American Yawp - Chapter 1: The New World

Three Sisters

Eastern Woodlands crops - corn, squash, and beans.

Mesoamericans

Lived in modern day Mexico and Central America. Relied heavily on Maize.

shifting cultivation

Cut forest, burn undergrowth, plant seeds in nutrient rich ashes. Useful in areas with difficult soil.

Eastern Woodlands

Forest dwelling Native American group. Established permanent agriculture. Used hand tools and practiced sustainable farming. Cultivated medicinal plants. Small settlements, dispersed authority, and kin-based organization.

agriculture

Enabled social change and population growth. Negatively impacted health, such as teeth and bone health. Enabled other skills - allowed soldiers, artists, and religious leaders to focus on their skills.

Shared Broad Traits Among Native Americans

Did not distinguish between natural and supernatural. Kinship bound them together, mostly matrilineal. Ownership of land, crops, and tools . (But right to use land did not imply permanent possession.)

Matrilineal

relating to a social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother

Chaco Canyon

Important ancient Anasazi Indian center in New Mexico that included a pueblo of six hundred interconnected rooms. Sophisticated agriculture, trading networks, and animal domestication enabled population of as many as 15k people. Ecological challenges such as deforestation and over-irrigation caused collapse.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans. Participated in frequent warfare. Clan-based system. Population grew 500 percent in one generation. Collapsed due to mounting warfare, internal political tensions, and political turmoil.

sachem

Native American leader

Pacific Northwest Indians

Based in Washington and Oregon. Relied heavily on salmon and had spiritual respect for it. Elaborate plank houses. Held elaborate feasts.

Potlaches

gift giving ceremonies. Accompanied by elaborate feast.

Lief Ericson

Was the first person to reach North America, 500 years before Columbus

Hundred Years War

a series of battles fought between France and England from 1337 to 1453. Accelerated nationalism, activated nation-states.

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.

Astrolabe

instrument used to determine latitude by measuring the position of the stars

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic. Capable of lengthy voyages and could hold lots of cargo.

sugar

Difficult crop that required a Caribbean climate. Brought establishment of first great Atlantic plantations. Portuguese began buying African slaves for these fields.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to China (1451-1506)

Diseases That Impacted Native Anericans

Smallpox, typhus, influenza, measles.

Arawaks

First Native Americans Columbus saw on Bahama Islands. Decimated, killed, and enslaved.

Ecomienda

a Spanish system that allowed colonists to demand labor from Native Americans (Spanish Plantations)

Mayans

1500 B.C. to 900 A.D. This is the most advanced civilization of the time in the Western Hempishere. Famous for its awe-inspiring temples, pyramids and cities. A complex social and political order. Written language, mathematics, and accurate calendars. Civilization collapsed prior to European arrival.

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax.

Chinampas

floating farming islands made by the Aztec

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.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain. Enlisted aid of Native allies.

Incas

a member of a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest. Smallpox cut population in half prior to Spanish arrival.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533.

Cuzco

The capital city of the Incan Empire, Located in present-day Peru

Sistema de Castas

Porous racial classification system in colonial New Spain. It was a hierarchal ordering of racial groups according to their proportion of Spanish blood.

Juan Ponce de Leon

explored Florida

Juan Diego

Blessed Virgin Mary appeared as an Indian maiden to this Mexican farmer

Pedro Menendez de Aviles

Founded St. Augustine, FL, the oldest permanent colony in the United States, for Spain

Columbian Exchange

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