AP US History Key Vocabulary (1491-1763)

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, terms, concepts, and conflicts from AP US History notes from 1491 through 1763.

Chattel slavery

A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and can be bought and sold like property.

Tribute colonies

Colonies located in Mexico and Peru that relied on manual labor provided by Native populations and existing political structures.

Neo-European colonies

French, Dutch, and English colonies that sought to replicate, or at least approximate, economies and social structures from their home countries.

Encomienda

A grant of Indian labor in Spanish America given in the 16th century to prominent men and leading conquistadors.

Casta system

A hierarchical system of racial classification developed by colonial elites in Latin America to categorize complex patterns of racial mixing.

Columbian Exchange

The massive global exchange of living things, including people, animals, plants, and diseases, between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres beginning after the voyages of Columbus.

Mercantilism

A system of political economy based on government regulation, with the goal of exporting more than importing to create a positive trade balance.

Joint-stock corporation

A financial organization where a number of investors pool their capital and receive shares of stock in the enterprise in proportion to their total investment.

House of Burgesses

A representative, legislative assembly created in colonial Virginia in 1619 to make laws for the colony.

Royal colony

A colony chartered by the English crown, governed by a royally appointed governor and a small advisory council.

Freehold

Land owned in its entirety, without feudal dues or landlord obligations, giving owners the legal right to improve, transfer, or sell the property.

Headright system

A system of land distribution that granted land—usually 50 acres—to anyone who paid the passage of a new arrival to the colony.

Indentured servitude

A system in which workers contracted for service for a specified period (typically 4-7 years) without wages in exchange for passage across the Atlantic, room, and board.

Pilgrims

One of the first Protestant groups to come to America seeking complete separation from the Church of England, founding Plymouth Colony in 1620.

Puritans

Dissenters from the Church of England who wanted a genuine Reformation of the church rather than the partial separation sought by Henry VIII.

Mayflower Compact

An agreement created by the Pilgrims in 1620 to set up a system of self-government in Plymouth Colony.

Toleration

The allowance of different religious practices, as exemplified by Maryland's Toleration Act of 1649.

Covenant of works

The Christian idea that God's elect must do good works in their earthly lives to earn or achieve salvation.

Covenant of grace

The Christian idea that God's elect are granted salvation purely as a gift of grace, independent of human actions.

Town meeting

A system of local government in New England where all male heads of households met regularly to elect selectmen, levy local taxes, and regulate local affairs.

Metacom's War

A 1675-1676 conflict (also known as King Philip's War) pitting a coalition of Native Americans led by Wampanoag leader Metacom against the New England colonies.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 uprising (also known as Popé's Rebellion) of 46 Native American pueblos that drove the Spanish out of Santa Fe and New Mexico.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1675-1676 Virginia uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley over Indian policy, land distribution, and political power.

Tenochtitlán

The capital city of the Aztec Empire, established in 1325, which grew to a population of around 250,000 by 1500.

Cuzco

The capital city of the Inca Empire, situated over 11,000 feet above sea level with a population of roughly 60,000.

Iroquois Confederacy

A political alliance formed by the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations.

Primogeniture

The legal practice in which fathers passed down all their land to their eldest son, leaving younger children without landed inheritances.

Reconquista

The centuries-long Spanish Catholic campaign completed in 1492 to drive Muslim Arabs from the European mainland.

Competency

The ability of an 18th-century New England household to keep its farm or business solvent and independent and pass that self-sufficiency to the next generation.

Coverture

A principle in English law that placed married women under the legal protection and authority of their husbands, denying them independent legal standing.

Household mode of production

A system of exchanging goods and labor among neighboring families that helped New England freeholders survive on shrinking farms.

Tenancy

The rental of property from wealthy landowning elites to farm and live on the land.

Squatter

An individual who settles on and improves land they do not legally own or rent, hoping to eventually acquire legal title.

Redemptioner system

A type of indentured servitude common among 18th-century German immigrants in the Middle colonies who negotiated employment terms after arriving in America.

Deism

An Enlightenment belief that God created the earth but left it to operate according to natural laws that could be understood through logic and observation.

Pietism

A Christian revivalist movement emphasizing pious behavior, personal rebirth, and deep emotional religious feeling over rational doctrine.

Old Lights

Conservative ministers who opposed the emotional enthusiasm of the Great Awakening, preferring traditional biblical scholarship and virtuous conduct.

New Lights

Evangelical preachers and followers who embraced the Great Awakening, emphasizing spiritual rebirth and emotional conversion.

Consumer revolution

An 18th-century increase in consumption of English manufactured goods in Britain and the colonies, propelled by the Industrial Revolution.

Regulators

Landowning vigilantes in North and South Carolina during the 1760s and 1770s who demanded more courts, fairer taxation, and better political representation for backcountry regions.

Proprietorship

A colony created through a royal land grant from the English monarch to an individual or group with independent authority to govern.

Quakers

Members of the Society of Friends who believed God spoke directly to each individual through an inner light without the need for ministers or formal scripture.

Navigation Acts

A series of English laws passed in the 1650s and 1660s requiring colonial export goods to be shipped through English ports on English-crewed vessels.

Dominion of New England

A centralized administrative union created by King James II in 1686 that combined New England, New York, and New Jersey under royal governor Sir Edmund Andros.

Glorious Revolution

A quick, bloodless coup in 1688 in which King James II was overthrown and replaced by William of Orange and Mary, establishing a constitutional monarchy in England.

Tribalization

The process by which fragmented, stateless Native American groups adapted to European colonization by merging diminished tribes into new political entities.

South Atlantic System

An international agricultural and commercial order that produced tropical cash crops like sugar, tobacco, and rice for global markets using enslaved African labor.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic sea voyage that forcibly carried enslaved Africans across the ocean to the Americas.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 slave uprising near the Stono River in South Carolina where approximately 75 enslaved individuals killed whites before being defeated by a local militia.

Gentility

A refined style of living and elaborate manners cultivated by wealthy English families and emulated by prosperous American colonial elites.

Salutary neglect

The British policy under George I and George II of relaxing supervision of internal colonial affairs, leading to increased colonial self-rule.