Vocab
Level 8 / 6A & 6B
Mesoamerica
A region extending south and east from central Mexico to include parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In pre-Columbian times it was inhabited by diverse civilizations, including the Mayan and the Olmec.
Elite
A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status.
Musket
A smooth bore shoulder gun used from the late 16th through the 18th century.
Decimate
To destroy or kill a large part of (a group).
Intermarriage
To marry a member of another group.
Encomienda System
A legal system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor.
Columbian Exchange
A widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Staples
A principal raw material or commodity grown or manufactured in a locality.
Dispersal
The spread of animals, plants, or seeds to new areas.
Diaspora
The scattering of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian
captivity.
Cash Crops
Any crop that is considered easily marketable, as wheat or cotton.