Targeted must-know terms to master for Period 1 of APUSH.
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| 8001244581 | Prince Henry the Navigator | Henry (1394-1460) - a Portuguese prince who was the first monarch to invest heavily in naval exploration. He funded exploratory trips—primarily of the Western coast of Africa—and collected a 20% tax on all profits made. With Henry's financial and political backing, the Portuguese were able to make many naval technological advances, allowing ships to sail farther and faster distances than ever before. Other monarchs followed Henry's model leading to an era of European exploration. This included Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who funded Christopher Columbus's trip that resulted in European discovery of the Americas. | 0 | |
| 8001244582 | Columbian Exchange | The transfer of animals, plants, technology, and disease between Europeans and the native populations in the Americas. Catalyzed by Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World, this transfer—both intentional and unintentional—of living things between hemispheres led to one of the most dramatic ecological changes in history. Items introduced to the Americas from Europe include: Horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep, oranges, bananas, coffee, guns, wheat, barley, rice, and, most notably, European diseases like smallpox. Items introduced to Europe from the Americas include: beans, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, maize, and various squashes. | 1 | |
| 8001244583 | Northwest Passage | A theoretical waterway passage that connected the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean through North America. After Columbus's voyage, explorers were eager to find a western route from Europe to Asia. French and British explorers (among others) focused primarily on a northern passage through present : day Canada. The hope of a Northwest Passage catalyzed European exploration of North American waterways, such as the Great Lakes, the Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi River. Although a clear passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was never found, the exploration for a Northwest Passage provided Europeans with an understanding of North America land. | 2 | |
| 8001244584 | Encomienda System | A paternalistic system instituted by the Spanish to control and regulate the American Indian populations. With the early emphasis on finding precious metals, Spanish conquistadores committed acts of extreme abuse to extort labor from the Native Indians. To try to reduce the abuse, the king of Spain granted a number of Indians to each Spanish representatives (such as conquistadors), who then could extract a tribute of gold or labor from the American Indians. In exchange, the encomenderos (holders of the encomienda) were required to protect and Christianize the native populations under their watch. In reality, encomenderos used the system to seize control of native land and enslave the native Indians. | 3 | |
| 8001244585 | Hacienda System | A social and property system instituted by Spain granting large tracts of land to individuals. Disease, forced labor and abuse led to a massive decline in the native population in Spanish-held territories. Also, as the Spanish economy in the New World shifted from mining to agriculture, the encomienda system did not make sense. It was replaced by the hacienda system in which large areas of land were granted to Spanish representatives. The workers on the estate were technically free wage workers, but the landowners used oppressive financial restrictions to tie them to the land. This created a feudal system in the Spanish colonies that lasted throughout the colonial period. | 4 | |
| 8001244586 | Joint-stock Company | A company in which individuals could buy a share, or a percentage of the company. Investors were entitled to a percentage of the company's profit equal to the percentage of the company they owned. However, there was also great risk: if the company failed, they lost their money. The modern joint-stock company began in England in 1533.The invention of the joint-stock company allowed business ventures to raise capital more easily and more quickly than ever before. This was particularly useful in expensive exploration or colonization expeditions. Many of the early British colonies, like Jamestown in 1607, were founded by joint-stock companies. | 5 | |
| 8001244587 | Roanoke Island | The first attempt by England to establish a colony in North America. In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh established Roanoke Colony, made up of 120 men, women and children, on a small island off the coast of North Carolina. The colony was home to the first English child born in North America- Virginia Dare. After struggling for several years to feed themselves and the colony's governor, John White left Roanoke in late 1587 to get supplies and support from England. Upon his return in 1590 he found the colony had vanished, with only the word "Croatoan" carved into a fence post around the village. | 6 | |
