APUSH Ch 3 Key Terms 2026

King Philip’s War / Metacom

1. A 1675–1676 conflict in New England between English colonists & an alliance of Native American tribes that were led by Wampanoag chief Metacom (called King Philip).

2. It was triggered by colonial land encroachment & sovereignty disputes. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Ended organized Native American military resistance in southern New England

      1. Clearing the way for unchecked colonial expansion.

   2. Resulted in

      1. high per-capita casualty rates on both sides

      2. deep, lasting racial animosity between colonists and Indigenous populations.

Mercantilism

1. An economic policy in 17th- and 18th-century Europe

2. based on the belief that national power depends on accumulating wealth.

3. Required colonies to supply raw materials to the mother country & purchase its manufactured goods. 

4. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Dictated Great Britain's Imperial policy

      1. mainly framing the American colonies as resource generators & captive consumer markets.

   2. Created economic friction between Britain & American merchants

      1. Establishing long-term grievances regarding trade restrictions.

Navigation Acts

1. A series of English parliamentary laws passed starting in 1651

2. Enforced mercantilism by requiring colonial trade to be conducted strictly on English ships & routed through English ports. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Encouraged widespread colonial smuggling, black-market trading, and a culture of economic autonomy due to period of lax enforcement ("salutary neglect").

   2. The eventual strict enforcement of these acts after the Seven Years' War contributed to colonial rebellion & the American Revolution.

Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) 

1. A powerful confederacy originally consisting of five (later six) Native American nations in northeastern North America, united under the Great Law of Peace for mutual defense and political union. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Maintained a geopolitical balance of power in North America for over a century

      1. By strategically playing British and French colonial rivalries against each other.

   2. Offered a sophisticated model of federalism & representative council governance

      1. Influenced early American political leaders and federal design.

Carolina(s)

1. A southern Restoration colony established in 1663 (later split into North & South Carolina in 1712)

2. Known for its cash-crop agriculture, trade with the West Indies, & heavy reliance on forced labor. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Established an elite, planter-dominated slave society built on rice and indigo cultivation

      1. Economic and social template for the Deep South.

   2. Demonstrated early political instability and regional divergence

   3. → led to its transition from proprietary control to direct royal governance.

Yamasee Wars

1. A violent 1715–1717 conflict between South Carolina colonists &a coalition of Native American tribes led by the Yamasee

2. Sparked by trader abuses, land seizure, & debt-driven enslavement of Native peoples. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Ended the widespread colonial practice of enslaving Native Americans in the Southeast,

      1. Prompting South Carolina planters to pivot almost exclusively to imported African slave labor.

   2. Pushed South Carolina to the brink of collapse

      1. Driving colonists to overthrow the Lords Proprietors and request royal takeover by the British Crown for greater military protection

William Penn / Quakers

1. An English Quaker who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a "Holy Experiment”

2. Established a society built on religious tolerance, pacifism, representative government, & fair diplomacy w/ Native Americans. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Created one of the most religiously tolerant and ethnically diverse colonies in British North America

      1. Set a precedent for American pluralism.

   2. Established early democratic governance principles—such as trial by jury and separation of powers

      1. Which influenced the design of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Slave codes

1. A series of laws enacted by colonial legislatures beginning in the late 17th century

2. Legally defined enslaved Black people as chattel (property) & systematically stripped them of basic civil and human rights. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Formally institutionalized a permanent, hereditary system of race-based chattel slavery across the American colonies.

   2. Severe legal restrictions on movement, assembly, and literacy

      1. Legal basis for antebellum slave systems and enduring racial hierarchies in the U.S.

Nathaniel Bacon / Bacon’s Rebellion

1. A 1676 armed uprising in Virginia led by frontier planter Nathaniel Bacon against Royal Governor William Berkeley

2. Driven by back-country grievances over taxation, elite favoritism, & colonial policy toward Native Americans. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Accelerated the Chesapeake region's shift away from white indentured servitude toward imported African chattel slavery

      1. B/c colonial elites sought a less rebellious workforce.

   2. Highlighted deep economic, geographic, & class divides between wealthy tidewater elites + struggling frontier settlers.

