APUSH ALL KEY TERMS

Bartolomé de las Casas:

Dominican priest who in the early 1500s criticized the cruelty of Spanish policy toward Indians; denounced Spanish actions for their brutality and insensitivity. His criticism helped end the encomienda system.

Christopher Columbus:

Claimed islands in the Caribbean for Spain 1492-1504. He established the Spanish empire as he sought a western passage to the Indies. A poor administrator, he died disgraced in 1506.

Columbian Exchange:

transfer, beginning with Columbus’s first voyage, of plants, animals, and diseases between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This included squash, potatoes, and corn (maize) from the New World and cattle, horses, and smallpox from Europe.

Encomienda system:

Early Spanish colonial system where officials provided protection to Indian populations in return for their labor and production; really a form of slavery that lasted until the mid 1500s; stopped because of exploitation and inefficiency.

Hernándo Cortés:

Conquered Aztecs in Mexico. He captured the capital of Tenochititlán, with its leader Montezuma in 1521; pillaged and destroyed the Aztec civilization.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert:

Louis XIV’s minister who rejuvenated the French empire in the Western Hemisphere. In 1660s, he reorganized and strengthened the colonies of New France.

Northwest passage

Mythical water route to Asia. The search for the western path to India and China propelled the encounters and exploration of the Western Hemisphere in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Pueblo Revolt:

Indian uprising in New Mexico in 1680 against Spain and the Catholic Church. Rebels killed 400 colonists, destroyed mission around Santa Fe; held off the Spanish for 14

years.

Richard Hakluyt

British writer who, in the 1580s, encouraged England to explore and settle in North America. His writings prompted England to embark on its North American empire.

Maryland Toleration Act (Act Concerning Religion)

An act passed in Maryland in 1649 that

granted freedom of worship to all Christians; although it was enacted to protect the Catholic

minority in Maryland, it was a benchmark of religious freedom in all the colonies. It did not

extend to non-Christians, however.

Anne Hutchinson

Charismatic colonist in Massachusetts Bay who questioned whether one could achieve salvation solely by good works; she led the Antinomian controversy by challenging the clergy and the laws of the colony. She was banished from Massachusetts in

1638 and was killed by Indians in 1643.

Anglican Church

Church of England started by King Henry VIII in 1533; the monarch was head of the church, which was strongest in North America in the Southern Colonies. By 1776, it was the second-largest church in America behind the Congregationalists.

Bacon’s Rebellion

Attacks by frontiersmen led by Nathaniel Bacon against the Native Americans in the Virginia backcountry; when the governor opposed Bacon’s action, Bacon attacked Jamestown, burned it, and briefly deposed the governor before the rebellion fizzled. This revolt is often viewed as the first strike against insensitive British policy, as a clash between East and West, and as evidence of the dangers of the indentured-servant system.

Congregationalist (Puritans)

Believed the Anglican Church retained too many Catholic ideas and sought to purify the Church of England; the Puritans believed in predestination (man saved or damned at birth) and also held that God was watchful and granted salvation only to those who adhered to His goodness as interpreted by the church. The Puritans were strong in New England and very intolerant of other religious groups.

First Great Awakening

Religious revival in the colonies in 1730s and 1740s; George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards preached a message of atonement for sins by admitting them to God. The movement attempted to combat the growing secularism and rationalism of mid-eighteenth century America.

Halfway Covenant

Puritan response to the dilemma of what to do with the children born to nonchurch members as fewer and fewer Puritans sought full membership (visible sainthood) in the church; leaders allowed such children to be baptized, but they could not take communion, nor could nonchurch males vote in government/church affairs.

Headright system

Means of attracting settlers to colonial America; the system gave land to a

family head and to anyone he sponsored coming to the colony, including indentured servants.

The amount of land varied from fifty to two-hundred acres per person.

House of Burgesses

First popularly-elected legislative assembly in America; it met in Jamestown in 1619.

