Chapter 2
What was the northwest passage?
A sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific that passed through or around North America.
What does the word mercantilism mean?
A system that held that colonies existed to make the home country wealthy and powerful.
Name two Dutch settlements in the Americas.
Amsterdam and New York
What was the Colombian Exchange?
An interaction between regions where people moved from place to place to transfer people, products, and ideas between the hemispheres.
The few survivors of Magellan's crew were the first to _____ Earth.
Circumnavigate
What were land grants that included the right to demand labor or taxes from Native Americans?
Encomiendas
What was the lasting accomplishment of Bartelome de Las Casas?
He was a priest who led Spain to order reform of the encomienda system in the mid-1500s.
How did the Reformation lead to religious conflict in Europe?
King Henry VIII sought to divorce his wife and remarry when she did not produce a male heir to the English throne. Catholic Law does not permit to divorce, and Henry asked the pope to annul his marriage. The pope refused, so Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church and set up a Protestant Church called the Church of England.
What parts of the North American continent did Spanish conquistadors explore?
Mexico and Cuba
What were the four levels of the society in the Spanish Colonies?
Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, and Mulattos.
What impact did the Colombian Exchange have on Europe?
Plants, animals, and important crops were introduced to Europe.
Who were the vikings?
Seagoing people who originally lived in the part of northern Europe known as Scandinavia.
How did the defeat of the Spanish Armada change the political balance of power among European countries?
Spain was weakened, along with its control of the seas. This enabled European countries to found colonies in America.
What were the consequences of the Dutch alliance with the Iroquois for the Hurons?
The Hurons and the Iroquois were enemies. The Iroquois, using guns from the Dutch, began to attack the Hurons. This devastated the Hurons. Plus, diseases arose from the Europeans, over-trapping of animals weakened the food train, and fur-bearing animals disappeared, decreasing the Hurons' value to the colonists.
What regions in the present-day United States did Spaniards explore?
They explored the southwest: as far north as the Carolinas and as far west as Oklahoma.
Why were a few Spanish conquistadors able to defeat the larger armies of the Aztecs and Incas?
They had more technology, more advanced weaponry, horses, and the Native Americans were divided among themselves. Many Native Americans hated the Aztecs because of a war in Peru.
How did the coureurs de bois contribute to the economic success of New France?
They helped expands the population of New France by marrying Indian women and starting families.
How did the colonists in New France support themselves?
They profited from fish and furs.
Who were the coureurs de bois?
This is a French term for "runners of the woods". Coureurs de bois were independent traders who lived among the Indians.