APUSH Midterm: Important People, Terms, & Events

Republics

A form of government in which the people elect representatives to govern them and make laws

Common Law

A legal system based on custom and court rulings

The Crusades

A long series of wars between Christians and Muslims in Southwest Asia; strengthened the Christian identity of the European population and helped broaden the intellectual and economic horizons of the European privileged class

Nathaniel Bacon

A member of the governor's council and planter who led a rebellion in 1676 against the governor of the Virginia Colony

Mestizos

A person of mixed Native American and European ancestory

Freeholder

A person who owns his or her land

Lowered Status of Africans

Chesapeake legislature began enacting laws; being a slave was becoming a permanent and hereditary condition, synonymous with African people

European Enlightenment

European intellectual movement of the eighteenth century that applied the lessons of the Scientific Revolution to human affairs and was noted for its commitment to open-mindedness and inquiry and the belief that knowledge could transform human society; helped promote a more rational view of the world

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)

Explored the region around 1500, believed that the land was not Asia and called it a nuevo mundo, a new world

Quebec/New France

First permanent French settlement established in 1608 and became a vast fur-trading enterprise

Malinali

Fourteen - year - old girl from the Yucatan peninsula who served as Cortes's interpreter during his 1519 march through Mexico. Malinali, who the Spaniards called Marina, was given to Cortes by the local chief. Her fluency in a number of region's languages proved indispensable to Cortes and his men.

The Mayas

From the regions of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and Honduras. Elaborate religious observances/stone mortar pyramid. Center of the city was Chichen /Itza and its religious centers, where human victims were sacrificed. Developed an elaborate system of writing, calendar, and mathematical concept of zero. Had knowledge of astronomy, engineering, and art.

Encomiendas

Grants of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to China (1451-1506)

Virginia Company

Joint-Stock Company in London that received a charter for land in the new world. Charter guarantees new colonists same rights as people back in England.

Pueblo Revolt

Native American revolt against the Spanish in late 17th century because of forced labor, the imposition of Christianity, drought, and food shortages; Lead by Indian Shaman Pope; killed over 400 spaniards

Hohokam

Native Americans who lived in present-day Arizona and New Mexico by 600 AD and used irrigation to bring water to the crops, fashioned fine pottery, and worshiped their gods on Mesoamerican-like platform mounds; lived in elaborate multiroom stone structures called pueblos

Yeomen

Owners of small farms that provided a marginally comfortable living, but few achieved that goal due to exploitation by landlords

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain

Paid for Columbus's voyage because they hoped he would find riches such as gold

Michelangelo, Palladio, and De Vinci

Part of a flowering of artistic genius that sets standards that still influence the modern era

Anne Hutchinson

Considered a heretic because her beliefs diminished the role of Puritan miniisters

King Henry VIII

Created the national Church of England and broke with the Roman Catholic Church because he wasn't granted a divorce by the pope

Dutch Republic

Emerged as the financial and commercial hub of northern Europe in 1600

Fee-Simple Land Distribution

Encouraged the development of self governing communities

Santa Fe

Established in 1610 by the Spanish, who re-established the system of missions and forced labor there after Indian revolts in 1598

Act of Trade and Navigation

Permitted only English or colonial-owned ships into American ports

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer; Ships outgunned Arab fleets

Opechancanough

Powhatan's brother who became the head of the native confederacy after Powhatan's death. He resumed the effort to defend tribal lands from European encroachments. Important because his attacks on the white settlers of Jamestown helped to end the Virginia Company and to begin the colony coming under the control of the English crown.

The Pilgrims

Puritan Separatists who broke completely with the Church of England and sailed to the New World aboard the Mayflower, founding Plymouth Colony on Cape Cod in 1620.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader who became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

bonded labor

Slavery, serfdom, indentured servitude

Granada

Spain captured, the last Islamic state in Western Europe in 1492

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541).

