APUSH unit 1 vocab only

Southwest Native Americans

Native groups (e.g., Pueblo) in arid regions who developed complex irrigation systems to farm maize and lived in multi

Northwest Native Americans

Native groups along the Pacific coast who relied on hunting, gathering, and rich marine life, residing in permanent longhouses and carving totem poles.

Mississippian Native Americans

Complex mound

Northeast Native Americans

Groups (e.g., Iroquois Confederacy) using a mix of agriculture (Three Sisters) and hunting/gathering, living in longhouses and forming political alliances.

Atlantic Seaboard Native Americans

Coastal tribes (e.g., Powhatan) that utilized agriculture, hunting, and fishing, living in semi

Reconquista

The centuries

Protestant Reformation

A 16th

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 papal agreement dividing newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain (west) and Portugal (east), granting Spain rights to most of the Americas.

English Claims to New World

Based on John Cabot's voyages, focusing on permanent settler colonies, agricultural expansion, and family migration rather than assimilation.

French Claims to New World

Focused on Canada and the Mississippi River Valley (Louisiana), prioritizing the fur trade, missionary work, and strategic alliances with Native Americans.

Columbian Exchange

The global transfer of plants, animals, diseases, cultures, and human populations between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following 1492.

Encomienda

A Spanish colonial labor system granting conquistadors legal rights to extract forced labor and tribute from Indigenous peoples in exchange for Catholic instruction.

Asiento

A Spanish royal license authorizing merchants to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish American colonies to meet labor demands.

Middle Passage

The brutal, deadly transatlantic sea voyage transporting enslaved Africans from West Africa to the Americas.

Casta System

A rigid social hierarchy in Spanish America based on racial heritage, ranking Peninsulares at the top, followed by Criollos, Mestizos, Mulattos, and Native/African populations.

Valladolid Debates

A 1550–1551 moral debate in Spain over the rights and treatment of Indigenous peoples, featuring Bartolomé de Las Casas vs. Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda.

French Policy on Native Americans

Focused on trade alliances (especially fur), intermarriage, and mutual cooperation, maintaining mostly peaceful relations with Native tribes.

British Policy on Native Americans

Focused on land expansion and displacement, maintaining social boundaries and resulting in frequent violent land conflicts.

Spanish Policy on Native Americans

Focused on subjugation, forced labor, religious conversion (missions), and racial integration, creating a blended colonial society.

European Explorers

Navigators and conquerors from European nations seeking wealth (gold), national glory (glory), and religious expansion (god) in the Americas.

Bartolome Las Casas

A Spanish Dominican friar who advocated for the human rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples, condemning the brutality of the encomienda system.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

A Spanish theologian who defended Spanish conquest, arguing that Indigenous Americans were "natural slaves" under Aristotelian logic.