America Before 1491 - 1607 Origins and Early Encounters

Vocabulary flashcards covering early American history, native regional cultures, Mesoamerican civilizations, European contact, and the Columbian Exchange based on lecture notes.

Bering land Strait

The land bridge crossed by nomadic natives migrating from Northeastern Asia into North America in search of a suitable place to settle.

Columbian Exchange

The significant exchange of plants, animals, germs, and social, cultural, and political changes between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans following Atlantic contact.

Agricultural revolution

The historical transition that enabled permanent settlement and civilization while forcing the development of technologies like ploughs, irrigation systems, and animal domestication.

Hohokam

Native people who settled in the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) and developed irrigation systems out of necessity for their crops in a very dry climate.

Anasazi

Native group settled in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico who constructed and lived in clay and mud Pueblo Villages.

Pueblo Villages

Structures made of clay and mud used by the Anasazi that cool down in hot weather and stay warm in cool weather.

Mississippian peoples

Humid-climate native groups, including the Shawnee and Cherokee, who received irrigation from natural river flooding and focused their efforts on land drainage.

Great Plains peoples

Native groups, including the Sioux and Coda, who rode horses across vast lands to hunt buffalo, utilizing every part of the buffalo for clothing, tools, and bow strings.

Northeastern Peoples

Native groups from Virginia to Canada who engaged in boat building using abundant timber, lakes, and rivers, and were the first to encounter French and British explorers.

Mayan civilization

Ancient Amazon Rainforest civilization best known for mathematics, engineering, accurate calendar systems, and using pure gold for everyday tools like spoons and cups.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer who encountered the Aztecs in 1519, left disease behind, held King Montazuma hostage, and conquered the weakened Aztec civilization in 1521.

Montazuma

Aztec king held hostage by Cortes who was killed by his own Aztec warriors after attempting to make an alliance with the Spanish.

Franciso Pizarro

Spanish Conquistador who led the demise of the Inca civilization in 1533, primarily through the spread of disease.

Innovative Incas

Mountainous South American civilization highly skilled in structural engineering (such as bridges), medicine, and natural sources for anesthetics.

Potosi mines

Mines in modern-day Bolivia that produced 200 tons of silver per year for 200 years for European supply.

Encomienda System

A license granted by Spain allowing New World officials to extract labor and tribute from indigenous natives, under which Cortes appropriated 23,000 families.

Father Bartholome De Las Casas

A Spanish historical figure who worked to bring down the Encomienda system in the New World.