US History - Chapter 1 Flashcards
Reasons for exploration
- God
- Gold
- Glory
Results of exploration
- Improved technology and trade
- Spread colonization
- Decimated Native American populations
- African enslavement
The Columbian Exchange
The transfer of plants, animals, and germs from one side of the Atlantic to the other for the first time
Impacts of the Columbian Exchange on Europe/Asia
- Population growth
- Increased wealth
- Rise of capitalism
Impacts of the Columbian Exchange on Native Americans
- Spread of disease
- Social classes formed
- Encomienda system with the Spanish
- Horses transformed Natives’ lives
Impact of the Columbian Exchange on Africa
- Enslavement
Spanish exploration and conquest
- First to explore the New World
- Created caste system and encomienda system
- Used Native Americans for forced labor
- When Natives died from disease, they switched to using Africans
Encomienda system
- A system where Spanish adventurers and settlers gained the legal right to extract forced labor from indigenous tribes
- In exchange, the Spanish would offer military protection to the tribes and offer them the opportunity to be converted to Christianity
Asiento system
An African slave-selling license granted to merchants by the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, allowing them the monopoly on a trade route or merchandise
Mayas
A group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, occupying Central America and Mexico
Aztecs
Indigenous peoples who were prominent in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century
Downfall of the encomienda system
- Native Americans dying from European diseases
- Mestizos couldn’t be forced to work in the encomienda system
- Replaced by slave labor
Bartolome de Las Cases
- Dominican priest who was one of the first Spanish settlers in the New World, and who later advocated for Native American rights
- Condemned the encomienda system and Spanish treatment of Native Americans
Conquistadores
- Explorer-soldiers of both the Spanish and Portuguese empires during the 15th and 16th centuries
- Prominent during the Age of Discovery
Hernan Cortes
- Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec empire in Mexico in 1519
- Took over Mesoamerica and became the first ruler of the new colony of New Spain
Treaty of Tordesillas
- An agreement between Spain and Portugal that defined where each country could explore and claim lands
- Established a new demarcation line between the two empires in the Americas
Lakota Sioux
- Also called the Teton Sioux, the Lakota are comprised of seven tribal bands and are the largest and most western of the 3 groups of the Sioux
- The Lakota occupy land in North and South Dakota
Iroquois Confederation
- A loose alliance of five Native American tribes established in 1451
- Composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca peoples
French exploration and conquest
- Large territorial claims, but small settlements
- Main settlers were fur traders and priests
- Best relations with the Native Americans
- French men married Native women
New Netherland
- Most prominent commercial empire
- Fur trade
- Good relations with Native Americans
- One of the 1st to allow private worship
British exploration and conquest
- Came to establish permanent colonies
- Not interested in relations with Native Americans
- Wanted to steal Native land and murder them
John Cabot
- Italian explorer who, in 1497, led the English expedition that discovered the mainland of North America and explored the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland
