APUSH Unit 1 and 2 Terms

Magna Carta (British Constitutional Influences); 1215

An English document drawn up by nobles under King John that limited the power of the king. Its limitation of government power influenced later constitutional documents in Britain and America.

Anne Hutchinson, Antinomianism (Puritan Dissenters/Exiles); 1630s

An intelligent, charismatic woman from a substantial Boston family; Hutchinson preached against many clergy; led a large group of supporters; and finally expelled from Massachusetts Bay, when to Rhode Island. Antinomianism was the name given to her teachings, from the Greek "hostile to the law". Hutchinson said people should be ruled by conscience.

Barbados

An island in the southern Caribbean visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and claimed for Spain. Appears on a Spanish map in 1511. The British arrived in this island in 1624 and took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony. African slaves provided the work force for a plantation economy that produced tobacco, cotton, ginger, and indigo.

Separatists (Contrast of Pilgrims to Puritans)

Pilgrims were Puritan Separatists who thought the church was too corrupt to reform and so they wanted to "separate" from it, they left England in search of religious freedom.

"City on a Hill" (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1630

A Biblical phrase from the New Testament of the Bible used by Puritan leader John Winthrop to articulate his vision for the Puritans' Massachusetts settlement. Winthrop wanted the emigrants to found an exemplary Christian community, a "city on a hill" - that would serve as a beacon for the Church of England, which they sought to reform from within.

William Bradford (Pilgrims/Plymouth); 1621 - 1657

A Pilgrim, he brought settlers over on the "Mayflower". He was the second governor of the Plymouth Colony; under Bradford's leadership Plymouth developed private land ownership and the colony got out of debt. He helped the colony survive droughts, crop failures, and Indian attacks.

Church of England (Anglican Church) (Religious Doctrines and Sects); 1534

A Protestant Church created by Henry VIII to replace the Roman Catholic Church. Henry was at odds with both Catholics, who wanted to return the Church of England to the Pope, and Protestant Puritans, who wanted to reform the church. After much waxing a waning under Henry's successors, Protestantism won out in England - but never to the Puritan's liking. Many Puritans departed for America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to found communities devoted to their religious ideals. This mainstream church also took root in America, particularly in the southern colonies. It separated from the original name following the Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) and changed its name to the Episcopal Church.

Ann Bradstreet; 1612 - 1672

A Puritan and the first colonial poet to be published. The primary subjects of her poetry were family, home, and religion.

Connecticut/Thomas Hooker (Puritan Dissenters/Exiles); 1635

A Puritan clergyman and one of the founders of the Hartford colony in Connecticut. Thomas Hooker was called the "Father of American democracy" because he said that people have a right to choose their magistrates.

Halfway Covenant (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1662

A Puritan compromise that allowed the unconverted children of Puritans who had fallen away from the church to become halfway members of the church. The Covenant allowed these halfway members to baptize their own children even though they themselves were not full members of the church because they had not experienced full conversion. Massachusetts ministers accepted this compromise and it signified a drop in the religious zeal or mission that had characterized Massachusetts in its change in the religious character of New England Society.

Don Juan de Onate y Salazar (Juan de Onate) (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire)

A Spanish conquistador, explorer, and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Plains and Lower Colorado River Valley, encountering numerous indigenous tribes in their homelands there. He forded the Rio Grande River in 1598, claiming all land north of the river for the Spanish Empire. He founded numerous settlements as he explored the Southwestern regions.

Juan de Sepulveda (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire)

A Spanish humanist, philosopher and theologian. The adversary of Bartolome de las Casas concerning the justification of the Spanish Conquest of the Indies. He was the defender of the right of conquest, of colonization, and of evangelization in the New World. He defended the position of the colonists, although he had never been to America, claiming the Amerindians were "natural slaves" and should be treated as such. Las Casas thought the Indians should be governed just like any other people in Spain, while this man thought they should become slaves. De Las Casas believed that Christianity should be presented to the native peoples as an option, not as an obligation.

