AMERICAS

Unit One (8000 BCE to 600 BCE)

-Olmecs (c. 1500 BCE)

  • Gulf of Mexico; major cities of San Lorenzo and La Venta
  • Masks and figures out of jade
  • Social status indicated by elaborate -ness of dress and decoration
  • Colossal Heads

-Andean Heartland

  • Cultivation of beans, peanuts, sweet potatoes c. 2500 BCE
  • Chavin religious cult (c. 1000 BCE)

Unit Two (600 BCE to 600 CE)

-Maya (c. 300 to 900)

Unit Three (600 to 1450)

-Maya (c. 300 to 900)

  • Yucatan in SE Mexico
  • Agricultural economy, temples and pyramids, ritualistic polytheism, independent city-states linked by trade

-Aztec (c.1400 to 1521)

  • Militant warriors, rule by severe despots, priestly class w/ ritualistic human sacrifice, cacao beans as currency, decentralized network of city-states that pay tribute

-Inca (c. 1400 to 1540)

  • South American Andes mountains
  • Centralized empire w/ capital at Cuzco, irrigated agricultural economy, polytheistic w/ worship of sun, patriarchal w/ few women’s rights, ancestors worshipped, no written language

Unit Four (1450 to 1750)

-Columbian Exchange: diffusion of food crops and animals

Spanish Empire

-Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

-Hernan Cortes 1519: conquered Tenochtitlan and Aztecs led by Montezuma

-Francisco Pizarro 1531: defeats Incas w/ disease & superior weapons

-Encomienda System

-Social structure based on race: peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, mulattoes, natives

-Plantation system reliant of African slaves

-Missionaries spread Christianity

Portuguese in Brazil

British and French in North America

Unit Five (1750 to 1900)

-American Revolution 1776-1783

  • Declaration of Independence: Enlightenment ideals of equality and natural rights
  • U.S.Constitution 1789

-Haitian Revolution: slave revolt

-Latin American Wars for Independence

  • San Martin and Bolivar

-Industrialization

-Spanish-American War 1898

  • US becomes world power w/ acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines

Unit Six (1900 to present)

-Mexican Revolution (1910-1917)

  • 1910 Civil War led by mestizos wanting to break Creole control
  • Carranza president in 1916
  • Constitution of 1917: land reform, restrictions on foreign control, workers rights

-WWI

  • US remains neutral until unrestricted German U-boat war
  • Woodrow Wilson and Fourteen Points
  • Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations

-19th Amendment: Women vote!

-Great Depression and Stock Market crash of 1929

-WWII

  • Pearl Harbor
  • Use of atomic bomb on Japan
  • United Nations formed
  • US emerges a world power

-Cold War (1945-1989)

  • Ideologies at war: communism v. capitalism
  • Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and NATO
  • Arms race, space race
  • Korean War (1950-1953)
  • Vietnam War (1965-1975)

-Cuba: Castro comes to power in 1959

  • Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis

-North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

-Sept. 11, 2001 and War in the Gulf

-“McDonaldization”

AMERICAS

Social, cultural, economic, and political patterns in the Amerindian world

Amerindian civilizations / Economic / Cultural Religious Architectural / Gender Roles / Political Structure; Reason for Collapse
Maya / agricultural trade craftwork in jade / mathematics astronomy medicine pyramids hieroglyphic writing / patriarchy / city-states diverse explanations for causes: environmental: overuse of resources; warfare
Aztec / mercenaries war provided slaves / human sacrifice capital - Tenochtitlan / patriarchy / emperor rigid class system tributary states lack of immunity to AfroEurasian diseases like smallpox tributary states allied with Spanish
Inca / agricultural inherited array of domesticated plants and animals, e.g. potatoes, quinoa, guinea pigs trade tribute roads / quipu for record keeping textiles important for religious ceremonies / patriarchy / dynastic emperor rigid class system lack of immunity to Afro Eurasian diseases like smallpox tributary states allied with Spanish