UNIT 1 AND 2 Flashcards
What was the Pre-Columbian Era?
The period before Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World
What modern-day strait (former land bridge) did the Native Americans use to go from Siberia to Alaska?
The Bering Strait
What were the Aztecs and Mayans known for?
Their advances in astronomy, architecture, and art
What was the capital of the Aztec Empire that was more populous than any city in Europe at the time?
Tenochtitlan
Where did the Pueblo people live?
The desert southwest of the United States
What were some notable characteristics of the Pueblo people?
They lived in multistory stone houses equipped with thousands of rooms
Where did the Chinook people reside?
In the Pacific Northwest
How did the Chinook people live?
They subsisted on hunting and foraging
What were the tribes that first interacted with the Europeans?
The Iroquois and Algonquian;
They lived along the Atlantic Ocean and had permanent agriculture
How was maize important in native societies?
The transition from hunting and gathering to maize production enabled stable economies and organized societies to prosper;
It also encouraged advancements in irrigation and other advanced agricultural practices
What was the Columbian Exchange?
The widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, communicable diseases, and ideas
How did Columbus’ voyages change the interactions between the Old World and New World?
He opened the door to a long period of European expansion and colonialism
How did Spain establish its power in the Americas?
Through conquistadors, who collected and exported as much of an area’s wealtha s they could
What was Spain’s encomienda system?
Under it, the crown granted colonists authority over a specific number of natives;
The colonist was required to protect these natives and convert them to Catholicism;
In exchange, the colonist was entitled to the natives’ labor for such enterprises like sugar harvesting and silver mining
How did the caste system in the colonies operate at the time?
The Peninsulares (Spainards born in Spain) were at the top, followed by the Creoles (Spainards born in the Americas);
This was followed by the Mestizos (those of mixed European and native blood), then the Zambos (those of mixed African and Native American heritage);
Full-blooded African Americans lay at the bottom
When did the English navy defeat the Spanish Armada, which was the strength of Spain’s navy)?
1588
Why were Europeans generally victorious in the conflict between them and Native Americans?
The most important facor, by a wide margin, was disease;
Through the Columbian Exchange, Native Americans were introduced to European microbes and had never developed immunities to them
What disease especially wrecked native societies and contributed to the Great Dying?
Smallpox
Why did the Europeans want to colonize North America?
They heard of the success of the Spanish expeditions;
They were motivated by desire for wealth and resources, clerical favor to make new Christian converts, and the race to play a dominant role in geopolitics
What technologies allowed the Europeans easier and safer travel to the Americas?
The sextant
