APUSH UNIT 1 VOCAB

• Encomienda


  A land-grant system under which Spanish army officers (conquistadores) were awarded large parcels of land taken from Native Americans.

  
• Christopher Columbus


  The Italian sailor who persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to fund his expedition across the Atlantic to discover a new trade route to Asia. Instead of arriving at China or Japan, he reached the Bahamas in 1492.

  
• Columbian Exchange


  The transfer of biological and social elements, such as plants, animals, people, diseases, and cultural practices, among Europe, the Americas, and Africa in the wake of Christopher Columbus's voyages to the "New World."

  
• Pueblo Revolt


  Native American revolted against the Spanish in late 17th century. Led by Popé against the forcible conversation of natives by the Catholic Church.

  
• Halfway Covenant


  In the 1660s, people could now take part in church services and activities without making a formal commitment to Christ. It was created because the next generation of colonists were less committed to religious faith, but churches still needed members.

  
• Jamestown


  In 1607, the first permanent English colony in America was founded at this location. The Virginia Company, was a a joint-stock company chartered by England's King James I.

  
• Puritans


  Group of dissenters that wanted to purify the Church of England. In 1630 they founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Boston.

  
• Separatists (Pilgrims)


  Radical dissenters to the Church of England, they were known by this name because they wanted to organized a completely separate church that was independent of royal control. They became known as Pilgrims, because of the travels.

  
• Conquistadores


  Spanish term for "conquerors," applied to Spanish and Portuguese soldiers who conquered lands held by indigenous peoples in central and southern America as well as the current states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

  
• King Philip's War


  A bloody, three-year war in New England (1675-1678), resulting from the escalation of tensions between Indians and English settlers; the defeat of the Indians led to broadened freedoms for the settlers and their dispossessing the region's Indians of most of their land.

  
• King Philip (Metacomet)


  The chief of the Wampanoages, whom the colonists called King Philip. He resented English efforts to convert Indians to Christianity and waged a war against the English colonists, one in which he was killed.

  
• Mayflower Compact


  A formal agreement signed by the Separatist colonists aboard the Mayflower in 1620 to abide by laws made by leaders of their own choosing.

  
• Virginia House of Burgesses


  In 1619, just 12 years after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia's colonists organized the first representative assembly in America, the Virginia House of Burgesses.

  
• Chesapeake Colonies


  In 1632, the area once known as the Virginia colony, has divided into the Virginia and Maryland colony. Maryland became the first proprietary colony. Characterized by bad weather and the growth of cash crops, particularly tobacco.

  
• Indentured Servants


  Settlers who consented to a defined period of labor (often four to seven years) in exchange for having their passage to the New World paid by their "master."

  
• Headright System


  A land-grant policy that promised fifty acres to any colonist who could afford passage to Virginia, as well as fifty more for any accompanying servants. The headright policy was eventually expanded to include any colonists—and was also adopted in other colonies.

  
• Bacon's Rebellion


  Unsuccessful 1676 revolt led by planter Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia governor William Berkeley's administration, which, Bacon charged, had failed to protect settlers from Indian raids.

  
• Great Awakening


  Fervent religious revival movement that swept the thirteen colonies from the 1720s through the 1740s. Created a distinction between the "New Lights" (Baptists, Methodists) and "Old Lights" (Congregationalist/Puritan, Anglican)

  
• Salem Witch Trials


  Several accusations of witchcraft led to sensational trials in Salem. Dozens of people were hanged as a result. Attributed to mass hysteria, but historians do not have a single causal explanation.

  
• Anne Hutchinson


  The articulate, strong-willed, and intelligent wife of a prominent Boston merchant, who espoused her belief in direct divine revelation. She quarreled with Puritan leaders over her beliefs, and they banished her from the colony.

  
• Georgia (Colony)


  Founded to create a barrier between the Spanish owned southern land and the Northern British owned land. It was the last of the original 13 colonies, founded by James Oglethorpe on April 21, 1732. Originally designated as free from slavery and alcohol.
• Pennsylvania (Colony)


  Colony formed to be a "Holy Experiment" settled by Quakers. Founded by William Penn, who bought land from the Native Americans. Allowed religious freedom.

  
• New Netherlands (Dutch)


  Henry Hudson of Dutch East India Company explores America and est. lucrative fur trade relations w/ Iroquois Confederacy. Conflict as Iroquois move westward in search of beavers, encroaching on other tribes hunting grounds: Beaver Wars. Dutch are more concerned with freedom and profits than religion.

  
• Middle Colonies Economy


  NY, PA, DE, NJ. Mixed economy: Farmers grew cash crops, there were industries such as lumber and iron mills, and New York and Philadelphia were large trading centers. More religiously tolerant.

  
• New England Colonies


  Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire. Mostly formed by religious dissenters/separatists. Economy tended towards shipbuilding, fishing, and small-scale farming.
• Plymouth Colony


  A colony established by the English Pilgrims, or Separatists, in 1620. The Separatists were Puritans who abandoned hope that the Anglican Church could be reformed. Plymouth became part of Massachusetts in 1691.

  
• Starving Time (1609-1610)


  The winter of 1609 to 1610 was known as the "starving time" to the colonists of Virginia. Only sixty members of the original four-hundred colonists survived. The rest died of starvation because they did not possess the skills that were necessary to obtain food in the new world.

  
• Casta System


  A system in colonial Spain of determining a person's social importance according to different racial categories: peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, indigenous, Africans
• Bartalome de las Casas


  A Catholic missionary who renounced the Spanish practice of coercively converting Indians and advocated their better treatment. In 1552, he wrote A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies, which described the Spanish's cruel treatment of the Indians.

  
• Black Legend


  False concept that Spanish conquerors only tortured and murdered Indians, stole gold and infected them with smallpox, leaving nothing of benefit. Ignores the social and religious impacts of Spanish colonization.

  
• Roger Williams


  Puritan who believed that the purity of the church required a complete separation between church and state and freedom from coercion in matters of faith. In 1636, he established the town of Providence, the first permanent settlement in Rhode Island and the first to allow religious freedom in America.

  
• Stono Rebellion (1739)


  South Carolina slave revolt that prompted the colonies to pass stricter laws regulating the movement of slaves and the capture of runaways.

  
• Act of Toleration (1649)

  Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period.
• Black Codes


  The Black Codes were laws, both official and unofficial, put in place in the United States to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks.
• Triangular Trade


  A system in which goods and slaves were traded among the Americas, Britain, and Africa