Native People
Highly advanced South American civilization that occupied present day Peru until it was conquered by Spanish forces under Francisco Pizarro.
Incas
Christopher Columbus
Signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
The term commonly describes those societies in which political legitimacy and authority overlay a large degree of cultural commonality
Nation-states
Spanish government's policy to "command", or give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them
Encomienda
Native American empire that controlled present day Mexico until 1521, when they were conquered by Spanish Hernan Cortes.
Aztecs
A Spanish soldier and commander; in 1540, he led an expedition from Mexico into Arizona in search of the Seven Cities of Gold but instead found Adobe pueblos.
Franisco Coronado
"Sad night" When the Aztecs attacked Hernan Cortes and his forces in the Aztec capital
Noche Triste (June 30, 1520)
Agricultural system; maize, beans, and squash grown together
Three-sister farming
Sixteenth-century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan Empires
Conquistadors
People of mixed Indian and European heritage, notably in Mexico
mestizos
Italian explorer who led the English expedition in 1497 that discovered the mainland of North America
John Cabot
Fought between Spaniards under Don Juan de Onate and the Pueblo Indians in present day New Mexico
Battle of Acoma (1599)
A large scale agricultural enterprise growing commercial crops and usually employing coerced or slave labor
Plantation
During the late 15th century, they became King and Queen of a united Spain after centuries of Islamic domination
Ferdinand and Isabella
Indian slave woman who was an interpreter for Hernan Cortez on his conquest of the Aztecs
Dona Marina(Malinche)
Reform-minded Spanish missionary who worked to abolish the encomienda system and documented the mistreatment of Indians in the Spanish colonies
Bartolome de Las Casas
Pueblo Indian rebellion that drove Spanish settlers from New Mexico
Pueblo Revolt of 1680
The transfer of goods, crops, and diseases between the New and Old-World societies after 1492
Columbian Exchange
Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima
Francisco Pizarro
Aztec emperor defeated and killed by the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes.
Moctezuma
Frenchman who followed the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico
Robert La Salle
False notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Indians and steal their gold in the name of Christ
Black Legend
Economic system characterized by private property, generally free trade, and open and accessible markets
Capitalism
Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico
Hernan Cortes