US History Chapter 1

Question 1

Aztec Empire

Answer 1

Mesoamerican people who were conquered by the Spanish under Hernando Cortes, 1519 - 1528. (page 9)

Question 2

Pueblos

Answer 2

The Spanish term for the adobe cliff dwellings of the indigenous people of the southwestern United States. (page 13)

Question 3

Vikings

Answer 3

Norse people from Scandinavia who sailed to Newfoundland about a.d. 1001. (page 15)

Question 4

Christopher Columbus

Answer 4

The Italian sailor who persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to fund his expedition across the Atlantic to discover a new trade route to Asia. Instead of arriving at China or Japan, he reached the Bahamas in 1492. (page 20)

Question 5

Amerigo Vespucci

Answer 5

Italian explorer who reached the New World in 1499 and was the first to suggest that South America was a new continent. Afterward, European mapmakers used a variant of his first name, America, to label the New World. (page 22)

Question 6

Hernan Cortes

Answer 6

The Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire and set the precedent for other plundering conquistadores. (page 28)

Question 7

Conquistadores

Answer 7

Spanish term for ‘conqueror; applied to European leaders of campaigns against indigenous peoples in central and southern America. (page 28)

Question 8

Tenochtitlan

Answer 8

The capital city of the Aztec Empire. The city was built on marshy islands on the western side of Lake Tetzcoco, which is the site of present-day Mexico City. (page 29)

Question 9

Francisco Pizarro

Answer 9

In 1531, he lead his Spanish soldiers to Peru and conquered the Inca Empire. (page 31)

Question 10

Encomienda

Answer 10

System under which officers of the Spanish conquistadores gained ownership of Indian land. (page 31)

Question 11

Bartoleme De Las Casas

Answer 11

A Catholic missionary who renounced the Spanish practice of coercively converting Indians and advocated the better treatment for them. In 1552, he wrote A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies, which described the Spanish’s cruel treatment of the Indians. (page 33)

Question 12

Hernando De Soto

Answer 12

A conquistador who explored the west coast of Florida, western North Carolina, and along the Arkansas river from 1539 till his death in 1542. (page 34)

Question 13

Reformation

Answer 13

European religious movement that challenged the Catholic Church and resulted in the beginnings of Protestant Christianity. During this period, Catholics and Protestants persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed each other in large numbers. (page 40)

Question 14

Queen Elizabeth I

Answer 14

The protestant daughter of Henry VIII, she was Queen of England from 1558 - 1603 and played a major role in the Protestant Reformation. During her long reign, the doctrines and services of the Church of England were defined and the Spanish Armada was defeated. (page 43)

Question 15

Jacques Cartier

Answer 15

He led the first French effort to colonize North America and explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and reached as far as present day Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. (page 44)

Question 16

Raleigh’s Roanoke Island

Answer 16

English expedition of 117 settlers, including Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World; colony disappeared from Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks sometime between 1587 and 1590. (page 48)