The Renaissance

Stimulated by the wealth and learning of the Arab and Chinese world and the re-introduction of Greek and Roman texts following the Black Death; Europe experienced a "rebirth" of learning, economic development, and cultural life

Reconquista

The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Olmec

The first Mesoamerican civilization. Lived along the Gulf Coast of Mexico around 700 BC. It was a vibrant civilization that included intensive agriculture, wide-ranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction.

St. Augustine

The first permanent European settlement in the New World; established by Spain

Queen Elizabeth I

This "virgin" queen ruled England for 50 years and was one of the most successful monarchs in English History. She supported the arts, increased the treasury, supported the exploration of the New World, built up the military, and established the Church of England as the main religion in England

Economic Life in Jamestown

Tobacco farming became the basis of economic life and an impetus for permanent settlement

General Court of Shareholding

Winthrop and his associates utilized it to organize and found the colony

Toleration Act of Maryland

in 1649, granting religious freedom to all Christians

Salem Witch Trials

in 1692, several accusations of witchcraft led to sensational trials in Salem, Massachusetts at which Cotton Mather presided as the chief judge. 19 people were hanged for witchcraft and 175 people were arrested. Afterwards, most of the people involved admitted that the trials and executions had been a terrible mistake.

Hopewells

in present-day Ohio had spread their influence from Louisiana to Wisconsin by organizing themselves in large villages, establishing extensive trade networks, and increasing their food supply through domesticating plants; built large burial mounds

outwork system

merchants and artisans bought wool or flax from farmers and paid propertyless workers and land-poor farm families to spin it into yarn and weave it into cloth

Gentry

non-noble landowners

Iroquois

organized themselves into a confederation of 5 nations- Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks- to extend control over territory and the fur trade

Indulgences

pardon sold by catholic church to reduce one's punishment

Peasants

people who worked the land or served the nobles; living in small rural communities of compact agricultural villages surrounded by open fields

Matrilineal

relating to a social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother

John Calvin

religious reformer who believed in predestination and a strict sense of morality for society; Wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)

West India Company

seventeenth-century Dutch trading company formed to compete with Spain in North and South America; the company established trading posts in Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and North America, including New Amsterdam and established the fur-trade economy

Prince Henry of Portugal

sought an alternate oceanic route to Asia; under Henry's direction, Portugal led European expansion overseas

Heresy

the crime of holding a belief that goes against established doctrine

House of Burgesses

the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619, representative colony set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but England could veto its legistlative acts.

House of Commons

the first legislative body of Parliament whose members are elected; rich commoners and small property owners gained a voice in government

Mississippian

the last large-scale culture to emerge north of the Rio Grande and mound building culture; By 1350 overpopulation, urban disease, and warfare led to their decline

Proprietors

the owner of a business, or a holder of property.

Chattel Slavery

the ownership of human beings as property

Netherlands Independence

the seven northern provinces declared their independence in 1581 and became the Dutch Republic

Pagans

those who believed in polytheism

King Phillip II of Spain

wanted to root Protestantism out of the Netherlands and England, as well as Islam from North Africa; he failed in both efforts

Niccolo Machiavelli

wrote The Prince (1513)

King Charles I

conveyed most of the territory bordering the Chesapeake Bay to Lord Baltimore

The West India Company

created a trade monopoly in West Africa, Indonesia, and Brazil, giving the Dutch control of the Atlantic slave trade

Black Death

destroyed one-third of the population

Spanish Armada

Sailed out to reimpose Catholic rule in England and Holland but was defeated when a storm allowed the English to claim victory in 1588

Guilds

Association of merchants or artisans who cooperated to protect their economic interests

Anasazi

900 AD; built residential-ceremonial villages in steep cliffs, a pueblo in Chaco Canyon that housed one thousand people, and 400 miles of straight roads

Chief Powhatan

"Chief-of-the-Chiefs" who lead 30 Algonquian tribes known as the Powhatans, threatened war with the settlers

Comprehensive Orders for New Discoveries

(1573) A policy put into place by Spanish leaders that used Franciscan missionaries and missions to convert and control the new world, instead of the violence

Peace of Augsburg

1555 agreement dividing Germany into Lutheran states in the north and Catholic principalities in the south; allowed princes to decide the religion of their subjects

King James I

1566-1625 King of England who, in 1606, gave the Virginia Company of London a charger to set up a colony in Virginia; granted a group of London merchants a trading monopoly from present day NC to southern NY

Mayflower Compact

1620 - The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony.

