# 1.4/1.5 - Developments in the Americas & Africa

## Essential Question
> What states developed in the Americas, and how did they change over time?

## The Mississippian Culture
The first large scale civilization to develop in central america.
- Went through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Made large earthen mounds
- up to 100 feet tall and would cover up to 12 football fields.
- Cahokia would be the biggest earthen mounds, it's modern day location would be St. Louis.

Matrilineal Society.
- Power went through the woman's side of the family.
- Unique Situation only found in these early societies.

Society ends up falling around 1450 and other Mississipian cities end up falling around 1600
- The reason they fell is still unknown and contested.

## Chaco and Mesa Verde
These 2 civilizations were within the southwestern United States

> Water is important and leads to a very specific way of life.
People have to learn to adapt to the environment to survive
- Learning to survive without wood.
- Chaco - Big multi room structures made out of clay.
- Mesa Verde - Multi story homes built into the sides of cliffs using sandstone.


## The Mayan City-States
Within Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala and reached its height from prior to 1200.
- 2 million mayans
- Lot's of cities

War within city-states would be common and some would be overthrown.
- City states would not be used to take land but a continuous flow of resources.
- A tribute system would allow for them to take things such as human sacrifices.

> Women could be priests and would be able to rule if there were no men available.

They were very advanced and innovative.
- Could get rubber by tapping trees.
- Incorporated zero into their numbering system.


## The Aztecs
Start out as the mexicans, Nomadic people who move around central mexico that would do hunting and gathering amongst various tribes. In 1325 they soon established their capital city Tenochitilan.
- Tenochtitlan population would be 200,000
- Modern day Mexico City after being conquered by spain.
- Tribute system - would have to pay tributes with others like the mayans.
- Would take things such as Wood and rope

> Theocracy, government system where people would have God as their supreme ruler.

## Technology
Would use ways to interact with their environment to help tenochtitlan to survive.

Chinapas were 'Floating' Islands. They would dredge up all the soil from the bottom of lakes and turn them into agricultural beds.
- Soil from the bottom of lakes would be very good soil from the amount of nutrients from
- Could farm up to 7 crop yields a year.

## Society
Women play an important role in the Aztec tribute system. Sometimes Aztec husbands would get multiple wives to meet the tributes. Women could do things such as:
- Making cloths

> Some women would be able to work as healers or Midwives.

> Patriarchal Society.

Human sacrifice and bloodletting would be very common to pay back their God.

Calpulli system - A small local government of 100 or so people that they would work on to provide for themselves and the government. Social structure that would help them rule over themselves and keep the social leader in greater Aztec would keep the social ladder in place.

As they try to kill and conquer more people it would be their downfall since they would hold resentment against them and soon rebel. The Spanish would also soon bring diseases that would weaken them.

## The Inca
Would begin in Peru in 1438.

Large set of mountains that would be hard to control. 4 provinces would be set up to cover all of the land.

When a ruler would die they would be mummified and rule their land from the afterlife.

Would have a tribute system that would be used not in materials but in labor
- Would work for 1-2 months of the year to pay the government.
- Labor included things such as building roads.

They would practice human sacrifice and animism.
- That there would be spiritual or supernatural forces within objects.

Would pray to their ancestors.

## Technology.
Massive road that would spread from one end of Peru to the other. Would have around 25,000 miles of paved road split into 2 parts.
- Eastern mountain route and western coastal route.
- Semi-Long distance trade that would be controlled by the government.

Quipo.
- A knotted rope that would track numerical information. No written form of record system.
- Trading records.
- Engineering information.

The fall happened when they were in a civil war and new diseases coming for Europe allowed for a relatively easy downfall.

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## 1.5 Essential Question
What countries developed in Africa, and how did they change over time?

## Political Structure in Inland Africa
Major group that would expand them out would be the Bantu people. Expanded into eastern, western, and southern parts of africa.
- Would settle as they took over more land in agricultural farming locations.

No big centralized. Smaller tribal governing groups would interact with each other to keep things in control. Would have a kin based network.
> Kin - Your family.

## Political Structure in Western Africa
Islam would increase as traders would establish trade networks throughout west africa. Ghana is an area in the west african coast that would thrive due to gold trade.
- Would tax people taking gold into north africa and the middle east.

Mali
Weakened Ghana, more people converting to islam and a stronger trade network.
Mansa Musa - Richest man to ever live.

## East Coast
> Zimbabwe, Comes from the Bantu word dwelling of stone.

They would build their houses out of stone and would use gold to trade with the Indian ocean.

Swahili, a blend of Bantu and Arabic.
Great Zimbabwe - the capital city that would have a massive defensive wall made out of stone.
- Had too many crops and would overcrowd the city

Ethiopia, expressed their power through architecture and had 11 churches made out of rock. Get's it's own type of chirstianity due to being surronded by islam

## Social structures in Sub-Saharan Africa
Age was important because it was tied to knowledge and would be able to do more work as a child.

Some jobs would be for men such as leather-tanning and Blacksmithing.

Slavery had a long history in Africa as it does everywhere else. People in africa would be shipped to the middle east to have them be used for labor.

Both men and women would end up serving in households.

> Couldn't own land but you could own people to work on the land that would be owned by the tribe.

## Cultural life in Sub-Saharan Africa
Song was used for spiritual purposes, communication, and story telling.Visual would be used for religious practices.

Griots/Griottes.
- Oral Historians in Africa would tell stories since they would not be written down.
- Powerful and important people because they hold the knowledge.

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###### tags: `AP World` `Unit 1`