AP US History Unit 2: Colonial America (1607-1754)

A comprehensive vocabulary review set covering European colonization strategies, British regional characteristics, trade, conflicts, and socio-political developments in North America from 1607 to 1754.

Jamestown (1607)

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607 primarily by single young men seeking wealth through gold, which later achieved prosperity through tobacco cultivation.

Encomienda System

A Spanish colonial labor system designed to subjugate the indigenous population and force them into forced labor.

Hacienda System

A land-focused Spanish system that gradually replaced the encomienda system, in which plantation owners owned the land and indigenous workers were tied to it through debt peonage.

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

A 1680 indigenous uprising led against Spanish religious suppression and abuse, in which Pueblo warriors killed hundreds of Spaniards and destroyed local churches before Spain regained control 12 years later.

Syncretism

The blending of traditional indigenous religious beliefs and practices with introduced Christian doctrines.

Spanish Casta System

A social hierarchy established in Spanish colonies that ranked individuals based on the proportion of white Spanish blood in their ancestry.

French Colonization

French colonial strategy focused on establishing trade partnerships—especially in beaver furs—and military alliances with indigenous groups rather than founding large permanent settlements.

New Amsterdam

A Dutch colony established as a major commercial trading port driven by the fur trade, featuring an exceptionally diverse and multi-lingual population.

Laws of Primogeniture

English legal traditions dictating that only the eldest son inherited family land, driving younger sons with ambition to seek land in the American colonies.

Enclosure Movement

A British economic trend where wealthy landowners claimed public lands previously shared by poor peasants, driving lower-class English citizens to seek better living conditions in America.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

An agreement signed in 1620 by Pilgrims landing at Plymouth to establish a simple self-governing body ruled by majority decision.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

A colony founded in 1630 by approximately 1,000 Puritans seeking to build a religious society based on biblical principles, governed by town hall meetings of land-owning free men.

Middle Colonies

The colonial region consisting of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, defined by high ethnic and religious diversity, commercial ports, and grain exports.

William Penn

The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who created a democratic colony as a safe haven for Quakers and others seeking religious freedom and fair treatment of native populations.

House of Burgesses

A representative assembly established in Virginia that provided a degree of self-government for land-owning colonial men.

Barbados Slave Code

A law originated in the West Indies that stripped enslaved Black workers of basic human rights and granted white plantation owners total authority over them, later copied by South Carolina.

Triangular Trade

A transatlantic trade route connecting North America, West Africa, and the West Indies, exchanging commodities such as rum, enslaved Africans, and sugar/molasses.

Middle Passage

The brutal forced ocean voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the West Indies and American plantation colonies.

Mercantilism

A state-directed economic system aimed at maintaining a positive balance of trade by maximizing exports and minimizing imports to amass wealth in gold and silver.

Navigation Acts

A series of British laws intended to enforce mercantilism by requiring American colonial trade to be conducted exclusively with Great Britain.

Salutary Neglect

The unofficial British policy of lax enforcement of colonial trade laws due to oceanic distance and European conflict, allowing colonists significant economic autonomy.

Beaver Wars

A series of 17th-century bloody territorial conflicts where the Iroquois Confederacy, backed by Dutch and British allies, fought to expand fur trade control into the Ohio River Valley against French-allied indigenous groups.

Metacom's War (King Philip's War)

A major conflict in New England between a native alliance led by Wampanoag chief Metacom and English settlers encroaching on native land, ending in heavy casualties and diminished native power.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

A 1676 uprising of landless former indentured servants led by Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia Governor Berkeley, which accelerated the transition from indentured servitude to African chattel slavery.

Chattel Slavery

A form of slavery in which an enslaved person is legally defined and treated as personal property of the owner for life.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

An armed 1739 slave uprising along the Stono River in South Carolina that killed several white residents and led directly to harsher colonial slave codes.

Great Awakening

A Protestant religious revival during the 1730s led by evangelical preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield that emphasized personal, emotional faith and created a shared American identity.

Enlightenment

A European intellectual movement focused on human reason, natural rights, and the social contract (promoted by thinkers like John Locke), which shaped American political ideology.

Anglicization

The process by which the American colonies increasingly adopted English cultural norms, economic class distinctions, and political governing structures over time.

Impressment

The forced recruitment of colonial American men into service in the British Royal Navy, creating severe friction between the colonists and the British government.