The Collision of Cultures: The Americas Before Columbus

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the notes on pre-Columbian Americas, European contact, colonization, and the Atlantic World.

Americas before Columbus

The American continents prior to sustained European contact; diverse civilizations and ways of life existed there.

Smallpox

A deadly European disease that devastated Native American populations, contributing to dramatic demographic decline (up to 90–95%).

Pueblo villages

Ancestral Puebloan communities with cliff-dwelling structures carved into canyon walls.

Plains Indians

Nomadic tribes of the plains who followed the buffalo and lived in tipis.

Eastern Woodlands

Region with abundant resources where Native peoples practiced farming, fishing, and hunting.

Causes for European exploration

Motives including glory, God, and gold, plus desires for trade, riches, and routes to Asia.

Renaissance

A cultural revival that spurred curiosity and supported long-distance exploration.

Northwest Passage

The mythical sea route to Asia across North America; no such navigable passage existed.

Jamestown Colony

The first permanent English settlement in Virginia, established in 1607.

St. Augustine

Spanish settlement in Florida, founded in 1565; oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in what is now the U.S.

Encomiendas

Spanish labor system that forced Native Americans to work for colonists with little compensation.

Mestizos

People of mixed European and Native American ancestry, reflecting early cultural blending.

Atlantic World

The interconnected Atlantic societies of Europe, Africa, and the Americas through trade, migration, and slavery.

Sugar cane economy

Sugar as a highly valuable cash crop in the Americas that increased demand for enslaved labor.

African slavery in the Americas

Enslaved Africans brought to the New World to perform labor; slavery expanded in the Atlantic world.

Indentured servitude

Labor system where individuals worked for a set term to pay for passage to the colonies; later increasingly racialized into permanent slavery.