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Three Sisters
Three staple crops (corn, beans, and squash) favored by many native tribes in North America. Their collective name references their interdependence
Great League of Peace 1450
Also called the Haudenosaunee. A political confederation of five (later six) Iroquois tribes, which sought to coordinate collective action. Each tribe maintained its own political system and religious beliefs. Believed to have formed around 1450.
Christopher Columbus
Italian explorer and colonizer. While attempting to prove a westward sea route for East Asian trade existed, he stumbled across the Bahamas in October 1492. The first European to visit the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba.
Amerigo Vespucci
Italian explorer and cartographer. His 1499–1502 trip along the South American coast determined that the New World was a distinct continent from Asia.
Columbian Exchange
The transmission and interchange of plants, animals, diseases, cultures, human populations (including slaves), and technologies between the New World and the Old World. Greatly benefited Europe and Asia while simultaneously bringing catastrophe to American Indian populations and cultures.
Jacques Cartier
French explorer. Cultivated a fur trade with American Indians. Dubbed the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and its surroundings as “the Country of Canadas,” a term derived from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word for village/settlement.
Samuel de Champlain
French explorer. Known as the “The Father of New France.” Founded Quebec in 1608. Made the first accurate maps of what is modern-day Eastern Canada.
Treaty of Tordesillas
Signed between Spain and Portugal in 1494, it decided how Christopher Columbus’s discoveries of the New World would be divided. It established the zone of Portuguese influence in what would become Brazil.
Spanish Requirement of 1513
Spain asserted its divine right to conquer the New World, stating that its main concern was to rescue the natives from hedonism.
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
Spanish explorer and conquistador. In 1513, he led the first overland expedition by Europeans to reach the Pacific, specifically crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
Juan Ponce de León
Spanish explorer and conquistador. Led the first European expedition to Florida in 1513, an area which he named. Commonly said to have been hunting for the Fountain of Youth, although that motivation is considered a myth.
Ferdinand Magellan
Portuguese explorer. From 1519 to 1522, he led a Spanish expedition that was the first to circumnavigate the Earth. Magellan died in battle in the Philippines in 1521, and command was transferred to Juan Sebastián Elcano.
Hernán Cortés
A Spanish conquistador whose expedition conquered the Aztec Empire and brought large swaths of modern-day Mexico under Spanish authority. Famous for intentionally destroying his own ships in order to force his men not to abandon their campaign.
Conquistadores
Generalized term for soldiers and explorers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires. Colonized what became Latin America in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.
Encomienda
A legal system established by the Spanish crown. Conquistadores or other officials were given a set number of American Indians from whom they would extract tribute while instructing in the Roman Catholic faith. In practice, it was a form of slavery. Contrast with
Repartimiento
Replaced the encomienda system. American Indians living in native villages were legally free. This system legally rendered indigenous slavery nonexistent; natives were allowed land, received pay for labor, and could not be bought and sold. However, they were still abused by Spanish authorities and working conditions could still be brutal.
Juan de Oñate
A conquistador born in New Spain (modern-day Mexico). Established the first permanent colonial settlement in what is the modern-day American Southwest. Infamous for the 1599 Acoma Massacre, which saw over 800 American Indians killed. Later recalled to Spain and convicted for cruelty toward natives and colonists alike.
Sir Walter Raleigh
English polymath. One of the most important figures of the Elizabeathan era. Granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to explore and colonize the New World in exchange for one-fifth of all the gold and silver this venture obtained. Founded Roanoke.
Roanoke
Nicknamed “the Lost Colony.” First attempted English colony in the New World. Founded in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh on an island off the modern-day North Carolina coast. By 1590, its inhabitants had vanished for reasons that still remain unknown.
Virginia Company
The collective name for two joint stock companies (one of London, the other of Plymouth) that had identical charters but different (if overlapping) territorial claims. Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline.
