AP®︎ US History: Topic 1.4 Flashcards

Movement of plants, animals, diseases, people, commodities, and knowledge across the Atlantic after 1492; American crops and silver aided Old World growth and commerce, while diseases and introduced species transformed the Americas

Old World means Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World means the Americas, the two regions connected by the Columbian Exchange

Explorer sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella whose 1492 voyage initiated sustained contact between Europe and the Americas, although he misunderstood the lands he reached

Small, maneuverable oceangoing ship that helped Europeans conduct sustained Atlantic exploration

Triangular sail that improved a ship’s ability to travel across or partly against prevailing winds

Navigational instrument used by sailors to maintain direction during ocean voyages

Navigational instrument used to estimate latitude by observing celestial bodies

Business organization in which investors purchased shares, pooling capital for expensive overseas ventures while distributing the risk of loss

Silver extracted chiefly from Mexico and the Andes that enlarged Europe’s money supply, expanded global commerce, and accelerated capitalist development

Long period of European inflation to which the influx of American gold and especially silver contributed

Feudalism emphasized landholding and inherited obligations, while capitalism emphasized private investment, markets, profit, wage labor, and reinvested capital; American wealth accelerated the shift toward capitalism

Imported diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza spread among Native peoples with little prior exposure, causing catastrophic deaths and weakening resistance to conquest

Catastrophic Indigenous population decline after contact, caused by interacting epidemics, warfare, displacement, hunger, exploitation, and colonial labor demands

Caribbean people encountered by Columbus whose population collapsed under disease, violence, displacement, and Spanish exploitation

Spanish military adventurers who pursued wealth, territory, status, and conversion, generally with royal authorization but privately raised men and resources

Indigenous enemies of Aztec rule who supplied Cortés with thousands of soldiers, provisions, intelligence, and local knowledge

Interpreter and political intermediary who helped Cortés communicate and negotiate with Native peoples during the conquest of Mexico

Aztec emperor whom Cortés seized as a hostage in Tenochtitlan, disrupting Aztec political authority before the city’s fall

Inca ruler captured by Pizarro at Cajamarca and executed after providing the Spanish an enormous ransom of gold and silver

Spanish explorer who explored and claimed Florida for Spain in 1513

Spanish explorer who led a 1530s–1540s expedition through the Southeast that sought riches, spread disease and violence, and gathered geographic information

Spanish explorer who searched the Southwest and Great Plains for wealthy cities but found no expected mineral riches

Spanish settlement founded in Florida in 1565 to defend sea routes and territorial claims; the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the present-day United States

Spanish conquistador who led the campaign against the Aztec Empire beginning in 1519 and captured Tenochtitlan with extensive Native support

Spanish and Native allied campaign that brought down Tenochtitlan in 1521 through Native alliances, smallpox, siege warfare, and Spanish military methods

Spanish conquistador who captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and occupied Cuzco in 1533

Spanish campaign aided by epidemics, an Inca civil war, Native factions, and the capture of Atahualpa; resistance continued after Cuzco fell

Old World animals introduced to the Americas that transformed Native transportation, hunting, warfare, and mobility