European Colonization in the New World

Flashcards about the European Colonization in the New World US History. Period 2 (1607-1754 C.E.)

What was a key difference in colonizing goals between European powers in the New World?

Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different goals that impacted the economic, political, and cultural development of their colonies and shaped colonizers’ interactions with American Indian populations.

What types of conflicts arose in the New World due to European colonization?

Conflict arose due to competition for resources among European rivals, and between the Europeans and American Indians.

Name three examples of American Indian resistance to European colonizers.

Pueblo Revolt, the Pequot War, and King Philip’s War.

What characterized the regional differences among the early British colonies along the Atlantic coast?

New England colonies were settled by the Puritans, who lived in small towns. The middle colonies were characterized by the export of cash crops, less social rigidity, and more religious tolerance. The southern colonies developed a plantation-based economy.

What was the Triangular Trade?

The trading of slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

What did England use its colonies for?

To obtain raw materials for its own manufacturing purposes and wealth creation.

What were some early examples of colonial resentment and resistance?

Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and the Great Awakening starting in the 1730s.

Who was Samuel de Champlain?

French explorer. Known as the “The Father of New France.” Founded Quebec in 1608. Made the first accurate maps of what is modern-day Eastern Canada.

Who were Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette?

French-Canadian explorer and French Jesuit missionary that were the first Europeans to explore and map the Mississippi River.

Who was Sieur de La Salle?

French explorer, also known as René-Robert Cavelier. He surveyed the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico. Founded a network of forts around the Great Lakes and in the modern-day Midwest.

What was the Dutch East India Company?

The vehicle for the commercial ambitions of the Netherlands in the New World, especially with regards to the fur trade. Led to the founding of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam.

Who was Henry Hudson?

English explorer. While working to find a Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company, he sailed up the Hudson River, establishing Dutch claims for what became New Amsterdam (modern-day New York).

What was New Amsterdam noted for?

The Dutch capital of their New Netherland colony. Noted for its tolerance of religious practices.

What are Mestizos?

A term for people of mixed Spanish and American Indian heritage.

Describe the Pueblo Revolt.

A 1680 revolt against Spanish settlers in the modern-day American Southwest. Led by a Pueblo man named Popé, it forced the Spanish to abandon Santa Fe. A rare, decisive American Indian victory against European colonization.

What is Anglicanism?

A form of Protestant Christianity that adheres to the liturgy of the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England. Founded in the sixteenth century by King Henry VIII.

What do Protestants generally believe?

That faith alone merits salvation and good works are unnecessary. They reject the authority of the Pope and believe the Bible is the sole authority.

What was the House of Burgesses?

The first elected legislative assembly in the New World. Established in 1619. It served as a political model for subsequent English colonies.

What are Charters?

A document which Parliament used to grant exclusive rights and privileges. Required for the legal sanction of a formal colony.

Who was Sir Humphrey Gilbert?

English explorer. In the Elizabethan era, he founded the first English colony at Newfoundland, which failed.

Who was Sir Walter Raleigh?

One of the most important figures of the Elizabethan era. Granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to explore and colonize the New World in exchange for one-fifth of all the gold and silver this venture obtained. Founded Roanoke.

What happened to Roanoke?

Nicknamed “the Lost Colony.” First attempted English colony in the New World. Founded in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh on an island off the modern-day North Carolina coast. By 1590, its inhabitants had vanished for reasons that still remain unknown.

What were Indentured servants?

People who offered up five to seven years of their freedom in exchange for passage to the New World. Limited rights while servants, but considered free members of society upon release.

What was Bacon’s Rebellion?

A failed 1676 rebellion in Jamestown. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, indentured servants and slaves revolted against the Virginia Colony’s aristocracy. It led to a strengthening of racially coded laws, such as the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, in order to divide impoverished white and black slaves.

Who was Sir William Berkeley?

Virginia governor during Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). Ruled the colony based on the interests of the wealthy tobacco planters. In addition, Berkeley advocated for good relations with the American Indians in order to safeguard the beaver fur trade.

Who was Nathaniel Bacon?

