AP U.S. History Chapter 1: New World Beginnings (33,000 B.C. – A.D. 1769)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the notes on pre-Columbian America, European exploration, and early colonization.

Bering Strait

A narrow waterway between Asia and North America; historically significant as a migration route, with a land bridge forming when water levels dropped.

Animism

The belief that non-human things such as plants or animals possess a spiritual presence.

Nomadic

Wandering or moving from place to place in search of resources.

Pueblo

Southwestern Native American group that lived in arid lands, depended on irrigation, and grew maize and other crops.

Great Basin & Great Plains (Lakota Sioux)

Regions where Native groups developed nomadic lifestyles due to scarce natural resources and relied on buffalo hunting.

Iroquois Confederation

A political and cultural alliance of Iroquoian-speaking tribes in the Northeast with permanent villages.

Three Gs

Gold, Glory, God — the economic, political, and religious motives for European colonization.

Columbian Exchange

Trans-Atlantic transfer of people, diseases (e.g., smallpox), crops, and ideas between the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

Smallpox

A deadly European disease that contributed to massive Native American population declines after contact.

Maize/Corn

An American crop that supported population growth and, after its spread, influenced settlement patterns in Europe.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing the newly discovered lands outside Europe between them.

St. Augustine (1565)

First permanent Spanish settlement in what is now the United States (Florida).

Encomienda System

Spanish colonial system granting land and native labor to colonists; aimed at labor collection and conversion to Catholicism.

Mestizo

Person of mixed Indigenous and European heritage.

Mulatto

Person of mixed European and African ancestry.

Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion)

1680 uprising by Pueblo people against Spanish rule, leading to deaths and church destructions.

Just Causes for War Against the Indians

Writ by Juan de Sepúlveda justifying Spanish colonization and conquest.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Author of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, criticizing Spanish mistreatment of indigenous peoples.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that colonies exist to enrich the mother country through raw materials and wealth (gold/silver).

Intermarriage with Natives

European colonists (Spanish, French, Dutch) often intermarried with Native peoples, creating mixed populations.