AP U.S. History Unit 1 Vocabulary (1491–1607)

Vocabulary flashcards covering 200 terms from APUSH Unit 1 (1491–1607).

Aztecs

Powerful Mesoamerican civilization in central Mexico centered at Tenochtitlan; known for calendar, monumental architecture, and ritual practices.

Incas

South American empire in the Andes with a centralized bureaucracy; famous for road systems and terrace farming.

Mayas

Mesoamerican civilization in the Yucatan and Central America with advanced writing, mathematics, and a complex calendar.

Pueblo

Native American community in the Southwest known for adobe village living and agricultural practices.

Anasazi

Ancient Ancestral Puebloans of the Southwest noted for cliff dwellings and early urban centers.

Mississippian Culture

Late pre-Columbian mound-building civilization in the Southeast with Cahokia as a major center.

Cahokia

Largest precolonial Mississippian city near present-day St. Louis, famous for its earthen mounds.

Iroquois Confederacy

Powerful alliance of Northwest Iroquoian-speaking nations with a matrilineal clan system.

Powhatan Confederacy

Algonquian-speaking network of tribes in Virginia led by Powhatan; interacted with Jamestown settlers.

Wampanoag

Algonquian-speaking people in coastal New England; helped the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

Pequot

Northeast tribe in Connecticut; involved in the Pequot War with English settlers.

Algonquian

Language family of many tribes across the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes region.

Lakota Sioux

Great Plains tribe known for horse culture and mobile bison hunting after the introduction of horses.

Chinook

Northwest Coast people renowned for extensive trade networks and salmon fishing.

Cherokee

Iroquoian-speaking Southeastern tribe that practiced agriculture and later faced removal.

Creek

Muscogee Confederacy in the Southeast; powerful southeastern Native group.

Seminole

People of Florida with Creek ancestry noted for resisting removal in the Seminole Wars.

Shawnee

Algonquian-speaking tribe in the Ohio Valley with extensive trade and military activity.

Huron

Iroquoian-speaking group in the Great Lakes region; allied with French against Iroquois; also known as Wyandot.

Mohawk

Easternmost Iroquois nation; key member of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Oneida

Iroquoian tribe within the Iroquois Confederacy.

Onondaga

Iroquoian nation central to the Iroquois Confederacy; often considered its political center.

Cayuga

Iroquoian nation within the Iroquois Confederacy.

Seneca

Iroquoian nation in the western portion of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Apache

Southwestern Native American group noted for nomadic hunter gathering and later resistance.

Navajo

Diné; largest Native American group in the Southwest known for herding and weaving.

Comanche

Plains tribe that became powerful horse-mounted hunters and raiders.

Nez Perce

Plateau Northwest Native group known for horse culture and guiding explorers.

Ute

Great Basin/Colorado Plateau people known for mobility and adaptation to arid environments.

Blackfoot

Plains Confederacy in the Northern Plains renowned for buffalo hunting and warfare.

Hopewell

Hopewell culture known for mound building and long-distance trade in the Ohio Valley.

Mound Builders

Group of cultures in North America known for constructing burial and ceremonial mounds.

Nomadic Tribes

Tribes that moved frequently in search of food and resources.

Sedentary Tribes

Tribes with permanent settlements and agriculture.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator sponsored by Spain who opened sustained European contact with the Americas in 1492.

Amerigo Vespucci

Italian explorer after whom the Americas are named; clarified that lands were new continents.

John Cabot

Italian explorer sailing for England; claimed parts of North America for England.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztec Empire and enabled extensive Spanish colonization.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conqueror who toppled the Inca Empire in South America.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Spanish Dominican reformer who criticized the encomienda system and advocated native rights.

Hernando de Soto

Spanish explorer who explored the Southeast, crossing Florida and the Mississippi River valley.

Francisco Coronado

Spanish explorer who explored much of the American Southwest in search of Seven Cities of Gold.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who organized the first circumnavigation of the globe; died en route.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Spanish explorer who crossed the Isthmus of Panama to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese royal patron of early exploration and navigational schools at Sagres.

Juan Ponce de León

Spanish explorer who explored Florida in search of fortune and the Fountain of Youth.

