The Unfinished Nation Chapter 1

Front 1

conquistadores

Back 1

Spanish for "conqueror." Conquistadores, such as Hernando Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, led military expeditions in the New World in order to claim lands and resources for Spain and to subjugate the Native American empires they encountered on their way.

Front 2

coureurs de bois

Back 2

Adventurous French trappers and fur traders who penetrated far into the North American wilderness and developed an extensive trade that became one of the underpinnings of the French colonial economy.

Front 3

demography

Back 3

The statistical study of human populations, especially with reference to size, density, distribution, and vital statistics such as sex or family size. Using computers to store, sort, and retrieve the considerable data available to them, historians have conducted complex demographic studies and shed new light on social life in early America.

Front 4

capitalism

Back 4

An economic system based on the investment of resources (money, capital) in various enterprises in the hope of making a profit.

Front 5

encomiendas

Back 5

The Spanish right to exact tribute and labor from Native Americans on large tracts of land, granted by Don Juan de Onate to favored Spaniards in what would become the American Southwest.

Front 6

feudalism

Back 6

A political, social, and economic system that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Based on the ownership of land and the obligations of tenant to lord, feudalism tended to fragment power and authority. By the end of the fifteenth century, it was being replaced by centralized governments in nation-states, but aspects of the feudal system remained in parts of Europe for centuries.

Front 7

high church

Back 7

The party within the Church of England that retained many of the Catholic ceremonies and practices that the Puritans opposed and wished to purge from the church.

Front 8

mercantilism

Back 8

Economic philosophy popular in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe which argued that one person or nation could grow rich only at the expense of another, and that a nation's economic health depended, therefore, on a "favorable balance of trade" (selling as much as possible to foreign lands while buying as little as possible from them.) Economic theory that emphasized a favorable balance of trade.

Front 9

mestizos

Back 9

People of mixed Spanish and Native-American blood, who came to numerically dominate the colonies of the Spanish Empire.

Front 10

Cahokia

Back 10

The largest and most influential native urban settlement in the Mississippian culture which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the central and southeastern United States, beginning more than 1000 years before European contact. A native American trading center in the Mississippi valley near St. Louis. It had a population of 40,000 at its peak in A.D. 1200.

Front 11

The Black Death

Back 11

One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53

Front 12

Marco Polo

Back 12

An Italian merchant traveller whose travels are recorded in "Livres des merveilles du monde" (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300), a book that introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. Explorer and trader who developed an overland route to the far east

Front 13

Prince Henry the Navigator

Back 13

Portuguese ruler who devoted his life to the promotion of exploration. Portuguese prince noted for his patronage of voyages of discovery among the Madeira Islands and along the western coast of Africa. Portuguese ruler who built a school devoted to exploration. Died in 1486.

Front 14

Christopher Columbus

Back 14

Genoan explorer who sailed in service of Ferdinand and Isabella. Master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492–93, 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas.

Front 15

Queen Isabella

Back 15

Spanish queen from Castille, married to King Ferdinand of Arago. She is known for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power who dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century.

Front 16

Vasco de Balboa

Back 16

First European to see the Pacific Ocean. A Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

Front 17

Ferdinand Magellan

Back 17

First European to circumnavigate the globe, although he died before his ships returned home. A Portuguese explorer who organized the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth.

Front 18

Hernando Cortés

Back 18

Conquistador who defeated the Aztec Empire in 1518 with smallpox and lies. A Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.

Front 19

Tenochtitlán

Back 19

Capital city of the Aztec Empire, on sight of present-day Mexico City, sacked in 1518.

Front 20

Francisco Pizarro

Back 20

Conquistador who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru (1538).

Front 21

St. Augustine

Back 21

Spanish fort in Florida, established in 1565. The oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States.

Front 22

Don Juan de Onate

Back 22

A Spanish Conquistador, explorer, and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Explorer who in 1598 claimed lands north of Mexico for Spain. The system of encomiendas grew under his rule as Viceroy.

Front 23

Santa Fe

Back 23

Spanish town in New Mexico, founded in 1609. The oldest state capital in the U.S.

Front 24

Maize

Back 24

Corn. Abundant new world crop, cultivated by the Indians.

Front 25

Mali

Back 25

African empire whose main trading city was the fabled education center Timbuktu.

Front 26

Guinea

Back 26

A country of western Africa, located on the Atlantic coast. The slave trade came to the coastal region of Guinea with European traders in the 16th century. Slavery had always been part of everyday life but the scale increased as slaves were exported to work elsewhere in the triangular trade. This large region below the Sahara Desert from which most African slaves originated.

Front 27

John Cabot

Back 27

Genoan who explored North America for Henry VII in 1497, looking for the northwest passage.

Front 28

The Protestant Reformation

Back 28

The 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era.

Front 29

Martin Luther

Back 29

German priest who challenged the Roman Catholic church practices in 1517. Protestantism began with him in Germany.

Front 30

John Calvin

Back 30

Swiss theologian and developer of the doctrine of predestination.

Front 31

Predestination

Back 31

The divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings John Calvin. God "elected" some people to be saved.

