A. Geography II. Mesoamerican Civilizations - Core Knowledge
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/061:14 PMPage 126II. Mesoamerican CivilizationsA. GeographyCentral America is part of North America and contains the countries ofBelize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Itis bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east and by the Pacific Ocean to the west.To the south is the continent of South America. Central America is an isthmus, orland bridge, which connects the two larger bodies of land.Teaching IdeaHave students work in pairs to createmodels of the South American continent. They will need cardboard for abase, self-hardening clay, and paints tocreate their models. Students shouldinclude the Andes Mountains; theAmazon, Paraná, and Orinoco Rivers;the Amazon River Basin; and thePampa, and label all the countries aswell.South America is the fourth-largest continent. To the east is the AtlanticOcean and to the west, the Pacific Ocean. The Caribbean Sea borders SouthAmerica to the north. The Andes Mountains range from north to south on the farwestern side of South America. The northern portion of the continent, includingmuch of Brazil, is covered by tropical rainforest.BrazilBrazil covers almost half of the South American continent and is the fifthlargest country in the world. Brazil is so large that it borders all but two (Chileand Ecuador) of the other 12 countries in South America. The word Brazil comesfrom the name of a tree found in the Amazon rainforest. Brazil lies mostly within the tropical zone, so its climate is mainly warm and wet.Most of the people live in urban areas and about 30 percent of the populationlives on the coastal plain, a narrow strip along the Atlantic Ocean. About 700,000native Americans live within the rainforest, but many others live in citiesand urban areas. The overall population is a mix of descendants of Portuguese,native Americans, and Africans. Brazil was conquered by Portugal, unlike most ofSouth America, which was conquered by the Spanish. Its official language isPortuguese.ArgentinaArgentina is the second-largest country in South America. A long, narrowcountry, Argentina extends east and south of the Andes and south of Paraguayand Uruguay. The Andes form the boundary between Argentina and Chile. TheGran Chaco, a region of low forests and grasslands, dominates Argentina’s northern region. The south is a collection of barren plateaus, known as Patagonia. Themajor economic area of Argentina is the Pampa (also known as the Pampas) inthe center of the country. This region of tall grasslands and temperate climate isfamous for its cattle ranches. About 70 percent of the population lives in this area.Most Argentines are descendants of Spanish colonists and Spanish is the official language.Amazon RiverThe Amazon River forms at the junction of the Ucayali [OOH-cah-yah-lee]and Marañón [marn-YEOWN] Rivers in northern Peru and empties into theAtlantic Ocean through a delta in northern Brazil. The Amazon is the secondlongest river in the world after the Nile, but has the largest volume of water ofany river in the world. Hundreds of tributaries feed into it. The Amazon RiverBasin drains more than 40 percent of South America. With no waterfalls, the riveris navigable almost its entire length.126Grade 5 Handbook
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/061:14 PMPage 127The Amazon flows through the world’s largest rainforest. This rainforest ishome to more than 2.5 million species of insects, tens of thousands of plants, andover 1,000 species of birds. In fact, almost half of all of the world’s known speciescan be found in the Amazon. Curious mammals in the Amazon rainforestsinclude the tapir (a hoofed mammal), the nutria (an otterlike creature), the greatanteater, and various kinds of monkeys. Insects include large, colorful butterflies.Birds include hummingbirds, toucans, and parrots. A famous reptile dweller is theanaconda, a huge snake that squeezes its victims to death; alligators are also common. Fish include flesh-eating piranhas and the electric eel, capable of discharging a shock up to 650 volts. In recent years environmentalists have grown concerned about threats to the ecosystem posed by logging and deforestation in thisrainforest.The Amazon was named by a Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana, whoexplored the river in 1541 and named it after women warriors he encounteredwho reminded him of descriptions of the Amazons in ancient Greek mythology.Andes MountainsThe Andes Mountains are over 5,000 miles (8,047 km) in length, the longestmountain system in the Western Hemisphere. The mountains begin as fourranges in the Caribbean area on the northeastern coast of South America. In Peruand Bolivia, the mountains form two parallel ranges that create a wide plateauknown as the Altiplano. The Andes then form a single range that separates Chilefrom Argentina.With an average height of 12,500 feet (3,810 m), the Andes are the secondhighest mountain range in the world. (The Himalayas are the highest.) The tallestpeak in the Western Hemisphere is the Andes’ Mount Aconcagua, which rises22,834 feet (6,960 m) above sea level. Many of the mountains