AMH 2010 Unit 1: Early American Colonization and Revolution Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice cards covering early American colonization, indigenous societies, colonial administrative systems, intellectual revivals, the French and Indian War, and imperial taxation leading to the American Revolution.

Tenochtitlan

The capital of the Aztec (Mexica) Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco and connected to the mainland by causeways.

Chinampas

Raised-field gardens developed by the Aztecs for intensive agriculture.

Mita

A labor taxation system used by the Inca Empire requiring subject populations to work for the state.

Quipu

Knotted cords used by the Inca civilization for recordkeeping in place of a conventional writing system.

Kivas

Ceremonial spaces within multi-story adobe and stone settlements built by Pueblo peoples in the Southwest.

Iroquois Confederacy

An alliance of northeastern woodland nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later Tuscarora) structured to resolve disputes and coordinate diplomacy.

Columbian Exchange

The hemispheric transfer of plants, animals, humans, diseases, technologies, and cultures between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492.

Primogeniture

An English inheritance practice in which the eldest son inherited all or most of a family's land and property.

Encomienda System

A Spanish colonial system granting colonists authority over specific Native communities to demand labor and tribute in exchange for protection and religious instruction.

Enclosure Movement

The transformation of English agriculture where landowners converted common grazing lands into privately enclosed fields, displacing small farmers.

Mercantilism

An economic policy in which governments increased national wealth and power by acquiring colonies, controlling trade, and maintaining a favorable trade balance.

Navigation Acts

English commerce laws requiring colonial trade to travel on English or colonial ships and mandating that enumerated goods be sent to England or its colonies.

Salutary Neglect

An informal British administrative policy under Robert Walpole characterized by loose enforcement of imperial trade laws in the colonies.

Joint-Stock Company

A business organization in which investors pool capital to fund ventures and share profits or losses, used to finance settlements like Jamestown.

Proprietary Colony

A colony granted by the Crown to an individual proprietor or group with executive authority to govern, manage land, and pass laws.

Headright System

A colonial land grant policy awarding land to individuals who paid for their own or another person's passage to North America.

Royal Colony

A colony controlled directly by the British Crown through an appointed royal governor and an elected assembly.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 political agreement created by Plymouth settlers establishing a self-governing civil body politic based on consent.

Puritans

Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England from within and established Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious example.

King Philip's War

A 1675 to 1676 conflict between New England colonists and Native forces led by Metacom, resulting in heavy casualties and the collapse of regional Native political autonomy.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley over frontier defense, political access, and land disputes.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 armed insurrection of enslaved Africans in South Carolina near the Stono River attempting to reach freedom in Spanish Florida.

Great Awakening

A series of intense religious revivals in the mid-eighteenth century emphasizing emotional conversion, personal faith, and individual judgment.

Old Lights and New Lights

Factions during the Great Awakening; Old Lights favored traditional, formal worship and educated clergy, while New Lights supported emotional preaching and personal conversion.

Deists

Enlightenment-era thinkers who believed a creator God established natural laws governing the universe, while rejecting miracles and church authority.

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal drafted by Benjamin Franklin advocating a unified colonial government with a grand council and president general to manage defense and Native diplomacy.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A British royal order barring colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflict with Native nations and limit defense expenses.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 Native alliance uprising led by Odawa leader Pontiac challenging British military occupying former French forts in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.

Sugar Act

A 1764 British law imposing duties on foreign molasses and imports while placing jurisdiction over suspected smugglers in vice-admiralty courts.

Stamp Act

A 1765 direct internal tax passed by Parliament requiring official stamps on colonial paper goods, legal documents, and printed items.

Virtual Representation

The British doctrine that members of Parliament represented all British subjects across the empire, even if those subjects could not vote for them.

Sons of Liberty

Intercolonial resistance organizations formed by merchants, artisans, and activists to oppose parliamentary taxation through boycotts, protests, and pressure.

Townshend Acts

1767 parliamentary legislation imposing duties on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea while authorizing writs of assistance for searches.

Boston Massacre

A March 5, 1770 fatal shooting in Boston where British soldiers fired into a hostile crowd, killing five colonists including Crispus Attucks.

Gaspee Affair

The 1772 incident in Rhode Island where local colonists attacked and burned the grounded British customs ship HMS Gaspee.

Tea Act

A 1773 measure allowing the British East India Company to sell tea directly to North American colonies while maintaining Parliament's duty on tea.

Boston Tea Party

A December 16, 1773 protest where colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and dumped East India Company tea to resist parliamentary taxation.

Intolerable or Coercive Acts

A series of 1774 punitive laws restricting Massachusetts self-government, closing Boston Harbor, expanding quartering, and passing the Quebec Act.

Suffolk Resolves

1774 Massachusetts resolutions endorsed by the First Continental Congress declaring the Intolerable Acts unconstitutional and urging military preparations.