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    ›› Eras and Sub-Eras : The Americas to 1620

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Showing results 61 – 70 of 191

Glossary Term – Event

Little Ice Age

During the Little Ice Age (ca. 1400–1850), dramatic global climate change occurred, with temperatures declining precipitously. The date for the onset of this shift was once thought to be 1550, but new evidence shows that it had already begun as early as 1150 and became severe enough in northern latitudes to cause significant population shifts as early as the mid-fourteenth century. At its height, growing seasons in the northern regions of North America and Europe were shortened by as much as 20 percent, leading to frequent crop failures and...

Glossary Term – Event

Plant cultivation in North America

Plant cultivation began in North America, ca. 7000 BC.

Glossary Term – Event

Corn cultivated in Mexico

Indigenous peoples in central Mexico cultivate corn around ca. 3500 BC.

Glossary Term – Event

Frobisher sought Northwest Passage

Between 1576 and 1578, English explorer Sir Martin Frobisher led three unsuccessful expeditions in a search for the Northwest Passage.

Glossary Term – Event

Founding of St. Augustine

Spain’s Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine in present-day Florida.

Glossary Term – Event

Raleigh received charter

Sir Walter Raleigh received an English charter to establish colonies in eastern North America.

Glossary Term – Event

Brazil discovered

The Portuguese discovered Brazil.

Glossary Term – Event

Flourishing of Hopewell culture

Hopewell culture, a prehistoric American Indian culture of mound builders in east-central North America, prospered ca. 500–1000. Named for a farm in southern Ohio where related artifacts were discovered, Hopewell culture developed along waterways and relied upon agriculture as well as hunting and gathering.

Glossary Term – Event

Council of Valladolid ruling

In 1550–1551, Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda debated in a junta at the Council of Valladolid. At the center of the debate was the question of the American Indians’ place in Spanish America. The Council sided with Las Casas, who argued for the Indians’ humanity and rights as well as for their peaceful Christianization and ruled that they were human beings with souls, but the Council’s ruling had little impact on Spanish treatment of the Native Americans.

Glossary Term – Event

British colony established

The first British colony, granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, was established on Roanoke Island. Most settlers returned to England in 1586, however, under threat of a Spanish raid. A few settlers remained to defend the settlement, but none survived.