Anglicanism
A form of Protestant Christianity that adheres to the liturgy of the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England. Founded in the sixteenth century by King Henry VIII. See
Protestantism
An umbrella term for various Christian sects that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church following the start of the Reformation in 1517. Constitutes one of three major branches of Christianity, alongside Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox faith. Generally, Protestants believe that faith alone merits salvation and good works are unnecessary. They reject the authority of the Pope and believe the Bible is the sole authority. See
Charters
A document which Parliament used to grant exclusive rights and privileges. Required for the legal sanction of a formal colony. Over time, especially after the Glorious Revolution, most colonies surrendered their charters and became royal colonies, which involved more centralized control from England.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
English explorer. In the Elizabethan era, he founded the first English colony at Newfoundland, which failed.
Sir Walter Raleigh
One of the most important figures of the Elizabethan era. Granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to explore and colonize the New World in exchange for one-fifth of all the gold and silver this venture obtained. Founded Roanoke.
Roanoke
Nicknamed “the Lost Colony.” First attempted English colony in the New World. Founded in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh on an island off the modern-day North Carolina coast. By 1590, its inhabitants had vanished for reasons that still remain unknown.
Indentured servants
People who offered up five to seven years of their freedom in exchange for passage to the New World. Limited rights while servants, but considered free members of society upon release. During the seventeenth century, nearly two-thirds of English immigrants were indentured servants. Declined in favor of slavery, which was more profitable to planters.
Bacon’s Rebellion
A failed 1676 rebellion in Jamestown. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, indentured servants and slaves revolted against the Virginia Colony’s aristocracy. It led to a strengthening of racially coded laws, such as the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, in order to divide impoverished white and black slaves, thus safeguarding the planter aristocracy from future rebellions.
Sir William Berkeley
Virginia governor during Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). Ruled the colony based on the interests of the wealthy tobacco planters. In addition, Berkeley advocated for good relations with the American Indians in order to safeguard the beaver fur trade.
Nathaniel Bacon
A young member of the House of Burgesses who capitalized on his fellow backwoodsmen’s complaints by mobilizing them to form a citizens’ militia. Burned Jamestown during Bacon’s Rebellion. Died of dysentery in 1676.
House of Burgesses
The first elected legislative assembly in the New World. Established in 1619. It served as a political model for subsequent English colonies. Initially, only landowners could vote, and only the Virginia Company and the governor could rescind laws.
Jamestown
Founded in Virginia in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. After the statehouse was burned on four separate occasions, the capital was moved to what became modern-day Williamsburg. See
Triangular Trade
A transatlantic trade network. New World colonies exported raw materials such as sugar and cotton to England. There, these materials were transformed into rum and textiles. Europeans sold these manufactured goods, including at African ports, in exchange for slaves, who would then be sold in the colonies as farm workers, thus completing the triangle.
Middle Passage
The leg of Triangular Trade which transported Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Approximately 20 percent of enslaved Africans died before reaching the New World due to poor conditions, dehydration, and disease.
Stono Rebellion
A 1739 slave uprising in Stono, South Carolina. Led to the deaths of more than four dozen colonists and as many as 200 African slaves. Prompted South Carolina’s proprietors to create a stricter slave code.
Virginia Company
Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline. Established a headright system (1618) and the House of Burgesses (1619). By 1624, a lack of profit forced the company to concede its charter to the crown, who appointed a royal governor.
John Smith
A pivotal leader at Jamestown. Negotiated peace between the settlers and local American Indians. Famously stated “He that will not work shall not eat,” forcing the Jamestown colonists to work to save their then-failing colony. Returned to England in 1609 after being injured in a gunpowder explosion.
Powhatan
The name for an American Indian tribe neighboring Jamestown. Also the common name for its chief (formally known as Wahunsenacawh) in the 1610s, who was father to Pocahontas and brother to Opechancanough.
Pocahontas
American Indian woman who brokered peace between her tribe and the early settlers at Jamestown, such as John Smith. Married John Rolfe in 1614.
