Chapter 11 Vocab AP World History

a powerful city-state in central Mexico. Its population was about 150,000 at its peak in 600

Raised fields constructed along lake-shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields

Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar

Powerful postclassic empire in central Mexico, influenced much of Mesoamerica, Aztecs claimed ties to this earlier civilization

an ethnic state in ancient Mesoamerica, the common political building block of that region

A group of up to a hundred families that served as a social building block of an altepetl in ancient Mesoamerica

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco :) Mexico City was constructed on its ruins

Also known as Mexica, created powerful empire in central Mexico, forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax

system in which defeated peoples were forced to pay a tax in the form of goods and labor, forced transfer of food, cloth, and other goods subsidized the development of large cities, important component of Aztec and Inca economies

Important culture of what is now southwest US, Centered on Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Mesa Verde in Colorado, culture built multistory residences and worshiped in subterranean buildings called kivas

form of political organization with rule by a hereditary leader who held power over a collection of villages and towns, less powerful than kingdoms and empires, based on gift giving and commercial links

Andean lineage group or kin-based community

Civilization of north coast of Peru, important Andean civilization that built extensive irrigation networks as well as impressive urban centers dominated by brick temples

Andean civilization culturally linked to Tiwanaku, perhaps beginning as a colony of Tiwanaku

Name of the capital city and empire centered on the region near Lake Titicaca in modern Bolivia

Largest and most powerful Andean empire, controlled Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco

system of knotted colored cords used by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information