Set 6: Native American Civilizations, Maritime Empires, Challenges to State Power

Cultural Relativism

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Holmberg's Mistake

a term recently coined (by historian Charles Mann) to criticize an American anthropologist who had argued that before whites arrived, Indians were essentially barbarians (or "noble savages") with no real history or culture

Maize

An early form of corn grown by Native Americans

Iron Metallurgy

Extraction of iron from its ores. allowed for cheaper stronger production of weapons and tools. More abundant than tin and copper

Obsidian

A usually black or banded, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava

Llamas and Alpacas

Animals, domesticated by the Inca, used for carrying goods, wool, meat, etc.

Disease Immunity

Humans built in disease fighting mechanism

Chaco

Ancestral Puebloan civilization that centered on the Great Houses of Chaco Canyon, ca. 800-1150 C.E.

Pueblo

home or community of homes built by Native Americans

Mesa Verde

The largest complex of Anasazi cliff-dwellings in the United States Southwest, built between about AD 1150 and AD 1300

Dry Farming

a way of farming dry land in which seeds are planted deep in ground where there is some moisture

Turquoise

greenish-blue precious stone

Mexica

The name given to themselves by the Aztec people

Maya

Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Chinampas

floating farming islands made by the Aztec

Human Sacrifice

a person who is killed as part of a religious ritual

Bloodletting

belief or practice of draining a quantity of blood to cure illness or disease

Mexica Tribute Lists

Tribute lists show what items, like bird feathers, greenstone or jade, and textiles, that peoples controlled by the Mexica sent back to Tenochtitlan. Uprisings against Aztec control were common, meaning that armed conflicts occurred with regularity.

Cocoa

a chocolate powder made from roasted and ground cacao seeds

Inca

Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.

Temple of the Sun

Inca religious center located at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of past Incas

Machu Picchu

Abandoned city high in the Andes mountains that showcases the architectural genius of the Inca

Incan Roads

Used to ease trade and travel throughout the mountainous Incan Empire. Includes well-made bridges.

Terrace Farming

a farming system that is in the form of steps going up a mountain

Capacocha

Incan ritual involving child sacrifice

Quipu

An arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.

Mit'a

Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control.

Flower Wars

Aztecs, to catch prisoners to use in human sacrifice, to control time and purpose of war was to capture people. (olmecs were before Aztecs, sacrifice was the main reason, felt necessary to "civilize"

Conquistadors

Early-sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru. (Examples Cortez, Pizarro, Francisco.)

Montezuma

Powerful Aztec monarch who fell to Spanish conquerors

Cortez

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

The Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Smallpox

The overall deadliest known disease in the history of the world. In the 20th century alone there were approximately 500,000,000 people who died of this disease.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Prince Henry the Navigator

(1394-1460) Prince of Portugal who established an observatory and school of navigation at Sagres and directed voyages that spurred the growth of Portugal's colonial empire.

School of Navigation

A school Prince Henry of Portugal set up for oceanic navigation

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Fluyt

a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated cargo vessel.

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.

Viceroy

Governor of a country or province who rules as the representative of his or her king or sovereign; think Spanish colonies.

West Indies

islands that lie between southeastern North America and northern South America, and separate the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean

Cash Crops

crops, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton, raised in large quantities in order to be sold for profit

Sugar, Tobacco, and Cotton

three main crops that grew in the colonies

Rice and Okra

Food brought specifically by slaves from Africa to Americas

Cassava

A plant whose roots are ground to make porridge

Indentured Servitude

A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians.

Portuguese Slave Trade

the Portuguese set up a slave trade along the African coast which became a big business. They needed the slaves to work their sugar plantations in Africa. This became the origin of the modern plantation system

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent Guns and Rum to Africa

Atlantic Slave Trade

Lasted from 16th century until the 19th century. Trade of African peoples from Western Africa to the Americas. One part of a three-part economical system known as the Middle Passage of the Triangular Trade.

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.

Chattel Slavery

Absolute legal ownership of another person, including the right to buy or sell that person.

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Encomienda

A grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it

Haciendas

Large Spanish colonial estates usually owned by wealthy families but worked by many peasants

Casta System

A system in colonial Spain of determining a person's social importance according to different racial categories.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born, came to Latin America; ruled, highest social class.

