US Colonization: Pre and Post

Triangular Trade

Trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa

New Amsterdam

The most diverse colony which was a Dutch settlement on the southern tip of Manhattan Island.

Toltec

A civilization known for skill in metal work and pottery.

Iroquois Confederacy / Iroquois League

A confederacy of six different tribes that was the most powerful native group in the Northeast; expanded tribes through war and conquest. Member tribes: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora

Columbian Exchange

The transferring of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas after Christopher Columbus' arrival.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer who organized the first expedition to circumnavigate the earth

Teotihuacán

A civilization known for pyramids, temples and roads.

Pre-Columbian Cultures

The cultures of the Americas before European settlement. Usually includes indigenous cultures as they continued to develop centuries or decades after Columbus’ discovery.

Age of Exploration

A period of time from the early 15th Century until the early 17th Century in which European ships traveled around the world in search of new trading routes.

Conquistadores

Spanish explorers who searched for and found expansive amounts of gold in the New World.

Hopi Native Americans

Lived in villages called pueblos in northeastern Arizona. Relied on agriculture. Were known as peaceful people.

Northwest Passage

A hypothesized water route from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. It would have facilitated trade with Asia, but one was never found. Eventually, the Panama Canal would connect these oceans in Central America.

Mesoamerica

A region in the Americas extending from central Mexico through parts of Central America prior to Spanish exploration.

Spanish Armada

Defeated by the English Navy led by Sir Francis Drake; established England as the leading European naval power

Mohican Native Americans

A confederacy of five tribes along the Hudson River. Lived primarily on agriculture, but also some hunting and gathering. Lived in longhouses.

Cherokee Native Americans

A collection of tribes with common cultural elements. Lived in the southeastern United States but were a widely dispersed population. Relied on agriculture, hunting and gathering.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who was the first to search for a water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Olmec

The first Meso-American civilization.

Maya Civilization

(250 - 900 CE) a civilization from the modern-day Yucatan Peninsula; known for its advancement in mathematics, astronomy, and architecture, including elaborate pyramids.

Mercantilism

The economic idea that a country needs to amass wealth through more exporting than importing and measures wealth by the amount of gold that a nation possesses.

Example

The British thought that colonies should provide raw goods for cheap to them (cotton) and pay for manufactured goods from them (textiles).

Salutary Neglect

Parliamentary laws that are not strictly enforced

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer who searched for alternate routes to India by traveling west across the Atlantic on four different trips.