The Unfinished Nation - Chapter 1: The Collision of Cultures

Atlantic World

the peoples and empires around the Atlantic Ocean rim that became interconnected in the sixteenth century

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Dominican friar who fought for fairer treatment of indigenous people in Spanish colonies

Cahokia

major trading center in the Mississippi River valley near modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries

Charter

a formal order from a governmental leader or body, like the king of a court, often granting the recipient power over a body of land, a business, or a people.

Christopher Columbus

sea captain working for the Spanish crown whose trans-Atlantic voyages helped introduce the "New World" to Europeans

Clovis people

term used for the oldest inhabitants of the Americas most probably from modern-day Siberia who would have traveled the Bering Strait some 11,000 years ago.

colonization

A process by which a country or territory falls, usually by force, under the control of a hostile country or territory.

colony

a geographic area in one nation under control by another nation and typically occupies at least partly by settlers from that other nation.

Conquistador

a European (especially Spanish and Portuguese) conqueror of the Americas (particularly Mexico and Peru) during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Elizabeth I

Protestant Queen of England for the latter half of the 1500s who presided over the beginnings of English colonial enterprises in America.

Encomienda

The right to extract tribute and labor from the natives on large tracts of land in Spanish America; also the name given to the land and village in such tracts.

globalization

the process of interaction and exchange between peoples and ideas from different parts of the globe.

imperialism

the process whereby an empire or nation pursues military, political, or economic advantage by extending its rule over external territories and peoples

mercantilism

an economic theory popular in Europe from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries holding that nations were in competition with one another for wealth, and that the state should maximize its wealth by limiting imports and establishing new colonies that would provide access to precious minerals, spices, and slaves.

Mesoamerica

Land area of the Archaic period including the lower portion of modern-day Mexico and the rest of Central America where many native societies flourished.

mestizo

a person of mixes European and American descent, traditionally in Spanish-speaking territories and nations

Popé

Indian religious leader who led a successful uprising against the Spanish in 1680.

Protestant Reformation

the schism in the Catholic Church that began in 1517 with Martin Luther and led to new forms of Christian denominations still recognizable today.

Puritans

a sect of Protestants of England that wished to "purify" the Church of England of its Catholic ceremonies and practices.

Roanoke

the first English colony attempted in the North America