Petition of Right (British Constitutional Influences); 1628

A document drawn up by Parliament's House of Commons that listed grievances against King Charles I and extended Parliament's powers while limiting the king's. It gave Parliament authority over taxation, declared that free citizens could not be arrested without cause, declared that soldiers could not be quartered in private homes without compensation, and said that martial law cannot be declared during peacetime.

New England Confederation; 1643

A military alliance of four colonies: Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven. The purpose of the Confederation was to protect themselves from Indians. This was the first step in cooperation among the colonies, although the confederation ended in 1684.

Antinomian (Puritan Dissenters/Exiles)

A person who does not obey societal or religious law. In colonial Massachusetts, Puritan authorities labeled Anne Hutchinson an antinomian, accusing her of believing that Christians did not necessarily need to act in accordance with God's law or the laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony but could achieve salvation by faith alone.

Covenant, Covenant Theology (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1630s - late 1600s

A politically or religiously based agreement or pact. The Pilgrims used this term in the Mayflower Compact to refer to the agreement among themselves to establish a law-abiding community in which all members would work together for the common good. Later, New England Puritans used this term to refer to the agreement they made with God and each other to live according to God's will as revealed through Scripture. Early New England settlers saw their occupation of new lands as a religious pilgrimage ordained by God. Puritan teachings emphasized the biblical covenants: God's covenants with Adam and with Noah, and the covenant of grace between God and man through Christ.

Zambo (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire)

A racial term used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry. It became a racial slur used in the Caribbean islands when the African slaves began missing with indigenous people from the beginning of their importation into Hispaniola in the early sixteenth century.

Calvinism (Religious Doctrines and Sects); 1500s - 1700s

A religious doctrine of which the primary tenet was that a person's salvation was predestined by God. Founded by John ______ of Geneva, Switzerland, during the Protestant Reformation, this religion required its adherents to live according to a strict religious and moral code. The Puritans who settled in colonial New England were devout __________.

Mercantilism; 1650s - 1776

A set of policies that regulated colonial commerce and manufacturing for the benefit of the mother country. These policies resulted in the American colonies in the mid-seventeenth century producing agricultural goods and raw materials that were shipped to Britain, where they increased the wealth of Britain through exportation or manufacture into finished goods that were sold to the colonies or other countries.

Conquistador (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1500s - 1600s

A term used to identify the Spanish conquerors who came to the New World and explored the lands, treated natives harshly and brought diseases that wiped out many.

Caravel; 1400s

A type of small, agile sailing ship that became common in Spain ad Portugal in the fifteenth century. They allowed the Spanish and Portuguese to explore distant continents, including North and South America.

Paleo-Indians (Ancient and Pre-European Settlement of the Americas); 15,000 - 13,000 BC (Archaic America)

Ancestors of modern American Indians. They began migrating to North and Central America between 15,000 and 13,000 BC. It is believed by many archeologists that they migrated from Asia by crossing a land bridge called Bering that once connected Siberia and Alaska.

Caste System (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire)

As a result of the conquest of Mexico and other Latin American countries by the Spaniards, a European style caste system was imposed on the culture. The conquest produced four overall racial categories: Europeans (Spaniards), Spanish parents born in the New World (Creoles), Mestizo, and Natives.

Habeas Corpus Act (British Constitutional Influences); 1679

British law had traditionally provided a procedure that allowed a person who had been arrested to challenge the legality of his arrest or confinement, called the Writ of Habeas Corpus, or the Great Writ. The Act imposed strict penalties on judges who refused to issue a writ of habeas corpus when there was good cause, and on officers who refused to comply with this writ. This began the protection of citizens against arbitrary arrest without just cause.

Predestination (Religious Doctrines and Sects)

Christian belief that God possessed total knowledge of the future, including who would and would not be saved. Predestination was a fundamental belief of Puritan theology and held the idea that salvation should be gained by good works was invalid.

