Inca Civilization Quiz

• The Americas include South and Central America, and the USA.
• Understanding the impact of pre-Columbian foods is vital to understanding the impact of world cuisine on North America.

Pre-Columbian America

• Pre-Columbian America has three main divisions: The Inca, The Aztecs and Mayans, and The Cahokia.

The Inca

• The Inca Empire, located in South America, included Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, and Argentina.
• Gold was very important: Inti, the god of the sun, was represented by gold, referred to as “the sweat of the sun”.
• Walls and buildings were once covered in sheets of gold which were then melted down by the Spanish conquistadores.
• Machu Pichu was discovered in 1911.
• The Inca domesticated potatoes between 3700 and 3000 BC.
• They used over 4,000 varieties of potatoes, and forbade peeling.
• Freeze-dried potatoes (chuños) were invented as insurance against food shortages
• Root crops were a significant source of carbohydrates.
• Potato captured world attention, though protein shortages were not uncommon.
• After the conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish brought the potato to Europe in the 16th century.
• Europeans regarded potatoes with skepticism, suspecting they caused ailments such as leprosy and sterility.

Potato Adoption

• Acceptance of the potato gradually increased, and potatoes became widely cultivated in the US by 1719.
• In 1771 France, Antoine-Auguste Parmentier, a chemist and botanist, studied the potato's famine-relieving properties.
• Parmentier then persuaded Louis XVI to grow potatoes in secured fields.
• French farmers took advantage of a deliberate pause in security, stealing potatoes to grow them on their own land.

Squash

• Squash originated in Bolivia and surrounding areas as early as 500 BC.
• Many varieties of squash don't exist outside South America.
• The male squash blossom is used in cooking.

Fruit

• Various fruits indigenous to the Andes are slowly becoming more common in North America Some of these fruits include cape gooseberries, pepino, tamarillo, and cherimoya.
• The giant Colombian blackberry and inga pods (or ice cream bean) also originated in the Andes area.

Quinoa

• Quinoa is referred to as the 'mother grain'.
• It is native to the Andes, high in protein, and considered a good source of protein for vegetarians.
• In the 1800s German scientist Alexander Humboldt compared quinoa to wine for Greeks, wheat for Romans, and cotton for Arabs.
• Quinoa is resilient to droughts and poor soil, and could boost global food security, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Aztecs and Mayans

• Mayans farmed efficiently, combining corn, beans, and squash referred to as the 'three sisters farming'.
• They did this to avoid the time-consuming task of spreading fields apart.
• Corn stalks grew straight, acting as a trellis to support beans, and the large leaves of the squash plant kept moisture in the soil.
• Bees also appeared throughout the Mayan codices; cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice were used for seasoning.
• Aztecs built their capital, Tenochtitlan, on an island in the middle of a lake, following a spiritual sign.
• Aztecs were powerful, skilled engineers who built roads above the lake water, and drained swamps.
• Aztecs also invented chinampas, which were land and irrigation ditches that looked like floating fields.

Vanilla

• Vanilla is the only edible member of the orchid family.
• It originated in the lowland tropical forests of Central America and the northern part of South America.
• Vanilla was used to perfume temples, as Europeans did in the Middle Ages with cinnamon.
• Vanilla grows on vines that climb supporting trees, called 'tutor' trees.
• The vanilla flower opens for at most 8 hours and needs hand-pollinating, after which it never opens again.
• Nine months after pollination, the vine produces long green pods.

Corn

• Corn was originally used to describe any grain, like barley or wheat.
• Maize, the American term for corn on the cob, comes from the Spanish who learned it from the Caribbean indigenous tribes.
• It was domesticated in central Mexico by 3400 BCE.
• Corn became a basic crop that spread north into the American southwest and south to the Inca empire.
• Chicha is a corn beer.
• "Mexican Truffles"/Huitlacoche is a delicacy: a fungus that grows on the ear of the corn, starts out white, and turns black.

Forms of Corn

• Cornmeal
• Hominy: used for masa harina
• Grits

Cacao Tree

• The cacao tree was very important to the Maya.
• It came from the Maize God's body.
• Drinking chocolate was the beverage of nobles, warriors, and emperors in Aztec society.
• It was served after banquets with tobacco to smoke for bonding.

