APUSH Unit 1 Key Terms

apush unit 1

Maize

Promoted settlement, economic development, and social diversification among societies.

Colombian Exchange

The exchange of diseases, ideas, food, crops, and population between the Old World and the New World in the later 15th/early centuries.

Encomienda System

Spanish system that rewarded conquerors with land and enslaved labor.

Pueblo Revolt

Resistance led by Popé against Spanish settlement in the Americas.

Caste System

Created by the Spanish in order to maintain a racial and social hierarchy in North America.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Chronicled the fate of Native Americans and protested Spanish policies in the New World.

French Colonization

Established trading posts and sought to convert Native Americans in the interior of North America.

Spanish Armada

Fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588, marking the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire.

Roanoke

England’s First attempt at colonizing the New World (it ultimately failed)

Wampanoag

Nation led by Massasoit in the northeast North American regions

Powhatan Confederacy

Nation in the region that became Virginia

God, Gold, Glory

Spanish motivations for colonizing in the New World

Tobacco

The labor-intensive cash crop in the Chesapeake region

Dutch Colonization

Established trading posts along the mid-Atlantic region, often working with the local population

Mercantilism

Economic and political theory by which 17th and 18th century European powers governed their overseas colonies

Joint Stock Companies

Forerunner of the modern corporation that enabled investors to pool financial capital for colonies adventures

Jamestown

Riverbank cite where Virginia Company settlers planted the first permanent English colony

Indentured Servitude

Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service

City Upon a Hill

Demonstrated the charade sense of purpose for establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Great Puritan Migration

Mass flight by religious dissidents into New England into the 1630s

House of Bergesses

Representative assembly in Virginia to govern in the colony

Navigation Acts

Set of Parliamentary laws, first passed in 1650, that restricted colonial trade and directed it to the benefit of England

Town Meeting

The basis local political institution of New England, in which all free men gathered to elect officials and debated local affair

Mayflower Compact

The shipboard agreement by the Pilgrim Fathers to establish a body politic and submit to majority rule

Puritans

English Calvinists who sought a thorough cleansing from within the Church of England

Act of Toleration

Guaranteed freedom to all Christians in Maryland

Africans

Composed the largest non-English group in the colonies (forced migration)

Anglicization

The progress though which the English colonies emerged from their diverse beginnings to become increasingly alike

Anne Hutchinson

Challenged Massachusetts authority by teaching antinomianism (and was banished from the colony)

Bacon’s Rebellion

Major event that exposed social inequalities in the colonies and led to greater reliance on enslaved people for labor

Enlightenment

Age of Reason: intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition

Great Awakening

Spectacular, emotional religious revival of the 1730’s and 1740’s

Halfway Covenant

Signified decreasing religious zeal of the Puritans in the colonies

Harvard

The oldest college in America, originally based on the Puritan commitment to an educated ministry

New England Confederation

Lasting from 1643-1684, it was military alliance and the first experiment in colonial cooperation

John Locke

Argued that sovereignty resides with the people rather than with government

King Philip’s War

Last major confrontation between settlers and New England Native Americans in 1676

Middle Colonies

Most diverse region of the colonies: religiously, socially, and economically

Middle Passage

Transatlantic voyage the enslaved endured between Africa and the colonies

Northern Colonies

Largely Puritan in origin, these colonies profited from industry and trade and emphasized education

Pequot War

Series of clashes that ended in the slaughter of Native Americans in New England during the 1630s

Quakers

Dominant religious group in colonial Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

American colony that was home to the Newport enslavement market and many traders of the enslaved

Salem Witch Trials

Reflected the widening social stratification of New England and the fear that traditional Puritan heritage was being replaced by commercialism

Scots-Irish

Group that settled the frontier, made whiskey, hated the British and other governmental authorities

Slave Codes

Established the heredity nature of enslavement and limited the rights and education of the enslaved

Southern Colonies

Hallmarked by a self-sufficient agrarian economic that included enslavement

Stono Rebellion

Enslaved individuals in South Carolina revolted for their freedom in 1739

Triangular Trade

Profitable trade route that linked New England, Africa, and America

Zenger Case

The case that established the precedent that true statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel