Period 1
This Spanish system of forced labor granted land and Native Americans to conquistadors in exchange for a promise to Christianize them.
Encomienda System
Founded in 1607, this settlement in Virginia was the first permanent English colony in North America, surviving early hardships like the starving time to eventually flourish through tobacco cultivation.
Jamestown
Primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson, this 1776 document drew heavily on John Locke's Enlightenment ideas to state that all men are created equal and possess "unalienable Rights" such as Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Declaration of Independence
Purchased from France in 1803, this massive tract of land doubled the size of the United States and gave the federal government full control of the Mississippi River.
Louisiana Purchase
This 19th-century belief held that the United States was divinely ordained to expand its democratic institutions and Protestant values across the entire North American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Manifest Destiny
This term describes the 16th-century Spanish view that they had a divine right to extract gold and silver to enrich the national treasury.
Mercantilism
Prior to the widespread adoption of racialized chattel slavery, these laborers signed contracts to work for a period of four to seven years in exchange for passage to the New World.
Indentured servants
This uprising of debt-ridden farmers in Massachusetts revealed the central government's inability to maintain order or raise a national army.
Shay's Rebellion
This landmark 1803 Supreme Court case established the principle of judicial review, granting the Court the power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
Marbury v. Madison
This 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe portrayed the moral horrors of slavery so vividly that it shifted Northern public opinion and was famously credited by Abraham Lincoln as helping start the Civil War.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This 1494 agreement, brokered by the Pope, divided the "New World" between Spain and Portugal to prevent war between the two Catholic powers.
Treaty of Tordesillas
Established in 1619, this Virginian assembly was the first representative legislative body in colonial America, setting a precedent for self-government that would later influence the structure of the U.S. Congress.
House of Burgesses
Clue: This 1754 proposal by Benjamin Franklin aimed to create a unified colonial government for defense during the French and Indian War; although it was rejected, it served as an early blueprint for colonial cooperation.
Albany Plan
In response to the Tariff of 1828, which he called the "Tariff of Abominations," this sitting Vice President anonymously authored the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, arguing that a state had the right to declare a federal law "null and void."
John C. Calhoun
In this 1857 Supreme Court case, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories, effectively declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
While the Spanish sought to convert Indigenous populations through the Mission system, this European power focused primarily on trade alliances—particularly the fur trade—and often integrated into Indigenous social networks through marriage
French
Disputes over land claims in this specific region of the Virginia territory—coveted by both the French and the Ohio Company—served as the primary catalyst for the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754.
Ohio River Valley
Often criticized as being too weak, this 1781 document served as the first written constitution of the United States but lacked the power to tax or regulate interstate commerce.
Articles of Confederation
This 1854 legislative act repealed the Missouri Compromise's 36°30' line by introducing the concept of "popular sovereignty" to the northern Great Plains.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Issued by Abraham Lincoln primarily as a "fit and necessary war measure," this 1863 executive order fundamentally altered the Union's war aims and successfully prevented Great Britain and France from granting diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy.
Emancipation Proclamation
This Dominican friar and former encomendero became known as the "Protector of the Indians" after his 1550 debate against Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Bartolomé de las Casas
This religious movement of the 1730s and 1740s challenged traditional church hierarchies by emphasizing "New Light" emotionalism over "Old Light" intellectualism, marking the first spontaneous mass movement of the American people.
The First Great Awakening
To silence "Democratic-Republican" critics and suppress support for revolutionary France, the Federalist-controlled Congress passed this 1798 legislation, which the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions argued was a violation of the First and Tenth Amendments.
Alien and Sedition Acts
This radical abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator famously burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution in 1854, calling it a "covenant with death" and an "agreement with Hell" because of its legal protections for the institution of slavery.
William Lloyd Garrison
This 1859 raid on a federal armory in Virginia was intended to spark a massive slave uprising. While the raid failed and its anti-slavery leader was executed, it convinced many Southerners that the North was actively plotting their destruction, effectively ending the possibility of political compromise.
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry