HIST 101: Second Exam Review Sheet (Dr. Verney)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the key terms, historical events, dates, and exam requirements for Lectures 5 through 12 and the primary-source analysis in HIST 101.

Charles I

English monarch. Charles I was the king of England whose actions and belief in the divine right of kings sparked a conflict with Parliament. This ultimately resulted in the English Civil War and his execution in 1649.

English Civil War

A major conflict in England that took place from 1642 to 1646. It was fought between the Royalists, who supported King Charles I, and the Parliamentarians, who sought greater power for Parliament. The war led to the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, marking a significant power shift in England.

Glorious Revolution

English political transition that occurred in 1688. It resulted in the overthrow of King James II and the establishment of William and Mary as co-sovereigns, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of constitutional monarchy in England.

Navigation Acts / Mercantilism

Trade regulations and economic policy framework spanning 1651 to 1696. The Navigation Acts were a series of laws designed to regulate colonial trade and enable England to collect taxes from the colonies, enforcing the principle of mercantilism by ensuring that trade benefitted the mother country.

Virginia Company

English joint-stock venture established in 1606 to establish settlements in North America. The Virginia Company was responsible for founding Jamestown in 1607, marking the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

Jamestown

Early permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607. It was established by the Virginia Company and served as the first successful colony, paving the way for further English colonization. The colony faced significant challenges, including conflicts with Native Americans and harsh living conditions, but ultimately laid the foundation for future settlements.

House of Burgesses

Elected legislative assembly in colonial Virginia established in 1619. The House of Burgesses was the first elected legislative body in colonial America, allowing colonists to participate in governance and influencing the development of representative government in the New World.

Bacon’s Rebellion

Armed rebellion in colonial Virginia that occurred in 1676. Led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkley, it was fueled by tensions over frontier policy and discontent among settlers.

Benjamin Franklin

Prominent American colonial and revolutionary figure whose lifespan was 1706 to 1790. He was a polymath known for his contributions to science, diplomacy, and the founding of the United States. Franklin was also instrumental in drafting the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Seven Years’ War

Major conflict spanning 1754 to 1763 involving Britain and France. Known as the French and Indian War, sparked by rival British and French claims to the Ohio River Valley. Great Britain's ultimate victory eliminated French imperial power from eastern North America but left the British Empire with enormous national debt.

Treaty of Paris of 1763

Peace treaty concluded in 1763 that brought an end to the Seven Years' War. fundamentally reshaping North American territorial control

Pontiac’s War

Native American armed conflict that took place from 1763 to 1766. led by Ottawa war leader Pontiac and inspired by the spiritual teachings of the Delaware prophet Neolin. An alliance of Great Lakes and Ohio Valley tribes attacked British forts and frontier settlements to resist post-war British military expansion, trade restrictions, and squatter encroachments, ultimately forcing King George III to issue the Proclamation of 1763.

Proclamation of 1763

British royal decree issued in 1763 restricting westward colonial expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation deeply alienated colonial land speculators, veterans awarded frontier land grants, and frontier settlers, fostering early colonial resentment toward imperial interference in western expansion.

Stamp Act

Direct British parliamentary tax on paper goods passed in 1765. requiring revenue stamps on legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards, and commercial papers. The legislation ignited widespread colonial protest under the principle of 'no taxation without representation', spurred the creation of the Sons of Liberty. Parliament repealed it in 1766

Declaratory Act

British parliamentary act passed in 1766 asserting Parliament's authority to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Although colonists celebrated the end of the stamp duty, the act asserted sweeping parliamentary supremacy and foreshadowed future legislative conflicts

Townshend Revenue Act

British parliamentary legislation enacted in 1767 imposing taxes on imported goods. placed indirect import taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea shipped to the American colonies. Designed by Charles Townshend, the generated revenue was intended to pay the salaries of royal colonial governors and judges, thereby freeing imperial officials from financial dependence on colonial assemblies

Boston Massacre

Deadly confrontation between British soldiers and colonists in Boston that occurred in 1770. British soldiers fired into an aggressive crowd of colonial protesters in Boston, killing five individuals. The event served as a major propaganda catalyst that deepened colonial distrust of peacetime standing armies and British imperial occupation.

