Christopher Columbus
An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journies until the time of his death in 1503.
John Cabot
Italian named Giovanni Caboto who explored the northeastern coast of North America for England in 1497.
Ponce de Leon
Spanish explorer who sailed to the American in 1513 and 1521, exploring Florida in search of gold and perhaps the fabled "fountain of youth" before being killed by a native american arrow
Hernando De Soto
Spanish conquistador who led expedition from Florida west to the Mississippi with 600 men in search of gold. He discovered the Mississippi river, before being killed by Indians and buried in the river
Francisco coronado
From 1540 to 1542, he explored the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico looking for the legendary city of gold El Dorado, penetrating as far east as Kansas. He also discovered the Grand Canyon and huge herds of bison.
Bartholome de Las Casas
a Spanish missionary who was appalled by the method of encomienda systems, calling it "a moral pestilence invented by Satan
Giovanni da Verranzo
Another Italian explorer, he was sent by the French king in 1524 to probe the eastern seaboard of what is today's U.S.
Robert de La Salle
French explorer who led an expedition through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi in the 1680s. He was the first European to float down the Mississippi River to the gulf and named the beautiful river valley, named Louisiana after his king, Louis XIV, in 1682
Don Juan de Onate
Leader of a Spanish group that traveled parts of Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in 1598. He brutally crushed the Pueblo Indians he met and proclaimed the province of New Mexico in 1609, founding Santa Fe.
Treaty of Tordesillas
An agreement in 1494, negotiated by the catholic Pope, between Spain and Portugal dividing the world's lands into two hemispheres. Spain got the vast majority, the west, and Portugal got the east.
Mound Builders
The mound builders of the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippian culture of the lower Midwest did sustain some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting into their way of life during the first milennium A.D.
Mestizos
The mestizos were the mixed race of people created when the Spanish intermarried with the surviving Indians in Mexico
Cahokia
A Mississippian settlement near present day East St. Louis III, was perhaps home to 40,000 people in about A.D. 1100. But mysteriously, around the year 1300, both the Mound Builder and the Mississippian cultures declined
Conquistador
Spanish explorers that invaded Central and South America for its riches during the 1500s. In doing so, They conquered the Incas, Aztecs, and other Native Americans of the area, Eventually, they intermarried with these tribes
Puebloans
The pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern United States. They built extensive irrigation systems to water their primary crop, which was corn. Their houses were multi-storied buildings made of adobe. (dried mud)
join-stock companies
These were developed to gather the savings from the middle class to support finance colonies. Examples were the London Company and Plymouth Company. They're the forerunner of modern day corporations.
Encomienda System
Plantation systems where Indians were essentially enslaved under the disguise of being converted to Christian