Early Colonial America and English Expansion

Vocabulary flashcards covering the developments of English colonization, political and economic structures, religious movements, and internal colonial tensions during the 17th century based on the lecture.

Sir Francis Drake

An English pirate authorized to attack Spanish treasure ships bound from the Old World, who stationed his pirate operations in the Caribbean.

Spanish Armada (1588)

A fleet of over 200 Spanish ships sent to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, destroy Protestant England, and eliminate Caribbean piracy, which was largely destroyed by a storm and defeated by the English fleet.

Columbian Exchange Feedback Loop

The ongoing exchange of biological elements, culture, and politics between the Old World and the New World, where events in one hemisphere directly affect the other.

Representative Government (British Success)

A political structure utilizing parliaments and local colonial legislatures that allowed English colonies to make decisions on the ground without constantly referring back to the monarch.

Free Enterprise (British Success)

An economic setup allowing private individuals and joint-stock companies to pool money and establish business or colonial ventures without needing direct permission from the monarch.

Willing Population (British Success)

English citizens driven to move overseas permanently due to domestic overcrowding, improved living spans from Columbian Exchange nutrients, and religious persecution.

John Winthrop

A Puritan leader who advocated leaving England to escape European corruption and construct a purified version of Christian society in America.

City on the Hill

John Winthrop's famous sermon concept envisioning the Puritan community in the New World as a perfect Christian society that would act as a beacon to the rest of the world.

New England Colonies

The northern colonial region—including Plymouth, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut—settled primarily by Puritans and known economically for manufacturing, shipbuilding, furniture, and rum distilling.

Middle Colonies

The Mid-Atlantic colonial region—comprising New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York—known economically for livestock production and home to diverse religious groups.

Quakers

A religious group led by William Penn that settled in Pennsylvania to escape religious persecution in Europe.

Southern Colonies

The colonial region—including Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia—focused on slave-cultivated staple crops such as tobacco, sugar, rice, and indigo.

Jamestown Colony (1607)

The first permanent English settlement in the New World, located in Virginia, which became a center for tobacco cultivation.

Georgia Colony

A Southern colony established as the first penal colony in the New World, populated by English debtors and prisoners who were freed upon arrival.

Maryland Colony

A Southern colony established primarily as a haven for persecuted English Catholics (crypto-Catholics).

English Civil War

A 1640s-1650s conflict between King Charles I and Parliament resulting in the execution of Charles I, during which the self-governing English colonies continued to thrive independently.

Religious Toleration

A colonial concept that allowed different Christian denominations to coexist peacefully in distinct geographical areas, leaving behind European religious warfare.

Roger Williams

A Puritan dissenter who criticized violence against Native Americans, was excommunicated and imprisoned, and subsequently established Providence, Rhode Island.

Providence, Rhode Island

A colony established by Roger Williams that served as a haven for Native American Christian converts and non-Puritan religious dissenters.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of 1690s trials in Salem, Massachusetts, arising from Puritan social anxieties, which predominantly targeted recent unmarried female immigrants under charges of witchcraft.

Tidewater Region

The coastal soil region of Virginia highly valued by established planters for its nutrient-rich soil suitable for growing lucrative tobacco crops.

Piedmont Zone

The inland region west of Virginia's Tidewater coast where new immigrants sought to establish new tobacco plantations.

Nathaniel Bacon

An English immigrant who led a rebellion against Virginia's colonial governor after being denied land deeds to establish plantations in the Piedmont zone.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1670s armed revolt in Virginia in which Nathaniel Bacon's militia captured and burned Jamestown to the ground over land access and tobacco market controls.