APUSH: Unit 1 Chapter 1 Vocab

Incas

Highly advanced South American civilization that occupied present-day Peru until it was conquered by Spanish forces under Francisco Pizarro in 1532. The Incas developed sophisticated agricultural techniques, such as terrace farming, in order to sustain large, complex societies in the unforgiving Andes Mountains.

Mayans

Advanced South American civilization that emerged around 2000 BCE in present-day Central America with sophisticated agricultural practices.

Aztecs

Native American empire that controlled present-day Mexico until 1521, when they were conquered by Spanish Hernán Cortés. The Aztecs maintained control over their vast empire through a system of trade and tribute. They came to be known for their advances in mathematics and writing, as well as their use of human sacrifices in religious ceremonies.

nation-states

The term commonly describes those societies in which political legitimacy and authority overlay a large degree of cultural commonality.

Plantation

Large-scale agricultural enterprise growing commercial crops and usually employing coerced or slave labor. European settlers established plantations in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the American South.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of goods, crops, and diseases between New and Old World societies after 1492.

Encomienda

Spanish government's policy to "commend," or give, Native Americans to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them. Part of a broader Spanish effort to subdue Indian tribes in the West Indies and on the North American mainland.

Noche Triste

"Sad night," when the Aztecs attacked Hernán Cortés and his forces in the Aztec capital, Tenochittlán, killing hundreds. Cortés laid siege to the city the following year, precipitating the fall of the Aztec empire and inaugurating three centuries of Spanish rule.

Mestizos

People of mixed Indian and European heritage, notably in Mexico.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present- day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans.

Three-sister farming

Agricultural system employed by Native Americans as early as 1000 CE; maize, beans, and squash were grown together to maximize yields.

Caravel

Small regular vessel with a high deck and three triangular sails. Caravels could sail more closely into the wind, allowing European sailors to explore the western shores of Africa, previously made inaccessible due to prevailing winds on the homeward journey.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World. Spain received the bulk of territory in the Americas, compensating Portugal with titles to lands in Africa and Asia.

Capitalism

Economic system characterized by private property, generally free trade, and open and accessible markets. European colonization of the Americas, and in particular, the discovery of vast bullion deposits, helped bring about Europe's transition to capitalism.

Conquistadores

Sixteenth-century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan empires.

Pueblo Revolt

Pueblo Indian revolt that drove Spanish settlers from New Mexico. The Spanish left behind some 1,500 horses that became the ancestors of the horse herds that spread across the continent and transformed the lives of many Plains Indians.

Black legend

False notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Native Americans and steal their gold in the name of Christ.

Christopher Columbus

- European "discoverer"
- skilled Italian seafarer that persuaded the Spanish monarchs to outfit him with 3 tiny but seaworthy ships, manned by a motley crew
- 6 weeks at sea; failure loomed until on October 12, 1492, the crew sighted an island in the Bahamas
- most "successful" failures in history
- bumped into an enormous land barrier blocking the ocean pathway
- called the Native peoples Indians
- His discovery would eventually convulse 4 continents (Europe, Africa, and the two Americas)
- an interdependent global economic system emerged on a scale undreamed-of before he set sail

Francisco Coronado

- 1540-1542, in quest of fabled golden cities that turned out to be adobe pueblos, he wandered with a blanking cavalcade through Arizona and New Mexico, penetrating as far east as Kansas
- discovered 2 natural wonders: the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River & enormous herds of buffalo (bison)
- the tales of his expedition of the 1540s to the upper Rio Grande and Colorado River regions continued to beckon the conquistadores northward

Francisco Pizarro

- "ironfisted conqueror" that crushed the Incas of Peru in 1532, adding a huge hoard of booty to Spanish coffers

Bartolome de las Casas

a reform-minded Dominican friar, wrote The Destruction of the Indies in 1542 to chronicle the awful fate of the Native Americans and to protest Spanish policies in the New World. He was especially horrified at the catastrophic effects of disease on the Native peoples:

“Who of those in future centuries will believe this? I myself who am writing this and saw it and know the most about it can hardly believe that such was possible.”

Hernan Cortes

- set sail from Cuba with 16 fresh horses and several hundred men aboard 11 ships in 1519
- rescued a Spanish castaway who had been enslaved for several years by the Mayan-speaking Indigenous peoples on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatan Peninsula
- picked up the Native enslaved female Malinche, who knew both Mayan and Nahuatl, the language of the powerful Aztec rules of the great empire in the highlands of central Mexico
- in addition to his superior firepower, he had two interpreters that allowed him to understand the speech of the Native peoples whom he was about to encounter, including the Aztecs

Spanish conquistador who is best known for conquering the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. He led an expedition from Cuba to Mexico in 1519, eventually overthrowing the Aztec ruler Montezuma II and claiming Mexico for Spain. Cortés's conquest had a profound and lasting impact on both the indigenous populations of Mesoamerica and the course of Spanish colonization.

Giovanni Caboto (original name)/John Caboto

another native of Genoa, sailed for England's King Henry VII.
- adopted English name when he sailed under the flag of England
-was an Italian explorer and navigator known for his 1497 voyage to North America
- credited to be the first European to set foot in North America after the Norse, during an expedition of 1497 carried out under the English flag

Father Junipero Serra

- led Spanish missionaries in 1769 founded at San Diego, the first of a chain of 21 missions that wound up the coast as far as Sonoma, north of San Francisco Bay
- corralled the seminomadic Native Americans into fortified missions and used their forced labor in mission farms and workshops

Moctezuma

- Aztec chieftain that sent ambassadors bearing fabulous gifts to welcome the approaching Spaniards