Conquistadors
This Spanish expedition leader made landfall in the Bahamas in 1492 aboard the Santa María.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
Spanish explorers who conquered new lands.
Who were the conquistadors?
Name three major cities in the Americas today that were influenced or built by the Spanish.
Mexico City, Lima, Quito
This crop, developed by Indigenous Americans, is now the world's most widely grown grain, thanks to selective breeding over millennia.
What is Corn
When did Columbus make his first voyage to the Americas?
1492
He led the conquest that toppled the powerful Aztec empire in Mexico in 1521.
Who is Hernán Cortés?
Diseases like smallpox that wiped out many natives.
What are European diseases?
he Inca capital, located high in the Andes, which served as the political, military, and religious heart of the empire.
What is Cusco
The Maya developed this mathematical concept, crucial for their calendar and astronomical calculations, independently of the Old World.
What is Zero?
When did Hernán Cortés begin the conquest of the Aztec Empire?
1519
The Aztec capital city, built on an island in Lake Texcoco, which Cortés captured and destroyed.
What is Tenochtitlan?
Mesoamerican people known for pyramids and writing.
Who were the Mayans?
This famed Mayan city on the Yucatán Peninsula is home to the massive pyramid known as El Castillo.
What is Chichén Itzá?
language spoken by the Inca civilization?
Quecha
When did Francisco Pizarro begin the conquest of the Inca Empire?
1532
This phenomenon was the widespread exchange of plants, animals, disease, and culture between the Old World and the Americas after 1492.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
Empire with Tenochtitlán and human sacrifices.
Who were the Aztecs?
Known as the "Lost City of the Incas," this spectacular royal retreat was built high in the Andes and was never found by the Spanish.
What is Machu Picchu?
What farming technique did the Aztecs develop to grow crops on shallow lake beds?
What are chinampas
In what year did Spain officially start its conquest and colonization of Central and South America?
1519
While not Cortés, this other famed conquistador conquered the Inca Empire in Peru after capturing their ruler, Atahualpa.
Who is Francisco Pizarro?
Andean empire known for roads and Machu Picchu.
Who were the Incas?
Before the Spanish conquest, this city on Lake Texcoco was the magnificent capital of the Aztec Empire.
What is Tenochtitlan?
The Sapa Inca, the empire’s ruler, was believed to be a direct descendant of this primary Incan deity, the god of the sun.
Who is Inti
In what year did Pedro de Alvarado begin the conquest of Guatemala?
1523