United States History and Government Vocabulary Terms Unit #1: Geography – Colonial America

Vocabulary terms covering Geography and Colonial America for United States History and Government Unit #1.

Triangular Trade

The transatlantic system of trade in which goods and people, including slaves, were exchanged between Africa, Europe, and the colonies of North America.

Joint-Stock Companies

Businesses in which investors pool their wealth for a common purpose.

Indentured Servants

A person who has contracted to work for another for a limited period, often in return for passage to the New World.

Salutary Neglect

An English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies' continued economic loyalty.

Mercantilism

An economic system in which nations seek to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by establishing a favorable balance of trade.

Jamestown, Virginia

Site of the first permanent English settlement in America in 1607.

Plymouth, Massachusetts

The site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the famous ship the Mayflower.

Representative Democracy

A form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to a dictatorship or a direct democracy.

Virginia House of Burgesses

The first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America.

Mayflower Compact

Signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower on November 11, 1620, was the first written framework of government established in North America.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The first written constitution in North America.

Albany Plan of Union

A failed attempt to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, for defensive purposes against Native American Attacks, suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1754.

John Peter Zenger Trial

Established the principle of freedom of the press, newspapers could, print sensitive, criticizing articles if they were true.

Enlightenment

An 18th century intellectual movement that emphasized the use of reason and the scientific method as a means of obtaining knowledge.

Natural Rights

Political theory that maintains that an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and that no government can deny these rights, made famous by John Locke.

French and Indian War

A conflict in North America, lasting from 1754 – 1763, between France and England and ended with the defeat of the French and the transfer of all French territory in North America to Britain.

Proclamation of 1763

An order in which Britain prohibited its American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Stamp Act

A 1765 law in which Parliament established the first direct taxation of goods and services within the British colonies of North America.

Sugar Act

A trade law enacted by Parliament in 1764 in an attempt to reduce smuggling in the British colonies in North America.

Townshend Acts

A series of laws enacted by Parliament in 1767, establishing indirect taxes on goods imported from Britain by the British colonies in North America.

Boston Massacre

A clash between British soldiers and colonists in 1770, in which five of the colonists were killed.

Boston Tea Party

The dumping of 18,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor by colonists in 1773 to protest the Tea Act.

Intolerable Acts

A series of laws enacted in 1774 to punish Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party.

Second Continental Congress

Group of American colonial delegates that convened in May 1775, approved the Declaration of Independence, and served as the only agency of national government during the American Revolution.

Common Sense

A pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine, published in 1776, which called for separation of the colonists from Britain.

Declaration of Independence

The document, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, in which the delegates of the Continental Congress declared the colonies independence from Britain.

American Revolution

The American War of Independence from Great Britain, lasting from 1775-1783.

Battle of Lexington and Concord

The first battles between colonists and British soldiers in the American Revolution.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, confirming the independence of the United States and setting the boundaries of the new nation.

Articles of Confederation

A document adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, and finally approved by the states in 1781, that outlined the form of government for the new United States.