Grade 5: European Exploration Unit Vocabulary

the period of time, beginning in the late 1400s, in which European explorers sought new routes to Asia and discovered the Americas

• Age of Exploration

• Golden Age

• Age of Sailing

a scientist who studies artifacts to learn about past cultures

• anthropologist

• geologist

• archaeologist

an early scientific tool used to observe and calculate the position of the sun and other stars

• astrolabe

• telescope

• looking glass

a crop that is grown in large quantities for sale

• corn crop

• cash crop

• garden crop

a person who travels in search of new geographical information

• explorer

• expedition

• geographer

the name that Europeans used to refer to the Americas

• Old World

• Mesoamerica

• New World

a community ruled by another country, not by its own people

• colony

• states

• kingdom

a Spanish explorer who came to the Americas in the 1500s and claimed large areas of land for Spain

• conquistador

• archaeologist

• explorer