Protestantism (Religious Doctrines and Sects); 1500s

Christian movement that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in sixteenth century Europe during the Reformation. The followers believed that only Jesus Christ could be the intermediary between God and human beings and they criticized the Catholic practice of following the pope and praying to saints. They supported a return to simpler church services, and more emphasis on the teachings of the Bible. Some of the first English settlers of the United States were these people escaping religious persecution.

The Reformation (Religious Doctrines and Sects); 1517

Christian reform movement that started in 1517 with Martin Luther's criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. The movement led to the establishment of a new Christian sect called Protestantism. The movement began in 1534 when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church. The Church of England became the official English church, from which many American denominations descended.

Separatists; 1620

Christian religious group that wanted separation from the Church of England. The Pilgrims were this type of group who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. In contrast to the Puritans, these people held the Church of England was so corrupt it was beyond reform. Consequently, they formally separated from it, which brought persecution and the decision to leave England.

Puritans; 1600s

Christian sect in post-Reformation England who wanted to purify the Church of England by abolishing Catholic elements from it. They did not want to separate from the Church of England, but reform it from within. Many of them came to the New World in the seventeenth century to found purified religious communities and were instrumental in founding Massachusetts and Connecticut. They believed in the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and tight-knit conformity.

Praying Towns (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1600s - 1700s

Christianized Native American settlements what were supervised by New England Puritans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Dominion of New England/Sir Edmund Andros (Rebellions); 1686

Created in 1686 by King James II; the Dominion combined the government of Massachusetts with the governments of the rest of New England colonies, and in 1688 with those of New York and New Jersey. The purpose was to streamline effective government and punish the area, especially Massachusetts, for exercising too much autonomy. Sir Edmund Andros was appointed as the single commander of the Dominion. Andorra was overthrown in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution in England.

Proprietary Colonies (Types of British Colonies); 1607 - 1775

Created through a grant of land by the English monarch to a person or group, who then organized a form of government largely independent from the monarch's control. Maryland, the Carolinas, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania were all proprietary colonies.

Mayflower Compact (Pilgrims/Plymouth); 1620

Document signed by the Pilgrims who came over on the "Mayflower" which established a civil government and proclaimed their allegiance to the King. The Compact was notable for being one of the earliest examples of self-government in the English colonies.

English Bill of Rights (British Constitutional Influences); 1689

Drawn up by Parliament and presented to King William II and Queen Mary, it listed certain rights of the British people. It also limited the king's powers in taxing and prohibited the maintenance of a standing army in peacetime. This was defining moment in British constitutional history since it clearly limited the rights and privileges of the monarch.

Spain's Empire (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); late 1500s

Early colonists settled on Caribbean islands. By the end of the sixteenth century, their empire included the Caribbean islands, Mexico, and southern North America. It also encompassed what is now Chile, Argentina, and Peru, and in 1580, Brazil as well.

New World; 1492 - 1600

European name for North America, South America, and the islands of the Western Hemisphere during the Age of Exploration and the following period of European colonization.

Missionaries (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1500s - 1800s

Europeans or Americans of European descent who wanted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. Jesuit priests from France and Franciscan monks from Spain brought Catholicism to North America. San Diego, California and San Antonio, Texas were two cities that originated as these Spanish institutions. Puritans from England created "praying towns" to teach Protestant theology to Native Americans.

Joint-Stock Company; 1600s

Financial method created by the British to facilitate the colonization of the New World in the seventeenth century. Joint-stock agreements banded merchants together as stockholders, and allowed them to raise large amounts of money and share the risks and profits in proportion to their part of the total investment.

French Colonization of Canada; 1608

First permanent settlement at Quebec in 1608. Canada had a smaller population than the English colonies, but had closer ties with Native Americans. Trade and military centers were established at Quebec, Montreal, and agricultural estates along the St. Lawrence River.

Royal Colonies (Types of British Colonies); 1607 - 1775

Formed by the king, so the government had total control over them and by 1700, the majority of proprietary colonies had become royal colonies.

