Early American Explorers, Native American Civilizations, and Colonial History
Explorers
Hernán Cortés – In 1519, Cortés landed on the coast of Central America and defeated the Aztecs, claiming Mexico for Spain.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle – In 1682, La Salle became the first European to travel the length of the Mississippi River, expanding fur trading along the Mississippi River for France.
Francisco Pizarro – In 1531, Pizarro led an expedition to Peru, giving Spain a vast land claim to the coast of South America (Peru).
Bartolomeu Dias – In 1487, Dias, a Portuguese explorer, sailed to the tip of Africa, known as the Cape of Good Hope. This voyage inspired further expeditions to search for a route to Asia.
Vasco da Gama – In 1497, da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India, establishing a water route to Asia for Portugal.
Pedro Álvares Cabral – Cabral, a Portuguese leader, was on an expedition to India when he was blown off course in 1500 and landed in Brazil, then unknown to Europeans.
Christopher Columbus – An Italian navigator, Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 while searching for a western route to China, sailing under the patronage of Spain.
Hernando de Soto – In 1539, de Soto traveled through Florida and the southeastern United States in search of cities of gold, claiming the Southeast for Spain.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado – In 1540, Coronado, also searching for cities of gold, traveled through present-day Arizona and New Mexico, claiming the Southwest for Spain.
Ferdinand Magellan – In 1519, Magellan sailed west around South America to reach Asia, becoming the first to circumnavigate the globe. His voyage, which took three years, proved that the world was round and much larger than previously thought.
Samuel de Champlain – In 1608, Champlain established a fur trading post in Quebec, earning the title of”Father of New France” He discovered the lake named after him, explored the St. Lawrence River, and established French colonies in the New World.
Jacques Cartier – In 1534, Cartier explored Canada in search of the Northwest Passage, traveling up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. He discovered the St. Lawrence River.
Henry Hudson – In 1609, Hudson, a Dutch explorer, and in 1610, an English explorer, searched for the Northwest Passage and discovered Hudson Bay.
Line of Demarcation – The Line of Demarcation was a line drawn by the Pope to divide the world in half, settling differences between Portugal and Spain.
Cahokia – A major trading center located in the St. Louis, Mississippi area, Cahokia was a prominent port city. It featured snake mounds and other large man-made land mounds. The city was known for its agriculture (corn, beans, squash), craftworks, merchants, and good hunting and foraging land.
Pueblo – As ancestors of the Anasazi and Hohokam, the Pueblo people settled near waterways such as the Rio Grande and its tributaries.
Aztec
Located in Mexico
An island city
They were a military society.
They believed in human sacrifices and thought it was necessary.
Created a writing system using hieroglyphics.
Religion was polytheistic: They believed in many gods.
Social Classes: Ruler, priests and nobles, warriors, merchants and artisans, farmers, and slaves.
They conquered and ruled many other tribes.
Iroquois
Their government was a representative government in which the sachems represented the people.
They lived in the present-day state of New York along the Mohawk River, Great Lakes, and Finger Lakes.
Women controlled the village and the farmland around the village.
They hunted woolly mammoth, bear, deer, bison, and anything they could catch and eat. Their diet included nuts, berries, roots (garlic and onions), fruits, and maple syrup. Their primary crops were corn, squash, and beans, known as the”Three Sisters” They also grew tobacco.
Inca
An intricate roadway system spanning at least 10,000 miles.
Located on the West Coast of South America, they lived in the mountains and cut terraces into the walls (located in Machu Picchu).
The first to have a written language – Quechua.
The Emperor descended from the sun god.
Llamas were sacred. This civilization existed from 1200 A.D. to 1535 A.D.
Maya
Located in Central America.
They believed that the gods controlled everything Mayan.
The Spanish invaded, but no one really knows what caused the decline of the Maya civilization.
Their civilization had a theocracy.
Vocabulary
Jamestown – The first main English outpost in North America, founded in 1607.
Lord Baltimore – Awarded estates in Maryland to Catholic relatives, he created the Act of Toleration.
James Oglethorpe – A soldier-statesman who helped found Georgia, Oglethorpe was interested in prison reform and saved the”Charity Colony”
William Penn – Founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, Penn promised better relations between whites and Indians. Savannah Indians tried to flee there from the Carolinas.
