APUSH Period 1

Incas

Powerful South American empire based in Peru; known for advanced agriculture, roads, and centralized government; conquered by Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s.

Aztecs

Mesoamerican empire in central Mexico; known for large cities, tribute system, and human sacrifice; conquered by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

Mayas

Advanced Mesoamerican civilization in the Yucatán Peninsula; developed writing, math, astronomy, and large cities; declined before Spanish arrival.

Nation-states

Political units with centralized government and defined territory; in Europe, monarchies like Spain, France, and England became powerful in the 1400s.

Three-sister farming

Agricultural system where maize, beans, and squash were grown together, supporting larger populations in North America.

Plantation

Large-scale agricultural estate using slave or forced labor to grow cash crops like sugar, tobacco, or cotton.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and people between the Old World and New World after Columbus’s voyages.

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing the New World along a line; Spain got most of the Americas, Portugal got Brazil and Africa.

Encomienda

Spanish labor system granting colonists the right to demand tribute and forced labor from Indigenous people in exchange for “protection” and Christianity.

Mestizos

People of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry; became a large social class in colonial Latin America.

Conquistadores

Spanish conquerors who led expeditions in the Americas; sought gold, land, and to spread Christianity.

Ferdinand and Isabella

Monarchs of Spain who unified the country, funded Columbus’s voyage, and pushed the Reconquista and Catholic expansion.

Pope’s Rebellion

1680 Pueblo revolt in New Mexico led by a Native leader named Popé; successfully drove the Spanish out for over a decade.

Maize

Corn; staple crop of Native American societies that supported population growth and complex civilizations.

Slave trade

Forced transport of Africans across the Atlantic (Middle Passage) to work on plantations in the Americas.

Pueblos

Native American peoples of the Southwest who built permanent settlements and practiced irrigation farming.

Lakota Sioux

Great Plains tribe that became skilled horsemen after European introduction of horses; adopted a nomadic buffalo-hunting lifestyle.

Nomadic

Lifestyle of moving from place to place, often following food sources; common among Plains tribes before and after horses.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire with the help of Native allies and disease weakening the population.

Moctezuma

Aztec emperor defeated by Cortés; initially welcomed the Spanish but was later killed during the conquest.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator funded by Spain; reached the Americas in 1492, beginning European colonization.

Algonquian

Native American language group in the Northeast and Great Lakes; tribes like the Powhatan and Wampanoag spoke it.

Iroquois Confederation

Alliance of five (later six) tribes in New York; created a powerful political and military union, influencing colonial diplomacy.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spanish priest who opposed Native enslavement and advocated for Indigenous rights, though he supported African slavery at first.

Valladolid Debate

1550

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

Spanish scholar who defended conquest and argued that Natives were inferior and benefited from Spanish rule.