Socsci 4th

• Mesoamerica: Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca
• Olmec is known as Mesoamerica's "mother culture"
• The Olmec developed in the Gulf of Mexico, in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco
• The oldest known Olmec site is found in San Lorenzo
• They discovered a 100ft structure in La Venta, which was a tomb of a ruler of the Olmec
• The jaguars are the Olmecs sacred diety
• Olmec's snake god in other cultures: Kukulcan - Maya, Quetzalcoatl - Aztecs
• The Maya civilization developed in Central America
• At around A.D. 250, the Maya civilization  reached its golden age known as the Classic Period
• The Mayans had independent city states, ruled by god-kings
• The Mayans used cacao as currency
• The Mayans developed a writing system with 800 glyphs
• The Mayans made a 260 day religious and 365 day solar calendar
• The Toltecs occupied the Maya
• Aztec is also called Mexica
• Aztecs stayed in the Valley of Mexico
• Before the Aztecs arrival the site was settled by Teotihuacán and Toltec
• 1325, the Aztecs founded their own city, which they called Tenochtitlán
• The Aztecs formed the Triple Alliance in 1428 with Texcoco and Tlacopan
• Tlatelolco: market in Aztec, Chinampas: floating gardens
• Aztec sun god: Huitzilopochtli
• Hernan Cortez conquered the Aztec
• The Incan empire is the largest empire, stretching from Peru to Ecuador to Chile
• Inca originally lived in the high plateaus of the Andes until 1200
• 1438, Pachacuti was crowned as ruler of Inca
• Inca was also called the Land of Four Quarters
• Inca made Quechua as the official language
• Inca also demanded labor tribute known as mita
• The Inca created an accounting  device known as the quipu to record data
• Inca gods: creator god called Virococha and the sun god known as Inti
• The Inca were conquered by Francisco Pizarro
• Qin Shi Huangdi created the wall of ten thousand li
• Empires in Afroeurasia

  • Macedonian Empire
  • Roman Empire
  • Achaemenid or Persian Empire
  • Parthian Empire
  • Sassanid Empire
  • Arab-Islamic Empire
  • Mauryan Empire
  • Kushan Empire
  • Gupta Empire
  • Pushyabhuti and the Chola Dynasty
  • Qin Empire
  • Han Empire
  • Sui Empire
  • Tang Empire
  • Song Empire
  • Axum Empire
  • Ghana Empire
• Macedonian Empire


  338-263 BCE
• Roman Empire


  132 BCE-476 CE
• Alexander the Great

  Led the expansion of the Macedonian Empire from Greece to parts of western Asia and India and to northern Africa
• Octavian or Augustus


  The nephew of Julius Caesar, recognized as the first emperor of the Roman Empire
• Hellenistic era


  Characterized by the fusion of four cultures: Greek and Macedonian, Indian and Persian
• Achievements of the Hellenistic era


  • Archimedes' invention and discovery of geometry of spheres and cylinders, value of pi, and Archimedean screw
  • Development of Stoicism and Epicureanism as philosophies
• Roman Empire


  • Constructed networks of roads measuring 50,000 miles which connected the different parts of the empire
  • Encouraged trade and cultural exchange among various people and civilizations