Indentured servants

:mainstay of the labor needs in many colonies, especially in theChesapeake regions in the seventeenth century; indentured servants were “rented slaves” who served four to seven years and then were freed to make their way in the world. Most of the servants were from the ranks of the poor, political dissenters, and criminals in England.

Jonathan Edwards

Congregational minister of the 1740s who was a leading voice of the Great Awakening; his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God attacked ideas of easy salvation and reminded the colonists of the absolute sovereignty of God.

John Smith

Saved Jamestown through firm leadership in 1607 and 1608; he imposed work and order in the settlement and later published several books promoting colonization of North America.

John Winthrop

Leader of the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s; he called for Puritans to create “a city upon a hill” and guided the colony through many crises, including the banishments of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.

Mayflower Compact

Written agreement in 1620 to create a body politic among the male settlers in Plymouth; it was the forerunner to charters and constitutions that were eventually adopted in all the colonies.

Mercantilism

Economic doctrine that called for the mother country to dominate and regulate its colonies, the system fixed trade patterns, maintained high tariffs, and discouraged manufacturing in the colonies.

Navigation Acts

Series of English laws to enforce the mercantile system, the laws established control over colonial trade, excluded all but British ships in commerce, and enumerated goods that had to be shipped to England or to other English colonies. The acts also restricted colonial manufacturing.

Roger Williams

Puritan who challenged the church to separate itself from the government and to give greater recognition of the rights of Native Americans; he was banished in 1635 and founded Rhode Island. (Critics called it Rogue Island.)

Salem witchhunt

Period of hysteria in 1692, when a group of teenaged girls accused neighbors of bewitching them; in ten months, nineteen people were executed and hundreds imprisoned. The hysteria subsided when the girls accused the more prominent individuals in the colony, including the governor’s wife.

Salutary neglect

Policy that British followed from 1607 to 1763, by which they interfered very little with the colonies; through this lack of control, the colonies thrived and prospered. It was an attempt to end this policy that helped create the friction that led to the American Revolution.

Society of Friends (Quakers)

Church founded by George Fox which believed in “The Inner Light” – a direct, individualistic experience with God; the church was strongly opposed to the Anglican Church in England and the Congregationalist Church in America. In 1681, William Penn established Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers persecuted in England and in the colonies.

Stono rebellion

Slave rebellion in South Carolina in September 1739; twenty to eighty slaves burned seven plantations, killed twenty whites, and tried to escape to Florida. The rebellion was crushed. All the slaves were killed and decapitated, and their heads were put on display as a deterrent to future uprisings.

Theocracy

Government organized and administered by the church; in Massachusetts Bay colony, only church members could vote in town meetings. The government levied taxes on both church members and nonmembers and required attendance for all at religious services.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania; he intended it to be a Quaker haven, but all religions were tolerated. The colony had very good relations with Native Americans at first.

epidemic

Widespread occurrence of an infectious disease, such as smallpox, in a community at a particular time.

New England colonies

Northernmost British colonies inclusive of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded primarily as a refuge for Pilgrims and Puritans seeking religious freedom for themselves.

Middle colonies

British colonies between the New England and Chesapeake Colonies inclusive of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The Middle Colonies were primarily characterized by their religious and social diversity.

Chesapeake Colonies:

British colonies inclusive of Virginia and Maryland. Further south, these colonies were characterized by an economic dependence on cash crops like tobacco.

Southern colonies

Inclusive of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina in particular became increasingly reliant on slavery because of an economy dependent on labor-intensive crops like rice and indigo.

Metacom’s (King Phillip’s) War (1675-1676)

Conflict between New England colonists and Native American groups. The alliance of Native Americans was organized in resistance to restrictive Puritan laws that deprived them of their land and livelihood.

Chattel slavery

Characterized by the dehumanizing treatment of people as personal property and commodities to be bought and sold.

