APUSH Period 1

Incas – Powerful empire in the Andes known for advanced roads, farming, and silver.

Aztecs – Mesoamerican empire in Mexico, conquered by Cortés in 1521.

Mayas – Early civilization in Central America, known for writing, math, and calendars.

Nation

states – Centralized governments with unified people, like Spain after 1492.

Three

sister farming – Native method of growing corn, beans, and squash together.

Pueblos – Southwestern Native people with permanent settlements and irrigation.

Lakota Sioux – Great Plains tribe that became horse

riding nomads after Europeans brought horses.

Nomadic – Groups who moved often, usually following animals or resources.

Algonquian – Northeastern tribes who lived in wigwams and farmed, hunted, and fished.

Iroquois Confederation – Powerful alliance of five tribes in New York that resisted Europeans.

aize – Corn; the staple crop that fueled Native societies.

Plantation – Large

scale farm using slave labor, usually for cash crops like sugar or tobacco.

Columbian Exchange – Transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds.

Treaty of Tordesillas – 1494 agreement dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal.

Encomienda – Spanish labor system forcing Natives to work for colonists in exchange for “protection.”

Mestizos – People of mixed Spanish and Native ancestry.

Conquistadores – Spanish conquerors who defeated Native empires.

Hernán Cortés – Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztecs.

Moctezuma – Aztec emperor defeated by Cortés.

Christopher Columbus – Explorer who sailed for Spain in 1492, opening the Americas to Europe.

Slave trade – System of capturing, selling, and transporting Africans to the Americas for labor.

Ferdinand and Isabella – Spanish monarchs who funded Columbus’s voyage.

Pope’s Rebellion – 1680 Pueblo revolt against Spanish in New Mexico, temporarily driving them out.

Bartolomé de Las Casas – Spanish priest who opposed Native enslavement and defended their rights.

Valladolid Debate – 1550–1551 debate in Spain about Native rights and treatment.

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda – Spanish thinker who argued Natives were inferior and could be enslaved.