Boston Tea Party

Colonial protest against the British tea tax that occurred in December 1773. members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk warriors in response to the 1773 Tea Act, which favored the British East India Company. The protesters boarded three merchant ships anchored in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water, an act of defiance that provoked the British Parliament into enacting the punitive Coercive

Olive Branch Petition

Colonial peace appeal sent to the British crown in July 1775. affirming colonial loyalty to King George III and pleading for a cease-fire and the redress of imperial grievances. The King refused to receive the petition and instead declared the colonies to be in open and avowed rebellion, pushing American moderates toward accepting the necessity of complete independence.

Battle of Saratoga

Key American Revolutionary War victory that occurred in 1777. resulting in the surrender of British Generals entire invading army to American forces. The victory represented the strategic turning point of the Revolutionary War by proving the Continental Army could overcome British regulars, directly convincing the French monarchy to formally join the conflict as an American ally.

Franco-American Treaty of 1778

Military and diplomatic alliance formed between France and the United States in 1778. France formally recognized American sovereignty and committed crucial military supplies, financial subsidies, ground troops, and naval power to the war effort, elevating the American rebellion into a broad global conflict that strained British military resources.

Joseph Brant

Mohawk leader who acted as an ally to the British during the American Revolutionary War. Convinced that British authority offered the best protection against colonial expansion onto Indigenous homelands, Brant led allied Iroquois and Loyalist forces in extensive raids across the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers, an alliance that fractured the historic Iroquois Confederacy.

Black Loyalists

Enslaved African Americans who escaped from rebel American owners to serve with British military forces during the American Revolution in pursuit of personal freedom. Sparked by British emancipation proclamations, thousands of Black Loyalists worked as soldiers, laborers, pilots, and scouts; following the war, the British evacuated thousands to safety in Nova Scotia, Great Britain, and later Sierra Leone.

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

1775 proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who escaped and joined the British war effort. The proclamation created the Ethiopian Regiment, ignited widespread white fear of slave revolts across the South, and drove many hesitant Southern slaveholders into supporting the patriot movement for independence.

Battle of Virginia Capes

Decisive naval battle between French and British fleets that took place in 1781. The French strategic victory drove off the British navy and sealed the mouth of the bay, denying British General Charles Cornwallis any maritime resupply or evacuation and making his surrender at Yorktown inevitable.

Battle of Yorktown

Final major military battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought in 1781. Encircled on land by combined American and French forces and trapped by the French fleet at sea, British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army of more than 7,000 soldiers, effectively breaking British political support for continuing the war.

Treaty of Paris of 1783

Peace treaty signed in 1783 officially ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing U.S. independence. Great Britain formally acknowledged the sovereign independence of the United States and recognized expansive national borders stretching west to the Mississippi River, north to British Canada, and south to Spanish Florida.

Republicanism

Political ideology structured around the fundamental elements of Power, Liberty, Corruption, Virtue, and Republics. It asserted that political power was inherently prone to corruption and tyranny, meaning that a free representative republic could only survive if citizens possessed civic virtue and remained actively committed to sacrificing selfish interests for the common good.

Gradual emancipation

Legal policy for the phased abolition of slavery implemented by the Northern states. Rather than freeing existing enslaved adults, these state statutes dictated that children born to enslaved mothers after a specific date would be born free but required to serve their mother's owner as indentured servants until reaching adulthood

Manumission

The legal act of an owner freeing enslaved individuals, as practiced in the Southern states. 'to release from the hand' or 'send forth from” Enslavers stipulated in their wills that enslaved persons would be emancipated upon their death (or upon the death of their surviving spouse). This allowed owners to retain labor during their lifetimes while using manumission as a deathbed gesture

Cotton Revolution

Major economic and agricultural expansion focused on cotton production starting from the 1790s on. sparked by Eli Whitney's 1793 cotton gin and surging demand from British textile factories. By making short-staple cotton highly profitable, the revolution drove aggressive westward expansion into the Deep South, reinforced and expanded chattel slavery, and fueled an internal domestic slave trade that uprooted hundreds of thousands of enslaved families.

