Key Concepts in Early American History

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts in Early American History for exam preparation.

Maize

A staple crop significant to Native American societies, particularly in the Southwest region.

Maritime Technology

Advancements in sea navigation and shipbuilding that facilitated European exploration and trade.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World following Columbus's voyages.

Joint-Stock Company

A business entity where different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders, used by Europeans to fund colonization.

Encomienda System

A labor system instituted by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas, intended to regulate Native American labor.

Mercantilism

An economic theory that emphasizes the importance of accumulating wealth, primarily gold and silver, through trade.

Triangle Trade

A transatlantic trading network that transported goods and enslaved people between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Chattel Slavery

A form of slavery where individuals are seen as property and can be bought and sold.

First Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s, emphasizing personal faith and emotional connection to religion.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the United States across the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Landmark legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Great Migration

The movement of over 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1916 to 1970.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War during which the United States worked to rebuild and integrate the Southern states back into the Union.

The New Deal

A series of programs and policies instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at economic recovery.

Brown v. Board of Education

A 1954 Supreme Court case that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.

Watergate Scandal

A major political scandal in the early 1970s involving President Nixon's administration and the cover-up of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

9/11 Attacks

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamist group al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001, that significantly changed U.S. domestic and foreign policy.