APUSH Term 2 Final

Bering Strait

Land bridge that once connected Asia to North America; significance: explains how the first humans migrated into the Americas.

3 changes in North America’s human history

Development of agriculture, complex societies, and large trade networks; significance: transformed Native life from small nomadic groups to organized civilizations.

Mound Builders/Cahokia

Native societies in the Mississippi Valley that built large earth mounds; significance: shows advanced civilization existed in North America before Europeans.

Pueblos

Permanent Native American towns in the Southwest made of adobe; significance: demonstrate settled agricultural life in arid regions.

Great League of Peace

Political alliance of the Iroquois nations; significance: powerful Native confederacy that influenced later American ideas of unity.

Native American religion

Spiritual beliefs centered on nature and community; significance: shaped Native views of land and daily life.

Native American land use

Land seen as communal and not privately owned; significance: conflicted with European ideas of property.

Native American gift giving

System of trade based on reciprocity and alliances; significance: maintained social and political relationships.

Native American gender roles

Women often farmed and held important social power; significance: more balanced roles than in Europe.

European religion

Christianity dominated and justified expansion; significance: Europeans used religion to justify conquest.

European land use

Land viewed as private property to be owned and exploited; significance: clashed with Native traditions.

European gender roles

Patriarchal system where men held legal authority; significance: limited rights and roles for women.

Coverture

Legal doctrine where a married woman had no separate legal identity from her husband; significance: defined women’s limited status in European society.

Sea route to Asia

European goal to reach Asian markets by sailing west; significance: motivated exploration that led to discovery of the Americas.

Zheng He

Chinese admiral who led major voyages in the Indian Ocean; significance: shows China explored widely before Europeans.

Caravel/compass

New sailing technologies allowing long ocean travel; significance: made European exploration possible.

Freedom and Slavery in Africa

Africa had various forms of servitude before European contact; significance: Europeans expanded and racialized slavery.

Columbus

Italian explorer who reached the Americas in 1492; significance: began permanent European contact with the New World.

Johannes Gutenberg

Inventor of the printing press; significance: spread knowledge and encouraged exploration.

Conquistadores/Hernán Cortes/Aztecs

Spanish conquerors who defeated the Aztec Empire; significance: began Spanish domination of the Americas.

Columbian Exchange

Global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases; significance: permanently changed both Europe and the Americas.

Governing Spanish America

Spain ruled colonies through viceroys and strict control; significance: created highly centralized imperial rule.

Haciendas

Large Spanish estates using Native labor; significance: formed the basis of colonial economy.

Mestizos

People of mixed European and Native ancestry; significance: created new social classes in Latin America.

Spanish justifications/goals for conquest

Desire for gold, land, and to spread Christianity; significance: drove brutal colonization.

Protestant Reformation

Religious movement breaking from Catholic Church; significance: increased European competition in the New World.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Priest who defended Native rights; significance: criticized Spanish abuses.

Encomienda

System granting Spaniards control over Native labor; significance: exploited Native populations.

Repartimiento system

Replacement labor system requiring Native work for wages; significance: slightly less brutal than encomienda.

Black Legend

Idea that Spain was uniquely cruel in the Americas; significance: used by rivals to justify their own colonization.

Pueblo Revolt/Pope

1680 Native uprising that expelled Spanish from New Mexico; significance: major successful Native resistance.

Northwest passage

Imagined water route across North America to Asia; significance: motivated French and English exploration.

Compare French to Spanish

French focused on trade and alliances while Spanish focused on conquest and conversion; significance: created very different colonial societies.

New France and the Indians

French built cooperative relationships with Native tribes; significance: relied on fur trade rather than plantations.

Middle ground & Metis

Cultural blending between French and Native peoples; significance: created mixed communities and alliances.

Compare Dutch to French and Spanish

Dutch focused on commerce and trade rather than conversion or conquest; significance: more tolerant but profit-driven colonies.

Joint stock company

Business owned by investors to fund colonies; significance: financed early English and Dutch settlement.

Dutch religious toleration

Policy allowing many religions in New Netherland; significance: encouraged diversity.

Patroons

Wealthy Dutch landowners given huge estates; significance: created feudal-like system in New Netherland.

New Netherlands and the Indians

Dutch traded with Natives but also fought violent wars; significance: mixed relations shaped the colony.

Borderland

Regions where European and Native cultures interacted and blended; significance: zones of constant cultural exchange and conflict.

Virginia Company & Jamestown

Joint stock company that founded Jamestown in 1607; significance: first permanent English colony.

Anglican Church

Official church of England; significance: religion of early Virginia settlers.

Roanoke colony

Failed English colony that disappeared; significance: first attempt at English settlement.

English motivations for colonization

Desire for wealth, land, and religious opportunity; significance: drove English expansion.

Enclosure movement

Fencing off common lands in England; significance: pushed poor people to seek opportunity in America.

Indentured Servants

Workers who traded years of labor for passage; significance: main labor force in early Chesapeake.

Jamestown/John Smith/tobacco

Settlement survived through Smith’s leadership and Rolfe’s tobacco crop; significance: made Virginia profitable.