Charter Colonies (Types of British Colonies); 1607 - 1775

Founded by a government charter granted to a company or a group of people. Virginia and Massachusetts Bay Colony were charter colonies. The British government had some control over charter colonies.

Huguenots; late 1700s

French Protestants. The Edict of Nantes in 1598 had freed them from persecution in France, but when that was revoked in the late 1700s, hundreds of thousands of them fled to other countries, including America.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (Puritan Dissenters/Exiles); 1639

Hartford settlers drew up this first written constitution in American history that established a representative government made up of a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosen by the legislature.

John Winthrop (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1630

He became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and served in that capacity from 1630 - 1649. A Puritan with strong religious beliefs, Winthrop opposed total democracy because he believed the colony was best governed by a small group of skillful leaders. He helped organize the New England Confederation in 1643 and served as its first president.

Massachusetts Bay Colony; 1630

In 1629, King Charles gave the Puritans the right to settle an govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area. In 1630, about a thousand Puritans led by John Winthrop sailed for Massachusetts, founded Boston, and surrounding towns. The colony established political freedom and a representative government.

Enclosure Movement; 1700s

In England, landowners evicted serfs and rent-paying tenants from the land so they could raise sheep since the wool prices were high; these evicted tenants roamed the countryside with nowhere to go and many came to the Chesapeake colonies as indentured servants.

Cavaliers (Events in England); 1642-1647

In the English Civil War, these were the troops loyal to Charles II. Their opponents were the Roundheads, loyal to Parliament and Oliver Cromwell.

Maize

Known in some English-speaking countries as corn, this is a large grain plant domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. Most historians believe it was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico, and then spread throughout the Americas. European explorers carried it back to Europe and introduced it to other countries.

Culpeper's Rebellion (Rebellions); 1677 - 1679

Led by John Culpeper, the Alpemark section of Carolina rebelled when the governor tried to enforce the Navigation Acts. The rebellion was crushed, but Culpeper was acquitted.

Puritan Migration (Great Migration) (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1630s - 1640s

Many Puritans migrated from England to America in the 1630's and 1640's. During this period, the population of the Massachusetts Bay Colony grew to ten times its earlier population.

Vinland (Ancient and Pre-European Settlement of the Americas); 1000 AD

Name given by Vikings to an area of North American coast between Newfoundland and Cape Cod. The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America, five hundred years before Columbus' voyages.

Restoration (Events in England); 1660

Name given to the reign of Charles II, king of England whom Parliament crowned in 1660 after a decade of Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell. Many Puritan followers of Cromwell immigrated to the New World after Charles took the throne.

Bacon's Rebellion (Rebellions); 1667

Nathaniel Bacon, impoverished farmer, led an uprising against Governor William Berkeley of Virginia because he had not protected frontiers from Indians and angered Virginians who protested much of what Berkeley was doing. Bacon died of natural causes, the Rebellion failed, and Berkeley took revenge on the protestors. Many former indentured servants, who could not afford to buy desirable farmland, were followers of Bacon. The near success of Bacon's Rebellion led Virginia planters to think twice about the dangers of a large white landless group of young men as a labor source (former indentured servants who could not afford to buy land) vs. using African slaves.

New York Colony, Peter Stuyvesant; 1664

New York belonged to the Dutch, but King Charles II gave the land to his brother, James the Duke of York in 1664. When the British came to take the colony, the Dutch, who hated their Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, quickly surrendered to them. The Dutch retook the colony in 1673, but the British regained it in 1674.

Pilgrims (Pilgrims/Plymouth); 1620

One of the first Protestant groups to come to America. They desired separation from the Church of England. In 1620, Pilgrims founded Plymouth, the first permanent community in New England.

John Smith/John Rolfe (Jamestown/Virginia)

One of the leaders of Jamestown; Smith led the colony through starvation. Fellow settler John Rolfe played a crucial role when he helped start the colony going tobacco and it became the cash crop of Virginia. Rolfe also married the Indian princess Pocahontas.

