Period One (1491-1607)

Question 1

Pueblo

Answer 1

A native tribe in present-day Colorado who made irrigation systems for their cornfields and adopted cliff-dweller architecture

Question 2

Navajo

Answer 2

A tribe in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico who grew corn, agricultural prowess enabled trade with other tribes

Question 3

Sioux

Answer 3

A general term for many small, dispersed hunter-gatherer groups who lived on the Great Plains and followed the bison to hunt them

Question 4

Apache

Answer 4

A Southwestern tribe with a nomadic lifestyle

Question 5

Iroquois League

Answer 5

A Northeastern league of five nations with significant political and military power, made of a matriarchial society with matrilineal inheritance

Question 6

Algonquian

Answer 6

A Northeastern tribe who performed slash-and-burn agriculture and subscripted to traditional gender roles (women cultivated, men hunted)

Question 7

Cohokia

Answer 7

A tribe near the Mississippi that existed in small autonomous clans that maintained permanent settlements near rivers

Question 8

Chinook

Answer 8

A Northwestern tribe along the banks of the Columbia River who made use of the ocean’s resources as well

Question 9

Name the three alliterative sources of inspiration for explorers

Answer 9

Gold, God, Glory

Question 10

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 10

An allocation of New World land between Spain and Portugal: Spain claimed almost all of the Americas, while Portugal claimed Brazil and West Africa

Question 11

Mercantilism

Answer 11

The economic system where the nation with the most raw materials and precious metals was the best

Question 12

Number one economic benefit of exploration

Answer 12

The possible discovery of a trade route across the Atlantic leading to the spice-trading Asians

Question 13

Some benefits of the Columbian Exchange

Answer 13

New World crops gave Europeans a more healthful diet. Europe could transition to capitalism with new sources of material wealth. Domesticated animals (namely horses) were brought to the New World. Rice, sugar cane, and other plantations cropped up around the New World.

Question 14

Some harms of the Columbian Exchange

Answer 14

A horrific slew of diseases ravaged the native population due to their lack of immunity. The rise of large plantations created a need for forced native labor, and eventually African slave labor.

Question 15

Benefits of horses in the New World

Answer 15

Nomadic bison-hunting tribes had a significant advantage by hunting and fighting with horses.

Question 16

Conquistadores

Answer 16

Independent adventurers and daredevils contracted by the Spanish crown to find economic opportunities

Question 17

Cortes and the Aztecs

Answer 17

Cortes took down the Aztec Empire, the most sophisticated and powerful empire in the New World, with the help of smallpox and superior technology, giving way to a Eurocentric mindset that “Europeans could do anything to anyone”.

Question 18

First permanent European settlement

Answer 18

St. Augustine (Northeastern Florida), established by the Spanish in 1565

Question 19

The hierarchy in Spanish society

Answer 19

Peninsulares: pure-blooded Spanish Iberians (born on the Iberian Peninsula)
Creoles: pure-blooded Spanish born in the Americas
Mestizo: mixed-race people between natives and Whites
Mulatto: mixed-race people between natives and slaves
Native population
Slaves

Question 20

Sources of Eurocentric mindset

Answer 20

In general, Europeans in the New World believed that:
Natives were uncivilized and subhuman.
Polytheism was inferior to Catholicism.
Natives’ land use was inefficient.
Natives were less due to skin color.
Slaves were seen as property, not people.

Question 21

Triangular trade

Answer 21

1. European goods traded to African contractors for slaves.
2. Slaves carried by merchant ships to America.
3. Goods from slave labor traded to Europe for manufactured goods.

Question 22

African identity in the New World

Answer 22

Caribbean slaves created Vodun, a syncretic (blended) religion with African rituals and Christian beliefs.
Also, maroon societies (groups of runaway slaves) attempted to retain African culture and stay independent of colonial or European governments.

Question 23

Bartolome de las Casas

Answer 23

A Dominican friar who advocated for the humane treatment of natives

Question 24

Encomienda system

Answer 24

A forced-labor system that conscripted natives to work on plantations, but overtaken by slave system

Question 25

Characteristics of religious conversion in New World

Answer 25

Friars often degraded native culture to undermine it.
Spanish created autocratic, rigid empire to impose European views on the natives.
Overall, conversion was forced.

Question 26

Name several conflicts between European and native culture.

Answer 26

Gender views: matrilineal tribes, reverence of women vs European tradition of male superiority and patriarchy
Nature: tribes revered nature, Europeans exploited it
Property: natives collectively owned land, Europeans held to private property
Religion: natives mostly polytheistic, Europeans strongly Christian

Question 27

Name some technological developments that made exploration easier.

Answer 27

Sextant: a navigational instrument that could measure altitudes and angles between objects.
Caravel: a lighter, smaller ship with a lateen sail and steerable rudder
Astrolabe: a mechanical calculator used for stellar and nautical math