Exploration
This Italian explorer, sailing under the Spanish flag, is credited with discovering the New World in 1492.
Christopher Columbus
This Native American tribe, known for their sophisticated agricultural practices and large earthen mounds, built a thriving civilization in the river valley named for them in what is now the southern United States.
This term refers to the exchange of goods, ideas, diseases and cultures between Europe, Africa and the Americas following Columbus' voyages in the 1490's.
The Columbian Exchange
This Spanish conquistador conquered the Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico in the early 16th century.
Hernán Cortés
This confederation of Native American tribes, located in present-day New York, formed a powerful alliance for mutual defense and diplomacy in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Iroquois Confederacy
This economic system, prevalent in the Spanish colonies of the Americas, relied on forced labor and tribute from indigenous peoples.
The Encomienda System
This English explorer, sailing for the Dutch, is credited with being the first European to navigate the major river in present-day New York in 1609. It was named for him.
Henry Hudson
These Native American tribes, located in the present-day central United States were nomadic and subsisted primarily on hunting and foraging.
The Plains Indians
This exchange between Europe, Africa and the Americas saw European goods trade for enslaved Africans who were transported to the Americas to work on plantations.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
This French explorer, credited with exploring the St. Lawrence River and claiming Canada for France, founded Quebec City in 1608.
Samuel de Champlain
This Native American tribe, located in present-day New Mexico and Arizona, built cliff dwellings and developed sophisticated culture based on agricultural trade.
The Pueblo (or Anasazi)
This term refers to the system of labor used in the Spanish colonies of the Americas following 1542. Indigenous people were required to work for Spanish landowners in exchange for protection and religious instruction - natives were no longer supposed to be slaves.
The Repartimiento System
This Spanish conquistador, known for his expeditions in the southeastern United States in the early 16th century, was the first European to explore present-day Florida.
Juan Ponce de León
This Native American tribe, known for their extensive trade networks and cultural achievements, built a large urban center in present-day Illinois.
The Cahokia
This term refers to the people of European and Indigenous descent in the Americas.
Mestizo