Chapter 1- Meeting of Cultures Flashcards
Tenochtitlan
-Aztec capital
-built on site of present-day Mexico City
-1500: population over 100,000
-Significance: larger than any European city at the time,
complex public buildings equal in size to
Egypt’s pyramids
Chaco
-tribe of the Chaco Canyon: Southwest
-pueblos: stone and adobe terraced structures that resembled apt buildings in later eras
-Significance: used large irrigation systems to farm with
their dry lands,
constructed towns that became centers of
trade, religious rituals, and crafts
Cahokia Algonquin
-major city that resulted due to trade
-near present-day St. Louis
- 1200: population of 40,000
-Significance: great complex of large earthen mounds
first largest language group
Iroquois Confederation
- emerged mid-15th century
- now upstate NY
- northern nations of Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk
- had links with Cherokees and Tuscaroras in Carolinas and GA
- Significance: 2nd largest language group
Muskogean
- southeast
- Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles
- Significance: 3rd largest language group
Commercialism
- one of the related incentives for Europe top start looking West
- reawakened by population growth after Black Death
- affluent landlords were eager to purchase goods from distant regions, which created a new merchant class to meet the demand
Nationalism
- second incentive for Europe looking West
- new government: stronger with new monarchs, centralized nationals courts, armies and tax systems
Black Death
- bubonic plague of 1347
- began in Constantinople
- killed about 1/3 of Europe
- devastated its limited economy
Prince Henry the Navigator
- 15th century Portuguese maritime man
- interest: west coast of Africa not sea route to Asia
- goals: start Christian empire on WC in Africa and find gold
- did not achieve himself, but his mariners achieved feats
Bartholomeu Dias
-1486: rounded the tip of Southern Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
Vasco Da Gama
-1497-1498: made it all the way around the cape to India
Pedro Cabral
-1500: under his command, on the next voyage to India, was blown off his southernly course went west and happened on the coast of Brazil
Christopher Columbus
- born and raised in Genoa, Italy, but obtained his seafaring experience in Portugal
- Goals: reaching Asia by going west based on the misconceptions of the world being smaller than it is, Asia was longer eastward and the Atlantic was narrow enough to cross
- After being rejected by Spain, went to Portugal where Queen Isabelle gave him 3 ships to set out in on August of 1492
- thought on straight course for Japan, but ten weeks later ended up on an island in Bahamas, then encountered Cuba and called it China
- a year later, went from Caribbean to northern coast of South America, and concluded he was on an island off the coast of China
- A.K.A Admiral of the Ocean
- very religious
- ended his life in obscurity
Ferdinand of Aragon & Isabelle of Castile
- 15th century, two most powerful regional rulers had wed
- produced the strongest monarchy in Europe
- wanted to demonstrate strength by sponsoring commercial ventures
- obeyed church: made colonies only Catholic
- supported Christopher Columbus’ voyage
Amerigo Vespucci
- Florentine merchant
- a member of a later Portuguese voyage who wrote vivid descriptions of the lands they visited and who recognized the lands as a new continent
- America named after him
Conquistadores
- wanted the wealth of the New World
- did anything they could to achieve the wealth, such as destroying tribes and cities, destroying documents, strategically killing the elites in order to control the rest
- brought over the smallpox, influenza, chicken pox and measles
Francisco Pizarro
- Spaniard conquistador
- 1532-1538: conquered Peru and revealed to the Europeans the wealth of the Incas
Hernando de Soto
- Spaniard
- Pizarro’s one-time deputy
- 1539-1541: led several expeditions west through Florida and became the first white man known to have crossed the Mississippi River