ap us history unit 1 vocab

ap us

Three sisters

Corn beans and squash grown together by native Americans for sustainable agriculture

Iroquois confederacy

Allliance of five Native American tribes in present day New York for mutual defense

Cahokia

Major Mississippian settlement near east St. Louis with population up to 25,000

Longhouse

Large wood-and-bark dwelling used by Iroquois families and communities

St. Augustine

Spanish fortress in Florida, founded in 1565, oldest European permanent settlement in the U.S.

Treaty of tordesillas

1494 agreement dividing newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal

Mission system

Spanish religious and military outposts aimed at converting Native Americans

Quebec

French colony founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain for fur trading

Columbian exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the old world (Europe, Asia, and Africa) to the new worlds

Joint-stock company

Business venture where investors pooled money to fund colonies, sharing profits and risks

Encomienda system

Spanish system granting colonists the right to force labor from Native Americans in exchange for Christianization

Plymouth

First permanent English settlement in New England, established by pilgrims in 1620

Mayflower compact

1620 agreement by pilgrims to establish self-government in Plymouth colony

John Winthrop

Governor of Massachusetts bay colony; envisioned the colony as a “city upon a hill”

Roger Williams

Founder of Rhode island who promoted religious freedom and separation of church and state

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan religious dissenter who challenged clergy authority in Massachusetts’s bay colony

Head right system

Land grant system in which colonists received land for paying passage of new settlers

Indentured servants

People who agreed to work for a set # of years in exchange for passage to the colonies

Bacons rebellion

1676 uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel bacon against colonial leadership

Mercantilism

Economic policy where colonies exist to increase mother country’s wealth through trade