AMSCO AP US History Unit 1 Vocab

Land bridge

migrants from Asia crossed this bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska (land is now submerged under Bering Sea)

Mayas

located at the Yucatan Peninsula (today’s southern Mexico and Guatemala), between the years 300-800. built remarkable cities

Aztecs

located central Mexico, its capital, Tecnochtitlan, had a population equivalent to the biggest cities in Europe

Incas

located in Peru, it developed a vast empire in western part of South America

Maize (corn)

provided stable food supply for the Aztecs and Mayas.

about 1000AD Spread from Central to North America (esp Southwest)

Increased population

Algonquian

one of the largest language families at the time, spoken in the Northeast

Siouan

one of the largest language families at the time, spoken in the Great Plains and Great Basin

Hohokam, Anasazi, and Pueblos

these American Indians were located in New Mexico and Arizona region. (southwest region)

Developed farming using agriculture and irrigation systems

Lived in caves, under cliffs in multistory buildings

Weakened by droughts and hostiles

Adena-Hopewell

centered in the Ohio River Valley, created a large earthen mounds, some 300ft long.

Combined hunting and farming, but their farming techniques drained the soil quickly so people quickly moved to fresh land.

longhouses

multiple families related through the mother’s lineage lived together, up to 200ft long.

used in northeast and northwest settlements

Iroquois Confederation

located in the northeast settlements, made up of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and later the Tuscan, and they form a powerful political union, battling rivaling American Indians and Europeans, from the 16th century to American Revolution

Woodland mound builders

descendants of tribes in the atlantic seaboard seaboard settlements (coastal plains) that prospered because of a rich food supply.

built timber and bark lodging along rivers

gunpowder

invented by the chinese

sailing compass

adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese. used in voyages

printing press

invented in the 1450s, aided the spread of knowledge across Europe

Isabella and Ferdinand

Isabella is the queen of Castile and Ferdinand is the kind of Aragon. Together, they got married in 1492, becoming a power couple, uniting Spain, defeated the last Moors in Granada in 1492. Funded Christopher Columbus’s voyage.

Christopher Columbus

In 1492, he sailed from the Canary Islands to Bahamas, in which he thought it was India.

Protestant Reformation

in the early 1500s, certain Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland, and other northern Europe countries revolted against the authority of the pope in Rome. Conflict between the Catholics and Protestants.

Henry the Navigator

prince of Portugal whose voyages succeed by opening up a long sea route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope

Nation-states

countries in which the majority of people shared a common culture and common loyalty toward a central government. depended on trade to bring in needed revenues and on the church to justify their right to rule

Treaty of Tordesillas

In 1494, Spain and Portugal moved the pope’s line of demarcation a few degrees to the west and signed an agreement, which passes through the country of Brazil and established Portugal’s claim to Brazil and Spain gets the rest of the countries in the Americas

Roanoke Island

In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to establish a settlement there, but it failed.

horses

In the 17th century, American Indians in the Great Plains acquired these animals from Spain, increasing natives’ mobility, military reach, hunting speed, and defense

diseases/smallpox/measles

Native Americans had no immunity to the germs and diseases brought by Europeans and the native population declined rapidly

capitalism

an economic system in which control of capital (money and machinery), became more important than control of land

joint-stock company

a business owned by a large number of investors. If a voyage failed, investors only lost what they invested, which encouraged investment and also economic growth

conquistadores

Spanish explorers and conquerors of the Americas sent ships loaded with gold and silver)

Hernan Cortes

conquered the Aztecs in Mexico

Francisco Pizarro

conquered the Incas in Peru, securing Spain’s initial supremacy in the Americas.

Encomienda

a system during the early 1500s-1730 in which Spain’s king granted natives who lived on a tract of land to individual Spaniards and these Indians were forced to farm, work in mines, or build roads and infrastructure. harsh conditions for the laborers and in return the Spaniards had to “care” for them and getting awarded with land grants

Asiento system

required colonists to pay a tax to the Spanish king on each enslaved person they imported to the Americas

Transatlantic slave trade

slave traders sent between 10 million and 15 million enslaved people from Africa until it ended in the late 1800s.

Middle Passage

middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America. It was a dangerous trip as between 10% and 15% died on the voyage

slavery

as far back as the 1500s the Spanish brought captured Africans to America to provide free labor

Bartolome de las Casas

a Spanish priest who advocated better treatment for Indians by persuading the king to institute the New Laws of 1542

New Laws of 1542

these laws ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the encomienda system that kept the Indians in serfdom

Valladolid debate

a formal debate about the roles of Indians in 1550-1551 in Valladolid, Spain, in which las Casas argues that the Indians were completely human and morally equal to Europeans while another priest Juan Gines de Sepuiveda argued that Indians were less than human and they benefitted from Serving the Spaniards in the encomienda system. Neither side clearly persuaded the entire audience

Juan Gines de Sepuiveda

argued that Indians were less than human and they benefitted from Serving the Spaniards in the encomienda system