are volcanoes,either active or dormant.Approximately 50 to 60 percent of Peru’s people live in the Altiplano. Abouta third of the country’s population lives in the narrow lowlands between theAndes and the Pacific Ocean. Because the Andes run north to south along theentire length of Chile, most Chileans live in the Central Valley region between theAndes and low coastal mountains. The Central Valley, a fertile area, is home tolarge cities, manufacturing centers, and agriculture.The Andes Mountains were the home of the Inca people, whom students inCore Knowledge schools studied in Grade 1 and will study again as part of thisunit. Core Knowledge students should also have learned about Mount Aconcaguaand the Andes during the Grade 4 geography subsection “Mountains andMountain Ranges.”B. Maya, Aztec, and Inca CivilizationsThe MayaThe Maya are a native people who settled in the rainforest of the YucatánPeninsula in southeastern Mexico, Belize, much of Guatemala, and parts of ElSalvador and Honduras. The dates of their arrival in the area are disputed, but itis generally agreed that their culture reached its apex around 300–900 CE.Teaching IdeaUse a search engine to search forpictures of Maya ruins using keywords from this book. Share thesepictures with students.History and Geography: World127
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:18 PMPage 128II. Mesoamerican CivilizationsThe Maya cultivated maize (corn), beans, and squash. Maya farmers used avariety of farming methods, including what is called the “slash-and-burn” methodof farming. Farmers cleared their cornfields by cutting bushes and trees and thenallowing the cut plants to dry under the hot sun. After drying was complete, thefarmers burned the cuttings and planted corn in the ashes, working around theremaining tree stumps.The Maya built impressive cities in the midst of the rainforest. The largestbuildings—tall temple-pyramids, royal palaces, and ball courts—were concentrated in the city centers. These stone structures required an extensive knowledgeof architecture and engineering. Many buildings were covered with hieroglyphsthat recounted the history of the city’s dynasty and their patron gods. People livedin small houses scattered through the jungle on the outskirts of the city.The Maya worshipped a variety of gods. Many Maya buildings are decoratedwith the face of Chac, the Maya rain god. For a society that depended on its harvests, rain was vitally important. Some important Maya myths and traditions arerecorded in a sacred book called the Popul Vuh.Most people were farmers who lived in cities or in villages near their fields,while hereditary kings ruled the centers. The principal cities were Tikal, Tuluum,Coba, Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Chichen Itza, Labna, Mayapan, Uaxactún, Copán,Bonampak, Palenque, and Río Bec. Many of these sites can be visited today, andthey are popular tourist destinations.The Maya developed advanced systems of astronomy and mathematics. Theyworked out a calendar of 365 days and could accurately predict eclipses. Theyalso developed the concept of zero, a very important advance in mathematics.Their system of hieroglyphs for writing and keeping records was a complex system of ideographs—symbols representing ideas—that archaeologists have onlypartly decoded. It has long been one of the great mysteries of linguistics. Mayabuildings, especially their temple pyramids, were massive structures built of limestone blocks.Maya glyphsTeaching IdeaCoordinate instruction with the physical education teacher or on your ownclass time to simulate “pok-a-tok.” Tellstudents they are going to play a ballgame without using their hands or feet.Set up a ring at a right angle to theground. A player scores when he or shecan hit the ball through the ring. Youmay wish to modify the game after acertain period of time so that it maycome to a conclusion. Discuss howchallenging this game must have been.128Grade 5 HandbookA ball game called pok-a-tok had a prominent role in Maya culture. Playerstried to drive a rubber ball through a stone ring set about 30 feet (9 m) in the air,but were not allowed to use their hands or feet. The game had religious significance, with the winners richly rewarded and the losers sometimes offered as sacrifices to the gods.Sometime about 900 CE, the Maya abandoned many of their ceremonial centers. Experts speculate that an epidemic struck and killed much of the population, a drought occurred, or perhaps the Maya had exhausted the soil and movedon. It is possible that the people simply moved away if the farmers could nolonger support a center’s population. No one knows for sure what happened.Although the Maya culture seems to have fallen on hard times, many Mayapeople survived. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, the large cities werein ruin and a much smaller population lived scattered throughout the jungle.Some Maya survivors were subjugated by the Spanish conquistador Francisco deMontejo in about 1549.As you may have noticed, the word Maya can be used as a singular and a plural form, and also as an adjective. However, usage differs. Some writers prefer“Mayas” as the plural noun and “Mayan” as an adjective.