| 8001244588 | Mayas | A pre-Columbian empire in modern-day Mexico and Central America extending from 750 BCE to 900 AD (although the civilization can be traced from around 1000 BCE to 1697). The Mayan civilization was composed of multiple city-states, interlinked into a loose empire. It was incredibly sophisticated including monumental architecture and temples, a highly developed system of trade, a complex agricultural system which fed a large population, calendrical systems, astronomical understanding, and one of the world's first systems of writing. The decline of the civilization was rapid, and the causes are still essentially unknown. At the time of the arrival of the Spanish, while many of the cities were still thriving, the empire had dissipated into distinct and warring small kingdoms and cities. The Spanish were able to quickly and easily conquer them. | 7 | |
| 8001244589 | Aztecs | A pre-Columbian empire in the Valley of Mexico between the 14th and 16th centuries. In 1428, the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan formed a triple alliance to rule the valley. Together, they built an empire that covered most of central Mexico. The empire's strength was based primarily on military might: the alliance conquered other cities by force. However, administration of the empire was loose. Local leaders were allowed to maintain power as long as they paid an annual tribute to the alliance, contributed soldiers to other conquests and formally worshiped the imperial God Huitzilopochtli alongside their local gods. The Aztec Empire was conquered by Hernan Cortes in 1521 after two years of conflict and a massive smallpox epidemic. | 8 | |
| 8001244590 | Incas | The largest pre-Columbian empire, covering almost all of western South America from southern Columbia to northwestern Argentina. It lasted from the early 13th century to the destruction of the final stronghold in 1572. The highly centralized empire was organized around the capital of Cusco in modern-day Peru. The empire was ruled by a single king, viewed as a descendent of the sun god. After an initial period of expansion, most of the Incan conquest was done peacefully as resistance was rare. Conquered areas were required to pay tribute to Cusco and were connected by a complex system of trade. Many conquered areas maintained their local customs and practices. Thanks to smallpox and internal feuding in the empire, Francisco Pizarro easily captured Cusco in 1532. | 9 | |
| 8001244591 | Bartolome de Las Casas | A Franciscan friar who openly opposed enslavement and mistreatment of the native population. One of the first Spanish settlers in the New World, Las Casas became an outspoken critic of Spanish abuse of Native peoples. He gave up his encomienda and became a Franciscan friar. He actively advocated with the crown for better treatment of the natives and an end to the practice of slavery in the Spanish colonies. While he was ultimately unsuccessful in this effort, his work did lead to the revision of Spanish law with regards to American Indians. His writings also provide important insight into the relationship between Spanish colonists and the native populations they encountered. | 10 | |
| 8001244592 | Sir Walter Raleigh | A British explorer received the first charter from Queen Elizabeth to explore and conquer the New World. He traveled twice to South America to find "El Dorado", the city of gold, writing a highly exaggerated book which created a lasting myth around this fictional place. He also organized the Roanoke colony (although he did not travel there himself). Raleigh was Great Britain's first major explorer of the New World and laid the groundwork for the eventual British settlement of the eastern coast of North America. | 11 | |
| 8001244593 | Christopher Columbus | An Italian navigator who led a trans-Atlantic voyage that resulted in European discovery of the Americas. Columbus was one of many explorers in the 15th century trying to find a better sea-route to Asia. Based on inaccurate calculations about the size of the Earth, Columbus believed a western route would be possible and faster. He convinced Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to sponsor his trip, and left in 1492 with three ships. Instead of reaching India as planned, however, he landed on Hispaniola. He later led three more voyages to the Caribbean, and opened the door to lasting contact between Europe and the Americas. | 12 | |
| 8001244594 | Chinook | The language of groups of American Indians in the Pacific Northwest. Because there were no formal tribes like in other areas, Europeans grouped American Indians of the Northwest by language. The Chinook-speaking people, like others in the area, relied on fishing and plants and animals caught in the dense fir forests. They had a highly stratified society composed of several castes, including slaves. The Chinook lived in longhouses which held the members of the house. They had little conflict over land with other native groups, and had limited interaction with Europeans until they were encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805. The Chinook were displaced when American settlers flooded Oregon in the 1840s. | 13 | |
| 8001244595 | Iroquois | The largest political organization in pre-contact North America. The Iroquois Confederacy was a loose league of five tribes: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca formed in the 1400s or 1500s. The confederacy's primary purpose was to promote peace among the member tribes by organizing a complex compensation system for murder. The confederacy, however, was very aggressive with tribes outside of the alliance, focusing on raids to gain more land and people, rather than conquest. The Iroquois Confederacy traded fur with the French, but this quickly turned into a decades-long conflict over control of access to game called the Beaver Wars. Because of their animosity towards the French, the Iroquois became a sometimes-ally to the British, fighting with them in the French and Indian War. | 14 | |
