APUSH Chapter 1-10 Vocabulary and People to Know

Canadian Shield

First part of the North American landmass to emerge above sea level.

Incas

Highly advanced South American civilization that occupied present-day Peru until they were conquered by Spanish forces under Francisco Pizarro in 1532. The Incas developed sophisticated agricultural techniques, such as terrace farming, in order to sustain large, complex societies in the unforgiving Andes Mountains.

Aztecs

Native American empire that controlled present-day Mexico until 1521, when they were conquered by Spanish Hernán Cortés. The Aztecs maintained control over their vast empire through a system of trade and tribute, and came to be known for their advances in mathematics and writing, and their use of human sacrifices in religious ceremonies

Nation-states

The term commonly describes those societies in which political legitimacy and authority overlay a large degree of cultural commonality.

Cahokia (c. 1100 A.D)

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans

Three-sister farming

Agricultural system employed by North American Indians as early as 1000 a.d.; maize, beans, and squash were grown together to maximize yields.

Middlemen

In trading systems, those dealers who operate between the original producers of goods and the retail merchants who sell to consumers. After the eleventh century, European exploration was driven in large part by a desire to acquire alluring Asian goods without paying heavy tolls to Muslim middlemen.

Caravel

Small regular vessel with a high deck and three triangular sails. Caravels could sail more closely into the wind, allowing European sailors to explore the Western shores of Africa, previously made inaccessible due to prevailing winds on the homeward journey.

Plantation

Large-scale agricultural enterprise growing commercial crops and usually employing coerced or slave labor. European settlers established plantations in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the American South.

Colombian Exchange

The transfer of goods, crops and diseases between New and Old World societies after 1492.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

Signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World. Spain received the bulk of territory in the Americas, compensating Portugal with titles to lands in Africa and Asia.

Encomienda

Spanish government's policy to "commend," or give, Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them. Part of a broader Spanish effort to subdue Indian tribes in the West Indies and on the North American mainland.

Noche Triste (June 30, 1520)

"Sad night", when the Aztecs attacked Hernán Cortés and his forces in the Aztec capital, Tenochitlán, killing hundreds. Cortés laid siege to the city the following year, precipitating the fall of the Aztec Empire and inaugurating three centuries of Spanish rule.

Capitalism

Economic system characterized by private property, generally free trade, and open and accessible markets. European colonization of the Americas, and in particular, the discovery of vast bullion deposits, helped bring about Europe's transition to capitalism.

Mestizos

People of mixed Indian and European heritage, notably in Mexico.

Conquistadores

Sixteenth-century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan empires.

Battle of Acoma (1599)

Fought between Spaniards under Don Juan de Oñate and the Pueblo Indians in present-day New Mexico. Spaniards brutally crushed the Pueblo peoples and established the territory as New Mexico in 1609.

Popes Rebellion (1680)

Pueblo Indian rebellion which drove Spanish settlers from New Mexico.

Black Legend

False notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Indians and steal their gold in the name of Christ.

Ferdinand of Aragon

the kingdom of Spain became united. This new unity resulted primarily from the marriage of two sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and from the brutal expulsion of the "infidel" Muslim Moors from Spain after centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare

Isabella of Castile

the kingdom of Spain became united. This new unity resulted primarily from the marriage of two sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and from the brutal expulsion of the "infidel" Muslim Moors from the Spain after centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare

Christopher Columbus

An Italian navigator who, in 1492, was granted a voyage of three ships. He sought out to find a quicker path to the Indies, but instead the wound up in the "New World." Columbus brought permanent connection between Europe and Native Americans

Francisco Coronado

A Spanish soldier and commander, in 1540, he led an expedition north from Mexico into Arizona; he was searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold, but only found Adobe pueblos

Matrilinear

The form of society in which family line, power, and wealth are passed primarily through the female side.

Confederacy

An alliance or league of nations or peoples looser than a federation.

Primeval

Concerning the earliest origin of things.

Saga

A lengthy story or poem recounting the great deeds and adventures of a people and their heroes.

Ecosystem

A naturally evolved network of relations among organisms in a stable environment.

Demographic

Concerning the general characteristics of a given population, including such factors as numbers, age, gender, birth and death rates, and so on.

Province

A medium-sized subunit of territory and governmental administration within a larger nation or empire.

Protestant Reformation

movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther. Reformers questioned authority of Pope, wanted to eliminate the selling of indulgences & encouraged the translation of the Bible from Latin, which few at the time could read. The Reformation was launched in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church

Roanoke Island

Sir Walter Raleigh's (Gilbert's half brother) failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina

Spanish Armada

Spanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588.

Primogeniture

Legal principle that oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowners' younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas

Joint-stock company

Short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England's early colonial ventures

Virginia Company

English joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virginia colony

Charter

Legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose & spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists ties to Britain during the early years of settlement

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North American founded by the Virginia Company

First Anglo-Powhatan War

Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy & English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement.

