European Affect on Mesoamerica Dbq

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Meso-american DBQ Meso-american society surprised European explorers as the cities and civilizations they found were flourishing and complex as opposed to the savagery they had expected. A large contributing factor to this relatively advanced culture was the specific role played by Meso-american technology. These many technologies affected all areas of life, from more efficient harvesting and better weaponry to the ability to create a specialized labor force, technology developed and shaped all facets of Meso-american society. Technology had an extreme impact upon agriculture in the Americas. This is evident through their ingenuity of floating gardens, knowledge of plants' uses such as the Maguey plant, the sowing of corn, and written records of agricultural products. The Aztecs demonstrated great resourcefulness and intelligence when looking at how they utilized their natural assets. Exemplifying this was the native Maguey plant. It is recorded that it contained innumerable uses as the plant served as firewood, fencing, paper, roofing, plates, and cloth.(Document 2) The cultivation of plants also showed the ingenuity of the Aztecs. As described by Cortes, they built artificial floating gardens that allowed for more crop growth and easy irrigation.(Document 7) Among the crops planted was Maize or simply corn. The importance of this crop to the Aztecs was obvious as images exist of its planting dating back to as far as 8000 BCE.(Document 9) Seemingly the backbone of the Meso-american diet, corn was kept under strict watch, along with other numerous crops. Imperial records were kept to document the harvest and necessary tributes from the controlled provinces, showing at one time the payment of 88 large bins of corn, 1,600 loads of chiles, 3,800 loaves of honey, 320 baskets of ground grain, and 4,400 loads of cacao beans.(Document 6) Another area of
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