North American and Mesoamerican Geography and Culture Review

Flashcards for vocabulary review based on lecture notes about the geography and culture of North America and Mesoamerica.

Bering Land Bridge

A land bridge that formed between Asia and North America during the Ice Age, allowing for the migration of humans.

Hunter-Gatherers

People who hunt animals and gather seeds, nuts, and plants for food.

Environment

The physical surroundings that influence living things.

Pueblos

Large complexes constructed by American Indian groups like the Anasazi, Hopi, and Zuni, made from adobe bricks.

Tepees

Cone-shaped shelters made from buffalo skins, used by American Indian groups on the Great Plains.

Longhouses and Wigwams

Structures built from timber by American Indian groups in the Eastern Woodlands.

Chickee Huts

Huts built by the Seminole people in the Florida swamplands, featuring raised platforms to avoid bugs and snakes.

Mesoamerica

A region in southern North America where ancient cultures like the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec thrived.

Olmec Civilization

Mesoamerica’s earliest known civilization, arising around 1200 BC in southeastern Mexico and Guatemala.

Maya Civilization

A Mesoamerican civilization that appeared around 1800 BC and rose to prominence around AD 200, known for their written language and city-states.

Aztec Civilization

A Mesoamerican civilization that rose around AD 1300, known for their capital Tenochtitlán and agricultural innovations like chinampas.

Chinampas

Long, narrow garden plots created by the Aztec farmers, surrounded by marsh water and fertilized with nutrient-rich mud.

Columbian Exchange

The ecological transfer of plants, animals, and humans between the Old and New Worlds.

Indentured Servants

Workers who agreed to work a certain number of years in exchange for food, shelter, and transportation to the New World.

Royal Colony

A colony directly governed by the English monarch.

Puritans

A strict Christian group who wanted to purify the Anglican Church.

Mayflower Compact

The first self-government document in the New World, establishing power by the consent of the citizens.

Patriarchal

A society where men hold the primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.

Bicameral

A legislative body with two houses.

Yeomen

People who managed small family farms.

Plantation

A large farm of 500 to 1,000 acres.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized reason and individualism.

Social Contract

An agreement where people give up some individual freedoms in exchange for government protection.

Great Awakening

A spiritual revival that spread throughout the colonies in the 1740s, marked by religious excitement and fiery sermons.

Nationalism

A feeling of pride in one’s own people or country.

Boycott

A protest in which people refuse to buy specific products or participate in specific events.

Minutemen

Colonial soldiers ready to fight in a minute's notice.

Patriots

Colonists who opposed British rule and sought independence.

Loyalists

Colonists who remained loyal to the British crown during the American Revolution.

The Olive Branch Petition

A document that declared loyalty to the Crown, redefined colonial rights and asked to peacefully resolve the dispute with Great Britain

Guerrilla Tactics

A hit-and-run technique used in fighting a war.

Propaganda

Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

Alliance

A bond or connection between families, states, parties, or individuals

Blocade

the isolation of a nation, area, city, or harbor by hostile ships or forces to prevent entrance and exit of traffic and commerce

Impressement

The act of forcing people into military service.

Electoral College

A body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.

Nullification

To deprive of value or effectiveness; make futile

Monopoly

Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.

Tariff

A tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports

Sedition

Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.

Suffrage

The right to vote in political elections.

Mudslinging

The use of insults and accusations, especially unjust ones, with the aim of damaging the reputation of an opponent.

Abolitionism

A movement to end slavery.

Civic Republicanism

A political philosophy that emphasizes the importance of citizen participation for social and political good.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives.

Secession

The action of withdrawing formally from membership of a federation or body, especially a political state.

The American System

A three-part plan to strengthen the national economy, national bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements.

Tenements

Five-story brick buildings set close together in urban areas and divided into multi-family.

Transcendentalism

An intellectual movement that emphasized spiritual discovery and insight rather than reason.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement in the early 1800s that promoted reform and social activism.