Bacon's Rebellion

1676 - Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers were angry at Virginia Governor Berkeley for trying to appease the Indians after they attacked the western settlements. Bacon led a protest and he and his men killed a number of peaceful Indians; He also burned Jamestown down and issued a "Manifesto and Declaration of the People" demanding removal of all Indians and an end to the rule of wealthy parasites

William Berkeley

A Governor of Virginia, appointed by King Charles I, of whom he was a favorite. He was governor from 1641-1652 and 1660-1677. Berkeley gave tax-free land grants to members of his council and enacted friendly policies towards the Indians that led to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.

Thomas Hooker

A Puritan minister who led about 100 settlers out of Massachusetts Bay to Connecticut because he believed that the governor and other officials had too much power. He wanted to set up a colony in Connecticut with strict limits on government.

Lord Baltimore (George Calvert)

A catholic aristocrat who created Maryland, a second tobacco colony in the Chesapeake

Dower

A common law provision that grants a wife a one-third life estate in all of the real property of a decedent husband

Roger Williams

A religious dissenter who agreed with the Pilgrims' separation of church and state. He was banned from MA Bay and along with his followers founded settlements in RI, where there was no legally established church

Primogeniture

A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere.

Mercantilism

A system of state-supported manufacturing and trade; an economic system (Europe in 18th C) to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests

Moctezuma

Ancient Aztec ruler, believed that Cortes might be a returning god and allowed him to enter the empire without challenge

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland in 1624. This later became "New York City"

Elizabeth I

Henry's daughter, combined Lutheran and Calvinist beliefs but retained the Catholic ritual of Holy Communion in her religious reforms

Civic Humanism

Ideology that praised public virtue and service to the state and would profoundly influence European and American conceptions of government and national expansion

Indentured Servants

Immigrants who received passage to America in exchange for a fixed term of labor

Smallpox Outbreak

In 70 days, decimated the population of Tenochtitlan, enabling Cortes and his crew to infiltrate the city

Huron

Indian tribes that were helped by the French to defeat the Iroquois

Duke of York

Initially ruled the new English colony of New York with a mild hand, but after a Dutch raid in 1673, English officials imposed English laws and customs

Enclosure Acts

Laws that allowed owners to fence in the open fields that surrounded many peasant villages and put sheep to graze on them

Slavery in the Chesapeake

Legalized slavery in 1705

Price Revolution

Major inflation as a result of the Spanish dumping gold and silver on the European market

The Roman Catholic Church

Served as one of the great unifying forces in Western European society; provided a persuasive authority and discipline through Christian dogma, a church staffed by priests in every village, and the unifying language of Latin

Martin Luther

a German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Chruch. In 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices. Argued 3 main points: He believed that people could be saved only by grace, not good works; he dismissed the need for priests to act as intermediaries between Christians and God; and he downplayed the role of high-ranking clergymen and popes by naming the Bible the ultimate authority in matters of faith

Hernan Cortes

a member of the Spanish gentry class, and his fellow Spanish conquistadors landed on the Mexican coast and began a conquest of the Aztec empire

Caste System

a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society

Animists

believed that unpredictable spiritual forces governed the natural world and that those spirits had to be paid ritual honor

Aztecs

built the lake city of Tenochtitlan, established a complex hierarchical social order that subjugated most of central Mexico through invasion, economic tribute, and human sacrifice

Town Meetings

chose selectmen, levied taxes, and enacted ordinances and regulations