A young member of the House of Burgesses who capitalized on his fellow backwoodsmen’s complaints by mobilizing them to form a citizens’ militia. Burned Jamestown during Bacon’s Rebellion. Died of dysentery in 1676.

Who was John Smith?

A pivotal leader at Jamestown. Negotiated peace between the settlers and local American Indians. Famously stated “He that will not work shall not eat,” forcing the Jamestown colonists to work to save their then-failing colony.

When was Jamestown founded?

Founded in Virginia in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

Describe the Triangular Trade.

A transatlantic trade network. New World colonies exported raw materials such as sugar and cotton to England. There, these materials were transformed into rum and textiles. Europeans sold these manufactured goods, including at African ports, in exchange for slaves, who would then be sold in the colonies as farm workers, thus completing the triangle.

What was the Middle Passage?

The leg of Triangular Trade which transported Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Approximately 20 percent of enslaved Africans died before reaching the New World due to poor conditions, dehydration, and disease.

What was the Stono Rebellion?

A 1739 slave uprising in Stono, South Carolina. Led to the deaths of more than four dozen colonists and as many as 200 African slaves. Prompted South Carolina’s proprietors to create a stricter slave code.

What was the Virginia Company?

Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline. Established a headright system (1618) and the House of Burgesses (1619). By 1624, a lack of profit forced the company to concede its charter to the crown, who appointed a royal governor.

Who was Powhatan?

The name for an American Indian tribe neighboring Jamestown. Also the common name for its chief (formally known as Wahunsenacawh) in the 1610s, who was father to Pocahontas and brother to Opechancanough.

Who was Pocahontas?

American Indian woman who brokered peace between her tribe and the early settlers at Jamestown, such as John Smith. Married John Rolfe in 1614.

Who was Opechancanough?

Planned and executed a surprise attack in 1622 on Jamestown that massacred a fourth of the total Virginia colonists in one day. The resulting retaliation by the English settlers devastated his tribe, altering the regional balance of power.

Who was Roger Williams?

A Protestant theologian in during the 1630s. Believed American Indians should be treated justly. Advocated the then-radical notion of separation of church and state, believing government involvement in religion amounted to forced worship. Banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he and his followers went on to found Rhode Island.

What was the Pequot War?

A war in New England in 1636–1638. Fought between the Pequot tribe and the English colonists with their American Indian allies. A catastrophic defeat for the Pequot tribe. Famous for the Mystic massacre, where over 500 Pequot were slaughtered in a blaze.

What was King Philip’s War?

Also known as Metacom’s War, King Philip’s War (1675–1678) was an ongoing battle between English colonists and the American Indian inhabitants of New England. The English victory expanded their access to land that was previously inhabited by the natives.

What was the Headright system?

A policy where a colonial government grants a set amount of land to any settler who paid for their own—or someone else’s—passage to the New World.

Who was John Rolfe?

An influential Virginian leader. In 1611, he introduced his fellow farmers to tobacco cultivation, which provided the economic basis for their colony’s survival. Married Pocahontas.

What is a Proprietary colony?

A colony in which the crown allotted land and governmental command to one person. Maryland under Lord Baltimore is an example of it.

Who was Lord Baltimore?

The noble title for Cecilius Calvert. He founded Maryland in 1632 as a haven for his fellow Catholics, and advocated for peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants. Overthrown during the Glorious Revolution by Protestant rebels.

What is Puritanism?

A religious code and societal organization that split off from Anglicanism. Puritans believed that their religious and social structures were ideal. They thought that the Church of England’s ceremonies and teachings were too reminiscent of Catholicism and that true believers ought to read the Bible for themselves and listen to the sermons of an educated clergy.

Who were the Pilgrims?

The first Puritans to colonize the New World. Settled at Plymouth. Members of a minority group of Puritans known as separatists.

Who were the Separatists?

A minority Puritan faction that wished to abandon the Church of England and form their own independent church cleansed of any lingering Catholicism.

When was Plymouth founded?

A colony in modern-day Cape Cod, founded by the Pilgrims in 1620.

What was the Mayflower Compact?

The first written form of government in the modern-day United States. Drafted by the Pilgrims, it was an agreement to establish a secular body that would administer the leadership of the Plymouth colony.

