APUSH Unit 1: Pre-Columbian Civilizations and European Settlement

Maize cultivation

The spread of it from present-day Mexico northward into the American Southwest and beyond supported economic development and social diversification among societies in these areas. EX: Anasazi, Pueblo

Pueblo culture

1st American corn growers. They lived in adobe houses (dried mud) and villages of cubicle shaped adobe houses, stacked one on top the other and often beneath cliffs. They also had elaborate irrigation systems to draw water away from the rivers to grow corn.

Fremont culture

This was the culture that came after the Archaic Period in the Great Basic, at least in those parts of the Great Basin that moved beyond the Desert Archaic. The most important aspect of this culture was the cultivation of corn, beans, and squash.

Semi-nomadic

groups of people who relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants for their subsistence. They did not permanently settle in one location but moved around seasonally to follow the availability of resources.

Buffalo jump

A buffalo jump is a cliff formation which Native Americans historically used in order to hunt and kill plains bison in mass quantities.

Mississippian culture

Last of the mound-building cultures of North America; flourished between 800 and 1300 C.E.; featured large towns and ceremonial centers; lacked stone architecture of Central America.

Iroquois Confederacy

An alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples (after 1722 six) that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, it dominated W. New England.

Semi-settled

Semi sedentary tribes that evolved in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. They built elaborate organized mounds that represented animals, social divisions, and maintained long distance trade.

Chinook

Native American tribes who lived in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, particularly along the Columbia River. They were known for their fishing skills and plank houses.

Chumash

Native tribe. Lived in southern coastal california, head power was passed down through family & women could be chiefs or wots, were mainly hunter-gatherers and fishermen, were able to thrive from resources of sea & land, rarely interacted with nearby tribes.

Reconquista

Beginning in the eleventh century, military campaigns by various Iberian Christian states to recapture territory taken by Muslims. In 1492 the last Muslim ruler was defeated, and Spain and Portugal emerged as united kingdoms.

Conquistadores

Spanish 'conqueror' or soldier in the New World. They were searching for the 3-G's: gold, God, and glory.

The Black Legend

False notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Indians and steal their gold in the name of Christ.

Northwest Passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century.

The Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Spanish silver inflation

was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World; including Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and the rest of the Spanish Empire.

El Escorial

palace built by Philip II which served as royal court, art gallery, monastery, and tomb for Spanish royalty

Caravel

A small, easily steerable ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in their explorations

Compass and quadrant

enabled sailors to determine their location and direction with greater accuracy

Joint-stock trading company

This was a new investment opportunity during the Age of Exploration that made it easier to raise the money to fund voyages -- individuals would buy shares in a company and then receive a share of any profits made (dividends)

Smallpox epidemics

Killed many of the Native people when Europeans arrived. Their population declined tremendously

Introduction of horses

Changed many Native American societies

Encomienda system

A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians; it was a disguised form of slavery.

Repartimiento system

A system instituted by Spain in which residents of Indian villages remained legally free and entitled to wages, but were still required to perform a fixed amount of labor each year; replaced the encomienda system in 1550.

African slave traders

brought slaves to the coasts to the europeans. African sellers sought both European and Indian textiles cowrie shells that were used as money, European metal goods, firearms and gunpowder, tobacco and alcohol, and various decorative items such as beads.

Spanish caste system

system based on race that was used for social control and also determined a person's role and importance in society. Peninsular, Creole, Mestizo, Indios

Mestizo

The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed native American and European descent.

Mulatto

The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Communal stewardship of land

Native American conception of land use where the community shares responsibility for maintaining the land.

Matrilineal

relating to a social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother

Roanoke

Established in 1587. Called the Lost Colony. It was financed by Sir Walter Raleigh, and its leader in the New World was John White. All the settlers disappeared, and historians still don't know what became of them.

Acoma War and defeat of the Pueblos (1599)

led to the Ácoma Massacre -- a punitive expedition by Spanish conquistadors at the Acoma Pueblo in January, 1599 that resulted in the deaths of around 500 Acoma men and 300 women and children after a three-day battle.

North American Fur Trade

Indians and French worked together, massive exporters of fur, beaverskin caps became rage in Europe, French colonized differently, mostly male-dominated initially along Mississippi

Juan de Sepulveda

Spaniard who supported the Spanish Empire's right of conquest and colonization in the New World. He also argued in favor of the Christianize of Native Americans.

Bartolome de Las Casas

revealed the atrocities of the conquests of New Spain and Peru and who strove to protect the basic rights of indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire. For this reason, Las Casas is often called the 'Defender of the Indians'.