Early US History (US History)

Pequot War

War between Pequot Indians and colonists from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies.

Middle Colony Cultures

Included Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, (established as trade centers), and Pennsylvania, (established by Quakers for religious freedom). Features: fertile soil, access to iron ore, close proximity to coastlines. Nicknamed “the bread basket” colonies because of the large amounts of grain they produced.

Southern Colony Cultures

Included Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Motivation for settlement: The Carolinas (profit-seeking private companies), Maryland (religious freedom), and Georgia (debtor’s colony). Features: fertile soil. Economic activities: plantation style agriculture, production of cash crops (tobacco, cotton, and indigo), dependence on slavery.

Mohican Native Americans

A confederacy of five tribes along the Hudson River. Lived primarily on agriculture, but also some hunting and gathering. Lived in longhouses.

Rhode Island

Created when Anne Hutchinson's colony merged with Roger Williams' colony

Nathaniel Bacon

Leader of Bacon's Rebellion in Jamestown, the first popular revolt in the colonies.

Lakota

A Native American tribe that transformed from sedentary to nomadic with the introduction of horses.

Puritans

Protestant religious group who wanted to make things better in the Church of England by getting rid of certain practices; notably established communities in the New England area during the colonial period like the Massachusetts Bay Colony

New England Colony Cultures

Included Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Motivation for settlement: religious freedom. Features: abundant forests, rocky soil, mountains, and a short growing season. Economic activities: logging, fishing, and shipbuilding.

Antinomianism

Religious view led by Anne Hutchinson that advocated that grace is enough to get a person into heaven

Spanish Armada

Defeated by the English Navy led by Sir Francis Drake; established England as the leading European naval power

Roanoke Colony

Established in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh. The colony struggled and vanished without a trace by 1590

Triangular Trade

Trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa

George Washington

the first president of the United States

Also served as:

a member of the First and Second Continental Congress

Commander-in-Chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution

President of the Constitutional Convention

Proclamation of 1763

In an attempt to avoid conflicts with Native Americans, this was issued by King George and stated that colonists couldn't settle the Ohio River Valley.

Indentured Servants

Workers who were bound to work for a specific amount of time, typically seven years, in Jamestown.

Cherokee Native Americans

A collection of tribes with common cultural elements. Lived in the southeastern United States but were a widely dispersed population. Relied on agriculture, hunting and gathering.

John Smith

Governor of Jamestown; primarily responsible for Jamestown's survival

Salutary Neglect

Parliamentary laws that are not strictly enforced

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer who organized the first expedition to circumnavigate the earth

Northwest Passage

A hypothesized water route from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. It would have facilitated trade with Asia, but one was never found. Eventually, the Panama Canal would connect these oceans in Central America.

Hopi Native Americans

Lived in villages called pueblos in northeastern Arizona. Relied on agriculture. Were known as peaceful people.

Conquistadores

Spanish explorers who searched for and found expansive amounts of gold in the New World.

Iroquois Confederacy / Iroquois League

A confederacy of six different tribes that was the most powerful native group in the Northeast; expanded tribes through war and conquest. Member tribes: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora

Mesoamerica

A region in the Americas extending from central Mexico through parts of Central America prior to Spanish exploration.

Virginia Company

British trading company chartered by King James I to found the Virginia Colony; shareholders received profit from trading Virginian products; an early example of a corporation

Mayflower Compact

The first document of a self-regulating government since the Roman Republic.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who was the first to search for a water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Declaration of Independence

Document adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Signed by representatives from all 13 colonies. The document outlined the complaints the colonists had about Great Britain and officially declared the US free from British rule.

Bacon's Rebellion

(1676 to 1677) uprising of poor settlers in Virginia led by wealthy British colonist Nathaniel Bacon against Virginian governor William Berkeley; started when Berkeley refused to remove Native Americans to expand settlement

Mercantilism

The economic idea that a country needs to amass wealth through more exporting than importing and measures wealth by the amount of gold that a nation possesses.

French and Indian War / The Seven Years War

1756-1763. Conflict between the British and the French, who allied with Native American tribes. Britain's victory gave them all lands east of the Mississippi River and established them as the dominant force in North America.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the French and Indian War, ceding all lands east of the Mississippi River to Britain

Anne Hutchinson

Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her religious beliefs; helped found Portsmouth and Rhode Island.

Mayflower

Ship carrying Puritan Separatists who wanted religious freedom and established Plymouth Colony present day Massachusetts.

King Phillip's War

War between Native Americans and New England Colonists (1675-1678)

New Amsterdam

The most diverse colony which was a Dutch settlement on the southern tip of Manhattan Island.

Jamestown Colony

First permanent English settlement in North America.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Settled in 1630 by Puritan refugees from England.

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer who searched for alternate routes to India by traveling west across the Atlantic on four different trips.

John Winthrop

First governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Plymouth Colony

First permanent English settlement in Massachusetts (1620)

Columbian Exchange

The transferring of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas after Christopher Columbus' arrival.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution which protected legal rights and civil rights of individuals. Created in 1791.

Protestant Separatists

Pilgrims who wanted to get away from the Church of England; established Plymouth Colony

Age of Exploration

A period of time from the early 15th Century until the early 17th Century in which European ships traveled around the world in search of new trading routes.

Virginia Declaration of Rights

written and adopted by the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776, declared that men have inherent rights, among these is the right to reject unjust or inadequate governments

Sir Walter Raleigh

Established the Roanoke Colony

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative body which became a model for other colonies governmental systems. Met in Jamestown, Virginia.