Mr. Boone’s Unit 6:The Americas and the Age of Exploration

Maya, Inca, Aztec

100

1. This Native American civilization built over 24,800 miles of roads, used quipu (knotted strings) for record keeping, and farmed in the Andes Mountains.

What is the Inca

200

1. This Mesoamerican civilization made important astronomical observations, developed calendars, and was one of the major civilizations of Central America.

What is the Maya?

300

1. This civilization believed in many gods, practiced human sacrifice to honor Huitzilopochtli, and built the city of Tenochtitlán.

What is the Aztec?

400

1. This Spanish conquistador arrived in Tenochtitlán, took Montezuma II hostage, and eventually conquered the Aztec Empire.

Who is Hernan Cortes?

500

1. This disease, brought by Europeans, killed thousands of Indigenous people and weakened resistance to Spanish conquest.

What is smallpox?

Motives for European Exploration

100

1. This land bridge, exposed during the last Ice Age, allowed early hunters following bison and caribou to migrate from Asia into North America.

What is the Bering Strait?

200

1. The desire to spread Catholicism, gain wealth through trade, and achieve fame are commonly summarized by this three-part phrase.

What is Gold, Glory, and God?

300

1. This innovative Portuguese ship was faster and more maneuverable than earlier vessels, helping make long-distance ocean exploration possible.

What is the Caravel?

400

1. This Venetian traveler inspired European interest in Asia through his book The Travels, which described his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.**

Who is Marco Polo?

500

1. This explorer persuaded Queen Isabella to fund a westward voyage to Asia, but instead reached the Americas in 1492 while believing he had arrived in Asia.

Who is Christopher Columbus?

A Race for Riches & European Conquest

100

1. Created to prevent conflict between two expanding maritime powers, this 1492 agreement divided all newly discovered lands by an imaginary line, granting Spain rights to most of the Americas while Portugal retained routes around Africa.

What is the Treaty of Tordesillas? 

200

1. Unlike Columbus, this Florentine explorer's voyages and writings helped convince Europeans that the lands across the Atlantic were an entirely new continent rather than part of Asia.

Who is Amerigo Vespucci?

300

1. Combined with steel swords, cannons, horses, and military organization, these weapons gave Spanish conquistadors a decisive advantage against Indigenous empires that had never encountered them before.

What are firearms?

400

1. This Aztec ruler welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlán, was later taken hostage by the Spaniards, and became a symbol of the empire's struggle against conquest.

Who is Montezuma II?

500

1. Arriving on the Pacific coast of South America with only about 180 men, this conquistador exploited an Inca civil war, captured Atahuallpa, and conquered the Inca Empire.

Who is Francisco Pizarro

The Commercial Revolution

100

1. This economic system argued that a nation's wealth depended on accumulating gold and silver, encouraging governments to impose tariffs and maintain a favorable balance of trade.

What is mercantilism?

200

1. Investors in this business model purchased shares of ownership, allowing trading ventures to raise large amounts of capital while spreading financial risk among many shareholders.

What is joint stock companies?

300

1. This worldwide economic transformation was fueled by overseas colonies, global trade networks, and the growing flow of wealth between continents.

What is the Commercial Revolution 

400

1. The Dutch East India Company built its wealth by dominating this lucrative market, eventually pushing the Portuguese out of Southeast Asia.

What is the spice trade?

500

1. This global transfer of crops, animals, and resources introduced horses and cattle to the Americas while bringing potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco to Europe.

What is the Columbian Exchange?

The transatlantic slave trade

100

European colonists established these large agricultural estates in Brazil, the Caribbean, and later North America to grow sugarcane, tobacco, and rice using enslaved labor.

What are plantations?

200

This transatlantic economic system connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas, exchanging manufactured goods, enslaved Africans, and raw materials such as sugar and cotton.

What is the triangular trade?

300

This term describes the horrific ocean voyage in which enslaved Africans were forcibly transported from Africa to the Americas, with many dying from disease and harsh conditions.

What is the middle passage?

400

This religious group began publicly condemning slavery in the 1770s and became one of the earliest organized opponents of the slave trade.

What is the society of friends (Quakers)

500

Despite the devastating impact of European diseases on many Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans in the Americas, over time some Africans and their descendants developed this limited biological protection against certain illnesses.

What is partial immunity?