Opechancanough
Planned and executed a surprise attack in 1622 on Jamestown that massacred a fourth of the total Virginia colonists in one day. The resulting retaliation by the English settlers devastated his tribe, altering the regional balance of power. See
Roger Williams
A Protestant theologian in during the 1630s. Believed American Indians should be treated justly. Advocated the then-radical notion of separation of church and state, believing government involvement in religion amounted to forced worship. Banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he and his followers went on to found Rhode Island.
Pequot War
A war in New England in 1636–1638. Fought between the Pequot tribe and the English colonists with their American Indian allies. A catastrophic defeat for the Pequot tribe. Famous for the Mystic massacre, where over 500 Pequot were slaughtered in a blaze.
King Philip’s War
Also known as Metacom’s War, King Philip’s War (1675–1678) was an ongoing battle between English colonists and the American Indian inhabitants of New England. The English victory expanded their access to land that was previously inhabited by the natives.
Headright system
A policy where a colonial government grants a set amount of land to any settler who paid for their own—or someone else’s—passage to the New World.
John Rolfe
An influential Virginian leader. In 1611, he introduced his fellow farmers to tobacco cultivation, which provided the economic basis for their colony’s survival. Married Pocahontas.
Proprietary colony
A colony in which the crown allotted land and governmental command to one person. Maryland under Lord Baltimore is an example of it.
Lord Baltimore
The noble title for Cecilius Calvert. He founded Maryland in 1632 as a haven for his fellow Catholics, and advocated for peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants. Overthrown during the Glorious Revolution by Protestant rebels.
Puritanism
A religious code and societal organization that split off from Anglicanism. Puritans believed that their religious and social structures were ideal. They thought that the Church of England’s ceremonies and teachings were too reminiscent of Catholicism and that true believers ought to read the Bible for themselves and listen to the sermons of an educated clergy.
Pilgrims
The first Puritans to colonize the New World. Settled at Plymouth. Members of a minority group of Puritans known as separatists.
Separatists
A minority Puritan faction that wished to abandon the Church of England and form their own independent church cleansed of any lingering Catholicism. After a failed 1607–1608 effort in the Netherlands, that failed due to fears over the local culture corrupting their children, they boarded the Mayflower and founded Plymouth colony.
Plymouth
A colony in modern-day Cape Cod, founded by the Pilgrims in 1620. By 1691, it was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the crown colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Mayflower Compact
The first written form of government in the modern-day United States. Drafted by the Pilgrims, it was an agreement to establish a secular body that would administer the leadership of the Plymouth colony.
Squanto
An American Indian who learned English after having been captured and transported to England. Later returned to the New World. He showed the Pilgrims how to plant corn and where to fish, enabling them to survive early on.
Massachusetts Bay Company
Founded in 1629 by a collective of London financiers, who advocated for the Puritan cause and wanted to profit from American Indian trade.
Body of Liberties
Issued by the Massachusetts General Court in 1641, it delineated the liberties and duties of Massachusetts settlers. It also allowed for free speech, assembly, and due process; it also authorized the death penalty for the worship of false gods, blasphemy, and witchcraft.
Great Migration of the 1630s
A period where many Puritan families moved across the Atlantic. By 1642, approximately 20,000 Puritans had immigrated to Massachusetts.
Anne Hutchinson
A Puritan colonist in Massachusetts. Tried and convicted of heresy in the 1630s. She asserted that local ministers were erroneous in believing that good deeds and church attendance saved one’s soul. She believed that faith alone merited salvation.
Thomas Hooker
Puritan leader. Founded a settlement at Hartford, Connecticut (1636) after dissenting from the Massachusetts authorities. See
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The first “constitution” in colonial America, fully established the Hartford government in 1639. While it modeled itself after the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the document—in a key innovation—called for the power of government to be derived from the governed, who did not need to be church members to vote.
Charter of Liberties and Privileges
Drafted in 1683 by a New York assembly, following the colony’s takeover by the English. It mandated elections, and reinforced traditional English liberties such as trial by jury, security of property, and religious tolerance for Protestant churches.
Fundamental Constitution of Carolina
Issued by the proprietors of Carolina in 1669, who aimed to create a feudal society composed of nobles, serfs, and slaves. Four-fifths of the land was owned by the planters. Colonial leaders established an elected assembly and a headright system to attract immigrants, who were allowed to own the remaining land. It allowed for religious tolerance, both for Christian dissenters and Jewish people.
William Penn
Founded Pennsylvania in 1683. A Quaker, Penn believed in equality between people. He owned all the colony’s land and sold it to settlers at low costs, instead of developing a headright system. The religious tolerance, excellent climate, and low cost of land appealed to immigrants from across Western Europe. See
Quakers
Formally known as the “Society of Friends.” A Protestant church that advocated that everyone was equal, including women, Africans, and American Indians. See
James Oglethorpe
A wealthy reformer who founded Georgia in 1733 as a haven for those who had been imprisoned in England as debtors. He initially banned slavery and alcohol from the colony, which led to many disputes among settlers. In 1751, however, the colony was surrendered to the crown, which repealed both bans.
Mercantilism
The theory that a government should control economic pursuits to further a nation’s national power, especially in the acquisition of silver and gold. Prominent in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Replaced by free trade. See
Navigation Acts
Laws passed in 1651 as measure to supersede Dutch control of international trade. Colonial commodities such as tobacco and sugar had to be exported to England in English ships and sold in English ports before they could be re-exported to other nations’ markets. Spurred colonial resentment in the long-term. See
Glorious Revolution
The 1688 overthrow of the Catholic King James II by the English Parliament. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange. Led to both celebration and unrest throughout the American colonies.
Toleration Act of 1689
An English law that called for the free worship of most Protestants, not only Puritans. Forced on Massachusetts in 1691 after it was made a royal colony, revoking its earlier Puritan-centric charter.
Great Awakening
A Protestant religious movement that took place across the Thirteen Colonies during the 1730s and 1740s. It indirectly helped spur religious tolerance and led to the founding of many universities. See
Jonathan Edwards
A preacher credited for sparking the (First) Great Awakening. His sermons encouraged parishioners to repent of their sins and obey God’s word in order to earn mercy. He delivered his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in 1741.
George Whitefield
A traveling New Light preacher during the Great Awakening. Known for his sermons on the “fire and brimstone” eternity that all sinners would face if they did not publicly confess their sins. Undermined the power and prestige of Old Light ministers by proclaiming that ordinary people could understand Christian doctrine without the clergy’s guidance.
Samuel de Champlain
French explorer. Known as the “The Father of New France.” Founded Quebec in 1608. Made the first accurate maps of what is modern-day Eastern Canada.
Louis Joliet
French-Canadian explorer. He and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to explore and map the Mississippi River.
Jacques Marquette
French Jesuit missionary. He and Louis Joliet were the first Europeans to explore and map the Mississippi River. He founded the first European settlement in Michigan in 1668.
Sieur de La Salle
French explorer, also known as René-Robert Cavelier. He surveyed the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico. Founded a network of forts around the Great Lakes and in the modern-day Midwest.
Dutch East India Company
The vehicle for the commercial ambitions of the Netherlands in the New World, especially with regards to the fur trade. Led to the founding of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam. See
Henry Hudson
English explorer. While working to find a Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company, he sailed up the Hudson River, establishing Dutch claims for what became New Amsterdam (modern-day New York).
New Amsterdam
The Dutch capital of their New Netherland colony. Noted for its tolerance of religious practices. It failed to attract enough settlers to compete with the surrounding English colonies. Conquered by the English in 1664, who renamed it New York City.
Mestizos
A term for people of mixed Spanish and American Indian heritage.
Catholicism
Adherence to the liturgy and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics believe that the Bible alone is not sufficient for salvation, but that it must be tied to certain rites and traditions. Catholics view the Pope as the representative of Jesus on Earth. Historically, the Catholic Church was a major landowner in both Europe and Latin America, and the Pope was often politically more powerful than most monarchs. Contrast
Pueblo Revolt
A 1680 revolt against Spanish settlers in the modern-day American Southwest. Led by a Pueblo man named Popé, it forced the Spanish to abandon Santa Fe. A rare, decisive American Indian victory against European colonization.
