The Americas and Early Colonial Efforts

Question 1

What city-state emerged near modern-day Mexico City around 100 B.C.?

Answer 1

Teotihuacan, a powerful city-state in central Mexico, emerged around 100 B.C. Teotihuacan was ruled by an oligarchy dedicated to continuing the city-state’s polytheistic religion, which included human sacrifice. Historians believe that Teotihuacan’s influence waned in the 650s in the wake of internal revolts.

Question 2

Arising around 250 A.D.., the _____, a civilization comprising some 40 city-states in Central America, developed advanced written language as well as a startlingly accurate calendar.

Answer 2

Maya

The Maya emerged in modern-day Guatemala around 250 B.C. and had a series of rival city-states and small kingdoms. The Maya kings were also priests, dedicated to appeasing gods such as Quetzalcoatl, a winged serpent god, by means of human sacrifice. The Maya fell around 900 for reasons that are still unclear.

Question 3

How was Moche society organized?

Answer 3

The Moche, a civilization that existed in the Andes Mountains from around 200 to 700, lived in allyu, communal clans that farmed the land owned by the elites. Under the direction of the Moche’s ruling class, the allyu were also compelled to undertake public infrastructure work, such as building roads or hillside terraces for farms.

Question 4

Who were the Anasazi?

Answer 4

Located in modern-day Arizona and New Mexico, the Anasazi (or Ancient Pueblo) peoples created sophisticated networks of pueblos, cliff dwellings, roads, and canals for irrigation. The Anasazi civilization collapsed after 1150 due to severe and long-lasting droughts.

Question 5

Where was Cahokia?

Answer 5

The city of Cahokia was located on the banks of the Mississippi River, near modern-day St. Louis, and was characterized by massive burial mounds. Cahokia was the largest urban concentration of Native Americans north of Mexico. Before it was abandoned in circa 1400 A.D., some 40,000 people were estimated to have lived there.

Question 6

Describe the lifestyle of the Native American tribes along the upper Atlantic seaboard.

Answer 6

Known as Woodland Tribes, most Native Americans in these areas moved seasonally. Women were primarily responsible for agricultural production, while the men hunted and fished.

Question 7

How did the North American Indians view property rights?

Answer 7

With the exception of a few tribes, individual land ownership was virtually unknown. Most tribes did claim territorial lands for hunting and gathering to the exclusion of other tribes. Among many of the Woodland Tribes, inheritance was matrilineal.

Question 8

What was the Iroquois Confederacy?

Answer 8

Founded around 1451, the Iroquois Confederacy was a loose political alliance of five Indian nations. Impressed by the wisdom of this government, Europeans referred to them as the “Romans of the New World.”

Question 9

Prior to the arrival of Columbus, where was most of the population of the New World concentrated?

Answer 9

Most of the population of the New World was concentrated in Central and South America where civilizations such as the Aztecs and Incas flourished.

Question 10

What civilization was the largest in the pre-Columbian American world?

Answer 10

The largest civilization in the pre-Columbian world was the Aztecs, who rose to power in Mexico around 1300. The Aztecs were fiercely warlike and expanded their power by near constant war with neighboring civilizations. Captured warriors provided many of the human sacrifices that were a hallmark of Aztec civilization.

Question 11

Describe the Aztec religion.

Answer 11

The Aztec religion was polytheistic and centered around large pyramids that served as temples.

The most important god was the sun god Huitzilopochtli, and the Aztecs believed that their devotion to him ensured the reappearance of the sun each day. The sun god could only be appeased by blood, leading to large-scale human sacrifice of up to 20,000 persons per year.

Also important was the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl, who variously appeared as a serpent or a light-skinned bearded man.

Question 12

Which civilization emerged in the Andes in the 1300s?

Answer 12

In the 1300s, the Incas built a large empire that stretched along the Andes Mountains. Large Incan cities, such as Machu Picchu and Cuzco, were connected by an elaborate road network. The Inca adopted many of the cultural innovations of their predecessors, including the forced labor of the allyas.

Question 13

How did the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of Constantinople in the mid-1400s spur European exploration?

Answer 13

Constantinople served as the trade gateway between Europe and Asia. Following its conquest by the Turks in 1453, Europeans had to find alternative trade routes to gain access to Asian goods, which promoted exploration.

Question 14

What was the primary focus of Portuguese exploration?

Answer 14

The Portuguese were primarily interested in trade with Asia and India.

During the early 1400s, Prince Henry the Navigator funded exploration expeditions primarily to access these markets. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and, in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India.

Question 15

What was the primary accomplishment of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama?

Answer 15

Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa in 1498, leading a fleet of Portuguese ships to India. These were the first European ships to reach India by sea.

The ability to reach India by water, instead of relying on overland routes controlled by the Turks and Mediterranean shipping controlled by the Venetians, marked a new era in world trade and contacts between civilizations.

Question 16

In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella completed the conquest of Spain from the Moors by successfully capturing _____.

Answer 16

Granada

Granada was the last outpost of the Muslims (known as Moors) in Spain, and its conquest unified all Spain under one monarchy. Its conquest allowed the Spanish monarchy to focus on other military adventures, such as the conquest of North America.

