LATIN AMERICA – HISTORY AND CULTURE
Vocabulary Terms
1.
Aztec – the most powerful native civilization in central and southern Mexico at the time of European exploration.
2. Tenochtitlan – Now Mexico City, was the capital city of the Aztec
3. Nahuatl – A modern version of the Aztec language that is still spoken by thousands of people in Mexico.
4. conquistador – name given to Spanish explorers that came to Latin America and conquered the native people.
5. Hernan Cortes – the Spanish conquistador that conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1519-1521.
6. colony – an area controlled by a foreign country in order to contribute to the wealth of the controlling country.
7. Montezuma II – Aztec ruler from about 1500-1520.
8. Inca – South American natives who, at the time of European exploration, lived along the western coast from present-day Colombia south to Chile.
9. Cusco – capital and center of the Inca Empire – in Peru
10. Quechua – language of the Inca that is still spoken today
11. Francisco Pizarro – Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire between 1531-1533.
12. viceroy – title given to a Spanish person by the King of Spain who acted as a governor in colonial areas.
13. Atahualpa – last ruler of the Inca Empire
14. indigenous population – people who are native to an area
15. Columbian Exchange – the moving of animals, plants, people, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds
16 . mulattoes – Latin Americans in Brazil, Panama and the West Indies whose ancestors were both African and European.
17. mestizos – people whose ancestors were both European and Native
American – most Venezuelans belong to this group
18. Santeria – a Cuban religion base on African traditional beliefs