APUSH Unit 1: Period 1 (1491-1607) Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering Native American regional societies, European motives and empires, and the Columbian Exchange from APUSH Unit 1 (1491-1607).

Great Basin

A dry region with limited resources where Native American groups relied on hunting, gathering, and fishing, and often moved.

Southwest Native American Groups

Groups such as the Pueblo who built permanent homes, practiced agriculture, grew crops like maize, beans, and squash, and developed irrigation systems.

Northwest Coast Native Americans

Native American groups in a region with abundant natural resources, especially fish and trees, who relied heavily on fishing, hunting, and gathering and built wooden homes.

Great Plains Native Americans

Native groups who relied on bison for food, clothing, and tools, with some groups being nomadic and following bison herds.

Eastern Woodlands Native Americans

Native Americans living in a region of forests, rivers, and fertile land who farmed crops such as corn, beans, and squash, in addition to hunting and gathering.

Mississippian Culture

A Native American culture that built large settlements and earthen mounds, farmed maize, and developed complex political and religious societies.

Spain (European Exploration)

One of the first European powers to explore and colonize the Americas, whose explorers conquered Native American empires and spread Christianity, Spanish culture, and disease.

France (European Exploration)

A European nation that explored North America, focused on the fur trade and trading, and formed alliances with some Native American groups.

England (European Exploration)

A European nation that established colonies in North America to gain wealth, land, and religious freedom, whose settlers displaced many Native Americans.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, people, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and Europe/Africa, which increased trade and wealth but caused Native American population decline, slavery, and major cultural changes.

Columbian Exchange Crops

Crops such as corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and cacao that spread to other parts of the world and increased global food supplies.

Columbian Exchange Animals

Animals including horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep brought to the Americas that changed Native American lifestyles and environments.

Columbian Exchange Diseases

Diseases brought by Europeans, including smallpox, measles, and influenza, to which Native Americans had little immunity, causing massive population loss.

Columbian Exchange Technology

European tools and developments including guns, steel tools, ships, and horses that gave Europeans advantages in exploration and warfare.

Encomienda

A labor system that gave Spanish colonists control over Indigenous labor and tribute; in return, colonists were supposed to provide protection and Christian teaching.

Chattel Slavery

A labor system that treated enslaved Africans as property for life, where status was generally passed down to their children.

Indigenous Labor

A system where Indigenous people were forced or pressured to work in mines, farms, and plantations.

Causes of European Exploration

The desire for wealth, new trade routes, land, and spreading Christianity.