apush period 1

Maize cultivation

The farming of corn, a staple crop originally domesticated in Mesoamerica, crucial to the diet and economy of many Indigenous civilizations in the Americas.

Migration

The movement of people from one place to another; in this context, refers to the peoples of the Americas through the Bering Strait and later migrations.

Western Hemisphere

Refers to the half of the Earth that includes North and South America and the surrounding Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Colonization

The act of setting up a colony away from one's place of origin, especially by Europeans in the Americas beginning in the 15th century.

Eastern Woodlands Indians

Native American tribes living in the forested areas of the eastern U.S., known for agriculture, mound-building, and complex societies (e.g., Iroquois, Algonquian).

Three Sisters crops

The traditional planting of corn, beans, and squash together by Indigenous peoples; each crop supports the growth of the others.

Cahokia

A major Mississippian city near present-day St. Louis (c. 1050-1350 CE), known for large earthen mounds and a complex society.

Animism

A religious belief that natural objects, places, and creatures all possess a spiritual essence or soul.

Iroquois Confederacy / Great League of Peace

A political alliance of six Native nations in the Northeast U.S. (Haudenosaunee) formed to ensure peace and collective decision-making.

Great Plains Indians

Nomadic and semi-nomadic Indigenous peoples (e.g., Sioux, Cheyenne) of the central plains, known for buffalo hunting and tepees.

Great Basin Indians

Native groups in the arid western U.S. (e.g., Shoshone, Ute), who relied on hunting, gathering, and seasonal mobility.

Southwest Indians

Puebloan peoples (e.g., Hopi, Zuni) who built adobe dwellings and practiced desert agriculture using irrigation.

Chaco Canyon

A major center of Ancestral Puebloan culture in present-day New Mexico, known for massive stone buildings and astronomical alignments.

Northwest Indians

Indigenous tribes (e.g., Tlingit, Haida) of the Pacific Northwest coast, known for totem poles, fishing economies, and potlatch ceremonies.

California Indians

Diverse Native groups in California with distinct languages and customs, largely hunter-gatherers with complex social structures.

Hunter-gatherer economy

A subsistence lifestyle based on hunting animals and gathering wild plants, common before the widespread use of agriculture.

Pueblos

Communal stone or adobe dwellings used by Indigenous people in the Southwest; also refers to the people and their culture.

Advanced irrigation systems

Sophisticated techniques for watering crops in dry regions, such as canals and dams, especially used by Southwestern tribes.

Matrilineal ancestry

A kinship system in which descent and inheritance are traced through the mother's line, as seen among the Iroquois.

New World

A European term for the Americas, newly encountered by Europeans during the Age of Exploration in the late 15th century.

Bering Strait migration

The movement of early humans from Asia to the Americas via a land bridge (Beringia) during the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago.

Incas

A powerful empire in the Andes Mountains (modern Peru), known for roads, terrace farming, and stone cities like Machu Picchu.

Aztecs

A Mesoamerican empire centered in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), known for complex society, pyramids, and human sacrifices.

Three G's

Desire for wealth (gold), spreading Christianity (God), and national glory (glory).

Smallpox

A deadly Old World disease that devastated Indigenous populations in the Americas due to lack of immunity.

Subjugation

The act of conquering and dominating a group of people, often involving violence and exploitation.

Portuguese exploration

Portugal's early exploration along Africa and into the Indian Ocean, which pioneered European navigation techniques.

Maritime inventions

Technological advances like the caravel, astrolabe, and compass that enabled long-distance sea travel during the Age of Exploration.

Spanish exploration

Spain's conquest and colonization of the Americas, including expeditions by Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro.

Trans-Atlantic slave trade

The forced transport of Africans across the Atlantic to work as slaves in the Americas, especially on plantations.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator sponsored by Spain who reached the Caribbean in 1492, initiating European colonization of the Americas.

Encomienda system

A Spanish labor system granting colonists the right to extract labor and tribute from Indigenous people in exchange for supposed protection.

Plantation-based agriculture

Large-scale farms that grew cash crops (sugar, tobacco, cotton), often using enslaved labor.

Caste system in Spanish colonies

A hierarchical system based on race and origin in Spanish America, with Spaniards at the top and mixed/Indigenous/African peoples below.

Mestizos

People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in Spanish colonies.

Mulattos

People of mixed European and African ancestry in Spanish colonies.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, people, culture, and diseases between the Old World and New World after 1492.

Exchanges from Old World to New World

Included horses, cattle, wheat, sugar, smallpox, measles, and iron tools.

Exchanges from New World to Old World

Included maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, tobacco, and turkeys.

Chattel slavery

A form of slavery where people are treated as property and bought or sold permanently.

Slavery in perpetuity

The condition in which enslaved individuals and their descendants are enslaved for life, passed through generations.

French colonization

Focused on fur trading and alliances with Native Americans, especially in Canada and the Mississippi Valley.

Northwest Passage

A hoped-for sea route through North America to Asia; never found, but motivated exploration.

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer and founder of Quebec; developed alliances with Native groups and promoted fur trade.

French Huguenots

French Protestants who fled Catholic persecution and sometimes settled in the Americas.

Henry Hudson

An English explorer who sailed for both the Dutch and English, exploring parts of present-day New York and Canada.

New Netherlands

Dutch colony in North America (early 1600s), including present-day New York; focused on trade, especially furs.

Dutch relationship with Natives

Generally peaceful and trade-based, especially in fur; Dutch often formed alliances with Indigenous groups.

Religious toleration with Dutch

The Dutch practiced greater religious tolerance in their colonies compared to other European powers, allowing multiple faiths.

Catholic missions

Efforts by Catholic clergy (mainly Spanish) to convert Native Americans to Christianity, often tied to colonization.

Pueblo Revolt / Pope's Revolt

A 1680 uprising by Pueblo Indians in New Mexico that successfully expelled Spanish colonizers for over a decade.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Spanish priest who advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples and criticized the cruelty of Spanish colonizers.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

Spanish philosopher who argued that Indigenous peoples were inferior and naturally suited for subjugation.