Misc
This legal and labor system forced Indigenous peoples to work on Spanish estates and mines in exchange for promised protection and religious teaching.
What is the encomienda system?
This Spanish priest became famous for criticizing the harsh treatment of Indigenous peoples and campaigning against the encomienda system.
Who was Bartolomé de las Casas?
This term describes the massive exchange of plants, animals, culture, and diseases between the Eastern Hemisphere (Old World) and Western Hemisphere (New World).
What is the Columbian Exchange?
These catchy "3 Gs" represent the three main motivations for European monarchs and explorers during the Age of Exploration.
What are Gold, God, and Glory?
This theory explains how the earliest humans migrated from Asia into North America thousands of years ago across a temporary land bridge.
What is the Bering Land Bridge theory
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella funded Columbus's voyage primarily to build Spain's wealth and spread this state religion.
What is Catholicism (or Christianity)?
Official Spanish records show that Spanish colonial society was strictly organized based on these two personal factors.
What are racial background (ancestry) and birthplace?
This single factor caused the most devastating loss of life among Indigenous populations following European arrival.
What is the spread of European diseases (like smallpox)?
Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 with this primary economic destination in mind.
What is finding a faster sea route to the valuable spices and silk of Asia?
This powerful Mesoamerican empire was geographically centered in present-day Mexico and built its capital city, Tenochtitlan, in the Valley of Mexico
What is the Aztec Empire?
Maya mathematicians were among the first in the world to independently develop and use this fundamental mathematical concept in their positional system.
What is the concept of zero?
People of pure Spanish blood who were born in the Americas were called this term in the Casta system.
Who are Criollos?
Spanish soldiers and adventurers who traveled to the Americas seeking military conquest, land, and wealth were called this.
What are conquistadors?
Overland trade routes like the Silk Road were controlled by middlemen who added high taxes, driving up the cost of these luxury items.
What are Asian spices (and silks)?
This powerful Andean empire was geographically centered in present-day Peru and a huge road network.
What is the Incan Empire?
To replace the devastated Indigenous workforce, Spanish and European colonists turned to the forced labor of enslaved people brought from this continent.
What is Africa?
In the Spanish Casta system, a person born of mixed Spanish and Indigenous heritage was classified under this social label.
What is Mestizo?
European exposure to deadly pathogens like smallpox devastatingly wiped out millions of Indigenous people due to a lack of this biological defense.
What is immunity?
Finding new trade routes to _____ markets was a main goal of early European explorers.
What is Asia (or the East Indies)?
he Inca built over 25,000 miles of mountain roads (Qhapaq Ñan) across the Andes primarily to achieve these two military and administrative goals.
What are moving imperial armies quickly and sending relay messengers (chasquis) to control a vast empire?
Contrary to popular belief, millions of Maya people did not vanish; their descendants still live today in this region of the world.
What is Central America (or Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)?
In the Spanish colonial hierarchy, this top group held the highest church and government positions because they were born directly in Spain.
Who are Peninsulares?
This native Caribbean population living on Hispaniola and surrounding islands suffered devastating population losses under Columbus's early governance.
Who are the Taíno?
Europeans wanted Asian spices like pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg for these two everyday practical uses.
What are preserving meats/food and masking the taste of spoiled or aging food (or showing off wealth/making medicine)?
Achievements such as the Mayan 365-day solar calendar, Aztec floating gardens (chinampas), and Incan mountain terrace farming serve as historical evidence for this claim.
What is evidence that Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations were highly advanced before European arrival?