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/15/066:28 AMPage 129The AztecsBy 1325 CE, the Aztec (who called themselves the Mexica) had moved southto Lake Texcoco [TESH-co-co] in the Valley of Mexico. They were originally asmall nomadic group, but their warrior culture enabled them to grow and eventually dominate their neighbors. They established an empire that in time encompassed south and central Mexico. The Aztec ultimately came to dominate400–500 city-states and over 5,000,000 people. They did not directly governthese other city-states; instead, they established a tribute system. In order tomaintain some level of independence, the subjugated peoples paid taxes and laborto the Aztec. The Aztec Empire was similar to a union of city-states, a conceptthat should be familiar to students from their study of the Greek city-states inGrade 2. This lack of centralized organization, along with the tribute system andthe fear that the Aztec engendered among their subjects, created a great hatred ofthe Aztec. The Spanish were able to capitalize on this hatred when they set out tocontrol the Aztec Empire in the early 1500s.Part of the fear that these other Indian peoples felt was based on the Aztecreligious practice of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice did not originate with theAztec; it had long been a part of religious practices among the natives of MiddleAmerica. However, the Aztec sacrificed on a very large scale. One goal of the warsfought by the Aztec was to capture rivals to use for human sacrifice. Prisoners ofwar were often killed as ritual offerings to the Aztec deities.Ritual sacrifices took place atop the great Aztec temple-pyramids. The victimwas placed on a stone altar and a priest used a stone knife to cut the still-beatingheart from a sacrificial victim. The heart was then presented as an offering to oneof the Aztec gods, and the body was pushed down the stairs of the pyramid anddragged away.Human sacrifice appears to have played a role in each of the Aztec 18 majormonthly religious festivals. The Aztec believed that the gods had to be appeasedwith sacrifices. In particular, they believed constant sacrifices were needed tokeep the sun moving.The Aztec worshipped many gods, including some known earlier to theMaya. Key gods and religious figures included Tlaloc, the rain god,Huitzilopochtli, the war god; and Quetzalcóatl, the “feathered serpent.” Religiousfestivals were based on the Aztec calendar, which had 260 days. The Aztec alsohad a 365-day solar calendar. This last was derived from the Maya calendar andconsisted of 18 months of 20 days and an extra five days.The Aztec were governed by a king known as a “tlatoani” or “speaker.” Whenthe Spanish came, the ruler was Moctezuma II (also spelled Montezuma).Moctezuma lived in a 10-acre palace of 300 rooms that provided private livingquarters for the king, offices, workshops, and council halls. Moctezuma also hada zoo and many country retreats.The ruler was assisted by a council of advisors. Below the advisors was a classof nobles and war chiefs. Most Aztec were farmers, but there were also traders andcraftworkers. At the bottom of the social structure were slaves. Slaves were oftenpeople captured in battle.Teaching IdeaCompare and contrast the tribute system with the taxation system we currently have in the United States today.What are the similarities and differences in these systems? Studentsshould recall “no taxation withoutrepresentation” from Grade 4.
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:20 PMPage 130II. Mesoamerican CivilizationsTeaching IdeaCreate an overhead of InstructionalMasters 18a–18c, The Civilizations ofthe Maya, Aztec, and Inca, to orient students to the areas that each civilizationencompassed. Ask students to locatethe civilizations and cities in relation toone another. Have students use the distance scale to estimate the size of eachcivilization.NameDateStudy the map below. Use it to answer the questions.MEXICOGulf COCEANADESMCuzcoOUicchuMachu PicchuSOUTHAMERICAN TA I N SAztec EmpireMaya EmpireInca Empire005005001,000 miles1,000 kilometers1. Which civilizations were in Mexico and Central America?Copyright Core Knowledge FoundationAztec and Maya2. Which civilization was in South America?the IncaPurpose: To read and interpret a map featuring the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizationsMaster 18aGrade 5: History & GeographyUse Instructional Masters 18a–18c.Teaching IdeaHave students look at the flag ofMexico to confirm the existence of theeagle, snake, and cactus symbols onthe flag. Then have them research thesymbolism behind the 3 colors used inthe Mexican flag.130Grade 5 HandbookTenochtitlánFour causeways, or bridges, connected the Aztec capital to the mainland;aqueducts brought fresh water into the city. A network of canals enabled peoplein canoes to move their goods easily around the city. Islands of mud