Protestant Evangelicalism

Trans-denominational movement within Protestant Christianity that stressed the preaching of the gospel, personal conversion experiences, the Bible as the sole basis for faith, and active spreading of the faith.

advocate

to support; to be in favor of

agency

independent decision-making within a structure

analysis

separation of a whole into its component parts

belligerent

aggressive; hostile

capital

resources used to accumulate wealth or power

comparative

examining two or more items to establish similarities and differences

depict

to show or illustrate

espouse

to speak on behalf of a cause or idea

matriarchal

female dominated

malevolent

showing ill will

Baron von Steuben

A Prussian born aristocrat and military leader that assisted the American

cause during the Revolutionary War. The ill-equipped and poorly trained soldiers of the

Continental Army received badly needed training from von Steuben in the winter of 1777-78 at

Valley Forge. He helped improve troops general organization, camp sanitation and arrangement

of tents, firing and volley exchange methods, and command structure. He was critical in getting

the American military cause on track in the early years of the war.

Battle of Saratoga

a turning point of the Revolution in October 1777, when an army of

6,000 British soldiers surrendered in New York; the battle resulted from a British attempt to

divide the colonies through the Hudson River Valley. The American victory convinced the French

to ally with the colonies and assured the ultimate success of independence.

Battle of Yorktown

a siege that ended in October 1781 when Washington trapped 8,000

British soldiers on a peninsula in Virginia after a British campaign in the southern colonies;

this defeat caused the British to cease large-scale fighting in America and to start

negotiations, which eventually led to the colonies’ independence.

Ben Franklin

America’s leading diplomat of the time who served as a statesman and advisor

throughout the Revolutionary era. He was active in all the prerevolutionary congresses and

helped to secure the French alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the

Revolution in 1783.

Boston Massacre

confrontation between British soldiers and Boston citizens in March

1770. The troops shot and killed five colonials. American radicals used the event to roil

relations between England and the colonies over the next five years.

Coercive Acts 1774

British actions to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party;

they included closing the port of Boston, revoking Massachusetts’s charter, trying all British

colonial officials accused of misdeeds outside the colony, and housing British troops in private

dwellings. In the colonies, these laws were known as the Intolerable Acts, and they brought on

the First Continental Congress in 1774.

Declaratory Act (1766)

-passed as the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act; a face-saving action, it asserted Parliament's sovereignty over colonial taxation and legislative policies.

George III

-king of England during the American Revolution. Until 1776, the colonists

believed he supported their attempt to keep their rights. In reality, he was a strong advocate

for harsh policies toward them.

George Washington

commander of the colonial army; while not a military genius, his

integrity and judgment kept the army together. Ultimately, he was indispensable to the colonial cause.

John Dickinson

-conservative leader who wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; he

advocated for colonial rights but urged conciliation with England and opposed the Declaration of

Independence. Later, he helped write the Articles of Confederation.

John Jay

– lead diplomat in negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783); he secretly dealt with the

British representatives at Paris and gained all of America’s goals for independence despite the

deviousness and meddling of France and Spain.

John Locke

English philosopher who wrote that governments have a duty to protect

people’s life, liberty, and property; many colonial leaders read his ideas and incorporated

them into their political rhetoric and thinking.

Loyalists (Tories)

colonists who remained loyal to England; they often were older, better

educated people who were members of the Anglican Church. The British hoped to use them as

a pacification force but failed to organize them properly.

Marquis de Lafayette

is a French aristocrat and military leader that assisted the Americans

in the Revolutionary War. He was given command of troops and was of great assistance to the

American cause, particularly at the Battle of Yorktown. His status as a French aristocrat and

connection to France helped in securing French aid to the American cause.

Patrick Henry

an early advocate of independence who was a strong opponent of the Stamp

Act and great defender of individual rights; in 1775, he declared: “Give me liberty, or give me

death.”

Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)

Indian uprising in the Ohio Valley region that killed 2,000 settlers; as a result, the British sought peace with the Indians by prohibiting colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains (the Proclamation of 1763). The Americans saw this ban as

an unlawful restriction of their rights and generally ignored it.

