Native Americans & First Encounters
This Native American empire was conquered by Hernán Cortés between 1519 and 1521.
Aztec Empire
This explorer landed in the Caribbean in 1492 while seeking a route to Asia.
Christopher Columbus
This hemisphere sent horses, cattle, and pigs to the Americas.
Eastern Hemisphere (Old World)
This trade network connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Triangular Trade
This company established Jamestown in 1607.
Virginia Company
This Native American leader headed a powerful confederacy in Virginia and was the father of Pocahontas.
Chief Powhatan
North and South America were named after this explorer.
Amerigo Vespucci
This labor system allowed Spaniards to use Native American labor on European-owned land.
Encomienda System
This voyage transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
Middle Passage
This Jamestown leader famously said, "He that will not work, shall not eat."
John Smith
This tribe lived in earth lodges and became successful traders along the Missouri River.
Hidatsa
This explorer became the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean by crossing Central America.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
These diseases spread from the Old World to the Americas and killed millions of Native Americans.
Smallpox, Measles, and Influenza
This economic theory argued that nations gain power by accumulating wealth, especially gold and silver.
Mercantilism
This cash crop turned Jamestown into a profitable colony.
Tobacco
This tribe adapted to life in the Great Basin region using limited resources.
Paiute
This French explorer sailed the St. Lawrence River and claimed Canada for France.
Jacques Cartier
These changes resulted from the spread of new crops from the Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Population Growth and Improved Diets
Colonies existed largely to provide these two things to their mother country.
Raw Materials and Markets for Goods
This representative assembly established in 1619 became a model for self-government in the colonies.
House of Burgesses
This tribe lived in present-day Massachusetts and is best known for its interactions with the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
Wampanoag
This Spanish explorer searched for the Seven Cities of Gold and became the first European to see the Grand Canyon.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
This process was made easier by new resources, labor systems, and the devastating effects of disease on Native populations.
European Colonization
These three major motivations drove European exploration and colonization during the 1400s and 1500s.
Wealth, Power (Political/Military Competition), and Christianity
This event nearly destroyed Jamestown as colonists faced starvation, disease, and conflict during the winter of 1609-1610.
The Starving Time