U.S. Civics Terms No.1

Hiawatha

Legendary Native American leader credited with founding the Iroquois Confederacy.

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer who sailed for Spain and reached the Americas in 1492.

Iroquois Confederacy

Alliance of five (later six) Native American nations in the Northeast for peace and defense.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

Moctezuma

Aztec emperor during the Spanish conquest by Cortés.

Encomienda

Spanish system granting colonists the right to demand labor from Native Americans.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds after 1492.

Joint Stock Corporation

Business organization where investors pool money for colonial ventures, sharing profits and risks.

House of Burgesses

First representative legislative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619.

Indentured Servitude

A system where people worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America.

Puritans & Pilgrims

English Protestants who settled New England seeking religious freedom; Pilgrims were separatists, Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England.

Metacom and Metacom’s War

Metacom (King Philip), Wampanoag leader, led a Native American uprising (1675–76) against New England settlers.

Pueblo Revolt

1680 Native American uprising that expelled Spanish settlers from New Mexico for over a decade.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 revolt in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against colonial government and Native Americans.

Philip II

King of Spain during the height of its power in the 1500s, supporter of Catholic expansion.

Opechancanough

Powhatan leader who led major attacks against English settlers in Virginia.

Lord Baltimore

Title for Cecil Calvert, founder of Maryland as a haven for Catholics.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister banished from Massachusetts, founder of Rhode Island and advocate for religious freedom.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan spiritual leader who was banished from Massachusetts for challenging church authority and promoting religious freedom, later founding a settlement in Rhode Island.