Period 2 Vocabulary: Colonial America amid Global Change (1607-1754)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, concepts, conflicts, and economic systems defined in AP US History Period 2 (1607-1754).

Huguenot

A French Protestant who subscribed to the theology of John Calvin; persecuted by the French crown, which considered Catholicism the official faith of the kingdom.

Calvinism

A branch of Protestantism developed by John Calvin that influenced Protestants in France, England, and Switzerland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Colonization

The process of settling and controlling an already inhabited area for the economic benefit of the settlers, or colonizers.

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy

A group of allied American Indian nations that included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later the Tuscarora.

Pueblo Revolt

An uprising of Pueblo Indians in 1680 against Spanish forces in New Mexico that led to the Spaniards' temporary retreat from the area, sparked by mistreatment and suppression of Pueblo culture and religion.

Inflation

An economic condition where prices rise because of a decline in the value of money due to its overabundance.

Indentured servitude

The condition of being contracted to work for a set period of time without pay, often in exchange for passage to North America.

Joint-stock company

A company in which large numbers of investors own stock, allowing it to raise large amounts of money quickly and share risk and reward equally among investors.

Powhatan Confederacy

A large and powerful confederation of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans in Virginia that surrounded the early Jamestown settlement.

Cash crop

A crop produced for profit rather than for subsistence, such as tobacco in the Chesapeake region and sugar in the West Indies.

Headright system

A system created in Virginia in 1618 that rewarded those who imported indentured laborers and settlers with land (typically fifty acres per laborer).

General Assembly of Virginia

Local governing body in Virginia established by the English crown in 1619.

House of Burgesses

An elected assembly within the General Assembly of Virginia formed in 1643 when the assembly was split into two houses.

Veto

The right to block a decision made by a governing body.

Privy Council

Advisory council of the king of England, typically comprised of prominent aristocrats.

Church of England

National English Protestant faith with King Henry VIII as head of the church, created in 1534 after England split with the Catholic Church.

Act of Religious Toleration

Act passed in 1649 by the Maryland Assembly granting religious freedom to all Christians, including Catholics.

English Civil War

Conflict (1642-1651) between parliamentary forces and the king of England over Charles I's attempt to rule without Parliament, culminating in the execution of Charles I.

Slave code

A law restricting enslaved persons' rights, largely due to slaveholders' fears of rebellion, defining slavery as a distinct, inherited status based on racial identity.

Bacon's Rebellion

An uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon in 1676, sparked by dissatisfaction over the governor's American Indian policies and lack of representation for western settlers.

Imperialism

A policy of expanding the border and increasing the global power of a nation, typically via military force.

Subsistence farmer

A farmer who grows crops that can supply only the needs of the family rather than being sold for profit.

Protestant Reformation

A European religious movement starting in 1517 to break with the Catholic Church.

Pilgrims

Also known as Separatists, a group of English religious dissenters who established a settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

Mayflower Compact

A written agreement created by the Pilgrims upon their arrival in Plymouth in 1620, serving as the first written constitution adopted in North America.

Puritans

Radical English Protestants who hoped to reform the Church of England and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony beginning in 1630.

Puritan Migration

The mass migration of Puritans from Europe to New England during the 1620s and 1630s.

Pequot War

A conflict between New England settlers and their Narragansett allies against the Pequot Indians in 1636-1637.

Metacom's War

Also known as King Philip's War (1675-1676), a conflict between English settlers and an alliance of Native Americans led by the Wampanoag tribe.

Covenant Chain

Alliance formed in 1677 between the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the northern British colonies to maintain the fur trade and good relations following Metacom's War.

Dominion of New England

The consolidation of northeastern colonies by King James II in 1686 to establish greater control, resulting in banned town meetings, new taxes, and unpopular policies.

King William's War

A war from 1689 to 1697 that began as a conflict over competing French and English interests in Europe and spread to the North American frontier.

Leisler's Rebellion

A class revolt in New York in 1689 led by merchant Jacob Leisler in which urban artisans and landless renters rebelled against new taxes and centralized rule.

Redemptioner

An immigrant who borrowed money from shipping agents to cover transport costs to America, repaying the loan by working for a colonial employer for a set number of years.

Walking Purchase

A 1737 treaty based on a likely forged document that allowed Pennsylvania to expand its boundaries at the expense of the Delaware Indians.

Mercantilism

An economic system centered on maintaining a favorable balance of trade for the home country, with more gold and silver flowing into that country than flowing out.

Navigation Acts

A series of acts passed by Parliament beginning in the 1650s and 1660s that prohibited smuggling, established guidelines for legal trade, and set duties on trade items.

Consumer revolution

A process during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through which social status in the colonies became linked to financial success and a refined lifestyle rather than birth pedigree.