World History

• Mesoamerica


  Geographical and cultural area which extends from central Mexico down through Central America
• Meso


  Means "Middle"
• Olmecs


  • Believed to be the earliest civilization in the Americas
  • Established a civilization in southern Mexico
• Mother culture


  The Olmec civilization is considered as the
• Olmec people


  • Good at making pottery and weaving
• Olmec civilization


  • Had a game called pok-a-tok
  • Built large carved head statues which were believed to be used for religious activities
• Glyphs


  They are pictures that represent words
• Olmecs


  • Were incredible astronomers
  • Developed a calendar that was amazingly accurate for its time
• Jaguar God


  The Olmecs' main god, believed to bring rain
• Maya


  • Covered the Yucatan Peninsula and stretched down to the northern parts of El Salvador and Honduras
  • Were expert farmers who grew several crops but their main source of food was corn, which they called maize
  • Were master builders who had two large cities, Tikal and Copan
• Zero


  The Maya invented the idea of the number
• Maya gods


  • God of Maize
  • God of Sun
  • God of Rain
• Most Maya sacrifices were animals but occasionally they did make human sacrifices
• Mirrors


  The Maya's believed the legend of
• Maya


  Were called the "Greeks of the New World"
• Aztec


  • Settled in the Valley of Mexico on the swampy shores of Lake Texcoco, in a place they named Tenochtitlan which had broad avenues, beautiful plazas, markets, temples, and palaces
  • Had three different schools, one for girls and two for boys
• Causeway


  A raised road or path usually built across a body of water
• Chinampas


  "Floating" gardens built on a series of rafts
• War


  An important part of Aztec life
• Conquistador


  A Spanish soldier
• Incas


  • Were a small tribe of South American Indians who lived in the city of Cuzco
  • Had a head of the empire called the Sapa Inca
  • Paid a service tax in physical labor each year
• Census


  An official count of all the people in an area and how they each make a living
• Inca empire's geographical regions

  • The Andes Mountains
  • The Amazon jungle
  • The coastal desert
• Ghana

  • Controlled trade and became wealthy
  • Built an empire by controlling the salt and gold
  • Was the first known kingdom of Ghana in Western Sudan
  • Created an empire with warfare and iron weapons
  • Used camels for transport
  • Was known as the "land of gold"
• Mali


  • Emerged as a major kingdom after the fall of Ghana
  • Was led to victory over the Sosso in 1235 by Sundiata
  • Had an important trading city called Timbuktu
  • Was ruled by the Muslim Mansa Musa who created beautiful mosques and practiced the pilgrimage (haji)
• Songhai


  • Strengthened Islam in West Africa
  • Was ruled as an Islamic empire by Askia the Great
  • Had Sunni Ali as its first ruler
  • Replaced the Mali empire as the main religion was Islam
• Melanesia


  An island from the Pacific which means "black islands"
• Micronesia


  A land from the Pacific which means "small islands"
• Polynesia


  A land from the Pacific which means "many lands"