United States History Chapter 1: New and Old Worlds Meet

Practice flashcards covering the key terms, explorers, and events of early American history (1488–1760) from Chapter 1.

Marco Polo

An explorer whose adventures in China spanned nearly $20$ years and whose stories were recorded in Description of the World.

Description of the World

The title of the book that told the stories of Marco Polo's travels in China.

Mercantilism

A nationalistic economic system of thought where a nation's wealth consisted of precious metals, especially gold, and sought a favorable balance of trade.

Favorable balance of trade

An economic goal of mercantilists to export more than they imported, thereby collecting more gold.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who sailed southward along the west coast of Africa and rounded its southern cape in $1488$.

Good Hope

The optimistic name given to the southern cape of Africa by Bartolomeu Dias.

Vasco da Gama

A Portuguese explorer who sailed to India in $1498$, returning with a cargo of spices worth $60$ times the cost of his expedition.

Christopher Columbus

An explorer who reasoned the shortest route to the East was west; he sailed for Spain and landed in the Bahamas in $1492$.

Amerigo Vespucci

An explorer who made at least two voyages to the Caribbean and South America; a German mapmaker named "America" in his honor in $1507$.

Giovanni Caboto

An Italian explorer known to the English as John Cabot, who reached Newfoundland in $1497$ while searching for a passage to China.

Ferdinand Magellan

The explorer who determined he could reach the Spice Islands by sailing south around the Americas; his crew was the first to circumnavigate the world.

Circumnavigate

To sail completely around the world.

Martin Luther

A leader who stood against the corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church and preached that salvation was a gift of God.

Protestant Reformation

A movement that pressed for changes in the culture of Europe and realigned theological perspectives regarding salvation and religious authority.

John Calvin

Geneva's most influential teacher during the Reformation who emphasized that liberty was important and that all vocations were sacred callings.

Compass

A technological innovation that enabled sailors to know in which direction they were heading.

Astrolabe

A tool that allowed sailors to determine their ship’s latitude on the ocean.

Caravel

A small, light ship with two or three triangular sails that was extremely maneuverable.

Bering Strait

The body of water that historians believe American Indians crossed via a bridge of ice or small boats to reach the New World.

Pueblo Indians

A group of Indians in the Southwest who lived in small villages or caves (cliff dwellers) and farmed maize, squash, and beans.

Mound Builders

Midwest cultures, including the Adena and Hopewell, noted for building hundreds of large mounds and developing an extensive trading network.

Eastern Woodlands Indians

Tribes located in the Southeast and along the Atlantic coast, such as the Cherokees and Mohawks, who were the first to encounter English and French settlers.

Hernando Cortés

The first great conquistador who conquered the Aztec empire in Mexico.

Montezuma

The great Aztec king who offered gifts to the Spanish upon their arrival.

Conquistador

The Spanish term for "conqueror."

European Diseases

Factors like smallpox, typhus, and cholera that caused the Indian population to drop by an estimated $90$ percent between the $16^{th}$ and $17^{th}$ centuries.

Francisco de Coronado

A Spanish commander who explored the southwestern United States in $1540$ and whose party discovered the Grand Canyon.

Juan Ponce de León

A Spaniard who claimed Florida for Spain in $1513$ while searching for rumored wealth.

St. Augustine

Established by the Spanish in $1565$, it is the oldest permanent city settled by Europeans in the present-day United States.

Hernando de Soto

A Spanish explorer who trekked through the Deep South and discovered the Mississippi River.

Philip II

The Catholic king of Spain who ruled from $1556$ to $1598$ and was intent on crushing Protestantism in western Europe.

Sir Francis Drake

The most famous admiral during Queen Elizabeth I's rule and a leader of the "Sea Dogs" who attacked Spanish outposts.

Line of Demarcation

A boundary established by Pope Alexander VI in $1493$ that divided the world between Portugal (east) and Spain (west).

Spanish Armada

A fleet of $130$ ships and $30,000$ men defeated by the English and a fierce storm in $1588$, ending Spanish dominance.

Protestant Wind

The name the English gave to the fierce storm that destroyed much of the Spanish Armada.

Sir Walter Raleigh

The Englishman who sponsored the failed attempt to settle a colony on Roanoke Island in the $1580s$.

Lost Colony

The name given to the English settlement on Roanoke Island whose fate remains undetermined.

New France

The sparse French settlements in Canada that were largely dependent on the fur trade.

Henry Hudson

An explorer who discovered and claimed the area of present-day New York for the Dutch in $1609$.

New Netherland

The Dutch colony in North America which included the town of New Amsterdam.

Peter Stuyvesant

The one-legged governor of New Netherland who was in power when the English seized the colony in $1664$.