Christopher Columbus
Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to China (1451-1506).
Los Indios
Indians
October 12, 1492
Date in which Columbus landed on the coast of America.
Colony/Colonies
A land that is controlled by another nation.
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
A Spaniard who, in 1513, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached an ocean, naming it the South Sea, and claimed in for Spain. He explored the New World.
Conquistadors
Explorer-conquerors who sought wealth and land in the Americas for Spain.
Tenochtitlán
Capital city of the Aztec empire, on which modern-day Mexico City was built.
Montezuma II
The last Aztec emperor in Mexico who was overthrown and killed by Hernando Cortes (1466-1520).
Malinche
Daughter of a Mayan leader that helped Cortes as his main translater and kept an eye on Aztec spies.
Hernando Cortés
Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztecs and took their capital in 1521.
Francisco Pizzaro
Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca's.
Atahualpa
Last ruling Inca emperor of Peru. He was executed by the Spanish.
Cuzco
The capital city of the Incan Empire, Located in present-day Peru.
Peninsulares
People living in the New World Spanish colonies but born in Spain.
Encomienda
System in which Native Americans labored for Spanish landlords in the Americas.
Juan Ponce de Leon
Spanish Explorer; in 1513 and in 1521, he explored Florida, thinking it was an island. Looking for gold and the "fountain of youth", he failed in his search for the fountain of youth but established Florida as territory for the Spanish, before being killed by a Native American arrow.
Popé
Pueblo prophet who led the Pueblo revolt and drove the Spanish out of the area for about 10 years
New France
The French colonial empire in north america, which began with Montreal and Quebec.
Marquette and Joliet
French Missionaries and fur traders, set out to reach Mississippi river and led by Indians.
Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in North America.
Pilgrims
The colonists who fled england to seek religious freedom and founded plymouth colony in 1620 in Massachusetts.
Puritans
The religious group that established the Massachusetts bay colony and hoped to form a model community.
Dutch West India Company
Trading company chartered by the Dutch government to conduct its merchants' trade in the Americas and Africa.
New Netherlands
The Dutch holdings in north america, which grew along the Hudson river, at Albany, and on Manhattan island.
French and Indian War
Part of the Seven Years' War in which France and Britain fought over territory in North America.
Metacom
The Native American ruler, also known as King Philip, who attacked colonial villages throughout Massachusetts.
Atlantic Slave Trade
Buying and selling of Africans to be sold in America.
Triangular Trade
Transatlantic trading network along which slaves and other goods were carried between Africa, England, Europe, the West Indies, and the colonies in the Americas.
Middle Passage
Route in between the western ports of Africa to the Caribbean and southern U.S. that carried the slave trade.
Columbian Exchange
Global transfer of foods, plants, animals, and diseases starting with the colonization of the Americas.
Capitalism
Economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
Joint-stock
A business venture in which investors pool their wealth in order to turn a profit.
Company
Turn a profit.
Merchantilism
Economic theory that motivated European countries to increase their wealth as a way to gain power.
Balance of Trade
The economic goal for many countries of exporting more than they imported.
Mestizo
A person of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage.