Us History Ch.2 Terms

Huguenots

French Protestant dissenters, they were granted limited toleration under the Edict of Nantes. After King Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism in 1685, many fled elsewhere, including to British North America.

Edict of Nantes

Decree issued by the French crown granting limited toleration to French Protestants. Ended religious wars in France and inaugurated a period of French preeminence in Europe and across the Atlantic. Its repeal in 1685 prompted a fresh migration of Protestant Huguenots to North America.

coureurs de bois

Translated as “runners of the woods,” they were French fur-trappers, also known as “voyageurs” (travelers), who established trading posts throughout North America. The fur trade wreaked havoc on the health and folkways of their Native American trading partners.

voyageurs

Translated as “runners of the woods,” they were French fur-trappers, also known as “voyageurs” (travelers), who established trading posts throughout North America. The fur trade wreaked havoc on the health and folkways of their Native American trading partners.

Protestant Reformation

Movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther.

Roanoke Island

Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina.

Spanish Armada

Spanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588. The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire.

primogeniture

Legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowners’ younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas.

joint-stock company

Short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England’s early colonial ventures.

Virginia Company

English joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virginia colony.

charter

Legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists’ ties to Britain during the early years of settlement.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company.

First Anglo-Powhatan War

Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England’s campaigns against the Irish.

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement.

New Netherland

North American Dutch colony centered in New Amsterdam (now New York). Though prosperous, this colony was conquered and absorbed by the English.

Iroquois Confederacy

Bound together five tribes—the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas—in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State.

Elizabeth I

(1533-1603) Protestant queen of England whose forty-five-year reign from 1558 to 1603 firmly secured the Anglican Church and inaugurated a period of maritime exploration and conquest. Never having married, she was dubbed the "Virgin Queen" by her contemporaries.

Sir Francis Drake

(ca. 1542-1595) English sea captain who completed his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580, plundering Spanish ships and settlements along the way.

James I

(1566-1625) Formerly James VI of Scotland, he became James I of England at the death of Elizabeth I. James I supported overseas colonization, granting a charter to the Virginia Company in 1606 for a settlement in the New World. He also cracked down on both Catholics and Puritan Separatists, prompting the latter to flee to Holland and, later, to North America.

Captain John Smith

(1580-1631) English adventurer who took control of Jamestown in 1608 and ensured the survival of the colony by directing gold-hungry colonists toward more productive tasks. He also established ties with the Powhatan Indians through the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas.

Powhatan

(ca. 1540s-1618) Chief of the Powhatan Indians and father of Pocahontas. As a show of force, he staged the kidnapping and mock execution of Captain John Smith in 1607. He later led the Powhatan Indians in the first Anglo-Powhatan War, negotiating a tenuous peace in 1614.

Pocahontas

(ca. 1595-1617) Daughter of Chief Powhatan, "saved" Captain John Smith in a dramatic mock execution and served as a mediator between Indians and the colonists. In 1614, married John Rolfe and sailed with him to England, where she was greeted as a princess and where she passed away shortly before her planned return to the colonies.

Lord De La Warr

(1577-1618) Colonial governor who imposed harsh military rule over Jamestown after taking over in 1610. A veteran of England’s brutal campaigns against the Irish, De La Warr applied harsh "Irish" tactics in his war against the Indians, sending troops to torch Indian villages and seize provisions. The colony of Delaware was named after him.

John Rolfe

(1585-1622) English colonist whose marriage to Pocahontas in 1614 sealed the peace of the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

Hiawatha

(dates unknown) Along with Deganawidah, legendary founder of the Iroquois Confederacy that united the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes in the late sixteenth century.