APUSH Unit 1–2 Vocabulary (Contact to Colonial America)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, events, and concepts from APUSH Unit 1–2 notes (Contact to Colonial America).

Maize cultivation

Agricultural development around 5,000 BCE that supported permanent settlements, irrigation, specialization, and social hierarchy.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of diseases, crops, animals, and minerals between the Old World and the Americas after 1492.

Smallpox

A deadly disease brought by Europeans that caused massive Native American deaths during contact.

Old World crops to the Americas (wheat, rice, sugar)

Crops introduced from Europe to the Americas during the Columbian Exchange.

New World crops to Europe (maize, potatoes)

Crops from the Americas introduced to Europe that boosted food supply and population.

Horses

Animals introduced by Europeans that transformed Native warfare and mobility.

Pigs and cattle

Domesticated animals brought to the Americas, altering ecosystems and diets and causing environmental change.

Silver inflation (price revolution)

Inflation driven by large silver imports from the Americas, impacting feudal structures and contributing to capitalism.

Encomienda

Spanish labor system that forced Native work in exchange for Christianization and protection.

Casta system

Racial hierarchy in Spanish colonies based on ancestry and birthplace.

Hernán Cortés

Conquistador who defeated the Aztecs in the early 16th century.

Francisco Pizarro

Conquistador who conquered the Incas in the 1530s.

Intermarriage

Mixed unions between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in early colonial society.

British colonial motives

Colonization driven by religious aims, search for routes, and competition with other powers; emphasis on permanent settlements.

Mayflower Compact

Pilgrims’ 1620 self-government agreement establishing a civil body politic in Plymouth.

Town meetings

Local self-government gatherings in New England towns.

New England colonies

Puritan-led settlements with rocky soil, fishing, lumber, and strong town governance.

Middle Colonies

Diverse region with grain exports, religious tolerance (Quakers in PA), and major trade hubs (NY).

Chesapeake Bay colonies (Jamestown)

1607 settlement with a tobacco economy and the rise of slavery after 1619; early representative government (House of Burgesses).

House of Burgesses

Virginia’s first representative legislative assembly.

Southern and Caribbean plantation economy (sugar, rice, indigo)

Plantation-based agriculture with harsh slave codes and rigid social hierarchy.

Triangular Trade

Trade network: rum from New England to Africa for slaves, slaves to the Americas for sugar, sugar to Europe.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that colonies exist to benefit the mother country and accumulate wealth.

Navigation Acts

British laws restricting colonial trade to English ships and enumerated goods.

Salutary neglect

British policy of lax enforcement of trade laws, allowing colonial autonomy before the Glorious Revolution.

Beaver Wars

17th-century conflicts over fur trade involving the Iroquois, French, and other tribes.

Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War)

1675–76 conflict in New England between Native alliance and English settlers.

Pueblo Revolt

1680 rebellion of Pueblo peoples against Spanish colonial rule in present-day New Mexico.

Indentured servitude

Labor system where Europeans worked for passage to America, gradually displaced by slavery.

John Punch case

1660 court ruling that helped establish lifelong slavery for Black servants, contributing to race-based chattel slavery.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 Virginia uprising that highlighted class tensions and accelerated reliance on enslaved labor.

Stono Rebellion

1739 slave uprising in South Carolina, one of the largest in British North America.

New York Slave Rebellion (1741)

1741 uprising in New York by enslaved and free Black people; crackdown followed.

Jamaican Maroons

Communities of enslaved people in Jamaica who resisted slavery and formed autonomous groups.

1492

Columbus’s arrival in the Americas, initiating sustained contact between Europe and the Americas.

1607

founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Maryland Toleration Act (1649)

Law granting religious toleration to Trinitarian Christians in Maryland.

Glorious Revolution (1688)

Overthrow of James II; increased parliamentary power and shifts in colonial policy.

Salem Witch Trials (1692)

Mass hysteria leading to trials and executions in Massachusetts.

Seven Years’ War (begins 1754)

Global conflict starting in Europe that expanded into North America with Britain and France.