AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

American Pageant Ch. 1-2 Terms

Terms : Hide Images
32937263Marco Polo(11) Italian explorer who returned to Europe in 1295 after a 17 year sojourn in China
32937264Francisco Pizarro(17) A Spanish conquistador; In 1532, he destroyed Incan civilization
32937265Juan Ponce de Leon(16) A Spanish conquistador; In 1513 and 1521, he explored Florida
32937266Hernando de Soto(17) He accidentally discovered the Mississippi river while looking for gold. His soldiers disposed of his remains in the same river
32937267Montezuma(20) Aztec Emperor; thought Hernan Cortes to be the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl
32937268Christopher Columbus(13) Portuguese explorer employed by the Spanish to find new route to India; instead accidentally stumbles on America.
32937269Hernan Cortes(20) Spanish conquistador who destroyed the Aztec civilization and conquered Mexico.
32937270Francisco Coronado(16) Was trying to find fabled golden cities in Arizona and New Mexico but instead discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison
32937271Robert de La Salle(22) French explorer sent down Mississippi River in the 1680's by France
32937272Jacques Cartier(21) journeyed up the St. Laurence River in 1534
32937273Giovanni da Verrazano(21) An Italian mariner sent by the French to explore the eastern seaboard in 1524
32937274Giovanni Caboto(21) Also known as John Cabot, this Italian mariner was sent by the English to explore the northeastern coast of North America in 1497 & 1498
32937275Vasco Nunez Balboa(16) Claimed to be the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, this Spanish explorer claimed that all land touched by the Pacific was under Spanish jurisdiction
32937276Ferdinand of Aragon(13) The king of Spain and husband of Isabella of Castille, he was partially responsible for uniting Spain.
32937277Isabella of Castille(13) The queen of Spain and wife of Ferdinand of Aragon, she was responsible for granting Columbus the means to try to find a new route to India and was partially responsible (along with Ferdinand) for uniting Spain as one country
32937278Quetzalcoatl(20) The Aztec god that Montezuma believed Hernan Cortes to be.
32937279Bartholomeu Dias(13) A Porteguese explorer, he rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488
32937280Hiawatha(10) A legendary leader of the Iriquois that inspired them to create a nation-like state called the Iroquois Confederacy
32937281Bartolome de Las Casas(17) A Spanish missionary that disagreed with the "encomienda" system; went so far as to call it, "a moral pestilence invented by Satan."
32937282Ferdinand Magellan(16) A Spanish explorer that began his search for an alternate route to the Indies in Spain in 1519 with 5 tiny ships and ended with only one upon the fleet's return in 1522; he himself lost his life in an encounter with inhabitants of the Philippines. The lone ship's return marked the first circumnavigation of the world. A strait on the southern tip of South America still bears his name
32937283Vasco da Gama(13) A Portuguese explorer that reached India in 1498, 10 years after the attempt of Bartholomeu Dias.
32937284Lord De La Warr(30) Born Thomas West, he was a British General who arrived at the last minute to salvage the Jamestown settlement in the spring of 1610. He became its governor the same year
32937285Pocahontas(29) the daughter of chieftain Powhatan, she was used as an intermediary between the Indians and the English settlers of Jamestown. She would end up marrying John Rolfe in 1614 as part of the peace treaty in the first Anglo-Pohwatan War.
32937286Pohwatan(29) Indian chieftain and the father of Pocahantas
32937287Handsome Lake(41) An Iriquois prophet that warned his people of the increased decline in morality that threathened to destroy the tribe from the inside out.
32937288John Rolfe(30) The husband of Pocahontas; the marriage marked the end of the First Anglo-Pohwatan War and the first interracial marriage in Virginia.
32937289Lord Baltimore(33) The founder of Maryland
32937290Walter Raleigh(26) An English explorer and the half-brother of the deceased English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, he followed in his brother's footsteps and lead an expedition to Newfoundland which ended in 1585 when the expedition landed on Roanokee Island, off the coast of Virginia.
