Chapter 1

Horticulture

A form of agriculture in which people work small plots of land with simple tools.

Aztecs

Spanish term for the Mexica, an indigenous people who built an empire through conquest in present-day Mexico in the centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.

In general, what enabled societies across the Americas to develop into settled and more complex civilizations?

An agricultural revolution As societies adopted methods to farm land and grow enough food to feed the population, Native Americans were able to settle down and build communities and, eventually, cities and empires with complex religious and political systems.

How did a drought around 800 C.E. affect the Mayan civilization?

An economic crisis began that contributed to the decline of the Maya. Combined with heavy taxation, a drought harmed the economy and reversed the growth of Mayan towns.

Incas

Andean people who built an empire in the centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards. At the height of their power in the fifteenth century, they controlled some sixteen million people.

Enterprise of the Indies

Christopher Columbus's proposal to sail west across the Atlantic to Japan and China. In 1492 Columbus gained support for the venture from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.

What enabled people living in the Americas thousands of years ago to forsake seasonal migrations in favor of stable settlements?

Development of horticulture The ability to grow food allowed early people to form stable settlements rather than having to wander to find or follow food.

Crusades

Eleventh and twelfth campaigns to reclaim the Holy Land for the Roman Catholic Church - a military failure, but they did stimulate trade and inspire Europeans to seek better connections with the larger world.

Why did Martin Waldseemüller and Mathias Ringmann depict India in greater detail than North America in their 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia?

Europeans had explored India more often than they had explored North America when the map was made. Europeans had known about India since antiquity. North America, however, was a recent discovery, and comparatively little was known about its geography

In the fifteenth century, why were Europeans more familiar with North Africa than with West Africa?

Europeans were involved in the extensive trading networks that reached through North Africa. In the fifteenth century North Africa featured large kingdoms, well-developed cities, and an extensive network of trading centers.

Maya

People who established large cities in the Yucatan peninsula. Civilization was strongest between 300 and 800 C.E.

After the bubonic plague subsided early in the fifteenth century, what combination of factors fueled a European resurgence of trade with other parts of the world?

Increased birthrates and an upsurge of productivity Following the subsidence of the bubonic plague, Europe experienced increased birthrates and a warmer climate led to increased productivity across the continent, which boosted trade.

Hopewell people

Indian people who established a thriving culture near the Mississippi River in the early centuries C.E.

What two phenomena significantly helped Cortés and Pizarro conquer the Aztecs and Incas, respectively?

Internal conflicts among Native Americans and disease In both cases, differences among native peoples enabled Spanish men to conquer civilizations greatly weakened by disease

Why was the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe in the mid-1300s important?

It killed about half the population. Between 1346 and 1350, about 36 million Europeans perished from the bubonic plague.

Beringia

Land bridge that linked Siberia and Alaska during the Wisconsin period. Migrants from northeast Asia used this bridge to travel to North America.

What was the main reason the Mississippian culture declined several hundred years ago?

Mississippian rulers proved too weak to maintain their control over numerous scattered towns.

Why did the image of Africa change in the European imagination over the course of the sixteenth century?

Negative images of captured African slaves circulated around Europe. As European traders returned to Europe with stories of naked and terrified Africans in captivity as well as the slaves themselves, Europeans began to think differently about Africans. Woodcut images and prints of Africans who looked more like apes than humans buttressed the emerging negative stereotyping of Africans

In addition to the creation of maps, how did innovations in printing impact Europeans in regards to exploration in the sixteenth century?

Printers publicized new knowledge gained by explorers. The printing press enabled the Europeans to learn about exploration in the Americas, spreading the knowledge gained by exploring these lands.

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers who were central to the conquest of the civilizations of the Americas. Once conquest was complete, they extracted wealth from the people and lands they now ruled.

What was the result in the late sixteenth century of the flow of riches from Spain to other parts of Europe?

Renewed interest in other parts of Europe in the goal of gaining territory in the Americas While some Europeans suffered under Spanish power, others benefited from the riches brought to the continent. By the late sixteenth century, the desire for a greater share of those riches revitalized imperial dreams among the French, English, and Dutch.

What was an effect of Spain's seizure of gold and silver from the Americas in the sixteenth century?

