| A | B |
|---|
| astrolabe | A navigational instrument used by explorers to find hte altitude of the stars in order to determine the position of a ship at sea. |
| Aztec | A North/Central American tribe that developed a high level of civilization and ruled central Mexico. |
| Black Death | the bubonic plague; a disease carried by rat fleas which killed about a third of the population of Europe. |
| caravel | A small, fast, type of sailing ship that sat high in the water and was used by most Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. |
| circumnavigate | to sail around something. |
| civilization | Distinct group of people who have achieved a high level of social organization and are usually very advanced in both art and science. |
| conquistodors | Spanish conquerors. |
| Hernan Cortez | Spanish explorer who conquered the Aztecs. |
| culture | All the things that make up a civilization such as its art, institutions, habits, and special skills. |
| Bartholomeu Dias | Portuguese navigator and explorer who reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. |
| Francis Drake | The first English explorer and adventurer to circumnavigate the world. He looted Spanish new world settlements and was personally responsible for destroying much of the Spanish navy. |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese navigator who in 1498 discovered a sea route to India from Portugal by sailing around Africa. |
| Henry the Navigator | Portuguese prince whose school of navigation, foinded in 1416, helped start the Age of Exploration. He helped Portugal become a leader in colonial expansion and exploration. |
| Indians | What Columbus mistakenly called native Americans because he believed that the islands he discovered were near India. |
| Incas | A powerful South American civilization from the 13th-16th centuries located in Peru and Bolivia. |
| Ferdinand Magellan | Portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed for Spain. He led the first expedition that circumnavigated the world, but was killed in the Philippines. |
| mariner | seaman or sailor |
| Montezuma II | Aztec Emperor conquered by Cortez. |
| navigation | The science of locating and plotting the position of ships at sea. |
| Francisco Pizarro | Spanish conqustedor who conquered the Incas. |
| Ptolemy | An astronomer, mathmetician, and geographer of the 2nd Century who created the grid system for mapping the world.His map was the best that existed during the beginning of the Age of Exploration. |
| smallpox | A highly contagious, often deadly, viral disease that causes sores all over the body. Europeans carried it to the New World thereby killing large numbers of Native Americans who had no natural immunity to it. |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | Treaty of 1494 by which the the pope divided the undiscovered territories of the world between Spain and Portugal. |
