unit 1/2 vocab test

Musser

Aztec

very militaristic, meaning they conquered their way to the south of the Valley of New Mexico, and created the largest empire in the New World by claiming dominance. When Europeans arrived, they were stunned at the large buildings, agricultural innovation, and the interconnectedness of the area through waterways. They eventually fell to the Spanish empire.

Bacon’s rebellion

a conflict in Virginia that happened due to tensions between natives and English settlers, and due to tensions between wealthy English landowners and poor settlers being pushed west into native territory.

Bread Basket Colonies

Caravel

ships created for ocean exploration and trade by the Portuguese, as they could make lengthy voyages in open water and carry large amounts of cargo.

Chesapeake colonies

Columbian exchange

an initial introduction of goods, diseases, religion, and ideas from the Old World to the New World, and vice-versa. Diseases from (dirty) Europeans, such as smallpox, murdered a vast majority of the natives. On the contrary, crops such as maize and the potato allowed for Europeans to experience a huge population boom.

Criollos

the following level in the racial hierarchy - Spanish who were born in the New World and contested the Peninsulares in estate size and administrative level.

Dominion of New England

a firmer administrative, defensive base established in 1686. It consolidated the New England colonies, New York, and New Jersey into one administrative unit to counter French Canada. Colonists felt a loss from individual provinces.

Encomienda

a system set up by the Spanish that would tie Native American/African workers to large estates. Laborers usually would do is regulate gold and silver extraction.

Enlightenment

Glorious Revolution

a way in which parliament asserted its rights over the monarchy. Ancestors were early settlers, and they felt they were not proving their faith, so they tried to. They pushed for religious toleration, leading to religious independence.

Great Awakening

the act of colonists searching for a reinvigorated religious experience due to the sense of inferiority they felt for being born in a comfortable lifestyle in the colonies, rather than suffering through the challenges of settling in the New World and testing their faith.

Headright system/policy

a policy created to serve as a solution to the labor vacuum the colonies faced due to the rapid boom in demand for Tobacco. The policy stated that any person who made the voyage to Virginia starting in 1618 would receive 50 acres of land, and any immigrants whose voyage they also paid for would grant them an additional 50 acres.

House of Burgesses

a limited representative body established by the Virginia Company in 1619, which was made of white landowners.

Incas

managed a vast mountainous range, which created many agricultural and transportational innovations, such as terrace farming and the Andean roads. Empire fell because of its vulnerability, due to internal conflicts and diseases, like smallpox.

Indentured servants

with the tobacco market booming, colonists started to arrive in masses to the colonies - most being young, male, and bonded to employers for years at a time in return for their passage across the ocean. They would sign a contract called an indenture, which would legally bind them and give them the title of indentured servants.

Jamestown

the first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607. Located in present-day Virginia, an uninhabited (by Natives) area with poor soil and brackish tidal water, which led to disease and impeded agricultural development. The colonists were preppy rich men who expected to immediately find wealth, and were dumbfounded and displeased by the amount of work they would have to do instead. They died of starvation and disease within the first 9 months.

John Rolfe

married Pocahontas, the Powhatan's daughter, who led the Powhatan Confederacy tribe, which English settlers encountered. The marriage eased tensions between the Powhatan and the colonists.

Joint-stock company

an organized manner for conducting international trade that aided in colonization through government monopolies, shared profits, and managed risks. Generated capital that could be used for colonization of the Americas.

King Philip’s war

a 1 year uprising against encroachments of New England colonies, which led to the end of native power in New England.

Maize

developed by the mesoamericans and spread north. Used throughout different tribes as currency and played a central role in the economies of these tribes. Also known as corn and was cultivated in the southwest by using advanced irrigation techniques due to harsh dry climate. This also shows the spread of ideas and resources from tribe to tribe.

Matrilineal

familial structure followed by natives, meaning that the family identity was passed down through the female line (mother and daughter) instead of through the male line. This is a trait that set Native American culture apart from European culture.

