KEY TERMS: Chapter 1

Great League of Peace

An alliance and council between 5 tribes, with male representatives chosen by women.

Reconquista

The reconquest of Spain from the Moors, completed by King Ferdinand and Queen Elizabeth in 1492.

Caravel

A European ship capable of long-distance travel.

Conquistadores

Spanish term for conquerors, referring to Spanish and Portuguese soldiers who took over land owned by indigenous people.

Tenochtitlán

The capital city of the Aztec Empire.

Aztec

The Mesoamerican empire ruled by the Mexica people.

Columbian Exchange

The transatlantic flow of goods and people that began with Columbus’s voyages.

Creoles

A person born in America of European ancestry.

Hacienda

A large-scale farm in the Spanish Empire worked by Native American laborers.

Mestizos

Spanish term for a person of mixed Native American and European ancestry.

Ninety-Five Theses

A list of moral grievances against the Catholic Church by Martin Luther, a German priest, in 1517.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

An advocate for the better treatment of Native Americans who denounced the Catholic Empire for killing millions of innocent people.

Repartimiento system

A system where Indians were free from forced labor and could work for wages, but their wages were capped at a certain amount.

Black Legend

The idea that the Spanish were more brutal to the Indians than any other European empire.

Pueblo Revolt

An uprising in 1680 led by Pope and allied pueblos to drive Spanish colonists out of New Mexico.

Borderland

A place between or near borders where no one has political or cultural power.