American History up to 1877. The roots of European exploration and settlement, the colonization and independence of America, the Revolution and its roots...
87031366 | Western Hemisphere | The part of the world consisting of North, Central, and South America. | 0 | |
87031367 | Mesoamerica | The region of Central America where the Maya, the Aztecs and other ancient cultures existed. | 1 | |
87031368 | Mayas | Ancient Mesoamerican civilization that thrived from about A. D. 300 to A. D. 900. | 2 | |
87031369 | Aztecs | Mesoamerican civilization that thrived in the 14th and 15th Centuries A. D. | 3 | |
87031370 | Adena-Hopewell culture | Northeastern culture that thrived from 800 B.C.-A.D. 600 in the Ohio Valley and surrounding areas of the current United States. | 4 | |
87031371 | Mississippian culture | Mississippian culture of the central Mississippi River Valley of the current United States, which thrived from A. D. 600 to A. D. 1500. | 5 | |
87031372 | Anasazi culture | Southwestern culture that began in the 5th B.C., elements of which continue today in Arizona, New Mexico. Colorado and surrounding areas. | 6 | |
87031373 | Renaissance | Period in European history from 12th C AD through the 16th C AD distinguished by its spirit of inquiry and return to secular learning. | 7 | |
87031374 | longitude | Navigational measurement dependant on accurate timepieces, and left to guesswork when sailing across the open sea prior to the 18th C. A. D. | 8 | |
87031375 | Christopher Columbus | Self-taught Italian mariner who in the late 15th C A.D. sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of the Indies. | 9 | |
87031376 | Treaty of Tordesillas | Treaty between Spain and Portugal defining the Spanish claim on exploration and settlement west of the Cape Verde Islands. | 10 | |
87031377 | Amerigo Vespucci | Italian explorer who first suggested that South America was a new continent. | 11 | |
87031378 | maize | Also called 'Indian Corn', maize was one of the staples of the New World. | 12 | |
87031379 | Ferdinand Magellan | Portuguese seaman, who in the employ of Spain set out to find passage through or around South America, and consequently led the first voyage around the globe. | 13 | |
87031380 | Hernando Cortes | Ruthless leader of the conquistadores, Spanish soldiers who invaded and eventually destroyed the Aztec culture. | 14 | |
87031381 | encomienda | System used by the conquistadores, whereby favored officers became privileged landowners who controlled Indian villages or groups of villages. | 15 | |
87031382 | Bartolomeo de Las Casas | Catholic missionary and Bishop in Mexico who wrote A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies (1552), | 16 | |
87031383 | hacienda | A great farm or ranch. | 17 | |
87031384 | Spanish borderlands | Area of the southern United States formerly claimed by Spain. | 18 | |
87031385 | Juan Ponce de Leon | Governor of Puerto Rico, and first known explorer of Florida. | 19 | |
87031386 | St. Augustine | A Spanish outpost in Florida, it became the first European town in the present-day United States. | 20 | |
87031387 | presidio | A fort where soldiers who were sent to protect Spanish missions were housed. | 21 | |
87031388 | Juan de Onate | Founder of the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico. | 22 | |
87031389 | mestizo | Sons of Spanish Fathers and native mothers. | 23 | |
87031390 | Pope (Indian leader) | Pueblo leader who organized a rebellion, which resulted in driving the Spaniards out of New Mexico. | 24 | |
87031391 | Reformation | European religious movement that challenged the Catholic Church and resulted in the beginnings of Protestant Christianity. | 25 | |
87031392 | Martin Luther | German monk who protested abuses in the Catholic church by posing his 'Ninety-five Theses.' Founder of the Lutheran church. | 26 | |
87031393 | Ninety-five Theses | Martin Luther's criticisms of the Catholic church arguing against indulgences and for a direct relationship to God. | 27 | |
87031394 | Calvinism | Religious movement founded by John Calvin, based on the doctrine of predestination. | 28 | |
87031395 | Defender of the Faith | Title given by the pope to England's Henry VIII prior to England's break from the Catholic church. | 29 | |
87031396 | Church of England | The Anglican church, which unites church and state under the monarchy. | 30 | |
87031397 | Francis Drake | English privateer who led British fleet against the Spanish Armada. | 31 | |
