Colonial America: Contact and Exploration (1491-1607) Glossary

A Spanish Dominican friar who documented colonial abuse of indigenous peoples and advocated for their rights, producing influential critiques of the encomienda system.

The largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, built by the Mississippian culture near present-day St. Louis, with a peak population of 10,000-20,000.

The massive transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World following 1492.

A Spanish soldier-explorer who participated in the conquest of indigenous civilizations in the Americas during the 16th century.

A Spanish colonial labor system granting colonists control over indigenous workers in exchange for religious instruction, functioning in practice as forced labor exploitation.

Infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, and influenza that spread rapidly through indigenous populations who lacked immunity, causing catastrophic population decline.

A political alliance of five (later six) northeastern Native American nations united under the Great Law of Peace.

A person of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, a demographic category that emerged from the colonial encounter in the Americas.

A Spanish colonial institution in which Catholic missionaries established settlements to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity and incorporate them into the colonial economy.

Referring to the period in the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the subsequent European colonization.

Spanish for village; refers to the settled, agricultural Native American peoples of the American Southwest who built multi-story adobe and stone structures.

The first English attempt at permanent settlement in North America (1587), which mysteriously disappeared and became known as the Lost Colony.

Founded in 1565, the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the present-day United States, established by Spain in Florida.

A complementary Native American agricultural system of corn, beans, and squash grown together for mutual benefit.

A 1494 agreement dividing the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal along a meridian west of Cape Verde.