Topic 4 Assessment

1. Compare Major Economic Developments Using the graph below and what you have learned in this topic, write a paragraph explaining the role of geography and economic policies in the size of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations. Consider types of economic systems, trade, and wealth. How did economic policies contribute to the overall size of each civilization?

   

2. Compare Social Developments Look at the graph above and the chart below. Then, write a paragraph describing how the geography of ancient Mesoamerica and South America influenced the Maya, Inca, and Aztec people. Consider the size of each empire, what events caused each empire to decline, what role geography played in the decline of each empire, and why the Spanish soldiers played a role in one decline but not the others.

   	MAYA	AZTEC	INCA
   Governing structure	loosely organized city-states	rulers and nobles	divine ruler
   Reason for the decline	abandoned cities	rebellion and the Spanish invasion	civil war

3. Compare the Major Political Developments Write a paragraph to compare the major political developments of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations. Consider the types of leaders in each civilization, the role of nobles, and how each empire was unified. What similarities and differences existed in how the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations were ruled?
4. Compare Major Cultural Developments Write a paragraph that compares the economic systems of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations. Consider how the Maya, Inca, and Aztec empires expanded, how people met their basic needs, and how the Maya, Inca, and Aztec empires acquired wealth.

5. Compare Major Economic Developments and Create Graphs Read the passage below. Write a paragraph describing the major economic developments of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations that includes farming methods, trade, and taxes. Create a basic graph showing trends over time that represents the relationship between the geography of the Yucatán Peninsula and the economic development of the Maya civilization.

   “The first Americans faced a variety of environments in which they could settle. For example, great mountain chains—the Rockies, the eastern and western Sierra Madre, and the Andes—dominate the western Americas.

   In Mesoamerica, Neolithic people cultivated a range of crops, including beans, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, squash, and maize—the Native American name for corn. People in South America cultivated crops such as maize and cassava and domesticated llamas and other animals valued for their wool. By 3000 B.C. in parts of South America and 1500 B.C. in parts of Mesoamerica, farmers had settled in villages. Populations then expanded, and some villages eventually grew into the great early cities of the Americas.”

6. Summarize Major Ideas Write a paragraph that summarizes how the Inca use of the quipu demonstrated their understanding of major ideas in mathematics. Consider how the Inca recorded numbers, how the Inca advanced their scientific and astronomical knowledge, and how the Inca kept records with no written language.

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