🇺🇸APUSH Unit 1, Vocab #2

Conquistadores

Spanish explorers and soldiers who led the conquest of large parts of the Americas in the 1500s, seeking gold, land, and glory while spreading Spanish control and Christianity.

Mestizo

A person of mixed European (usually Spanish) and Indigenous American ancestry, forming a major social group in Spanish colonial society.

Taino

An Indigenous people of the Caribbean who were among the first to encounter Columbus and suffered massive population loss due to disease, slavery, and violence.

Mission system

A network of religious settlements established by Spanish missionaries to convert Native Americans to Christianity and integrate them into Spanish colonial society.

Encomienda

A Spanish labor system that granted colonists the right to demand labor and tribute from Native Americans in exchange for supposed protection and Christian instruction.

Casta/caste system

A rigid social hierarchy in Spanish colonies that ranked people based on race and ancestry, placing Europeans at the top and Indigenous and African peoples at the bottom.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 uprising in which Pueblo peoples successfully expelled Spanish colonizers from present-day New Mexico for over a decade.

Plantation system

A large-scale agricultural system based on growing cash crops such as tobacco, rice, or sugar using enslaved or forced labor.

Conquistadores

Spanish military leaders and explorers who overthrew Indigenous empires and claimed territory for Spain in the Americas.

Mercantilism

An economic theory holding that a nation’s power depends on accumulating wealth, especially gold and silver, through controlled trade and colonies.

Joint stock company

A business organization in which investors pooled money to fund colonies or ventures, sharing both risks and profits.

Indentured servant/servitude

A laborer who agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the Americas, food, and shelter. (Common to have people come to the new world and English Colonies)

Fur trade

An economic system based on trading animal pelts, especially beaver, between Native Americans and European settlers. (new Frances economic structure/purpose)

Pilgrim v Puritan

Pilgrims sought religious freedom and separated from the Church of England, while Puritans wanted to reform the Church from within.

Starving Time

A severe winter (1609–1610) in Jamestown when food shortages led to extreme suffering and death among colonists. Caused after Captain John Smiths departure back to England.

Powhatan Wars

A series of conflicts between English settlers in Virginia and the Powhatan Confederacy over land and resources. 1604-1646

House of Burgesses

The first representative legislative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619. Similar to modern day democracy and it’s first establishment of the modern-day United States legislative system.