American History Chapter 1 Vocabulary

Front 1

nomadic

Back 1

having no fixed home, moving from place to place according to seasons and availability of food and water

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Olmec

Back 2

a native american people whose civilization flourished in what is now southern Mexico in the period 1200-400 bc

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Maya

Back 3

a native american people whose civilization flourished in Guatamala and the Yucatan Peninsula between about ad 250 and 900

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Aztec

Back 4

a native american people that settled in the Valley of Mexico in the 1200s ad and later developed a powerful empire

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Inca

Back 5

a native american people that around ad 1400 created an empire reaching nearly 2,500 miles along the west coast of South America

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Hohokam

Back 6

a Native American group that lived in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers (in what is now Arizona) from about 300 bc to ad 1400

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Anasazi

Back 7

a Native American group that lived of the mesa tops, cliff sides and canyon bottoms of the Four Corners region (where the present-day states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet) from about ad 100 to 1300

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Adena

Back 8

a Mound Builder society that was centered in the Ohio River valley and flourished from about 700 bc to ad 100

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Hopewell

Back 9

a Mound Builder society that was centered in the Ohio River valley and flourished from about 200 bc to ad 400

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Mississippian

Back 10

the last and most complex of the Mound Builder societies, inhabiting the Ohio and Mississippian valleys from about ad 700 into the 1500s

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Kashaya Pomo

Back 11

a Native American people the formerly inhabited the coastal marshlands of what is now California

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Kwakiuti

Back 12

a Native American people that formerly inhabited the northwestern coastal regions of North America

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Pueblo

Back 13

a group of Native American peoples - descendents of the Anasazi - inhabiting the deserts of the Southwest

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Iroquois

Back 14

a group of Native American peoples inhabiting the woodlands of the Northeast

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kinship

Back 15

the ties between members of a family

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division of labor

Back 16

the asignment of different tasks and responsibilities to different groups of individuals

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Islam

Back 17

a religion founded in Arabia in ad 622 by the prophet Muhammad; its believers are called Muslims

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plantation

Back 18

a large farm on which the labor of slaves or other workers is used to grow a single crop, such as sugar cane or cotton

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Songhai

Back 19

an empire that, at the height of its power in the 1500s, controlled much of West Africa

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savanna

Back 20

a dry grassland dotted with trees and bushes, found in sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical or subtropical regions

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Benin

Back 21

a West African kingdom that flourished in the Niger Delta region (in what is now Nigeria) from the 14th to the 17th century

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Kongo

Back 22

a group of small kingdoms along the Zaire River in West-Central Africa, united under a single leader in the late 1400s

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lineage

Back 23

a group of people descended from a common ancestor

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Renaissance

Back 24

a period of Europian history, lasting from about 1400 to 1600, during which renewed interest in classical culture led to far-reaching changes in art, learning and views of the world

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hierarchy

Back 25

a social ordering by rank or class

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nuclear family

Back 26

a household made up of a mother, a father and their children

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Crusades

Back 27

a series of Christian military expeditions to the Middle East between ad 1096 and 1270, intended to drive the Muslims from the holy land

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Reformation

Back 28

a religious movement in 16th-century Europe, growing out of a desire for reform in the Roman Catholic Church and leading to the establishment of various Protestant churches

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Taino

Back 29

a Native American people of the Caribbean islands-the first group encountered by Columbus and his men when they reached the Americas

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colonization

Back 30

the establishment of outlying settlement by a parent country

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Columbian Exchange

Back 31

the transfer - beginning with Columbus's first voyage - of plants, animals and diseases between the western hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere

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Treaty of Tordesillas

Back 32

the 1494 treaty in which Spain and Portugal agreed to divide the lands of the Western Hemisphere between them