1. Marco Polo - Italian explorer who returned to Europe in 1295 after a 17 year sojourn in China 2.

Francisco Pizarro - A Spanish conquistador; In 1532, he destroyed Incan civilization 3. Juan Ponce de Leon - A Spanish conquistador; In 1513 and 1521, he explored Florida 4. Hernando de Soto - He accidentally discovered the Mississippi river while looking for gold. His soldiers disposed of his remains in the same river 5. Montezuma - Aztec Emperor; thought Hernan Cortes to be the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl 6. Christopher Columbus - Portuguese explorer employed by the Spanish to find new route to India; instead accidentally stumbles on America. 7. Hernan Cortes - Spanish conquistador who destroyed the Aztec civilization and conquered Mexico. 8. Francisco Coronado - Was trying to find fabled golden cities in Arizona and New Mexico but instead discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison 9. Robert de La Salle - French explorer sent down Mississippi River in the 1680's by France 10. Jacques Cartier - journeyed up the St. Laurence River in 1534 11. Giovanni da Verrazano - An Italian mariner sent by the French to explore the eastern seaboard in 1524 12. John Cabot - this Italian mariner was sent by the English to explore the northeastern coast of North America in 1497 & 1498 13. Vasco Nunez Balboa - Claimed to be the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, this Spanish explorer claimed that all land touched by the Pacific was under Spanish jurisdiction 14. Ferdinand of Aragon - The king of Spain and husband of Isabella of Castille, he was partially responsible for uniting Spain. 15. Isabella of Castille - The queen of Spain and wife of Ferdinand of Aragon, she was responsible for granting Columbus the means to try to find a new route to India and was partially responsible (along with Ferdinand) for uniting Spain as one country 16. Quetzalcoatl - The Aztec god that Montezuma believed Hernan Cortes to be. 17. Bartholomeu Dias - A Porteguese explorer, he rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488 18. Hiawatha - A legendary leader of the Iriquois that inspired them to create a nation-like state called the Iroquois Confederacy 19. Bartolome de Las Casas - A Spanish missionary that disagreed with the "encomienda" system; went so far as to call it, "a moral pestilence invented by Satan." 20. Ferdinand Magellan - A Spanish explorer that began his search for an alternate route to the Indies in Spain in 1519 with 5 tiny ships and ended with only one upon the fleet's return in 1522; he himself lost his life in an encounter with inhabitants of the Philippines. The lone ship's return marked the first

circumnavigation of the world. A strait on the southern tip of South America still bears his name 21. Vasco da Gama - A Portuguese explorer that reached India in 1498, 10 years after the attempt of Bartholomeu Dias. 22. Renaissance - Beginning in the 14th century, the Renaissance was a period of enlightenment that was ongoing in all of Europe. It nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure 23. Mestizos - People of mixed Indian and European heritage 24. Treaty of Tordesillas - A treaty in 1494 in which Spain and Portugal agreed to divide Central and South America up amongst themselves. Spain, however, got the lion's share of the territory; Portugal only got Brazil and a couple territories in Africa and Asia 25. "Three Sister" farming - A technique that allowed the Indians in North America to grow corn, beans and squash on the same field. This technique produced some of the highest population densities on the continent 26. Great Ice Age - Beginning about 2 million years ago and ending about 10,000 years ago, the Ice Age was not only responsible for reshaping the North American landscape into almost exactly what we know it to be today, but it was also responsible for North America's human history; when the sea-level dropped about 35,000 years ago due to the oceans congealing into ice glaciers, the Bering Strait a land bridge connecting Asia and North America - was uncovered. Asian nomads chased game across the bridge into the Americas until the sea rose above the land bridge again when the ice melted about 10,000 years ago 27. Canadian Shield - the first part of the North American landmass to emerge above sea level 28. Spanish Armada - Also known as the "Invinsible Armada, this fleet of 130 ships was commissioned by King Philip II of Spain in the 1580's to invade England because England had broken from the Roman Catholic Church to become Protestant. The fleet launched an attack on England in 1588 but ultimately met its demise at the hands of English sea dogs and the "Protestant Wind", a vicious storm that scattered the fleet. The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked the beginning of the end of the Spanish Empire 29. Mound Builders - A group of Indians based in the Ohio River valley 30. Black Legend - The Legend of the terrors the Spanish inflicted on the American Indians 31. Conquistadores - The Spanish explorers - namely Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro - who conquered Central and South America and the native civilizations that occupied them 32. Aztecs - Original occupiers of Mexico 33. Pope's Rebellion - Sparked by the Spanish Catholic missionaries' efforts to suppress native religious customs, in 1680, Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic Church in New Mexico and killed hundreds of priests and settlers. The Pueblo Indians built a Kiva (a ceremonial religious chamber) on top of the ruins of the Spanish Plaza in Santa Fe. It took the Spaniards almost half a century to reclaim New Mexico 34. Pueblo Indians - Original occupiers of New Mexico

35. Iriquois Confederacy - Started by Deganawidah and Hiawatha, this league of 6 Indian nations - The Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas began in the New York area in the late 1500's. The Iriquois Confederacy was the strongest Indian alliance in North America until it fell apart as a result of the British defeat in the American Revolution. What was left of the Confederacy either relocated to British Canada or the reservations in western New York 36. Cartography - The creation of maps based on the layout of an area's geography 37. Native Americans - The people who first occupied the Americas 38. Vinland - An area in Newfoundland that was said to abound in wild grapes when Scandinavian explorers - Norsemen - chanced upon it around 1000 AD 39. St. Augustine, Florida - Founded in 1565 by the Spanish, it was used as a fortress to block the French from setting up shop in North America 40. Kiva - A ceremonial religious chamber built by the Pueblo Indians on the ruins of the Spanish Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico 41. Spice Islands located in Indonesia 42. Moors - The North African Muslim population that occupied Granada in southern Spain until Isabelle and Ferdinand kicked them out to unite Spain as one country 43. Ecosystem - a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment 44. Encomienda - A Spanish system first implemented in the West Indies that gave the government the right to "give" Indians to Spanish colonists as long as the colonists promised to try to Christianize them 45. Malinchista - A traitor. The word is taken from the name of the Indian wife of one of Hernan Cortes's soldiers, Malinche; she was Cortes's translator and ultimately made it possible for Hernan to conquer the Aztecs 46. Dia de La Raza -Columbus Day (October 12th, 1492); the day which Mexicans celebrate as the day the mestizo race was created