Chapter 2 Vocab Flashcards (American Pageant, 18th Edition)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from Chapter 2.

Huguenots

French Protestants who faced persecution in Catholic France; many fled to the New World, influencing colonial diversity.

Coureurs de bois

French fur traders (runners of the woods) who explored North America, lived among Native Americans, and built trade networks.

New Netherland

A Dutch colony in present-day New York founded for fur trading; later taken by the English and renamed New York.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century movement that challenged the Catholic Church, leading to religious conflict and motivating English colonization of America.

Roanoke Island

The site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colony in 1585 off the coast of North Carolina, known as the Lost Colony.

Spanish Armada

A powerful Spanish fleet defeated by the English navy in 1588, marking the decline of Spain and the rise of England as a naval power.

Primogeniture

An inheritance law where only the eldest son inherited land; pushed younger sons to seek fortune in the New World.

Joint-Stock Company

A company where investors pooled money for colonial ventures; provided financial backing for English colonization.

Virginia Company

A joint-stock company that received a charter to establish Jamestown in 1607, the first permanent English colony.

Charter

A legal document granted by the monarch giving rights and privileges to settlers; guaranteed colonists the same rights as Englishmen.

Jamestown

Founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company; first permanent English settlement in America; struggled with disease, starvation, and Native conflict.

First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610–1614)

Conflict between English settlers and Powhatan Confederacy; ended by marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.

Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644–1646)

A final effort by the Powhatan to dislodge Virginians; ended in defeat, leading to removal of Native tribes from Virginia.

Iroquois Confederacy

A powerful Native American alliance of five tribes in New York that controlled fur trade and balanced between European powers.

Tuscarora War

Conflict in North Carolina (1711–1713) between settlers and the Tuscarora Indians; ended with Tuscarora joining the Iroquois Confederacy.

Yamasee Indians

A Native group in South Carolina defeated by colonists in 1715; their fall marked the end of coastal Indian resistance in the South.

Elizabeth I

Protestant queen of England (1558–1603) who supported exploration, defeated the Spanish Armada, and encouraged colonization.

Sir Francis Drake

English explorer and privateer who plundered Spanish ships and circumnavigated the globe, enriching England and earning knighthood.

Sir Walter Raleigh

English adventurer who sponsored the failed Roanoke Island colony in the 1580s.

James I

King of England who granted the Virginia Company a charter to settle in the New World, leading to the founding of Jamestown.

Captain John Smith

Early Jamestown leader whose discipline helped the colony survive; famous for the idea that work yields sustenance.

Powhatan

Leader of the Powhatan Confederacy near Jamestown; had tense relations with the English.

Pocahontas

Daughter of Powhatan who mediated relations between Natives and settlers; her marriage to John Rolfe symbolized peace.

Lord De La Warr

English governor who arrived in Jamestown in 1610, imposed harsh military rule, and initiated the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

John Rolfe

Jamestown settler who perfected tobacco cultivation, saving Virginia’s economy; married Pocahontas, creating temporary peace.