Unit 1 Flashcards
Cahokia
One of the largest urban centers created by Mississippian peoples, containing 30,000 residents in 1250.
Aztecs
A warrior people who dominated the Valley of Mexico from 1100 to 1521.
Beringia
A subcontinent bridging Asia and North America, named after the Bering Straits.
Clovis tradition
A powerful new and sophisticated style of tool making, unlike anything found in the Old World.
Mesoamerica
The region stretching from central Mexico to Central America.
Rancherias
Dispersed settlements of Indian farmers in the Southwest.
Reconquista
The long struggle (ending in 1492) during which Spanish Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula from Muslim occupiers.
Treaty of Tordesillias
Treaty negotiated by the pope in 1494 to resolve the territorial claims of Spain and Portugal.
Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church, initiated in 1517, calling for a return to what he understood to be the purer practices and beliefs of the early Church.
Predestination
The belief that God decided at the moment of Creation which humans would achieve salvation.
Feudalism
A medieval European social system in which land was divided into hundreds of small holdings.
Renaissance
The intellectual and artistic flowering in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries sparked by a revival of interest in classical antiquity.
Enconmienda System
In the Spanish colonies, the grant to a Spanish settler of a certain number of Indian subjects, who would pay him tribute in goods and labor.
Bartolome de las Casas
A Spanish priest who sought to persuade the monarchy to improve treatment for Native Americans.
Juan de Sepulveda
A Spanish priest who argued against de las Casas in the Valladolid debate.
