Three Old Worlds Create A New: 1492-1600 (chpt 1)
• Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca: walked across North America with three other men; encountered four Christians on horseback, reached Mexico City 1536
• Paleo-Indians: first Americans, nomadic hunters and gatherers, spread throughout North and South America moving as bands, hunted animals, cultivated food crops new agricultural techniques; 12,000-10,000 BCE; migrated from Asia to North America across Beringia land bridge
• Mayas: settled on the Yucatan Peninsula, built urban centers with pyramids and temples, studied astronomy, created elaborate writing system, city-states engaged in constant warfare, collapse by 900 caused by warfare and food shortage; 600-900 CE
• City of the Sun (Cahokia): largest urban center of the Mississippians near modern St. Louis; in the midwestern and southeastern US are; relied on maize, squash, nuts, pumpkins, venison for food; rich farmland near rivers, focal point for religion and trade; at peak 5 square miles and 20 thousand population; sun, calendar, woodhenge; climate change, environment degradation, destruction of forests, and overpopulation led to collapse
• Aztecs: migration of people into the Valley of Mexico; ruins of Teotihuacan amazed the migrants; capitol city Tenochtitlan; strict society of warriors, merchants, priests, common folk, and slaves; sacrifice was common; 14th century rise to power
• Huitzilopochtli: primary Aztec deity who was a war god, represented by an eagle; many humans were sacrificed to this god
• Sexual Division of Labor: Americans who lived north of Mexico adapted to different groups; men hunted, women prepared food and produced clothing; sexual division of labor was universal among hunting people; in agricultural societies the labor was divided differently, Pueblo men did agricultural labor while in the east the women did most agricultural chores; women cared for the young
• Upper Guinea: northern region of West Africa; heavily influenced by Islamic culture of the Mediterranean, many Muslims by eleventh century; trade with use of camels between Upper Guinea and Muslim Mediterranean; Rice Coast and Grain Coast
• Dual-sex Principle: both genders shared agricultural duties; men hunted and fished; women raised children, prepared food, manufactured, and traded; each sex handled own affairs (men ruled men and women ruled women); complementary male and female roles were stressed by religious beliefs
• The Sande and Poro cults: young women in Guinea joined the Sande cult; young men joined the Poro cult; cults kept secrets from the other gender
• Hundred Years' War: 1337-1453 time of Black Plague; England and France, English monarchs claimed the French throne; new ocean trade routes created; after increased taxation in Europe; new pride in national identity
• Lateen Sail: triangular sail designed to improve maneuverability of ships so they could sail from the Mediterranean north around European coast
• Astrolabe and Quadrant: navigational instruments perfected during the Hundred Years' War that allowed sailors to estimate their latitudinal position by measuring relationship of sun, moon, or stars to horizon
• Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile: most successful European monarchs after the Hundred Years' War who married 1469 and founded a strongly Catholic Spain; 1492 defeated the Muslims and repelled all Muslims and Jews from their land
• Movable Type and Printing Press: invented in 1450s in Germany; made information accessible; stimulated curiosity about lands across seas; books now told about these fabled lands
• Travels: by Marco Polo 1477; an important work which recounted a Venetian merchant's adventures in China in the thirteenth century; described China as bordered on east by ocean; many Europeans now believed they could reach China by a transoceanic route
• Mediterranean Atlantic: area of Atlantic south and west of Spain and bounded by the island groups; explorers wanted to gain