32937291James Oglethorpe(39) One of the founders of Georgia. He was keen on prison reform and was able to repel Spanish attackers from Florida
32937292Humphrey Gilbert(26) An English explorer and the half-brother of Walter Raleigh, he spearheaded England's efforts to colonize Newfoundland. Sadly, before he could accomplish this, he lost his life while at sea in 1583
32937293Oliver Cromwell(36) The Puritan soldier that headed up the effort to overthrow (and consequentially behead) King Charles I in 1649. He ruled England for the next decade until the deceased king's son, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660.
32937294John Smith(29) Saved Virginia from collapsing at the start; was Virginia's governor
32937295John Wesley(39) A missionary who came to Savannah, Georgia to spread the word of Christ among debtors and Indians but when he returned to England, went on to found the Methodist Church
32937296Francis Drake(26) An English "sea dog" who worked in secret for Queen Elizabeth against the Spanish, he stole so much money from Spanish treasure ships that he netted his financial backers a profit of 4,600 percent. Queen Elizabeth went on to knight him
32937297George Percy(29) He accompanied John Smith on his expedition to Virginia in 1606-1607
32937298William Penn(37) The founder of the Quakers; the Pennsylvania colony was named after him
32937299RIchard Hakluyt(28) An English writer that tried to convince the English in England to relocate to the American colonies
32937300King Henry VIII(25) The king of England that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530's and launched the English Protestant Reformation
32937301Queen Elizabeth I(25) Following in her predecessor King Henry VIII's footsteps, (being a protestant herself) she was a proponent of the Protestant Reformation. She is also known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married
32937302King Philip II(26) The king of Spain and Queen Elizabeth I's contemporary, he was firmly against the Protestant Reformation. He went so far as to build an "Invisible Armada" of 130 ships to invade England in 1588
32937303King James I(28) The king of England and Queen Elizabeth I's successor, he granted the Virginia Company a charter to travel to the New World to find gold and a second path to the Indies
32937304King Charles I(36) The king of England and King James I's successor, he caused a civil war in England that would ultimately claim his own life; it was caused by his dismissal of the English Parliament in 1629
32937305King Charles II(36) The king of England and Oliver Cromwell's successor, he formally created Carolina in 1670; the colony itself is named after him
32937306Deganawidah and Hiawatha(40) Founders of the "League of the Iriquois"/Iriquois Confederacy
32937307King George II(39) The king for whom the colony Georgia was named after
32937308Nation-state(page number unknown) A country
32937309Joint-stock company(28) A company that is funded by multiple people/groups with the intention of liquidating it once they are all able to turn a sufficient stock profit from it
32937310Slavery(33) The ownership of human beings for the purpose of using them as a free labor force
32937311Enclosure(page number unknown) A closed off space
32937312House of Burgesses(33) An assembly (modeled in the image of the English Parliament) made up of the Virginia settlers that was made to allow them to self-govern
32937313Royal charter(28) A written grant that gives a person or group the ability to do something with the backing of the King/Queen
32937314Slave codes(35) A law that defined a slave's legal status, often designed to strip slaves of the most basic of rights. The Barbados slave code of 1661 is the most notorious example
32937315Yeoman(page number unknown) An independent farmer
32937316Proprietor(page number unknown) Land-owner
32937317Longhouse(40) An Iriquois construct stretching from 200-800 ft. long and about 25 ft. wide, it contained between 3-5 fireplaces around which gathered two nuclear families; everybody who lived in the same longhouse was related by blood
32937318Squatter(38) A person who illegally occupies land that does not belong to them
32937319Law of Primogeniture(28) A law that decreed that only the eldest sons were eligible to inherit land
32937320Indentured servitude(34) A system that guaranteed an indentured servant their own plot of land as compensation for working for their master for a specified number of years
32937321Starving Time(30) The winter of 1609-1610 where of the 400 settlers that had settled in Virginia, only sixty survived
