APUSH Period 1 Vocab

Atlantic seaboard

societies developed a mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economy that favored the development of permanent villages.

Bartolome de Las Casas

a Catholic missionary who renounced the Spanish practice of forcibly converting Native populations to Catholicism, and advocated better treatment for them. In 1552, he wrote “A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies,” which described the Spanish cruel treatment of the Indians.

Capitalism

an economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production

Caste System

a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person’s occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who “discovered” the New World in the service of the Catholic monarchs of Spain while looking for a route to China. Committed atrocities against Native populations.

Conquistadors

16th century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan empires.

Columbian Exchange

transfer of goods, crops, and diseases between the New and Old World societies after 1492

ecomienda system

Spanish government’s policy to “commend,” or give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them. Part of a broader Spanish effort to subdue Indian tribes in the West Indies and on the North American mainland.

feudalism

a political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

great basin

arid region of the southwest United States including Nevada, Arizona and Utah

great plains

a vast grassland that extends through the central portion of North America, from the Mississippi River in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West

Hernan Cortez

1519 he led soldiers to Tenochtitlan, places it under siege with help of natives, defeated Aztec empire and began Spanish empire in Mesoamerica

joint-stock company

a company made up of a group of shareholders. each shareholder contributed some money to the company and received some share of the company’s profits and debts

maize

an early form of corn grown by Native Americans which was the most important crop to the survival of the early Americans

mississippi river valley

in the eastern woodlands; was an agricultural society; grew “three sisters” crops (squash, beans, and corn); were mound builders