Studied by 15 people
hohikam, anazasi, and pueblo
Groups in the Southwest (now New Mexico and Arizona) that lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings.
Evolved societies by supporting them with farming and irrigation systems.
mayas
A highly developed civilization during AD 300 and 800 that lived in the rainforests of Yucatan Peninsula.
Built remarkable cities within the rainforest and created calendars based on accurate scientific observations.
aztecs
A powerful empire that was from Central Mexico.
Made an empire with a population of 200,000 which was equal to the population of the largest city in Europe. They were the last culture to survive before the Europeans arrived.
incas
A vast and highly organized empire in Peru, South America.
Cultivated crops that provided a stable food supply and carried on extensive trades.
iroquois confederation
A political union of five indepent tribes (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk) who lived in the Mohawk Valley of New York.
During the American Revolution, they battled against rival American Indians as well as the Europeans.
Columbus
An Italian sailor who discovered the “New World.”
The first explorer to land on the other side of the Atlantic.
henry the navigator
The monarch prince of Portugal.
Henry sponsored Voyages of exploration and was able to open up a long sea route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Treaty of Tordesillas
An agreement between Spain and Portugal that stated that Portugal claimed Brazil while Spain claimed the rest of the Americas.
Divided the new world into separate territories for land and resources.
Roanoke Island
Island off the coast of North Carolina.
It was the first English colony in the New World.
protestant reformation
Christians in different Northern European countries started revolting and having religious wars.
The revolt caused Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the Protestants of England and Holland to want to spread their own versions of Christanity across the world. This added the religious motive for exploration and civilization to the political and economic motives.
Small pox (measles and other diseases)
Deadly disease that was delivered to the natives by Europeans.
90% of the Native American population was wiped out.
Capitalism
An economic and political system where a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
Expanded industrialization
Joint-stock company
A company that spreads risk by pooling the savings of many investors.
Pooled the savings of many investors, thus allowing other colonies on the North Atlantic Coast to attract more settlers and found the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607.
Encomienda system
A system stating that the king of Spain would give grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards.
Allowed for more wealth for the Spanish.
Conquistadores
Spanish explorers and conquerors.
Sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain from Mexico and Peru, increasing the gold supply, and making Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe.
cortes
A Spanish conquistador.
Conquests of the Aztecs in Mexico.
pizarro
A Spanish conquistador.
Conquest of the Incas in Peru which secured Spain’s initial supremacy in the Americas.
middle passage
One stage of the Atlantic/Triangular slave trade (from West Africa to the West Indies)
Those Africans who survived the Middle Passage would be traded as slaves in the West Indies for a cargo of sugarcane.
New Laws of 1542
Stated that natives were to be regarded as free individuals and the encomenderos could no longer demand their labor.
These laws ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the encomienda system.
Las Casas
A Spanish priest who dissented from the views of most Europeans toward Native Americans.
He became an advocate for better treatment for Indians. He persuaded the king to institute the New Laws of 1542.
valladolid debate
The debate over the role of Indians in the Spanish colonies came to a head in a formal debate in 1550-1551 in Valladolid, Spain.
On one side, Las Casas argued that the Indians were completely human and morally equal to Europeans, so enslaving them was not justified. On the other hand, Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that Indians were less than human. Even though neither side won the debate, Las Casas still established the basic arguments on behalf of justice for Indians.
de sepulveda
Priest who argued that Indians were less than human.
Important figure in the debate over the role of Indians in the Spanish colonies.
john cabot
An Italian sea captain who sailed under contract to England’s King Henry VII
Cabot explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497.
Lord Baltimore
(George Calvert). Controlled a new colony on either side of Chesapeake Bay.
The new colony of Maryland thus became the first proprietary colony.
Act of Toleration
The first colonial statute granted religious freedom to all Christians. Also called for the death of anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus.
Disregarded the idea of a “comprehensive” Church of England.
roger williams
A respected Puritan minister who went to Boston in 1631.
He believed that the individual’s conscience was beyond the control of any civil or church authority. This caused conflict with other Puritan leaders, who ordered his banishment from the Bay colony, leading him to flee southward where he and his new followers founded the settlement of Providence in 1636.
Providence
A settlement in Narragansett Bay was founded by Roger Williams in 1636.
It recognized the rights of American Indians and paid them for the use of their land and allowed Catholics, Quakers, and Jews to worship freely.
anne hutchinson
A dissident who questioned the doctrines of the Puritan authorities.
She believed in antinomianism. She was banished from the Bay colony and relocated with a group of followers who founded the colony of Porthsmouh in 1638. A few years later, Hutchinson migrated to Long Island and was killed in an American Indian uprising.
antinomianism
The belief that faith alone is necessary for salvation
Anne Hutchinson, who believed in antinomianism, was banished from the Bay colony with a group of followers. They founded the colony of Portsmouth, which they then migrated to Long Island and was killed in an American Indian uprising.
rhode island
A tropical state in England
Was part of the development of New England, which was caused because of Roger Williams’ banishment.
halfway covenant
Partial church that offered partial church membership even though they had not felt a conversion.
Allowed people to be partial members of a Puritan Congregation of New England.
quakers
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, founded by George Fox
They believed in equality of all men and women, nonviolence, and resistance to military service. They also believed religious authority was in the soul not the bible nor any outside source.
