Unit 1 Study Guide: Indigenous America, Colliding Cultures, and British North America

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering all key terms, events, concepts, and historical figures from Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Unit 1 Study Guide.

Columbian Exchange

The hemispheric exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and cultures between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas.

Three Sisters

An Indigenous agricultural system of planting corn, beans, and squash together, providing mutual crop support and nutritional balance.

Cahokia

A major pre-Columbian Mississippian Native American city and mound-building center located near modern-day St. Louis.

Sugar cultivation

A highly profitable New World crop enterprise in South America and the Caribbean that heavily driven the demand for enslaved labor.

Matrilineal

A social structure used by many Native American tribes where familial descent, clan membership, and property rights are inherited through the mother's line.

Native American slavery

The practice of capturing and enslaving Indigenous individuals in the Americas, practiced both intertribally and by European colonizers.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian navigator sponsored by Spain whose 1492 transatlantic voyage initiated sustained European exploration, trade, and colonization of the Americas.

Encomienda

A Spanish colonial labor system granting conquistadors and settlers control over Indigenous laborers in exchange for religious conversion and protection.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

A Spanish Dominican friar and former encomendero who publicly criticized the harsh exploitation of Native Americans and advocated for their rights.

Aztecs

A Mesoamerican empire centered at Tenochtitlan that controlled much of central Mexico prior to conquest by Hernán Cortés and Spanish forces.

Inca

A major South American empire built along the Andes mountain range, renowned for political integration and infrastructure before being conquered by Francisco Pizarro.

Black Legend

Historical writings and anti-Spanish rhetoric depicting Spanish colonization as uniquely brutal and cruel compared to other European colonizers.

Wampum

Shell beads crafted by Northeast Native American groups used for ceremonial gifts, diplomatic negotiations, and currency.

Curse of Ham

A biblical misinterpretation utilized by European colonizers to justify the chattel enslavement of African peoples.

Northwest Passage

A sought-after water route across Northern North America intended to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for Asian trade.

New Netherland

A 17th-century Dutch colonial territory established along the Hudson River, anchored by its port city New Amsterdam.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 papal agreement dividing non-Christian lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a longitudinal meridian.

Jamestown

Established in 1607 in Virginia, it was the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Spanish Armada

The naval fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 to invade England; its defeat opened the path for English Atlantic colonization.

Powhatan Confederacy

An alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native tribes in coastal Virginia led by Chief Powhatan, which navigated relations with Jamestown settlers.

Tobacco

The primary staple cash crop introduced by John Rolfe that anchored the economy of the Chesapeake colonies.

Puritans

English religious reformers who sought to purify the Church of England from Catholic practices and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Middle Passage

The forced transatlantic voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas under brutal and lethal conditions.

British West Indies

English island colonies in the Caribbean, such as Barbados and Jamaica, whose economies centered heavily on sugar plantations and slave labor.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 deposition of King James II of England, replacing him with William and Mary and sparking colonial revolts against royal centralization.

Dominion of New England

A centralized administrative super-colony created by King James II in 1686 to tighten crown governance over the northern American colonies.

Connecticut

A New England colony established by Puritans led by Thomas Hooker, recognized for drafting the Fundamental Orders.

Maryland

A Chesapeake proprietary colony founded in 1632 by Lord Baltimore as a refuge for English Catholics.

Rhode Island

A New England colony founded by Roger Williams in 1636 that guaranteed religious freedom and separation of church and state.

New York

A middle colony acquired by England following the surrender of New Netherland by the Dutch in 1664.

William Penn

The Quaker proprietor who founded Pennsylvania in 1681 based on religious tolerance, representative government, and fair terms with Native Americans.

Carolina

A southern proprietary colony established in 1663 that developed agricultural plantation systems before dividing into North and South Carolina.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 1676 armed revolt in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley, spurred by frontier Native conflict and class grievances.

Pequot War

A 1636–1638 violent conflict between New England colonists (with Narragansett and Mohegan allies) and the Pequot tribe in southern New England.

Metacom

The Wampanoag sachem, known to colonists as King Philip, who led a major Native uprising (Metacom's War) against English expansion in New England.

Yamasee War

A 1715–1717 conflict between South Carolina colonists and a coalition of Native tribes protesting trade abuses, debt, and enslavement.

Walking Purchase

A fraudulent 1737 land agreement in Pennsylvania through which colonial proprietors seized significant Delaware Native American territory.