AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

Chapter 2 AP US History American Pageant Flashcards

Terms : Hide Images
4843102449Protestant ReformationMovement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther. Reformers questioned the authority of the Pope, sought to eliminate the selling of indulgences, and encouraged the translation of the Bible from Latin, which few at the time could read. The reformation was launched in England in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church.0
4843102450Roanoke Island (1585)Sir Walter Raleigh's failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina. This was the first failed British attempt at colonization in North America.1
4843102451Spanish ArmadaSpanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588. The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire and the rise of the British as a naval power.2
4843102452PrimogenitureThe legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowner's younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas.3
4843102453Joint-stock companyShort-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England's early colonial ventures.4
4843102454Virginia CompanyEnglish joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virginia colony.5
4843102455CharterA legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose, and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists' ties to Britain during the early years of settlement.6
4843102456Jamestown (1607)Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company.7
4843102457First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610-1614)Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish. The marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe secured peace for a time following the First Anglo-Powhatan War.8
4843102458Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-1646)Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement.9
4843102459House of BurgessesRepresentative parliamentary assembly created to govern Virginia, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies.10
4843102460Act of Toleration (1649)Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period.11
4843102461SquattersFrontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement. Many of North Carolina's early settlers were squatters, who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and "democratic" than its neighbors.12
4843102462Iroquois Confederacy (late 1500s)The Confederacy bound together five tribes—the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas—in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State.13
4843102463Tuscarora War (1711-1713)Began with an Indian attack on Newbern, North Carolina. After the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation.14
4843102464BufferIn politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them. In British North America, Georgia was established as a buffer colony between British and Spanish territory.15
4843102465Henry VIII (1491-1547)Tudor monarch who launched the Protestant Reformation in England when he broke away from the Catholic Church in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.16
4843102466Elizabeth I (1533-1603)Protestant Queen of England, whose forty-five year reign from 1558 to 1603 firmly secured the Anglican Church and inaugurated a period of maritime exploration and conquest. Never having married, she was dubbed the "Virgin Queen" by her contemporaries.17
4843102467Sir Francis Drake (ca. 1542-1595)English sea captain who completed his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580, plundering Spanish ships and settlements along the way.18
4843102468Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552-1618)English courtier and adventurer who sponsored the failed settlements of North Carolina's Roanoke Island in 1585 and 1587. Once a favorite of Elizabeth I, Raleigh fell out of favor with the Virgin Queen after secretly marrying one of her maids of honor. He continued his colonial pursuits until 1618, when he was executed for treason.19
4843102469James I (1566-1625)Formerly James VI of Scotland, he became James I of England at the death of Elizabeth I. James I supported overseas colonization, granting a charter to the Virginia Company in 1606 for a settlement in the New World. He also cracked down on both Catholics and Puritan Separatists, prompting the latter to flee to Holland and, later, to North America.20
4843102470Captain John Smith (1580-1631)English adventurer who took control of Jamestown in 1608 and ensured the survival of the colony by directing gold-hungry colonists toward more productive tasks. Smith also established ties with the Powhatan Indians through the Chief's daughter, Pocahontas, who had "saved" Smith from a mock execution the previous year.21
4843102471Powhatan (ca. 1540-1618)Chief of the Powhatan Indians and father of Pocahontas. As a show of force, Powhatan staged the kidnapping and mock execution of Captain John Smith in 1607. He later led the Powhatan Indians in the first Anglo-Powhatan War, negotiating a tenuous peace in 1614.22
4843102472Pocahontas (ca. 1595-1617)Daughter of Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas "saved" Captain John Smith in a dramatic mock execution and served as a mediator between Indians and the colonists. In 1614, she married John Rolfe and sailed with him to England, where she was greeted as a princess, and where she passed away shortly before her planned return to the colonies.23
4843102473Lord De La Warr (1577-1618)Colonial governor who imposed harsh military rule over Jamestown after taking over in 1610. A veteran of England's brutal campaigns against the Irish, De La Warr applied harsh "Irish" tactics in his war against the Indians, sending troops to torch Indian villages and seize provisions. The colony of Delaware was named after him.24
4843102474John Rolfe (1585-1622)One of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.25
4843102475Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)Puritan general who helped lead parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, and ruled England as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.26
4843102476James Oglethorpe (1696-1785)Soldier-statesman and leading founder of Georgia. A champion of prison reform, Oglethorpe established Georgia as a haven for debtors seeking to avoid imprisonment. During the War of Jenkins's Ear, Oglethorpe successfully led his colonists in battle, repelling a Spanish attack on British territory.27
4843102477HiawathaAlong with Deganawidah, legendary founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, which united the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes in the late sixteenth century.28
4843102478Lord BaltimoreEstablished Maryland as a haven for Catholics. Baltimore unsuccessfully tried to reproduce the English manor system in the colonies and gave vast tracts of land to Catholic relatives. This policy soon created tensions between the seaboard Catholic establishment and back-country Protestant planters.29

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!