APUSH Unit 1 (1491-1607) vocab

Maize Cultivation

Growing corn especially in the Southwest, led to stable, advance societies like the Pueblo because it supported permanent settlements.

Hunter-Gatherer

Societies that relied on hunting animals and gathering plants, common in Great Basin and Great Plains regions.

Nomadic

Moving from place to place; describes Plains tribes before horses because they followed bison herds.

Mixed Agriculture

Growing crops and also hunting/fishing; seen in Eastern Woodlands (Iroquois)

Iroquois Confederacy

Powerful alliance of tribes in Northeast; example of political and military organization among Natives.

Pueblo

Native peoples of Southwest who built irrigation systems and adobe homes; showed adaptation to dry environment

God, Gold, Glory

The three main motives for European exploration: spread Christianity, gain wealth, and achieve fame/power.

Caravel

New ship technology that allowed Europeans to explore further and faster along African and Atlantic coasts.

Compass and Astrolabe

Navigation tools that helped explorers sail across oceans.

Colombian Exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, people, diseases between Europe, Africa, and Americas; led to population growth in Europe and deadly epidemics in Americas.

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers/explorers (like Cortés and Pizarro) who conquered Native empires for Spain.

Encomienda system

Spanish system that allowed settlers to demand labor/tribute from Natives; led to exploitation and Native population decline.

Mestizo

Person of mixed Spanish and Native ancestry; reflects blending of cultures in Spanish colonies.

Casta System

Racial hierarchy in Spanish colonies, ranking people by their ancestry (Europeans at the top, Natives/Africans lower.)

Mission System

Spanish settlements aimed to convert natives to Catholicism and assimilate them into Spanish culture.

Black legend

Idea (mostly English propaganda) that Spanish colonizers were uniquely, brutal, and cruel to native Americans.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Spanish priest who criticized mistreatment of Natives and advocated for their rights.

Jain de Sepúlveda

Spanish scholar who argued that Natives were inferior and should be ruled by Europeans.

Popes rebellion (1680)

Native uprising in New Mexico that expelled Spanish for over a decade; showed native resistance to forced conversion and control.

Atlantic World

The interactions and exchanges (people, goods, ideas) between Europe, Africa, and the Americas after 1492.

Smallpox

Disease brought by Europeans that killed millions of native Americans, part of Colombian exchanges deadly effects.

Slave trade

Early transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans starting with Spanish and Portuguese colonies.

Feudalism to capitalism

Shift from land-based economic system to trade based profit seeking economy sparked partly by New World resources.

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer sponsored by Spain; landed in Caribbean in 1492 initiating sustained European contact with Americas.

Hernan Cortez

Spanish conquistador who conquered Aztec empire in 1519 to 1521.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered Inca Empire in 1530s.