English Bill of Rights

1. A 1689 parliamentary act passed after the Glorious Revolution

   1. limited monarchical power

   2. reaffirmed parliamentary supremacy

   3. guaranteed certain basic legal rights for English subjects 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Served as a foundational legal & philosophical blueprint for American revolutionaries when drafting the U.S. Constitution and national Bill of Rights.

   2. Reinforced the core American political principle that rulers are subject to the law & governed by the consent of the people.

Dominion of New England / Edmond Andros

1. A short-lived administrative union created in 1686 by King James II

2. That combined New England & the Mid-Atlantic under the autocratic rule of Governor Sir Edmund Andros. 

3. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Sparked widespread colonial outrage

      1. By dissolving elected assemblies

      2. Restricting town meetings

      3. levying unapproved taxes

      4. aggressively enforcing the Navigation Acts.

   2. Its collapse after the Glorious Revolution increased colonial distrust toward centralized imperial rule

      1. Also fueled local self-governance.

Jacob Leister / Leister’s Rebellion

1. A 1689 revolt in New York where militia captain Jacob Leisler seized control of the colony in the wake of the Glorious Revolution

   1. representing lower-class & Dutch colonial resistance against the ruling Anglo-elite. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Exposed severe ethnic, political, and socio-economic divisions in New York

      1. Sparking factional political rivalries that polarized the colony for decades after Leisler's execution for treason.

   2. Showed how political instability in Great Britain encouraged colonists to challenge royal authority and assert local control.

English Toleration Act

1. A 1689 British parliamentary law granting freedom of worship to non-Anglican Protestant dissenters (such as Baptists and Presbyterians), while continuing to exclude Catholics and non-Christians. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Forced Puritan Massachusetts to ease its strict religious monopoly

      1. Now requiring property ownership to vote (no longer requiring church membership).  

   2. Accelerated the growth of religious pluralism across the colonies

      1. Laid legal groundwork for broader freedom of conscience in early America.

Salem Witch Trials

1. A 1692 outbreak of mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts

   1. Resulted in the legal prosecution, imprisonment, & execution of 20 people accused of witchcraft amidst deep social, political, and economic tensions. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. damaged the authority & prestige of the Puritan clergy, marking the start of the end for Puritan religious hegemony in New England.

   2. Exposed the dangers of spectral evidence & religious fanaticism

      1. Drove early legal reforms that emphasized due process and stricter rules of evidence.

Staple crops / Cash crops

1. Agricultural crops—primarily tobacco, rice, indigo, and later cotton—grown in large quantities specifically for commercial market export rather than local family consumption. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Dictated the economic trajectory of the Southern colonies

      1. Linked Southern colonies’ wealth to transatlantic global markets and European trade.

   2. Fueled the rapid expansion and institutionalization of racial chattel slavery, defining the South's labor supply and social hierarchy.

Anglicization

1. The 18th-century process by which British American colonists increasingly adopted English cultural norms, political models, consumer goods, architecture, & social customs to emulate upper-class British society. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Created a unified British-American political and elite culture across distinct colonies that had previously operated in isolation.

   2. Paradoxically set the stage for the American Revolution, as colonists felt entitled to the traditional legal "rights of Englishmen" when Parliament began taxing them directly.

Coverture laws

1. A legal doctrine inherited from English common law

   1. A woman's legal rights & identity were absorbed by her husband upon marriage

      1. → she’s unable to own property, sign contracts, or keep independent earnings. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Deprived generations of married American women of economic independence and political agency, enforcing legal and financial dependence on men.

   2. Became a primary catalyst for the 19th-century American women’s rights movement, driving campaigns for Married Women’s Property Acts and legal reform.

Blue laws

1. Local laws enacted throughout colonial & early American history

   1. Enforced moral codes and Christian religious observance

      1. By restricting secular activities, travel, and commercial trade on Sundays. 

2. 2 reasons for its significance in U.S. history:

   1. Reflected the deep intertwining of Protestant religious values & public law in early American local governance.

   2. Sparked legal debates over state regulation of personal morality & the constitutional boundaries separating church and state (1st amendment)