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13 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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How did the first Native Americans get to the United States? When was this?
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The first Americans crossed a land bridge connecting northeast Asia and Alaska (known as the Bering Strait) as many as 40,000 years ago. Archaeologists have unearthed remains pointing to the arrival of the first Americans at 35,000 B.C.
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Who were the first arrivals to the Americas?
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Nomadic travelers from Siberia.
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What sort of crops were Native Americans the first to cultivate?
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Chocolate, corn, long-staple cotton, peanuts, pineapples, potatoes, rubber, quinine, tobacco, and vanilla.
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How many inhabitants did the New World have by the time Europeans arrived?
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Perhaps 60 or 70 million; 7-12 million lived in current-day U.S. & Canada.
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Were Native Americans as a whole relatively homogeneous?
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Not a single, homogeneous population, the people north of Mexico lived in more than 350 distinct groups, which spoke more than 250 different languages and had their own political structure, kinship systems, and economies.
These divisions would have fateful consequences for the future, permitting the European colonizers to adopt divide-and-conquer policies that played one group off against others. |
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1427-1519: How many people did the Aztecs have under their sway in the century before the arrival of Europeans?
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10-20 million; more than the population of Spain & Portugal together.
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Stretching from the Atlantic coast west to the Great Lakes and southward from Maine to North Carolina lay the eastern woodlands. Who were the major peoples of the woodlands?
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The Algonquians, the Iroquois, and the Muskogeans.
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Describe the lifestyle of the Algonquians.
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The Algonquians lived in small bands of from one to three hundred members, combining hunting, fishing, and gathering with some agriculture.
A semi-nomadic people, who might move several times a year, the Algonquians would plant crops, then break into small bands to hunt caribou and deer, and return to their fields at harvest time. These people lived in wigwams, dome-shaped structures containing one or more families. A wigwam, made of bent saplings covered with birch-bark, typically housed a husband and wife, their children, and their married sons and their wives and children. |
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What was the largest group living on the islands of the Caribbean?
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The Tainos.
Their villages were governed by chieftains, or "caciques," who enjoyed some distinctions of rank but received tribute in times of crisis only. Related families lived together in large houses built of poles, mats, and thatch. The Tainos were known for their fine wood carving and hammocks woven from cotton. Not a particularly warlike people, they played ceremonial ball games, possibly as a substitute for warfare and as an outlet for competition between villages and chiefdoms. |
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Other than the Tainos, which major group resided on the islands of the Caribbean?
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The Caribs.
The other major group living in the Caribbean were the more mobile and aggressive Caribs, who took to the sea in huge dugout canoes. By the late 15th century, the Caribs had expanded into the smaller islands of the eastern Caribbean from the mainland, displacing or intermingling with the Tainos. |
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Where was "Mesoamerica" and how did the peoples there live?
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Before 1492, modern-day Mexico, most of Central America, and the southwestern United States comprised an area now known as Meso, or Middle, America.
Mesoamerican peoples shared many elements of culture: pictographic and hieroglyphic forms of writing; monumental architecture; a diet primarily of corn, beans, squash and chiles; weaving of cotton cloth; and extensive trade networks. While most people lived by working the land, many societies also included nobles and priests, warriors, craftsmen, and merchants. |
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What was the population of Tenochtitlan? Where was it located?
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500,000; the middle of Lake Texcoco.
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Where were the Incas located? How did they survive? What were their economic strengths?
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The semi-arid Andes highlands were the center of the far-flung Inca empire, Tahuantinsuyu, that extended from today's Chile to Colombia. Cuzco, the capital, was located at 10,000 feet above sea level.
Impressive adaptations to this unique environment allowed civilizations to thrive at higher altitudes than anywhere else in the world. The Andean peoples had learned to freeze-dry foods by taking advantage of the daily extremes of temperature at high altitudes. They kepts herds of llamas and alpacas in the altiplano, weaving textiles from the wool. Using irrigation and terracing, they developed varieties of potatoes at high altitudes; grew corn and coca at lower levels; and raised cotton in the lowlands. They were knowledgeable miners, fine metalworkers, and great builders. A rotating system of labor for public works that was traditional among Andean peoples was used to construct thousands of miles of roads. These roads greatly facilitated the movement of troops, peoples, and goods. Housing styles varied from covered wood to multilevel dwellings constructed of stone and mud, and transportable shelters made of poles and animal hides. Many tribes played games such as lacrosse and stickball. |
