Comprehensive APUSH Units 1-9 Review: Native Peoples, Colonialism, Revolution, Civil War, Reconstruction, Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Imperialism

Peopling of the Americas

The migration of humans from Northeast Asia into North and South America, as early as 15,000-20,000 years ago, most likely by the Bering Strait.

Paleoindian

Any people living in the Americas in the distant past.

Clovis

14,000-11,000 BCE, known for their fluted projectile points, had kill sites, nomadic through the Great Plains and West, hunted Ice Age megafauna.

Folsom

10,000-8,000 BCE, more aggressive fluted points, primarily hunted bison, nomadic Great Plains hunters, had the oldest painted object in North America.

Adena

Native Americans of the Woodland period (c. 500 BCE - 100 CE), centered in southern Ohio and known for their intricate mound-building practices.

Hopewell

Ancient Native Americans in east-central North America (c. 200 BCE - 500 CE) known for their elaborate earthworks and extensive long-distance trade networks.

Mississipian

Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands who, between approximately 800 and 1600 CE, developed a sophisticated agricultural society.

Ancestral Puebloan

Ancient people of the North American Southwest, flourishing for centuries in the Four Corners region, known for their advanced agriculture and distinctive architecture.

Maya

Pre-classical 2,500 BCE-250 CE, enters the golden age (classical period) around 250 CE, religion and power are the same, bloodletting is a key ritual.

Aztec/Mexica

The triple alliance of Tenochitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan centered around Lake Texcoco, established their empire by defeating Moctezuma I.

Inca

The largest in the Americas, along the Andes, most successful and widespread, lacked technology but still had a large empire.

Maize

Corn, used as a staple crop during this time period.

Reconquista

A series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims in Spain and Portugal.

Ferdinand & Isabela

Launched the Reconquista and unified Spain under one crown, sent Columbus on his expeditions.

Christopher Columbus

Discovered the Americas on what he thought was Asia, commanded the lands he claimed for Spain brutally.

Conquistadores

People who ran the encomiendas, motivated by God, gold, and glory.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided newly discovered lands outside Europe.

Encomienda system

Conquest earns them land grants from the king, which they use to enrich themselves via exploited Native labor.

Asiento system

Importers of slaves had to pay a per capita tax.

Casta system

Treated based on your race, as well as what taxes were paid.

Peninsulares

Full-blooded Spanish from Europe.

Mestizos

Mixed Spanish and Indigenous heritage.

Negros

Black Africans.

Mulatos

Mixed Spanish or Indigenous and Black.

Indios

Full-blooded Indigenous.

Hernan Cortés

Leading the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire and claiming Mexico for Spain in the early 16th century.

Francisco Pizzaro

Leading the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in the 1530s, which resulted in the capture and execution of the Inca emperor Atahualpa.

Slave trade

Import of West Africans to other parts of the world to work on plantations and be enslaved.

Columbian exchange

Exchange of goods between the old and new world.

Smallpox

Disease that caused disaster in the Americas, left the population reduced to 20% of what it once was.

Bartolome de las Casas

The first European to extensively document and advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Spanish colonies.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

Major intellectual defender of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Valladolid debate

1550, debate between de las Casas and Sepulveda on the Native Americans and how they were treated.

New laws of 1542

Abolished Indian slavery and also ended the encomienda system.

French colonial claims & goals

Claim the whole Mississippi Basin and West, and also most of Canada (Quebec), more trade focused and have good relations with the Natives.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century religious, political, and cultural movement in Europe that challenged the authority and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, leading to a schism in Christianity.

Dutch colonial claims & goals

Claimed New Netherland (parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut), the South American colony of Suriname, and islands in the Caribbean such as Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.

Joint-stock company

Businesses that pooled funds from many investors, known as 'adventurers,' to finance risky ventures like colonization and trade, with profits shared among shareholders.

80 years' war

An armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government, ending in the Dutch's independence from Spain.

Salutary neglect

Failure to enforce laws that leads the colonists to expect a greater degree of freedom.

1607

The founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, which marked the beginning of English colonization.

Triangular trade

The historical three-legged sea routes connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 17th to 19th centuries, facilitating the exchange of goods, raw materials, and enslaved people.

Mercantilism

The wealth pie is finite; gains are made at others' expense.

Navigation acts

The English and their colonists are only trading with each other and themselves, angers the American colonists.

Indentured servant

A person, usually from Western Europe, who contracted to work for a master for a set number of years, typically 4 to 7, in exchange for passage to North America and, later, freedom dues such as land, clothing, or tools.

Chattel slavery

A system where people are legally considered the personal property, or 'chattel,' of their enslavers, allowing them to be bought, sold, traded, and inherited like livestock or furniture.

1619

The arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the Virginia Colony, marking the beginning of slavery in the Americas.

Middle passage

Millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade.

Benjamin Franklin

Proposed the idea to bring all of the colonies together as one, only to be adopted much later in his life.

