AP US History Period 1 and Period 2 Vocabulary Flashcards

A set of 60 vocabulary flashcards covering European exploration, Native American cultures, early colonization, and the development of British colonies in Period 1 (1491-1607) and Period 2 (1607-1754).

Columbian Exchange

The transatlantic transfer of plants, animals, germs, and diseases between the Americas, Europe, and Africa following Christopher Columbus's voyages.

Encomienda System

A Spanish colonial labor system in which the king granted land and native inhabitants to Spaniards, who forced the natives to farm or work in mines.

Asiento System

A Spanish colonial system that required Spanish colonists to pay a tax to the king on each enslaved African imported to the Americas.

Iroquois Confederation

A political alliance formed in the 16th century by six Northeast tribes: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscaroras.

Hohokam, Anasazi, and Pueblos

Southwestern Native American societies that lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multifaceted settlements, relying on maize cultivation and irrigation systems.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement that moved the papal demarcation line west, securing Portugal's claim to Brazil and Spain's claim to the rest of the Americas.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century religious movement in Northern Europe where Christians revolted against the authority of the Pope, leading to religious wars.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

A Spanish priest and advocate for Native Americans who persuaded the king to enact the New Laws of 1542 to protect native populations.

New Laws of 1542

Spanish royal legislation that ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began phasing out the encomienda system.

Valladolid Debate

A 1550-1551 formal debate in Spain concerning the moral status and treatment of American Indians in Spanish colonies.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

A Spanish scholar who argued during the Valladolid Debate that Native Americans were less than human and benefited from serving Spanish masters.

Captain John Smith

The leader of Jamestown who imposed strict discipline and required settlers to work in order to eat, helping the colony survive.

John Rolfe

A Jamestown settler who, along with his wife Pocahontas, introduced a profitable strain of tobacco that secured Virginia's economic success.

Headright System

A Virginia land grant policy that offered 50 acres of land to any settler who paid for their own or another person's passage to the colony.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 document signed by Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower that established an early form of self-government based on majority rule.

John Winthrop

The Puritan governor who led approximately 1,000 settlers in 1630 to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a 'city upon a hill'.

Great Migration

The movement between 1630 and 1642 that brought roughly 20,000 Puritans from England to settle in New England.

Maryland Act of Toleration

A 1649 law passed in Maryland that granted religious freedom to all Christians, though it called for the death penalty for non-Christians.

Roger Williams

A Puritan dissenter banished from Boston who founded Providence in 1636 and established Rhode Island with complete religious freedom.

Antinomianism

The doctrine taught by Anne Hutchinson asserting that faith alone, rather than adherence to moral laws, is necessary for salvation.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The first written constitution in American history, drawn up in 1636, establishing a representative government with an elected legislature.

Thomas Hooker

A Boston Puritan minister who led a group of settlers to establish Hartford in 1636 and helped draft the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.

Halfway Covenant

A policy offered by Puritan clergy allowing individuals to become partial church members without having experienced a full conversion.

Religious Society of Friends

A Christian group commonly known as Quakers who advocated for gender equality, rejected violence, and believed religious authority was found within each person.

Charter of Liberties

A 1701 Pennsylvania constitution guaranteed by William Penn that provided freedom of worship for all and unrestricted immigration.

James Oglethorpe

The founder and first governor of Savannah, Georgia in 1733, who initially instituted strict bans on slavery and rum.

Triangular Trade

A multi-stop Atlantic trade route in which New England rum was traded for enslaved Africans in West Africa, who were then traded in the Americas for sugarcane.

St. Augustine

The earliest permanent European settlement in North America, established by Spain in Florida in 1565.

Samuel de Champlain

A French explorer known as the 'Father of New France' who founded the settlement of Quebec along the St. Lawrence River in 1608.

Father Junipero Serra

A Franciscan missionary who helped establish a chain of Spanish missions along the California coast starting in 1769.

Henry Hudson

An explorer hired by the Dutch in 1609 who sailed up the Hudson River and established Dutch claims to the surrounding region.

Dutch West India Company

A joint-stock company granted control over the Dutch territory of New Amsterdam for economic gain and trade expansion.

Joint Stock Companies

Corporate businesses that pooled the capital of multiple investors to finance the founding and settlement of English colonies in the Americas.

Captain Miles Standish

A military leader in Plymouth Colony who organized the defense of the settlement against potential threats.

Governor William Bradford

The longtime leader of Plymouth Colony who guided its early development relying on a local economy of fishing, fur trading, and lumber.

Lord Baltimore

A Catholic nobleman who was granted a charter for Maryland in 1632 to establish a haven for persecuted English Catholics.

Anne Hutchinson

A religious dissenter banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for promoting antinomianism who subsequently founded Portsmouth in 1639.

John Davenport

A Puritan leader who established the settlement of New Haven in 1637, which later joined with Hartford to form Connecticut.

Peter Stuyvesant

The Dutch governor of New Amsterdam who surrendered the colony to the English Duke of York's forces in 1664.

Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret

Proprietors who were granted the land between the Hudson River and Delaware Bay in 1664, creating East and West New Jersey.

Frame of Government

A plan created by William Penn between 1682 and 1683 that guaranteed a representative assembly elected by landowners in Pennsylvania.

Vasco da Gama

The Portuguese navigator who became the first European to reach India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa in 1498.

Prince Henry the Navigator

The Portuguese royal who financed maritime exploration and successfully opened a sea trade route around South Africa.

Hernan Cortes

The Spanish conquistador responsible for the conquest of the Aztec Empire in modern-day Mexico.

Francisco Pizarro

The Spanish conquistador who led the military conquest of the Inca Empire in South America.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

The Spanish explorer who crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Americas.

Ferdinand Magellan

The commander whose Spanish expedition achieved the first successful circumnavigation of the globe.

Juan Ponce de Leon

The Spanish explorer who explored and claimed the territory of Florida for Spain in 1513.

Robert de la Salle

A French explorer who traveled the Mississippi basin in 1682 and named the territory Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.

Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette

French explorers who navigated and mapped the upper Mississippi River in 1673.

John Cabot

An Italian navigator who explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497 under the commission of King Henry VII of England.

Sir Francis Drake

An English sea captain who raided Spanish ships and settlements in the Atlantic and Pacific to seize gold and silver for England.

Sir Walter Raleigh

An English nobleman who sponsored the failed attempt to establish an English settlement at Roanoke Island in 1587.

Giovanni da Verrazzano

An Italian navigator sponsored by France in 1524 to explore North America's eastern coast, including New York Harbor.

Jacques Cartier

A French explorer who navigated the St. Lawrence River between 1534 and 1542, laying the foundation for French claims in North America.

Spanish Caste System

A legal social hierarchy in Spanish colonies that ranked individuals based on their racial purity, placing pure-blooded Spaniards at the top.

Indentured Servants

Laborers who agreed to work for a specified period of years in exchange for transatlantic passage to the American colonies.

Middle Passage

The brutal oceanic voyage transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, during which 10% to 15% died.

Moors

Islamic forces who conquered most of Spain in the 8th century until Spanish Christians reclaimed the final stronghold in 1492.