Early Exploration & Settlements
The three primary motives for European exploration and colonization of the Americas.
gold, god, and glory
Region with rocky soil, dense forests, cold winters, and natural harbors that relied on shipbuilding, fishing, and timber
New England
Document signed in England in 1215 that established the principle of limited government and protected trial by jury.
Magna Carta
Economic system where colonies supply raw materials to Great Britain and buy manufactured goods, strictly benefiting the mother country.
mercantilism
War fought between 1754 and 1763 that left Great Britain with huge war debts, causing them to end salutary neglect and tax the colonies.
French and Indian War
Movement of plants, animals, diseases, and humans between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following 1492.
Columbian Exchange
Breadbasket colonies because of fertile soil, moderate climate, and heavy production of grain crops like wheat
middle colonies
Agreement signed in 1620 by Pilgrims establishing a civil body politic, self - government, and majority rule
Mayflower Compact
Brutal ocean voyage across the Atlantic that brought enslaved Africans to the Americas as part of Transatlantic Slave Trade
Middle Passage
Royal Law passed by King George III forbidding colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to avoid conflicts with Native Americans.
Proclamation of 1763
Founded in 1607 for economic reasons, it became the first permanent English settlement in America.
Jamestown
Rich soil, warm climate, and a long growing season that relied on cash - crop plantations and slave labor
southern colonies
Created in Virginia in 1619, it was the first representative assembly in the American colonies
Virginia House of Burgesses
British trade laws created to enforce mercantilism by forcing colonists to trade exclusively with England on British ships
Navigation Acts
1765 law placing a direct tax on paper, wills, and playing cards, leading to widespread colonial protests.
Stamp Act
The commercial cash crop introduced by John Rolfe that saved Virginia's economy.
Tobacco
Colony founded in 1681 by William Penn as a refuge for Quakers.
Pennsylvania
Document adopted in Connecticut in 1639 considered the first written constitution in America
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Unofficial British policy of non - enforcement of trade laws, which allowed American colonies to develop independent colonial assemblies and self - government.
Salutary Neglect
1770 conflict in Boston where British soldiers shot and killed five protesting colonists, including African American Patriot Crispus Attucks
Boston Massacre
The year Plymouth was established by Pilgrims escaping religious persecution in England.
1620
Colony founded as a haven for English debtors and as a strategic buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida
Georgia
Religious movement during the 1730s - 1740s that emphasized individual religious choice, encouraging democratic thinking in the colonies.
First Great Awakening
Philosophical movement whose thinker John Locke wrote that government should protect natural rights (life, liberty, property) through a social contract.
Enlightenment
Intolerable Acts
Coercive Acts