Chapter 3 - Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700 (Video Notes)

Key vocabulary terms from the lecture notes on European exploration, colonial rivalries, English settlements, and the environmental and social impacts of colonization.

Powhatan

Leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, a powerful Algonquian network in the Chesapeake region; his authority shaped early English-Native relations.

Susquehannock

A neighboring Algonquian-speaking people near the Chesapeake frontier, signaling that English control was limited to coastal outposts.

Algonquian

A group of Native American languages and peoples in the eastern Woodlands; allied with the Powhatan and other groups.

Timucua

Indigenous people of Florida who suffered from disease and displacement due to Spanish conquest.

Seloy

Timucua town site near St. Augustine that was displaced by Spanish expansion.

Fort Caroline

French settlement established north of St. Augustine; attacked and destroyed by the Spanish in 1565.

St. Augustine

Founded by Spain in 1565; the oldest continuously inhabited European-established city in what is now the US.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Spanish nobleman who led the assault on Fort Caroline and founded St. Augustine.

Castillo de San Marcos

Stone fort built by the Spanish (1672–1695) to defend St. Augustine from rivals.

Santa Fe

Capital of the Kingdom of New Mexico; center of Spanish colonial administration in the southwest.

Popé

Pueblo leader who led the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against Spanish rule.

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

Widespread rebellion that expelled Spaniards from New Mexico; reasserted control in 1692.

New France

French colonies in North America focused on the fur trade and missionary work; Champlain and Jesuits prominent.

Champlain

Samuel de Champlain, founder of Quebec and a key figure in New France’s fur trade and alliances.

Beaver Wars

Conflicts over the lucrative beaver fur trade among French, Dutch, Algonquian groups, and Iroquois.

New Netherland

Dutch colonial province centered on Manhattan; a fur-trading outpost under the Dutch West India Company.

Fort Amsterdam

Dutch fort at the southern tip of Manhattan, guarding New Netherland’s main settlement.

Peter Stuyvesant

Director-General of New Netherland (1647–1664); expanded and defended the colony.

Beverwijck

Trading post at present-day Albany; central to the beaver fur trade and Dutch-Native exchange.

Castello Plan

1684 map showing New Amsterdam’s streets, fortifications, and Wall Street-era walls.

Patroonship

Dutch land-grant system in New Netherland granting large estates to patroons who recruited tenants.

Kiliaen van Rensselaer

Prominent patroon owner whose land grants shaped the patroonship system around Albany.

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial capital on Manhattan; later renamed New York after 1664.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in Virginia, established 1607; tobacco becomes a profitable crop.

Virginia Company of London

Joint-stock company that financed Jamestown and shared profits with investors.

Indentured servant

Laborer who exchanged years of service (often 4–7) for passage to America and basic provisions.

Headright system

Land-grant policy giving 50 acres to those who paid their own passage, plus 50 more per dependent.

Pocahontas (Rebecca)

Powhatan daughter who married John Rolfe; symbolized peace efforts between English and Powhatan.

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

Virginia uprising that accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to enslaved African labor.

Anglo-Powhatan Wars

Series of conflicts (1609–1646) between English colonists and Powhatan/neighboring tribes.

Mayflower Compact

1702 transcription of the 1620 pact by Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, early self-government covenant.

Puritans

English religious reformers who sought to purify the Church of England and settled in New England.

City upon a Hill

John Winthrop’s vision of Massachusetts as a moral example for the world.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister banished for advocating church-state separation; founder of Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan dissenter banished for challenging clerical authority and ideas of grace; killed in 1642.

King Philip’s War (1675–1676)

Conflict led by Metacom (King Philip) of the Wampanoag; devastating for Puritan frontier towns.

Mary Rowlandson

Puritan woman who wrote a captivity narrative during King Philip’s War (1682).

Usufruct

Native concept of shared land use; contrasted with European private-property rights.

Beaver hats

European fashion demand that drove beaver hunting and altered Native ecosystems.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas (1–2 months).