Labor Sytems
Spain granted settlers the legal right to demand labor and tribute in exchange for “protection” and Christian instruction; although framed as reciprocal, it functionally forced Indigenous communities into harsh work
What is the encomienda system?
The Iroquois Confederacy developed a written constitution that emphasized consensus decision-making, clan authority (including powerful women elders), and conflict resolution. This political model was used to coordinate multiple nations.
What is the Great Law of Peace?
This Italian explorer’s 1492 voyage, funded by Spain, mistakenly landed in the Americas while seeking a westward route to Asia.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
This colony, established in 1607, was England’s first permanent settlement in North America in hopes of economic opportunity. It eventually became profitable due to tobacco cultivation.
What is Jamestown?
The transatlantic slave system transported roughly this many Africans to the Americas over centuries, creating a diasporic population and generating immense human suffering.
What is around 12 million?
Instituted as a supposedly less abusive alternative to encomienda, this system required Indigenous people to provide labor for set periods of time on public and private projects in exchange for Christian education, protection, all while keeping the colonial state officially in charge.
What is the repartimiento?
The Spanish conquest was made easier by the spread of this disease (sometimes intentionally), which devastated Indigenous communities that had no immunity, often killing them and weakening states before battles were even fought.
What is smallpox?
These are the motivations for European exploration and colonization
Gold, God, and Glory
Founded in 1620 in hopes of seeking religious freedom. Half of the settlers in this colony died during the first winter.
What is Plymouth?
Before landing in the New World, the Pilgrims signed this agreement to create a self-governing community, pledging to make decisions by majority rule for the good of the colony.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
Poor Europeans could contract to work a fixed number of years (commonly seven years) for passage across the Atlantic; they were promised “freedom dues” at the end of their service, such as money or land. Provided short-term labor contracts for plantation owners.
What is indentured servitude?
This term describes the companion planting of corn, beans, and squash, a system developed by Indigenous peoples that provided a balanced diet and maintained soil health.
What are the Three Sisters?
This massive biological and cultural exchange transferred crops, animals, people (both free and enslaved), and pathogens between the "old" world and the "new" world, reshaping diets, economies, and populations.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
A later English settlement attracted religious dissenters who aimed to build a community governed strictly by their interpretation of religious law and civic order. They aimed to build the "City on a Hill."
What is Massachusetts Bay?
Many Indigenous societies, including the Iroquois, traced family lineage and inheritance through women, giving them significant power in family and clan decisions; this type of social system is called a…
What is a matrilineal society?
Enslaved Africans were packed into ships under catastrophic conditions for the transatlantic voyage; this horrific middle leg of the trade created enormous suffering and high death rates before people even reached the Americas.
What is the Middle Passage?
After Spanish forces conquered much of the Inca Empire, some Incan communities retreated to this remote mountain city, which remained hidden from the conquistadors and served as a royal estate and religious center.
Machu Picchu
This system moved European manufactured goods to Africa, transported enslaved Africans to the Americas, and brought raw materials back to Europe.
Triangular Trade System or Transatlantic Slave Trade
After struggling to survive in New England, the Pilgrims of Plymouth were eventually absorbed into this larger Puritan settlement, which dominated the region politically and culturally.
What is the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
This Spanish priest and former encomendero became an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights, criticizing the abuse of Native peoples under the encomienda system.
Who is Bartolomé de las Casas?
Under this system, people were legally treated as property for life, their children inherited that status, and the institution became the backbone of many colonial plantation economies.
What is chattel slavery?
This Aztec capital, built on a series of islands in a lake, featured advanced urban planning, massive pyramids, and bustling markets, challenging the misconception that Indigenous cities were “primitive.”
Bonus points if you spell it right!
What is Tenochtitlán?
This economic theory, practiced by countries like France during the Age of Exploration, held that a nation should profit more from exports than it spent on imports and that colonies existed to enrich the mother country.
What is mercantilism?
The Pilgrims’ survival in their first brutal years depended on learning local crops, fishing methods, and seasonal rhythms from this neighboring Indigenous group.
Who are the Wampanoag?
Compare the British colonies in terms of religious tolerance and culture, as well as their economic activities. Describe how the North, Middle, and Southern colonies differed in these aspects.
North- Low-tolerance, Puritan culture. trade, shipbuilding, whaling, fishing, and limited farming
Middle- Religiously and culturally diverse, rise of Quakers in "new" world, education, farming (not plantations)
South-plantation economy, economically motivated (cash crops), hierarchical society