Maya, Aztec, Inca

Atacama Desert

A desert located in northern Chile near the border with Peru and the driest place on earth.

Step Pyramid

A pyramid with sides that rise in a series of steps

Gran Chaco

Alluvial plain in interior South America, between the Andes and Paraguay River

Polytheistic

Belief in many gods

floating gardens (chinampas)

Built by the Aztecs because their capital was located on an island.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec empire, after the Spanish conquest, it later became Mexico City.

Common food of the Aztec and Maya

Corn

Aztec and Incas both had leaders called

Emperors

Pampas and Llanos

Grasslands of Argentina, South America.

Montezuma

Leader of the Aztecs

Maya and Aztec have in common

Located in Mexico, built pyramids, worshipped many gods, played ball games.

Aztec

Located in the valley of central Mexico, warlike, built capital in center of a lake bed conquered by Cortez. Montezuma was their leader.

Quipa

Long knotted strings that were used by the Incas to keep records of numbers and pass information. Each knot stood for a number.

Maya

Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar.

Mayan cities abandoned

Mysterious. Maybe overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare, disease or drought? The reason is unknown and these are just theories.

Altiplano (South America)

Peru and Bolivia

Causeways

Raised roads across water or wet ground, used to get in and out of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Empire in 1519-1521 for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541).

Inca location

The Inca Empire was located in South America along the western coast and throughout the Andes Mountains.

Reasons for the Inca Defeat

The Spanish had more advanced weapons and took over the Incan roads, but the main reason was through giving the Inca diseases.

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Inca), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects. The vast and sophisticated Peruvian empire centered at the capital city of Cuzco that was at its peak from 1438 until 1532. It had a social hierarchy, irrigation systems, roads, tunnels and bridges. Kept records, had gold and silver, could send a message 150 miles in one day.

Cuzco

The capital city of the Inca Empire to which all Incan roads linked, located in present-day Peru.

Elevation

The height of land above sea level. The higher the elevation, the cooler the temperature.

Andes Mountains

The world's largest mountain range, stretching along the west coast of South America, through the 7 countries of, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

The Mayans are known for what?

Their architecture, calendar, astronomy, hieroglyphic writing, skilled weaving, pottery and inventing the mathematics concept of zero.

How did the Inca adapt to living in the mountains?

They built suspension bridges.

Inca civilazation ended

When the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, conquered them.

La Niña

Wind and ocean currents that make the region cool, with heavy clouds and strong winds.

El Niño

Wind and ocean currents that make the region warmer and wetter.

Where are the Mayans located?

Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and northern Central America.