Time Period 1 Vocabulary

A collection of vocabulary terms based on Time Period 1 lecture notes, focusing on early American history, colonization, and European interaction with Native populations.

Maize

Corn grown by the Iroquois and other Native Americans. This crop was part of the "Three Sisters" farming system, also planted with beans and squash.

Iroquois Confederation

A group that developed the political and organizational skills to sustain a robust military alliance; the closest thing to the Aztec/Incan Empires in North America.

Mestizo

A part of the Spanish caste system referring to someone who was born of one Native American parent and one European parent.

Zambo

A part of the Spanish caste system referring to someone who was born of one Native American parent and one African parent.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange between the new world and the old starting with Christopher Columbus; included diseases like Small Pox and goods such as horses, cows, sugar, and silver.

Portuguese Slave Trade

Also known as the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Portuguese were the first to begin shipping slaves to the Americas in the 16th century to sell them into labor.

Encomienda System

A system where the Spanish could enslave Native Americans if they Christianized them; essentially a justification for slavery.

Columbus

Italian who sailed from Spain and sighted the Bahamas (San Salvador) on October 12, 1492; he returned to Hispaniola with 17 ships seeking gold and slaves.

Bartolome de Las Casas

Spanish missionary that opposed the encomienda system and denounced Spanish actions toward Native Americans in the new world.

Spanish Mission System

Missions set up to spread Christianity to Native Americans, including 21 in California where Father Serra founded the first 9.

Pope's Rebellion

A 1680 uprising in New Mexico where Pueblo rebels destroyed Catholic churches and killed priests and settlers, driving out the Spanish for 50 years.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement where the Pope divided the New World between Portugal (receiving land to the east) and Spain (receiving land to the west).