AP US History: Periods 1 and 2 Essential Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, economic systems, and cultural movements from AP US History Periods 1 and 2.

Native American Cultures (Southwest, Great Plains, Northeast)

Southwest (Pueblo) relied on irrigation to grow maize in arid land with cliff dwellings; Great Basin & Great Plains (Sioux) adopted a nomadic lifestyle hunting buffalo due to lack of natural resources; Northeast/Atlantic coast (Iroquois) formed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies with permanent villages.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, and germs across the Atlantic. Europeans gained new foods (beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco) and introduced sugar cane, pigs, horses, the wheel, iron, guns, and smallpox. Native Americans gave Europeans syphilis.

Spanish Colonization

Colonial expansion under the Crown of Castile initiated by conquistadores and developed by administrators and missionaries, driven by trade and spreading the Catholic faith ("God, Gold & Glory").

Encomienda System

A system where the Spanish king granted land and native labor to individual Spaniards, who exploited Indians for farming and mining in exchange for "care," severely reducing native populations through disease and brutality.

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

Defended the Spanish "right" to conquer Native Americans by arguing that they were barbaric and savage, justifying their harsh treatment.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

A Spanish missionary outraged by the poor treatment of Native Americans under the encomienda system who advocated for native rights to King Charles of Spain.

French Colonization

Established first at Quebec in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain; focused on the fur trade and Catholic converts while maintaining good relations and military alliances with Native Americans ("Frontier of Inclusion").

Dutch Colonization

Initiated by Henry Hudson, who established Dutch claims to New Amsterdam (later New York) primarily for economic gain.

English Colonization

Began with a failed settlement attempt at Roanoke Island in 1587 and permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607. English colonists arrived in families and practiced exclusion toward Native Americans, eventually expelling them from desired lands.

Feudalism

The dominant social system in medieval Europe where nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, vassals were tenants, and peasants were obliged to provide labor, produce, and homage to live on their lord's land.

Capitalism

An economic system in which trade, industry, and the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, rewarding risk taking with profits (e.g., Joint Stock Companies).

Junípero Serra

A Roman Catholic Spanish Franciscan friar who founded 9 of the 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco to convert native populations.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 uprising by Pueblo Indians against Spanish colonists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that temporarily ended Spanish rule in the region.

Jamestown

First permanent English colony in America founded in 1607 by the joint-stock Virginia Company; survived early starvation to become economically successful through tobacco cultivation.

John Rolfe

An English settler at Jamestown (who married Pocahontas) who discovered how to successfully grow and cure tobacco for export, establishing Virginia's economic foundation.

House of Burgesses

Established in Virginia in 1619 as the first legislative body in colonial America, setting an example for legislative government in other colonies.

Indentured Servants

Contracted laborers, primarily young unskilled males, who worked for a fixed term of 2–7 years in exchange for passage to the New World; encouraged by Headright Grants to land owners.

Pilgrims

Separatists who broke away from the Church of England, settled in Plymouth in 1620, and established self-government through the Mayflower Compact.

Puritans

Non-separatists who sought to purify the Church of England, founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, and were exhorted by Governor John Winthrop to be a "city upon a hill."

Roger Williams

Expelled from Massachusetts for advocating religious freedom and questioning the treatment of Native Americans; founded Rhode Island, which offered complete religious freedom.

Anne Hutchinson

Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging traditional gender roles and attacking the Puritan doctrine of predestination.

King Philip's War

A conflict where Native Americans in New England, led by Chief Metacom (King Philip), attempted to stop Puritan expansion but lost, ending any serious native threat to New England colonies.

Bacon's Rebellion

An uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon and former indentured servants against Virginia's colonial government for failing to protect them from Native Americans; led wealthy landowners to turn to African slavery for labor.

Slave Codes

A series of laws passed in southern colonies, modeled after West Indies practices, to restrict basic civil rights of enslaved people and codify their legal status.

Stono Revolt

A South Carolina slave uprising in which 20 recently arrived slaves seized weapons from an armory, killed about 30 colonists marching toward Florida, and caused colonial authorities to halt Charleston slave trade for 10 years.

Triangular Trade

The core Atlantic trade network of New England's economy, involving manufactured goods and rum traded for slaves in Africa, slaves traded for sugar/molasses in the Caribbean, and sugar brought back to make rum.

Middle Passage

The forced transatlantic voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas as part of the triangular trade, marked by brutal condition and high mortality.

African Slave Culture

A unique blend of music, dance, religion, and oral tradition created by enslaved Africans, including a mixed dialect language enabling communication between country-born and "saltwater" Africans.

New England Colonies

Northern colonial region centered on religious family life, small diverse farms, and port-based commerce, where plantation slavery was not profitable.

Southern Colonies

A rural colonial region with a strict social class structure and an economy centered on single-crop cash plantations reliant on indentured servants and enslaved Africans.

Middle Colonies

Known as the "Bread colonies" for producing wheat and grain; featured a diversified economy with rich soil, shipping ports, and the greatest religious and ethnic diversity in North America.

Quakers

The Society of Friends; early colonial opponents of slavery who settled in Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn in 1681 as a religious haven.

Enlightenment

A 17th-century European intellectual movement emphasizing reason over tradition, whose political theories significantly shaped the Declaration of Independence.

John Locke

An English political philosopher who posited that humans possess rights to life, liberty, and property, and that citizens have a right to rebel if government fails to protect these rights.

Half-Way Covenant

A policy in Puritan colonies allowing children of church members who had not yet experienced full conversion ("achieved grace") to participate in certain church affairs.

Great Awakening

A major outbreak of religious enthusiasm in the 1730s across the colonies that spurred higher education institutions (Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth) and bridged sectional and denominational divisions.

George Whitefield

An English Anglican minister and prominent leader of the Great Awakening whose emotional, expressive preaching moved listeners to tears.

Jonathan Edwards

A Great Awakening minister famous for delivering the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

Mercantilism

An economic strategy of state regulation to increase national wealth by requiring colonies to provide raw materials and purchase manufactured goods from the mother country.

Navigation Acts

Laws prohibiting trade between American colonies and foreign nations, restricting valuable colonial commodities (sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo) strictly to England and prompting widespread smuggling.

Salutary Neglect

The period from 1607 to 1763 during which England loosely enforced parliamentary trade laws, allowing American colonies to function virtually as self-governing states.

Zenger Trial

A 1734–1735 New York trial where printer John Peter Zenger was acquitted of libel charges after criticizing a corrupt governor, establishing an early victory for press freedom.