William Penn
A young convert to the Quaker faith
William’s sincerity was respected by the elder Penn, which led to the royal family owing the father a large debt, that they paid to William in 1681 a large piece of land that we know as Pennsylvania.
holy experiment
A test for Penn’s Quaker beliefs, that his colony provided a religious refuge for Quakers and other persecute people
This brought a Frame of Government, that guaranteed representative assembly elected by landowners, and a written constitution called The Charter of Liberties
charter of liberties
A written proclamation of freedom and rights
guaranteed freedom of worship for all unrestricted immigration
Jamestown
Home of a English colony in Virginia
In the beginning the settlers suffered greatly, but barely survived. They later transitioned into a Royal Colony It was the first permanent settlement in North America.
Captain John Smith
Leader of Jamestown in about 1610.
Helped Jamestown survive its first five years.
john rolfe
An English settler, married to Pocahontas
Found how to successfully grow tobacco that would be popular in Europe and become a new profitable crop
Pocahontas
Native American woman, wife of John Rolfe
Brought peace between her tribe and the settlers by marrying John. Helped her husband, John Rolfe, create a new tobacco that would be popular in Europe and become a new profitable crop.
Virginia
A company that founded the first permanent English colony
The Virginia company organized the first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses.
plymouth colony
Pilgrims that were seeking a safe place for their religion away from the Dutch
Created the first thanksgiving with the friendly American Indians
separatist
Radical dissenters to the Church of England
People who wanted to completely separate their church from royal control.
Pilgrims
Separatists that left England for religious freedom.
They established a new colony in Plymoth. They also had the first Thanksgiving with the Native Americans.
mayflower
A boat that brought Pilgrims in search for religious freedom to Virginia.
Allowed the Pilgrims to land on the coast of Massachusetts to establish their colony in Plymouth.
massachusetts bay colony
A colony on the shore of Massachussetts founded by the Puritans
Led to the founding of Boston.
Puritan leaders in Massachusetts Bay Colony did not tolerate people who questioned their religion. They would banish dissidents who formed settlements that became Rhode Island and Connecticut.
puritans
Dessenters that wanted to purify the church.
Gained a royal charter for the Massachussetts Bay Colony, leading to the establishment of Boston and other towns.
John Winthrope
The leader of the group of Puritans who sailed for Massachussetts.
Boston was founded.
James Oglethorpe
The first governor of Savannah.
Founded Savannah, Georgia’s first settlement, in 1733.
Despite strict regulations to make the colony thrive, it did not succeed. Oglethorpe’s group was taken over by the British government, making Georgia a royal colony.
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639
The first written constitution in American history. It was written by the Hartford settlers.
It established a representative government with a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosed by the elected legislature.
frame of government
An representation of William Penn’s political and religious ideas for Pennsylvania.
Guranteed representatives elected by landowners in Pennsylviania.
virginia house of burgesses
The first representative assembly in America.
The Virginia House of Burgesses enacted laws that discriminated between black people and white people by the end of the 1660s. Africans and their offspring were kept as slaves.
In the early 1660s, Virginia’s House of Burgesses attempted to raise tobacco prices because of overproduction. Merchants of London reacted by raising prices on goods exported to Virginia.
mayflower compact
A document that pledged Pilgriims to make decisions based on the majority.
It established how colonial self-goverments and a written constitution could be like.
corporate colonies
Colonies operated by joint-stock companies.
royal colonies
Colonies under the direct authority of the king’s government.
propietary colonies
Colonies under the rule of people authorized by the king.
virginia company
A joint-stock company chartered by King James the I.
Founded Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America, 1607.
It encouraged people to settle in Jamestown by promising the same rights given in England.
chesapeake colonies
Two colonies on either sides of Chesapeake Bay
The first proprietary colony.
The Chesapeake Revolution, led by farmer Nathaniel Bacon, was a series of raids and massacres against Native American villages in Virginia. He wanted to rebel against the Virginia government because of the economic and political control. The rebellion displayed the class differences between poor farmers and wealthy planters, and colonial resistance to royal control.
triangular trade
Trade between Africa, Europe, and North America. Ships in the colonies would follow a three-part trade route to trade slaves.
First, a ship from New England would transport rum across the Atlantic Ocean to West Africa. The rum was traded for captive Africans. The ship would then sail through the dangerous Middle Passage. The surviving Africans would be traded as slaves in the West Indies for sugarcane. Lastly, the ship would return to a New England port where the sugar would be sold to make more rum.
mercantilism
An economic policy which saw the a country’s military and political strength determined by trade, colonies, and the accumulation of wealth.
After the turmoil of England’s civil war died down, mercantilism was used in English colonies.
navigation acts
Acts implemented by the English government between 1650 and 1673.
The Navigation Acts established three rules for colonial trade.
Trade coming and leaving the colonies must be carried by English or colonial-built ships, and operated by English or colonial crews.
All goods imported to the colonies must go through ports in England.
Specific goods could only be exported to England. Tobacco was the first, but the list expanded.
The acts caused New England ship-building to flourish, provided tobacco from Chesapeake with a monopoly in England, and provided English military forces to prevent attacks from outside forces. The acts also limited the development of colonial manufacturing, made farmers in Chesapeake accept low prices for their crops, and caused colonists to pay high costs for English goods.
