History US 1, Unit 3

Lower House (Colonial Assembly)

The elected legislative body in a colony; controlled taxation and spending and was the most democratic part of colonial government.

Upper House (Council)

A group of advisors appointed by the governor (or the Crown) who reviewed laws and acted as the highest colonial court.

Board of Trade

A British advisory board that oversaw colonial commerce and attempted to enforce mercantilist policies.

Mercantilism

An economic theory stating that colonies exist to benefit the mother country by supplying raw materials and buying manufactured goods.

Favorable Balance of Trade

When a nation exports more than it imports, increasing national wealth, a key goal of mercantilism.

Navigation Acts

British laws restricting colonial trade to benefit England; required goods to be shipped on English ships and pass through English ports.

Wool, Hat, Iron Acts

British laws that restricted colonial manufacturing to prevent competition with English industries.

Triangular Trade

A three‑way trade system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas involving rum, enslaved Africans, and raw materials.

Great Awakening

A major religious revival in the 1730s–1740s that emphasized emotional faith, personal salvation, and challenged traditional church authority.

George Whitefield

A charismatic Great Awakening preacher whose emotional sermons attracted massive crowds and spread revivalism.

Jonathan Edwards

A leading Puritan minister during the Great Awakening; known for “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and stressing human sinfulness.

Ben Franklin

Colonial writer, scientist, inventor, diplomat; symbol of Enlightenment thinking; proposed the Albany Plan of Union.

Ohio River Valley

A fertile region claimed by both France and Britain; competition for it sparked the French and Indian War.

Albany Plan of Union

Ben Franklin’s 1754 proposal to unite the colonies for defense; rejected but became a model for later unity.

General Braddock

British general defeated early in the French and Indian War due to traditional European tactics unsuited to frontier fighting.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the French and Indian War; France lost almost all North American territory, Britain gained Canada and land to the Mississippi.

Pontiac

Ottawa leader who organized Native resistance to British rule after the French and Indian War (Pontiac’s Rebellion).

Virtual Representation

British argument that Parliament represented all British subjects, even those in the colonies who did not elect members.

Boston Massacre (1770)

A confrontation where British soldiers fired into a crowd, killing five colonists; used as propaganda to fuel anti‑British sentiment.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

Colonists, protesting the Tea Act, dumped British tea into Boston Harbor; led to the Intolerable Acts.

First Continental Congress (1774)

A meeting of delegates from 12 colonies to respond to the Intolerable Acts; organized boycotts and called for colonial rights.