Pre-Contact
the estimated minimum number of people living in the Americas before European contact.
What is 75 million?
This historical era, meaning "rebirth," led Europeans to study classic writings and use Humanism to question traditional ideas.
What is the Renaissance?
This seafaring group from Scandinavia was actually the first European presence in North America, landing in Canada around 932 C.E.
Who were the Vikings?
This single devastating European factor wiped out over 90% of the native population, including an estimated 8 million smallpox deaths in Mexico by 1520.
What is disease?
This brutal leg of the Triangle Trade network specifically refers to the transatlantic voyage that brought captured Africans to the Americas.
What is the Middle Passage?
This pre-contact city near modern-day St. Louis was larger than London in 1100 CE and served as a major center for Mississippian culture.
What is Cahokia?
These two technological or innovative tools are explicitly named in the slides as fueling European sea exploration
What are the astrolabe and the magnetic compass?
This is the specific region in Canada where early Scandinavian warriors established a temporary foothold before quitting their voyages around 1010
What is Newfoundland?
These three common livestock animals were introduced from the Old World to the New World, creating new industries like ranching.
What are horses, cattle, sheep, or pigs?
This dominant economic theory states that a nation's power is built on gathering gold and silver by exporting more than it imports.
What is mercantilism?
These are the 3 primary agricultural crops cultivated by Indigenous regional farmers before Columbus arrived.
What are maize (corn), beans, squash
The Mongol threat was part of the reason why this country decided to close itself off to the west.
What is China?
Though Christopher Columbus was an Italian sailor heading for Asia, his four total Caribbean voyages were claimed for this nation.
What is Spain?
Under this highly exploitative Spanish colonial system, settlers were granted tracts of land and native inhabitants to use as forced labor.
What is the Encomienda system?
Under the mercantilist framework, this is the fundamental role of a colony relative to its "Mother Country".
What is supplying raw materials/foodstuffs and buying manufactured goods?
This major civilization ruled central Mexico from its highly developed capital city of Tenochtitlan.
Who were the Aztecs?
These are the specific luxury goods listed in the presentation that created strong European merchant and monarch demand.
What are spices, silk, and gems?
This Indigenous group is listed alongside the Powhatans, Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas as one of the populations encountered during the Age of Exploration, and primarily lived on what is now the Bahamas.
Who were the Taino (arawak)?
This specific epidemic disease caused an estimated 12 to 15 million deaths in Mexico during a major mid-16th-century population collapse.
What is Cocoliztli?
This European nation initially introduced the first enslaved Africans to the Americas in the year 1518.
Who is Spain?
Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argued that European colonists could not have survived in North America if the land had truly been this.
What is an empty/undeveloped wilderness?
These two specific Spanish monarchs are cited as the executive force that financed Christopher Columbus's risky 1492 expedition westward.
Who are Ferdinand and Isabella?
These three catchall words represent the "3 G's" used to summarize the social, religious, and economic reasons for early colonization.
What are God, Glory, and Gold?
These two agricultural staples traveled from the New World to the Old World, radically improving European nutrition and life expectancy
What are potatoes and corn (maize)?
This Spanish term refers to the widespread blend of European and Native American cultures and demographics resulting from colonial conquests.
What is Mestizaje?