1 HIST test

Triangle Trade

The Triangle Trade was a trading system connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the 1500s–1800s.

• Europe sent manufactured goods to Africa.

• Enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas.

• The Americas sent crops and raw materials, such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton, to Europe.

• The trade helped European countries become wealthier while causing enormous suffering through the Atlantic slave trade.

Why it matters: It connected three continents and helped create colonial economies based heavily on enslaved labor.

Jamestown

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It was founded in 1607 in present-day Virginia.

• It was established by the Virginia Company.

• Early settlers struggled with disease, starvation, and conflicts with Native Americans.

• Tobacco eventually became an important cash crop.

• The colony became economically successful partly through tobacco farming.

Why it matters: Jamestown became the foundation for permanent English colonization in what became the United States.

Jamestown

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It was founded in 1607 in present-day Virginia.

• It was established by the Virginia Company.

• Early settlers struggled with disease, starvation, and conflicts with Native Americans.

• Tobacco eventually became an important cash crop.

• The colony became economically successful partly through tobacco farming.

Why it matters: Jamestown became the foundation for permanent English colonization in what became the United States.

Puritans

The Puritans were English Protestants who wanted to reform the Church of England.

• Many believed the Church of England still had too many Catholic traditions.

• Some Puritans left England because of religious persecution.

• The Pilgrims were a separate group of English Separatists who founded Plymouth in 1620.

• Many Puritans later established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

Why it matters: Puritan settlements helped shape New England’s religion, government, education, and society.

Conquistadores

Conquistadores were Spanish explorers and soldiers who conquered parts of the Americas during the 1500s.

Examples include:

• Hernán Cortés, who conquered the Aztec Empire.

• Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Inca Empire.

They were motivated by wealth, land, power, and spreading Christianity.

Why it matters: Their conquests greatly expanded Spanish control in the Americas and caused major changes and destruction for Indigenous civilizations.

Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire.

• It was located where modern-day Mexico City is today.

• It was built on an island in Lake Texcoco.

• It had impressive temples, markets, roads, and canals.

• Hernán Cortés and his allies conquered the city in 1521.

Why it matters: Tenochtitlan was one of the largest and most advanced cities in the Americas before the Spanish conquest.

Incas

The Inca were a powerful Indigenous civilization centered in the Andes Mountains of South America.

• Their empire covered large areas of present-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and surrounding regions.

• Their capital was Cuzco.

• They built an extensive road system.

• Machu Picchu is one of their most famous surviving sites.

• Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire in the 1530s.

Why it matters: The Incas created one of the largest empires in pre-Columbian America.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a European explorer who sailed across the Atlantic in 1492 while looking for a western route to Asia.

• He was sponsored by Spain.

• He reached islands in the Caribbean but mistakenly believed he had reached Asia.

• His voyages led to increased European exploration and colonization of the Americas.

• European arrival brought disease, warfare, forced labor, and major population loss among Indigenous peoples.

Why it matters: His voyages helped begin a period of sustained European contact and colonization in the Americas.

Joint-stock company

A joint-stock company was a business in which many investors pooled their money to fund an expensive project.

For example, the Virginia Company used this system to finance the settlement of Jamestown.

• Investors shared the costs.

• They also shared potential profits.

• This made it easier to finance overseas exploration and colonies.

Why it matters: Joint-stock companies helped England establish colonies without the government paying for everything itself.

Chattel slavery

Chattel slavery was a system in which enslaved people were legally treated as property.

• Enslaved people could be bought and sold.

• Their children could also be born into slavery.

• They were forced to work without freedom or payment.

• In the Americas, this system became strongly connected to race and was used extensively on plantations.

Why it matters: Chattel slavery became a major part of the economies and societies of European colonies in the Americas and had lasting effects on American history.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement mainly during the 1600s and 1700s.

Thinkers emphasized:

• Reason

• Natural rights

• Liberty

• Equality

• Government by consent

• Questioning traditional authority

Important thinkers included John Locke, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Why it matters: Enlightenment ideas influenced the American and French Revolutions and helped shape modern ideas about government and individual rights.

Mercantilism

Mercantilism was an economic system used by European countries from roughly the 1500s through the 1700s.

The basic idea was that a country should become wealthy and powerful by:

• Exporting more goods than it imported.

• Collecting valuable resources.

• Controlling colonies.

• Using colonies as sources of raw materials and markets for finished products.

Example: Britain wanted its American colonies to provide raw materials while buying British manufactured goods.

Why it matters: Mercantilism shaped European colonial policies and contributed to tensions between Britain and its American colonies.

Navigation Acts

The Navigation Acts were laws passed by England beginning in 1651 to regulate colonial trade.

They required much colonial trade to:

• Use English or colonial ships.

• Pass through English-controlled trade networks.

• Follow rules that benefited England.

Why it matters: The laws strengthened Britain’s control over its colonies and contributed to colonial resentment toward British economic policies.

Magna Carta

The Magna Carta was a document agreed to by King John of England in 1215.

It established the idea that:

• The king was not above the law.

• The government had limits.

• Certain rights and legal protections should be respected.

It did not create modern democracy, and most people at the time did not receive the rights we associate with it today.

Why it matters: It became an important influence on later ideas about limited government and individual rights.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War, which was part of the larger Seven Years’ War.

As a result:

• France lost most of its major North American possessions to Britain.

• Britain gained control of Canada.

• Spain gained Louisiana from France.

• Britain became the dominant European power in eastern North America.

Why it matters: The war left Britain with a large debt, leading Britain to tax and regulate its American colonies more heavily. Those tensions eventually contributed to the American Revolution.