Vocabulary Menu

Exploration

• The action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it.

Columbian Exchange

• The wide transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Settlement

• A place, typically one that has hitherto been uninhabited, where people establish a community.

Expansion

• An extension of a state's territory by encroaching on that of other nations, pursued as a political strategy.

Route

• A way or course taken in getting from a starting point to a destination.

Colonies

• A country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.

Trade

• The action of buying and selling goods.

Culture

• Customs, arts, and achievements of a particular nation or social group.

Hemisphere

• One half of a sphere. Earth can be divided into eastern and western hemispheres or northern and southern hemispheres.

Henry Hudson

• An English Captain who was hired by the Dutch East India Company to search for a Northwest Passage to Asia.

Age of Discovery

• Period of European exploration that began towards the end of the Renaissance era. Countries in the Old World began exploring the New World.

Spanish Armada

• A fleet of ships that left from spain with hopes of overthrowing n 1588 the Spanish Armada(fleet of ships) left Spain hoping to overthrow protestant Queen Elizabeth I.

Amerigo Vespucci

• This continent was named America, after another early explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.

Juan Ponce de Leon

• A Spanish Conquistador.
• He was an early visitor to the Americas, traveling to the new world on Columbus' second voyage.

Ferdinand Magellan

• Made a voyage around the world to demonstrate the true circumference of the earth.
• Magellan died in the Philippines but his crew completed the voyage.

Christopher Columbus

• Was Castilian navigator and admiral, submitted his plans for sailing around the world to Asia.

Treaty of Tordesillas

• A treaty signed by Spain & Portugal in 1494. This treaty divided the world into two halves. Portugal was given the right to colonize the Eastern Hemisphere & Spain was given the right to colonize the Western Hemisphere.

Encomienda System

• The encomienda system gave settlers the right to tax local Native Americans or make them work.

Printing Press

• The printing press, a machine that produces printed copies, helped spread the ideas of the Reformation.

Hernan Cortes

• Hernan Cortes and 600 men landed on the Gulf Coast of Mexico and marched to Tenochtitlan, modern day Mexico City –the capital of the Aztec Empire. In 1521 the captured the city.

Fancisco Pizarro

• Francisco Pizarro benefited from internal fighting in the Incan Empire and took Peru with less than 200 men.

Hernando de Soto

• Hernando de Soto led a large force from western Florida to the Appalachian mountains, across the Mississippi River, claiming all he surveyed for Spain.

Giovanni de Verrazaro

• He sailed up coast of North Carolina to Nova Scotia lookingfor water route to Asia.

Jacques Cartier

• He explored present-day Canada and discovered the St. Lawrence River. French Huguenots began to establish small colonies in South Carolina and Florida.

Samuel de Champlain

• He led the exploration that in 1608 would establish the city of Quebec.

John Cabot

• He sailed for the British to new found land. In the 1500s, instead of spending money on risky business ventures, Queen Elizabeth I secretly financed English seamen who raided Spanish settlements and captured Spanish treasure.

John Hawkins

• An infamous english merchant , he developed the triangular trade.

Francis Drake

• He was the first explorer to sail all around the world. He claimed California for England, attacked the Spanish and stole their wealth, and traded with the natives.

Sir Walter Raleigh

• He sent the first of two expeditions to Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. The first group of settlers planted no crops and demanded food from Indians. When supply ships failed to arrive on schedule the colonist went back to England on the ships of Sir Francis Drake. In 1587, Raleigh attempted to create a more permanent settlement sending an expedition with men and some women. By 1590 however all the settlers had vanished.