Chapter 9 Study Guide
The Americas
1800 B.C. – 1500 A.D.
Section 1: The Earliest Americans
Definitions: Strait, Beringia
- What are some of the geographic features of North America?
- What are the two major rivers of North America?
- What is the name of waterway between North America and Russia?
- When did people arrive in the Americas?
- Why did people cross from Asia to America?
- What is a creation myth?
- Who are hunter-gatherers?
- Why did people begin to farm?
- What were the first crops grown in the Americas?
- Why didn’t more sophisticated farming techniques develop?
Section 2: Cultures of North America
Definitions: potlatchs, adobe, buffalo, tepees, Hohokam, Pueblo, Hopewell, Mississippians
- What did the people of the Northwest do for survival?
- Why are the people of the Northwest remembered for?
- What was the major crop of the Hohokam?
- What materials did the people of the Southwest use to make their houses?
- What did people hunt on the Great Plains?
- What did young people learn growing up on the Great Plains?
- Why did life become difficult on the Great Plains?
- What are the Hopewell Indians remembered for?
- Who were the Mississippians?
- Why was the city of Cahokia famous?
Section 3: Mesoamerica and Andean South America
Definitions: chinampas, quipu, Olmec, Chavin, Maya, Toltec, Aztec, Inca, Quechua
- Who lived at the center of the growing cities of South America?
- How was Olmec society divided?
- Why are the Olmec remembered?
- What happened to the Olmec and Chavin societies?
- Why are the Maya famous?
- What did Mayan priests do in time of drought?
- How did the Toltec come to power?
- What was the capital of the Toltec empire?
- What is the capital of the Aztec empire?
- Who was at the top of Aztec society?
- Why did the Aztec empire decline?
- What did the Inca Kings do for their empire?
- How did the Inca settle new lands?
- Who was Juanita?
- How did the Inca keep records?
Things to review:
Define the following: Bantu, Oral Traditions, Matrilineal, King Ezana, Swahili, Shona, Tunka Manin, Mansa Musa, Sonni Ali, Mohammed I Askia
- Why is it difficult to farm in the Sahel?
- Who are the Griots?
- What were the beliefs of early African cultures?
- Who lead the villages of ancient Africa?
- What was the name of the first Nubian pharaoh?
- Why were the Nubian kings famous?
- What were some of the items traded by the Kingdom of Kush?
- What type of trade did Aksum specialize in?
- What is King Ezana most known for?
- Why did trade state develop along Africa’s East coast?
- What three cultures were blended together in these kingdoms?
- Where did the Shona live?
- What did Mansa Musa do for the people of Mali?
- How did Sonni Ali organize the government?
- What happened to Timbuktu under the rule of Mohammed I Askia?