87031398 | galleon | Heavy ship used by the Spanish Armada. | 32 | |
87031399 | Sir Walter Raleigh | Sponsor of an ill-fated expedition of colonists, who in 1587 settled Roanoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, also known as the 'Lost Colony.' | 33 | |
87036261 | Great Britain | Set off from continental Europe by the English Channel, in the seventeenth century it included the distinct kingdoms of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. | 34 | |
87036262 | common law | Developed beginning in the twelfth century, English common law was established to check the arbitrary power of local nobles. | 35 | |
87036263 | law of primogeniture | Common law that established the birthright of the oldest son to inherit the family estate. | 36 | |
87036264 | joint stock companies | Ancestors of the modern corporation, in which stockholders shared the risks and profits for single ventures or on a permanent basis. Some of the larger companies managed to get royal charters that entitled them to monopolies in certain areas and even governmental powers in their outposts. | 37 | |
87036265 | enclosure movement | Policy of landlords to "enclose" farmland, evicting human tenants in favor of sheep, and thus displacing the peasant population. | 38 | |
87036266 | divine right | Theory promoted by James I of England, by which monarchs answered only to God for their actions. | 39 | |
87036267 | Oliver Cromwell | Commander of the army and Lord Protector of Great Britain from 1649 - 1658. | 40 | |
87036268 | The Restoration | In 1660 the British monarchy was restored under Charles II. | 41 | |
87036269 | Glorious Revolution | In reaction to James II's attempts to Catholicize Great Britain, Parliament invited James II's daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange to assume the throne jointly and established its freedom from royal control. | 42 | |
87036270 | Toleration Act of 1689 | The Toleration Act of 1689 extended a degree of freedom of worship to all Christians except Catholics and Unitarians, although dissenters from the established church still had few political rights. | 43 | |
87036271 | Jamestown | Intended as the first permanent British colony, settled in 1606 on the banks of the James River in Virginia. | 44 | |
87036272 | Powhatan | Wahunsonacock, called this by the English after the name of his tribe, was the powerful, charismatic chief of numerous Algonquian-speaking towns in eastern Virginia representing over 10,000 Indians. | 45 | |
87036273 | John Smith | A swashbuckling soldier of fortune with rare powers of leadership and self-promotion, he was appointed to the resident council to manage the Jamestown colony. | 46 | |
87036274 | headright policy | Inaugurated by Sir Edwin Sandys, head of the Virginia Company, the 'headright' policy gave anyone who bought a share in the company and could get to Virginia fifty acres, and fifty more for any additional servants. | 47 | |
87036275 | Sir William Berkeley | Elitist Governor of Virginia, appointed by Charles I. | 48 | |
87036276 | Bacon's Rebellion | Revolt of common laborers and small farmers against Virginia's wealthiest planters and political leaders. | 49 | |
87036277 | proprietary colony | Colony owned by an individual, rather than a joint-stock company. | 50 | |
87036278 | separatists | Also known as Pilgrims, these rigorously devout Puritans had severed all ties with the Church of England. | 51 | |
87036279 | Mayflower Compact | Formal agreement made by 41 Pilgrim leaders prior to landing at Plymouth to abide by laws of their own devising. | 52 | |
87036280 | covenant | An agreement, such as that made by the Pilgrims in devising the Mayflower Compact. | 53 | |
87036281 | William Bradford | Leader of the Mayflower Pilgrims and Governor of the Plymouth colony. | 54 | |
87036282 | Puritans | Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans who colonized Massachusetts Bay were primarily Congregationalists who sought to form self-governing churches with membership limited to "visible saints"-those who could demonstrate receipt of the gift of God's grace. | 55 | |
87036283 | John Winthrop | Puritan leader and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. | 56 | |
87036284 | Roger Williams | Puritan who established Providence, the first permanent settlement in Rhode Island. Espoused the idea of the separation of church and state. | 57 | |
87036285 | Anne Hutchinson | The articulate, strong-willed, and intelligent wife of a prominent Boston merchant, who espoused her belief in direct divine revelation. She was hauled before the General Court and banished from the colony. | 58 | |
87036286 | slash and burn | Technique used by New England Indians to transform densely wooded forests into fields or park-like hunting preserves. | 59 | |
87036287 | Pequot War | In a successful bid to dislodge the Pequot Indians from their lands, this war resulted in the slaughter of Pequot men, women, and children and the dissolution of the Pequot nation. | 60 | |
87036288 | Restoration | The Restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660. | 61 | |
87036289 | Maryland Toleration Act | Endorsed by Lord Baltimore, and passed by the Maryland assembly in 1649, this act assured that Puritans would not be molested in their religion. | 62 | |
87036290 | matrilineal descent | System found in Southeastern Indian nations, in which authority and property descended through the maternal line. | 63 | |
87036291 | New Netherland | Dutch colony conquered by the English to become four new colonies New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. | 64 | |
87036292 | indentured servant | System for providing cheap labor in the colonies, indentured servants worked from five to seven years without wages in exchange for passage to the American colonies. | 65 | |
87036293 | indentured servant | System for providing cheap labor in the colonies, indentured servants worked from five to seven years without wages in exchange for passage to the American colonies | 66 | |
87036294 | melting pot | Idea that the early American Frontier stripped away native identities and melded them into homogeneous Americans. | 67 | |
87036295 | sex ratio | Ratio of women to men in the early American colonies, typically 2 or 3 men for every woman. | 68 | |
87036296 | naval stores | Resin from Pine trees, which can be boiled to become tar. | 69 | |
87036297 | "invisible" charges | Expenses related to trade between the southern colonies and England, including freight payments to shippers, commissions, storage charges, and interest payments to English merchants, insurance premiums, inspection and customs duties, and outlays to purchase indentured servants and slaves. | 70 | |
87036298 | headright system | System by which investors could acquire 50 acres of land per new settler.http://quizlet.com/2852222/edit/ | 71 | |
87036299 | natural increase | An increase in population due to more births and less mortality. | 72 | |
87036300 | staple crop | A crop which is well suited for an an area. ex. Virgina's was Tobacco | 73 | |
87036301 | balance of trade | A balance of imports versus exports. | 74 | |
87036302 | triangular trade | Means by which exports to one country or colony provided the means for imports from another country or colony. | 75 | |
87036303 | promissory note | Promissory notes of individuals or colonial treasurers often passed as a crude sort of paper money. | 76 | |
87036304 | township | A town. | 77 | |
87036305 | covenant theory | A voluntary union for the common worship of God and for the purposes of government. | 78 | |
87036306 | Half-Way Covenant | Allowed baptized children of church members to be admitted to a "halfway" membership in the church and secure baptism for their own children in turn, but allowed them neither a vote in the church, nor communion. | 79 | |
87036307 | John Peter Zenger | Publisher of the New York Weekly Journal. Zenger was imprisoned for ten months and brought to trial in 1735 for publishing criticisms of New York's governor in his newspaper. | 80 | |
87036308 | the Enlightenment | Revolution in thought begun in the seventeenth century that emphasized reason and science over the authority of traditional religion. | 81 | |
87036309 | heliocentric universe | A sun-centered universe postulated by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. | 82 | |
87036310 | Isaac Newton | Author of Principia (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687), which set forth his theory of gravitation. | 83 | |
87036311 | John Locke | English philosopher who argued in his Essay on Human Understanding (1690), that humanity is largely the product of the environment, the mind being a blank tablet on which experience is written. | 84 | |
87036312 | Deist | Followers of Sir Isaac Newton's idea of natural law, reducing God to the position of a remote Creator. | 85 | |
87036313 | Benjamin Franklin | Boston-born American who epitomized the Enlightenment. A printer by trade, he went on to become a publisher, inventor, and statesman. | 86 | |
