Unit 1 - Chapter 1

Unit 1, Chapter 1 Study Guide

The Exploration of North America

1. The driving forces for European exploration were the desire for cheaper spices, the desire for gold, and the desire to spread Catholicism.

2. One result of Spanish exploration and colonization in South America and the Caribbean was other European nations sought land and wealth in the Americas.

3. Spain was the first European country to send explorers to the Americas.

4. Present day Florida was the first permanent European settlement in North America.

5. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda was a European explorer that mapped the Gulf Coast region for the first time.

6. Hernando de Soto was the first European explorer to see the Mississippi.

7. Fur trade was developed by the French as a result of Jacques Cartier’s claims around the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

8. New Orleans and Quebec were founded by the French.

9. The land that Henry Hudson claimed for the Netherlands was northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.

10. Ways the Native Americans helped the Europeans: planting and growing on the land, trapping/hunting animals for furs

11. Give ways and evidence of how European settlement impacted Indigenous peoples in a mostly negative way. New settlers pushed Native Americans off their land, exploited and depleted the natural resources of a region, and brought new diseases from Europe, which led to the death of many Native people, and how the traditions of Native peoples were forever changed because of European settlement. Once Europeans arrived in North America, Native Americans had access to tools and weapons that they did not have earlier. Answers should include explanations of how the evidence supports the claim.

Vocabulary

agrarian, adj. relying chiefly on agriculture and farming (2)

Example: During the Age of Exploration, Europe began the process of changing from an agrarian society to a new kind of economy that relied on manufacturing.

monetary economy, n. a system of trade for goods and services that uses money rather than barter, or an exchange of goods (2)

Example: In the new monetary economy, people paid for goods and services using money instead of other goods.

currency, n. a system of money (2)

Example: U.S. currency includes dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.

Northwest Passage, n. an imagined river passage through North America that Europeans believed would make travel between Europe and Asia faster and more efficient (7)

Example: Without a Northwest Passage through North America, Europeans

could only sail to Asia by going east across the Indian Ocean or west through

the Strait of Magellan.

depletion, n. reduction in quantity (8)

Example: Exports of furs to Europe led to a depletion of Native Americans’

natural resources.

archipelago, n. a chain of islands (10)

Example: The United States has a number of archipelagos including the

Florida Keys, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, and the state of Hawaii.

mutiny, n. the rebellion of a ship’s crew against the captain (11)

Example: The mutiny by Henry Hudson’s crew resulted in Hudson and some supporters being cast adrift on a small boat.

elusive, adj. difficult to locate (11)

Example: Many European explorers searched for a Northwest Passage, but it remained elusive. Variations: elude (v.)