Human Existence Essay

1. The origins of the majority of human existence in North America began with migrations from Eurasia over the Bering Strait. 2. The first truly complex society in the Americas was that of the Olmec. 3. Cahokia was a large trading center located near what present-day city? St. Louis. 4. The agricultural practices of pre-Columbian tribes in the Northeast were characterized by a rapid exploitation of the land. 5. The preeminent European maritime power in the fifteenth century was Portugal. 6. Christopher Columbus  thought the world was much smaller than it was in reality. 7. Amerigo Vespucci  helped popularize the idea that the Americas were new continents. 8. What European explorer gave the Pacific Ocean its name? Ferdinand Magellan 9. Encomienda was  the right to exact tribute and labor from natives. 10. The first permanent Spanish settlement in what is now the United States was St. Augustine. 11. In what way did sixteenth-century Europeans benefit from trade between the Americas and Europe? A large number of new crops became available in Europe. 12. Which of the following was NOT introduced by Europeans to the New World?  Corn. 13. The portion of west Africa that provided the majority of slaves for the Spanish Empire of the sixteenth century had well-developed economies and political systems. 14. African and American Indian societies tended to be matrilineal, which means that people traced their heredity through their mothers. 15. In the fifteenth century, slavery in Africa  generally allowed certain legal protections to the enslaved. 16. The European countries that controlled the African slave trade did so in which chronological order, from earliest to latest? the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English 17. What condition in England in the sixteenth century provided an incentive for colonization? The availability of farmland was declining, while the population was growing. 18. In what way were Martin Luther and John Calvin important to English Puritans? Luther and Calvin advocated ideas of religious reform that influenced Puritan thought. 19. The teachings of John Calvin  produced a strong desire among his followers to lead lives that were virtuous. 20. The English Reformation resulted from  a political dispute between King Henry VIII and the Catholic Church. 21. The English concluded from their colonial experiences in Ireland that English colonists should maintain a rigid separation from the indigenous population.