87036314 | Great Awakening | Fervent religious revival movement in the 1720s through the 40s that was spread throughout the colonies by ministers like New England Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards and English revivalist George Whitefield. | 87 | |
87036315 | Jonathan Edwards | New England Congregationalist minister, who began a religious revival in his Northampton church. | 88 | |
87036316 | George Whitefield | Spellbinding English evangelist who toured the American Colonies in 1739 preaching the notion of "new birth" - a sudden, emotional moment of conversion and salvation. | 89 | |
87036317 | Privy Council | A body of some thirty to forty advisers appointed by and responsible solely to the king. The Privy Council became the first agency of colonial supervision. | 90 | |
87036318 | mercantilism | Limitation and exploitation of colonial trade by an imperial power. | 91 | |
87036319 | enumerated goods | Certain specified goods from the Colonies, including tobacco, cotton, sugar, and furs, which were to be shipped only to England or other English colonies. | 92 | |
87036320 | Dominion of New England | Consolidation into a single colony of the New England colonies-and later New York and New Jersey-by royal governor Edmund Andros in 1686; dominion reverted to individual colonial governments three years later. | 93 | |
87036321 | Sir Edmund Andros | Royal governor of the Dominion of New England. | 94 | |
87036322 | Jacob Leisler | German immigrant who became governor of New York from 1688 to 1691 before being hanged for treason. He was later exonerated of all charges. | 95 | |
87036323 | contract theory of government | Idea that people were endowed with certain natural rights to life, liberty, and property, set forth by John Locke in his Second Treatise. | 96 | |
87036324 | writs of assistance | One of the colonies' main complaints against Britain, the writs allowed unlimited search warrants without cause to look for evidence of smuggling. | 97 | |
87036325 | admiralty courts | Courts wherein the cases were decided by judges appointed by the governors, rather than by a colonial jury. | 98 | |
87036326 | Board of Trade | British overseer of all matters pertaining to colonial trade and laws. | 99 | |
87036327 | salutary neglect | So-called system by which the Board of Trade became chiefly an agency of political patronage, and lax in its enforcement of trade relations. | 100 | |
87036328 | prorogue | To adjourn or recess. | 101 | |
87036329 | mestizo | People of mixed Indian and European ancestry. | 102 | |
87036330 | Samuel de Champlain | French explorer and governor of New France until his death in 1635. | 103 | |
87036331 | Acadians | French settlers of the easternmost areas of Canada. | 104 | |
87036332 | King William's War | First (1689-97) of four colonial wars between England and France. | 105 | |
87036333 | asiento | Contract for supplying Spanish America with 4,800 slaves granted to the British by Spain. | 106 | |
87036334 | Albany Congress | Gathering in Albany, New York of colonial representatives who met from June 19 to July 10, 1754 to develop a treaty with Native Americans and plan the defense of the colonies against France. | 107 | |
87036335 | French and Indian War | Known in Europe as the Seven Years' War, the last (1755-63) of four colonial wars fought between England and France for control of North America east of the Mississippi River. | 108 | |
87036336 | annus mirabilis | The miraculous year 1759, during which Great Britain secured an empire "on which the sun never set." | 109 | |
87036337 | writs of assistance | One of the colonies' main complaints against Britain, the writs allowed unlimited search warrants without cause to look for evidence of smuggling. | 110 | |
87036338 | James Otis | Lawyer and political leader who fought the writs of assistance and later became a member of the Massachusetts assembly and founding member of the Sons of Liberty. | 111 | |
87036339 | Proclamation of 1763 | Royal directive issued after the French and Indian War prohibiting settlement, surveys, and land grants west of the Appalachian Mountains; although it was soon overridden by treaties, colonists continued to harbor resentment. | 112 | |
87036340 | Sugar Act | (Revenue Act of 1764) Parliament's tax on refined sugar and many other colonial products; the first tax designed solely to raise revenue for Britain. | 113 | |
