Discovery/Colonization Vocab

What is the Mayflower Compact?

The first document to establish self-government in the colonies.

What was Jamestown?

The first English settlement in the 'New World'.

What is the House of Burgesses?

The first elected legislative branch in the colonies, serving as a model for representative self-government.

What does salutary neglect refer to?

The British policy of loosely enforcing colonial laws, allowing for self-government.

What was the New England Confederation?

A military alliance of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.

What was the Middle Passage?

The forced transportation of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

What was the Great Awakening?

A religious revival in the colonies, emphasizing personal faith and culturally uniting them.

What is the Congressional Church?

A Protestant church in New England, overlapping with the government.

What was the French and Indian War?

A conflict between the British and the French over land and power in the 'New World'.

What are Borderlands?

Regions where European empires interacted with each other and Native Americans.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

What is smallpox?

A deadly disease brought by Europeans that devastated Native Americans.

What is the Encomienda System?

A Spanish colonial system that allowed settlers to use Native American labor and convert them to Christianity.

What was Metacom’s (King Philip’s) War?

A conflict between Native Americans and English settlers in New England over land.

What was the Pueblo Revolt?

An uprising of Native Americans (Pueblos) against the Spanish, deterring Spain.

What is the Triangular Trade?

A system connecting Europe, Africa, and the New World through slaves, crops, and manufactured goods.

What is the Headright System?

A policy that gave land to settlers or sponsors, encouraging settlement and labor.

What is mercantilism?

The British belief that the colonies existed only to enrich the mother country.

What was Bacon’s Rebellion?

A conflict between indentured servants’ anger with the Virginian governor (William Berkley) over Native American policies.

What were the Navigation Acts?

British laws that regulated colonial trade to benefit the motherland (mercantilism).