01 Converging Cultures, Prehistory-1763 Flashcards
radiocarbon dating
a method used by scientists to determine how old objects are by measuring the radioactivity left in carbon-14
Ice Age
a period of time beginning about 100,000 years ago when the earth’s water froze into huge ice sheets
glaciers
huge ice sheets
Beringia
during the Ice Age, an area of dry land that connected Asia with the part of North America that is now Alaska
nomads
people who continually move from place to place in search of food and water
agricultural revolution
the period of time about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago when Native Americans in Mesoamerica learned how to plant and raise crops
maize
a large-seeded grass today known as corn
civilization
a highly organized society marked by advanced knowledge of trade, government, the arts, science, and often a written language
obsidian
volcanic glass
kivas
ceremonial rooms of the Anasazi
pueblos
the Spanish word for villages
kachina
a good spirit of the Pueblo people
Algonquian
language of Native Americans who lived in areas that later became known as New England, Delaware, the Ohio River valley, and Virginia
Iroquoian
language of Native Americans who lived in areas that later became known as New York, southern Ontario and north to Georgian Bay
slash-and-burn agriculture
the practice of cutting down forests and then burning the cleared land to use for farming
longhouses
rectangular houses with barrel-shaped roofs covered in bark
wigwams
cone- or dome-shaped houses made using bent poles covered with hides or bark
kinship groups
extended families
Dekanawidah
a shaman or tribal elder who helped found the Iroquois Confederacy
Hiawatha
a Mohawk chief who helped found the Iroquois Confederacy
Sahara
an Arabic word for desert; a desert in the interior of West Africa
savannah
a kind of rolling grassland
Islam
the religious faith that includes the belief in one god whose prophet is Muhammad
Muslims
the followers of Islam
Soninke
the people of the Ghana empire
mosques
Muslim places of worship
Malinke
the people of the Mali empire
Sorko
the people of the Songhai empire
Yoruba
the people of Ife along West Africa’s southern coast
matrilineal
the tracing of lineage or descent through mothers
Crusades
military expeditions by European Christians in the late 1000s to the 1200s to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims
Roman Empire
the empire that dominated much of Europe for centuries and collapsed by A.D. 476
feudalism
the political system that developed in western Europe during the Middle Ages in which the king gave estates to nobles in exchange for their military support
manorialism
the economic system in western Europe during the Middle Ages in which peasants provided services for the lord of the manor in return for his protection
serf
a peasant who worked the land of a manor and who was not allowed to leave it without permission
Renaissance
an intellectual revolution in western Europe that began around A.D. 1350 and lasted until around 1600
astrolabe
a device that uses the position of the sun to determine direction, latitude, and local time
lateen sails
triangle-shaped sails that made it possible for ships to sail against the wind
caravel
a ship with multiple sails that was easier to steer and that made travel much faster
Henry the Navigator
a prince of Portugal who set up a center for studying astronomy and geography in Portugal in 1419
Bartolomeu Dias
a Portuguese ship commander who reached the southern tip of Africa in 1488
Vasco da Gama
a Portuguese ship commander who found a water route to Asia from Portugal and around Africa to India’s southwest coast
Vikings
a group of people from Scandinavia
Christopher Columbus
an Italian navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a sea route to Asia and who instead landed in the Americas in 1492
Claudius Ptolemy
a Greek-educated Egyptian geographer and astronomer who drew maps of a round world in “Geography” in the A.D. 200s
San Salvador Island
the place in the Bahamas where Christopher Columbus most likely landed on his first voyage
Santo Domingo
the town founded by Christopher Columbus’s brother Bartholomew in 1496 that later became the first capital of Spain’s empire in America
Pope Alexander VI
leader of the Roman Catholic Church who, in 1493, established the line of demarcation
line of demarcation
an imaginary north-to-south line running down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that granted Spain control of everything west of it and Portugal control of everything east
Amerigo Vespucci
an Italian who explored South America and concluded that it could not be part of Asia; America was named for him
circumnavigate
sail around
Columbian Exchange
a series of interactions between the Native American and European cultures and environments