Who was Squanto?

An American Indian who learned English after having been captured and transported to England. Later returned to the New World. He showed the Pilgrims how to plant corn and where to fish, enabling them to survive early on.

What was the Massachusetts Bay Company?

Founded in 1629 by a collective of London financiers, who advocated for the Puritan cause and wanted to profit from American Indian trade.

What was the Body of Liberties?

Issued by the Massachusetts General Court in 1641, it delineated the liberties and duties of Massachusetts settlers. It also allowed for free speech, assembly, and due process; it also authorized the death penalty for the worship of false gods, blasphemy, and witchcraft.

What was the Great Migration of the 1630s?

A period where many Puritan families moved across the Atlantic. By 1642, approximately 20,000 Puritans had immigrated to Massachusetts.

Who was Anne Hutchinson?

A Puritan colonist in Massachusetts. Tried and convicted of heresy in the 1630s. She asserted that local ministers were erroneous in believing that good deeds and church attendance saved one’s soul. She believed that faith alone merited salvation.

Who was Thomas Hooker?

Puritan leader. Founded a settlement at Hartford, Connecticut (1636) after dissenting from the Massachusetts authorities.

What were the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut?

The first “constitution” in colonial America, fully established the Hartford government in 1639. While it modeled itself after the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the document—in a key innovation—called for the power of government to be derived from the governed, who did not need to be church members to vote.

What was the Charter of Liberties and Privileges?

Drafted in 1683 by a New York assembly, following the colony’s takeover by the English. It mandated elections, and reinforced traditional English liberties such as trial by jury, security of property, and religious tolerance for Protestant churches.

What was the Fundamental Constitution of Carolina?

Issued by the proprietors of Carolina in 1669, who aimed to create a feudal society composed of nobles, serfs, and slaves. Four-fifths of the land was owned by the planters. Colonial leaders established an elected assembly and a headright system to attract immigrants, who were allowed to own the remaining land. It allowed for religious tolerance, both for Christian dissenters and Jewish people.

Who was William Penn?

Founded Pennsylvania in 1683. A Quaker, Penn believed in equality between people. He owned all the colony’s land and sold it to settlers at low costs, instead of developing a headright system. The religious tolerance, excellent climate, and low cost of land appealed to immigrants from across Western Europe.

Who were the Quakers?

Formally known as the “Society of Friends.” A Protestant church that advocated that everyone was equal, including women, Africans, and American Indians.

Who was James Oglethorpe?

A wealthy reformer who founded Georgia in 1733 as a haven for those who had been imprisoned in England as debtors. He initially banned slavery and alcohol from the colony, which led to many disputes among settlers. In 1751, however, the colony was surrendered to the crown, which repealed both bans.

What is Mercantilism?

The theory that a government should control economic pursuits to further a nation’s national power, especially in the acquisition of silver and gold. Prominent in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

What were the Navigation Acts?

Laws passed in 1651 as measure to supersede Dutch control of international trade. Colonial commodities such as tobacco and sugar had to be exported to England in English ships and sold in English ports before they could be re-exported to other nations’ markets.

What was the Glorious Revolution?

The 1688 overthrow of the Catholic King James II by the English Parliament. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange. Led to both celebration and unrest throughout the American colonies.

What was the Toleration Act of 1689?

An English law that called for the free worship of most Protestants, not only Puritans. Forced on Massachusetts in 1691 after it was made a royal colony, revoking its earlier Puritan-centric charter.

What was the Great Awakening?

A Protestant religious movement that took place across the Thirteen Colonies during the 1730s and 1740s. It indirectly helped spur religious tolerance and led to the founding of many universities.

Who was Jonathan Edwards?

A preacher credited for sparking the (First) Great Awakening. His sermons encouraged parishioners to repent of their sins and obey God’s word in order to earn mercy. He delivered his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in 1741.

Who was George Whitefield?

A traveling New Light preacher during the Great Awakening. Known for his sermons on the “fire and brimstone” eternity that all sinners would face if they did not publicly confess their sins. Undermined the power and prestige of Old Light ministers by proclaiming that ordinary people could understand Christian doctrine without the clergy’s guidance.