Chp. 1- Early American Civilizations

Question 1

Bering Land Bridge Theory

Answer 1

postulates that people migrated to the Americas over a frozen land bridge called Beringia 20,000 years ago (during the last ice age)

Question 2

Atlantic Theory

Answer 2

suggests that European Stone Age peoples created vessels that carried them to the East Coast of the Americas

Evidence- “clovis points” on the East coast are older than those found on the West coast

Question 3

Oceania Theory

Answer 3

claims that people sailed to America across the Pacific Ocean

Evidence- cultures and languages of South America resemble those of Australia and Polynesia

Question 4

Kennewick Man

Answer 4

9,500 year old skeletal remains of a man whose features are similar to those of the Ainu (native people of Hakkaido, Japan)

found in Washington state

Question 5

step (terrace) agriculture

Answer 5

a system in which steep hills or mountains are cut to form level areas of arable land to prevent the loss of rain water

Question 6

King Pachacutec

Answer 6

circa 1430, developed the Inca into an empire

Question 7

Francisco Pizarro

Answer 7

a conquistador who captured Emperor Atahualpa and killed 2,000 civilian and religious spectators with 150 men

murdered the King after receiving his ransom, then returned to defeat the Inca

Question 8

King Atahualpa

Answer 8

after the line of succession came into question in 1525, Atahualpa came to power

he allowed Pizarro to pass through his kingdom and his hubris resulted in the death of the Incan Empire

Question 9

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 9

1494, an agreement between the Portuguese Empire and the Crown of Castile to fracture the new continent into two territories, along a meridian 370 leagues west of Cape Verde

authored by Pope Alexander VI

Question 10

Christopher Columbus

Answer 10

1492, the first European to venture to the new world, catalyzing the Age of Discovery (Spain)

Question 11

Amerigo Vespucci

Answer 11

realized the Americas were not Asia and calculated the Earth’s circumference around the equator within 50 miles (Portugal)

Question 12

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Answer 12

1513, first European to reach the Pacific Ocean through Panama (Spain)

Question 13

Juan Ponce de Leon

Answer 13

1513, rumored to have discovered the Fountain of Youth

first explorer to reach the continental United States (Spain)

Question 14

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

Answer 14

1540, pursued El Dorado

first European to explore the American Southwest (Spain)

Question 15

Hernando Cortes

Answer 15

1521, conquered the Aztecs (Spain)

Question 16

Hacienda

Answer 16

a large land grant given to a conquistador (plantation)

patron- head of the plantation
peones- local peasants who worked the land
campesinas- indentured servants

Question 17

encomienda

Answer 17

a system of labor supporting the Hacienda intended to quell rebellion

patrons provided compensation, protection, education, religious services, and food

caste order- penisulares, creoles, mestizos/mulattos, captured peoples

Question 18

Iroquois League

Answer 18

1000, a nation of five tribes with a Grand Council representing 50 lineages/clans (sachems)

Mohawks, Onondega, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas

Question 19

Columbian Exchange

Answer 19

the exchange of agriculture, technology, slave labor, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres beginning an era of globalization