Pre-European America
This was the "mother culture" of all Mesoamerican civilizations. Located in southwestern Mexico. They were known for leaving behind colossal statues of heads.
Who are the Olmec?
In 711 C.E., North African Muslims known as these crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and ruled over most of the Iberian Peninsula for approximately 800 years.
Who are the Moors?
These indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles were the first natives to encounter Columbus in October of 1492.
Who are the Taino?
The Spanish conquistador that brought down the mighty Aztec Empire?
Who was Hernan Cortes?
Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533.
Who is Francisco Pizarro?
Who are the Maya?
The Spanish name for the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Muslims that was completed in 1492 CE
What is the Reconquista?
Dominican friar who supported peaceful conversion of the Native American population; opposed forced labor & brutal treatment by the Spaniards and advocated for Indian rights.
Who is Bartolome de las Casas?
He ruled the Aztec Empire at its height and was responsible for allowing the Spanish into his capital city, which eventually led to its fall.
Who was Moctezuma?
He was the Inca emperor that was taken captive by the Spanish in 1532. He filled a vault with gold in exchange for his life, but the Spaniards had him killed anyway.
Who is Atahualpa?
An ancient Mesoamerican agricultural method that uses man-made, rectangular "floating gardens" built in shallow lake beds. They helped Tenochtitlan grow into a major metropolis with a population of up to 300,000.
What are Chinampas?
In pursuit of religious purity, the newly united kingdom of Spanish enacted what program of persecution against suspected Jews and Muslims.
What is the Inquisition?
The brutal labor system initially imposed on Natives in the Spanish colonies. It was a grant of land to a colonist conferring the right to demand tribute and forced labor from the Indian inhabitants.
What is the Encomienda System?
The Nahuatl woman who became an interpreter, advisor, and major player in the fall of the Aztec. She rose up from a slave girl to be one of the first noblewomen of Indigenous descent in the colony of New Spain.
Who was Malintzin?
(aka La Malinche)?
This precious metal became the entire focus of the Spanish empire in South America following the collapse of the Inca.
What is Silver?
The temporary labor system used the Inca Empire. It replaced the need to tax subjects and helped the empire expand roads and infrastructure from Colombia to Chile.
What is the Mita System?
She was Queen of Aragon and wife of Ferdinand of Castille. It was her that agreed to fund Columbus's voyage west across the Atlantic.
Who was Isabella I?
After 1492, this refers to the global transfer of plants, animals, human populations, cultures, and diseases between the Old World and the New.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The event of June 30th - July 1st, 1520 when Aztec forces under drove Cortes and his men from Tenochtitlan, leading to heavy Spanish casualties.
What is "La Noche Triste" (the Sad Night)?
These two things had already weakened the Inca empire in the years leading up to the Spanish conquest.
What are civil war and diseases like smallpox?
The Spanish name for the sacred twin-pyramid center of Tenochtitlan that served as the religious and political nucleus of the Aztec civilization. It is now the center of Mexico City.
What is the Templo Mayor (or Main Temple)?
The Catholic saint that became the patron saint of Spain and the Reconquest.
Who is Santiago (Saint James)?
It is believed that this group, NOT Columbus and the Spanish, were the first Europeans to step foot in the Americas and make first contact with Native peoples.
Who are the Norse Vikings, Led by Leif Erikson?
This was the rival city-state and confederation that aided the Spanish in toppling the Aztec Empire. Their symbol (glyph) was two hands holding a tortilla.
What is Tlaxcala or the Tlaxcala Confederation?
He was propped up by the Spanish as a puppet king in 1533, but later rebelled and ruled a rogue Inca state in Vilcabamba until his death in 1544.
Who is Manco?