Question 17

In 1492, Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, sailed west from Spain. What was the purpose of Columbus’s voyage?

Answer 17

Columbus was convinced that a western route to India existed and wanted to find it. Although he’d stumbled upon the New World, Columbus died in 1506 believing he had succeeded and that the peoples he’d named “Indians” really were inhabitants of Asia.

Contrary to legend, few in Europe believed the Earth was flat.

Question 18

After Columbus established permanent contact with the New World, where did Spain focus its colonial efforts?

Answer 18

Spain focused primarily on conquest and expeditions under conquistadors (conquerors) who were sent from Spain to the New World.

Question 19

Which was the first large state to fall under Spanish control in the New World?

Answer 19

In 1521, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs in modern-day Mexico. Cortés’s conquistadors were only a small force, but in a brutal campaign the Aztecs were subdued, and the Aztec Empire fell.

Question 20

Which Spanish conquistador completed the conquest of the Incas in 1534?

Answer 20

In 1534, Francisco Pizarro completed the conquest of the Incas of Peru. The Incan Empire fell rapidly, and by 1540 the Spanish held large swaths of territory in the New World.

Question 21

How did contact with Europeans affect the native inhabitants of the New World?

Answer 21

Indians had no resistance to European diseases, and roughly 90% of the Indian population died from diseases like smallpox. Many of the remaining Indians were enslaved to work Spanish farms and mines under the Encomienda System.

The chain of disease was not one-sided; from the New World, Spanish explorers brought syphilis back to Europe.

Question 22

Historian Alfred Crosby coined a term to describe the interchange of flora, fauna, and diseases between Europe and the New World. What is that term?

Answer 22

Columbian Exchange

Before European contact, there were no crowd-spread diseases or domesticated animals in the New World. Hearty American crops such as corn, potatoes, and cassava were brought back to Europe, helping to alleviate food shortages there. Though Europeans didn’t understand pollination, they enjoyed honey and brought European honey bees to the New World.

Question 23

Define:

Encomienda System

Answer 23

Under the Encomienda System, the Spanish government provided grants of New World land and Indians to individual Spaniards, who were supposed to care for the Indians and convert them to Catholicism.

The system resulted in virtual slavery for the Indians consigned to Spanish care and most died from brutal treatment or disease. To replace Indian labor, Spain arranged for the importation of slaves from Africa under the Asiento System.

Question 24

During the period of Spanish colonization of the Americas, what was the Asiento System?

Answer 24

As the Native Americans died from disease and overwork, the Spanish turned to the Asiento System to make up for the labor shortage. Under the Asiento System, African slaves were carried to the Americas and a tax was paid to the Spanish crown for each slave imported.

The Asiento System was a forerunner of the Triangular Trade System and resulted in hundreds of thousands of slaves being brought to the New World.

Question 25

What was the Papal Line of Demarcation?

Answer 25

In 1493, the Pope divided the world between Portugal and Spain by drawing a line down a map of the known world, giving Spain everything west of the Papal Line of Demarcation, and Portugal everything to the east.

In the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the Portuguese and Spaniards moved the line slightly to the west, an action which was ratified by the Pope in 1506. Since the Tordesillas line went through a portion of Brazil, the Portuguese would later claim the region.

Question 26

Besides Mexico and Central and South America, what other North American locations did the Spanish colonize?

Answer 26

The Spanish also colonized Texas, New Mexico, Florida, and California. In California, the Spanish founded San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Father Junipero Serra planted religious missions along the California coast.

Question 27

Who wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies in 1542?

Answer 27

Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar, wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.

In it, de las Casas described the unfair and horrific treatment of the native New World populace at the hands of the Spaniards. De las Casas contended that continued cruelty would lead to divine retribution against Spain.

Question 28

What is Potosí?

Answer 28

Potosí is a mountain in Bolivia and the location of one of the world’s richest silver mines. Potosí became the major source of silver for the Spanish Empire during Spain’s colonial period and funded Spain’s imperial expansion.

When the supply of native workers ran low due to harsh treatment and disease, the Spaniards imported African slaves to work the mines.

Question 29

Which country became the primary location of Portuguese colonization in the New World?

Answer 29

The Portuguese colonized Brazil, which they claimed was on their side of the Papal Line of Demarcation. The Brazilian economy was heavily dependent upon mining and plantation agriculture, both of which were labor intensive. To work these industries, the Portuguese imported large numbers of African slaves.

Question 30

Who commanded the first fleet to circumnavigate the globe?

Answer 30

The first fleet to sail around the world was commanded by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who sailed under the Spanish flag.

Magellan did not live to accomplish the entire trip; he was killed in the Philippines during a battle with a native tribe. The trip took four years, leaving in 1519 and returning to Spain in 1522.

Question 31

Which European was the first to set eyes upon the Pacific Ocean?

Answer 31

Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Panamanian Isthmus in 1513, becoming the first European to set eyes upon the Pacific Ocean.

Balboa established the first permanent European settlement on the American mainland in modern-day Panama; previous European colonial efforts had been confined to the islands of the Caribbean.

