Colonial Foundations
This 1620 agreement among Pilgrims created a “civil body politic” and is seen as an early example of self‑government in America.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
This economic theory said colonies existed to benefit the mother country by providing raw materials and markets.
What is mercantilism?
This 1765 tax on printed materials helped spark colonial cries of “no taxation without representation.”
What is the Stamp Act?
This 1754–1763 conflict, whose debt encouraged new taxes on colonists, ended with Britain gaining Canada from France.
What is the French and Indian War?
This first U.S. government created a weak central authority that could not tax or effectively regulate commerce.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
These English Protestants wanted to “purify” the Church of England and sought to build a “city on a hill” in New England.
Who are the Puritans?
These English trade laws required colonial goods to travel on English ships and through English ports.
What are the Navigation Acts?
These broad search warrants allowed British officials to look for smuggled goods without specific court orders.
What are writs of assistance?
This 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine argued that monarchy was illogical and independence from Britain was necessary.
What is Common Sense?
This 1786–1787 Massachusetts uprising of indebted farmers scared elites and highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
These colonies, including Virginia and Maryland, were known for tobacco, plantations, and early heavy use of indentured servants.
What are the Chesapeake Colonies?
This three‑legged Atlantic system moved goods from New England to Africa, enslaved people to the Caribbean, and sugar/molasses back.
What is the Triangle Trade?
In 1770, five colonists were killed in a Boston confrontation, later used as propaganda against the British.
What is the Boston Massacre?
This 1777 American victory convinced France to openly ally with the United States.
What is the Battle of Saratoga?
This 1787 law organized the territory north of the Ohio River and banned slavery there.
What is the Northwest Ordinance?
This labor system brought workers to the colonies for a fixed term in exchange for passage, before chattel slavery became dominant.
What is indentured servitude / indentured servants?
In this system, enslaved Africans and their descendants were treated as property for life and could be bought and sold.
What is chattel slavery?
This 1773 law giving the British East India Company a tea monopoly led directly to colonists dumping tea into Boston Harbor.
What is the Tea Act?
This 1781 siege in Virginia, where Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ended major fighting in the Revolutionary War.
What is the Battle of Yorktown?
This compromise created a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate.
What is the Great Compromise?
This 1676 uprising in Virginia, partly over Native policy and elite control, encouraged a shift from indentured servants to enslaved Africans.
What is Bacon’s Rebellion?
This New England economic pattern relied on shipbuilding, fishing, and overseas trade more than plantations and cash crops.
What is the maritime economy?
This nickname was given by colonists to the Coercive Acts, the harsh British response to the Boston Tea Party.
What are the Intolerable Acts?
This 1783 agreement officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized U.S. independence.
What is the Treaty of Paris (1783)?
These essays by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay argued for ratifying the Constitution and explaining its design.
What are the Federalist Papers?