| A | B |
|---|
| The Crusades | a series of 'holy wars' during which Christians from W. Europe went to the Middle East to reclaim the 'holy land' |
| Monarchs | Kings and Queens |
| Prince Henry of Portugal | also known as "Henry the Navigator"; Portuguese prince who opened a school for sailors in order to train people to find an all-water route to Asia |
| Christopher Columbus | explorer hired by Queen Isabella of Spain who believed he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic; he unknowingly "discovered" the Americas |
| Queen Isabella | Spanish Queen who hired Columbus to find an all-water route to Asia |
| Taino people | the Native Americans who lived on Hispaniola, encountered by Columbus in 1492 |
| Hernando Cortes | Spanish explorer who conquered the Aztec people |
| Conquistador | "conqueror"; Spanish explorers who claimed land and conquered civilizations for Spain |
| Francisco Pizarro | conquistador who conquered the Incas of Peru |
| New Spain | the Spanish empire in the Americas |
| The "new world" | the Americas |
| The Indies | The European name for Asia during the Age of Exploration |
| King Ferdinand | Queen Isabella of Spain's husband |
| West Indies | the European name for the Caribbean Islands during the Age of Exploration |
| empire | vast territories under the control of one powerful nation |
| conquer | to take over by force |
| the Aztecs | powerful Native American civilization in Mexico - conquered by Cortes |
| the Incas | powerful Native American civilization in the Andes mountains of Peru - conquered by Pizarro |
| Tenochtitlan | the Aztec capital city |
| Montezuma | the Aztec leader |
| New France | the French empire in the New World |
| Northwest Passage | an all-water route through North America sought by the French, the Dutch, and the English (doesn't really exist) |
| mission | a settlement in New Spain where priests taught Native Americans christianity |
| colony | a settlement in a distant land controlled by a different country |
| Bartholomeu Dias | Portuguese explorer who reached the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) in 1487 |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese explorer who sailed around Africa to reach the Indies by sea in 1497 |
| small pox | an infectious disease which killed many Native Americans because they had no immunity to it |
| Henry Hudson | explorer hired by the Dutch to claim land in the New World |
| New Netherlands | Dutch colony in the New World |
| Verrazano | explorer hired by the French to find a NW Passage and claim land in New World |
| Sir Walter Raleigh | English noble who financed early English colonies in the New World |
| the Lost Colony | early English colony on Roanoke Island that mysteriously disappeared |
