I. Early American Civilizations (Pages 22–23)

 

A. Several great civilizations arose in present-day Mexico and in Central and South

America. The most advanced were the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec, and the Inca.

Each thrived for centuries.

 

B. The Olmec people lived in what is now Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, between

1500 B.C. and 3000 B.C.

 

C. The Olmec built stone pavement and drainage systems and sculpted large stone

monuments. Their civilization influenced their neighbors.

 

Discussion Question

Why do you think early American civilizations developed along large bodies of water?

(Answers will vary but should include the notion that early people settled near water as a means

of transportation and a way to farm. If they needed to flee quickly, they could navigate along

the waters.)

 

II. The Maya (Pages 23–24)

 

A. The Mayan civilization flourished in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras,

and Belize.

 

B. The people built large cities, each having at least one stone pyramid.

 

C. Tikal was the largest Mayan city and had five pyramids.

 

D. The Mayan civilization was a theocracy, or a society ruled by religious leaders.

 

E. The Maya believed that the gods controlled all that happened on Earth. Atop the

pyramids were religious and governmental centers.

 

F. The Maya became skilled astronomers and developed a writing system called

hieroglyphics.

 

G. Mayan traders transported their goods such as maize, vegetables, jade, turquoise

jewelry, and cacao beans on their backs and along the water.

 

H. No one knows what caused the decline of the Maya around A.D. 900, but

descendants of the Maya still live in parts of Mexico and Central America.

 

III. The Aztec (Pages 24–26)

 

A. Founded in 1325, Tenochtitlán was the home of the Aztec and their capital city.

Situated on an island, it was one of the largest cities in the Americas.

 

B. Workers toiled day and night to make causeways linking the island to the mainland

and filling in Lake Texcoco, upon which the city was built.

 

C. Tenochtitlán was also a center of trade.

 

D. The Aztec people were warriors and conquered nearly all rival communities.

They built a military empire.

 

E. From the conquered people, the Aztec took weapons, maize, cotton cloth, and

copper. The Atzec forced their captives to work as slaves.

 

F. The Aztec people also believed in pleasing the gods. Their society was organized

around religion, and they sacrificed thousands of prisoners in religious ceremonies.

 

Discussion Question

How did the Aztec build a military empire? (They went to war and conquered neighboring

communities. They stole weapons from the conquered people to help build their empire. They

used the conquered people as slaves to help them expand their capital city.)

 

IV. The Inca (Page 26)

 

A. The Inca Empire developed in the western highlands of South America.

 

B. Cuzco, the capital city, was founded around A.D. 1200.

 

C. The Inca ruler Pachacuti and his son, Topa Inca, conquered neighboring lands

to build their empire.

 

D. It was the largest of the early American civilizations. The empire stretched more

than 3,000 miles from present-day Colombia to northern Argentina and Chile.

 

E. The population of the Inca Empire at its height was more than nine million people.

 

F. The Inca were very advanced.

 

1. They built 10,000 miles of paved roads.

 

2. Rope bridges crossed canyons and rivers.

 

3. They developed a record-keeping system using quipus so that runners could

take messages from one part of the empire to another.

 

4. The language, Quechua, became the official language of the empire.

 

5. They developed a system of terracing the land by building platforms so that

they could plant crops on slopes.

 

G. They were also a religious people, worshipping the sun god.

 

Discussion Question

Why is the Inca considered a great civilization? (It was the largest of the early civilizations,

stretching for about 3, 000 miles. The Inca developed paved roads, a common language,

a record-keeping system, and terracing for farming.)

 

I. Early Native Americans (Pages 28–31)

 

A. Many Native American cultures existed in North America before Europeans arrived in

the 1500s.

 

B. The Hohokam lived in the desert of present-day Arizona. Their civilization flourished

from about A.D. 300 to A.D. 1300. They built irrigation channels to bring water to the

hot, dry land from the nearby Gila and Salt Rivers and left behind pottery, carved

stone, and shells.

 

C. The Anasazi lived in an area known as the Four Corners (or the meeting place) of

present-day Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico from A.D. 1 to A.D. 1300.

 

D. The Anasazi built stone and cliff dwellings. A pueblo or stone dwelling looked like an

apartment building. The cliff dwellings were built into the walls of steep cliffs. Pueblo

Bonito and Mesa Verde are examples of each.

 

E. In about 1300, the Anasazi left these dwellings to settle in smaller communities, perhaps

due to droughts during which their crops dried up.

 

F. The Mound Builders lived in central North America from present-day Pennsylvania to

the Mississippi River valley. They built mounds of earth that looked like the Aztec

stone pyramids.

 

G. The Adena were hunters and gatherers and among the earliest Mound Builders living

in the Ohio Valley around 800 B.C.

 

H. The Hopewell people were farmers and traders who built large burial mounds shaped

live birds, bears, and snakes. They left behind pearls, shells, cloth, and copper in the

mounds to show their variety of trade.

 

I. The Cahokia built the largest settlement in present-day Illinois. This city may have

had 16,000 people. The highest mound, Monks Mound, rose nearly 100 feet and was

probably the highest structure north of Mexico.

 

II. Other Native North Americans (Pages 31–33)

 

A. The peoples of the North were the Inuit, settling in the cold Arctic region. Inuits may

have been the last to migrate to North America. They built igloos to protect themselves

from severe weather. They wore furs and sealskins to keep them warm and dry.

They were hunters and fishers.

 

B. The peoples of the West were many: Tlingit, Haida, Chinook, Nez Perce, Yakima,

Pomo, Ute, and Shoshone. They used the resources of the forest and sea as they

hunted and gathered. The Ute and Shoshone created temporary shelters as they

traveled to search for food.

 

C. The peoples of the Southwest were the Hopi, the Acoma, and the Zuni. Their homes

were made of adobe bricks, and they raised maize, beans, and squash. The Navajo

and the Apache settled in the region in the 1500s. They were hunters and gatherers,

unlike the other peoples of the region, and built square homes called hogans.

 

D. The peoples of the Plains were nomads. They hunted and farmed and built tents

called tepees that they moved with them from place to place. They learned to tame

wild horses and used them to hunt and fight.

 

E. The peoples of the East, the Iroquois and the Cherokee, formed complex political systems

of governing. The Iroquois formed five groups: the Onondaga, the Seneca, the

Mohawk, the Oneida, and the Cayuga. Until the late 1500s when these groups formed

the Iroquois League, also called the Iroquois Confederacy, they fought wars with one

another.

 

F. The peoples of the Southeast were the Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee. They farmed

and adapted to the warmer woodlands climate of the south.

 

Discussion Question

Why do you think the different Native North American groups developed a wide variety

of cultures? (Answers will vary but should include recognition that regional climate and resources

created the need for different lifestyles. Climate and resources affected whether groups farmed,

fished, or hunted, were nomadic or permanently settled, and what type of shelters they built.)