Early American History Review

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the pre-Columbian era, European exploration, and the development of the English colonies in North America through the mid-1700s.

Beringia

The land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska during the Ice Age, roughly 15,000-30,000 years ago, allowing the first people to enter the Americas from Asia.

Coastal Migration theory

A theory suggesting that some of the earliest people traveled by boat along the Pacific coast rather than exclusively through an inland ice-free corridor.

Paleo-Indian Peoples

The earliest known inhabitants of North America (12000 BCE - 9000 BCE) who were highly mobile hunter-gatherers.

Clovis points

Fluted stone spear tips used by Paleo-Indians for hunting large game animals such as mammoth, bison, and caribou.

Neolithic Revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and permanent villages, which created food surpluses and population growth.

Archaic Peoples

Groups that followed the Paleo-Indians, adapting to post-Ice Age environments by hunting smaller animals and gathering plants more intensively.

Pacific Coast Culture

Native populations that relied heavily on fishing, marine mammals, and shellfish, supporting denser populations due to reliable food resources.

Great Basin Culture

Native groups living in a dry region who practiced seasonal hunting and gathering and moved frequently to find scarce water and food.

Great Plains Culture

Grassland-dwelling groups that hunted bison on foot before the introduction of horses.

Southwestern Culture

Farming communities in dry environments that relied on irrigation and drought-resistant crops to maintain stable village life.

Eastern Woodlands Culture

Groups in forested regions that used a mix of farming, hunting, fishing, and gathering, supporting large confederacies and complex political systems.

Algonquian

A broad language family and group of Native peoples in eastern North America, common in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes.

Iroquois

A major Native confederacy in the Northeast known for powerful political organization and diplomacy.

League of Five Nations

A confederacy originally uniting the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca to reduce conflict and strengthen defense.

Muskogean

A language family associated with Native peoples of the Southeast who lived in rich river systems with mixed agricultural lifeways.

Vinland

The Norse name for the North American area reached by Leif Eriksson around 1000 CE, providing evidence of pre-Columbian European contact.

Black Death

A plague (1347-1351) that dramatically reduced Europe's population, changed labor systems, and encouraged overseas exploration.

Caravel

A small, fast, maneuverable sailing ship used by Portuguese explorers for coastal travel and ocean exploration.

Primogeniture

A system where the eldest son inherits most or all of an estate, influencing social pressure for European expansion.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488, proving the Indian Ocean could be reached by sea.

Vasco da Gama

A Portuguese explorer who reached India by sea in 1498, creating a direct route for Indian Ocean trade.

The Reconquista

The Christian reconquest of Iberian Muslim territories, completed in 1492, which strengthened Spanish religious and political unity.

Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494

An agreement that divided overseas claims between Spain and Portugal.

Mexica

Also known as Aztecs, a powerful Mesoamerican civilization with a strong imperial capital at Tenochtitlán.

Hernán Cortés

The conquistador who conquered the Mexica empire with Indigenous alliances, military force, and the help of smallpox.

Encomienda

A system that gave Spanish colonists labor and tribute from Indigenous peoples, often involving coercion and abuse.

Repartimiento of 1549

A labor draft system meant to regulate encomienda abuses, though Native labor exploitation continued.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, people, diseases, and technologies between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

St. Augustine

A durable Spanish foothold in North America founded by Pedro Menéndez in 1565.

The Reformation

A religious movement that divided Christianity in Europe, leading to persecution and pushing dissenters toward America.

Roanoke Expedition

England's early attempt to found a colony in North America (1585/1587), which disappeared and became known as the "Lost Colony".

Jamestowne

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607 by the Virginia Company.

Laws Divine Morall & Martiall

Strict laws established in 1610 to enforce order in the early, unstable years of Jamestown.

Opechancanough

The Native leader who led major uprisings against English settlers in Virginia in 1622 and 1644.

John Rolfe

The settler who introduced profitable tobacco cultivation to Virginia and married Pocahontas.

Indentured Servants

Laborers who traded years of service (usually for passage to America) and were essential to the Chesapeake economy.

Headright

A system rewarding colonists with land for bringing settlers to Virginia, encouraging expansion and labor use.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 uprising in Virginia against frontier conditions and the ruling elite, exposing class conflict and resentment toward Native policy.

House of Burgesses

Virginia's elected representative assembly, serving as an important precedent for self-government in English America.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 self-government agreement signed by male settlers on the Mayflower, promising cooperation and mutual responsibility.

Puritans

Religious dissenters who wanted to reform the Church of England and created a highly religious society in Massachusetts Bay.

"City on a hill"

Governor John Winthrop's description of Massachusetts Bay as a model Christian society for the world.

Great Migration

The movement of thousands of Puritans to New England in the 1630s due to religious instability and persecution in England.

Roger Williams

A dissenter who argued for the separation of church and state and founded Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

A participant in the Antinomian Controversy who challenged Puritan authority by stressing inner grace over strict moral rules.

Pequot War of 1637

A violent conflict between New England colonists and the Pequot people, marking a harsh expansion of English power.

New Netherland

A Dutch commercial colony in the Hudson River region built around the fur trade until the English takeover in 1664.

Quakers

Members of the Society of Friends who emphasized inner light, peace, and religious equality, often facing persecution.

The "Holy Experiment"

William Penn's promotion of Quaker values, religious toleration, and diversity in the colony of Pennsylvania.

1649 Act for Religious Toleration

A Maryland law that protected Christians, though it did not grant complete religious equality.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic voyage from Africa to the Americas for enslaved people, marked by overcrowding and high death rates.

Stono Rebellion

A major 1739 uprising by enslaved people in South Carolina that led to the tightening of slave laws.

Mercantilism

An economic theory aimed at increasing a nation's wealth through controlled trade, where colonies exist to benefit the mother country.

Navigation Acts

A series of laws (1660, 1663, 1673, 1733) that restricted colonial trade to strengthen England's commercial system.

Enumerated Goods

Colonial products that, under the Navigation Acts, could only be shipped to England or another English colony.

Deism

An Enlightenment-era belief in a creator who does not intervene constantly in human affairs, weakening traditional religious authority.

Great Awakening

A major religious revival movement (mainly 1730s-1740s) emphasizing emotional conversion and spiritual renewal.

George Whitefield

A famous revival preacher of the Great Awakening whose emotional sermons drew massive crowds across colonial boundaries.