Land Bridge (Bering Strait)
Ocean levels dropped and a land bridge was formed. Connected Asia and North America. Is now believed to be submerged beneath the Bering Sea. Natives migrated from Asia between 33,000-10,500 BCE.
Encomeinda System
(Pyramid), Peninsulares, creoles, mestizo, natives, slaves
Asiento System
System that took slaves to the New World to work for the Spanish. Required that a tax be paid to the Spanish ruler for each slave brought over.
Caste System
a social structure in which classes are determined by heredity
Bartolome de Las Casas
Spaniard who fought for Native American rights.
Juan Gines de Sepulveda
In the Valladolid Debate, this Spaniard argued that the American Indians were less than human.
Valladolid Debate
The argument between Bartolome de Las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda over treatment of Indians by the Spanish.
Hernan Cortes
Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain.
Ferdinand and Isabella
The king and queen of Spain who gave Columbus the funds that he needed to find a route to Asia.
Francisco Pizarro
Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541).
Conquistador
A Spanish conqueror of the Americas
Treaty of Tordesillas
A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.
Christopher Columbus
He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.
Colombian Exchange
the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Americas and Europe, Asia, and Africa
Protestant Reformation
A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.