U.S. History Unit 1: Colonial America - Flashcards

A set of question-and-answer flashcards covering major topics and facts from the provided notes on Colonial America, European exploration, colonization, and early American society.

Which event is identified as the best starting point for the study of U.S. History in these notes?

1492 - Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas.

How is History defined in the notes?

History = Facts + Interpretation.

What is the Columbian Exchange?

The transfer of crops, animals, and diseases between the Americas and Europe, Africa, and Asia (and vice versa).

What agricultural development occurred around 7000 BCE in Mesoamerica?

Cultivation of maize (corn).

What were some effects of maize cultivation in the Pre-Columbian era?

Established settled communities, increased nutrition and population growth, and contributed to civilization and culture.

Name two major pre-Columbian advanced civilizations in the Americas.

Mayas and Aztecs.

Which Native American region is associated with cliff dwellings?

The Anasazi (Southwestern United States).

List three navigation technologies used during European exploration.

Caravel, compass, and astrolabe.

What era is described as a rebirth and renewed interest in discovery and learning?

The Renaissance.

What was the significance of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 for European exploration?

It disrupted traditional trade routes and contributed to the rise of the Ottoman Empire, prompting Europeans to seek sea routes to Asia.

Name explorers highlighted in the Age of Discovery.

Prince Henry the Navigator, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan.

What did the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) decide?

Divided newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain (west) and Portugal (east).

How did American Indians respond to European arrival and colonization?

Trade and cooperation; conflict and resistance; disease and death; movement.

What were the three G’s that motivated Spanish exploration in the Americas?

God, Gold, and Glory.

What labor system developed in New Spain to regulate Indigenous labor?

The encomienda system.

What is the ‘Black Legend’ in the context of Spanish colonization?

A portrayal of Spanish colonization as particularly brutal and cruel.

Who was Bartolomé de Las Casas?

A Catholic priest and missionary who criticized the encomienda system and defended Indigenous rights.

What was the Pueblo Revolt of 1680?

A major uprising by Pueblo peoples against Spanish rule in New Mexico.

What were key features of French colonies in North America?

Quebec City founded in 1608; fur trading; diplomacy and gift-giving to maintain good relations with Native peoples.

What were the main features of English colonies in religion and settlement?

Protestant Reformation; Anglican Church; joint-stock companies (e.g., Virginia Company); Jamestown (1607); Plymouth (1620); Massachusetts Bay (1630).

What is Jamestown notable for?

Rights of Englishmen, the Starving Time, tobacco, conflicts with the Powhatan Confederacy, the Headright System, the House of Burgesses, and its evolution into a Royal Colony in 1624.

What is Plymouth Colony known for?

Separatists (Pilgrims); Mayflower; Mayflower Compact; Squanto; Thanksgiving.

What characterized Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s?

Puritans; John Winthrop’s 'A Model of Christian Charity'; emphasis on conversion, church membership, and town meetings; Halfway Covenant; Salem Witch Trials; King Philip’s War.

What constituted the Middle Colonies?

New Netherland (New York and New Jersey) and Pennsylvania and Delaware (1680s).

What characterized the Southern Colonies (Carolinas and Georgia)?

Carolinas with slave codes and rice farming; Georgia founded in the 1730s; cultural regions like the Gullah in the South.

What was Bacon’s Rebellion (1675–76) about and why is it significant?

A Virginia uprising that highlighted frontier tensions and contributed to the shift toward African slave labor.

What is mercantilism in the colonial era?

An economic theory favoring exports and accumulation of wealth; supported by Navigation Acts to control colonial trade.

What were the estimated numbers and direction of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1650–1860)?

Approximately 10 to 15 million enslaved people were transported from Africa to the Americas.

What was the Middle Passage?

The brutal sea voyage that brought enslaved Africans to the Americas.

What were Slave Codes?

Laws restricting the rights and mobility of enslaved people; examples include the Virginia Slave Act (1662) and 1669 legal precedents.

Who were key Enlightenment thinkers mentioned in the notes?

John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin; related to the John Peter Zenger trial.

Who were the key figures of the Great Awakening?

Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, with ideas of New Lights vs. Old Lights and Pietism.

Which powers dominated North American colonial expansion in the 17th–18th centuries?

England, France, and Spain.