Navigation & Technology
This Italian traveler inspired European merchants to seek Asian silks and spices after describing his visits to China
Who was Marco Polo?
According to a widely accepted theory, early ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Asia into North America by crossing this physical feature
What is the Bering Strait Land Bridge?
This global transfer of crops, animals, ideas, and diseases occurred between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492
What is the Columbian Exchange?
Under this economic system, colonies existed to supply raw materials and wealth to enrich their governing nation
What is Mercantilism?
Cold weather, rocky soil, dense forests, and natural harbors led this colonial region to rely on fishing, timber, and shipbuilding
What are the New England Colonies?
European explorers set sail across the oceans driven by these three major motives
What are God, Glory, and Gold?
This term refers to the shared way of life, traditions, and customs developed by a society or group
What is culture?
This three-legged transatlantic trade network connected Europe, West Africa, and the American colonies
What is the Triangular Trade?
In a mercantilist system, colonies shipped gold, foodstuffs, and raw materials home to serve this ruling nation
The Middle Colonies earned this agricultural nickname because they grew large quantities of grains like wheat, oats, and barley
What is the Breadbasket of America?
This magnetic handheld navigation tool allowed sailors to determine direction while out at sea
What is the compass?
Spain financed his 1492 ocean voyage in hopes of finding a new sea route to Asia
Who was Christopher Columbus?
In the Triangular Trade, American colonies exported this type of raw materials
Whale oil, lumber, rice, tobacco, indigo, cotton
This is the process of claiming land and establishing permanent settlements in a new territory.
What is colonization?
Hot weather, flat fertile soil, and long growing seasons led to the growth of this large-scale estate farming system in the South
What are plantations?
This fast, maneuverable ship featured triangular and square sails, making it easy to navigate in shallow coastal waters
What is a caravel?
Spanish conquerors like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro were known by this title after defeating the Aztec and Inca Empires
Who are Conquistadors?
Enslaved Africans endured brutal, cramped, and unbearable conditions during this forced ocean passage across the Atlantic
What is the Middle Passage?
During the 1600s, European interest in West Africa was primarily driven by the demand for this resource in the Americas
What are workers / enslaved labor?
Southern plantations relied on growing these high-value commercial crops, including tobacco, rice, and indigo
What are cash crops?
Finding a direct sea route to Asia allowed European nations to bypass these trade middlemen who controlled land routes
Who are merchants or the Ottomans?
Following European contact, this was the single leading cause of death among Native American populations
What is disease?
According to trade maps of the era, the largest proportion of enslaved people transported across the Atlantic were brought to this island region
What are the West Indies or Caribbean?
As a result of Spanish colonization, New Spain developed a rigid social hierarchy consisting of this many distinct social classe
What is five?
The Thirteen Colonies developed three distinctly different regional economies primarily due to variations in these factors
What are environmental / geographic factors (climate and soil)?