Identifications - Key Terms and Historical Significance
Beringia
Land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska during the last glacial maximum, facilitating human and animal migrations.
Primary route for the peopling of the Americas; supported by archaeology, genetics, and geology.
Aztec Empire
Powerful Mesoamerican civilization in central Mexico, capital Tenochtitlan; complex tribute and religious system.
Major pre-Columbian empire; its fall in 1521 initiated rapid Spanish colonization.
Economy based on warfare, tribute, chinampas; religion involved rituals and human sacrifices.
Hernán Cortes, allied with Tlaxcalans, used superior weaponry and disease to conquer the empire.
Christopher Columbus
Italian navigator funded by the Crown of Castile; four voyages across the Atlantic (1492–1504).
Initiated sustained European contact with the Americas, leading to global exchange and colonization.
Outcomes: Began the Columbian Exchange; intensified exploitation of indigenous peoples and resources.
Columbian Exchange
Widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, populations, technology, and diseases between the Americas and the Old World.
Old World to New World: wheat, cattle, smallpox.
New World to Old World: maize, potatoes, tobacco.
Transformed global diets and agriculture; caused population growth in some areas and collapse in others due to disease.
Hernán Cortes
Spanish conquistador who led the fall of the Aztec Empire (1519-1521).
Tactics: Allied with rival indigenous groups, utilized superior weaponry, horses, and disease.
Aftermath: Established New Spain; led to extensive resource extraction and Catholic evangelization.
Society in New Spain
Rigid social structure: Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous peoples, Africans.
Institutions: Encomienda system, repartimiento, haciendas; Catholic Church central to governance and conversion.
Significance: Created a hierarchical, Catholic colonial society influencing later Latin American politics.
Mercantilism
Economic theory: State-directed policy to increase national wealth via favorable balance of trade and precious metals.
Features: Colonies supply raw materials and consume manufactured goods; strict trade regulation.
Significance: Drove European imperial expansion and shaped colonial economies.
"Headright" system
Grant of land (typically 50 acres) to settlers to encourage immigration and labor in colonies like Virginia.
Consequences: Accelerated settlement and plantation system; contributed to large landholdings and shift toward plantation slavery.
House of Burgesses
First representative legislative assembly in American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619.
Significance: Critical step toward self-government and colonial democratic traditions; precedent for later U.S. government systems.
Indentured Servitude
Labor contract for a set number of years (commonly 4–7) for passage, room, and board.
Outcomes: Common in early Virginia and Maryland, gradually displaced by slave labor.
Significance: Fueled early colonial economy and population growth; contributed to the shift toward racialized slavery.
Bacon's Rebellion
1676; led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley in Virginia.
Causes: Tensions between frontier settlers and Native Americans, resentment over land policies.
Outcomes: Exposed class/ethnic tensions; encouraged hardening racial laws and accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to African slavery.
Plymouth Colony
Origins: 1620, established by English Separatists seeking religious freedom.
Key features: Mayflower Compact, early self-governance, cooperation with indigenous peoples.
Significance: Early example of self-government and religiously motivated colonization.
Puritanism
Core beliefs: Personal conversion, moral living, congregational governance, predestination.
In the colonies: Motivated migration to New England; shaped social norms, education, and civil governance.
Significance: Defined New England's religious and social texture, influencing American culture and politics.
"A City Upon a Hill"
Source: John Winthrop's 1630 sermon to Massachusetts Bay colonists.
Meaning: Metaphor for a morally exemplary Christian community serving as a model for the world.
Significance: Contributed to American exceptionalism and communal responsibility.
Anne Hutchinson
Puritan dissenter who challenged church leadership through antinomianism.
Conflict: Banished from Massachusetts Bay (1637) for undermining authority.
Significance: Highlighted tensions over gender, religious authority, and dissent contributing to discussions on religious liberty.
Salem Witch Trials
Salem Village, Massachusetts, 1692-1693.
Events: Accusations of witchcraft led to hysteria, trials, and executions.
Significance: Demonstrated dangers of mass panic and religious extremism; led to reassessment of colonial courts.
Martha Ballard
18th-century American midwife whose diary illuminates colonial life.
Significance: Diary offers detailed primary source on domestic medicine, gender roles, and community networks in rural New England.
Atlantic slave trade
Transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean.
Scale: Involved millions of Africans; central to economic development of European colonies.
Significance: Profound effects on African societies and the Atlantic world; created enduring racialized slavery.
Middle Passage
Brutal sea voyage enslaved Africans endured from West Africa to the Americas.
Conditions: Densely packed ships, unsanitary conditions, high mortality rates; dehumanizing treatment.
Significance: Central component of slave trade's violence; lasting cultural and psychological effects on African diasporic communities.
Elizabeth Key
English-born woman of mixed African and European ancestry who sought freedom in Virginia courts (1656).
Legal significance: Highlighted tensions in early Virginia law over status and freedom for mixed-race individuals.
Stono Rebellion
1739, Stono River area, South Carolina.
Event: Large enslaved uprising aiming to reach Spanish Florida; rebels killed planters and seized arms.
Outcomes: Severe tightening of slave codes in South Carolina to restrict enslaved people's movement and assembly.
Significance: Largest slave rebellion in mainland British colonies before the American Revolution, spurring harsher controls.