Contextualizing 1491-1607: Early Contact & Exchange

Vocabulary flashcards covering major terms and concepts from the lecture on early contact, exploration motives, the Columbian Exchange, and colonial developments between 1491 and 1607.

1491

The year used to capture North America’s cultural diversity just before Columbus’s 1492 voyage.

1607

The founding year of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in present-day Virginia.

Jamestown

English colony established in 1607 that laid groundwork for the future United States.

Cultural Diversity (Pre-Contact)

Wide variety of Native American societies shaped by geography and climate across the Americas.

Irrigation Systems

Water-management techniques used by some Native groups to farm in arid regions.

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

Method of clearing and fertilizing land by cutting and burning vegetation.

Motives for Exploration

European goals of finding gold & silver, a western sea route to Asia, spreading Christianity, and building trading empires. Gold, God, Glory.

Violence as a Tool

Force employed by European explorers to subdue Indigenous populations.

Columbian Exchange

Post-1492 transfer of plants, animals, and germs between the Old and New Worlds.

Transatlantic Exchange

Another term for the Columbian Exchange highlighting the oceanic crossing involved.

Staple Crops (Potato & Maize)

American foods that became essential to European diets after contact.

Smallpox

European disease that caused catastrophic population declines (≈90 %) among Native Americans.

Enslaved Africans

People forcibly transported to the Americas as labor for plantations and mines.

Plantation Labor

Large-scale agricultural work—often sugar, tobacco, or later cotton—performed chiefly by enslaved Africans.

Silver Mining

Extraction of precious metal that enriched Spain, notably at sites like Mt. Potosi.

Mt. Potosi

Massive silver deposit in present-day Bolivia fueling Spanish wealth in the 1500s.

Spanish Colonies

Territories in the Americas controlled by Spain within a century of Columbus’s voyage.

Portuguese Colonies

American holdings (notably Brazil) established by Portugal following early exploration successes.

Trading Empire

Network of colonies and commerce built to generate wealth for a European mother country.

Western Sea Route to the Spice Islands

Sought-after maritime path across the Atlantic leading to Asian spice markets without circumnavigating Africa.

Missionary Christianity

Religious drive to spread the Christian faith among Indigenous peoples during exploration and colonization.

Cultural Persistence

The way Native Americans and enslaved Africans maintained traditions despite European domination.