PRECOLUMBIAN AMERICA
This early Mesoamerican civilization is remembered for colossal stone heads and for influencing later cultures across the region.
Who were the Olmec?
This Spanish conquistador marched inland from Veracruz toward Tenochtitlan in 1519.
Who was Hernán Cortés?
This conquistador led the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire beginning in 1532.
Who was Francisco Pizarro?
This Portuguese fortress, built on the coast of present-day Ghana in 1482, became an important center of Atlantic trade.
What was Elmina Castle?
This German monk’s attack on indulgences in 1517 helped launch the Protestant Reformation.
Who was Martin Luther?
This civilization developed advanced writing, mathematics, astronomy, calendars, and powerful city-states across Mesoamerica.
Who were the Maya?
This Mexica ruler met Cortés when the Spanish entered Tenochtitlan in 1519.
Who was Moctezuma II?
Pizarro ambushed and captured Atahualpa at this Andean city in 1532
What was Cajamarca?
This Portuguese term referred to a Brazilian sugar mill or plantation complex.
What was an engenho?
This English king broke with Rome and established the Church of England.
Who was Henry VIII?
These artificial agricultural islands allowed farmers around Tenochtitlan to produce large amounts of food in the shallow waters of Lake Texcoco.
What were chinampas?
This Indigenous woman became Cortés’s crucial translator, diplomat, and political intermediary during the conquest.
Who was Malintzin, or Malinche?
This Inca ruler offered to fill a room with gold and silver as ransom after his capture by the Spanish.
Who was Atahualpa?
This forced voyage carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas under horrific conditions.
What was the Middle Passage?
This English queen strengthened Protestant rule and intensified England’s rivalry with Catholic Spain.
Who was Elizabeth I?
The Mexica Empire grew from this 1428 alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.
What was the Triple Alliance?
This Indigenous people became Cortés’s most important allies because of their hostility toward Mexica power and tribute demands.
Who were the Tlaxcalans?
This enormous silver-mining center in modern Bolivia became one of the richest mining sites in the world and relied on a brutal colonial adaptation of the Andean mita labor system.
What was Potosí?
This kingdom in west-central Africa developed diplomatic and Christian ties with Portugal, but its ruler Afonso I later protested the kidnapping and enslavement of his own people.
What was the Kingdom of Kongo?
In 1588, Philip II sent this massive fleet to invade England, but English attacks, weather, and logistical problems defeated the expedition.
What was the Spanish Armada?
Noble Mexica boys attended this elite school, where they studied religion, history, leadership, and priestly knowledge.
What was the calmecac?
The capture of this last Mexica emperor in August 1521 marked the collapse of organized resistance in Tenochtitlan.
Who was Cuauhtémoc?
After first cooperating with the Spanish, this Inca ruler rebelled in 1536 and nearly destroyed Spanish power during the siege of Cusco.
Who was Manco Inca?
Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé served as early testing grounds for this plantation crop whose production later transformed Brazil and drove enormous demand for enslaved labor.
What was sugar?
The disappearance of this English colony left behind one famous clue: the word “Croatoan” carved at the settlement.
What was Roanoke?