32937322Sea dogs(26) English pirates who specifically targeted Spanish treasure ships
32937323Surplus population(27) A section of the population that cannot be adequately covered for by its government due to the rest of the general population consuming all of the available resources; the population that made up the majority of the indentured servants that came from England to the New World
32937324First Anglo-Pohwatan War(30) The English (Lord De La Warr and the Virginia Company) declared war on the Pohwatan in 1610. De La Warr used "Irish Tactics" on the Pohwatan until a peace treaty was reached in 1614, sealed by the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas
32937325Second Anglo-Pohwatan War(30-31) In 1644, the Pohwatans attempted to get rid of the Virginians as revenge but failed; a peace treaty was reached in 1646. However, this peace treaty essentially banished the Pohwatan from their own land
32937326Maryland Act of Toleration(34) Passed in 1649, this statute guaranteed all Christians and (to a lesser extent) Catholics religious freedom, but it also guaranteed the death penalty to anybody - Jews and atheists included - who did not believe that Jesus was divine
32937327Barbados slave code(36) This slave code declared that if any black person - slave or not - should commit an act of violence against a Christian, they are to be severely punished, and increasingly so with each offense. Blacks also did not have the right to a trial, and on top of that, if during a punishment, their master or such other enforcer "accidentally" killed them, they had not committed a single offense
32937328Virginia Company(28) A joint-stock company founded in London
32937329Restoration(36) In 1660, King Charles II was returned to the throne after civil war had broken out in ENgland and his father was usurped by Puritan soldier Oliver Cromwell. In the years after Charles II's reinstitution, England resumed its empire-building in America with greater intensity than ever before
32937330Act of Toleration(page number unknown) Ratified into English law in 1689, this act granted freedom to the noncomformists who had taken the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and formally rejected transubstantiation. However, while the Baptists nd congregationalists were granted religious freedom, the Catholics were deliberately excluded. Also, the existing social and political crutches still applied to all of them
32937331Savannah Indians(37) A coastal tribe of Indians who aided the Carolina settlers in finding suitable Native American slaves. However, in 1707, the Savannah tribe ended the alliance and attempted to migrate to Pennsylvania where they were promised more equality. However, the Carolinians decided to wipe out the Savannahs before they could migrate and had virtually succeeded by 1710
32937332Ireland(25-26) One of England's territories; predominantly Roman Catholic; was the subject of a religious war in the 1570's and 1580's started by Protestant Queen Elizabeth
32937333Santa Fe(21, 25) The capital of New Mexico, founded in 1610 by the Spanish
32937334Quebec(25) North American colony created by the French in 1608
32937335Jamestown(25) North American settlement created by the English (or more specifically the Virginia Company) in 1607
32937336Charles Town(38) A city named for King Charles II in (what was then called) the Carolina colony; at the time, it was the busiest seaport in the South. It was a proponent of religious toleration
32937337Protestant Reformation(25) King Henry VIII broke from the religious jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church and made England a Protestant state in the 1530's, thus launching the Protestant Reformation
32937338Pohwatan's Confederacy(30) The couple dozen of small tribes in the James River area over which chieftain Pohwatan ruled
32937339Chesapeake(34) A bay located in Maryland along which Maryland itself was founded
32937340English Civil War(36) Sparked by the dismissal of Parliament in England in 1629 by King Charles I, the war began in 1640 and ended in 1649 with the decapitation of King Charles I. The rebellion was spearheaded by the Puritan soldier Oliver Cromwell
32937341Quakers(37) Group of religious pacifists lead by William Penn
32937342Renaissance(13) Beginning in the 14th century, the Renaissance was a period of enlightenment that was ongoing in all of Europe. It nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure
32937343Mestizos(21) People of mixed Indian and European heritage
