Unit 1 Vocabulary

Corn(maize)

A staple crop developed in Mexico that fueled agricultural civilization growth.

Horses

Animals introduced by Spain that revolutionized Great Plains transportation and hunting.

Diseases

Microbes like smallpox that decimated Native populations lacking immunity.

Encomienda system

A Spanish labor system granting colonists Native workers in exchange for protection.

Asiento system

A Spanish tax system requiring a license fee for importing enslaved Africans.

Slavery

A system where people are legally owned as property and forced to work.

Land bridge

A strip of land (Beringia) connecting Asia and Alaska used by early migrants.

Adena - Hopewell

An ancient Midwest culture known for building large, earthen burial mounds.

Hokokam, Anansazi, and Pueblos

Southwest tribes who mastered desert farming using advanced irrigation systems

Woodland Mound Builders

Native societies in the Mississippi River valley famous for massive earthworks.

Lakota Sioux

Great Plains tribe that shifted from farming to nomadic buffalo hunting.

Mayas

Advanced Mesoamerican civilization in Guatemala and Yucatan known for math and calendars.

Incas

Massive South American empire in Peru connected by a vast highway system.

Aztecs

Powerful central Mexican empire known for its warrior culture and capital, Tenochtitlan.

Conquistadores

Spanish explorers and soldiers who conquered lands in the Americas.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztec Empire and claimed Mexico for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who crushed the Incas in 1532 and founded the city of Lima, Peru

New Laws of 1542

Spanish royal laws designed to end the abuse and enslavement of Natives.

Roanoke Island

England's first attempt at an American colony, which mysteriously disappeared.

Compass

A magnetic navigation tool that allowed European sailors to cross open oceans.

Printing Press

A machine using movable type that rapidly spread maps and exploration news.

Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile

Spanish monarchs who funded Christopher Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, leading to his discovery of the West Indies.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement splitting Western Christianity, sparking global religious rivalries.

Henry the Navigator

A Portuguese prince who funded early maritime tech and West African exploration.

Christopher Columbus

Genoese explorer who stumbled upon the West Indies in 1492 while in search of a new water route to Asia. Columbus made three subsequent voyages across the Atlantic and briefly served as a colonial administrator on the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement dividing the non-European world between Spain and Portugal.

Slave Trade

The forced capture and transport of millions of Africans across the Atlantic.

Nation-state

A sovereign country where citizens share a common language, culture, and government

Algonquian

A major, widespread Native American language group and alliance along the East Coast.

Siouan

A distinct Native American language family spoken primarily across the Great Plains.

Iroquois Confederation

A powerful political alliance of five (later six) tribes in upstate New York.

Longhouses

Large, multi-family wooden dwellings built by the Iroquois and other Northeast tribes

John Cabot

Italian explorer sent by England’s King Henry VII to explore the northeastern coast of North America in 1497 and 1498.

Jacques Cartier

A French explorer who claimed Canada and mapped the St. Lawrence River.

Samuel de Champlain

A French explorer who founded Quebec, the first permanent French settlement.

Henry Hudson

An English navigator hired by the Dutch who mapped the Hudson River.

Bartolome de Las Casas

Reform-minded Spanish missionary who worked to abolish the encomienda system and documented the mistreatment of Indians in the Spanish colonies

Valladolid Debate

A formal 1550 Spanish debate over the moral treatment of Native Americans.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

A Spanish theologian who argued that Native Americans were naturally inferior