Period 1 and 2: 1491-1754

Question 1

maize

Answer 1

also known as corn, a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago

Question 2

Great Basin

Answer 2

arid region in between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Mountains; was thinly populated by hunter-gatherers

Question 3

Great Plains

Answer 3

broad plateau region stretching from central Texas to Canada and the Rocky Mountains and eastern woodlands; primarily grasslands that support grazing

Question 4

Mississippian Culture

Answer 4

Native American culture the flourished between 850-1700 AD; maize agriculture, moundbuilding, complex chiefdoms; Cahokia

Question 5

hunter-gatherer

Answer 5

societies whose members gather food by collecting and hunting rather than relying on agriculture; typically are moving seasonally;

Question 6

Columbian Exchange

Answer 6

global exchange of animals, humans, plants, and diseases between Eastern and Western Hemispheres

Question 7

New World

Answer 7

the previously unknown (to Europeans) continents of the Americas

Question 8

feudalism

Answer 8

the dominant social system in medieval Europe prior to the Renaissance; usually displayed as a pyramid to show the structure of this system.

Question 9

capitalism

Answer 9

an economic system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state; European colonization helped to establish this system

Question 10

maritime

Answer 10

connected with the sea, especially in relation to seafaring commercial or military activity; European nations in the post-Renaissance period

Question 11

joint-stock

Answer 11

English financial organizations that made North American colonization easier; investors pooled together money to receive stock in the colony; ex. Jamestown

Question 12

epidemics

Answer 12

wide-spread, contagious sickness that threatens a community; smallpox brought from Europe to indigenous Americans.

Question 13

conquistadores

Answer 13

a Spanish soldier of the 16th and 17th centuries that explored the Americas; conquered natives

Question 14

encomienda

Answer 14

a grant of Indian labor in 16th century Spanish America to prominent men; Native Americans must pay tribute to Spain in exchange for protection

Question 15

casta system

Answer 15

hierarchical system of racial classification by colonial elites in Latin America; used to make sense of the patterns of racial mixing in Spanish colonies

Question 16

subjugation

Answer 16

the conquering of groups of people; colonization of the Americas led to this practice.

Question 17

indigenous

Answer 17

the natural and native inhabitants or organisms to a certain area.

Question 18

decimation

Answer 18

to kill or damage large numbers of something; disease impact on Native Americans due to European incursion.

Question 19

Mestizos

Answer 19

persons born of Spanish and Native American parents; ; limited politcal status, but above full blooded Native Americans and African slaves in the casta system.

Question 20

Peninsulares

Answer 20

Spaniards born in Spain who traveled to a Spanish colony; top of the casta system

Question 21

Creoles

Answer 21

persons born in a Spanish colony, to Spanish parents; the second row of the casta system, just below Peninsulares