APUSH Unit 1 - Chapter 1: New World Beginnings

Aztecs

New World tribe located in Mexico with advanced agricultural practices and a sophisticated civilization

Bartolome de Las Casas

A Spanish missionary who told everyone if they kept using Native Americans as slaves they would all die and become extinct. He suggested to use African slaves instead of Native Americans.

Black Legend

The false concept that the conquerors merely tortured and butchered the Indians ("killing for Christ"), stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left little but misery behind.

Christopher Columbus

Italian seafarer who discovered the Americas on October 12, 1492 when his landed in the Bahamas. One of the most known successful failures in the world

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of crops, animals, diseases, etc between the New World, Old World, and also Africa.

Conquistadores

Spanish conquerors who fanned out across the Americas for the search of gold and glory in the service of their God

Encomienda

A system that allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them, but it was slavery

Ferdinand Magellan

He was completed the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Francisco Pizarro

He crushed the Incas of Peru in 1532 and added to Spain's wealth

Hernan Cortes

He conquered the Aztecs of Mexico, and was believed to be the god Quetzalcoatl by Moctezuma

Hernando de Soto

Went on an expedition through Florida and westward. He crossed the Mississippi River

Incas

Native American tribe located in Peru. They had a sophisticated civilization and advanced agricultural practices.

John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto)

He explored the North Eastern coast of North America

Marco Polo

An Italian adventurer who explored China. He was considered an indirect discoverer of the New World because he furthered the European's appetite to find a quicker route to the treasures of the East

Mestizos

People of mixed Indian and European heritage

Middlemen

A person who buys goods from producers and sells them to retailers or consumers

Mound Builders

Native American tribe located in the Ohio River Valley. They sustained some large settlements after the incorporation of of corn planting into their ways of life during the first millenium

Vasco Nunez Balboa

The European discoverer of the Pacific Ocean

Plantation

Was based on large-scale commercial agricultural and the wholesale exploitation of slave labor

Ponce de Leon

Explored Florida looking for gold and the mythical Fountain of Youth

Pope's Rebellion

An Indian uprising against the Roman Catholic Church. Indians burned down every church and killed priests and settlers

Pueblo Indians

Native American tribe locate in the southwest area of North America. They were all very skilled farmers

Quetzalcoatl

An Aztec god that was predicted to return from the Eastern sea

Three-Sister Farming

A farming technique that used the cultivation of maize, high-yielding strains of beans, and squash to retain moisture in the soil.

Great Ice Age

A period of time where parts of Europe, Asia, and North America were covered in were covered in ice.

Pangea

A single super continent that contained all the world's dry land. It was proved in part by the fact that all the continents seem to fit together like puzzle pieces and that certain species of fish are found in long separated fresh water lakes throughout the world

Native Americans of Mexico and South America

Aztecs- located in Mexico, produced enough food to feed themselves and the whole city, maize was a major foundation of the economy

Incas- located in Peru, South America, had social hierarchy, located in Andes Mountains

Why Europeans were able to conquer Native Americans

had more resources

Native Americans weren't as strong

Native Amricans didnt have as much people

Had better weapons

Role of the Christian Crusaders in expansion

Christian Crusaders had first acquired a taste for Asian delicacies such as silk, drugs, perfumes, draperies, and spices and made the rest of Europeans want to find a faster way to get to the east.

Early Explorers

Norse seafarers from Scandinavia chanced upon the northeastern shoulder of North America but left later on

Why exploration took place

Europeans wanted to find a quicker route to the east so it was easier to get Asian delicacies. This appetite for it sent explorers west to try to find a way

What columbus and other explorers hoped to achieve

They hoped to either find a quicker route to the east or to find new land for their country

Discuss the columbian exchange

New World to Old World- gold, silver, corn, potatoes, pineapples, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, vanilla, chocolate, syphilis

Old World to New World- wheat, sugar, rice, coffee, horses, cows, pigs, smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, typhus, diphtheria, scarlet fever

Africa to New World- slave labor

Francisco Coronado

Discovered Grand Canyon and the buffalo in news Mexico Arizona area