Beginnings - 1754 Pre-Columbian - Provincial America

New World

The Americas

land bridge

a strip of land that once connected Asia to North America

encomienda system

Spanish labor system in the New World where colonists forced labor from Native Americans

Crusades

religions wars launched by European Christians to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorers who “discovered” the New World for Europe (specifically Spain); led to Spanish colonization and the Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

widespread transfer of plants, animals, people, culture, and diseases between Europe and the New World 

the Pueblo Revolt

Native American uprising where the Pueblo people were able to drive away Spanish colonizers out for over a decade 

Jamestown

first English colony in the New World (1607)

primogeniture

the belief that the eldest son inherits all the title and land

Plymouth

established by Separatists (Pilgrims) in Massachusetts (1620)

Separatists 

English Protestants in the early 1600s who wanted to separate from the Church of England; many of them went to the New World for religious freedom 

Anglican Church

(aka the Church of England) nation church established by King Henry VIII in the 1500s after breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church

Puritans

English Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England by removing Catholic practices (unlike the Separatists, they didn’t want to break away, but to reform it)

Roger Williams

Puritan minister who founded Rhode Island (1636) after being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan woman in the Massachusetts bay colony who challenged the church’s authority by teaching that faith alone led to salvation; was later banished

Great Awakening

religious revival movement in the colonies that emphasized emotional preaching and personal faith 

Enlightenment

movement that emphasized science and reason over tradition and religious authority 

Salutary Neglect

British policy of loosely enforcing colonial laws

Mercantilism

economic theory that colonies existed to benefit the mother country by providing raw materials

Indentured Servants

people (usually poor Europeans) who agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for a way to get to the New World, food and shelter; were supposed to gain freedom and sometimes land at the end of their contracts

Nathaniel Bacon

VA colonist who led a rebellion against Governor Berkeley which exposed class tension and influenced the shift from indentured servants to slavery

Stono Rebellion

large slave uprising in SC where slaves revolted to their masters, killed several colonists, and tried to escape to Spanish-occupied Floride