Lecture Notes Vocabulary: Native American Societies & European Exploration (1.1–1.6)

Vocabulary flashcards covering major people, places, concepts, and systems from Native American societies before and after European contact, as well as the Columbian Exchange, exploration, and early Spanish colonial policies.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World after 1492; examples include corn and potatoes to Europe and smallpox and measles to Native Americans.

Jamestown (1607)

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in Virginia.

Encomienda system

Spanish labor system that granted colonists the right to forced Native American labor on land in exchange for supposed protection and Christianization.

Asiento

Spanish crown tax on each enslaved African imported to the Americas.

Joint-stock company

Business in which many investors own shares, spreading risk and funding voyages and colonization.

Renaissance

European cultural and intellectual revival (15th–16th centuries) that spurred scientific and technological advances.

Printing press

Invention that facilitated rapid spread of knowledge, aiding exploration and literacy.

Gunpowder

Military technology spread from China to Europe, enabling more effective firearms.

Compass

Navigational instrument adopted from earlier cultures, essential for long sea voyages.

Protestant Reformation

Religious movement that challenged papal authority, influencing European politics and expansion.

Line of Demarcation

1493 papal boundary dividing new lands between Spain (west) and Portugal (east).

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement moving the line west to resolve Spain–Portugal colonial claims.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer who reached India by sea (1498) around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese patron who promoted Atlantic exploration and navigation education.

Balboa

Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean (1513).

Verrazzano

French explorer who sailed the Atlantic coast in 1524 searching for a Northwest Passage.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who navigated the St. Lawrence River (1534–42).

Roanoke

English attempt at colonization led by Sir Walter Raleigh; the colony disappeared (1587), the Lost Colony.

Maya

Central American civilization in the Yucatán with calendars and maize agriculture.

Aztec

Central Mexican empire with capital at Tenochtitlan; advanced cities and calendars.

Inca

South American empire in the Andes with terrace farming and calendars.

Hohokam

Southwestern culture known for extensive irrigation networks in the desert.

Anasazi

Ancestral Puebloans of the Southwest; cliff dwellings and multi-story pueblos.

Pueblos

Southwestern communities with durable, multi-story adobe dwellings.

Adena–Hopewell

Northeastern mound-building cultures in the Ohio region known for earthworks.

Cahokia

Mississippian center near modern St. Louis, famous for massive earthen mounds.

Iroquois Confederation (Haudenosaunee)

Political alliance of Northeastern tribes (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Tuscarora).

Northwest Coast

Region from Alaska to Northern California with longhouses, plank houses, and totem poles.

Great Basin

Dry inland region with diverse adapting tribes.

Plains Indians

Buffalo-hunting tribes of the Great Plains; nomadic and later horse-based cultures.

Columbus

Genoese navigator whose 1492 voyage, sponsored by Spain, connected the Old and New Worlds.

New Laws of 1542

Spanish reforms aimed at ending Indian slavery and reducing encomienda; later rolled back.

Valladolid Debate

Debate over the humanity and rights of Indigenous peoples between Las Casas and Sepúlveda.

Las Casas

Catholic priest who argued Indians were human and advocated for better treatment.

Middle Passage

The brutal sea journey enslaved Africans endured from Africa to the Americas; high mortality.

Rice cultivation in the Carolinas/Louisiana

African agricultural knowledge that made rice a key crop in the American South.