Native Peoples, Agriculture & Exploration – Vocabulary Flashcards

Native Peoples & Civilizations

• Sioux — Nomadic Plains tribe that relied heavily on the buffalo and horse culture; adapted to the Great Plains environment after the introduction of horses by the Spanish.
  • Significance: illustrates how technology (horses) reshaped Indigenous lifestyles and regional ecologies.
• Pueblo — Southwestern Native Americans (modern-day Arizona/New Mexico) who built permanent stone/mud structures and practiced irrigation farming; resisted Spanish rule in Pope’s Rebellion (1680).
  • Significance: early complex agricultural societies; example of organized resistance to colonial rule.
• Pope’s Rebellion (1680) — Pueblo uprising against Spanish religious and political control in New Mexico; successfully expelled the Spanish for over a decade.
  • Date: 1680
  • Significance: demonstrates indigenous resistance and the limits of Spanish control in the region.
• Iroquois — Powerful confederation of tribes in the Northeast (present-day New York) who formed the Iroquois League, practicing agriculture (corn, beans, squash) and influencing colonial diplomacy.
  • Significance: shows a sophisticated political system and agricultural base that affected relations with European powers.
• Mayas — Advanced Mesoamerican civilization (c. 250–900 CE) in present-day Mexico and Central America; known for writing, astronomy, and monumental architecture.
  • Date: c. 250\text{--}900 \ \mathrm{CE}
  • Significance: early writing and astronomical knowledge; monumental architecture foreshadowing later civilizations.
• Incas — Andean empire in South America (modern Peru) known for advanced agriculture, road systems, and centralized governance; conquered by Francisco Pizarro (1530s).
  • Date: 1530\text{s}
  • Significance: large-scale state organization and infrastructure; eventual contact with Europeans led to profound changes.
• Aztecs — Powerful Mesoamerican empire in central Mexico; built Tenochtitlán and practiced tribute collection and human sacrifice; conquered by Hernán Cortés (1519–1521).
  • Date: 1519\text{--}1521
  • Significance: centralized power, monumental urban center, and complex rituals; contact with Cortés reshaped regional history.
• Agriculture & Society
  • Maize — Corn domesticated in Mesoamerica; staple crop for Native societies, enabling population growth and complex civilizations.
  • Mestizo — Person of mixed European and Native American ancestry; social class common in Spanish colonies due to intermarriage policies and cultural blending.
• Technology
  • No items listed under Technology on Page 1.

Compass

• Navigational instrument (Chinese origin) adopted by Europeans for ocean voyages; essential for Age of Exploration.
  • Significance: enabled long-distance seafaring and extensive maritime exploration.

Printing press

• Invented by Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1450); enabled rapid spread of maps, exploration accounts, and religious texts in Europe.
  • Date: 1450
  • Significance: facilitated dissemination of knowledge and support for exploration across Europe.

Exploration & Colonization

• Christopher Columbus — Genoese sailor sponsored by Spain; his 1492 voyage across the Atlantic connected Europe with the Americas, initiating the Columbian Exchange.
  • Date: 1492
  • Significance: initiated sustained contact between Old and New Worlds, transforming global networks.
• Bartolomé de Las Casas — Spanish priest who criticized the encomienda system and advocated for Native rights; influenced Spain’s New Laws of 1542.
  • Date: 1542
  • Significance: early critique of exploitation and push for reforms in colonial policy.
• Amerigo Vespucci — Italian explorer who recognized the Americas as the New World; the continents were named after him.
  • Significance: his accounts helped establish the “New World” identity in European thought.
• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) — Agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly discovered lands along a meridian west of the Cape Verde Islands.
  • Date: 1494
  • Significance: formed a geopolitical framework for colonial expansion in the Americas.
• Hernán Cortés — Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire, claiming Mexico for Spain.
  • Significance: pivotal event leading to Spanish colonial rule in Central Mexico.
• Conquistadores — Spanish conquerors who explored and colonized the Americas, motivated by God, gold, and glory.
  • Significance: drove early colonial expansion and transformation of indigenous societies.

Labor & Economic Systems

• Asiento System — Spanish system granting licenses to other countries to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies; part of the transatlantic slave trade.
  • Significance: institutionalized African slavery in the Americas and shaped colonial labor structures.
• John Cabot — Venetian explorer for England who reached Newfoundland (1497), laying groundwork for English claims in North America.
  • Date: 1497
  • Significance: helped establish English presence and interest in the North American continent.
• Mercantilism — Economic theory that colonies exist to benefit the mother country by supplying raw materials and serving as markets for manufactured goods.
  • Significance: framed imperial policies and colonial economic practices in the Atlantic world.