Unit 1 and 2: Early American Civilizations and Colonial Experiments

These flashcards cover early Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations, various North American tribal cultures, and the subsequent European colonial systems, trade policies, and labor structures.

Bering Strait

A 100-mile land bridge between Asia and modern-day Alaska that existed between $13,000$ and $3,000\text{ BCE}$, allowing hunter-gatherers to migrate to the Americas.

Mayan Civilization

The first advanced civilization in the Americas, known for pyramids aligned to true north and a calendar that predicted the world would end on December 31, 2012.

Holy Trinity

The staple crops of corn, squash, and beans cultivated by the people of Mexico and Peru around $6,000\text{ BCE}$.

Quipu

A system of knotted strings used by the Inca civilization for bookkeeping and record-keeping in the absence of a written alphabet.

Tenochtitlan

The Aztec capital established on Lake Texcoco, featuring a network of canals and a population of approximately $250,000$ by 1519.

Cahokia

The dominant center of the Mississippi culture located in modern-day Illinois, peaking at $6,000$ to $40,000$ people with at least $120$ distinct mounds.

Haudenosaunee

Meaning 'people of the longhouse', this refers to the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy formed by the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas.

Matrilineal

A social system where power and inheritance are passed down through the female line, as practiced by the Iroquois Five Nations.

Sachems

Representatives serving on the council of the Iroquois Confederacy who made decisions for the common good of the tribes.

Great Plains

A vast plateau region from central Texas to the Canadian plains that became more mobile for Native tribes after Europeans introduced horses in the late 1500s.

Pueblo People

Native groups in the arid southwest, including the Anasazi and Hohokams, who used irrigation for agriculture and built homes out of adobe.

Animism

The belief that spiritual forces occupy nature and living things, a central component of polytheistic Native American religions.

Chattel Slavery

A system of bondage where a person has the legal status of property and can be bought and sold.

Encomienda

A grant given by the Spanish crown to prominent men, providing them with a claim to Indian labor and goods in Spanish America.

Columbian Exchange

The massive global transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between the Western and Eastern hemispheres starting after 1492.

Mercantilism

A system of political economy based on government regulation with the goal of exporting more than importing to create a positive trade balance.

Joint-stock corporation

A financial organization where investors pool capital and receive shares in an enterprise, such as the Virginia Company.

House of Burgesses

A representative legislative body created in 1619 to make laws for the Virginia colony, reflecting an early English belief in self-government.

Royal Colony

An English colony chartered by the crown and governed by a royally-appointed governor, as Virginia became following the Indian Wars of 1622.

Headright System

A system of land distribution that granted usually $50$ acres of land to anyone who paid the passage for a new arrival to the colonies.

Indentured Servitude

A labor system where workers contracted for a specific period (usually $4$ to $7$ years) without wages in exchange for passage and room and board.

Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage that forcibly transported enslaved West Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Navigation Acts

English laws designed to regulate colonial trade and ensure that English mercantilism was strictly followed.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 overthrow of the catholic King James II, replaced by William III and Mary II, ending royal absolutism in England.