Salutary neglect

British policy before 1763 of generally leaving the colonies alone to

conduct their own internal affairs; the abandonment of this policy after 1763 was a major

factor leading to revolution and independence.

Samuel Adams

agitator and leader of the Sons of Liberty, who supported independence

as soon as the British veered from salutary neglect; he was the primary leader of the

Boston Tea Party and later a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Seven Years War

– fought between England and France, 1756-1763; known as the French and

Indian War in the colonies, it started in 1754, over control of the Ohio River Valley and resulted

in France’s withdrawal from North America. It was the impetus for Parliament’s taxing policy that

led to the American Revolution.

Sons of Liberty

street gangs that formed during the Stamp Act crisis to enforce the

boycotts and prevent the distribution and sale of the tax stamps; they were the vanguard

of the Revolution as they intimidated British officials with violence.

Stamp Act 1765

a tax on more than fifty items such as pamphlets, newspapers, playing

cards, and dice; it set off a strong protest among the colonists, who claimed it was an internal

tax designed only to raise revenue and therefore unlawful for Parliament to levy.

Stamp Act Congress (1765) –

met in New York City to protest the Stamp Act; nine of the

thirteen colonies petitioned the king and organized a boycott that eventually helped to force the

repeal of the tax. This meeting and action was a major step to colonial unity and resistance of

British authority.

Sugar Act 1764

designed to raise revenue by stiffening the Molasses Act (1733),

establishing new customs regulations, and trying smugglers in British vice-admiralty courts; this

was the first attempt to tax the colonies in order to raise revenue rather than regulate trade. It

actually lowered the tax on imported sugar in hopes of discouraging smugglers and thereby

increasing collection of the tax.

Thomas Jefferson

lead author of the Declaration of Independence; in it, he explained the

colonists’ philosophy of government and the reasons for independence. He wrote that

governments that did not protect unalienable rights should be changed.

Thomas Paine

writer of Common Sense, an electrifying pamphlet of January 1776 calling for

a break with England; written with great passion and force, it swept the colonies and provided a

clear rationale for colonial independence.

Townshend Acts (1767)

levied taxes on imported items such as paper, glass, and tea; these

taxes were designed to address colonial resistance to “internal taxation” like the Stamp Act,

which had no connection to trade and was intended only to raise revenue. However, the colonials

viewed the Townshend Acts as revenue-raising measures and refused to pay these taxes as well.

Virtual representation

-idea offered by Britain to colonists' demands for representation in

Parliament and to establish lawful authority to tax them; the explanation was that Parliament

was a collective representation of all Englishmen regardless of where they lived. According to

this argument, a group's interest was represented in London by virtue of it being English.

Colonial leaders rejected this position.

Critical Period and Federalist Era

Alexander Hamilton

strong nationalist, first secretary of the treasury; he supported a

strong central government and was founder of the Federalist Party.

Alien and Sedition Acts

series of acts designed to suppress perceived French agents

working against American neutrality; the acts gave the president power to deport “dangerous”

aliens, lengthen the residency requirement for citizenship, and restrict freedoms of speech and

press.

Annapolis Convention

-meeting held at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786 to' discuss interstate

commerce; only five states sent delegates, but Alexander Hamilton used the forum to issue a

call for the states to meet the next spring to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Annapolis

Convention was a stepping-stone to creation of the Constitution.

Anti-Federalists

persons who opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; in

general, they feared the concentration of power the Constitution would place in the national

government.

Democratic republic Party

political party led by Thomas Jefferson; it feared centralized

political power, supported states’ rights, opposed Hamilton’s financial plan, and supported ties

to France. It was heavily influenced by agrarian interests in the southern states.

Farewell Address

presidential message in which Washington warned the nation to avoid both

entangling foreign alliances and domestic “factions” (political parties); the ideas of the address

became the basis of isolationist arguments for the next 150 years.

Federalist Papers

eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and

John Jay and published in newspapers to convince New York to ratify the Constitution; taken

together, they are seen as a treatise on the foundations of the Constitution.