wereanchored to the lake floor and used as gardens and agricultural land. The city wascarefully planned and governed. Boatmen paddled around on the canals, transporting merchandise and other items.NERUPERUPA C I F I C O C E A NThe Aztec were noted for their gold and silver metalwork. Although the chiefeconomic activity of the empire was farming, the empire supported a large andbusy network in trade goods—both agricultural products and handcrafts. TheAztec used a system of hieroglyphs to record business transactions, tribute payments, religious rituals, and their history. They recorded information in a specialkind of book called a codex.The center of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlán [te-noch-tee-TLAHN]. Itwas built beginning in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the center of whatis now Mexico. According to legend, the Mexica would wander until they foundan eagle with a serpent in its beak perched on a cactus. There they should settle.Supposedly, they saw this sign on an island in Lake Texcoco. The eagle, snake,and cactus are still symbols of Mexico today; you can find them on the Mexicanflag.Civilizations of the Maya, Aztec, and IncahtitlánTenochtitlánAlthough the Aztec had professional war leaders, armies were made up of allof the able-bodied men available at the time of a campaign. Boys were taughtendurance and military skills as part of their schooling. Aztec who took captivesand were particularly valorous warriors increased their status in society.By 1519, when the Spanish first saw it, Tenochtitlán was five square miles insize and had a population of more than 300,000. This was larger than most citiesin Europe at the time. The city was centered around a large square of palaces andwhitewashed pyramids with massive temples atop them. Around this central corewere smaller palaces, brick houses, markets, and gardens. One of Cortés’s men,Bernal Diaz del Castillo, gave a memorable description of his first glimpse ofTenochtitlán:Here we had a clear prospect of the three causeways by which Mexicocommunicated with the land, and of the aqueduct of Chapultepeque,which supplied the city with the finest water. We were struck with thenumbers of canoes, passing to and from the main land, loaded with provisions and merchandise, and we could now perceive, that in this greatcity, and all the others of that neighbourhood which were built in thewater, the houses stood separate from each other, communicating onlyby small drawbridges, and by boats, and that they were built with terraced tops. We observed also the temples and adoratories of the adjacentcities, built in the form of towers and fortresses, and others on the causeway, all whitewashed, and wonderfully brilliant. The noise and bustle ofthe market-place below us could be heard almost a league off, and thosewho had been at Rome and at Constantinople said, that for convenience,regularity, and population, they had never seen the like.
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:21 PMPage 131The IncaAnother civilization that grew powerful about the same time as the Aztec isthe Inca. By 1525, the Inca had created a vast empire that stretched from what istoday northern Ecuador through Peru and into parts of Chile, Bolivia, andArgentina. Their capital was Cuzco, Peru, the original homeland of the Inca in theAndes Mountains.The Inca began their conquests around 1438. They had a labor tribute system to rule their conquered people. People had to work for the empire under thesupervision of imperial bureaucrats and administrators. The Inca also used acomplex resettlement policy to govern conquered people. Whole villages weresplit up and relocated to various villages closer to Cuzco; the conquered were settled among loyal subjects to ensure obedience. Loyal Inca took their place in theconquered villages. This strategy helped ensure that rebellions could not be easily organized and executed.The leader of the empire was called the “Sapa Inca” and was considered theson of the sun god. Below the royal family came the noble class, which was madeup of priests, military leaders, and the men who ran the government. When members of the noble class died, their wives and servants were buried with them.Kings were mummified, sometimes entombed in a seated position, and their bodies were preserved and worshipped in temples. For some ceremonies, commoners were mummified in bundles, their bodies set in the fetal position. A numberof ice mummies of children have been found in the Andes. In 1995, a particularly well-preserved mummy of a twelve- to fourteen-year-old girl was found in theAndes. Nicknamed Juanita, her body was frozen intact, allowing for many scientific studies.The Sapa Inca governed with the help of a complicated network of government employees and civil servants. Especially gifted boys were trained to be civilservants. They learned how to record information on a