| A | B |
|---|
| Ferdinand & Isabella | rulers in Spain who supported Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the East Indies |
| Encomiendas | grants of American Indian laborers |
| Caribbean Experience | used by Spain as a model for actions elsewhere in the Americas |
| Encomendero | holder of an encomienda |
| Bartolomé de Las Casas | a conquistador turned priest who helped initiate the struggle for justice |
| Hernán Cortéz | leader who lead an expedition of 600 into Mexico. Cortéz reached the Aztec capital and captured and killed the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, contributing to the fall of the Aztec Empire |
| Moctezuma II | Aztec emperor at the time of Coréz’s expedition into Mexico. Captured and killed by Cortéz. |
| Francisco Vázquez de Coronado | Led a Spanish expedition from 1540 to 1542 in search of mythical cities of gold, traveling as far north as modern day Kansas |
| Pedro de Valdina | conquered central Chile and established the city of Santiago in 1591 |
| Mita | forced labor in Peru that used Indians to work in mines and on other projects |
| Potosí | Great silver mining town in upper Peru; largest mine producing about 80% of Peruvian silver |
| Huancavelica | location of a mountain of mercury found by Spanish, greatly aiding silver production in South America |
| Haciendas | Family owned rural estates that were the basis of wealth and power for the local aristocracy in many Latin American regions; used a Native American and mixed labor force |
| Consulado | a merchant guild that usually controlled goods shipped and silver received in return |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | 1494, treaty between Castile and Portugal that clarified the spheres of influence and right of possession by drawing a hypothetical north-south line, giving Portugal new lands to the east of the line and Castile all lands to the west |
| Council of the Indies | Issued laws concerning the West Indies and advised the king on Latin American issues |
| Viceroyalties | two major divisions of Spanish colonies in the New World; one based in Lima; the other in Mexico City; direct representatives of the king |
| Audiencia | Royal court of appeals established in Spanish colonies in the New World; 10 in each viceroyalty; part of the colonial administration system and staffed by professional magistrates |
| Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz | a nun who was also a author, poet, musician, and social thinker. She later gave up secular concerns and focused solely on spiritual matters |
| Pedro Cabral | leader of a Portuguese expedition to India that stopped on the Brazilian shore in 1500 |
| Minas Gerais | meaning General Mines; region in the Brazilian mountains that was the site of several gold strikes in 1695. |
| Sociedad de castas | social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle |
| Peninsulares | whites who were born in Spain |
| Creoles | whites born in the New World |
