Explorers
In 1492, this explorer sailed west across the Atlantic while searching for a route to Asia.
Christopher Columbus
Which French explorer traveled down the Mississippi River in 1673 with Louis Jolliet?
Jacques Marquette
What were the Spanish soldiers and conquerors who sought wealth and territory in the Americas called?
Conquistadors
What was a walled Spanish military fort built to protect territory called?
A presidio
What was England's first permanent colony in North America, founded in Virginia in 1607?
Jamestown
This explorer, sailing for England, reached Newfoundland in 1497.
John Cabot
Which French explorer claimed the Mississippi River basin for France in 1682 and named it Louisiana?
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
Which conquistador conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico?
Hernán Cortés
What was the forced transportation and trade of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic part of?
The Atlantic slave trade
Which English colony disappeared, leaving behind the carved word “CROATOAN”?
Roanoke
This French explorer founded Quebec in 1608.
Samuel de Champlain
Which Indigenous people traded Manhattan with the Dutch, although the two groups may not have understood land ownership in the same way?
The Lenape
Which conquistador conquered the Inca Empire in present-day Peru?
Francisco Pizarro
What profitable crop introduced to Jamestown by John Rolfe helped the colony's economy?
Tobacco
What was the winter of 1609–1610, when Jamestown colonists suffered severe food shortages and disease, called?
The Starving Time
This explorer searched for the Northwest Passage while working for Dutch merchants and explored the river later named after him.
Henry Hudson
What Dutch colony was taken over by the English in 1664?
New Netherland
What were the Spanish Catholic religious settlements established to convert Indigenous people called?
Missions
What economic activity involving animal pelts was especially important to French and Dutch colonizers?
The fur trade
What company funded the English settlement at Jamestown to gain land and profit from resources?
The London Company
This Spanish explorer searched for the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola and traveled into the Great Plains.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
What was the name of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II, after whom the English renamed New Netherland?
Name two factors that helped the Spanish conquer the Aztec or Inca empires.
Disease, internal divisions or civil war, and alliances with Indigenous groups opposed to the empires.
What is it called when Indigenous people were forced to adopt Christianity?
Conversion
Name two challenges that made Jamestown difficult to establish.
Disease, mosquitoes, swampy conditions, food shortages, drought, and conflict with Indigenous peoples.