Sept 24 Flashcards
What does the thesis of an article typically answer?
The question raised at the start of the article.
What was the approximate population of the Americas at the end of the fifteenth century?
60.5 million.
How did the indigenous peoples of the Americas live in relation to the inhabitants of the Afro-Eurasian supercontinent?
In almost complete isolation from each other.
Which relatively isolated society encountered Europeans for the first time in the mid-sixteenth century?
Japan.
What civilization was the largest pre-contact American civilization?
The Aztec Empire.
What significant urban settlement was abandoned by the mid-fourteenth century?
Cahokia.
What type of villages did the Haudenosaunee communities live in?
Sizeable palisaded villages with longhouses.
Which groups occupied the Pacific Northwest and made totem poles?
The Haida people.
What distinguished the societies of the Americas from those of Western Europe and parts of Asia?
Relative isolation from other groups.
Did the general isolation of American societies preclude trade links?
No, there were trade links, often indirect.
What types of economies did the diverse societies in the Americas have?
- Hunters and trappers
- Agriculturalists
- Aquaculturalists
- Urbanized arrangements with artisanal crafts.
What were the early encounters between Europeans and indigenous Americans marked by?
Non-state-sponsored voyages.
What significant event occurred from the 1520s involving Basque cod fishers and whalers?
They arrived in fleets from France and Spain, leading to encounters with indigenous inhabitants.
What was the major case of consequential encounters in the sixteenth century?
The Spanish incursion into the Caribbean and Latin America.
What program did the Spanish embark on after Columbus’s voyages?
Establishing settlements, spreading Catholic faith, and confronting indigenous power.
Who led the first major expedition to Mexico in 1519?
Hernan Cortes.
What was created by the Spanish as part of their colonial system?
A feudal system and the encomienda system.
Who made three incursions into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence Valley in the 1530s and 1540s?
Jacques Cartier.
What year did the English establish Jamestown, Virginia?
1607.
What was one of the most significant consequences of the first encounters?
Large-scale transfer of plants, fauna, and flora.
What cash crops were introduced to the Americas during the Columbian exchange?
- Sugar
- Coffee.
What animal was notably brought to the Americas that had not been present for about ten thousand years?
The horse.
What was the impact of European microbial diseases on indigenous peoples?
A significant population decline, estimated at up to 90%.
Fill in the blank: The estimated population of the Americas would have been 60.5 million, reduced by as much as _____ due to introduced viral illnesses.
90%.
