APUSH Periods 1 & 2

492 - Columbian Exchange begins with Columbus's discovery of the New World

• Columbus sailed for Spain seeking a path to the Indies

• Exchange of crops and disease between old and New World

• From Europe: horses & domesticated livestock, disease, coffee & grain

• From the New World: potato, squash, pumpkin, maize, tobacco & quinine

1512 - Encomienda system created

• Native labor granted in exchange for promise to Christianize

• Similar to slavery → unfair treatment of Natives

• Worked on large haciendas of Spanish landowners

1520 - Smallpox begins to decimate Native population

• Close to 90% of population killed 

• Natives were not effective laborers as they were dying due to lack of immunity → beginning of slave trade

• Europeans had immunity due to transcontinental exchanges (“guns, germs & steel” theory)

1552 - Bartolome De las Casas popularizes the idea of the “Black Legend”

• Showed cruelty of the Spanish system

• Depicted the Natives as gentle lambs & Spaniards as wolves

• He was a member of the church (a friar)

• Led to end of encomienda system after Pueblo Revolt (1680)

1607 - Jamestown est. 

• Joint stock company intended to turn a profit for investors

• Most settlers wanted to look for gold instead of farm → “starving time” many did not survive the winter

• John Rolfe introduces tobacco; married Pocahontas

• John Smith says “those who do not work do not eat;” advertised and promoted Jamestown

1609 - 1613 - Anglo-Powhatan War

• Conflict between de la Warr & Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia 

• Rolfe’s marriage to Pocahontas ended the first war

• Series of 3 wars → for the Powhatan tribes, the wars resulted in the loss of land, resources, and autonomy, leading to the decline of their confederacy and the erosion of their way of life.

1618 - Headright system created

• To get more indentured servants, 50 acres was given to anyone who sponsored the voyage of an indentured servant

• Indentured servants usually poor white males → would be free after their term of indenture

• Primary source of labor before Bacon’s Rebellion switched to slavery

1619 - Virginia House of Burgesses created

• First representative assembly in the colonies

• Each settlement or plantation was allowed to elect two burgesses to represent them in the assembly. The assembly had the power to make laws, levy taxes, and oversee the administration of the colony → Subject to the approval of the governor appointed by the Virginia Company.

1620 - Plymouth Est. (include Mayflower Compact) 

• Separatist Pilgrims set out to establish a “city upon a hill” - Winthrop

• Opposed the Anglican church & did not want toleration for non-Puritans

• Mayflower compact agreed to follow laws and create a godly community

• Families settled in New England unlike mostly single men in Chesapeake

1632 - colony of Maryland est.

• Lord Baltimore

• Haven for Catholics → offered religious toleration 

1635 - Roger Williams exiled

• Shows intolerance of the Puritans in New England

• Spoke out for separation of church and state & for fair treatment of Native Americans → banished from Massachusetts

• Formed Rhode Island

1637 - Anne Hutchinson banished

• Called a heretic & considered inappropriate for a woman  to preach & hold meetings in her home

• Claimed God spoke to her 

• Was killed by Native Americans

1639 - Fundamental Orders created  

• Connecticut Constitution = first written constitution in America

• Set up the structure and powers of government with the goal of protecting trade

1643 - New England Confederation est. 

• Established for collective security of New Englanders

• First step toward (limited) colonial unity

• Protection from Native Americans & French/Dutch threats

1651 - Navigation Laws/Mercantilism

• Mercantilism - goal was to enrich the mother country, create a favorable balance of trade, increase bullion in treasury & extract resources from colonies

• Navigation Laws limited the trading partners of the colonies but were loosely enforced

1676 - Bacon’s Rebellion

• Freed indentured servants rebelled against Virginia  governor Berkeley

• Wanted to be able to expand west and came into conflict with Native Americans → wanted the government to protect them vs. Natives

• Saw Eastern elites as unconcerned with those on the frontier

• Rebellion put down & slavery becomes preferred form of labor as they’d never be free unlike indentured servants

1686 - Dominion of New England est. 

• Attempt by England to control colonies led by Sir Edmund Andros

• Hated by colonists used to salutary neglect → Ended after Glorious Revolution

1693 - Salem Witch Trials

• Women accused of witchcraft and put on trial

• Ended when it became disruptive to the social order

1730s and 1740s - Great Awakening

• Religious revival with fiery sermons by Jonathan Edwards & George Whitfield 

• Preached in fields → populist religious movement

• “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” - Edwards 

• Led to more challenging authority & free thought

• conflict between old lights & new lights

1733 - Zenger Trial  

• Accused of libel but acquitted

• Sets precedent of free press that you can print negative stories as long as they are true