quipu (see p. 132). Theyalso learned religion, governing skills, and math.Teaching IdeaAsk students to compare the importance of the Inca road system to thatof the Roman Empire, which theylearned about in Grade 3 if they werefollowing the Core KnowledgeSequence.An important factor in keeping their vast empire together was the Inca’s ability to travel and communicate. The empire had more than 10,000 miles of roads.Suspension bridges made of woven fiber were built where the roads had to passover river gorges and ravines in the mountains. Messengers, called chasquis[CHAWS-kees] or runners, ran in relays over these roads carrying light items,laws, and news of the empire to distant locations. Rest houses were built one dayapart on the roads. People in nearby villages provided food for the messengers, aswell as new runners to take up the messages.Since the Inca had no written language, these messengers could not carry awritten note, although they often carried quipus that contained important information. Instead, a runner memorized his message, then sprinted to a rest station,where the next runner was ready for his team member’s arrival. Without slowingthe pace, the first runner recited the message, and, running alongside, the reliefrunner repeated it. Then the first runner dropped out, and the new messengercontinued on. The system was fast! A message could travel 250 miles a day andthe 1,250 miles from Quito to Cuzco, the capital, in five days. In an age of automobiles and airplanes, that may not seem especially fast, but it was very fast forthe time. In the 1860s, the famous Pony Express riders of the American Westwere only able to cover about 200 miles a day—and they rode on horseback!mountain bridge in the AndesHistory and Geography: World131
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:21 PMPage 132II. Mesoamerican CivilizationsFarmers, imperial officials, and the army also used the roads. The army usedthe roads to march quickly from one area to another to quiet unrest among theInca’s subjects.Farming was the main economic activity of the Inca. Farmers built terraceson the sides of mountains and used irrigation to put more land under cultivation.One of the most important crops was the potato, of which the Inca grew manyvarieties. Europeans did not know about potatoes until the Spanish conqueredthe Inca Empire and took potatoes back to Europe. The Inca also raised llamasand alpacas. They made clothing of the animals’ wool, ate the meat, and used theanimals as beasts of burden.As has been noted, the Inca did not have a writing system, but they developed a record-keeping system using quipu [kwee-pu]. A quipu was a rope with40 or so strings attached. The Inca would tie knots in various places on the stringto represent groups of 1, 10, and 100. Quipus were very important record-keeping devices, recording everything from tribute contributions, economic reports,war information, and ceremonial details. Civil servants, village leaders, andimportant heads of households could communicate with each other and keeprecords using these quipu.The Inca were also known for their stone work. They built elaborate wallswith gigantic pieces of stone carefully cut and fitted together. Some of these wallsare still standing today.Like the word Maya, the word Inca is used as a singular and a plural noun,as well as an adjective. You may also encounter “Incas” as the plural and “Incan”as an adjective.Machu Picchu and CuzcoLike the Maya and Aztec, the Inca had urban settlement. A fine example ofan Inca site is Machu Picchu, with its terraced fields, palaces, fort, fountains, temples, and stonework staircases. Machu Picchu’s exact use is unknown, but it mayhave been a city, fortress, or one of the many country retreats the Inca emperorsbuilt throughout the Andes. Located high in the Andes, the city was never foundby the conquering Spanish, and thus was not destroyed.As all roads in Europe led to Rome, so all roads in the Inca Empire led toCuzco, its capital. According to one Inca creation myth, two Inca heroes emergedfrom caves and founded the city of Cuzco. A large fort guarded the city of hugepalaces and temple compounds.C. Spanish ConquerorsBackgroundBeginning in the 1400s, Europeans set forth in a great wave of exploration.(See Section III, “European Exploration, Trade, and the Clash of Cultures,”pp. 139–163.) The Portuguese led the way. Later, they were followed by theSpanish, the French, the Dutch, and the English.132Grade 5 HandbookChristopher Columbus was funded by the Spanish rulers Ferdinand andIsabella. Columbus landed in the Caribbean, but he incorrectly thought that hewas in India. This is why people started calling native peoples “Indians.” TheSpanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, sent soldiers, administrators, andcolonists to settle these islands. They also sent Catholic missionaries to convertthe native people to Christianity.
