Early American History and European Colonization

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture review questions about early American peopling, European exploration, and colonial expansion in the Americas.

Peopling of the Americas

Enabled by glaciers exposing an Ice Age land bridge, which allowed land to show, making room for agriculture to emerge and people to migrate.

Ottoman Empire's Impact on European Trade

Closed land routes to Asia, forcing Europeans to seek new maritime routes to bypass trade middlemen, avoid high taxes, and gain wealth.

Caravel

A Portuguese ship innovation that allowed navigation further south along sub-Saharan Africa and enabled longer ocean voyages.

Spanish Colonization Motivations

Driven by competition with European rivals like Portugal, religious expansion, and the pursuit of gold, god, and glory.

Islands of the West Indies

Served as staging areas and bases for the European conquest of the Americas to store goods, keep supplies, harbor people, and spread disease.

Cortés' Advantages

Factors that gave Hernán Cortés an advantage over the Aztecs, including gunpowder, horses, native allies, and European diseases like smallpox.

Pueblo Revolt of 1680

An uprising where Pueblo Indians got rid of Spanish missionaries and settlers, temporarily driving the Spanish out and delaying their expansion.

Champlain's Approach to Diplomacy

Samuel de Champlain's diplomatic strategy focused on building alliances and trade partnerships with Native tribes through the French fur trade.

French Blocking Strategy

France's effort to block Spanish expansion in North America by claiming and settling land between Florida and Mexico and fortifying military posts.

Spanish Caribbean and Central American Colonies

Colonies that differed from North American colonies by relying more heavily on enslaved African labor and cash crops such as sugar and tobacco.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada

England's victory over the Spanish Armada that dealt a major setback to Spain's naval power and paved the way for English imperial domination.

English Colonization Forces (1600s)

Motivations in England for colonization, including Christian missionaries, search for gold and wealth, trade expansion, and rivalry with Spain.

Virginia Company's Charter

Planted seeds of rebellion by granting colonists rights of self-government, which led to the creation of the House of Burgesses to pass their own laws.

New Amsterdam

A Dutch company town controlled by the Dutch West India Company, focused primarily on making money through trade.

Uneven European Impact on Native Americans

Disparities caused by differing native ways of living, varying exposure to disease, access to technology and trade, and differing forms of resistance.