American History Review: APUSH Unit 1 Overview (Period 1: 1491-1607)

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from the American History review, focusing on themes from the period 1491-1607.

Pre-Columbian Societies

Diverse Indigenous cultures that existed in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and peoples between the Old World and the New World after 1492.

Encomienda System

A coerced labor system where Spanish colonists received land and the right to extract labor from Indigenous peoples.

Matrilineal Society

A social system where lineage is traced through the mother's line, as seen in societies like the Cherokee.

Mississippian Culture

A mound-building Native American culture that thrived in the Mississippi River Valley.

Gold, God, Glory

The three main motives for European exploration and conquest: seeking wealth, spreading Christianity, and gaining political power.

Valladolid Debates

Theological discussions in Spain concerning the rights and humanity of Indigenous peoples.

Taino Rebellion

An early Indigenous uprising against Spanish colonization in 1511, reflecting resistance to the encomienda system.

Caste System (Castas)

A race-based hierarchy established by Spaniards to control colonial societies.

Maize (Corn)

A staple crop first cultivated in southern Mexico that became central to Indigenous agricultural systems.

Pre-Columbian Societies

Diverse Indigenous cultures that existed in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and peoples between the Old World and the New World after 1492.

Encomienda System

A coerced labor system where Spanish colonists received land and the right to extract labor from Indigenous peoples.

Matrilineal Society

A social system where lineage is traced through the mother's line, as seen in societies like the Cherokee.

Mississippian Culture

A mound-building Native American culture that thrived in the Mississippi River Valley.

Gold, God, Glory

The three main motives for European exploration and conquest: seeking wealth, spreading Christianity, and gaining political power.

Valladolid Debates

Theological discussions in Spain concerning the rights and humanity of Indigenous peoples.

Taino Rebellion

An early Indigenous uprising against Spanish colonization in 1511, reflecting resistance to the encomienda system.

Caste System (Castas)

A race-based hierarchy established by Spaniards to control colonial societies.

Maize (Corn)

A staple crop first cultivated in southern Mexico that became central to Indigenous agricultural systems.

Three-Sister Farming

An agricultural system involving maize, beans, and squash grown together to improve soil fertility and provide a balanced diet.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

A Spanish priest and former encomendero who became a fierce critic of the encomienda system and an advocate for Native American rights.

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

A successful uprising of Indigenous Pueblo people against Spanish colonization and religious forced conversion in present-day New Mexico.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided newly discovered lands outside Europe along a specific line of longitude.

Smallpox

A highly contagious European disease that decimated Indigenous populations, who lacked immunity, as part of the Columbian Exchange.

Spanish Mission System

A series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans to spread Christianity and assimilate Indigenous peoples into Spanish culture and labor systems.

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

A Spanish philosopher who argued during the Valladolid Debates that Indigenous peoples were "natural slaves" and that Spanish conquest was justified.

Cahokia

The largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, located near modern-day St. Louis, known for its massive earthen mounds.

Mestizo

A term used in the Spanish caste system to describe a person of mixed Spanish and Indigenous American descent.

Joint-Stock Company

A business entity where different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders, used by the English to fund expensive colonial ventures like the Virginia Company.

The "Black Legend"

The historical perception, often promoted by Spanish rivals, that Spanish colonizers were uniquely cruel and abusive toward Indigenous populations.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese, which was essential for long-distance Atlantic exploration.

Iroquois Confederacy

A powerful alliance of five (later six) Indigenous nations in the northeastern woodlands that maintained a complex political and military union.

Animism

The belief, common among many Indigenous groups, that the natural world—including plants, animals, and geographic features—is inhabited by spirits.

Mercantilism

An economic theory that drove European colonization by emphasizing the accumulation of gold and silver through a positive balance of trade and the extraction of raw materials from colonies.

Chinook

Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast known for their advanced maritime culture, fishing, and permanent plank-house settlements.

Astrolabe

A navigational instrument used by European explorers to determine latitude by measuring the position of the sun and stars, facilitating long-distance voyages.

New Laws of 1542

Spanish legislation intended to reform the treatment of Indigenous peoples by gradually abolishing the encomienda system and prohibiting Native American slavery.

Tenochtitlán

The capital of the Aztec Empire, built on an island in Lake Texcoco, which was one of the largest and most sophisticated cities in the world before its fall in 1521.

Prince Henry the Navigator

A Portuguese prince who was a central figure in early exploration, sponsoring voyages and founding a school to advance navigational technology and cartography.

Algonquian

A major linguistic and cultural group of Indigenous peoples who inhabited the Atlantic coast and the Northeast, often living in wigwams and engaging in mixed agriculture and hunting.

Great Basin

The arid region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada where Indigenous societies, such as the Shoshone and Paiute, lived as mobile hunter-gatherers.

New France

French colonial territories in North America that primarily focused on the lucrative fur trade and maintained alliances with many Indigenous tribes.

Don Juan de Oñate

A Spanish conquistador who served as the first governor of New Mexico and is notorious for his brutal treatment of the Pueblo people.

Acoma Massacre

A violent conflict in 1599 where Spanish forces under Oñate retaliated against the Acoma Pueblo, resulting in the deaths and mutilation of hundreds of Indigenous people.

Ancestral Puebloans

A Pre-Columbian culture in the American Southwest known for constructing complex cliff dwellings and masonry buildings like those at Mesa Verde.

Hernán Cortés

The Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that resulted in the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521.

Francisco Pizarro

The Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of the Inca Empire in South America during the 1530s.

Atlantic World

The history of the interactions and exchange of people, goods, and ideas among the cultures bordering the Atlantic Ocean from the late 15th century.

Syncretism

The blending of different religious or cultural beliefs and practices, often seen in the merger of Indigenous and European traditions.

Conquistadors

Soldiers and explorers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires who colonized vast territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Chaco Canyon

A major urban center for the Ancestral Puebloans located in present-day New Mexico, known for its massive stone buildings.

Jacques Cartier

A French navigator who explored the St. Lawrence River and claimed the region for France, naming it Canada.

Sextant

A navigation instrument that helped determine latitude and longitude by measuring the angle between a celestial object and the horizon.

Hacienda

Large commercial estates or plantations in the Spanish colonies that grew in importance as the encomienda system declined.