Early European Exploration
This Portuguese explorer was the first to round the southern tip of Africa and reach India by sea in 1498.
Vasco da Gama
Before European arrival, this Native American civilization, known for its large mounds, lived in the Mississippi River Valley.
Mississippians
This conquistador led the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the early 1500s.
Hernan Cortes
This 1517 event, led by Martin Luther, challenged Catholic practices and sparked the Protestant Reformation.
posting of the 95 Theses?
This English explorer, often credited with helping to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, founded the colony of Virginia.
John Smith
In 1513, this Spanish explorer claimed Florida for Spain, naming it after a Spanish holiday.
Juan Ponce de León?
This ancient Native American culture, centered in the Southwestern U.S., built cliff dwellings and developed irrigation systems.
Ancestral Puebloans
This Incan ruler was captured and executed by Francisco Pizarro, leading to the fall of the Incan Empire.
Atahualpa?
This English king, who broke from the Catholic Church in the 1530s, established the Church of England.
King Henry VIII?
This 1588 event marked the end of Spanish dominance on the seas and opened the way for English expansion in the Americas.
defeat of the Spanish Armada?
This Italian explorer, sailing for Spain, is credited with discovering the New World in 1492.
Christopher Columbus?
This confederation of tribes, including the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, was known for its sophisticated political system.
Iroquois Confederacy?
In 1535, Spain established this viceroyalty, which included much of modern-day Mexico and parts of Central America.
New Spain
This religious group, led by John Calvin, believed in predestination and had a significant influence on the development of Protestantism in the 1500s.
The first English colony in the Americas, established in 1585, failed within a few years and became known as the "Lost Colony."
Roanoke
This explorer's 1519-1522 circumnavigation of the globe proved that the Earth is round and helped expand European understanding of world geography.
Ferdinand Magellan
This group of Native American tribes, including the Navajo and Apache, inhabited the southwestern United States and had a nomadic lifestyle.
Southwestern Tribes?
This Spanish explorer founded St. Augustine in 1565, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental U.S.
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés?
This series of wars between Catholics and Protestants began in the Holy Roman Empire in 1618 but had roots in earlier conflicts from the 1500s.
Thirty Years War
This English sea captain's voyages to the New World helped pave the way for the establishment of English colonies in North America.
Sir Francis Drake?
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, divided the New World between these two European powers.
Spain and Portugal
This mound-building culture, known for its large earthen structures, flourished around 1000-1300 CE and was based around modern-day Ohio.
Adena and Hopewell cultures?
This Spanish missionary system, established in the late 1500s, aimed to convert and assimilate Native Americans into Spanish colonial life.
Spanish Mission System
This English queen's reign from 1558-1603 is noted for the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the establishment of Protestantism in England.
Queen Elizabeth 1
The first permanent English settlement in the Americas, established in 1607, was named after this English monarch.
Jamestown?