Early Native American Societies and European Colonization

Vocabulary flashcards covering pre-contact Native American urban centers, trade networks, indigenous resistance, and Spanish colonization based on historical excerpts.

Cahokia

A major pre-contact Native American center located in present-day Missouri, characterized by a highly stratified chiefdom society with a sharp divide between elites and commoners, supported by agricultural hamlets.

Algonquian Language Speakers

Native American populations living from the Ohio River through present-day Canada down to the Chesapeake, typically organized into decentralized villages of 500 to 2,000 people supported by settled subsistence farming.

Native American Chiefdoms

Highly stratified pre-contact societies, such as Cahokia, Coosa, Etowah, Moundville, and Natchez, where elites and commoners were sharply divided and supported by surrounding networks of agricultural hamlets.

Maize Cultivation

An agricultural practice that spread northward from Mexico, supporting the development of commerce, trade networks, and socially diversified urban areas across Native America.

Settled Subsistence Farming

The economic system that supported Native American villages composed of 500 to 2,000 people across the region stretching from the Ohio River to present-day Canada and the Chesapeake.

Lords and Holy Men of Tenochtitlan

Aztec leaders who delivered a 1524 reply to Spanish Franciscans declaring that they would die before surrendering their ancient laws, customs, and worship of their gods.

Franciscans

Christian missionaries whose arrival in the Americas prompted native leaders in Tenochtitlan to actively resist European efforts to repress their culture and religion.

Columbian Exchange

The post-contact exchange that most immediately resulted in the massive decline of Native American populations due to European disease.

Hernán Cortés

The Spanish conquistador who wrote a 1520 letter to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, detailing his interactions with Moctezuma and the Mexica.

Moctezuma

The ruler of the Mexica (Aztecs) who stated to Hernán Cortés that his ancestors had emigrated to the land many years prior and were not the original aborigines of the country.

Spanish Colonial Social Relations

A societal structure established in the Western Hemisphere characterized by the emergence of racially mixed populations mingling European settlers, Native Americans, and Africans.

Pre-Contact Native Complexity

The historical development referenced by Moctezuma's migration account, highlighting the presence of different and complex Native American societies existing prior to European contact.