Period 1: 1491-1607 Contextualizing

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the notes on Period 1 (1491-1607) contextualizing exploration and colonization.

Native American tribes

Before European contact, numerous distinct groups across North and South America with diverse religious, political, and cultural beliefs.

Settled subsistence farming

Farming aimed at sustaining a community with crops like beans and squash, leading to permanent settlements.

Maize (corn)

A staple crop that supported the growth of settled, permanent societies in the Americas.

Irrigation

A method to supply water to crops, enabling settled life in arid regions such as the desert Southwest.

Desert Southwest

Region where Native American communities developed irrigation-supported, settled agriculture.

Great Plains

Grassy region where many tribes led nomadic lifestyles based on hunting.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and the New World after 1492.

Encomienda system

Spanish labor system granting conquerors the right to compel Native Americans to work on plantations.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic journey that forcibly brought enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Conquistadores

Spanish explorers who claimed lands in the Americas and established colonial control.

Plantation agriculture

Large-scale farming of cash crops (e.g., sugar) using enslaved labor in the Americas.

Three goals of European exploration

Christianity (conversion), military competition (land equals power), and wealth (gold, silver, and raw materials).