Latin American History

118 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Five centuries from the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca through conquest, colonial rule, the independence wars, caudillos and export economies, revolutions in Mexico, Bolivia and Cuba, the military dictatorships, and the return to elected government.

Which culture is often called the mother culture of Mesoamerica?
The Olmec, known for colossal basalt heads and ceremonial centres at San Lorenzo and La Venta
What was Chavin de Huantar?
A highland temple complex at the centre of the Chavin religious tradition, with underground galleries and carved stone deities
Which people built Monte Alban above the Oaxaca valley?
The Zapotec, who terraced a mountaintop into a capital with plazas, ballcourt and carved stelae
What are the Nazca lines?
Enormous figures and straight lines made by clearing dark stones off the desert floor to expose lighter ground beneath
What was Teotihuacan?
A vast planned city with the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Avenue of the Dead
What is the Moche culture known for?
Realistic portrait pottery, monumental adobe huacas and elite tombs filled with gold and turquoise
What defines the Classic period of Maya civilisation?
Independent city-states with dynastic kings, dated stone monuments, a full writing system and the Long Count calendar
Which two Andean states dominated the centuries between Moche and the Inca?
Wari, centred near Ayacucho, and Tiwanaku, centred near Lake Titicaca
What happened to the southern Maya lowland cities after about 800 CE?
Monument building and dynastic rule stopped city by city, and the great southern centres were largely abandoned
When was Tenochtitlan founded according to Mexica tradition?
In 1325, on an island in Lake Texcoco where an eagle was said to have been seen on a cactus
What was the Aztec Triple Alliance?
The alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan that dominated central Mexico and collected tribute from subject provinces
Which ruler began the Inca expansion out of the Cusco valley?
Pachacuti, whose campaigns from 1438 turned a local kingdom into an empire
What was a quipu?
A set of knotted cords used to record numbers and, probably, other information
What was Tawantinsuyu?
The Inca name for their empire, meaning the four regions joined together
When was Machu Picchu built and what was it?
Around 1450, most likely a royal estate of Pachacuti rather than a city or fortress
How many people lived in the Americas in 1492?
Nobody knows; scholarly estimates run from under 10 million to over 100 million, with figures around 40 to 60 million often cited
Where did Columbus make landfall on his first voyage?
On an island in the Bahamas that the Taino called Guanahani, which he renamed San Salvador
What did the Treaty of Tordesillas divide?
It moved the papal line of demarcation west, giving Portugal claims east of it and Castile claims west of it
Who reached Brazil for Portugal in 1500?
Pedro Alvares Cabral, whose fleet made landfall while sailing for India
What was the encomienda?
A grant giving a Spanish settler the labour and tribute of a group of indigenous people, in theory in exchange for protection and Christian instruction
How did Hernan Cortes reach and take Tenochtitlan?
He landed in 1519, gathered allies among peoples subject to the Aztecs, was driven out in 1520, then besieged and took the city
What role did smallpox play in the fall of Tenochtitlan?
An epidemic swept the city in 1520 between the Spanish retreat and the final siege, killing a large part of the population and its leadership
What was the Inca civil war that preceded Pizarro's arrival?
A war of succession between the brothers Atahualpa and Huascar after their father Huayna Capac died in an epidemic
What happened at Cajamarca?
Francisco Pizarro's small force ambushed and captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa in the square of Cajamarca
How long did Inca resistance continue after Cusco fell?
A neo-Inca state held out at Vilcabamba for nearly forty years until Spanish forces took it
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The two-way transfer of crops, animals, people and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world after 1492
What did Bartolome de las Casas argue?
That indigenous people were rational human beings with rights, and that the conquest as practised was unjust
What was the Valladolid debate?
A formal argument before a royal panel over whether the conquest and forced conversion of indigenous peoples was lawful
What was the viceregal structure of Spanish America?
Two viceroyalties at first, New Spain from 1535 and Peru from 1542, each headed by a viceroy answering to the crown
Why did Potosi matter?
A mountain of silver ore found in 1545 made it the richest mining town on earth and the engine of Spain's imperial finances