Unit 1: Southern American Colonization Flashcards
Colombian Exchange
The exchange of goods between Europe and the “New World”. Europeans got foodstuffs like corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate; while the Americas got livestock, wheat, carrots, apples, and European diseases.
Christopher Columbus
Italian; contracted by the Spanish to search for the Northwest Passage to India. Landed in the Americas and took the land for the Spanish. Forced out the Native groups in the Caribbean and Central America
Cash Crops
Crops that are grown with the intent of being sold, not eaten. Examples include Indigo (dye), cotton, and tobacco
Triangle Trade
The system of global trade that existed in the early colonies. Raw materials would go to Europe, which were processed and sent to America and Africa for sale. These manufactured goods would be traded for slaves in Africa that were sent to America to work
Encomienda System
The Spanish system of land ownership. The Spanish would give a person land with a set amount of Natives expected to live and work on it (for their ‘protection’)
Bartolomé de las casas
Spanish priest who wrote about the atrocities committed by Columbus and the other Conquistadors negatively
Smallpox
Disease spread in the New World by Europeans
Middle Passage
The sea route from Africa to South America which was the main path for the slave trade
Northwest Passage
The theoretical “hidden” route that would go from Europe to India. Inspiration for the Age of Exploration
Bering Land Bridge
Theory of American migration. 20,000 years ago, Native Americans reached the continent through a strip of land connecting modern-day Russia and Alaska
Conquistador
Name for the Spanish who scoured the New World
Spanish Colonial Economy
Initially based on raw gold, later turned to sugar production
Mestizo
A person of Spanish and Native American descent
Mulatto
A person of Spanish and African descent
