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A
Agricultural Revolution
The process of domesticating (planting, cultivating, and harvesting) plant life for food which occurred worldwide from 7000 to 9000 years ago. It resulted in sedentary living, the division of labor, regional trading, and greater social and political complexity.
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B
Black Death The Black Death was a mid-fourteenth-century disease (primarily bubonic plague) epidemic that ravaged Europe and helped cause an economic decline.
Calvin, John
Calvin was a Swiss Protestant leader and reformer whose ideas informed the religious doctrines of the Pilgrims and Puritans who later migrated to America.
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C
Cabot, John
Cabot was the seafarer whose explorations of Newfoundland and northeast North America in 1497 and 1498 established England's claim to New World territory.
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Champlain, Samuel de
Champlain was the French explorer who in 1608 founded Quebec, the first permanent French settlement in the New World.
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Columbus, Christopher Columbus was an Italian seafarer commissioned by the Spanish monarchs to establish a western trade route to the Orient. He discovered the New World in 1492 and opened the Western Hemisphere to exploration and settlement from Europe.
Cortes, Hernan Cortes was the Spanish conquistador who subdued Mexico and the Aztec empire.
E
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was the queen of England from 1558 to 1603. She encouraged early efforts at English colonization in America, but was cautious with royal funds.
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encomienda
Under the encomienda system, Spanish monarchs rewarded New World conquistadores by giving them control of Indian lands, villages, and labor. Conquistadores were supposed to protect the Indians, but more often exploited them.
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F
Ferdinand and Isabella Ferdinand and Isabella were the Spanish monarchs who sponsored and financed Christopher Columbus's voyages to the New World. They hoped he would find a western, all-water route to the Orient that would give Spain access to Asian wealth and goods.
G
Gilbert, Humphrey
Gilbert was an English courtier whose interest in a Northwest Passage through North America to the Orient led him to an unsuccessful attempt to found an English colony in Newfoundland in the early 1580s. Gilbert was lost at sea on the return voyage.
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H
Hakluyt, Richard
Hakluyt was a proponent of English colonization in the New World. He tried to convince Queen Elizabeth I to aid the establishment of colonies, arguing that they would have important strategic and economic benefits for England.
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L
Luther, Martin
Luther was a German monk who challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and called for reform in the early sixteenth century, touching off the Protestant Reformation.
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P
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a sixteenth-century effort to reform and challenge the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It tended to promote nationalism and the fortunes of the business classes in Europe.
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R
Renaissance A cultural awakening which began in Italy and spread through Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its emphasis on human abilities helped promote a spirit of discovery, exploration, and expansion.
Roanoke
Roanoke Island was the site of the first English colony in North America. Sir Walter Raleigh founded it in 1587. When supply ships returned in 1590, the colony was abandoned, and Roanoke became known as the "lost colony."
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S
Spanish Armada
King Philip II dispatched the huge Spanish naval fleet in 1588 to destroy English sea power. Instead, the Spanish Armada was soundly defeated and a self-confident England began to challenge Spanish dominance in the New World.
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T
Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas was negotiated between Spain and Portugal in 1494. Portugal agreed to concentrate its activities in Africa and the East, leaving New World exploration and settlement (except for Brazil) to Spain.
V
Vespucci, Amerigo German mapmakers wrongly credited Amerigo Vespucci with having discovered the New World and thus named it "America" in his honor.
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