1491-1607
In 1492, this Italian explorer, sponsored by Spain, landed in the Bahamas, initiating lasting contact between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
This 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal moved the Pope's line of demarcation a few degrees west, granting Portugal a claim to Brazil.
What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
The first permanent English settlement in the Americas, founded in 1607.
What is Jamestown?
This 18th-century intellectual movement emphasized reason and scientific analysis over tradition and religious dogma.
What is the Enlightenment Movement?
This 1765 act required colonists to provide food and housing for British soldiers, fueling resentment.
What is the Quartering Act?
Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet that argued persuasively for American independence was titled this.
What is Common Sense?
This term refers to the land connection between Siberia and Alaska that the first migrants to the Americas crossed.
What is the Bering Land Bridge?
This term, named after Columbus, describes the transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds.
What was the Columbian Exchange?
Founded by Puritans led by John Winthrop, this colony became a major center of the Great Migration.
What is the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
This term describes the British policy of loosely enforcing trade laws on the American colonies, allowing them to flourish.
What is salutary neglect?
This Enlightenment philosopher's ideas about natural rights (life, liberty, property) heavily influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Who is John Locke?
This 1781 battle, supported by the French navy, was the last major military engagement of the Revolutionary War.
What is the Battle of Yorktown?
This Spanish system granted colonists land and the labor of the Native Americans living on it.
What was the encomienda system?
He was the Spanish conquistador responsible for the defeat of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.
Who was Hernán Cortés?
The brutal, middle leg of the Triangular Trade that transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic.
What is the Middle Passage?
This first elected legislature in America was established by the Virginia colonists in 1619.
What is the House of Burgesses?
This 1773 protest, where colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped tea into Boston Harbor, was a direct response to the Tea Act.
What is the Boston Tea Party?
This term refers to colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain and the King during the Revolution.
Who were the Loyalists (or Tories)?
This new type of enterprise, owned by many investors, reduced individual risk and helped finance expensive and dangerous overseas voyages.
What was a joint-stock company?
This 1550-1551 debate in Spain pitted Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda against Bartolomé de Las Casas over the nature and treatment of Native Americans.
What was the Valladolid Debate?
This 1676 Virginian rebellion highlighted tensions between frontier settlers and the coastal elite.
What is Bacon's Rebellion?
The short-lived combination of several northern colonies into one administrative unit by King James II was called this.
What is the Dominion of New England?
The series of 85 essays written to persuade New York to ratify the Constitution were known collectively by this name.
What are The Federalist Papers?
This 1786-87 uprising of Massachusetts farmers, protesting debt and taxes, highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
What is Shays' Rebellion?
The introduction of this animal by the Spanish fundamentally transformed the culture and mobility of Plains tribes like the Lakota Sioux.
The Horse
Unlike the Spanish and English, the French primarily viewed Native Americans in this dual role, leading to generally better relations.
What were economic and military allies (or trading partners and military allies)?
The 1735 trial of this New York publisher, for libeling the royal governor, was a landmark step for freedom of the press.
Who is John Peter Zenger?
This series of acts, passed between 1650 and 1673, established the rules for colonial trade under the mercantilist system.
What are the Navigation Acts?
This secret society, formed to intimidate tax agents, famously tarred and feathered officials and destroyed revenue stamps.
Who were the Sons of Liberty?
This document, passed in 1775 after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, declared the colonies' intention to take up arms but affirmed their continued loyalty to the king.
What is the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms?