Colonial America, Imperial Wars, and the South Atlantic System

A comprehensive vocabulary review set covering imperial wars, colonial economic policies, the South Atlantic System, slave rebellions, and the administrative changes in British North America as described across the lecture notes.

Second Hundred Years' War

A series of conflicts between England and France in which England fought seven major wars, drawing American colonies into imperial affairs and forcing colonial governments to support the British Empire.

Tribalization

The adaptation of stateless people to the demands imposed on them by neighboring states, such as disease-depleted Native American communities combining into reshaped tribes like the Iroquois, Creek, and Cherokee.

Covenant Chain

The alliance made between the Iroquois Confederacy, the colony of New York, and the British Empire.

Treaty of Utrecht

A treaty through which Britain obtained Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay, access to Indian trade through Albany, the fortress of Gibraltar, and a 30-year contract to supply slaves to Spanish America.

South Atlantic System

An agricultural and commercial order that produced sugar, tobacco, rice, and other tropical products for an international market, centered in Brazil and the West Indies and worked by enslaved Africans.

Adam Smith

Author of The Wealth of Nations who stated that sugar was the most profitable crop produced in the South Atlantic System.

Salutary Neglect

A British colonial policy during the reigns of George I and George II where supervision of internal colonial affairs was relaxed, later named by Edmund Burke.

Patronage

The political practice of distributing government jobs and favors to allies and supporters, heavily utilized by Whig leader Sir Robert Walpole to achieve political stability.

War of Jenkins' Ear

A conflict between Britain and Spain triggered after Spanish guards cut off the ear of English sea captain Robert Jenkins, which later merged into the War of Austrian Succession.

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

The peace agreement that returned the fortress of Louisbourg back to France after New England colonists had captured it.

Molasses Act of 1733

A British law that placed a high tariff on French molasses to stop colonial trade with French sugar islands, leading colonists to bypass the law through smuggling.

Charles Townshend

A British official who opposed colonial smuggling of French molasses and sought to impose stricter imperial control over the American colonies, ending salutary neglect.

Middle Passage

The trans-Atlantic sea voyage that brought enslaved Africans to the Americas, during which approximately 1.8 million died en route.

Stono Rebellion of 1739

The largest slave uprising in the mainland colonies, occurring along the Stono River in South Carolina after Florida's Spanish governor promised freedom to runaway slaves.

William Byrd II

A Virginia planter's son sent to England for education who was rejected as a colonial by his classmates and later returned to Virginia to live as part of the southern gentry.

Gentility

A refined lifestyle of self-control, elaborate manners, and cultural sophistication adopted by wealthy southern plantation owners.

Bills of Exchange

Credit slips issued by London merchants to West Indian sugar planters, which were used by colonists to buy slaves and manufactured goods.

Navigation Acts

A series of English laws requiring that colonial trade goods be shipped through English ports on English-owned vessels.

Revenue Act

An imperial act that levied a plantation duty on exported sugar and tobacco to pay the salaries of custom officials.

Dominion of New England

A centralized royal colony created by King James II that merged Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey into a single administrative unit.

Sir Edmund Andros

The governor of the Dominion of New England who abolished town meetings, restricted local authority, and imposed public worship in the Church of England.

Glorious Revolution

The bloodless 1688 overthrow of King James II by the Whig Party, replacing him with William of Orange and Mary Stuart and establishing a constitutional monarchy.

John Locke

Political philosopher who wrote Two Treatises on Government, rejecting the divine right of kings and asserting that individuals possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Jacob Leisler

Leader of a rebellion in New York against the Dominion of New England who was later hanged for treason by Governor Henry Sloughter.

Board of Trade

An advisory body created by Parliament in 1696 to oversee colonial trade and governance while granting colonies functional autonomy.

Lancaster Conference

A 1744 diplomatic meeting in Pennsylvania where colonial representatives from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia negotiated land agreements and military alliances with the Iroquois.

Oliver Cromwell

The Parliamentary leader and Lord Protector who defeated and executed King Charles I during the English Civil War, ruling England prior to the Restoration.

Proprietorship

A colony created when an English monarch granted land to an individual or group who had full authority to establish a government, such as Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

William Penn

Quaker proprietor who founded Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers, implementing a frame of government that ensured religious freedom and voting rights for male property owners.