Metis

One of the recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada. They trace their descent to mixed First Nations and European heritage. The term was historically the offspring of any such group, but became a distinct group with formal recognition equal to that of then Inuit and First Nations. During the height of the North American fur trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, many British and French Canadian fur traders married First Nations and Inuit women. Therefore, their children, the _____, were exposed to both the Catholic and indigenous belief systems, thus creating a new distinct aboriginal people in North America.

Freehold; 1600s - 1700s

Ownership of land and possession of the title or deed. Freeholders had the legal right to improve, transfer, or sell their property. Used in New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because founders wanted to avoid the majority of land being held by an elite, which had been the case in England.

Town Meeting; 1600s - Present

Political process used in New England to govern towns. A town's inhabitants and freemen elected selectmen and other town officials to handle local affairs. In the seventeenth century, town meetings offered a striking level of popular participation. Nearly every adult male could speak and vote, although women were denied this privilege. This was the most direct form of democracy in America and town meetings are still held in some New England towns today.

Headright System (Jamestown/Virginia); 1617

Program started by the Virginia Company that granted every head of a household fifty acres for himself and fifty additional acres for every adult member of his family or servant brought into the colony of Virginia. Adopted in Maryland and Virginia because of labor shortages.

Pueblo Revolt (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1680

Pueblos revolted in the Southwest when Spaniards tried to suppress native religious rituals. The revolt was successful; they captured Santa Fe and drove Spaniards from the region. Spaniards reconquered the Pueblos twelve years later and put down a second revolt in 1696. The consequence of the two revolts was the realization by Spaniards that colonial policies had to be changed to stop ongoing conflict with the Pueblos. They then allowed Pueblos to own land, stopped forced Indian labor, and tolerated native religious rituals.

Non-Separatists (Contrast of Pilgrims and Puritans)

Puritans were Calvinists who clamored for reform in the Church of England; they wanted to "purify" it.

Sex Ratios of the Colonies

Ration of men to women was much higher in the early years of settlement; over 75% of the white population in the Chesapeake were men and even in New England over 60% of the white population were men. By late seventeenth century, the ration was becoming more balanced, but it was the early eighteenth century before it matched England.

Miscegenation

Sexual mixing of races, especially between a white man and a black woman. It was common in slave states for slave masters to engage in liaisons with their female slaves despite the social stigma and laws against interracial sex. Laws against miscegenation were kept in many states until the 1950's.

Slavery in West Africa/Trade Slaves; early 1500s

Slavery had existed in West Africa for many centuries, but the majority of slaves were considered members of the society that had enslaved them and many slaves had the right to marry and their children were often free. Within West African slaves, a small group were "_____ ______" who were not seen as members of the society that had enslaved them and who were sold from one African kingdom to another. In the early sixteenth century, European demand for trade slaves changed the nature of slavery in Africa as African princes and warlords sought more and more captives to sell to European traders.

Requerimiento (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1514

Spanish colonial document that conquistadors were required to read, from 1514 onward, to all native peoples. The document offered peace and freedom to Indians if they converted to Christianity and war and enslavement if they refused. Since Indians could not understand a document read in Spanish even if they wanted to convert, the document was used as a justification for conquest.

Missions (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1500s - 1800s

Spanish colonial settlements in the New world manned by priests and soldiers. They were set up by the Spanish in North and South America to lay claim to the areas and convert native peoples to Catholicism. French Jesuits and English Protestants also set them up in North America.

Mestizo (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1500s

Spanish for "mixed", the offspring of white European and native people, usually a white man and an Indian woman. Almost 90% of Spanish settlers in sixteenth-century Mesoamerica were white men who took Indian women as wives or mistresses creating a substantial mixed-race population.

