Answer:
Latin America History
Aztec, Inca, and the Columbian Exchange:
1. Location of the Aztec Empire – Mexico
2. Describe the Aztec Religion. – Worshipped many gods and sacrificed animal and people to their gods.
3. Describe the location of the Aztec Capital Tenochtitlan. – In the middle of Lake Texcoco.
4. Why would Tenochtitlan be considered difficult to conquer by an outside force? Being located in the middle of a lake
made it difficult for the enemy to get to.
5. How was Cortes able to defeat a civilization of several hundred thousand? They had advanced weapons (guns, cannons,
steel swords) horses, and disease.
6. Describe Montezuma and Cortés’s first meeting. – Montezuma thought that Cortes was a god that had returned. He gave
Cortes gold and welcomed him to the city.
7. Explain the horse’s role in the Spanish conquest. – Since the Aztec had never seen a horse, they thought that a man on a
horse was a god-like creature.
8. What was the Spanish purpose for exploration? (The 3 G’s) Gold, God (spread Christianity), and Glory
9. What happened to Tenochtitlan after the Aztec Empire fell? – The Spanish burned it to the ground and built Mexico City.
10. Describe the Aztec farming system (name it) - They farmed maize, squash, avocados, beans, and tomatoes on floating
gardens called chinampas.
11. Location of the Inca – In the Andes Mountain of Peru, parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile.
12. Describe Pizarro and Atahualpa’s first meeting. - They were invited to a feast where the Inca were ambushed, and
Atahualpa was captured.
13. Explain Atahualpa’s negotiations for release and the results. - Atahualpa offered Pizarro a room full of gold for his
release. Pizarro took the gold and killed Atahualpa.
14. Describe the Inca farming system (name it) The Inca used a terrace system of farming (or built steps into the mountain
to create flat land).
15. Columbian Exchange – The exchange of goods, ideas, and disease between the old world and new world.
16. Old World – Europe. Asia, and Africa
17. New World – North America and South America
18. Example of products moved during the Columbian Exchanges. - Goods, ideas, diseases, people, plants, animals.
19. Columbian Exchange positive effects. - There were new food products introduced in the new world and old world, and
this increased the population.
20. Maize = Corn
21. Describe the effect of the European conquest on the indigenous people of Latin America (Natives)? - The natives were
enslaved and forced to work in gold and silver mines and on plantations; they died of disease, and were forced to convert
to Christianity.
Latin American Slave Trade, Colonization and Independence:
1. Explain the impact of Spanish arrival on language and religion in Latin America? - Spanish became the most spoken
language and Roman Catholic became the main religion
2. Describe the purposes for the Spanish mission system. - To educate the natives in the Spanish language, to convert
natives to Christianity, and to protect Spanish settlements
3. Why did Africans replace Native Americans as slaves in the “New World” in the 1600s? - The natives died from over work
and disease.
4. What is a Mullatto? - African and European descent
5. What is a Mestizo? - Native American and European descent
6. What were Criollos? - Full blooded Spaniards born in the New World
7. What were Peninsulares? - People that came from the Iberian Peninsula in Europe.
8. What were slaves used for in the “New World”? – Slaves worked on sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cotton plantations.
9. Explain what was traded on each leg of the triangular trade? (ex: Americas to Europe, Europe to Africa, Africa to Americas)
Americas to Europe - Raw materials like sugar cane, cotton, tobacco.
Europe to African - manufactured goods, guns, cloth and alcohol
Africa to America - Slaves
10. Describe the conditions during the “Middle Passage”? - Bad conditions, locked in bottom of ship, chained to one
another, very little food and water
11. How did plantation owners benefit from the triangular trade? (refer to question 9) - They were able to get slaves to use
on their plantations.
12. What are the things you would find in a Spanish Mission? - Church, school, cannons, barracks, wall, etc.
13. What do Toussaint L’Ouverture, Simon Bolivar, and Miguel Hidalgo have in common? - They were all Revolutionary
Leaders that helped gain freedom and Independence for their countries or regions.
14. Describe Simon Bolivar’s role in the independence movement? - Known as “The Liberator,” Bolivar led the fight for
Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador in independence from Spain.
15. Who was Toussaint L’Ouverture? - He was a former slave who led the independence movement in Haiti. He helped to
free the slaves in his home of Saint Domingue which is now modern day Haiti.
