 CE)
Features
– Clans, known as ______________

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Practiced animal ______________, breeding ______________, alpacas, and vicunas for transport, food, and ______________.
Women were constrained in their rights and ______________.
• Considered little more than ______________ servants
______________ farming: Flat surfaces were carved, staircase fashion into the mountains sloped sides.
• ______________ INTENSIVE, but allowed farmers to work in environments not naturally favorable to agriculture.
No system of ______________
• ______________: to keep financial records and accounts, Andean Civilizations used this system, of knots tied in ______________.
The Inca
• All these features were passed to the ______________ (ca. 1300s – 1536 CE).
• Rose up quickly in the 1300s to build a huge empire in the ______________.
– Less than a hundred years, grew into a massive expanse covering ______________ miles north to south, from Chile to ______________
• Mountainous terrain
– Created an elaborate system of ______________ and ______________
• 13,000 miles of road
• Huge cities
– Capital: ______________
– Fortress temple complex at ______________ ______________
• Ruler was called the ______________ Inca
– Considered a sacred ______________ of the sun god
– To look directly at him was an offense punishable by ______________
• Deities
– Sun god
• Temple of the Sun was the largest place of ______________ in Cuzco
• The Incas were most powerful between the 1400s and ______________.
– ______________ colonization would forever change the future of Incan/South American civilization
– Francisco ______________ will lead a small contingent of Europeans to begin the conquest of the Incan Empire under the Great Incan Leader ______________ in Cajamarca.