Front 32

The English Reformation

Back 32

A series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. It started with King Henry VIII anger with the Catholic Church.

Front 33

Puritan Separatists

Back 33

Protestants who wanted to split away from Britain. Determined to worship in their own independent congregations despite English law.

Front 34

Quebec

Back 34

French colony to the north of New England. First French permanent settlement in North America established in 1608.

Front 35

Henry Hudson

Back 35

English navigator who made four voyages looking for the northwest passage. The Hudson Bay and Hudson River are named after this intrepid English explorer.

Front 36

seigneuries

Back 36

French colonial agricultural estates along the St. Lawrence River

Front 37

New Amsterdam

Back 37

Old New York, founded in 1624 by the Dutch East India Company. A 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, which served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland territory. It was renamed New York on September 8, 1664, in honor of the then Duke of York (later James II of England) after it was traded to the English along with the rest of the Dutch colony in exchange for control of the Spice Islands.

Front 38

King Phillip II

Back 38

Spanish Monarch who sent an Armada to attack England in 1588 and failed.

Front 39

The Spanish Armada

Back 39

Massive Spanish fleet of King Philip II aimed at invading England in 1588. It was defeated by the English fleet and almost completely destroyed by storms off the Hebrides.

Front 40

Jamestown

Back 40

First successful English settlement in North America, founded in 1608. A part of the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London.

Front 41

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

Back 41

Half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. He sailed the Squirrel to colonize Newfoundland in 1583. Obtained a 6 year grant from Queen Elizabeth granting him exclusive right to colonize North America. Lost at sea.

Front 42

Sir Walter Raleigh

Back 42

An English adventurer and writer who became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Named the region he explored on the North American coast ... Virginia, in honor of the queen, who known as the "Virgin Queen." Englishman who explored Virginia and tried to found Roanke.

Front 43

Roanoke Colony

Back 43

Failed Virginia colony founded in 1585. "The Lost Colony". Lead by Sir Richard Grenville at first. Failed. Second attempt lead by John White in 1587 who returned to the colony 3 years later (1590) to find the island colony deserted. "Croatoan" craved in post ... the only clue.

Front 44

Bering Strait

Back 44

Most earliest migrants used to cross from Asia to North America (Alaska) approximately 11,000 yrs. ago

Front 45

Archaic Period

Back 45

The early history of humans in America starting in 8000 B.C.

Front 46

Mesoamerica

Back 46

People of Mexico and Central America

10,000 B.C.

Front 47

Olmec

Back 47

Created civilization that effected the Mayans and Aztecs- had sacrificial blood-letting- most of their gods had something to do with agriculture- had a written language

Front 48

Incas

Back 48

The largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was located in modern-day Peru.

Front 49

Maya

Back 49

Engage in human sacrifice- had a more advanced written language- more advanced calendar than Europeans- hang on longer than other ancient Mosoamerican civilizations - collapse in 8th and 9th century AD

Front 50

Mexica

Back 50

Aztecs (North of Maya) - culture looks a lot like Mayan and Olmec- want to always keep the Gods pleased

Front 51

Inuit

Back 51

A group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.

Front 52

Iroquois Confederacy

Back 52

A historically powerful and important northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the "Iroquois League" and later as the "Iroquois Confederacy", and to the English as the "Five Nations" then the"Six Nations", comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations.

Front 53

Algonquian tribes

Back 53

Most of these native Indians lived in Quebec. The nine bands in that province and one in Ontario have a combined population of about 11,000.

Front 54

Vasco da Gama

Back 54

A Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route.

Front 55

Hispaniola

Back 55

It is the site of the first European settlement in the Americas founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493

Front 56

Pueblos

Back 56

Native American tribe in the Southwestern United States. During the colonial period, Spanish missionaries converted many Pueblo people to Catholicism, and missions were established at each pueblo.

Front 57

smallpox

Back 57

European settlers brought this disease that devastated entire tribes to the modern day when Native Americans face serious struggles with particular diseases.

Front 58

"Three Sisters"

Back 58

New World crops - maize (corn), beans, and squash

Front 59

indentured servitude

Back 59

A labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America.

Front 60

Clovis People

Back 60

A prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture, named after distinct stone tools found at sites near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Front 61

Reconquista

Back 61

A period of approximately 781 years in the history of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain), after the Islamic conquest in 711 to the fall of Granada, the last Islamic state on the peninsula, in 1492. It ended right before the discovery of the New World, and the period of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires which followed.

Front 62

Colombian Exchange

Back 62

The widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade (including African/American slave trade) after Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage. Although unlikely to be intentional at the time, communicable diseases were a byproduct of the Exchange.

Front 63

Bartolome de Las Casas

Back 63

A 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies and focus particularly on the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.

Front 64

Virginia Company of London (London Company)

Back 64

An English joint stock company established in 1606 by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America ... Jamestown

Front 65

Captain Christopher Newport

Back 65

An English seaman and privateer. He is best known as the captain of the Susan Constant, the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to found the settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, which became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Front 66

Powhatan

Back 66

A Native American people in Virginia. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 natives in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607.