Tobacco (Jamestown/Virginia); 1612

Staple crop of the southern American colonies that was first commercially produced in Virginia in 1612. Tobacco was vital to the economy of the British empire and to the success of Virginia. Tobacco flourished despite the fact that it was a luxury item and many saw it as harmful to health and family life. Production and distribution expanded quickly; this ultimately led to a drop in price and profits by the 1640's. After the 1640's, colonists continued to grow tobacco, but also added other crops such as cotton, rice, and sugar.

Outwork; 1700s

System of manufacturing used by the English woolen industry; also called "putting out." In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, merchants bought wool and employed landless peasants to spin and weave it into cloth which was then sold in English and foreign markets.

Encomienda (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1500s-1600s

System of tributary land use and ownership used by the Spanish in the New World. It gave those who obtained licenses the right to exact labor and tribute (payment) from the natives in specific areas. Settlers did not receive actual land grants, but control of the labor in the territory in effect gave them control of the lands.

Northwest Passage; late 1400s - early 1600s

Term given to a rumored route from Europe to the Indies by way of the North Atlantic. European monarchs during the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century sent explorers to discover such a route. The explorers landed at various areas of the North and South America coastlines and mistakenly thought they were India.

Visible Saints (Massachusetts Bay Colony)

The "elect" men and women God had "Predestined" for salvation and who were members of the church.

Atlantic Seaboard

The East Coast of the United States is the easternmost coast of the United States along the Atlantic Ocean. Twelve of the original thirteen colonies lay in this area. It is primarily bound on the east by the Ocean and on the west by the Appalachian Mountains.

Chesapeake; 1600s - 1700s

The English colonies and later states of Maryland and Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay.

Voting granted to church members (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1631

The Massachusetts general court passed an act to limit voting rights to church members. This was a prime example of the influence welded by the Puritan church on the political leadership of the colony.

Cambridge Agreement (Massachusetts Bay Colony); 1629

The Puritan stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company agreed to immigrate to New England on the condition that they would have control of the government of the colony. This gave Massachusetts an advantage over Virginia because the stockholders had a direct stake in the success of the colony.

House of Burgesses (Jamestown/Virginia); 1619

The Virginia House of Burgesses was formed in 1619. This was the first representative government group in the colonies.

Elect (Massachusetts Bay Colony)

The belief that God had decided or "predestined" the fated of all people before they were born and chosen a few "elect" men and women for salvation and condemned the rest to damnation.

The Colony of Virginia: Purpose, Problems, Failures, Successes (Jamestown/Virginia); 1607

The colony was formed by the Virginia Company as a profit-earning venture. Starvation was the major problem; a majority of the colonists died the first year, many of the survivors left, and the company had trouble attracting new colonists. They offered private land ownership in the colony to attract settlers, but the Virginia Company eventually went bankrupt and the colony went to the Crown. Virginia did not become a successful colony until the colonists started raising and exporting tobacco.

The Iroquois (The League of Five Nations); late 1500s - 1700s

The federation of tribes occupying northern New York; the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Seneca, the Onondaga, and the Cayuga. In about 1720 the Tuscarora tribe was added as a sixth member. It was the most powerful and efficient North American Indian organization during the 1700s. Some of the ideas from its constitution were used in the Constitution of the United States.

Slavery (Jamestown/Virginia); 1619

The first African slaves in America arrived in the Virginia colony.

Roanoke; 1587

The first attempt at permanent English settlement established in what is now North Carolina, known as the "Lost Colony" because all colonists had disappeared three years later when supplies where brought in from England.

Manumission

The freeing of slaves by their master. Virginia passes a law in 1782 legalizing manumission and assorted antislavery societies gained momentum in the late 1780's and 1790's. The majority of slave owners, however, did not free their slaves.

Great Basin

The largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. It includes part of the Colorado River watershed, the Las Vegas metropolitan area, and order of Arizona. It features the Continental Divide of the Americas and the Gulf of California. Paleo-Indian habitation began here as early as 10,000 B.C.. Exploration of this area occurred during the 18th century Spanish colonization of the Americas. The first American to cross it from the Sierra Nevada was Jedediah Strong Smith in 1827, followed by a continuing stream of exploration. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit in this region.