Spain became the dominant power in Europe. On account of the enormous wealth that returned with the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century, Spain became the superpower of Europe

Which of the following was an outcome of de Soto's expedition into North America in the early sixteenth century?

Spain claimed vast new territories in North America while local natives were devastated by diseases. Although de Soto died during the expedition, he asserted Spain's control over new lands while also spreading diseases to local natives, who had no immunity to European illnesses.

How did Columbus's encomienda system work?

Spanish men were given land and labor in the Americas. Through this system, Spaniards received land in the Americas as well as the labor of the Native Americans who lived on it.

Encomienda

System first established by Christopher Columbus by which Spanish leaders in the Americas received land and the labor of all Indians residing on it. From the Indian point of view, it was little more than enslavement.

Columbian exchange

The biological exchange between the Americas and the rest of the world. although the initial impact was the strongest in the Americas and Europe, it was soon felt all over the world.

Renaissance

The cultural and intellectual flowering that began in Italy in the fifteenth century and then spread north. It occurred at the same time that European rulers were pushing for greater political unification of their states.

Black Death

The epidemic of bubonic plague that swept through Europe beginning in the mid-fourteenth century and wiped out roughly half of Europe's population.

What allowed societies along the southern Mediterranean, in northern Africa, and in southwest Asia to excel in astronomy, mathematics, architecture, and the arts?

The productivity of agriculture Highly productive agriculture allowed the societies of the southern Mediterranean to grow and thrive.

What allowed Native American hunter and gathering societies along the Pacific Ocean to develop permanent societies several centuries ago?

The ready and abundant food sources The abundant food sources along the Pacific coast enabled hunter and gathering societies to settle into more permanent societies. This stability distinguished them from their counterparts on the plains who had to follow their food.

What happened to French and English efforts to establish colonies in North America in the sixteenth century?

They failed due to poor funding, inadequate supplies, or bad weather. The French attempt to settle Quebec failed due to harsh weather and disease causing high mortality; the English attempts to settle both Newfoundland and Maine failed because of lack of funding or supplies.

Why were the people of western Africa more vulnerable to becoming captured by Europeans as slaves in the sixteenth century than the people of North Africa?

They lived in less powerful, more rural societies, making them easier to seize. North Africa was a highly complex society with unified kingdoms, highly developed trade networks, cities, and Islam. Western Africa had communities that lived by hunting and subsistence agriculture.

Why did Plains societies generally remain small and widely scattered?

They needed a large expanse of territory to follow migrating animals. Plains societies depended on the bison as their major source of food and followed the animals' migration patterns.

How did the Crusades change European culture?

They stimulated a desire for adventure and exploration of new lands beyond Europe. Although the campaigns largely failed, the Crusades unintentionally created new interest in the world outside Europe. Crusaders came in contact with Muslims, who shared their knowledge of technologies far more advanced than those known in Europe.

Why did local Native American rulers align themselves with Hernán Cortés and his men against the Aztecs?

They wanted to avenge the brutality of the Aztec regime. Native American societies that had suffered under the Aztec regime were willing to aid Cortés in his conquest of the Aztecs.

Among the Aztecs, what did the priests demand in exchange for promising to bring fertility to the people and the land?

Thousands of men and women from captured tribes were sacrificed by priests to secure fertility for the land and its people.

Why did the English feel pressured to plant colonies in North America in the 1500s?

To support the land claims they had made earlier English interest in North America was ignited by Spanish and French challenges to claims Cabot had made along the North Atlantic coast in the 1490s. To secure these rights, the English needed to colonize the disputed lands.

Why did the conquistadors have great power in the New World in the early sixteenth century?

With the Americas far away from Spain, conquistadors were responsible for distributing lands as rewards for those who served under them. Because of the distance separating Spain from the Americas, the king gave responsibility for distributing lands to conquistadors, which made them more powerful to their underlings than the king.

What were the consequences in Europe of Spain's acquisition of an American empire?

the rapid infusion of gold and silver fueled inflation, making it harder for ordinary people to afford the necessities of life. Employment for the poor expanded rapidly through American gold/silver funded military campaigns Netherlands was a key beneficiary of this wealth, becoming a center for Spanish shipbuilding and trade the desire for a greater share of those riches revitalized imperial dreams among the French and English as well as the Dutch.

What motivated the Spanish to conquer and colonize the Americas?

wealth, gold, converting natives to Catholicism