Studying for APUSH

Beringia

The land bridge that early Native ancestors crossed into the Americas, 12,000–20,000 years ago.

Three Sisters

Corn, beans, and squash; important crops in Indigenous agriculture.

Cahokia

The largest Mississippian city, near modern St. Louis, peaking at 10,000–30,000 people around 1050–1100 CE.

Ecological strain

Causes of Cahokia's decline, including deforestation and drought, combined with internal political conflict.

Encomienda

The system used by Spain to extract forced Native labor.

Hernán Cortés

The conqueror of the Aztec Empire, who used Native allies, smallpox, and a siege of Tenochtitlán.

Francisco Pizarro

The conqueror of the Inca Empire, exploiting a smallpox-triggered succession war.

Pre-Columbian population decline

Up to 90–95% of the population died within approximately 130 years of contact, mostly from disease.

Black Legend

English/Protestant propaganda framing Spanish colonization as uniquely cruel, influencing English colonization.

French Colonial Policy

The French were highly respecful of Native people and their customs, respecting traditions such as gift giving.

1626 Manhatten Takeover

When the dutch 'bought' Manhattan from the Munsee people, heavily taking advantage of the local people.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada

The 1588 event that opened the Atlantic to English colonization.

Roanoke colony

The vanished colony between 1587–90; only 'Croatoan' was found carved at the site.

Powhatan Confederacy

The Native confederacy that kept Jamestown alive early on, led by Wahunsenacawh.

Tobacco

The crop that saved Jamestown economically, introduced by John Rolfe in 1616.

House of Burgesses

The first legislative assembly in the American colonies, which met in Virginia in 1619.

A city upon a hill

The phrase used by Winthrop for Massachusetts Bay's mission in 1630.

Demographic stability in New England

Due to family-based immigration, a healthier climate, and an earlier epidemic that devastated Native populations.

Virginia law of 1662

A law that made a child's enslaved/free status follow the mother's condition, establishing slavery self-perpetuating.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 overthrow of Catholic King James II, replaced by Protestant William and Mary with little bloodshed.

Dominion of New England

James II's 1686 forced merger of New England, New York, and New Jersey under Sir Edmund Andros.

Colonists' response to Glorious Revolution

They overthrew the Dominion government and restored their previous provincial governments.

Bacon's Rebellion

A rebellion triggered by disputes over stolen pigs and governance issues with Native peoples.

Race-based enslaved labor

The long-term consequence of Bacon's Rebellion, as elites feared a mixed-race underclass.

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

A pan-Pueblo uprising led by Popé that drove the Spanish from New Mexico for 12 years.

Yamasee War (1715)

A war in which Carolina's former Native allies nearly destroyed the colony, leading to importation of enslaved Africans.

Walking Purchase (1737)

A fraudulent land deal in Pennsylvania with the Delaware using trained runners to claim excessive land.

Anthony Johnson

A formerly enslaved Black Virginian landowner known for a landmark lawsuit that set precedents for servitude.

Consumer Revolution

A rise in colonial prosperity and credit that economically tied colonists closer to Britain.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A rebellion where enslaved South Carolinians seized weapons and attempted to march to Spanish Florida.

South Carolina's Negro Act (1740)

The law tightening slave codes after the Stono Rebellion.

First Great Awakening

A religious revival movement; key figures include Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

New Lights vs. Old Lights

The split where New Lights embraced revivalism and Old Lights favored traditional worship.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the Seven Years' War; France ceded Canada and land east of the Mississippi to Britain.

Pontiac's War (1763)

A pan-tribal uprising against British posts after the end of French-style gift diplomacy.

Proclamation of 1763

A British law barring colonial settlement west of the Appalachians.

Benjamin Franklin

An Enlightenment figure exemplifying rational self-improvement.

Seven Years' War impact

The war pushed Britain into seeking new tax revenues from colonies due to increased debt.

Stamp Act (1765)

The first direct internal tax on colonists, provoking the slogan 'no taxation without representation.'

Boston Massacre (1770)

An incident where British soldiers fired on a crowd, killing five colonists.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

A protest against the Tea Act, preserving Parliamentary taxation principles.

Intolerable Acts (1774)

Britain's punitive response to the Tea Party, closing Boston's port and revoking self-government.

First Continental Congress (1774)

The first coordinated effort of colonial resistance.

Patrick Henry's March 1775 argument

Claimed peaceful appeals had failed and that war was inevitable.

Lexington and Concord

The battles that started the fighting on April 19, 1775.

Paine's Common Sense

A plain-language attack on monarchy, swaying opinion toward independence.

Declaration of Independence adoption

The document was adopted on July 4, 1776.

Turning point of the war

The Battle of Saratoga in 1777, which brought France into the war.

Yorktown

The battle that effectively ended major fighting in the American Revolution.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The treaty that formally ended the American Revolution.

Harriot's A Briefe and True Report (1588)

A promotional account of the Roanoke venture, encouraging English investment.

Harriot's role

He was Sir Walter Raleigh's scientific adviser on the Roanoke expedition.

Anthony Johnson/John Casor case (1655)

A ruling that established precedent for lifetime servitude without crime.

Zinn's argument in 'Drawing the Color Line'

Racism in colonial Virginia was created by specific economic and political conditions.

Zinn vs. Yawp on Bacon's Rebellion

Zinn frames it as elites engineering racial division; Yawp emphasizes labor and land conflict.

Central image in Edwards's 'Sinners'

A sinner as a spider dangled over hellfire by a thread of God's mercy.

Source reliability issue with Patrick Henry's speech

No transcript from 1775; text was reconstructed from later witnesses in 1817.

Franklin's method for moral perfection

Tracking one of 13 virtues at a time on a daily chart.

Enlightenment idea in Declaration's preamble

Natural rights and government legitimacy derived from the consent of the governed.

Cut passage from Jefferson's Declaration draft

A condemnation of the slave trade.