House of Burgesses

Representative parliamentary assembly created to govern Virgina, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies

Act of Toleration

Passed in MD, guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed death penalty for those who denied divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured MD would attract high proportion of Catholic migrants

Barbados Slave Code

denied most fundamental rights to slaves & gave masters complete control over their laborers including right to inflict vicious punishment for slight infractions

Squatters

colonists without legal right to claim and settle on land

Iroquois Confederacy

Bound together five tribes— the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas—in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State.

Tuscarora War

Began with an Indian attack on New Bern, North Carolina. After the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation

Yamasee Indians

Yamasee Indians - Defeated by the South Carolinians in the war of 1715-1716. The Yamasee defeat devastated the last of the coastal Indian tribes in the southern colonies

Buffer

In politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them. In British North America, Georgia was established as a buffer colony between British and Spanish territory

Henry VIII (1491-1547)

king of England; broke with Roman church in 1530s, launching English Protestant Reformation; led to battle between Catholics and Protestants in England

Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

Protestant Queen of England, made Protestism dominant in England. As a result, she intensified the Rivalry England had with Catholic Spain. Her traps crushed Irish uprising and confiscated their land, planing Protestant land lords, creating domestic issues that festered until the present day.

Sir Francis Drake (ca. 1542-1595)

"sea dog" who pirated Spanish ships for gold. On one occasion, he stole the gold, circumnavigated the earth, and then was rewarded by Elizabeth I knighting him on his ship. This brazen reward by the English queen infuriated the Spanish

Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552-1618)

established the Roanoke Island Colony, later to become known as The Lost Colony. Raleigh returned to England and the colony vanished mysteriously.

James I (1566-1625)

King of England (1603-1625) and of Scotland as James VI (1567-1625). The son of Mary Queen of Scots, he succeeded Elizabeth I as the first Stuart king of England. His belief in the divine right of kings and his attempts to abolish Parliament and suppress Presbyterianism in Scotland created resentment that led to the English Civil War.

Captain John Smith (1580-1631)

Helped found and govern Jamestown. His leadership and strict discipline helped the Virginia colony get through the difficult first five years. He was unpopular among the "gentlemen adventurers" because he made them work for their food.

Powhatan (ca. 1540s-1618)

An Indian chieftain who dominated the peoples in the James River area. All the tribes loosely under his control came to be called Powhatan's confederacy. The colonists inaccurately called all of the Indians Powhatans.

Pocahontas (ca. 1595-1617)

A native Indian of America, daughter of Chief Powahatan, who was one of the first to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and return to England with him; about 1595-1617; Pocahontas' brave actions in saving an Englishman paved the way for many positive English and Native relations.

Lord De La Warr (1577-1618)

Governor in Virginia, sent the dying/starving Jamestown colonists back to Jamestown with harsh military enforcements, undertook aggressive military action on the Indians, merciless.

John Rolfe (1585-1622)

was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is 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.

Lord Baltimore (1605-1675)

Established Maryland as a haven for Catholics. He unsuccessfully tried to reconstitute the English manorial system in the colonies and gave vast tracts of land to Catholic relatives, a policy that soon created tensions between the seaboard Catholic establishment and back-country Protestant planters

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

English statesman, general, and Puritan whose military leadership was crucial to the Parliamentary victory in the English Civil War and the execution of King Charles I. Ruled England as Lord Protector, establishing brief English Commonwealth and Protectorate under a written constitution and advancing religious freedom

James Oglethorpe (1696-1785)

Founder and governor of the Georgia colony. He ran a tightly-disciplined, military-like colony. Slaves, alcohol, and Catholicism were forbidden in his colony. Many colonists felt that Oglethorpe was a dictator, and that (along with the colonist's dissatisfaction over not being allowed to own slaves) caused the colony to break down and Oglethorpe to lose his position as governor.

Hiawatha (dates unknown)

Legendary co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, a powerful alliance of Native American nations.

Calvinism

dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans, based on the teachings of John Calvin. Calvinists believed in predestination.

Predestination

Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be damned.

Conversion

Intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among the "elect," or the "visible saints."

Puritans

English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout Puritans believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted to the church membership

Separatists

Small group of Puritans who sought to break away from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way to Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in 1620

Mayflower Compact

Agreement to form a majoritarian gov't in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower; created foundation for self-gov't in colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony (founded in 1630)

Established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies

Great English Migration

Migration of seventy thousand refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean. The twenty thousand migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared common sense of purpose: to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World

Antinomianism

Belief that the elect need not obey the law of either God or man; most notably espoused in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson

Fundamental Orders (1639)

Drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River valley, this document was the first "modern constitution" establishing a democratically controlled gov't. Key features of the document were borrowed for Connecticut's colonial charter and, later, its state constitution

Pequot War (1636-1638)

Series of clashes between English settlers and Pequot Indians in the Connecticut River Valley. Ended in the slaughter of the Pequots by the Puritans and their Narragansett Indian allies.

King Phillip's War (1675-1676)

Series of assaults by Metacom, King Philip, on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades.

