| A | B |
|---|
| Reichstag | imperial diet; advisory assembly of the Empire's subjects |
| Prince Henry "the Navigator" | sponsored improvement in Portuguese navigation and overseas expeditions |
| caravel | new type of ocean going ship invented by the Portuguese |
| gold, spices and silk | motives for Spanish and Portuguese exploration |
| Bartholomew Dias | Portuguese navigator reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese navigator made the round trip to India |
| Goa, Calcutta, Guinea Coast, Angola, Mozambique | Portuguese bases in the 15th century |
| October 12, 1492 | Columbus lands in the Western Hemisphere (Watling Island) |
| Amerigo Vespucci | Italian explorer for whom America is named |
| Ferdinand Magellan | Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition to round the globe |
| Aztecs | powerful Empire in Central Mexico conquered by Cortes in 1519 |
| Tenochtitlan | capital of the Aztec Empire |
| Incas | Peruvian Empire conquered by Pizarro in 1532 |
| Atahualpa | The Great Inca defeated by Pizarro |
| conquistadors | Spanish adventurers who conquered the New World |
| Bartolome de Las Casas | Dominican critic of Spanish colonial policies in the New World |
| Black Legend | Spanish treatment of natives was all cruel and inhumane |
| Potosi | massive silver deposit in Peru |
| quinto | one fifth share of mining revenue that went to the Spanish crown |
| pieces of eight | "Spanish dollars" |
| hacienda | large landed estates in Spanish America |
| peninsulares | Spanish colonists originally born in Spain |
| creoles | persons of Spanish descent born in America |
| sugar | the major cash crop of early Spanish America |
| encomienda | labor system giving Spanish landlords the right to the labor of Indian workers |
| repartimiento | required adult male Indians to devote a certain number of days of labor on the hacienda |
| 25 million | estimated population of Mexico in 1519 |
| 2 million | estimated population of Mexico in 1600 |
| Fuggers | banking family that lent Charles V the money to buy his election as Emperor |
| price revolution | the rise in prices from 1550-1650 caused by the influx of New World wealth |