87036341 | Stamp Act | (1765) Parliament required that revenue stamps be affixed to all colonial printed matter, documents, dice, and playing cards; the Stamp Act Congress met to formulate a response, and the act was repealed the following year. | 114 | |
87036342 | Quartering Act | (1765) Parliamentary act requiring colonies to house and provision British troops. | 115 | |
87036343 | virtual representation | Dubious opinion espoused by Treasury minister George Grenville, that each member of the British Parliament represented not only the district that elected him, but also the interests of the entire country and empire, including the American colonies. | 116 | |
87036344 | nonimportation agreement | Colonial boycott of the importation of British products. | 117 | |
87036345 | external and internal taxes | Impression encouraged by the Lord of the Treasury, the Marquis of Rockingham, that a distinction was being made between "external" taxes on trade as opposed to "internal" taxes within the colonies. | 118 | |
87036346 | Townshend Acts | (1767) Parliamentary measures (named for the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that punished the New York Assembly for failing to house British soldiers, taxed tea and other commodities, and established a Board of Customs Commissioners and colonial vice admiralty courts. | 119 | |
87036347 | John Dickinson | Philadelphia lawyer who protested the Townshend Acts in his twelve Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, arguing that Parliament might regulate commerce and collect duties incidental to that purpose, but it had no right to levy taxes for revenue, whether they were internal or external. | 120 | |
87036348 | Samuel Adams | Massachusetts assembly member, founding organizer of the Sons of Liberty, and distant cousin of John Adams. | 121 | |
87036349 | Sons of Liberty | Secret organizations formed by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other radicals in response to the Stamp Act; they impeded British officials and planned such harassments as the Boston Tea Party. | 122 | |
87036350 | Boston Massacre | Clash between British soldiers and a Boston mob, March 5, 1770, in which five colonists were killed. | 123 | |
87036351 | Crispus Attucks | One of five colonists killed in the Boston Massacre, Attucks was a runaway slave who its is said led the protest against the Townshend Acts that resulted in the bloody conflict with British soldiers. | 124 | |
87036352 | Green Mountain Boys | Group led by Ethan Allen, who fought for the land that became Vermont. | 125 | |
87036353 | Paxton Boys | Vengeful Pennsylvania frontiersmen who in protest of a perceived lack of frontier protection massacred local Indian tribes. | 126 | |
87036354 | Regulators | Groups of backcountry Carolina settlers who protested colonial policies; North Carolina royal governor William Tryon retaliated at the Battle of Alamance on May 17, 1771. | 127 | |
87036355 | Gaspee | British schooner that accidentally ran aground near Providence, Rhode Island. A crowd from the town boarded the ship, removed the crew and burned the vessel. This led to the creation of the (answer) commission which bypassed the courts of Rhode Island. | 128 | |
87036356 | Committees of Correspondence | In response to the Gaspee commission, committees sprung up around Massachusetts and eventually other colonies as well, mobilizing public opinion and keeping colonial resentments at a simmer. | 129 | |
87036357 | Boston Tea Party | On December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty, dressed as Indians, dumped hundreds of chests of tea into Boston harbor to protest the Tea Act of 1773, under which the British exported to the colonies millions of pounds of cheap-but still taxed-tea, thereby undercutting the price of smuggled tea and forcing payment of the tea duty. | 130 | |
87036358 | George Robert Twelves Hewes | One of the last survivors of the American Revolution. Was the subject of two biographies and much public commemoration. | 131 | |
87036359 | Coercive Acts | Intolerable Acts (1774) Four parliamentary measures in reaction to the Boston Tea Party that forced payment for the tea, disallowed colonial trials of British soldiers, forced their quartering in private homes, and set up a military government. | 132 | |
87036360 | Continental Congress | Representatives of a loose confederation of colonies met first in Philadelphia in 1774 to formulate actions against British policies; the Second Continental Congress (1775-89) conducted the war and adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. | 133 | |
