Chapter 2: Reading/Study Guide Terms Review

Pilgrims

Group of English Protestant dissenters led by William Bradford who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands. Some 100 people, many of them seeking religious freedom in the New World, set sail from England on the Mayflower in September 1620. That November, the ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts. A scouting party was sent out, and in late December the group landed at Plymouth Harbor, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. These original settlers of Plymouth Colony are known as the Pilgrim Fathers, or simply as the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims created the Mayflower Compact within the first few years of settlement, and it become one of the first forms of democratic government in the 'New World'.

Jamestown

On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. The colony, privately funded by the Virginia Company and led by English mercenary John Smith, suffered staggeringly high death rates in the early years, known as "the Starving Time." Jamestown was eventually spared when John Rolfe encountered tobacco among his time with the Powhatan, and "brown gold" became the economic staple of the colony. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, and a period of peace followed the marriage of colonist John Rolfe to Pocahontas, the daughter of an Algonquian chief. During the 1620s, Jamestown expanded from the area around the original James Fort into a New Town built to the east. It remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal. This agreement is what would later allow Spain to colonize much of North and South America, bringing much wealth to the Spanish Empire and much destruction to the populations of the 'New World'.

Black Legend

A concept that Spanish conquistadors came to the "New World" with the intent to torture and murder Indigenous populations. They stole wealth, land, and gold and infected natives with smallpox, all while leaving nothing of benefit in the New World. The Black Legend was the product of an understandable revulsion against the monstrous crimes committed in the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. However, when compared with others committed in following centuries, they were no more monstrous than those of the metropolitan powers that followed the Spanish imperial example, sowing death and destruction throughout the world. The conquests carried out by the other European powers were not lacking in murders and acts of destruction. What they did lack, however, were scrupulous men like Bartolomé de Las Casas, who championed Indian rights and such debates about the legitimacy of the conquest as the one launched by the Dominicans, which shook the Spanish Empire.

Powhatan Confederacy

Alliance of Native American tribes living in the region of the initial Virginia settlement. Powhatan, leader of this alliance, tried to live in peace with the English settlers when they arrived in 1607. Powhatan's daughter was Pocahontas. The tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy were the first Indian tribes to make contact with the English settlers at Jamestown Colony in 1607. Since Jamestown was in the Powhatan lands, the confederacy tribes were greatly affected by the arrival of the English. From the very start, the relationship between the Jamestown settlers and the Indian tribes was very strained. Much of the strain centered on both the settlers and the Indians believing that they were superior to the other. The settlers would not have been able to survive without the Indians in the first few years of the colony. This not only embarrassed the settlers but made them bitter. They believed that the Indians should have willingly given them food. Instead, the Indians demanded supplies in exchange for food. In desperation, the settlers started stealing food from the Indians, which, of course, increased the tensions between the two groups.

Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a famed sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through a group of sparsely populated Canadian islands known as the Arctic Archipelago. European explorers first began to search for the Northwest Passage in the 1400s, but treacherous conditions and sea ice cover made the route impassible, foiling many expeditions. FYI: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in 1906. Climate change has caused Arctic ice cover to thin in recent years, opening the passage to marine shipping. In summer 2007, the route was entirely ice-free for the first time in recorded history.

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was the 1500s religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church's ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible- and pamphlet-reading pastors and princes. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the so-called Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church's delayed but forceful response to the Protestants. This split became a driving force for many religious dissenters to seek religious freedom in the "New World."

Puritans

The Puritans were members of a religious reform movement known as Puritanism that arose within the Church of England in the late 1500s. They believed the Church of England was too similar to the Roman Catholic Church and should eliminate ceremonies and practices not rooted in the Bible. Puritans felt that they had a direct covenant with God to enact these reforms. Under siege from Church and crown, certain groups of Puritans migrated to Northern English colonies in the New World in the 1620s and 1630s, laying the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. Aspects of Puritanism have reverberated throughout American life ever since. The main difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans is that the Puritans did not consider themselves separatists. They called themselves "nonseparating congregationalists," by which they meant that they had not repudiated the Church of England as a false church. But in practice they acted-from the point of view of Episcopalians and even Presbyterians at home-exactly as the separatists were acting.

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619. It was a representative colonial government set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but, England could veto its legislative acts. Only white, male, landowners could participate, denying political participation to much of the colony and favoring only the wealthy. The House of Burgesses was the first elected general assembly in the colonies, paving the way for the democratic society formed during the Revolution. After a general assembly was established in Virginia, other English colonies demanded their own elected bodies of government. This helped the proliferation of democracy throughout the colonies, making their declaration of independence inevitable, and their transition into a democratic republic less traumatic. Throughout the Revolutionary period, the House of Burgesses remained a strong advocate for the rights of Virginians, and in general giving a powerful voice to the colonies. The House of Burgesses called for the Virginia Conventions, which went on to establish the Virginia Constitution. The House also called for a Continental Congress to adopt a U.S. Constitution. Many of America's founding fathers became practiced statesmen in the House of Burgesses, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry.

Queen Elizabeth I

The long reign of Elizabeth, who became known as the "Virgin Queen" for her reluctance to loose her authority and right to rule on her own through marriage, coincided with the flowering of the English Renaissance, associated with such renowned authors as William Shakespeare. By her death in 1603, England had become a major world power in every respect, and Queen Elizabeth I passed into history as one of England's greatest monarchs. Probably at the core of Elizabeth's decision to remain single and be known as the "Virgin" Queen (which she was most assuredly not, in real life) was an unwillingness to compromise her power or share it with a man. And without the "help" of a king, Elizabeth I is still known as one of England's greatest monarchs. Her forces defeated the Spanish Armada and saved England from invasion, she reinstated Protestantism and forged an England that was a strong and independent nation.