New England Confederation (1643)

Weak union of the colonies in Massachusetts & Connecticut led by Puritans for the purposes of defense and organization; an early attempt of the English Civil War

English Civil War (1642-1651)

Armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-Parliament forces & the execution of Charles I

Dominion of New England (1686-1689)

administrative union created by royal authority, incorporating all of New England, New York, and East and West Jersey. Placed under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros, who curbed popular assemblies, taxed residents without their consent, and strictly enforced Navigation Laws. Its collapse after the Glorious Revolution in England demonstrated colonial opposition to strict royal control

Navigation Laws

series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports & that all goods destined for colonies would first pass thru England

Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution (1688-1689)

Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, who was replaced with Dutch-born William III and Mary II, daughter of James II. William and Mary accepted increased parliamentary oversign and new limits on monarchical authority.

Salutary Neglect (1688-1763)

Unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws. Lasted from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the French and Indian War (1763)

Patroonships

vast tracts of land along the Hudson

Quakers

(religious group known for their tolerance, emphasis on peace & idealistic Indian policy, who settled heavily in PA in the 17th and 18th centuries) arose in England during the mid-1600s, officially known as the Religious Society of Friends

Blue Laws

Blue laws prohibited ungodly revelers, stage plays, playing cards, dice, games, excessive hilarity

Martin Luther

Martin Luther - German who denounced the authority of the priests and popes. In 1517 nailed his 95 thesis against Catholic doctrine to the door of Wittenburg's cathedral. Declared the bible along = God's word. Began Protestant Reformation

John Calvin

John Calvin - responsible for founding Calvinism, which was reformed Catholicism. He writes about it in "Institutes of a Christian Religion" published in 1536. He believed God was all knowing and everyone was predestined for heaven or hell.

William Bradford

William Bradford - A Pilgrim, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, 1621-1657. He developed private land ownership and helped colonists get out of debt. He helped the colony survive droughts, crop failures, and Indian attacks.

John Winthrop

John Winthrop - governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world.

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson - preached the idea that God communicated directly to individuals instead of through the church elders. She was forced to leave Massachusetts in 1637. Her followers (the Antinomianists) founded the colony of New Hampshire in 1639.

Roger Williams

Roger Williams - Puritan master banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for his beliefs, who founded Rhode Island, a haven for religious freedom and first colony to have a formal separation of church and state.

Massasoit

leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy who forged crucial alliance and peace treaty with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in 1621.

Metacom (King Philip)

Wampanoag leader who orchestrated the major inter-tribal King Philip's War (1675-1678) against New England colonists due to land encroachment and rising tensions

Charles II (1660-1685)

King of England (1660-1685) who reign marked the Restoration of the English monarchy after the Commonwealth period. Significant for expanding English influence in America by granting proprietary charters for colonies such as Pennsylvania and Carolina, and for establishment of New York after English acquired it from the Dutch.

Sir Edmund Andros

Governor of Dominion of New England (1686-1689), a super colony created by James II to centralize royal control. His unpopular policies such as ending colonial assemblies, levying taxes, and suppressing self-governance and Puritan authority, led to widespread resentment and an overthrow of his rule in Boston when news of the Glorious Revolution reached America

William III

Dutch prince with his wife Mary II, became co-monarch of England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He agreed to a Bill of Rights that limited royal power, establishing a constitutional monarchy and solidifying Protestant rule, which had implications for governance in England and its colonies, including America.

Mary II

Protestant daughter of James II who, with her husband William III, co-ruled England and Ireland from 1689 to 1694 following the Glorious Revolution. Her reign, alongside William's, solidified Protestant rule, established a constitutional monarchy with limited royal power and increased parliamentary authority, and led to the drafting of the Bill of Rights 1689.

Henry Hudson

English Protestant daughter of James II who, with her husband William III, co-ruled England and Ireland from 1689 to 1694 following the Glorious Revolution. Her reign, alongside William's, solidified Protestant rule, established a constitutional monarchy with limited royal power and increased parliamentary authority, and led to the drafting of the Bill of Rights 1689.

Peter Stuyvesant

final Dutch Director-General of New Netherland (1647-1664) who, despite efforts to strengthen the colony's economy and defenses, eventually surrendered it to the English, leading to its renaming as New York. His authoritarian rule and resistance to colonial self-governance made him unpopular with the settlers but he was instrumental in expanding the colony and establishing infrastructure in New Amsterdam.

Duke of York

James, the brother of King Charles II, who was granted the former Dutch colony of New Netherland by his brother. Upon taking possession in 1664, James renamed the territory New York, establishing it as a proprietary colony under his control. Later, he also granted portions of this land to form New Jersey.

William Penn

English Quaker and philosopher who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance and democratic principles. He designed Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and others seeking freedom from religious persecution, and his policies promoted peaceful coexistence with Native Americans and attracted a diverse population.

Indentured Servants

voluntarily mortgaged the sweat of their bodies for several years (4-7 years) in exchange for transatlantic passage and freedom dues (an ax & hoe, few barrels of corn, suit of clothes, maybe small parcel of land)