Headright system

Land grants for bringing settlers to Virginia; significance: encouraged immigration and plantation growth.

House of Burgesses

First representative assembly in English America; significance: early step toward self-government.

Powhatan

Native leader who interacted with Jamestown settlers; significance: central figure in early English-Native relations.

Uprising of 1622

Powhatan attack on Virginia settlements; significance: hardened English attitudes toward Natives.

Dower rights

Widow’s right to part of husband’s property; significance: limited protection for colonial women.

Proprietary colony

Colony owned by individuals granted land by the king; significance: allowed private control of settlement.

Puritans/Pilgrims

Religious groups seeking to purify the Church of England; significance: founded New England colonies.

“City on a Hill”

Puritan vision of a model Christian society; significance: shaped New England culture.

John Winthrop

Puritan governor of Massachusetts Bay; significance: key founder of New England society.

Pilgrims

Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony; significance: created early self-government.

Mayflower Compact

Agreement to create self-rule in Plymouth; significance: foundation of democratic government.

Great Migration

Mass movement of Puritans to New England in 1630s; significance: rapid growth of Massachusetts.

Roger Williams/Rhode Island

Dissenter who founded colony based on religious freedom; significance: promoted separation of church and state.

Dissenters

People who challenged Puritan authority; significance: caused religious diversity.

Anne Hutchinson

Woman banished for challenging Puritan leaders; significance: example of limits of religious freedom.

Captivity narratives

Stories of colonists captured by Natives; significance: shaped English views of Indians.

Pequot War

Violent conflict between Puritans and Pequot tribe; significance: established English dominance in New England.

New England Economy

Based on small farms, trade, and fishing; significance: differed greatly from plantation South.

Halfway Covenant

Allowed partial church membership; significance: showed decline of strict Puritanism.

English liberty

Traditional rights of English citizens; significance: colonists believed they carried these rights to America.

English Civil War

Conflict between king and Parliament; significance: shaped ideas of rights and government.

Quakers

Religious group promoting equality and pacifism; significance: founded Pennsylvania.

Maryland Toleration Act

Law protecting Christian religious freedom; significance: early step toward tolerance.

Metacom/King Philip’s War

1675 conflict between New England colonists and Native Americans; significance: one of the deadliest wars in colonial history and crushed Native power in New England.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that colonies existed to benefit the mother country; significance: justified British control over colonial trade.

Navigation Acts

Laws requiring colonial trade to pass through England; significance: increased British profits but angered colonists.

New York

Former Dutch colony taken by England in 1664; significance: became a diverse middle colony.

Covenant Chain

Alliance between the Iroquois and English colonies; significance: helped stabilize frontier relations.

Yamasee Uprising

1715 Native rebellion in South Carolina; significance: showed dangers of expansion into Indian lands.

Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

Plan for Carolina colony creating a rigid social order; significance: attempted to impose aristocratic rule.

Quakers, William Penn, & Pennsylvania

Religious group that founded tolerant colony; significance: model of religious freedom and good Native relations.

Plantation slavery

System of large-scale slave labor on cash crop farms; significance: became economic foundation of the South.

Compare N American & W Indies slavery

Caribbean slavery was harsher and deadlier; significance: North American slavery relied more on natural population growth.

Development of slavery in Chesapeake

Shift from indentured servants to African slaves by late 1600s; significance: created permanent racial caste system.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 uprising of poor farmers against Virginia elite; significance: led planters to rely more on slavery.

Slave code of 1705

Virginia laws defining slaves as property; significance: legally established racial slavery.

Glorious Revolution

1688 overthrow of King James II; significance: strengthened English Parliament and colonial expectations of rights.

English Bill of Rights

Document limiting royal power; significance: influenced American ideas of liberty.

Lords of Trade

English board supervising colonies; significance: increased imperial control.

Dominion of New England

Attempt to unite colonies under strict royal rule; significance: deeply unpopular and short-lived.

Leisler’s Rebellion

1689 New York revolt after Glorious Revolution; significance: reflected colonial political divisions.

English Toleration Act

1689 law allowing some religious freedom; significance: encouraged diversity in colonies.

Salem Witch Trials

1692 panic leading to executions; significance: showed dangers of religious extremism.

Redemptioners

Poor immigrants who sold labor after arrival; significance: another form of temporary servitude.

Walking Purchase

Pennsylvania land fraud against the Delaware Indians; significance: worsened Native relations.

Backcountry

Frontier region of small farmers; significance: culturally distinct from coastal elites.

Atlantic World

Economic and cultural connections across the ocean; significance: colonies were part of global system.

Staple crops

Cash crops like tobacco, rice, and sugar; significance: drove colonial economies.

New World cultures/identity

Blending of European, African, and Native traditions; significance: created uniquely American societies.

Anglicization

Colonists adopting English customs and goods; significance: strengthened ties to Britain.

Changing class & gender roles

Growth of inequality and stricter patriarchy; significance: shaped colonial social order.

Olaudah Equiano

Former slave who wrote about his experiences; significance: powerful voice against slavery.