Chapter 16: Americas in the Early Colonial Period

Question 1

Christopher Columbus

Answer 1

Fiscally supported by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand for his voyages across the Atlantic, Columbus was an explorer who was successful in reaching the Americas, despite his initial intent of getting to the East Indies/China.

Question 2

conquistadores

Answer 2

Spanish conquerors like Francisco Pizarro, Hernan Cortes, and Christopher Columbus. They brought smallpox with them to the Americas.

Question 3

colonies

Answer 3

Colonies were claimed lands settled by immigrants from the home country. For Spain, the main purpose of the colonies in the Americas was to supply as much gold/silver as possible.

Question 4

Explain the impacts that Hernan Cortes had.
Hernan Cortes
Aztec Empire
Tenochtitlan
New Spain
Mexico City

Answer 4

[1519] Hernan Cortes and his small band of conquistadors easily exploited the divisions among Mesoamerica’s indigenous groups and marched on the Aztec Empire’s capital of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs offered Cortes gold to go away, but this gold made him even more determined. [1521] Helped by peoples that the Aztec ruled and smallpox which killed thousands and weakened the Aztecs’ ability to defend their capital, Cortes’ forces conquered the Aztec. Cortes then founded the colony of New Spain. The Spaniards melted down the Aztecs’ treasures and sent the gold back home. They destroyed Tenochtitlan and built their own capital, Mexico City, on its ruins.

Question 5

Explain the impacts that Francisco Pizarro had.
Francisco Pizarro
Inca Empire
Atahualpa
Lima

Answer 5

[1532] Francisco Pizarro and his crew attacked the Inca Empire in Peru and captured their ruler, Atahualpa. Pizarro offered to release him if the Inca would fill a large room with gold; the Inca complied, but in [1533] the Spanish killed him anyway. [1572] The Spaniards finished conquering the Inca, which at its height had a population of 12 million. Some historians believe that European germs were more of a factor than guns/swords in drastically reducing the population of the Inca. The Spanish established a colonial capital in Lima, Peru, that administered lands from present-day Panama to Argentina.

Question 6

Atahualpa

Answer 6

He was the ruler of the Inca in Peru who was captured by Francisco Pizarro’s forces, who offered to release Atahualpa if the Inca would fill a large room with gold. Although the Inca complied, [1533] the Spanish killed Atahualpa anyway.

Question 7

Lima

Answer 7

Lima was the Spanish colonial capital of Peru which administered lands from present-day Panama to Argentina.

Question 8

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 8

[1494] Spain and Portugal divided the Americas between them, with Spain reserving all lands to the west of a meridian that went through eastern South America while Portugal reserved all lands east of this north-south line. This arrangement put Brazil under Portgual’s rule, while Spain claimed the rest of the Americas.

Question 9

viceroys
audiencias

Answer 9

Spanish royalty appointed viceroys to act as administrators/representatives of the Spanish crown. To keep viceroys from operating independently of the crown, Spain established audiencias, or royal courts, to which Spanish settlers could appeal viceroys’ decisions or policies.

Question 10

Jacques Cartier

Answer 10

[1535] This FR explorer sponsored expeditions to find a northwest passage, a route through or around North America that would lead to East Asia. He sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into the St. Lawrence River at today’s northern US border. He did not find a new route to Asia, but he did claim part of what is now Canada for FR. Eventually, explorers like Cartier and Champlain realized that there were valuable goods/resources available in the Americas, so there was no need to go beyond to Asia.

Question 11

Samuel de Champlain

Answer 11

[explored 1609-1616] Explorers like Cartier and Champlain realized that there were valuable goods/resources available in the Americas, so there was no need to go beyond to Asia.

Question 12

Quebec

Answer 12

Although the FR had hoped to find gold like the SP, they found a land rich in furs and other natural resources. [1608] They established a town and trading post they named Quebec. FR traders and priests spread across the continent, the traders searching for furs and the priests converting Native Americans to Christianity and setting up schools among the indigenous peoples.

Question 13

New France

Answer 13

The FR rarely settled permanently, nor quickly, and instead of demanding land, they traded for the furs trapped by Native Americans, which meant that the FR had better relations with natives than did the SP or EN. [1754] The European population of New France, the FR colony in North America, was only 70,000, whereas the English colonies included 1 million Europeans.

