Colonial America - Key Terms (Video Notes)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lesson on exploration, colonization, trade policies, religious movements, and colonial figures.

Encomienda System

A labor system in Spanish colonies where natives were granted to settlers to work in exchange for Christianizing them.

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly discovered lands outside Europe along an imaginary line; lands west became Spanish, east Portuguese.

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers/explorers in the New World who sought to conquer natives, claim lands, extract resources, and obtain gold.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of foods, people, plants, animals, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after Columbus's voyages.

Roanoke Island

The failed first English settlement in the New World, known as the Lost Colony.

Joint-Stock Company

A business venture where many investors pool capital to finance colonization and share profits.

Royal Colony

A colony governed directly by the crown; under the direct authority and rule of the king.

Act of Toleration

The first colonial statute granting religious freedom to all Christians; created to protect Catholics.

Halfway Covenant

Church policy allowing partial church membership for grandchildren of church members, enabling participation without full conversion.

Great Awakening

Religious revival in the colonies characterized by emotional preaching and widespread religious enthusiasm.

Mercantilism

Economic policy where colonies exist to provide raw materials to the mother country, promoting growth and national profit.

Navigation Acts

Laws regulating colonial trade; ships must be English or colonial-built; goods to/from colonies must pass through England; certain goods could only be exported to England.

Dominion of New England

A royal attempt to tighten control by uniting several New England colonies and abolishing representative assemblies.

Indentured Servants

Young people under contract to a master who paid for their voyage; they work for a set term in exchange for passage and basic needs, then are freed.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic voyage from West Africa to the Americas, during which many enslaved Africans died.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spanish missionary who criticized the mistreatment of Native Americans and advocated for Native rights.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister who argued for conscience-based liberty and the separation of church and state; banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Sir William Berkeley

Royal Governor of Virginia who favored large planters and did not protect smaller farms from Indian raids.

John Winthrop

Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony; helped shape its government and articulated the vision of a city on a hill.

George Whitefield

Anglican preacher and key figure in the Great Awakening who drew large audiences with his evangelical sermons.