Chapter 1 Key Terms by Theme
1. Exchange and Interaction (Work Exchange
Technology and Environment)
 Corn
 Horses
 Disease
 Columbian Exchange
 Black Legend
2. Labor Systems (Work Exchange Technology)
 Encomienda system
 Slavery
3. Migration (Peopling )
 Land Bridge Theory
 Anasazi, Pueblo Indians
 Woodland mound builders
4. Identity and Politics (Identity and Politics and
Power)
 Mayas
 Incas
5.
6.
7.
8.
 Aztecs
 Conquistadores
 Hernan Cortes
 Francisco Pizarro
 New Laws of 1542
Atlantic Trade (World)
 Christopher Columbus
 Treaty of Tordesillas
 Slave trade
American Indians (People and Politics)
 Iroquois Confederation
Search for Resources (Environment)
 John Cabot
Values and Attitudes (Culture)
 Bartolome de Las Casas
 Valladolid Debate
 Juan Gines de Sepulveda
1. Christopher Columbus - An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish government to find a passage to the
Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to
India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other
journeys until the time of his death in 1503.
2. Treaty of Tordesillas - In 1494, Spain and Portugal were disputing the lands of the New World, so the Spanish went
to the Pope, and he divided the land of South America for them. Spain got the vast majority, the west, and Portugal
got the east.
3. Mound Builders - The mound builders of the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippian culture of the lower Midwest did
sustain some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting into their way of life during the first millennium
A.D. The Mississippian settlement at Cahokia, near present-day East St. Louis, Ill., was perhaps home to 40,000
people in about A.D 1100. But mysteriously, around the year 1,300, both the Mound Builder and the Mississippian
cultures had fallen to decline.
4. "black legend" - The idea developed during North American colonial times that the Spanish utterly destroyed the
Indians through slavery and disease and left nothing of value. In truth, there was good along with the bad
(architecture, religion, government, etc.)
5. Conquistadores - Spanish explorers that invaded Central and South America for its riches during the 1500s. In doing
so, they conquered the Incas, Aztecs, and other Native Americans of the area. Eventually, they intermarried with
these tribes.
6. Aztecs - The Aztecs were a powerful Native American empire that lived in Mexico. Their capital was Tenochtitlan.
They worshipped everything around them, especially the sun. Cortes conquered them in 1521.
7. Pueblo Indians - The Pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern United States. They built extensive irrigation systems
to water their primary crop, which was corn. Their houses were multi-storied buildings made of adobe (dried mud).
8. Vasco Nuñez Balboa – European discoverer of the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
9. Hernando de Soto - From 1539 to 1542, he explored Florida and crossed the Mississippi River. He brutally abused
Indians and died of fever and battle wounds.
10. Francisco Pizarro - In 1532, he crushed the Incas of Peru and obtained loads of bounty in gold and silver.
11. Encomienda system -- Plantation systems where Indians were essentially enslaved under the disguise of being
converted to Christianity.
12. Bartolomé de Las Casas - A Spanish missionary who was appalled by the method of encomienda systems, calling it
“a moral pestilence invented by Satan.”
13. Hernándo Cortés - Annihilator of the Aztecs in 1519.
14. John Cabot - AKA Giovanni Caboto, Italian who explored the northeastern coast of North America for England in
1497-98.