Question 14

John Cabot

Answer 14

[1497] The English king sent explorer Cabot to America to look for a northwest passage. He claimed lands from Newfoundland south to the Chesapeake Bay.

Question 15

Virginia

Answer 15

The land where Jamestown, the first successful colony in the Americas, was built.

Question 16

Jamestown

Answer 16

[1607] About 100 English colonists traveled approximately 60 miles inland from the coast of a land called Virginia to build a settlement, Jamestown, on the James River. Both the settlement and the river were named for the ruling English monarch, James I. Jamestown was England’s first successful colony in the Americas and it was funded by the joint-stock company the London Company. Jamestown was not profitable at first, because the colonists hoped to mine nonexistent gold, and its swampy location caused many of its settlers to fall sick and die. Only food taken from the local Powhatan Indians kept the colony alive. The London Company replaced the diseased colonists by offering new settlers a free voyage to America. They were fiscally saved by selling the native plant tobacco from several American Indian tribes’ plantations, which proved to be very in demand in Europe. As colonists took land for farming, however, local Native Americans attacked them.

Question 17

Henry Hudson

Answer 17

[1609] The Dutch sent Henry Hudson to explore the East Coast of North America. Among other feats, he sailed up what became known as the Hudson River to see if it led to Asia, and was disappointed in finding no northwest passage. But the Dutch used his voyage as the basis of claims to the Hudson River Valley and the island of Manhattan, where they set up a port town called New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam would become an important node in the Dutch transatlantic trade network.

Question 18

New Amsterdam

Answer 18

The Dutch used Henry Hudson’s voyage to claim the Hudson River Valley and the island of Manhattan, where they set up a port town called New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam would become an important node in the Dutch transatlantic trade network.

Question 19

caravel

Answer 19

[1400s] A Portuguese-developed, small, three-masted sailing ship which allowed sailors to survive sea storms better than earlier-designed ships.

Question 20

smallpox

Answer 20

Spanish conquerors like Francisco Pizarro, Hernan Cortes, and Christopher Columbus brought smallpox with them to the Americas. Smallpox pathogens are spread through the respiratory system. Europeans who were largely immune to smallpox eventually came into face-to-face contact with indigenous populations and infected them with the deadly disease, in addition to measles and influenza.

Question 21

Hispaniola

Answer 21

Columbus named the island now occupied by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Hispaniola, where he was convinced that gold was plentiful. However, gold was sparse in the Caribbean, so Columbus kidnapped Tainos and took them to Spain as slaves.

Question 22

Potosi

Answer 22

[late 1500s] A city in the Andes Mountains in modern-day Peru which became a thriving center of silver mining. The use of mercury to separate silver from its ore made silver mining more profitable.

Question 23

galleons

Answer 23

They were heavily-armed Spanish ships which carried Mexican silver across the Pacific Ocean to East Asia, making stops in the Philippines.

Question 24

sugarcane

Answer 24

Brazil, the center of the Portuguese-American empire, with its tropical climate and vast tracts of land, was perfect for sugarcane cultivation.

Question 25

northwest passage

Answer 25

FR, EN, and Dutch explorers all looked for a northwest passage, a route through or around North America that would lead to East Asia.

Question 26

Columbian Exchange

Answer 26

The widespread sharing of TIPCAD (animals, plants, cultures, ideas, technologies, and diseases) between Afro-Eurasian cultures and the native peoples of the Americas.

Question 27

Tainos

Answer 27

A group of Arawaks native to the Caribbean who were heavily hit by diseases which Europeans brought from overseas who Columbus kidnapped and forced into slavery after visiting Hispaniola.

Question 28

Nahuatl

Answer 28

The language of the Aztec, which has very few physical accounts now because conquistadors like Cortes in Mexico ordered the burning of “unholy” native books.

Question 29

Florentine Codex

Answer 29

[1545] A Spanish priest named Bernadino de Sahagun began compiling this codex (“type of book”), one of the most widely cited sources about Aztec life before and after conquest. This was important because very few original sources exist from the Aztecs themselves about what life was like at this time, due to the Spanish burning nearly all Aztec documents and the biases in Spanish accounts.

Question 30

Virgin of Guadalupe

Answer 30

She was an example of religious syncretism (“the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought”) in Spanish colonies. In Mexico, a cult developed around a dark-complexioned woman, who was revered for her ability to perform miracles.