Chile Peppers

• Chile peppers are #1 spice in the world.
• They originated in Bolivia 7,000 years ago and domesticated 4,000 years ago.
• The Inca, Maya, and Aztecs seasoned their food with chile peppers.
• After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili peppers spread across the world, used for both food and traditional medicine.
• China is currently the #1 producer, responsible for half the world supply.
• Chile peppers were brought to Spain in 1493, and their medicinal effects written about.
• Chilies were initially grown as curiosities in monasteries.
• Christian monks experimented with the culinary potential of chile peppers.
• Pungency offered a substitute for black peppercorns.
• Chili peppers spread to Asia with Portuguese traders.
• Spice trade routes were then dominated by the Portuguese and Arab traders.
• Introduced in India by the Portuguese towards the end of 15th century.
• Today chilies are integral to Indian and Southeast Asian cuisines.

North America: Cahokia

• In pre-Columbian North America, a city of huge pyramids rose from the flat lands on the banks of the Mississippi River in 700 CE, just east of present day St. Louis.
• The Cahokia pyramids consisted of 100 flat top pyramid mounds, aligned with the rising and setting sun, and constellations.
• Cahokia reached a population of between 10,000 and 20,000.
• By 1250 it was larger than London, England.
• It is believed that the city was wiped out by European diseases spread by the Spanish from Mexico.
• By the time Americans reached the Mississippi in 18th century, Cahokia was a ghost town.
• This would happen to Inca, Aztecs and other indigenous peoples.

Common Native American foods

• Succotash
• Bean Bread
• Fry Bread
• Baked Acorn Squash
• Fish and Corn Mush
• Baked Beans

The Columbian Exchange

• Standard aboard Spanish ships: The crew ate mostly dry and salted food, Spanish food.
• Rice and dried chickpeas, beef and pork, anchovies and sardines preserved with salt were common.
• Casks of olive oil and wine were brought to provide each man with 1 1/2 liters ration each day.
• Hardtack - unleavened, rock-hard flour, water and salt biscuit was more hospitable to weevils & parasites.
• Supplemented with any fresh fish they caught.
• Dried fruit, if any, was for the officers, while enlisted men had no vegetables.
• There was no cook on board; the crew took turns cooking the midday meal over a fogon, an open iron box

The Triangle Trade

• Caribbean: the exchange of sugar and rum from Caribbean to Europe, goods from Europe to Africa, and enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean.
• American: the exchange of Molasses shipped from the Caribbean to New England to be processed into rum.
• This rum was then traded for enslaved people in Africa, who were brought and sold in the Caribbean.

United States Key Historical Facts

• The 13 colonies became the USA
• Founding Fathers: G. Washington, J. Adams, T. Jefferson, J. Madison, A. Hamilton, J. Monroe, B Franklin
• Founded July 4, 1776, Independence Day.
• American Revolution: April 1775-1783.
• Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson) drafted June 1776, and delivered to Great Britain November 1776

Key Dates In History

• 1812: war against British attempting to cut off supllies to French.
• 1861-1865: Civil war - State rights vs. federal rights, slavery, abolitionism.
• World War I & II
• 1960 Civil Rights Movement: 1964 segregation stopped.
• 1961 Cuba and U.S.A. – nuclear conflict climax of the Cold War
• 1961: man in space.
• 1963: Death Of John F. Kennedy.
• 1962: Vietnam war.

Slavery in British North America

• Slavery was practiced throughout North/South America and the Caribbean from the 1500's through 1800's, including in British North America.
• More than 4,000 enslaved people of African descent were forcibly brought to lands that are Canada today.
• As early as 1793 Upper Canada (now Ontario) passed an act to gradually end slavery.
• The Slave Trade was abolished across the British Empire in 1807.
• Slavery was abolished by 1834 in the British Empire.
• As a country that abolished slavery, Upper Canada (now Ontario) was a destination for escaping slaves.
• Windsor, Kingston & Niagara were all a terminus of the underground railroad
• 30-40 thousand formerly enslaved African Americans reached Canada (1800 – 1860).
• Buxton Ontario is an Underground Railroad community deemed the most successful of all for Black refugees escaping slavery in the United States.

The Melting Pot

• A time of rapid infusion of people from all around the world.
• Includes exposure to a wide diversity of religions.
• A broadening of the holiday specturm.
• Regional distinctions in food specialties are fading.
• "Fusion" food is the norm
• A gap exsits between urban and rural settings.

Regional Cuisine

• Northeast: Native Americans, Pilgrims, British Isles
• Southern: England, Africa, France, Spain, Caribbean
• Midwest: Britain, Scandinavian, German, Italian
• Southwest: Spanish, Mexico

Test your knowledge of the Inca Empire with this quiz. Learn about their geography, beliefs, agricultural practices, and more. See how well you know this fascinating ancient civilization.