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APUSH Period 1 TERMS
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Bering Strait | The narrow waterway between Siberia and Alaska; during the last Ice Age, lower sea levels exposed a land bridge (Beringia) enabling the initial peopling of the Americas. |
| Mayas | Mesoamerican civilization centered in the Yucatán and Guatemala known for advanced mathematics, astronomy, writing, and city-states prior to European contact. |
| Aztecs | Powerful Mesoamerican empire based at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) noted for tribute systems, militarism, and complex religion at the time of Spanish conquest. |
| Northern Civilizations (Great Basin, Great Plains, Mississippi River Valley, Northwest) | Diverse Indigenous cultures adapted to local ecologies—nomadic bison hunters on the Plains, irrigation and foraging in the Basin, mound-building agricultural societies in the Mississippi Valley, and fishing/woodworking in the Pacific Northwest. |
| maize | Staple crop (corn) domesticated in Mesoamerica that enabled population growth, complex societies, and spread northward into the present-day U.S. Southwest and beyond. |
| Feudalism | Medieval European social-economic system of hierarchical obligations (lords, vassals, serfs) that shaped precontact European society and influenced colonization patterns. |
| Black Death | Mid-14th-century bubonic plague that decimated Europe, transforming labor markets, weakening feudal structures, and indirectly shaping exploration motives. |
| Ferdinand and Isabella | Monarchs who unified Spain and financed Columbus’s 1492 voyage, launching sustained European contact with the Americas. |
| Conquistadores | Spanish soldier-adventurers who conquered American empires (e.g., Aztec, Inca) seeking gold, glory, and God. |
| Hernando Cortes | Conquistador who led the expedition that toppled the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), aided by alliances and disease impacts. |
| Francisco Pizarro | Conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in the 1530s, exploiting internal conflict and superior weaponry. |
| encomiendas | Spanish labor-grant system giving colonists rights to Indigenous labor and tribute in return for “protection” and Christianization, often resulting in coercion. |
| St. Augustine | Spanish fortress-town in Florida (founded 1565), the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in what became the U.S. |
| Columbian Exchange | Transatlantic transfer of plants, animals, people, pathogens, and ideas after 1492, reshaping ecologies, diets, populations, and economies. |
| Pueblo Revolt | 1680 uprising by Pueblo peoples in New Mexico that expelled Spanish rule for over a decade, challenging colonial control. |
| mercantilism | Economic doctrine where colonies exist to enrich the mother country through controlled trade, bullionism, and favorable balances. |
| Protestant Reformation | 16th-century religious reform movement (sparked by Martin Luther) that fractured Western Christianity and fueled colonial rivalries. |
| English Reformation | Break from the Catholic Church under Henry VIII, creating the Church of England and spurring later migrations of dissenters. |
| Puritans | English Protestants seeking to purify the Church of England; many migrated to New England to build covenant communities. |
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