Exploration and Pre-Columbian Societies

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key people, places, cultures, and concepts from the notes on pre-Columbian societies, exploration, exchange, slavery, and early colonial history.

Mayan Civilization

A Mesoamerican society in the Yucatán Peninsula known for its complex cities, calendar system, and maize agriculture.

Aztec Empire

A powerful Mesoamerican empire in central Mexico famous for large urban centers, tribute systems, and religious practices including human sacrifice.

Inca Empire

A vast Andean empire in Peru with extensive road networks, administrative systems, and terrace farming.

Maize (Corn)

A staple crop domesticated in the Americas and central to many pre-Columbian civilizations.

Potatoes

A major Andean crop native to the highlands, later important worldwide after European exploration.

Yucatán Peninsula

Region in southeastern Mexico where the Maya civilization thrived.

Central Mexico

The heartland of the Aztec Empire, including the capital Tenochtitlán.

Peru

Region associated with the Inca heartland and empire.

Human Sacrifice

Religious practice noted in some pre-Columbian cultures, particularly among the Maya and Aztec.

Calendar

Maya calendar system combining a 260-day sacred cycle with a 365-day solar year.

Hohokam

Southwestern Native American culture known for extensive canal irrigation and agricultural systems.

Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans)

Ancient Southwestern people known for cliff dwellings and multi-story pueblos.

Northwest Coast Cultures

Native societies along the Pacific Northwest known for complex cedar houses and resource-rich living.

Longhouses

Large wooden dwellings used by Iroquoian-speaking peoples in the Northeast.

Pueblo

Multi-story adobe villages in the Southwest built by Ancestral Puebloans.

Cliff Dwellings

Dwellings built into cliff alcoves used by some Southwestern cultures.

Irrigation System

Artificial waterways and canals used to supply water for agriculture in arid regions.

Plains Cultures

Nomadic and semi-nomial groups of the Great Plains known for buffalo hunting and teepees.

Buffalo (Bison)

A primary food source for Plains tribes; used for much of their material culture.

Tepees

Cone-shaped portable shelters used by Plains peoples.

Horses (introduced in 17th century)

Equines brought by Europeans that transformed Plains cultures and mobility.

Northeast Native Cultures

Eastern Woodlands with longhouses and complex political structures.

Ohio River Valley

A key region in the Northeast where Iroquoian-speaking peoples and others lived.

Iroquois Confederation

A political union of several Northeast Native American nations forming a powerful alliance.

Atlantic Seaboard Cultures

Eastern seaboard Indigenous groups with Woodland traditions and mound-building cultures.

Woodland and Mound Builders

Eastern United States cultures known for mound-building and complex societies.

Cherokee

A Southeastern Native American tribe with a distinct language and culture.

Reasons for Exploration

Motivations including Renaissance curiosity, Reformation influence, technological advances, and spread of Christianity.

Renaissance

Period of renewed interest in learning and exploration that sparked curiosity about distant lands.

Reformation

Religious movement that helped inspire exploration and new ways of thinking.

Technological Advances

Improvements in navigation, shipbuilding, and cartography that aided long-distance voyages.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of crops, animals, diseases, and people between the Old and New Worlds after 1492.

Christopher Columbus

Explorer sponsored by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile who reached the Americas while seeking a westward route to Asia.

Ferdinand and Isabella

Spanish monarchs whose sponsorship enabled Columbus’s voyages.

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement dividing newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain (west) and Portugal (east) along a Line of Demarcation.

Line of Demarcation

Imaginary boundary set by the Treaty of Tordesillas separating Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence.

Columbian Exchange Effects

Spread of diseases, crops, and animals, and the beginning of extensive transatlantic exchange.

Defeat of the Aztecs (Cortes)

Conquest of the Aztec capital by Hernán Cortés and his alliances in 1521.

Defeat of the Incas (Pizarro)

Conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro and associates in the 1530s.

Encomienda System

Royal grant allowing Spanish colonists to extract labor from Indigenous peoples in exchange for protection and Christianization.

Slavery in the Americas

System of forced labor beginning with African slavery in the early 1500s and expanding across the Americas.

Middle Passage

Transit route across the Atlantic Ocean that transported enslaved Africans to the Americas.

12.5 million

Estimated number of Africans shipped to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade (1525-1866).

Spanish Caste System

Hierarchical social structure in Spanish colonies based on race and birthplace.

Peninsulares

Spaniards born in Spain who held the highest offices in the colonies.

Creoles (Creoles/Creoles of Spanish descent in Americas)

People of Spanish descent born in the Americas.

Mestizos

People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry.

Mulattos

People of mixed European and African ancestry.

Las Casas

Bartolomé de Las Casas, 16th-century priest who advocated for Native rights and influenced anti-slavery laws.

Sepúlveda

Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, scholar who argued Native peoples were inferior and natural slaves.

Henry Hudson

Explorer who discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay while searching for a northwest passage.

Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince who founded a navigation school and promoted Atlantic exploration.

Roanoke Colony

Failed English attempt at settlement known as the Lost Colony, established early in the colonial period.

Asiento

Spanish contractual permission that legalized the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas.

St. Augustine

Oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the present-day United States, founded by Spain in 1565.

John Cabot

Italian explorer sponsored by England; first documented European to reach parts of North America (late 15th century).

New France

French colonies in North America, particularly along the St. Lawrence River.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who claimed parts of Canada for France along the St. Lawrence River in 1534.

St. Lawrence River

Major waterway in eastern Canada explored by Cartier and others for New France.

1534

Year of Cartier’s expedition establishing French claims in Canada.