Cortez (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1521

The most brutal of the conquistadors. In 1518, led a military expedition of 600 men into Mexico searching for gold; unleashed smallpox epidemic on the Aztecs; treated the natives brutally. He conquered the Aztec empire in 1521.

King Philip's War; 1675

The most prolonged and deadly war between whites and Indians along the Eastern seaboard. A series of battles in New Hampshire in 1675 between the colonists and the Wampanoags, led by chief Metacom or "King Philip". The war was started when the Massachusetts government tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The colonists won this war with the help of the Mohawks. The victory opened up additional Indian lands for white expansion, and inflicted a lasting defeat on New England's Indians.

Bering Land Bridge (Ancient and Pre-European Settlement of the Americas); 33,000 - 8,000 BC

The piece of land now under water that connected Asia with North America exposed many thousands of years ago during a global ice age. The bridge enabled nomadic hunters and gathers to make their way into the previously uninhabited continent of North America. These settlers were the ancestors of the American Indians.

Anglicization (Anglicisation)

The process of converting anything to more "English" norms, particularly as it related to Anglicizing the British Colonies in the New World.

Catholicism (Religious Doctrines and Sects); 1500s - 1700s

The religion professed by members of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church had a hierarchical structure that placed the Pope at the head of the church. It emphasized obedience to church superiors and absolution from sin through confession. Most of the first European immigrants to the New World were Protestants who believed the Pope to be an unnecessary intermediary between God and His chosen; these believers demonized Catholics as papist enemies.

Atlantic World

The society created by political, cultural, and economic exchanges between people in Europe Africa, and the Americas during the colonial period. In recent years, historians have emphasized the importance of trans-Atlantic connections in understanding colonial societies.

Columbian Exchange; 1492 onward

The transatlantic exchange of goods, peoples, and ideas that began when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, ending the age-old separation of the hemispheres.

Treaty of Tordesillas (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1494

The treaty by which the Pope in 1494 drew a line down the map of the world to divide the New World between Spain and Portugal. Spain received the lands west of the line; Portugal received lands to the east. The line of demarcation was north to south through the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the tip of Brazil.

Portuguese Exploration

There was intensive maritime exploration by the Portuguese during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European overseas exploration, discovering and mapping the coasts of Africa, Asia, and Brazil, in what became known as the Age of Discovery. Methodical expeditions started in 1419 along West Africa's coast under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator, with Bartolomeu Dias reaching the Cape of Good Hope and entering the Indian Ocean in 1488. Ten years later, Vasco da Gama led the first fleet around Africa to India, arriving in Calicut and starting a maritime route from Portugal to India. Soon, after reaching Brazil, explorations proceed to southeast Asia, having reached Japan in 1542. The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 limited exploration of Portugal in the Americas.

Chinook

These people include several groups of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest region of he United States, along the lower and middle Columbia river in present-day Oregon and Washington. These tribes were encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805, particularly the Clastsop Tribe along the coast.

Rhode Island, Roger Williams (Puritan Dissenters/Exiles); 1631

Williams, a respected Puritan minister; believed an individual's conscience was beyond control of any civil or church authority. William was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then founded Providence and Rhode Island that allowed complete religious freedom.

Great Plains

This area is the broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, that lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada.

Black Legend/Bartolome de las Casas (Spanish Exploration, Conquest, and Empire); 1552

This man, formerly Bishop of Chiapas, began what became known as the "_____ ______" by publishing a powerful indictment of Spanish behavior toward Indians in the New World.

Conversion (Massachusetts Bay Colony)

When God infused a soul with grace, the person was "born again" and knew salvation was at hand.

Leisler's Rebellion (Rebellions); 1689

When King James II was dethroned and replaced by King William and Mary of the Netherlands, the colonists of New York rebelled and made Jacob Leisler, a militia officer, governor of New York. Leisler was hanged for treason when royal authority was reinstated in 1691, but the representative assembly that he founded remained part of the government of New York.