Matrilineal
Based on or tracing the family through the mother. Prevalent in Na tive American cultures.
Renaissance
"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome
Prince Henry
Sent others to explore for him, made very first explorer school, first person to value exploring
Pilgrims
English Puritans who founded Plymouth colony in 1620. Fled England to avoid persecution.
Mercantilism
An economic system (Europe in 18th C) to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests
Continental Congress
Response to the Intolerable Acts, representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies met to discuss the colonial troubles and complaints in 1774.
Proclamation of 1763
A proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east.
Battle of Concord
April 19, 1775 - The British leave Lexington and head to Concord to take the weapons and gunpowder from the colonists. The British were burning the town when the colonists began firing on soldiers. The British were chased out of town turning the road into a 20 mile battlefield. Colonists win this battle.
Southern Agriculture
Soil perfect for farming, cash crops, plantations
Glorious Revolution
A reference to the political events of 1688-1689, when James II abdicated his throne and was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange.
Stamp Act
1765, A tax that the British Pariliament placed on newspapers and official documents sold in the American Colonies
English Settlements
Political instability, reformation, overpopulation. Establishment of colonies on east coast.
French Settlements
Along Mississippi river (Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans), Canada, trading posts in India. Canada. Friendly with natives.
LaSalle
French explorer who claimed Louisiana and Mississippi river mouth for France (1643-1687)
Timbuktu
Mali trading city that became a center of wealth and islamic learning
Age of Exploration
A period from about the 1400's-1600's in which European countries seek new trade routes, explore, and ultimately settle colonies in the Americas.
New Netherlands
A Prosperous Dutch colonization that experienced success and peace (except for New Amsterdam). This colony was easily taken over with little resistance by the British in 1664
Seven Years War
(1756-1763 CE) Known also as the French and Indian war. It was the war between the French and their Indian allies and the English that proved the English to be the more dominant force of what was to be the United States both commercially and in terms of controlled regions.
Atlantic Basin
location of regions where many revolutions emerged (North America, France, Latin America etc.)
Sugar Cane
Made into sugar, molasses and rum.Colonies economy became improved when this became a profitable crop
Thomas Paine
Revolutionary leader who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) arguing for American independence from Britain. In England he published The Rights of Man
Quakers
English dissenters who broke from Church of England, preache a doctrine of pacificism, inner divinity, and social equity, under William Penn they founded Pennsylvania
Boston Massacre
(1770) Clash between unruly Bostonian protestors and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding 11 citizens.
Chesapeake
American ship that resisted impressment and was unduly attacked, it led to Jefferson passing the Embargo Act
Colonial Women
Performed work which was essential to the colonial economy, they were housewives and didn't have many rights.
Salem witchcraft
(1691) trials in Salem Massachusetts, that led to the deaths of twenty people after young girls charged people with practicing witchcraft.
Great Awakening
(1740s to 1760s) Religious movement characterized by emotional preaching. The first cultural movement to unite the Thirteen Colonies. Associated with the democratization of religion.
Conquistadores
Spanish 'conqueror' or soldier in the New World. They were searching for the 3-G's: gold, God, and glory.
Portugal
Country the the west of Spain; ruled by Henry the Navigator. One of the first two countries to lay claim to lands in the Americas.
Tobacco
Cash crop that made a profit and saved Jamestown. Popular in southern colonies
William Penn
A Quaker that founded Pennsylvania to establish a place where his people and others could live in peace and be free from persecution.
Lexington
"The Shot Heard Round the World"- The first battle of the Revolution in which British general Thomas Gage went after the stockpiled weapons of the colonists in Concord, Massachusetts.
Salem
A city in Massachusetts that gained notoriety for the 1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials. The trials became a symbol of some of the problems inherent in the Puritan system.
Whigs
British political party opposed to Lord North's Tories and generally more sympathetic to the colonial cause
Tea Act
(1773) act which eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. Led to the Boston Tea Party.
Navigation Acts
1650's to early 1700's. Associated with trade. By the time the third law, each more restrictive than the last, the British could only ships gods on British ships to British ports.
Declaration of Independence
(1776) statement, issued by the Second Continental Congress, explaining why the colonies wanted independence from Britain. "Break up letter"
Molasses Act
(1733) British legislation which taxed all molasses, rum, and sugar which the colonies imported from countries other than Britain and her colonies. The act angered the New England colonies, which imported a lot of molasses from the Caribbean as part of the Triangular Trade. The British had difficulty enforcing the tax; most colonial merchants ignored it.
Intolerable Acts
(1774) in reaction to the Boston Tea Party. Passed series of measures including shutting down Boston Harbor and the Quartering Act, which allowed British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. This resulted in the colonists forming the First Continental Congress and drawing up a declaration of colonial rights.
Spanish Settlements
Settled for money, power, and to spread their religion some settlements were Florida, New Mexico, Texas, California. GOD GOLD GLORY
Bacon's Rebellion
(1676) Led by Nathaniel Bacon, a group of army volunteers attacked and raided Native American villiages, and then fought the governor's forces and set fire to Jamestown. The rebellion lost momentum when Bacon died of dysentery
Slavery
Provided cheap labor for colonists. Guilty are Europeans, Africans, Colonials. Africans were oppressed. Harsh.
George Washington
1st President of the United States; commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution (1732-1799)
Aztecs, Incas
The two most advanced civilizations that existed in the Western Hemisphere before its discovery
Disease
Smallpox, measles, and flu decimated Native American population.
Jamestown
1607, first permanent English settlement, Virginia, John Smith, tobacco, cash crop, starving time
Puritans
A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay. Crazy
Indentured Servants
Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years
Town meetings
A purely democratic form of government common in the colonies, and the most prevalent form of local government in New England. In general, the town's voting population would meet once a year to elect officers, levy taxes, and pass laws.
Barter
The direct exchange of one set of goods or services for another
English Colonies
Began to develop self-government. The colonists demanded their rights as Englishmen.
Roger Williams
A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over separation of church and state and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Providence, Rhode Island
Mayflower Compact
(1620) The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony.
Thomas Jefferson
Virginian, architect, author, governor, and president. Lived at Monticello. Wrote the Declaration of Independence. Second governor of Virgina. Third president of the United States. Designed the buildings of the University of Virginia.
John Adams
America's first Vice-President and second President. Sponsor of the American Revolution in Massachusetts, and wrote the Massachusetts guarantee that freedom of press "ought not to be restrained."
Sons of Liberty
A radical political organization formed after the passage of the Stamp Act to protest various British acts; organization used both peaceful and violent means of protest. Samuel Adams and Paul Revere
Ethan Allen
A soldier of the American Revolution whose troops helped capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British (1738-1789).