First Great Awakening

A religious movement of spiritual revival that swept through the American colonies from the 1730s to the 1770s, emphasizing emotional and personal faith over rigid doctrine and church authority.

Puritan

Believed in a direct covenant with God to establish a 'holy commonwealth' and heavily influenced the colonization of North America.

Quaker

A Christian movement founded in 17th-century England that emphasizes the 'inner light' or 'that of God in everyone,' allowing for a direct relationship with the divine without clergy or sacraments.

Anglican

An established, state-controlled church, largely conservative, and serving as a guarantor of social and political stability.

Catholic

A marginalized minority in North America, strictest sector of Christianity.

Evangelicalism

Trans-cultural Protestant Christian movement emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the authority of the Bible, and a commitment to spreading the Gospel.

Separation of church and state

Prohibits the government from establishing a national religion and from interfering with individuals' rights to practice their faith freely.

Sectarian schools

Private schools with an explicit affiliation to a specific religious group, religion, or faith.

Harvard

Puritan college.

College of Philadelphia

Only non-secretarian school at the time (not religious).

New England colonies

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, rocky soil and dense forests, leading to difficult farming and an economy based on fishing, trade, and lumbering.

Subsistence farming

An agricultural system where farmers grow food and raise livestock primarily to meet the basic needs of their own families, with minimal to no surplus for sale or trade.

Maritime trade

The exchange of goods and services over the world's oceans and seas.

Ports

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, which served as major hubs for Atlantic trade and commerce, driving the economies of their respective regions.

Middle colonies

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were known for their ethnic and religious diversity, and a thriving economy built on both trade and various industries.

Breadbasket colony

Referred to the middle colonies, due to their fertile soil, which produced large quantities of wheat, rye, and other grains for export.

Rum

The dominant spirit in early North America, deeply integrated into colonial life as a daily beverage, currency, and even a medicinal tonic.

Southern colonies

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, warm weather, inland plantation agriculture, coastal port cities, and wealth from exporting their crops.

Plantation farming

A large-scale agricultural system focused on growing a single, non-food crop for commercial export.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Saying: humanity is inherently sinful and deserves God's eternal wrath, but God's arbitrary mercy can save the unregenerate if they repent and accept Christ, written by Johnathan Edwards.

New Lights

People who preferred the Awakening - repenting.

Old Lights

People who preferred the more reserved faiths.

John Peter Zenger

Acquittal in a libel suit (1735) established the first important victory for freedom of the press in the English colonies of North America.

Andrew Hamilton

Scottish colonial lawyer, defended John Peter Zenger in a landmark case for freedom of the press.

Libel

The written or published form of defamation, involving a false statement that harms someone's reputation.

Colonial paper money

Rarely lasted very long because the colonies generally issued too much of it and the resulting inflation made the bills worthless.

Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the 18th-century American colonies, characterized by emotional preaching and a focus on personal faith.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century European intellectual and cultural movement that emphasized reason, individualism, and skepticism of traditional authority.

Seven Years' War

Fought in the colonies from 1754 to 1763 between the English and the French for possession of the Ohio River Valley area.

George Washington

A central figure known for leading the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolution and serving as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797.

Albany Plan of Union

Benjamin Franklin's proposal for a unified colonial government to manage defense, trade, and Indian relations during the French and Indian War.

Proclamation of 1763

British decree that prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains after the French and Indian War.

Stamp Act (1765)

A British law imposing a direct tax on the American colonies, requiring stamps on all printed materials.

Sons & Daughters of Liberty

Colonial organizations formed in the 1760s to protest British policies and taxation without representation.

Samuel Adams

A prominent American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Parliament

The supreme legislative body of Great Britain that enacted policies and laws, such as taxes.

George III

The British monarch during the American Revolution (1760-1820) who is significant for his role in enforcing policies that led to the revolution.

Sugar Act (1764)

A British law that imposed a tax on sugar, molasses, and other goods imported into the American colonies.

Quartering Act (1765)

A British law requiring American colonists to provide housing, food, and other supplies for British soldiers stationed in the colonies.

Townshend Acts (1767)

A series of British laws passed that imposed duties on goods like glass, paper, lead, paint, and tea imported into the American colonies.

Declaratory Act (1766)

A British parliamentary act that asserted Parliament's full authority to make laws binding the American colonies in 'all cases whatsoever.'

Tea Act (1773)

A British law granting the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies.

Intolerable Acts

A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.

Coercive Acts (1774)

Punitive British laws passed to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.

Quebec Act (1774)

British legislation that expanded the boundaries of Quebec to include territory south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi.

First Continental Congress

A gathering of delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies that met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to organize colonial resistance to Britain's 'Intolerable Acts.'

John Adams

The second President of the United States and a key Founding Father, known for his role in the American Revolution.

John Jay

A Founding Father, diplomat, and the first Chief Justice of the United States.

Federalist Papers

A series of 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, written between 1787 and 1788 to persuade the public to ratify the United States Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson

Founding Father, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third U.S. President.

Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

Justifying armed resistance against Britain by listing grievances and asserting loyalty by defending liberties.