Anglicanism
A form of Protestant Christianity that adheres to the liturgy of the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England. Founded in the sixteenth century by King Henry VIII. See
Protestantism
An umbrella term for various Christian sects that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church following the start of the Reformation in 1517. Constitutes one of three major branches of Christianity, alongside Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox faith. Generally, Protestants believe that faith alone merits salvation and good works are unnecessary. They reject the authority of the Pope and believe the Bible is the sole authority. See
Charters
A document which Parliament used to grant exclusive rights and privileges. Required for the legal sanction of a formal colony. Over time, especially after the Glorious Revolution, most colonies surrendered their charters and became royal colonies, which involved more centralized control from England.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
English explorer. In the Elizabethan era, he founded the first English colony at Newfoundland, which failed.
Sir Walter Raleigh
One of the most important figures of the Elizabethan era. Granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to explore and colonize the New World in exchange for one-fifth of all the gold and silver this venture obtained. Founded Roanoke.
Roanoke
Nicknamed “the Lost Colony.” First attempted English colony in the New World. Founded in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh on an island off the modern-day North Carolina coast. By 1590, its inhabitants had vanished for reasons that still remain unknown.
Indentured servants
People who offered up five to seven years of their freedom in exchange for passage to the New World. Limited rights while servants, but considered free members of society upon release. During the seventeenth century, nearly two-thirds of English immigrants were indentured servants. Declined in favor of slavery, which was more profitable to planters.
Bacon’s Rebellion
A failed 1676 rebellion in Jamestown. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, indentured servants and slaves revolted against the Virginia Colony’s aristocracy. It led to a strengthening of racially coded laws, such as the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, in order to divide impoverished white and black slaves, thus safeguarding the planter aristocracy from future rebellions.
Sir William Berkeley
Virginia governor during Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). Ruled the colony based on the interests of the wealthy tobacco planters. In addition, Berkeley advocated for good relations with the American Indians in order to safeguard the beaver fur trade.
Nathaniel Bacon
A young member of the House of Burgesses who capitalized on his fellow backwoodsmen’s complaints by mobilizing them to form a citizens’ militia. Burned Jamestown during Bacon’s Rebellion. Died of dysentery in 1676.
House of Burgesses
The first elected legislative assembly in the New World. Established in 1619. It served as a political model for subsequent English colonies. Initially, only landowners could vote, and only the Virginia Company and the governor could rescind laws.
Jamestown
Founded in Virginia in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. After the statehouse was burned on four separate occasions, the capital was moved to what became modern-day Williamsburg. See
Triangular Trade
A transatlantic trade network. New World colonies exported raw materials such as sugar and cotton to England. There, these materials were transformed into rum and textiles. Europeans sold these manufactured goods, including at African ports, in exchange for slaves, who would then be sold in the colonies as farm workers, thus completing the triangle.
Middle Passage
The leg of Triangular Trade which transported Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Approximately 20 percent of enslaved Africans died before reaching the New World due to poor conditions, dehydration, and disease.
Stono Rebellion
A 1739 slave uprising in Stono, South Carolina. Led to the deaths of more than four dozen colonists and as many as 200 African slaves. Prompted South Carolina’s proprietors to create a stricter slave code.
Virginia Company
Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline. Established a headright system (1618) and the House of Burgesses (1619). By 1624, a lack of profit forced the company to concede its charter to the crown, who appointed a royal governor.
John Smith
A pivotal leader at Jamestown. Negotiated peace between the settlers and local American Indians. Famously stated “He that will not work shall not eat,” forcing the Jamestown colonists to work to save their then-failing colony. Returned to England in 1609 after being injured in a gunpowder explosion.
Powhatan
The name for an American Indian tribe neighboring Jamestown. Also the common name for its chief (formally known as Wahunsenacawh) in the 1610s, who was father to Pocahontas and brother to Opechancanough.
Pocahontas
American Indian woman who brokered peace between her tribe and the early settlers at Jamestown, such as John Smith. Married John Rolfe in 1614.
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