| 8001244596 | Algonquians | A widespread American Indian language group ranging across most of modern-day Canada and pockets in the Northeast and northern parts of the Midwest in the modern-day United States. The greatest concentration of Algonquian-speaking people was along the Atlantic Coast, the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. Most Algonquian groups hunted and fished, supported by three-sisters farming. They built temporary and mobile villages, that could follow the game and consisting of a few hundred people. The Algonquian people were often at war with the Iroquois Confederacy. This led to a greater openness to alliance with Europeans. Longer than most tribes, Algonquians managed to hold off extensive loss of land through treaties with France, Britain and the United States. | 15 | |
| 8001244597 | John Cabot | First European explorer of North America after the Vikings. In 1497, Cabot, an Italian explorer, sailed from Bristol England in search of a western route to China along northern latitudes where the distance would be shorter. Instead of an open route, he came upon modern-day Newfoundland in Canada. Cabot went on shore only to claim the land for England, did some brief exploration and then returned to England. He took a second voyage in 1499, but it is unclear if he returned or if he even ever reached Newfoundland. Cabot's voyage revealed the extent of the New World and opened up colonization possibilities for countries besides Spain. | 16 | |
| 8001244598 | Francis Drake | English sea captain and privateer known for his circumnavigation of the globe and defeat of the Spanish Armada. During Drake's circumnavigation of the globe from 1577 to 1580, he captured several Spanish ships and stole their cargo, earning him a reputation as a daring seaman. In trying to hold off a Spanish invasion, Queen Elizabeth ordered Drake to attack Spanish colonies in the Atlantic and in the New World in 1585. Two years later, Drake destroyed ships in two of Spain's biggest ports, holding the invasion off once again. When Spain finally did attack in 1588, Drake was vice-admiral and led English ships in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. This signified a significant power shift in Europe. Spain was no longer the most powerful nation, and the English navy was established as the best in the world. | 17 | |
| 8001244599 | Conquistadors | Spanish leaders of conquest in the New World. In Spain, only first-born sons inherited the family's wealth. This created a class of men in search of their own fortune. The discovery of the New World, and Spain's desire to profit from it, opened up new opportunities. The crown offered to fund the cost of expeditions whose purpose was to find new land, claim it for Spain, and convert the natives to Christianity. In exchange, the conqueror received a large share of whatever wealth they found. These professional warriors, called conquistadors, led expeditions throughout South and Central America driven by "God, gold and glory." The desire for wealth and fame led to high levels of violence and oppression of American Indians. | 18 | |
| 8001244600 | Treaty of Tordesillas | Treaty between Spain and Portugal dividing the New World—and all future discovered lands in it--between them. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI (Spanish-born) issued papal bulls, or orders, establishing a demarcation line 320 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. All lands to the east, which included only a few Atlantic islands, were given to Portugal. All lands to the west (all of the Americas) were given to Spain. In 1494, Portugal demanded a renegotiation with Spain. The resulting Treaty of Tordesillas, moved the line 850 miles west, giving about half of modern-day Brazil to Portugal. While the treaty was eventually sanctioned by the pope, the other European powers never recognized it. Portugal did use it to gain a foothold in South America, which they extended through settlement to control most of the interior of the continent. | 19 | |
| 8001244601 | Valladolid Debate | The first moral debate about colonization in European history. In 1550, scholars and theologians gathered at Valladolid in Spain to debate the colonization of the Americas and the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized. The two most prominent views were expressed by friar Bartolome de las Casas (an outspoken opponent to Spanish practices in South America) and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a humanist scholar. De las Casas argued that the American Indians should be treated the same as Spanish colonizers. Sepúlveda disagreed, saying practices like human sacrifice were absolute moral wrongs that should be ended at any cost, including war and conquest. While there was no clear winner, it articulated Spain's internal struggle over the abuses of colonization and established de las Casas as the defender of the native people. | 20 |
