Chapter 17 - The Diversity of American Colonial Societies, 1530–1770 Flashcards
Columbian Exchange
The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus’s voyages.
Bartolomé de Las Casas
First bishop of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. He devoted most of his life to protecting Amerindian peoples from exploitation. His major achievement was the New Laws of 1542, which limited the ability of Spanish settlers to compel Amerindians to labor for them.
Potosí
Located in Bolivia, one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous cities in colonial Spanish America.
encomienda
A grant of authority over a population of Amerindians in the Spanish colonies. It provided the grant holder with a supply of cheap labor and periodic payments of goods by the Amerindians. It obliged the grant holder to Christianize the Amerindians.
creoles
In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the New World. Elsewhere in the Americas, the term is used to describe all nonnative peoples.
mestizo
The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed Amerindian and European descent.
mulatto
The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.
indentured servant
A migrant to British colonies in the Americas who paid for passage by agreeing to work for a set term ranging from four to seven years.
House of Burgesses
Elected assembly in colonial Virginia, created in 1618.
Pilgrims
Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.
Puritans
English Protestant dissenters who believed that God predestined souls to heaven or hell before birth. They founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.
Iroquois Confederacy
An alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples (six after 1722) that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, the Confederacy dominated the area from western New England to the Great Lakes.
New France
French colony in North America, with a capital in Quebec, founded 1608. New France fell to the British in 1763.
coureurs de bois
French fur traders, many of mixed Amerindian heritage, who lived among and often married with Amerindian peoples of North America.
Tupac Amaru II
Member of Inca aristocracy who led a rebellion against Spanish authorities in Peru in 1780–1781. He was captured and executed with his wife and other members of his family.
