Colonial America: Government, Economy, Geography, and Settlement

Flashcards covering self-government, labor systems, economics, settlement patterns, and natural resources across colonial America based on the provided notes.

Mayflower Compact and Town Hall Meetings

Self-government practices established in Massachusetts that helped create democracy by giving power to the people.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

A early system of self-government created in Connecticut that helped establish representative government in the colonies.

House of Burgesses

An early governing body established in Virginia that provided a foundation for colonial self-government and representative democracy.

Indentured Servant

A worker in the colonial period who agreed to work for a specific period of time, often in exchange for transportation to the colonies or land.

Triangular Trade

A historical trade network that facilitated and led to the continued importation of enslaved Africans to North America.

Joint-Stock Company

A business entity formed in the colonial period to raise capital from investors to fund colonial settlements and generate profits.

Headright System

A system created by the Virginia Company that gave free land to men who brought their families and servants to Jamestown, encouraging colonial growth to farm tobacco for profits.

Mercantilism

An economic policy designed by European countries to control and regulate trade to maximize national wealth and benefit the mother country.

Navigation Acts

British laws created to regulate and restrict colonial trade, designed to ensure Britain benefited economically from its colonies.

Colonial Settlement Pattern

The historical pattern where settlement began on the east coast, both north and south, and gradually moved west.

Puritans and Separatists/Pilgrims

Religious groups who settled in Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in England, whose strict beliefs also led them to persecute other religions.

Rhode Island Dissenters

A group of settlers composed of dissenters who were banished from Massachusetts due to religious conflicts.

Quakers

A religious group that settled in Pennsylvania after leaving England to escape religious persecution, contributing significantly to Pennsylvania's population growth.

Maryland Catholics

A religious group that settled in Maryland, consisting of Christians who faced conflicts with Protestants.

Georgia Debtors

The primary group of settlers who moved from England to establish the colony of Georgia.

Beaver Fur Trade

An economic resource in the New England Colonies that brought high profits and population growth, but led settlers west as coastal beaver populations were over-hunted.

Plantation Culture

An economic and social structure in the Southern Colonies driven by high-demand cash crops like rice and tobacco, which required cheap labor and led to reliance on enslaved Africans and indentured servants.

Deforestation

An unintended environmental consequence of colonial expansion caused by settlers cutting down trees to build houses and clear space for farmland.

Invasive Species

Non-native plants and animals brought by European colonists that took over local ecosystems in North America.