Princeton Review APUSH Unit 1: Early Contact with the New World (1491– 1607)

Mexico

● Maize ○ The domestication and cultivation of maize, or corn, began thousands of years ago in ________.

Mesoamerica

The transition from hunting and gathering to maize production enabled stable economies and organized societies to prosper throughout ________ and the Southwest region of the modern- day United States.

foreign power

■ A colony is a territory settled and controlled by a(n) ________.

Maize production

________ also encouraged advancements in irrigation and other advanced agricultural practices.

■ In fact, in many ways, the Native Americans technology was superior

their canoes were far better at navigating North American rivers than any European ship, and their moccasins offered better footing than clumsy European boots

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas

Pre-Columbian Era

the period before Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the “New World”

Native Americans

Native Americans, also known as First Americans, Indigenous Americans, American Indians, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the United States, including Hawaii and territories of the United States, and other times limited to the mainland

land bridge

an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands

Bering Strait

The Bering Strait is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska

Maize

corn

Columbian Exchange

widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, communicable diseases, and ideas

colonies

A governmental unit created on land of another country owned by colonists from a country

conquistadors

A conqueror, but especially one of the Spanish soldiers that invaded Central and South America in the 16th century and defeated the Incas and Aztecs.

encomienda

the crown granted colonists authority over a specified number of natives; the colonist was obliged to protect those natives and convert them to Catholicism, and in exchange, the colonist was entitled to those natives labor for such enterprises as sugar harvesting and silver mining

smallpox

epidemics that devastated Native American settlements, sometimes killing 95% of the population