AP®︎ World History: Topic 1.4 Flashcards

Independent, competing urban states ruled by sacred dynasties; shared Maya culture never produced a unified empire

Maya “sacred king” who directed warfare, diplomacy, tribute, construction, and religious ceremonies

Influential thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Maya center governed through an elite confederation until its collapse around 1441

The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan and dominated the empire conventionally called the Aztec Empire

An independent city-state in the Basin of Mexico with its own ruler, community, and territory

Mexica island capital founded in Lake Texcoco in 1325 and developed into the Aztec Empire’s political and ceremonial center

The 1428 alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan that defeated Azcapotzalco and became the political foundation of the Aztec Empire

Mexica ruler who helped form the Triple Alliance in 1428 and began the empire’s sustained expansion

Mexica ruler after 1440 who continued the Triple Alliance’s conquest and consolidation

The Mexica “great speaker,” selected from the royal dynasty as supreme political, military, and religious ruler

Conquered communities usually kept local rulers and customs if they accepted Mexica supremacy and delivered tribute

Compulsory deliveries of goods from conquered provinces that supported Tenochtitlan’s rulers, temples, army, and population

Professional Mexica long-distance merchants who traded between regions and sometimes gathered political or military intelligence

Highly productive raised agricultural plots built from mud and vegetation in the shallow lakes around Tenochtitlan

The Inca “land of the four quarters,” a territorially integrated Andean empire centered on Cusco

Inca ruler who defeated the Chanca around 1438 and transformed the Cusco kingdom into the expanding Tawantinsuyu

The Inca emperor, whose claimed relationship with the sun god Inti gave sacred legitimacy to his rule

The four large administrative regions of Tawantinsuyu, each oriented around the capital at Cusco

Communities resettled by the Inca to secure frontiers, spread skills, or weaken resistance

The basic Andean kinship and economic community that organized members’ access to land and reciprocal labor

Compulsory rotating labor owed by Andean households for state farming, armies, mining, textiles, and public works

A state network of roads and suspension bridges that integrated provinces and moved officials, armies, labor, and information

Inca relay runners who carried messages and small objects along the imperial road system

Inca roadside way stations that supplied lodging and support for officials and other authorized travelers

Inca storehouses holding food, clothing, weapons, and other supplies for armies, laborers, and emergency redistribution

Andean access to products from different elevations through exchange, migration, colonies, or political control

Level fields cut into Andean slopes to reduce erosion, manage water, and expand cultivable land

Colored, knotted cords used by Inca specialists to record populations, labor obligations, and stored goods numerically

Regional North American societies linked by maize agriculture, mound building, and trade and often governed by powerful chiefs, not one unified empire

Major Mississippian urban and ceremonial center near present-day St. Louis whose mounds show chiefly coordination of labor; declined and was largely abandoned by about 1350

Southwestern communities ancestral to modern Pueblo peoples that developed irrigation, pueblos, ceremonial spaces, and regional networks

Ancestral Pueblo ceremonial and exchange center known for Great Houses, kivas, roads, and debated political centralization

Thirteenth-century Ancestral Pueblo communities known for cliff dwellings and abandoned amid drought, resource pressure, and social change

Administrative and ceremonial capital of the Inca Empire and the center around which its four regions were organized

Language spread by the Inca for imperial administration while local languages continued to be used