APUSH Period 1

Portuguese slave trade

The first Europeans to engage in the Atlantic slave trade, transporting enslaved Africans to work on sugar plantations.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer who, in 1498, became the first European to reach India by sea.

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer who reached the Caribbean in 1492, opening the Americas to European exploration.

Hispaniola

Caribbean island colonized by Columbus, site of Spain’s first permanent settlements in the New World.

Old World diseases

Diseases like smallpox and measles brought by Europeans that devastated Native American populations.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe (1519–1522).

Juan Ponce de Leon

Spanish explorer who led the first known European expedition to Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

John Cabot

Italian explorer who reached Newfoundland in 1497, laying England's claims to North America.

Robert de La Salle

French explorer who claimed the Mississippi Valley for France, naming it Louisiana in 1682.

Father Junípero Serra

Spanish missionary who founded a chain of Catholic missions in California from 1769.

Nation-states

Political organizations where a unified people share a common culture and centralized government.

Caravel

Small, fast Portuguese sailing ship of the 15th–16th centuries that allowed for longer voyages.

Plantation system

Large-scale agricultural system relying on slave labor, beginning with sugar and spreading to tobacco and cotton.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Old and New World following Columbus’s voyages.

Conquistadores

Spanish conquerors who led military expeditions in the Americas during the 16th century.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private property and free markets that expanded with colonization.

Mestizos

People of mixed European and Native American ancestry in colonial Spanish America.

Pope’s Rebellion (1680)

Pueblo Indian uprising in New Mexico that drove Spanish settlers out for over a decade.

Queen Elizabeth I

Protestant queen of England who strengthened power and encouraged exploration.

Spanish Armada (1588)

Spain’s naval fleet sent to invade England, its defeat marked the decline of Spanish power.

Edict of Nantes (1598)

French decree granting limited religious tolerance to Protestants, revoked in 1685.

Roanoke Island

Site of England’s first attempted colony in North America, known as the Lost Colony.

Colonial charter

Legal document granting individuals/companies the right to establish colonies.

James I

King of England who chartered the Virginia Company, leading to the founding of Jamestown.