APUSH units 1/2

The great awakening

A series of religious revivals in the American colonies during the 18th century, emphasizing individual experience and personal faith over established religious authority. Personal conversion, emotional preaching, and a “new birth”

Bacon’s rebellion

A revolt in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the government of Governor William Berkeley, primarily due to frustrations over land and lack of protection from Native American attacks.

Columbian exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, goods, and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world following Christopher Columbus's voyages in the late 15th century.

maize cultivation

the growing and harvesting of corn that originated in present-day Mexico and spread northward into the American Southwest and beyond before European contact

Great Plains hunting and mobility

a largely mobile, hunter-gatherer lifestyle shaped directly by the region's arid climate and vast grasslands.

Northeast villages and alliances

agricultural communities and powerful political confederacies formed by indigenous groups in the Northeast woodlands, most notably the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, to manage resource competition, warfare, and later, European colonization.

Cahokia

the largest pre-Columbian city in North America, serving as a major urban and trading center for the Mississippian culture near present-day St. Louis

Irrigation

refers to the artificial watering of land and crops, specifically used by Native American societies in the arid American Southwest (such as the Pueblo and Hohokam) to cultivate maize (corn) before European contact

aztec/inca empires

advanced pre-Columbian American empires (Mexico, Peru) whose sophisticated maize agriculture, large urban populations, and ultimate conquests by Spanish conquistadors frame APUSH Period 1 (1491–1607).

Maritime technology examples

Caravel, magnetic compass, astrolabe, lateen sail

Indentured servitude

a labor system where poor European migrants signed a contract (an indenture) to work for a colonial master for four to seven years in exchange for transatlantic passage, food, shelter, and sometimes "freedom dues".

Headright system

a 1618 land-grant policy created by the Virginia Company to attract settlers and solve labor shortages in Jamestown, promised about 50 acres of land to anyone who paid for their own passage to the colony, contributed to bacons rebellion (wealthy/poor gap)

French traders/french diplomacy

a cooperative model focused on the fur trade and diplomatic alliances with Native Americans rather than mass displacement or large-scale settlement

Fur trade

a colonial business where European groups—primarily the French and Dutch—exchanged manufactured goods for animal pelts, especially beaver fur, with Native Americans

House of Burgess

the first democratically elected legislative assembly in British North America, allowed colonists to pass local laws and levy taxes

Proprietary colony

a British-American settlement where the king granted land and full governing rights to a trusted individual or group, known as proprietors

Charter (corporate) colony

Run by a joint-stock company or a corporate group that received a formal charter from the English monarch. The king gave stockholders the right to establish laws and guide the colony's policies. (EX. jamestown/virgina)

New england colonies

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire.

• Focused on small-scale subsistence farming, shipbuilding, lumber, fishing, and trade.

• Centered around close-knit towns, church congregations, and local town hall meetings with high literacy rates and long life expectancies

Middle Colonies

New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware.

• Founded for a mix of economic gain (like former Dutch New Netherland) and religious refuge (like Quaker Pennsylvania).

• Highly diverse ethnically and religiously, featuring broad religious toleration and a more flexible social hierarchy

Chesapeake Colonies

Virgina and Maryland

• Established largely for financial profit through corporate or proprietary investments.

• Initially relied on white indentured servants for labor, but transitioned rapidly to chattel slavery following events like Bacon's Rebellion in 1676

Southern Colonies & British West Indies

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (plus Caribbean islands like Barbados).

• economic wealth through large scare agriculture

• Centered on labor-intensive cash crops like rice, indigo, and sugar.

• Dominated by a wealthy elite planter class, characterized by a heavy reliance on enslaved African labor and strict slave codes

Mayflower

the first written framework of self-government in the American colonies, signed aboard the ship Mayflower in November 1620 and used by new england colonies, wanted simple majority rule government (democratic)

Great migration

the mass movement of more than six million African Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the North, Midwest, and West between 1916 and 1970

King phillips war

a brutal armed conflict in New England between English colonists and a confederation of Native American tribes led by the Wampanoag leader Metacom, whom the colonists called "King Philip"

Econmienda

a 16th-century Spanish colonial labor system that granted settlers the right to demand forced labor and tribute from Native Americans in exchange for the promise to Christianize and protect them

Casta system

the rigid social hierarchy created by the Spanish in their American colonies to rank people based on race, ancestry, and birthplace

Sugar plantations

large agricultural estates—primarily located in the Caribbean and South America—that grew and processed sugarcane into a lucrative cash crop using brutal, forced labor

Mills

water-powered or steam-powered factories that mechanized the production of cloth, serving as a primary symbol of early industrialization and the Market Revolution (roughly 1800–1848)

racial/hereditary slavery

a permanent, race-based chattel slavery system where African ancestry determined lifelong bondage, and legal status was passed automatically from mother to child

Middle passage

the second, brutal leg of the transatlantic triangular trade route where millions of enslaved Africans were forcibly shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas

Salutary neglect

the unofficial British policy of loosely enforcing trade laws and parliamentary regulations in the American colonies from roughly 1690 to 1763

Stamp act

.a British law that required American colonists to pay a direct tax on all printed paper, including legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards

Chattle slavery

a system of labor where enslaved people are legally classified as personal property, meaning they can be bought, sold, traded, and owned permanently for life

cash crops

agricultural products grown primarily for sale and profit rather than for the farmer's personal consumption or subsistence

• tobacco, rice, indigo

barbados slave code

foundational colonial law that legally defined enslaved Africans as chattel property and established the model for racial slavery in the British Empire. Mentions

• chattle slavery

John locke

English Enlightenment philosopher whose core political concepts—frequently taught in introductory government and civics units (such as AP U.S. Government Unit 1)—center on natural rights, the social contract, and the consent of the governed.

old lights vs new lights

two opposing religious factions that emerged during the First Great Awakening in 18th-century American colonial Protestantism, representing a fundamental split between traditional rationalism and emotional revivalism

Puritians

A religious group in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England from Roman Catholic practices, advocating for a simpler, more direct form of worship and government.

Massachusetts Bay

An English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, established by Puritans seeking religious freedom. It became a leading center of commerce and trade and was known for its strong religious influence, especially from the Puritan faith.

Hacienda system

A large estate or plantation in Spanish-speaking regions, often involving a feudal-like arrangement where peasants or indigenous workers were tied to the land and worked for the landowner.

Pueblo revolt

The revolt of 1680 (also known as Popé’s Rebellion) was a successful uprising of indigenous Pueblo people that drove Spanish colonizers out of present-day New Mexico for over a decade

Plymouth colony

new england colony emigrated as whole family groups, set out to create new seperatist society (included pilgrims) Signed mayflower compact —> simple government, majority rule government, unusually democratic for its time

Pennyslvania

Became refuge for quaker and religous dissenters