Question 32

Where did the French focus their colonial efforts?

Answer 32

The French colonial efforts focused on the area around the St. Lawrence River, where they founded the colony of Quebec in 1608. French exploration was dominated by the fur trade, and the French steadily moved west and south taking over most of the Great Lakes region and the entire Mississippi River basin.

Question 33

What was the Northwest Passage?

Answer 33

The Northwest Passage was a purported sea route northwest of North America that provided a direct sailing route to Asia from Europe.

The search for an easy sea lane around the New World spurred exploration of North America by French-sponsored explorers such as John Cabot and Giovanni Verrazzano and Dutch explorers such as Henry Hudson.

Question 34

Why did the Dutch form the Dutch East India Company?

Answer 34

The Dutch formed the Dutch East India Company to administer colonies that had been wrested from Spain in the 1590s, including much of West Africa, Sri Lanka, and parts of India. With their conquest of Indonesia in the early 1600s, the Dutch came to control much of the European trade in tea and spices, including pepper and cinnamon.

Question 35

In 1624, the Dutch purchased ______ Island on the eastern coast of North America, founding the colony of New Amsterdam.

Answer 35

Manhattan

New Amsterdam became the headquarters of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which included a string of trading posts in the Hudson River Valley. In the mid-1600s, the English conquered the colony, renaming it and its primary city New York.

Question 36

English colonization of the New World did not begin in earnest until the late 1500s. Why?

Answer 36

During much of the 16th century, England’s attention was focused on suppressing rebellions as well as the Hundred Years’ War with France.

In addition, King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church over the issue of divorce, founding the Anglican Church. In 1585, England and Spain went to war, and England began to focus on the New World for the purpose of raiding Spanish ships. Following the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, English colonization of the New World began in earnest.

Question 37

Which colony was the first permanent English outpost in the New World?

Answer 37

In 1607, the English established the James Fort, which eventually became Jamestown. Originally founded to search for gold, the colonists were ill-suited for agriculture and, to make matters worse, had chosen a poor location in which to settle.

The timely arrival of relief ships saved some of the colonists from starvation long enough to discover the lucrative pleasures of tobacco, which gave the colony a viable cash crop for export to England.

Question 38

Which colony did English Puritans establish in the New World?

Answer 38

In 1620, English Puritans (known as Pilgrims) established a colony at Plymouth Bay, in modern-day Massachusetts. Religiously rigid, the Puritans sought separation from the Anglican Church and freedom to practice their religion as they saw fit.

Question 39

The British founded the _____ _____ _____ _____ to manage economic and military relations with England’s Asian colonies.

Answer 39

British East India Company

The English had conquered large amounts of territory in India and Southeast Asia, and the British East India Company was founded in 1600 to manage the economic relations between these lands and England.

Question 40

How did English, and to a lesser extent French and Dutch, colonization differ from Spanish and Portuguese colonization in North America in the 16th and 17th centuries?

Answer 40

The English, Dutch, and French focused more on establishing permanent settlements populated by their own settlers. The Spanish and Portuguese aimed for conquest, and their colonies consisted of only a handful of their own people, many of whom would eventually return to Europe.

Question 41

How did slavery develop in British North America?

Answer 41

Initially, few blacks were imported into Virginia, and by 1650 there were only 400 slaves in the colony. Over the next few decades, however, Virginia landowners began growing rice and indigo in large quantities, which required large amounts of unskilled labor, and slavery increased.

Although slavery did exist in the northern parts of what would become the United States, it was really only viable on the large tobacco, rice, and cotton plantations in the American south.

Question 42

Define:

indentured servitude

Answer 42

Under indentured servitude, a person’s passage to the New World was paid in advance and in exchange for several years of labor.

Colonists, primarily in Maryland and Virginia, used indentured servants to fill labor shortages. Most indentured servants died before obtaining freedom.

Question 43

Two crops predominated in the southern English colonies. What were they?

Answer 43

The southern English colonies, including the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia, primarily grew cotton and tobacco. Both products were labor intensive, and colonists imported large labor forces of both indentured servants and slaves to work the land.

Question 44

Where was New France?

Answer 44

In 1608, the French established a colony at Quebec, and by the 1620s had named the surrounding region New France. The term “Canada” was used by the French to refer to the land that lay along the St. Lawrence River and the Upper Great Lakes.

The colony’s chief export was fur, and large quantities of beaver pelts were shipped across the Atlantic for use in making hats.

Question 45

How did the French and Indian War impact European colonization in the New World?

Answer 45

An outgrowth of the Seven Years’ War (1757 to 1763), during the French and Indian War the British were highly successful in defeating the French and their Indian allies in North America including at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside of Quebec. At the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French agreed to cede Canada to the British and abandon French outposts along the Mississippi River.

Question 46

Which European nation was the first to colonize Alaska?

Answer 46

The Russians colonized Alaska beginning in the late 1700s when Russian fur traders arrived from Siberia.

Russian colonial efforts were never large, and there were few Russian settlers. Russia also had an outpost in California at Fort Ross.