Lord De La Warr – The new governor of Jamestown, De La Warr declared war against the Indians in Jamestown.
Plymouth – A colony settled by the Pilgrims, Plymouth eventually merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. People traveled here for religious freedom.
Quakers – English dissenters who broke from the Church of England, Quakers preached a doctrine of pacifism, inner divinity, and social equity. Under William Penn, they founded Pennsylvania.
Puritans – The Puritans wanted to”purif” the Church of England.
John Winthrop – Leader of the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop was the Puritan governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and the speaker of the famous”City upon a hil” sermon.
Massachusetts Bay Colony – A group of wealthy Puritans who were granted a royal charter in 1629 to settle in Massachusetts Bay.
Jay Treaty – A treaty between the United States and Great Britain that resolved issues remaining from the American Revolutionary War.
Fort Duquesne – A French fort that was the site of the first major battle of the French and Indian War. It would continue to see more major battles throughout the war.
General Edward Braddock – A British commander during the French and Indian War, Braddock attempted to capture Fort Duquesne in 1755. He was defeated by the French and Indians, and he was mortally wounded in the battle.
Intolerable Acts – A series of laws that restricted colonists’ rights. The laws made restrictions on town meetings and stated that enforcing officials who killed colonists in the line of duty would be sent to Britain for trial.
Stamp Act – A law that required a stamp to be placed on legal documents.
Thomas Paine – A passionate and persuasive writer, Paine published the bestseller, *Common Sense* in 1776. Paine had the radical idea that the colonies should set up America as an independent, democratic republic away from England.
Sons of Liberty – A secret colonial resistance group that formed to protest various British acts and enforce ongoing boycotts.
Thomas Jefferson – A member of the House of Burgesses, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, was ambassador to France, and was the President of the United States of America.
Samuel Adams – A powerful and influential political activist, Adams founded the Sons of Liberty and organized the Committees of Correspondence.
George Washington – Leader of the American army during the Revolutionary War, Washington represented Virginia in the First and Second Continental Congress and was the 1st U.S. President.
Boston Tea Party – The Sons of Liberty, dressed in Indian disguises, boarded three British tea ships in the Boston Harbor and threw the tea cargo overboard.
Battle of Bunker Hill – The first major battle in the Revolutionary War, the British took over a hill outside of Boston. It was a moral victory for the Americans.
Yorktown – The last major battle of the Revolutionary War. Cornwallis and his troops were trapped in the Chesapeake Bay by the French fleet. He was sandwiched between the French navy and the American army. He surrendered on October 19, 1781.
First Continental Congress – All colonies but Georgia went to this Congress in Philadelphia in 1774 to determine how the colonies should react to what, from their viewpoint, seemed to pose an alarming threat to their rights and liberties.
Baron von Steuben – A stern, Prussian drill master, Steuben taught American soldiers during the Revolutionary War how to successfully fight the British.
Marquis de Lafayette – A French nobleman and soldier, Lafayette spent the winter at Valley Forge and was a trusted aide to Washington.
Quartering Act – An act enforced by the British on their North American colonies, it required colonists to provide adequate housing and basic necessities like food to the troops.
Articles of Confederation – Adopted by the Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States.
Daniel Shays – An American soldier, revolutionary, and farmer, Shays was one of the leaders of Shays’ Rebellion.
Bank of the United States – A national bank chartered for a term of twenty years by the United States Congress on February 25, 1791.
Funding and Assumption – A plan proposed by Alexander Hamilton to pay off the national debt and assume state debts.
Whiskey Rebellion – A tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 during the presidency of George Washington.
Federalists – An advocate or supporter of federalism.
Republicans – A person advocating or supporting republican government.
Encomienda – A grant by the Spanish Crown to a colonist in America conferring the right to demand tribute and forced labor from the Indian inhabitants of an area.
Conquistadors – A conqueror, especially one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century.
Triangular Trade – A system of trade involving shipping goods from Britain to West Africa to be exchanged for slaves, these slaves being shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were in turn shipped back to Britain.
Mercantilism – A system in which a country attempts to amass wealth through trade with other countries.
Declaratory Act – A declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain.
Great Compromise – An agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Pinckney’s Treaty – Established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain.
Columbian Exchange – Refers to a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases, and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life.
merican ways of life.