87036361 | Lexington and Concord, Battle of | The first shots fired in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, near Boston; approximately 100 minutemen and 250 British soldiers were killed. | 134 | |
87036362 | Bunker Hill, Battle of | First major battle of the Revolutionary War; it actually took place at nearby Breed's Hill, Massachusetts, on June 17, 1775. | 135 | |
87036363 | Olive Branch Petition | Written by John Dickinson, this petition professed continued loyalty to King George III and begged him to restrain further hostilities pending a reconciliation. | 136 | |
87036364 | Thomas Paine | Author of Common Sense (1776). Paine argued for independence, directly attacking allegiance to the monarchy, refocusing the hostility previously vented on Parliament. | 137 | |
87036365 | Thomas Jefferson | Third President of the United States and drafter of the Declaration of Independence. | 138 | |
87036366 | Declaration of Independence | Document adopted on July 4, 1776, that made the official break with Britain; drafted by a committee of the Second Continental Congress including principal writer Thomas Jefferson. | 139 | |
87036367 | General William Howe | Commander-in-Chief of the British army in America at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. | 140 | |
87036368 | George Washington | Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army. First President of the United States. | 141 | |
87036369 | The American Crisis | Pamphlet penned by Common Sense author Thomas Paine, containing the famous line "These are the times that try men's souls." | 142 | |
87036370 | Hessians | German soldiers, most from Hesse-cassel principality (hence the name), paid to fight for the British in the Revolutionary War. | 143 | |
87036371 | Whigs | Another name for revolutionary Patriots. | 144 | |
87036372 | Tories | Term used by Patriots to refer to Loyalists, or colonists who supported the Crown after the Declaration of Independence. | 145 | |
87036373 | redcoats | Nickname for British soldiers, after their red uniform jackets. | 146 | |
87036374 | militia | Adult males between the ages of fifteen and sixty were enrolled in their local militia units. They constituted a home guard, defending their own communities, and they also helped augment the Continental army. | 147 | |
87036375 | Continental army | Army authorized by the Continental Congress, 1775-84, to fight the British; commanded by General George Washington. | 148 | |
87036376 | Battle of Saratoga | Major defeat of British general John Burgoyne and more than 5,000 British troops in northern New York, on October 17, 1777. | 149 | |
87036377 | Henry Clinton | Commander-in-Chief of the British army in American replacing General Howe after the Battle of Saratoga. | 150 | |
87036378 | Baron von Steuben | Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand, a Prussian soldier of fortune who trained and inspired Washington's troops at Valley Forge. | 151 | |
87036379 | George Rogers Clark | Young American General who is credited with having won the West for the new nation. | 152 | |
87036380 | Horatio Gates | American General whose troops defeated the British forces at Saratoga. | 153 | |
87036381 | Lord Cornwallis | British General who surrendered his troops at Yorktown. | 154 | |
87036382 | Benedict Arnold | American General who was labeled a traitor when he assisted the British in a failed attempt to take the American fort at West Point. | 155 | |
87036383 | John Paul Jones | American privateer who helped to disable the British fleet. Credited with the famous words, "I have not yet begun to fight." | 156 | |
87036384 | Battle of Yorktown | Last battle of the Revolutionary War; General Lord Charles Cornwallis along with over 7,000 British troops surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 17, 1781. | 157 | |
87036385 | Peace of Paris | Signed on September 3, 1783, the treaty ending the Revolutionary War and recognizing American independence from Britain also established the border between Canada and the United States, fixed the western border at the Mississippi River, and ceded Florida to Spain. | 158 | |
87036386 | John Trumbull | American artist and painter who painted four panels in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington: The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and The Resignation of General Washington. | 159 |