Old Worlds and New: Colonial America History Review

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers essential terms, events, and concepts from the early history of North America, including European colonization, Native American societies, and the evolution of the British empire through the Seven Years' War.

Great League of Peace

An alliance of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations formed at least 400 years ago, coordinate by a Great Council to manage dealings with outsiders.

Columbian Exchange

The transatlantic flow of goods and people, including plants, animals, and germs, that began with Columbus's voyages in 1492.

Black Legend

The image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer, which provided justification for other European powers to challenge Spanish predominance.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 uprising led by Popé that temporarily drove Spanish colonists out of New Mexico and reestablished Indigenous freedom.

Enclosure Movement

A legal process in England where landlords fenced off common lands, leading to the eviction of many peasants and a social crisis of uprooted populations.

Headright System

A land-grant policy that awarded fifty acres of land to any colonist who paid for his own or another's passage to Virginia.

House of Burgesses

Established in 1619 in Virginia, this was the first elected assembly in colonial America.

Puritans

An English religious group that sought to purify the Church of England and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony under John Winthrop in 1630.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 document in which the adult men of the Plymouth colony agreed to obey 'just and equal laws' enacted by chosen representatives.

Half-Way Covenant

A 1662 religious compromise allowing partial church membership for the grandchildren of those who emigrated during the Great Migration.

Act Concerning Religion (Maryland Toleration Act)

A 1649 law that institutionalized the principle of toleration, guaranteeing the 'free exercise' of religion to all Christian denominations in Maryland.

Mercantilism

An economic theory where the government regulates activity to promote national power, emphasizing that colonies should serve the home country by providing raw materials and importing manufactured goods.

Navigation Acts

A series of laws passed by Parliament beginning in 1651 to control colonial trade and ensure that certain 'enumerated' goods were transported in English ships.

Covenant Chain

An alliance formed in the 1670s between the English colony of New York and the Haudenosaunee League to reinforce their imperial ambitions.

Society of Friends (Quakers)

A religious group whose members believed all persons possessed an 'inner light' and who advocated for religious freedom, equality, and pacifism in Pennsylvania.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 unsuccessful revolt in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley’s administration over land policies and corruption.

Glorious Revolution

A 1688 coup in England that established parliamentary supremacy and secured the Protestant succession to the throne.

Middle Passage

The second leg of the triangular trade routes in which enslaved Africans were crammed into ships for a harrowing voyage across the Atlantic.

Republicanism

An eighteenth-century political theory celebrating active participation in public life by economically independent citizens as the essence of liberty.

Liberalism

A political philosophy, influenced by John Locke, that emphasized individual and private liberty and protected natural rights from government interference.

Great Awakening

A series of emotional religious revivals in the 1730s and 1740s that redrew the religious landscape of the colonies and emphasized a 'religion of the heart.'

Seven Years' War

A global struggle for imperial domination (1756–1763) between Britain and France that fundamentally reshaped the world balance of power.

Pontiac's War

A 1763 uprising by Native American tribes in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes against British rule following the French defeat.

Proclamation of 1763

A royal directive that prohibited further colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to stabilize the frontier.

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal drafted by Benjamin Franklin envisioning a Grand Council of colonial delegates to handle Indian relations and common defense.