The Articles of Confederation

The first constitution and national governing framework of the United States, in effect from 1777 to 1788. It formed a loose alliance of sovereign states with an intentionally weak central government that lacked a president, a national court system, and the power to collect taxes or regulate commerce, which ultimately caused leaders to replace it with the U.S. Constitution.

Northwest Ordinance

Congressional act of 1787 establishing governance, statehood processes, and civil liberties for the Northwest Territory. admitting future states on equal political footing with the original thirteen. The ordinance permanently prohibited slavery north of the Ohio River, established legal protections for civil liberties and religious freedom, and laid down foundational policies for public education in the American territories.

Daniel Shay’s Rebellion

Armed uprising of indebted farmers in Massachusetts occurring from 1786 to 1787. led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays, in which impoverished western Massachusetts farmers shut down local courts to halt farm foreclosures, debt lawsuits, and property seizures. The rebellion demonstrated the military and economic helplessness of the national government under the Articles of Confederation

Constitutional Convention

Gathering held in Philadelphia in 1787 that drafted the United States Constitution. Rather than simply revising the Articles of Confederation as originally tasked, the delegates drafted an entirely new federal system based on separated legislative, executive, and judicial branches, federalism, the Great Compromise, and checks and balances.

The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which became effective in 1791. to fulfill commitments made to Anti-Federalists during the constitutional ratification debates. These amendments secure fundamental personal liberties—such as freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and trial by jury. the Tenth Amendment explicitly reserves non-delegated powers to the states and the people.

The Whiskey Rebellion

Armed domestic protest against a federal excise tax on spirits that occurred in 1794. President George Washington responded by summoning and leading an overwhelming federal militia of nearly 13,000 troops to put down the rebellion, decisively establishing the constitutional authority of the new federal government to enforce its laws.

Neutrality Proclamation

Executive declaration issued by President George Washington in1793 declaring American neutrality in foreign conflicts. By keeping the fragile new nation out of destructive European warfare, the proclamation asserted broad presidential authority in the realm of foreign affairs despite the existing 1778 military alliance with France.

Jay’s Treaty

Diplomatic agreement negotiated between the United States and Great Britain in 1794/1795. While Britain agreed to evacuate military outposts in the Northwest Territory and permitted limited American commerce in the Caribbean, it failed to halt British impressment of American sailors or provide compensation for enslaved people freed during the Revolution, provoking intense partisan hostility between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.

Treaty of San Lorenzo

Diplomatic treaty concluded between the United States and Spain in 1795. The treaty secured vital navigation privileges for American traders on the Mississippi River and established a tax-free right of deposit at the port of New Orleans, opening western agricultural commerce to global markets.

George Washington’s Farewell Address

Valedictory public letter published by George Washington upon leaving the presidency in 1796. Announced his retirement after two presidential terms. It warned the American public against the destructive perils of domestic political factions, urged caution against regional sectionalism, and advised the country to avoid permanent foreign alliances, shaping American foreign policy for generations.

Virtual Representation

A British constitutional theory asserting that members of Parliament represented the interests of the entire British Empire as a whole, rather than the specific geographic constituencies that elected them. British officials used this concept to reject colonial demands for 'no taxation without representation', insisting that American colonists were virtually represented in Parliament just like non-voting British subjects

Salutary Neglect

An unwritten British imperial policy under which the Crown deliberately avoided strict enforcement of parliamentary commerce laws and Navigation Acts. This leniency allowed the American colonies to build thriving economies, establish independent trade networks, and govern themselves through elected assemblies,

Tobacco

The essential cash crop of colonial Virginia and Maryland, successfully cultivated and commercialized in Jamestown around 1612. Tobacco became the economic cornerstone of the colonies, driving aggressive territorial expansion onto Indigenous lands, shaping a plantation society, and fueling a massive demand for unfree agricultural labor that shifted from indentured servitude to racialized chattel slavery.

