Early American Colonization, English History, Trade, and Religious Freedom

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the establishment of Jamestown, British Mercantilism and Triangular Trade, 16th-century English political/religious history, and Plymouth and Massachusetts settlements.

Queen Elizabeth I

The nationalist Queen of England who ruled from 1558 to 1603, supported a religious compromise between Catholics and Protestants, encouraged English overseas empire expansion, and authorized privateers like Sir Francis Drake.

Spanish Armada

The massive Spanish invasion fleet ordered by King Philip II in 1588; its defeat by England made England stronger economically and politically, weakened Spain, and opened the way for English colonization of North America.

Richard Hakluyt

An English author who wrote books such as The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation to encourage settlement and colonization in Virginia.

Virginia Company of London

A joint-stock company established in 1606 that received a charter from King James I to found colonies in North America for profit.

Joint-Stock Company

A business structure in which investors pool money for a commercial enterprise (such as a colony) and receive a share of the profits generated.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in Virginia in 1607 along the James River near the Chesapeake Bay.

Captain John Smith

The leader who took command of Jamestown, imposed military rule with the rule "If you don't work, you don't eat," and traded with local Native Americans.

John Smith's Map

A detailed 1606 map of Virginia created by Captain John Smith depicting the Chesapeake Bay, regional rivers, and Native American settlement locations.

Powhatan Confederacy

An alliance of Algonquian Native American tribes in Virginia led by Chief Powhatan, which alternately traded food with and fought against the Jamestown settlers.

The "Starving Time"

The severe winter of 1609-1610 in Jamestown marked by famine, sickness, and Indian attacks, during which only 60 out of approximately 500 colonists survived.

Lord De La Warr

The strict governor appointed to Jamestown in 1610 who prevented survivors from abandoning the colony and enforced hard labor and severe disciplinary measures.

John Rolfe

A Jamestown survivor who imported sweet tobacco seeds from South America to create Virginia's profitable cash crop, and whose marriage to Pocahontas secured peace with the Powhatan Confederacy.

Edwin Sandys

The treasurer of the Virginia Company who supported indentured servitude and established the headright system to increase population and agricultural production in Virginia.

Headright System

A land policy that awarded 50 acres of land to any colonist who paid their own way to Virginia, along with 50 additional acres for each extra person brought along.

Indentured Servant

A colonist who signed a contract to work without wages for 4 to 7 years in exchange for paid passage to North America.

House of Burgesses

The first assembly of elected representatives in the English colonies, established by the Virginia Company in 1619 to give landowning white men a say in government.

Royal Colony

A colony under direct control of the English monarch, such as Virginia after King James I revoked the Virginia Company's charter in 1624.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 armed rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia's government over high taxes, political corruption, and conflicts with Native Americans.

Mercantilism

An economic policy where a nation seeks to build strength and power by strictly controlling trade, building colonies for raw materials, and exporting more than it imports.

Balance of Trade

The relationship between a country's total exports (selling goods) and imports (buying goods), where maintaining higher exports creates a favorable balance.

Navigation Acts of 1651

A series of English laws designed to control colonial commerce by requiring trade to use colonial or English ships, limiting enumerated goods exports to England, and funneling trade through English ports.

Smuggling

The illegal importation or exportation of goods without paying required government import taxes or duties.

Salutary Neglect

England's unofficial policy of lax enforcement of colonial trade laws as long as the colonies remained profitable and loyal against the threat of French power.

Triangular Trade

A transatlantic trade network linking Britain, West Africa, the West Indies, and the American colonies, transporting goods, rum, molasses, raw materials, and enslaved people.

Middle Passage

The forced sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that transported enslaved Africans from West Africa to the West Indies and the Americas.

King Henry VIII

The Tudor monarch of England who broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 when Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Anglican Church

The Church of England created in 1534 when King Henry VIII declared himself supreme head, severing ties with Catholic papal authority.

Queen Mary I

Henry VIII's first daughter who became Queen in 1553, restored Catholicism, and earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" for executing 300 religious opponents.

Sea Dogs

English privateers authorized by Queen Elizabeth I to attack Spanish treasure fleets and American settlements, famously exemplified by Sir Francis Drake.

Sir Francis Drake

A prominent English sea dog who plundered Spanish ports, became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and helped defeat the Spanish Armada.

Lost Colony of Roanoke

England's second attempt at colonizing Roanoke Island in 1587, led by John White, whose settlers mysteriously vanished by 1590, leaving behind the carved word "CROATOAN".

Virginia Dare

The granddaughter of John White, born on Roanoke Island in 1587 as the first English child born in North America.

Puritans

English religious dissidents who sought to "purify" the Church of England of Catholic traditions and lived according to strict Christian doctrine, hard work, and predestination.

Separatists

Radical Puritans who completely severed ties with the Church of England, left for the Netherlands in 1607, and eventually established Plymouth Colony in America.

Pilgrims

The group of Separatists and non-Separatist "strangers" who sailed aboard the Mayflower in September 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony.

Mayflower Compact

A legal agreement signed by 41 male passengers aboard the Mayflower in November 1620 to form a "civil Body Politick" and enact equal laws for Plymouth Colony.

William Bradford

The Separatist elected governor of Plymouth Colony after the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620.

Samoset

An English-speaking Native American who greeted the Plymouth Pilgrims in March 1621 and provided essential local intelligence.

Squanto

An English-speaking Native American who taught Plymouth settlers how to cultivate corn using fish fertilizer and acted as a guide and translator.

Massasoit

Chief of the Wampanoag tribe who established a long-term peace agreement with the Plymouth settlers.

Great Migration

The movement of approximately 40,000 English immigrants, primarily Puritans and Separatists fleeing religious pressure under King Charles I, to the New World between 1620 and 1640.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

A colony established by Puritans in 1630 under a charter from King Charles I, centering in Boston and Salem with the intention of creating a model Christian "City upon a hill".

Toleration Act of 1649

A law passed in Maryland to protect English Catholic settlers by granting freedom of religion to all Christian denominations.