Americas SAQ Prompts

SAQ #1 - The Aztec Codex Mendoza (c.1541)

Selected pages from Codex Mendoza, an illustrated guide to Mexica (Aztec) history and society commissioned by Spanish authorities about twenty years after the conquest of Mexico and written and illustrated by Mexica artists. The pages on the right shows goods that neighboring cities had to deliver to Tenochtitlán, the Mexica capital. The goods include gems, feathers, jaguar pelts, and cacao. A description in Spanish details what each city had to deliver.

A. Describe the economic role of cities in the Aztec/Mexica empire from the background reading.

B. Explain a religious or social means by which the Aztec/Mexica empire governed or maintained its state based on the images provided.

C. Identify and explain a political claim about the Aztec state that can be supported based on the images provided.

SAQ #2 - Testimony of Martín Cari, Chief of the Lower Division of the Chuquito, 1567

Asked what tribute is given to him each year by his subjects, he replied that…his subjects cultivate…100 topos[1] of land…of potatoes, quinoa, and canagua[2] … to plant one topo of land 16 Indian males and 8 Indian females are employed in plowing in one day. … To these…who work the land it is customary to give meat, potatoes, chuño[3], maize, quinoa, coca, and chicha[4]. … In addition…Chuquito provides 40 to 50 Indians each year to go with [pack] animals provided by the [chief] to bring maize from Moquegua and Sama [Peruvian coast locations] and Capinota and Larecaja [Bolivian valleys] and coca from Cuzco [the capital] to [the chief’s] home.

[1] Topo – indeterminate area of land amounting to what a couple needs to survive

[2] Canagua – crop similar to quinoaa

[3] Chuño – freeze-dried potatoes

[4] Chicha – maize beer

A. From the information provided by the document, identify and define the method of control used by the Incan government over subject peoples

B. Identify and explain one technological advancement that allows the Incan government the ability to employ the method of control that you identified in Part (A.)

C. Identify and explain one social arrangement of Incan society that allows the Incan government the ability to employ the method of control that you identified in Part (A.)

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