Anglicization

An eighteenth-century transatlantic cultural and social process where British American colonists actively emulated British manners, fashions, consumer habits, architectural styles, and legal traditions. Driven by expanding transatlantic commerce, Anglicization integrated the diverse colonies into a shared British identity, which ironically heightened colonial sensitivity to being denied the constitutional rights and liberties enjoyed by subjects living in Britain.

The enlightenment

intellectual movement that prioritized human reason, empirical evidence, science, and natural law over religious dogma and unquestioned authority. Promoted in America by thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Enlightenment principles—especially John Locke's ideas regarding natural rights, the social contract, and the consent of the governed—provided the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution.

great awakening

A widespread wave of Protestant evangelical religious revivals that swept across the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s, led by itinerant preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. Emphasizing emotional personal conversion, direct spiritual connection with God, and spiritual equality. helped prepare Americans to question political authority.

Sons of Liberty

A grassroots political organization formed in 1765, led by figures like Samuel Adams in Boston, to oppose British imperial taxation such as the Stamp Act. Utilizing petitions, street protests, public demonstrations, and non-importation enforcement, the Sons of Liberty mobilized resistance across social classes, protected colonial rights, and executed dramatic direct actions, most notably the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

Daughters of Liberty

A patriotic network of colonial women established in the 1760s who supported the American resistance against British taxation through non-importation boycotts and domestic production. By refusing to buy British imported goods like tea and textiles, and organizing spinning bees to produce homespun cloth, they mobilized domestic labor into a vital political tool that sustained colonial resistance against acts like the Townshend Revenue Act.

Republican Motherhood

An ideology that emerged following the American Revolution assigning women the crucial civic duty of educating and instilling republican values and civic virtue in their sons, the future citizens of the republic. Although it kept women largely confined to the domestic sphere and excluded from formal political rights, it provided a compelling justification for improving women's education so they could competently prepare the next generation to sustain a free nation.

Federalism

A system of government established by the 1787 U.S. Constitution in which sovereign power is constitutionally divided and shared between a central national government and individual state governments. By delegating enumerated powers (such as national defense and interstate commerce) to the federal government while reserving other powers to the states under the Tenth Amendment, federalism balanced national unity with local self-government.

System of Checks and Balances

A constitutional framework embedded within the 1787 U.S. Constitution that gives each of the three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial—distinct powers to check, balance, and restrain the actions of the others. Inspired by Montesquieu's political theory, mechanisms like presidential vetoes, congressional overrides, and judicial review prevent any single branch from dominating the federal government or infringing on public liberty.

The House of Representatives

The lower chamber of the United States Congress designed to be the branch of the federal government closest and most responsive to the people. Seats are apportioned among the states based on population members are directly elected every two years, and the chamber holds the exclusive constitutional power to originate all revenue-raising legislation.

The senate

The upper legislative chamber of the United States Congress created by the 1787 Constitution, designed to provide equal political representation to all states by granting each state two senators regardless of population size. Originally selected by state legislatures for six-year terms to provide stability against public passion, the Senate was given unique powers to advise and consent on presidential appointments and treaties, and to conduct impeachment trials.

The president

The unitary executive leader of the United States federal government established by Article II of the 1787 Constitution, chosen by the Electoral College for a four-year term. The president serves as Commander in Chief of the military, executes federal laws, conducts foreign diplomacy, appoints executive and judicial officials with Senate consent, and holds veto power over congressional bills, creating an energetic executive held in check by constitutional limits.

Antifederalists

Opponents of the ratification of the 1787 U.S. Constitution who feared that the new federal government was overly centralized, lacked a bill of rights, and would erode state sovereignty and individual liberties. Their persistent critiques and political mobilization during the ratification debates directly forced the Federalists to promise and enact the Bill of Rights in 1791.