Giovanni da Verrazzano

Italian explorer who sailed for France along the Atlantic coast of North America.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who navigated the St. Lawrence River and claimed Canada for France.

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer who founded Quebec and established French presence in North America.

Henry Hudson

Explorer for the Dutch who navigated the Hudson River in search of a northwest passage.

Sir Walter Raleigh

English noble who sponsored the Roanoke Colony and popularized tobacco in England.

Sir Francis Drake

English privateer who circumnavigated the globe and attacked Spanish ships.

Martin Luther

German monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation with his 95 Theses.

John Calvin

French theologian whose Calvinism emphasized predestination and a disciplined church.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of crops, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds after 1492.

Conquistadors

Spanish conquerors who led expeditions in the Americas and claimed vast territories.

Encomienda System

Spanish labor system granting colonists rights to Native labor and tribute in a colony.

Repartimiento System

Replacement for encomienda; natives paid wages but obligated to perform labor.

Asiento System

License system allowing the importation of enslaved Africans to Spanish America.

Mission System

Spanish network of religious outposts intended to convert and control Indigenous peoples.

Spanish Armada

Spanish fleet defeated by England in 1588, shifting naval power in Europe.

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement dividing uncharted non-European world between Spain and Portugal.

Line of Demarcation

Imaginary boundary set by the Treaty of Tordesillas separating Spanish and Portuguese zones.

Black Legend

Critique of Spanish colonization portraying it as uniquely brutal toward natives.

Jesuit Missionaries

Catholic missionaries who established schools and missions in the New World.

Franciscan Missionaries

Catholic friars who established mission towns across the Spanish empire.

Smallpox Epidemic

Contagious disease that devastated Indigenous populations after European contact.

Syphilis Exchange

Spread of syphilis between the Old and New Worlds following contact.

Horse Introduction

European horses transformed Native American mobility and warfare, especially on the plains.

Sugar Plantations

Caribbean estates producing sugar with enslaved African labor.

Cash Crops

Crops grown for trade and profit, such as tobacco, sugar, and rice.

Roanoke

First English attempt at colonization in Virginia; vanished, becoming the Lost Colony.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia.

Virginia Company

Joint-stock company that financed the Jamestown settlement.

Joint-stock Company

Business entity with multiple investors sharing profits and risks.

Captain John Smith

Leader of Jamestown who enforced discipline and cultivation of food.

John Rolfe

Early Jamestown settler who perfected tobacco culturing and married Pocahontas.

Pocahontas

Powhatan woman who allied with the English and helped maintain relative peace.

Powhatan

Leader of the Powhatan Confederacy and a key figure in early Virginia diplomacy.

Tobacco Economy

Virginia's economic system centered on growing and exporting tobacco.

House of Burgesses

First representative assembly in the English colonies, created in Virginia in 1619.

Headright System

Land grant program giving 50 acres to settlers plus extra for bringing servants.

Indentured Servants

Laborers who worked for a set period in exchange for passage to America.

Charter Colony

Colony granted a charter allowing self government under corporate rights.

Royal Colony

Colony governed directly by the crown.

Proprietary Colony

Colony granted to a proprietor or group by the crown to govern.

Maryland Act of Toleration

1649 law granting freedom of worship to all Christians within Maryland.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1639 constitution establishing a framework for representative government.

Maryland Colony

Colony founded as a Catholic haven under the Calvert family; later religious toleration.

Georgia Colony

Colony established in 1733 as a debtor refuge and buffer against Spanish Florida.

Carolina Colonies

Proprietary colonies later split into North and South Carolina with plantation economies.

New Amsterdam

Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island; later renamed New York after English conquest.

New Netherland

Dutch colony along the Hudson River and Delaware Bay; included parts of present NY and NJ.

Dutch West India Company

Dutch trading company that administered New Netherland through monopolies.

Separatists

Puritans who wanted to break from the Church of England; Pilgrims.

Puritans

Religious reformers seeking to purify the Church of England; not separatists.

Pilgrims

Separatist group who settled Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620.

Mayflower Compact

1620 agreement among Pilgrims establishing self-government for the colony.

William Bradford

Leader and longtime governor of Plymouth Colony; chronicler of its history.

John Winthrop

Leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; envisioned a model society.