Question 31

Vodun

Answer 31

Certain syncretic religions developed that combined indigenous and Christian practices, like Vodun, a descendant of West African animist (“the attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena”) tradition with some elements of Catholicism, which is practiced mainly in Haiti. The religion is at times, often condescendingly, referred to as “voodoo.”

Question 32

Santeria

Answer 32

Santeria in Cuba shares many similarities with Vodun, combining Christianity and the traditions of the Aja people in Africa. Vodun is a descendant of West African animist tradition with some elements of Catholicism, which is practiced mainly in Haiti.

Question 33

Candomble

Answer 33

CBCYN > Candomble in Brazil combines Christianity with the traditions of the Yoruba from present-day Nigeria.

Question 34

encomienda

Answer 34

[early 1500s] A Spanish labor system to gain access to gold and other resources of the Americas. Encomenderos, or landowners, compelled indigenous people to work for them in exchange for food and shelter. This coercive labor system was notorious for its brutality and harsh living conditions.

Question 35

encomenderos

Answer 35

[early 1500s] Encomenderos were the landowners who compelled indigenous people to work for them in exchange for food and shelter under the brutal Spanish encomienda system.

Question 36

mit’a system

Answer 36

In order for the silver industry to flourish, Spanish prospectors needed labor. The indigenous populations would do all but the most dangerous work in the mines, so the Spanish authorities in Peru transformed the traditional Incan mit’a system of labor obligation, in which young men were required to devote a certain amount of labor to public works projects, into a coerced labor system. Villages were compelled to send a percentage of their male population to do the dangerous work in the mines for a paltry wage.

Question 37

transatlantic slave trade

Answer 37

The transatlantic slave trade was a system which captured and sold Africans as slaves. These slaves typically worked in sugar plantations under backbreaking working conditions, poor nutrition, lack of adequate shelter, and tropical heat diseases.

Question 38

engenhos

Answer 38

Sugar plantations processed so much sugar that they were referred to as engenhos, which translates to “engines” in Spanish.

Question 39

cash crops

Answer 39

Crops grown for sale rather than subsistence, like sugar and tobacco.

Question 40

London Company

Answer 40

A joint-stock company headquartered in England that owned Jamestown. Jamestown was not profitable at first, because the colonists hoped to mine nonexistent gold, and its swampy location caused many of its settlers to fall sick and die. The London Company replaced the disease colonists by offering new settlers a free voyage to America. Jamestown’s stockholders were fiscally saved by selling the native plant tobacco from several American Indian tribes’ plantations, which proved to be very in demand in Europe.

Question 41

tobacco

Answer 41

Tobacco was a native plant grown by several tribes of American Indians which proved to be very profitable for Jamestown. [1620] The colonists were growing high-quality tobacco in great demand in Europe, spurring the establishment of more plantations in other parts of VA. As colonists took land for farming, however, local Native Americans attacked them.

Question 42

indentured servitude

Answer 42

An indentured servant was someone who was contracted to work for an employer without pay for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America.

Question 43

Explain the social structure after the arrival of Europeans.
peninsulares
creoles
castas
mestizos
mulattoes
zambos

Answer 43

Coupled with the arrival of Europeans was the importation of African slave labor. The combination of European settlers, imported Africans, and the conquered indigenous population led to the development of a new social hierarchy based on race and ancestry.

At the top of the social pyramid stood the peninsulares, those who were born on the Iberian Peninsula. Next were creoles, those of European ancestry who were born in the New World. Then were the castas, people of mixed-race ancestry. At the top of this group were mestizos, those of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, followed by mulattoes, those of mixed European and African ancestry, and zambos, those of mixed indigenous and African ancestry. Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans made up the bottom ranks of the hierarchy, with skin color becoming a signifier of power and status in many parts of the Americas. Racial and ethnic background defined social status in the Spanish and Portuguese empires in the Western Hemisphere for centuries following the Europeans’ arrival.

Question 44

peninsulares

Answer 44

Those born on the Iberian Peninsula, at the top of the social pyramid.

Question 45

creoles

Answer 45

Those born in America of Spanish origin, who enjoyed political dominance in New Spain and soon began clamoring for independence from the Spanish throne.

Question 46

castas

Answer 46

People of mixed-race ancestry.

Question 47

mestizos

Answer 47

Mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Question 48

mulattoes

Answer 48

Mixed European and African ancestry.

Question 49

zambos

Answer 49

Mixed indigenous and African ancestry.