World History Practice Test: Maya, Aztec and Inca Civilizations
- Maya, Aztec and Inca Civilizations
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
These 10 questions compare the Maya, the Aztecs and the Inca and how their empires met the Spanish. A quick way to tell them apart: the Maya lived in southern Mexico and Central America, the Aztecs in central Mexico, and the Inca in the Andes.
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Question 1
Which civilization built city-states such as Tikal and Chichen Itza and developed the most complete writing system in the ancient Americas?
Correct answer: B
Maya scribes wrote with hundreds of glyphs that could record full sentences. The Olmec came earlier and left some symbols, but the Maya system is the best developed one known.
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Question 2
Maya mathematicians used which concept many centuries before it became common in Europe?
Correct answer: A
The Maya used a shell-shaped sign for zero in their base-20 number system. Europe adopted zero only in the Middle Ages, through Arab scholars who learned it from India.
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Question 3
Where did the Aztecs build their capital, Tenochtitlan?
Correct answer: D
Tenochtitlan was founded around 1325 on a lake island linked to the shore by causeways. After the Spanish conquest, Mexico City was built on its ruins. Cusco, in the Andes, was the Inca capital.
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Question 4
How did the Aztecs use chinampas?
Correct answer: C
Chinampas were artificial islands of mud and plants anchored in the lake. They produced several harvests a year and fed the large population of Tenochtitlan. Knotted cords were an Inca tool.
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Question 5
How did the Aztec Empire mainly benefit from the city-states it conquered?
Correct answer: D
The Aztecs left many local rulers in place but demanded regular tribute. This system made the empire rich but created resentment that the Spanish later used.
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Question 6
Besides steel weapons and horses, what helped Hernan Cortes defeat the Aztecs by 1521?
Correct answer: B
Peoples who resented Aztec rule joined Cortes in large numbers, and smallpox killed many in Tenochtitlan during the siege. The city was taken only after months of fighting.
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Question 7
Which city served as the capital of the Inca Empire?
Correct answer: C
Cusco, in the highlands of present-day Peru, was the political and religious center of the Inca. Quito was an important northern city of the empire but not its capital.
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Question 8
The Inca held their large empire together partly through
Correct answer: A
Inca roads ran for thousands of miles along the Andes, and runners called chasquis passed messages in relays. The Inca had no alphabet, no Atlantic navy and no iron tools.
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Question 9
What was a quipu?
Correct answer: D
Quipus recorded numbers, such as taxes, population and stored goods, through the type and position of knots. Trained officials read and kept them.
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Question 10
When Francisco Pizarro arrived in Peru in 1532, the Inca Empire had just been weakened by
Correct answer: A
Atahualpa had just defeated his brother Huascar, and smallpox had already spread south. Pizarro captured Atahualpa, took a huge ransom and then had him executed.
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