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:21 PMPage 133Another set of men who traveled to the Americas after the initial discoveriesof Columbus are known to history as the conquistadors. The word conquistadoris Spanish for “conqueror.” It refers to a Spanish military leader who took part inthe conquest of the Americas in the 16th century. The conquistadors were intenton finding and taking the riches of the Indies. They came from many differentoccupations and were generally not professional soldiers. They sought glory byfinding riches, new land, and subjects for the king.The leader of a group of conquistadors typically signed an agreement withthe Spanish government. Spain agreed to recognize the authority of the expedition in exchange for one-fifth of all treasure found. In addition, there was anexpectation that any conquered lands would become Spanish colonies. Eachmember of the expedition would get a share of whatever the expedition took.These shares might consist of gold and silver, or possibly captured native peoplewhom the Spanish seized, in addition to those precious metals.By 1520, the Spanish had given up their pursuit of treasure on the Caribbeanislands and began looking to the mainland. The conquistadors set out from theCaribbean to explore what is present-day Mexico, Central America, and SouthAmerica. They launched expeditions against the Aztec and Inca empires, and ultimately brought both empires down.The conquistadors were successful for several reasons. They were brave anddaring men driven by a powerful desire for wealth. In some cases they were veryclever. In addition, they had horses, guns, and steel weapons, none of which thenative people had. There were no horses in the Americas until the Spanishbrought them. Also, native populations were decimated by diseases the Spanishbrought, diseases for which the natives had no immunity.The conquistadors gained large amounts of silver and gold by conquering theAztec and Inca empires, and even more by setting up mines to dig out the hugedeposits of silver discovered in Mexico and Peru between 1545 and 1595. TheSpanish mine owners made fortunes, as did the Spanish government, because themonarchy received one-fifth of all the silver mined. Silver mining became thebasis of the Spanish colonial economy and established the colonies’ role as animporter of goods rather than an exporter.Hernán Cortés and the AztecOne of the most famous of the conquistadors was Hernán Cortés (alsospelled Cortez). Cortés was born in Spain and studied briefly at the University ofSalamanca before dropping out. He sailed for the New World in 1504 and tookpart in the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola (the island which today includes Haitiand the Dominican Republic) and in 1511 helped conquer Cuba. For his services he was given land and a house, along with native slaves for workers. In 1517and 1518, expeditions returned to Hispaniola with small amounts of gold and bigstories about where more was to be found. Cortés decided to go for the gold. Hesold or mortgaged all his property and organized an expedition.Teaching IdeaYou may wish to teach the Spanishconquest of the Aztec and Inca civilizations as part of the EuropeanExploration section (see pp. 139–163),which comes next in the CoreKnowledge Sequence.Teaching IdeaCreate a simulation to demonstratethe strong desire for gold that manyexplorers possessed. While studentsare out of the room, hide pennies (asa representation of gold coins)around the room and in students’desks. When students come into theclassroom, tell them you are anexplorer searching for gold. Make ashow of looking for some pieces ofgold. When you “find gold” in a student’s desk, tell them you are claiming it for yourself. The student willprobably react, “That’s not fair . . .this is mine.” Be firm and say, “I amexploring for riches.” Proceed to takeeverything out of the student’s desk.(Be sensitive to your students, and tryto choose someone who won’t cry orbecome too upset.) Continue tosearch the room, and tell the studentsthe gold will be only for you and yourfriends. The students should protestat the injustice of this! Then, stop thesimulation, debrief, and tell the students about your simulation. Youwere being unfair, and this isn’t theway you normally act, but this is howthe Aztec (conquered by Cortés) orthe Inca (conquered by Pizarro) mayhave perceived exploration.In 1519, Cortés left Cuba with 11 ships, about 600 men, and 16 horses. Theexpedition landed on the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula near what is nowVeracruz. Cortés sought to gain control of the wealth of the mighty Aztec Empire(see pp. 129–130). To do this, he made friends with the people along the coastand learned from them of the faraway capital, Tenochtitlán. With the help of anHistory and Geography: World133
CK 5 TH HG P104 230.QXD2/14/062:21 PMPage 134II. Mesoamerican CivilizationsAztec woman named Malinche who had been sold as a slave and served as a translator, Cortés persuaded various groups of Aztec subjects to support the Spanish.Gaining
B. Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations The Maya The Maya are a native people who settled in the rainforest of the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, Belize, much of Guatemala, and parts of El . History and Geography: World 127 Teaching Idea Use a search engine to search for pictures of Maya ruins using key-words from this book. Share .
6th Grade Social Studies Curriculum. Course Description: The focus of 6th grade Social Studies is to promote an awareness of the history, culture and contributions of the world’s civilizations, including Early Civilizations, Classical Civilizations, African Civilizations, Mesoamerican and Andean South American
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4 Syllabus Paper-II : Human Geography Section-A Definition, aims and scope of Human Geography, relation of Human Geography with other social sciences. Principles of Human Geography. Essential facts of Human Geography according to Brunhes and Huntington. Schools of thought in Human Geography : Determinism, Stop and go determinism and
2 1. Geography is the study of places and people. 2. Studying location is important to both physical and human geography. 3. Geography and history are closely connected. Physical geography and human geography contribute to the study of history. Main Ideas The Big Idea Key Terms geography, p.
academic writing setting and culture in their respective learning establishments do not prepare them for the conventions of English writing. Abbas (2011) investigated metadiscourse terms and phrases to understand the socio-cultural variances of Arabic and English-speaking researchers. Abbas analysed seventy discussions of linguistic academic journals composed by native speakers of Arabic as .
