| A | B |
|---|
| indigo | plant used to make a blue dye |
| mestizos | people with both Native American and European ancestors |
| mulattos | descendants of European plantation colonists and Africans |
| cacao | small tree on which cocoa beans grow |
| hacienda | large family-owned estates |
| labor intensive | requires a large work force |
| shantytowns | poor settlement of small makeshift shelters |
| land reform | breaking up the large landholdings and allowing small farmers own their own land |
| isthmus | a strip of land that acts as a bridge between two larger bodies of water |
| indigenous | native to a certain area |
| pampas | large plains region in Argentina |
| llanos | large plains region in Colombia and Venezuela |
| plate tectonics | geological theory that explains how much of the middle of South America was formed |
| Greater Antilles | the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, & Puerto Rico |
| Lesser Antilles | chain of small volcanic islands at the eastern end of the Caribbean plate |
| Atacama Desert | large, dry region in Chile |
| Amazon | 4,000 mile long river in South America |
| Paraná | river system that empties into the Río de la Plata estuary |
| Christopher Columbus | used the term "Indians" for those of the Middle and South Americas |
| Tenochtitlán | Aztec city built in Middle America |
| diseases | killed many Native Americans; passed to them from the Europeans |
| Mayas | a very advanced Native American culture of A.D. 200-900 in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, & Belize |
| Monroe Doctrine | US offered diplomatic protection to Middle and South American countries |