Potosi

Located in Bolivia, one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous cities in colonial Spanish America.

Seven Years War

(1756-1763 CE) Known also as the French and Indian war. It was the war between the French and their Indian allies and the English that proved the English to be the more dominant force of what was to be the United States both commercially and in terms of controlled regions.

American Revolution

This political revolution began with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 where American colonists sought to balance the power between government and the people and protect the rights of citizens in a democracy.

Loyalists

American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Dutch in Japan

only western nation allowed to trade w Japan

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world.

Circumnavigate

to sail around the world

Conversion of Philippines

The Spanish converted Filipinos to Christianity

Catholicism in the New World

As explorers founded new land ,priests were aboard the ships ,spreading Catholicism to the "new worlds" ,the majority were Jesuit priests

Sinking of the Spanish Armada

Most epic naval turnaround in history. Spain's large ships could not land troops on English shores. Swifter English and Dutch ships outmaneuvered Spain.

Joint-Stock Company

A company made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts.

Dutch East India Company

Government-chartered joint-stock company that controlled the spice trade in the East Indies.

East Indies

Southeast Asia, including India, Indonesia, and Malaysia

Banda Islands

Infamous case of the Dutch forcibly taking control of the spice trade; nearly the entire population of these nutmeg-producing islands was killed or enslaved and then replaced with Dutch planters.

Spice Monopoly

In the absence of competition, prices soared. Dutch and English broke this control in the early 17th century. Dutch were even more ruthless in their control over the market, and uprooted 75% of the nutmeg and clove trees in the Spice Islands in order to drive up the price. Dutch East India Company was the officially sanctioned trading conglomerate.

British East India Company

A joint stock company that controlled most of India during the period of imperialism. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

Royal Absolutism

A system of governance in which the ruler's authority is said to come directly from God.

Divine Right of Kings

Doctrine that states that the right of ruling comes from God and not people's consent

Magna Carta

the royal charter of political rights given to rebellious English barons by King John in 1215

Queen Nzinga of Ndongo

reigned 1623-1663; led resistance against Portuguese, led troops in battle, dressed as male, allied w/ Dutch mariners, successfully controlled Portuguese expansion; when she died, less resistance → Angola=first European colony

Maroon Wars

Conflicts between the Jamaica Maroon settlements and the British after the British gained control of the island from the Spanish.

Pugachev Rebellion

Eugene Pugachev, a Cossack soldier, led a huge serf uprising-demanded end to serfdom, taxes and army service; landlords and officials murdered all over southwestern Russia; eventually captured and executed

Pueblo Revolt

Native American revolt against the Spanish in late 17th century; expelled the Spanish for over 10 years; Spain began to take an accommodating approach to Natives after the revolt

King Philip's War

1675 - A series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wompanowogs, led by a chief known as King Philip. The war was started when the Massachusetts government tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The colonists won with the help of the Mohawks, and this victory opened up additional Indian lands for expansion.

Fronde

a french rebellion that was caused by Mazarin's attempt to increase royal revenue and expand state bureaucracy, caused Louis XIV to distrust the state and turn to absolutism

King Louis XIV (Sun King)

Believed in Divine Right theory, in which God chose him to rule over the masses and that anyone who challenged him would be challenging God.

Versailles

A palace built by Louis XIV outside of Paris; it was home to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Medici Family

Ruled Florence during the Renaissance, became wealthy from banking, spent a lot of money on art, controlled Florence for about 3 centuries

Scientific Revolution

A major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500s, in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

Sir Isaac Newton

British scientist that developed the three laws of motion

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.

Catholic Counter-Reformation

An internal reform of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century; thanks especially to the work of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), Catholic leaders clarified doctrine, corrected abuses and corruption, and put a new emphasis on education and accountability.

Jesuits

Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism.

English Civil War

Conflict from 1640 to 1660; featured religious disputes mixed with constitutional issues concerning the powers of the monarchy; ended with restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following execution of previous king

Glorious Revolution

A reference to the political events of 1688-1689, when James II abdicated his throne and was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange.

English Bill of Rights

document that gave England a government based on a system of laws and a freely elected parliament

Constitutional Monarchy

A King or Queen is the official head of state but power is limited by a constitution.

Limited Government

A principle of constitutional government; a government whose powers are defined and limited by a constitution.