32937344Treaty of Tordesillas(16) A treaty in 1494 in which Spain and Portugal agreed to divide Central and South America up amongst themselves. Spain, however, got the lion's share of the territory; Portugal only got Brazil and a couple territories in Africa and Asia
32937345"Three Sister" farming(10) A technique that allowed the Indians in North America to grow corn, beans and squash on the same field. This technique produced some of the highest population densities on the continent
32937346Great Ice Age(5-6) Beginning about 2 million years ago and ending about 10,000 years ago, the Ice Age was not only responsible for reshaping the North American landscape into almost exactly what we know it to be today, but it was also responsible for North America's human history; when the sea-level dropped about 35,000 years ago due to the oceans congealing into ice glaciers, the Bering Strait - a land bridge connecting Asia and North America - was uncovered. Asian nomads chased game across the bridge into the Americas until the sea rose above the land bridge again when the ice melted about 10,000 years ago
32937347Canadian Shield(5) (Purportedly) the first part of the North American landmass to emerge above sea level
32937348Mound Builders(8) A group of Indians based in the Ohio River valley
32937349Spanish Armada(26) Also known as the "Invinsible Armada, this fleet of 130 ships was commissioned by King Philip II of Spain in the 1580's to invade England because England had broken from the Roman Catholic Church to become Protestant. The fleet launched an attack on England in 1588 but ultimately met its demise at the hands of English sea dogs and the "Protestant Wind", a vicious storm that scattered the fleet. The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked the beginning of the end of the Spanish Empire
32937350Black Legend(23) The Legend of the terrors the Spanish inflicted on the American Indians
32937351Conquistadores(16) The Spanish explorers - namely Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro - who conquered Central and South America and the native civilizations that occupied them
32937352Aztecs(19-21) Original occupiers of Mexico
32937353Pope's Rebellion(22) Sparked by the Spanish Catholic missionaries' efforts to suppress native religious customs, in 1680, Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic Church in New Mexico and killed hundreds of priests and settlers. The Pueblo Indians built a Kiva (a ceremonial religious chamber) on top of the ruins of the Spanish Plaza in Santa Fe. It took the Spaniards almost half a century to reclaim New Mexico
32937354Pueblo Indians(21) Original occupiers of New Mexico
32937355Iriquois Confederacy(40-41) Started by Deganawidah and Hiawatha, this league of 5 Indian nations - The Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas began in the New York area in the late 1500's. The Iriquois Confederacy was the strongest Indian alliance in North America until it fell apart as a result of the British defeat in the American Revolution. What was left of the Confederacy either relocated to British Canada or the reservations in western New York
32937356Cartography(page number unknown) The creation of maps based on the layout of an area's geography
32937357Native Americans(page number unknown) The people who first occupied the Americas
32937358Vinland(10) An area in Newfoundland that was said to abound in wild grapes when Scandinavian explorers - Norsemen - chanced upon it around 1000 AD
32937359St. Augustine, Florida(21) Founded in 1565 by the Spanish, it was used as a fortress to block the French from setting up shop in North America
32937360Kiva(22) A ceremonial religious chamber built by the Pueblo Indians on the ruins of the Spanish Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico
32937361Spice Islands(10) Indonesia
32937362Moors(13, 18) The North African Muslim population that occupied Granada in southern Spain until Isabelle and Ferdinand kicked them out to unite Spain as one country
32937363Ecosystem(page number unknown) a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment
32937364Encomienda(17) A Spanish system first implemented in the West Indies that gave the government the right to "give" Indians to Spanish colonists as long as the colonists promised to try to Christianize them
32937365Malinchista(21) A traitor. The word is taken from the name of the Indian wife of one of Hernan Cortes's soldiers, Malinche; she was Cortes's translator and ultimately made it possible for Hernan to conquer the Aztecs
32937366Dia de La Raza(21) Columbus Day (October 12th, 1492); the day which Mexicans celebrate as the day the mestizo race was created

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!