Maya

came before the Aztecs, and fostered large civilizations through the creation of large temples. They had complex innovations, such as an accurate calendar, mathematical innovations, and a written language. Said to have collapsed prior to the arrival of Europeans, due to “unsustainable agricultural practices”.

Mercantilism

a state-assisted trade and manufacturing system. Allowed for the creation and maintaining of the market in a time where England flourished (Golden age) after the Protestant reformation.

Mestizos

the level after Creole - those who come from a mixed heritage, and who are treated as less than a fully Spanish person, but treated significantly better than Native inhabitants.

Métis

a word used for children who were conceived by the French men, who were in Quebec and focused on the fur trade, and the Native women who had fostered a good relationship with the French. The marriage of the French men and Native women aided in lowering tensions between colonizers and the colonized.

Middle passage

the horrific journey European slavers used to send African slaves to the Americas. Millions of slaves were transported using this, and of those millions, many died from disease, starvation, and drowning.

Mississippians

developed one of the largest civilizations north of modern-day Mexico, and were located along the Great River. They were affected by the same drought as the Pueblos, because they lived in proximity.

Navigation acts

New England Colonies

Northwest Passage

a rumored waterway passage that connected North America and Asia, in which French explorers sought. This passage would be beneficial to still access the benefits of Asia's wealth, while also exploiting the Americas and its resources.

Peninsulares

the highest level possible in the Spanish-developed caste system - those who were born in Spain and have access to higher levels of administration and larger estates.

Privateer

people who were conducting state-sponsored piracy explorations. They earned profit for themselves and the English crown, and it was said that the Crown had transformed ‘crime into politics’.

Puebloan groups

one of the largest cultural groups in North America 2000 years ago. 15,000 people lived in the Chaco Canyon, in North Mexico. Their population grew because of innovations such as trade networks and agricultural practices, such as animal domestication. They lived in massive housing structures made of sandstone and lumber that housed hundreds.

Quaker

a group that broke away from the Anglican Church of England. They were called the Society of Friends, and they wanted to be a ‘colony of Heaven for the children of Light”, similar to New England and the City Upon a Hill. The quakers promoted more rights, which attracted a diverse group of people, and didn’t support violence, therefore not condoning slavery.

Roanoke

a 16th century colony established by 150 English men, led by John White. The colony is assumed to have fallen due to a shortage of food, and when John White returned to the colony after leaving in search of supplies, he found the area abandoned with the word ‘Croatoan’ carved onto a tree.

Roger Williams

a religious radical who was exiled from Massachusetts, and in turn created a settlement in 1636 known as Providence. Eventually, after the arrival of more exiles, and the formation of other settlements, the territory became Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Sir Edmund Andros

the governor of the Dominion of New England. He forced colonists in Maine, in 1687, into military service for a campaign against natives. Colonists feared this, and it became a grievance along the English colonists.

Slave Codes

laws that would protect the enslavers, not slaves. They maximized profitability of the enslaved, and regulated their daily lives with a fine-tooth comb. It endorsed chattel slavery and reduced chances of leaving slavery to almost zero.

Starving time

experienced by Jamestown in the winter of 1609-1610. Many supplies were lost at sea, relationships with Native Americans took a turn for the worse, and the colonists were fighting a guerilla war with the Powhatan. They were barely getting by, and numbers were drastically dropping from sickness and starvation. By the summer of 1610, all but 60 settlers would die.

Stono Rebellion

in September 1739, around 80 enslaved laborers in Florida protested against their enslavement, burned plantations, and killed white settlers. They held a sign saying ‘Liberty!’, with the intended destination of Fort Mose, which was a free Black settlement. The result of this was the laborers being caught, and either executed or sold to sugar plantations. This was considered unsuccessful, but the message came across clearly.

William Penn

one of west Jersey’s proprietors. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and wanted his own larger colony. He believed everyone was equal, and created a Quaker religious imperative for the peaceful treatment of the Natives. He had peaceful relations with natives, attracted diversity through the promotion of equality, and navigation acts.