Native American Societies & Geography
This crop, which originated in Mexico, had a transformative effect on societies in the American Southwest by supporting large populations and complex social structures.
Maize or Corn
This European nation’s colonization was driven by a "quest for wealth" (gold/silver) and a desire to convert Native populations to Christianity.
Established in 1607 and sponsored by a joint-stock company, this was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Jamestown
This term refers to the brutal journey across the Atlantic that millions of enslaved Africans were forced to take to the Americas.
Middle Passage
This economic theory stated that colonies existed solely to benefit the "mother country" by providing raw materials and serving as a market for finished goods
Mercantilism
This agricultural method, famously practiced by the Iroquois Confederacy, involved the simultaneous growing of maize, beans, and squash.
The 'Three Sisters'
Unlike the English, these two European powers focused on building trade alliances and intermarrying with Natives rather than large-scale agricultural settlement.
French & Dutch
These colonies were nicknamed the "Breadbasket" because of their production of cereal crops like wheat, barley, and oats.
Middle Colonies
Before the widespread shift to African slave labor, these poor, young English men agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies.
Indentured Servants
Following the French and Indian War, this 1763 British law forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Proclamation of 1763
Native Americans in this specific arid region, such as the Shoshone, developed mobile lifestyles based on hunting and foraging due to the harsh environment.
Great Basin
This Spanish institution was a land grant system that gave settlers the legal right to use Native Americans as forced laborers.
Encomienda System
In his vision for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop famously declared that the Puritan society should be a model for the world, using this phrase.
"city upon a hill"
This 1676 uprising in Virginia highlighted class conflict between poor frontier farmers and the wealthy elite, eventually leading to a transition toward slave labor.
Bacon's Rebellion
This 1765 act was the first direct tax on the colonies and sparked the famous cry of "no taxation without representation."
Stamp Act
Led by the religious leader Popé in 1680, this event successfully expelled the Spanish from the Southwest for 12 years
Pueblo Revolt
his French explorer founded Quebec in 1608 and established vital alliances with the Huron and Algonquin tribes to support the fur trade
Samuel de Champlain
Established in 1619, this Virginian institution was the first elected legislative assembly in the American colonies.
House of Burgesses
This 1739 event in South Carolina was one of the largest slave uprisings in the British colonies and led to the creation of stricter laws to prevent revolts.
Stono Rebellion
This English Enlightenment thinker argued that government relies on the "consent of the governed" and that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
John Locke
Also known as King Philip's War, this 1675–1676 conflict was one of the deadliest in New England and resulted in increased English control and Native displacement.
Metacom's War
These private business organizations, such as the Virginia Company, provided the necessary capital for early English colonies by allowing multiple investors to share the financial risks and profits
Joint-stock companies
This Quaker founder established Pennsylvania as a "Holy Experiment" based on religious tolerance and the fair treatment of Native Americans.
William Penn
These early 18th-century laws in Virginia laid the legal foundation for the treatment of enslaved Africans, defining them as property in a racial caste system.
Slave Codes
Written by Thomas Paine in late 1775, this pamphlet used plain language to argue that it was necessary for the colonies to break away from British rule.
Common Sense