Chapter 2

Huguenots

French Protestant dissenter, the Huguenots were granted limited toleration under the Edict of Nantes. After King Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism in 1685, many Huguenots fled elsewhere, including to British North America.

significance of Huguenots

Edict of Nantes

decree issued by the French crown granting limited toleration to French Protestants. ended religious wars in France and inaugurated a period of French preeminence in Europe and across the Atlantic. Its repeal in 1685 prompted a fresh migration of Protestant Huguenots to North America.

significance of Edict of Nantes

coureurs de bois

translated as “runners of the woods,” they were French fur-trappers, also known as “voyageurs” (travelers), who established trading posts throughout North America. The fur trade wreaked havoc on the health and folkways of their Native American trading partners

significance of coureurs de bois

voyageurs

same thing as coureurs de bois

Protestant Reformation

movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther. Reformers questioned the authority of the Pope. sought to eliminate the selling of indulgences, and encouraged the translation of the Bible from Latin, which few at the time could read. The Reformation was launched in England in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church

significance of Protestant Reformation

Roanoke Island

Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina

significance of Roanoke Island

Spanish Armada

Spanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588. The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire

significance of Spanish Armada

primogeniture

legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowners’ younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas.

significance of primogeniture

joint-stock company

short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England’s early colonial ventures.

significance of joint-stock company

Virginia Company

English joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virgina colony

significance of Virginia Company

charter

legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen. which helped solidify colonists’ ties to Britain during the early years of Settlement

significance of charter

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company

significance of Jamestown

First Anglo-Powhatan War

series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages applying tactics used in England’s campaigns against the Irish.

significance of First Anglo-Powhatan War

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement

significance of Second Anglo-Powhatan War

New Netherland

North American Dutch colony centered in New Amsterdam (now New York). Though prosperous, this colony was conquered and absorbed by the English

significance of New Netherland

Iroquois Confederacy

bound together five tribes - the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas - in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State.

significance of Iroquois Confederacy

Elizabeth I

Sir Francis Drake

Sir Walter Raleigh

James I

Captain Hohn Smith

Powhatan

Pocahontas

Lord De La Warr

John Rolfe

Hiawatha