APUSH vocab unit 1

Pre-Columbian Americas

The time in North and South America before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.

Indigenous environmental adaptation

The ways Native American societies before 1491 shaped their lifestyles, economies, and social structures to fit their specific geographic regions.

Regional diversity

The distinct economic, social, cultural, and political patterns that developed across different geographic areas due to variations in climate, geography, and settlement patterns.

Maize cultivation

The planting and harvesting of corn that spread from present-day Mexico north into the American Southwest and beyond.

American Southwest

The arid region of the present-day US (including Arizona and New Mexico).

Pueblo peoples

Sedentary Native Americans of the arid American Southwest who built permanent, complex communities based on maize cultivation, advanced irrigation systems, and multi-story adobe architecture.

Irrigation agriculture

Using canals or other systems to bring water to crops, especially in dry areas.

Great Basin

A dry region where Native Americans mainly relied on hunting, gathering, and seasonal movement.

Great Plains

A grassland region where many Native Americans depended heavily on bison hunting.

Mobile hunter-gatherer societies

Societies that moved from place to place to find food and other resources.

Northeast

A forested region where Native Americans used farming, hunting, fishing, and gathering.

Mississippi River Valley

A fertile region where Native Americans developed agriculture and large settlements.

Mississippian culture

Native societies in the Mississippi Valley known for farming, large settlements, and earthen mounds.

Atlantic seaboard

The eastern coastal region where Native Americans used forests, rivers, and ocean resources.

Mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies

Economies that combined farming with hunting, fishing, and gathering.

Northwest and California

Regions with abundant fish, forests, and other natural resources, allowing many Native groups to live in settled communities.

Ocean-resource societies

Societies that relied heavily on fishing, shellfish, and other resources from the ocean.

Christopher Columbus

European explorer who reached the Americas in 1492 while searching for a route to Asia, beginning lasting European contact.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly claimed lands between them.

Economic motives for exploration

Europeans explored to gain gold, wealth, trade routes, and access to valuable resources.

Economic and military competition

European nations competed for wealth, territory, trade, and global power.

Christian missionary activity

European efforts to convert Native Americans to Christianity, especially by Catholic missionaries.

Northwest Passage

A hoped-for water route through North America to Asia that would make trade easier.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, people, and goods between the Americas and Europe/Africa.

Smallpox

A European disease that spread among Native Americans and caused millions of deaths.

Indigenous demographic collapse

The massive decline in Native American populations, mainly because of European diseases.

Potatoes

An American crop introduced to Europe that provided a major new source of food and helped population growth.

Horses

Animals introduced by Europeans that changed Native American transportation, hunting, and warfare.

Mineral wealth

Valuable gold and silver in the Americas that attracted European explorers and colonizers.

European population growth

The increase in Europe's population partly caused by new food crops from the Americas, such as potatoes and maize.