| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Prince Henry the Navigator | Portuguese king who encouraged exploration. Wanted to start sailing. |
| Christopher Columbus | Spanish explorer. Thought he landed in India, in reality landed in America. |
| Hernan Cortes | Spanish explorer who became famous for leading the military expedition that initiated the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. He was part of the generation of European colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas |
| Francisco Pizarro | Spanish explorer who conquered the Inca Empire and founded the city of Lima, the modern day capital of Peru. |
| Martin Luther | Nailed the 95 thesis on the church door. |
| John Calvin | A French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation who was a central developer of the Christian theology called Calvinism. |
| Samuel de Champlain | A French geographer, draftsman, explorer and founder of Quebec City, earning him the nickname "Father of New France". He was also integral in opening North America up to French trade, especially the fur trade. |
| Henry Hudson | An English sea explorer and navigator in the early seventeenth century. In 1607, he set sail from Europe on the Hopewell to find a Northwest passage to Asia through the Arctic Ocean (which was believed to be near, but just south of the North Pole). The voyage was paid for by the Muscovy Company, one of a small number of corporations given Royal Charters. |
| Elizabeth I | Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from November 17th 1558-until her death. She is sometimes referred to as "The Virgin Queen", as she never married. She was the fifth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty (Henry VII, Henry VIII, her half-brother Edward VI, and her half-sister Mary I. She reigned for 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide and great religious turmoil within England. |
| Sir Walter Raleigh | An English writer, poet, courtier and explorer |
| James I | King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. He was the first monarch of England from the House of Stuart, succeeding the last Tudor monarch. |
| John Smith | An English soldier, sailor and author. He is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America, and his brief association with the Native American girl, Pocahontas. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony, based in Jamestown, and thus one of the first heads of government in Anglo-America. |
| John Rolfe | One of the early English settlers of North america. He credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy. |
| John Winthrop | Led a group of Puritans to the New World and joined the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. He was elected governor of his colony on April 8, 1630. Between 1631 and 1648 he was voted out of governorship and re-elected a total of twelve times. Although he was a respected political figure, he was criticized for his obstinacy regarding the formation of a general assembly in 1634. |
| Anne Hutchinson | The unauthorized Puritan preacher of a dissident church discussion group and a pioneer in Rhode Island and the Bronx. |
| Roger Williams | An English theologian, a notable proponent of the separation of Church and State, an advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans, founder of the City of Providence and co-founder of the colony of Rhode Island. |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace