Maize
Promoted settlement, economic development, and social diversification among societies.
Colombian Exchange
The exchange of diseases, ideas, food, crops, and population between the Old World and the New World in the later 15th/early centuries.
Encomienda System
Spanish system that rewarded conquerors with land and enslaved labor.
Pueblo Revolt
Resistance led by Popé against Spanish settlement in the Americas.
Caste System
Created by the Spanish in order to maintain a racial and social hierarchy in North America.
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Chronicled the fate of Native Americans and protested Spanish policies in the New World.
French Colonization
Established trading posts and sought to convert Native Americans in the interior of North America.
Spanish Armada
Fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588, marking the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire.
Roanoke
England’s First attempt at colonizing the New World (it ultimately failed)
Wampanoag
Nation led by Massasoit in the northeast North American regions
Powhatan Confederacy
Nation in the region that became Virginia
God, Gold, Glory
Spanish motivations for colonizing in the New World
Tobacco
The labor-intensive cash crop in the Chesapeake region
Dutch Colonization
Established trading posts along the mid-Atlantic region, often working with the local population
Mercantilism
Economic and political theory by which 17th and 18th century European powers governed their overseas colonies
Joint Stock Companies
Forerunner of the modern corporation that enabled investors to pool financial capital for colonies adventures
Jamestown
Riverbank cite where Virginia Company settlers planted the first permanent English colony
Indentured Servitude
Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service
City Upon a Hill
Demonstrated the charade sense of purpose for establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Great Puritan Migration
Mass flight by religious dissidents into New England into the 1630s
House of Bergesses
Representative assembly in Virginia to govern in the colony
Navigation Acts
Set of Parliamentary laws, first passed in 1650, that restricted colonial trade and directed it to the benefit of England
Town Meeting
The basis local political institution of New England, in which all free men gathered to elect officials and debated local affair
Mayflower Compact
The shipboard agreement by the Pilgrim Fathers to establish a body politic and submit to majority rule
Puritans
English Calvinists who sought a thorough cleansing from within the Church of England
Act of Toleration
Guaranteed freedom to all Christians in Maryland
Africans
Composed the largest non-English group in the colonies (forced migration)
Anglicization
The progress though which the English colonies emerged from their diverse beginnings to become increasingly alike
Anne Hutchinson
Challenged Massachusetts authority by teaching antinomianism (and was banished from the colony)
Bacon’s Rebellion
Major event that exposed social inequalities in the colonies and led to greater reliance on enslaved people for labor
Enlightenment
Age of Reason: intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition
Great Awakening
Spectacular, emotional religious revival of the 1730’s and 1740’s
Halfway Covenant
Signified decreasing religious zeal of the Puritans in the colonies
Harvard
The oldest college in America, originally based on the Puritan commitment to an educated ministry
New England Confederation
Lasting from 1643-1684, it was military alliance and the first experiment in colonial cooperation
John Locke
Argued that sovereignty resides with the people rather than with government
King Philip’s War
Last major confrontation between settlers and New England Native Americans in 1676
Middle Colonies
Most diverse region of the colonies: religiously, socially, and economically
Middle Passage
Transatlantic voyage the enslaved endured between Africa and the colonies
Northern Colonies
Largely Puritan in origin, these colonies profited from industry and trade and emphasized education
Pequot War
Series of clashes that ended in the slaughter of Native Americans in New England during the 1630s
Quakers
Dominant religious group in colonial Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
American colony that was home to the Newport enslavement market and many traders of the enslaved
Salem Witch Trials
Reflected the widening social stratification of New England and the fear that traditional Puritan heritage was being replaced by commercialism
Scots-Irish
Group that settled the frontier, made whiskey, hated the British and other governmental authorities
Slave Codes
Established the heredity nature of enslavement and limited the rights and education of the enslaved
Southern Colonies
Hallmarked by a self-sufficient agrarian economic that included enslavement
Stono Rebellion
Enslaved individuals in South Carolina revolted for their freedom in 1739
Triangular Trade
Profitable trade route that linked New England, Africa, and America
Zenger Case
The case that established the precedent that true statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel