APUSH Unit 1 Vocabulary

Chapters 1 and 2

Bering Land Bridge

the path the first people took to get to the Americas. It was the dry land between Asia and North America, created by the ice age that froze most water in glaciers. It is now flooded by the Bering Sea.

Black Death

the bubonic plague that reduced the European population to half as much in the 1300s.

Clovis people

the group of people thought to be the first to come to North America. Their name originates from the site where spear points were found in New Mexico that indicated their existence.

Anasazi

“ancient one,” a group of people who lived in New Mexico 700 years before Columbus

Mound builders

Native American tribes that built large burial and ceremonial mounds on top of which sporting events and religious activities took place.

Reconquista

the struggle during which Spanish Christians reconquered Muslim lands, reunifying Spain.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Treaty confirmed by the Pope in 1494 to resolve and border the claims of Spain and Portugal in the Americas

America

The name Europeans gave the land encountered across the Atlantic in 1492, after explorer Amerigo Vespucci

Silk Road

Overland trading route established by Marco Polo (Venetian trader) in the late 1200s.

Columbian exchange

the Transatlantic exchange of plants, animals, and disease that occurred after first American

New Spain

The first Spanish empire in the Americas

Encomienda

The grant (usually a large ranch) to a Spanish settler of a certain number of American natives who would pay him tribute in goods and labor in the Spanish colonies

Conquistadores

Early spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru

Ninety-Five Theses

A document of 95 debating points that Martin Luther put together and hoped would lead the Catholic church to a reformation

Protestant Reformation

Beginning with Martin Luther’s efforts to reform the Catholic church, eventually led Luther, Calvin, and followers to completely break away and establish a new church

Nation-state

A new development in Europe during the 1300s and 1400s where nations became major political organizations, replacing smaller kingdoms and city-states.

Peace of Augsburg in 1555

An agreement among smaller German kingdoms that no ruler would attack another kingdom on religious grounds.

Treaty of Westphalia

1648; treaty between many European powers that extended the ideas of the Peace of Augsburg

Seven Cities of Cibola

Name for the discovered Native American pueblos given by early Spanish explorers

Anglicans

In the Church of England, one group of Protestants who wanted to establish a church led by the monarchy

Puritans

Believed that Church of England reforms did not go far enough in improving the church

Roanoke

an island where Algonquian people lived found by English explorer Walter Raleigh, intended to be a base for privateers; located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, first English colony