New World Beginnings and the Contest for North America

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key people, terms, and events from early New World settlement and European competition in North America as detailed in Chapters 1 and 2.

Ferdinand of Aragon

Co-monarch of Spain alongside Isabella of Castile who united the country in the late $1400\text{s}$.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who crushed the Incas in $1532$.

Isabella of Castile

Spanish queen who, through her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon, helped create a united Spain.

Christopher Columbus

Explorer who landed in the Bahamas in $1492$, initiating European contact with the Americas.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

A vocal critic of the Spanish treatment of indigenous peoples in the New World.

Francisco Coronado

Spanish explorer who traveled through the present-day American Southwest between $1540$ and $1542$.

Hernán Cortés

Conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain from $1519$ to $1521$.

Malinche (Doña Marina)

An indigenous woman who served as a translator and advisor to Hernán Cortés during his conquest of the Aztecs.

Moctezuma

The Aztec chieftain who encountered Hernán Cortés.

Robert de La Salle

French explorer who led an expedition down the Mississippi River in the $1680\text{s}$.

Father Junipero Serra

Spanish missionary who founded the first California mission at San Diego in $1769$.

Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)

Explorer who scouted the northeastern coast of North America for England in $1497$ and $1498$.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A $1494$ agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly discovered lands.

Cahokia

The site of a major Mississippian settlement that reached its height around $1100\text{ C.E.}$.

Pueblo Revolt

An indigenous uprising in New Mexico in $1680$ that drove Spanish settlers out of the region.

Huguenots

French Protestants who were granted limited toleration through the Edict of Nantes.

Edict of Nantes

A $1598$ decree that granted limited toleration to French Protestants, ending religious wars in France.

coureurs de bois

French fur-trappers known as "runners of the woods."

voyageurs

French-Canadian fur traders who traveled by canoe to transport furs and goods.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement in the $16\text{th}$ century that led to the establishment of Protestant churches and increased competition among European powers.

Roanoke Island

The site of the "lost colony" founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in $1585$.

Spanish Armada

The great fleet defeated by the English in $1588$, which marked the beginning of Spain's imperial decline.

primogeniture

Legal principle that only the eldest sons were eligible to inherit landed estates.

joint-stock company

A financial arrangement where multiple investors pooled their capital to fund colonial ventures.

Virginia Company

The joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I to found the Jamestown colony.

charter

A legal document granted by the king that guaranteed overseas settlers the same rights as people in England.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in $1607$.

First Anglo-Powhatan War

A conflict between English settlers in Virginia and the Powhatan Confederacy that ended in $1614$.

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

The final conflict between the Powhatan and the Virginia settlers in $1644$, resulting in the displacement of the indigenous population.

New Netherland

A Dutch colony founded in $1624$ in the Hudson River area, later seized by England in $1664$.

Iroquois Confederacy

A powerful alliance of five (later six) indigenous nations founded in the late $1500\text{s}$, according to legend by Hiawatha and Deganawidah.

John Rolfe

Jamestown settler who married Pocahontas and perfected the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia by $1612$.

Lord De La Warr

The colonial governor who arrived in Jamestown in $1610$ and utilized harsh "Irish tactics" against indigenous peoples.