Period 1 (1491-1607) Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is the big Picture?
Understanding the societal makeup of the Americas before Europeans colonized it and how it was changed by their arrival
Who are the Pueblos?
They lived in today’s Utah and Colorado. They were farmers of beans, squash, and corn. They used advanced irrigation systems and built small urban centers and cliff dwellings
Who are the Ute Peoples?
They were nomadic hunter gatherers in today’s Colorado, living in small, egalitarian kinship bands.
Who are the Chumash Peoples?
They lived in permanent settlements, building villages holding around 1000 people. They used regional trade markets
Who are the Chinook Peoples?
They lived in the Pacific Northwest in plank houses, living similarly to the Chumash Peoples
Who are the Iroquois Peoples?
They were farmers and lived communally in longhouses they built from the extensive amounts of timber in the area (the Northeast)
Who are the Cahokia Peoples?
They were probably the largest and most famous group in the Mississippi River Valley, made up of 10-30 thousand people. They had a centralized government led by powerful chieftains.
In what way were Euro. kingdoms changing through the 1300s-1400s?
They were enduring political unification and developing stronger, more centralized states governed by monarchs
What was the consequence of Europe’s political unification?
The wealthy upper class developed a taste for Asian goods
What led European countries to seek out sea-based trade routes?
Muslims controlled a lot of the land-based trading routes from Europe to Asia, so Europe couldn’t establish trade with the regions on its own terms.
Who was the first Euro country to seek out sea-based trade routes?
Portugal
How did Portugal gain a strong foothold in the Indian Ocean trade network?
Through new maritime technology and the adaptation of old technology
What does maritime mean?
related to the sea
What year did Columbus set out “across the ocean blue” (the Atlantic Ocean) ?
1492
What is the Columbian Exchange
The transfer of people, animals, plants, and disease between the east and west
What specific things did the Americas transfer to Europe?
Food: potatoes, tomatoes, maize, turkeys
Wealth: silver and gold
Disease: Europeans claimed they caught syphilis from the Natives, but it is very debatable
What specific things did Europe transfer to the Americas?
Food: wheat, rice, soy beans, cattle, pigs, horses
People: Europeans permanently settled in the Americas and forced enslaved Africans onto the continent
Disease: smallpox,
What is feudalism?
A system where peasants worked & lived on a noble’s land in trade for the noble’s protection
What is the Encomienda system?
A labor system where the Spanish enslaved Indigenous people to form and mine in the Americas
What is the Casta System?
A social class that categorized people in the Americas based on their racial ancestry - Spaniards born in Spain were at the top, Africans were at the second to last, and Indigenous Peoples were at the very bottom
Who was Juan Guinness de Sepelveda?
A priest who argued that Native Americans were less than human and benefited from harsh labor conditions
Who was Bartolome de Las Casas?
A priest who spent time among and saw the humanity in Indigenous Peoples, eventually convincing the king to sign laws that ended the slavery of Natives (laws were later repealed)
How did the French treat the Indigenous Peoples?
The French were more interested in trade than conquest, so they mostly just traded with the Indigenous Peoples. They also married some Indigenous women to maintain trading partners
