European Exploration and Colonial Era: Key Figures and Concepts

🏰 Middle Ages

A period in Europe from about 500-1500 after the fall of Rome; a time of kings, castles, and the Catholic Church's power.

Renaissance

A period of rebirth in art, learning, and culture in Europe from the 1300s to the 1600s.

Reconquista

The effort by Christian kingdoms in Spain to drive out the Muslim Moors, ending in 1492.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince who started a school for navigation and sponsored early voyages along Africa's coast.

Bartolomeu Dias -

Portuguese explorer who was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope).

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer who was the first to sail from Europe to India around Africa.

Christopher Columbus -

Italian explorer who sailed for Spain and reached the Americas in 1492.

John Cabot

English explorer who reached Newfoundland, Canada, in 1497.

Pedro Álvares Cabral -

Portuguese explorer who claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500.

Amerigo Vespucci

Italian explorer who realized the Americas were a new continent, not Asia; the continents are named after him.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer who led the first voyage around the world (he died during the trip).

Conquistadors -

Spanish conquerors who explored and took over lands in the Americas.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

Moctezuma -

Aztec emperor defeated and killed by Hernán Cortés.

Columbian Exchange

The global transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia) and the New World (Americas) after 1492

Missionaries

People sent to other lands to spread their religion, especially Christianity.

Presidios

Spanish military forts built in colonial America, mainly in the Southwest and California.

Viceroy

A ruler appointed by the Spanish king to govern a colony in his name.

Mestizos -

People of mixed European and Native American ancestry.

Missions -

Religious settlements run by Catholic priests to convert Native Americans to Christianity.

Northwest Passage -

A supposed sea route through North America to Asia, sought by many explorers.

Quebec -

First permanent French settlement in Canada, founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain.

Samuel de Champlain

- French explorer who founded Quebec and mapped parts of North America.

Coureurs de bois -

"Runners of the woods"; French fur traders who lived and worked with Native Americans.

Métis -

People of mixed French and Native American ancestry in French colonial America.