Federalist Party

political party led by Alexander Hamilton; it favored a strong central

government, commercial interests, Hamilton’s financial plan, and close ties to England. Its

membership was strongest among the merchant class and property owners.

Federalists

persons who favored ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; they are

not to be confused with the later Federalist Party.

Great Compromise

-broke the impasse at the Constitutional Convention over congressional

representation.

Congress would consist of two houses-seats in the lower assigned according to each state's

population and states having equal representation in the upper chamber.

James Madison

strong nationalist who organized the Annapolis Convention, authored the

Virginia Plan for the Constitution, and drafted the constitutional amendments that became

the Bill of Rights; he was also a founding member of the Democratic Republican Party.

Jay’s Treaty (1794)

agreement that provided England would evacuate a series of forts in

U.S. territory along the Great Lakes; in return, the United States agreed to pay

pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to Britain. The British also partially opened the West Indies to

American shipping. The treaty was barely ratified in the face of strong Republican opposition.

Loose constructionist

person who believes that the “elastic clause” of the Constitution

(Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 18) gives the central government wide latitude of action; loose

constructionists hold that even powers not explicitly set forth in the Constitution may be

exercised if it is “necessary and proper” to carry out powers that are specifically stated.

New Jersey Plan

offered by William Paterson to counter the Virginia Plan; it favored a

one-house of Congress with equal representation for each state. It maintained much of the

Articles of Confederation but strengthened the government’s power to tax and regulate

commerce.

Northwest Ordinance 1787

the major success of Congress under the Articles of Confederation that organized the Northwest Territory for future statehood; the law provided territorial status for a region when its population reached 5,000. At 60,000, the territory could petition for statehood with the same rights as existing states. It set into law the procedure for expanding the nation that eventually led to the admission of many other new states. Also, by outlawing slavery in the Northwest Territory, it represented the first action by the national government against that institution.

Pinckney’s Treaty (1795)

agreement with Spain that opened the Mississippi River to

American navigation and granted Americans the right of deposit in New Orleans; Spain agreed

to the treaty because it feared that Jay's Treaty included an Anglo-American alliance.

Shay’s Rebellion

– an uprising in western Massachusetts between August 1786 and February

1787 that closed the

courts and threatened revolution in the state; the central government’s inability to suppress the

revolt reinforced the belief that the Articles of Confederation needed to be strengthened or

abandoned.

Strict constructionist

person who interprets the Constitution very narrowly; a strict

constructionist believes that a power not explicitly stated in the Constitution could not be

exercised by government. Historically, strict

constructionists have hoped to restrict authority of the central government and preserve states’

rights.

Thomas Jefferson

first secretary of state, who led opposition to the Hamilton/Washington

plan to centralize power at the expense of the states; after founding the Democratic

Republican Party to oppose these plans, Jefferson was elected vice president in 1796 and

president in 1800.

Three-Fifths Compromise

agreement at the Constitutional Convention that broke the

impasse over taxation and representation in the House of Representatives; the delegates

agreed to count slaves as three-fifths of a person for both. This formula had been used in

1783 to make financial assessments among the states under the Articles.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

-reaction against the Sedition Act; written by Madison for

Virginia and Jefferson for Kentucky, they stated that when the national government exceeded its

powers under the Constitution, the states had the right to nullify the law. Essentially, the

resolutions held that the Constitution was a compact among the states and they were its final

arbiter.

Virginia Plan

Edmund Randolph’s and James Madison’s proposal for a new government that

would give Congress increased taxing and legislative power; it called for two houses of

Congress—an elected lower house and an upper house appointed by the lower house. Because

seats in Congress would be apportioned according to the states’ populations, this plan was

favored by the large states.

Whiskey Rebellion

uprising in western Pennsylvania in 1794 over an excise tax levied on

whiskey; farmers saw the tax as an unjust and illegal levy, like the Stamp Act. President

Washington crushed the rebellion with overwhelming force and thereby demonstrated the

power of the new government to maintain order and carry out the law.