APUSH Exam Review
antinomianism
Belief that the elect need not obey the laws of either God or man; most notably espoused in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson
Oliver Cromwell
Puritan soldier who was responsible for beheading King Charles I after he dismissed Parliament and then recalled it; ruled England for nearly a decade before Charles II rose to the throne
Battle of Acoma
fought between the Spaniards under Don Juan de Oñate and the Pueblo Indians in present-day New Mexico; Spaniards brutally crushed the Pueblo peoples and established the territory as New Mexico in 1609
Moctezuma
ruler of the Aztecs who fell to Cortés' Spanish conquerors
Captain John Smith
saved early Virginia from collapsing through his resourcefulness and leadership; kidnapped by Powhatan and saved by the Indian chief's daughter Pocahontas
Sir Francis Drake
"sea dog" famous for looting heavy amounts of Spanish goods around the world via ship; many of his profits went to Elizabeth I who knighted him as a result
Black Legend
"false" notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Indians and steal their gold in the name of Christ
noche triste
"sad night"; when the Aztecs attacked Hernán Cortés and his forced in the Aztec capital of Tenochittlán, killing hundreds. Cortés laid siege to the city the following year, precipitating the fall of the Aztec empire and inaugurating three centuries of Spanish rule
Protestant Reformation
(16th century) Movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther. Reformers questioned the authority of the Pope, sought to eliminate the selling of indulgences, and encouraged the translation of the Bible from latin, which few at the time could read. The Reformation was launched in England in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church
Popé's Rebellion
Pueblo Indian rebellion that drove Spanish settlers from New Mexico
Bartolomé de Las Casas
A 16th century Spanish historian and Dominican friar. He became the first resident bishop of Chiapas and the first appointed "Protector of the Indians"
Dominion of New England
Administrative union created by royal authority, incorporating all of New England, New York, and East and West Jersey. Placed under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros, who curbed popular assemblies, taxed residents without their consent, and strictly enforced Navigation Laws. Its collapse after the Glorious Revolution un England demonstrated colonial opposition to strict royal control. Designed to promote urgently needed efficiency in the administration of the Navigation Laws
blue laws
Also known as sumptuary laws, they are designed to restrict personal behavior in accord with a strict code of morality. Blue laws were passed across the colonies, particularly in Puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania.
Mayflower Compact
Agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower. Created a foundation for self-government in the colony.
Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)
An Italian explorer who was known for his exploration of North America in 1497. Under Henry VII's commission, he was the first European to see North America since the Norse viking expeditions in the eleventh century. He first landed in present-day Newfoundland, a province of Canada
English Civil War
Armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-Parliament forces and the execution of Charles I.
Tuscarora War
Began with an Indian attack on New Bern, North Carolina. After the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation
Iroquois Confederacy
Bound together five tribes - the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas - in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State
predestination
Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be damned. Though their fate was irreversible, Calvinists, particularly those who believed they were destined for salvation, sought to lead sanctified lives in order to demonstrate to others that they were in fact members of the "elect."
Duke of York
Charles II granted the area that the Dutch settled on, the Hudson, to the Duke (his brother); Stuyvesant was forced to surrender; New Amsterdam renamed New York in his honor
Yamasee Indians
Defeated by the South Carolinians un the war of 1715-1716. The Yamasee defeat devastated the last of the coastal Indian tribes in the southern colonies
Calvinism
Dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans based on the teachings of John Calvin. They believed in predestination, that only "the elect" were destined for salvation.
Fundamental Orders
Drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River valley, this document was the first "modern constitution" establishing a democratically controlled government. Key features of the document were borrowed for Connecticut's colonial charter and, later, its state constitution.
Puritans
English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout Puritans believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted to church membership.
Henry Hudson
English explorer employed by the Dutch East India Company; disregarded orders to sail northeast and instead sailed to Delaware Bay and New York bay (1609) and then the Hudson River, hoping he had discovered the shortcut through the continent; he ended up merely filing a Dutch claim to a wooded and watered area
Virginia Company
English joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virginia colony
William Penn
Englishman attracted to the Quaker faith in 1660 when he was 16; his father disapproved and forced him into the army; he still embraced his faith despite persecution; wanted to establish an asylum for his people and to experiment with liberal ideas in government and also to make a profit; secured land because the king owed his father money; called it Pennsylvania or "Penn's Woodland"; "first American advertising man"
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies; merged with the pilgrims' Plymouth colony
Barbados slave code
First formal statute governing the treatment of slaves, which provided for harsh punishments against offending slaved but lacked penalties for the mistreatment of slaved by masters. Similar statutes were adopted by southern plantation societies on the North American mainland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Robert de La Salle
French explorer who explored the great lakes, Canada, the Mississippi river, and the Gulf of Mexico 1671-1673
squatters
Frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement. Many of North Carolina;s early settlers were squatters, who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and 'democratic' than its neighbors
Martin Luther
German friar very critical of Catholicism; "the Bible alone was the source of God's word"; sparked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation with his 95 theses
Incas
Highly advanced South American civilization that occupied present-day Peru until it was conquered by Spanish forces under Francisco Pizarro in 1532. The Incas developed sophisticated agricultural techniques, such as terrace farming, in order to sustain large, complex societies in the unforgiving Andes Mountains
buffer
In politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them. In British North America, Georgia was established as a buffer colony between British and Spanish territory
middlemen
In trading systems, those dealers who operate between the original producers of goods and the retail merchants who sell to consumers. After the eleventh century, European exploration was driven in large part by a desire to acquire alluring Asian goods without paying heavy tolls to Muslim middlemen.
Powhatan
Indian chieftain who captured Captain John Smith; lost trust and acceptance for the settlers over time
conversion
Intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among the "elect," or the "visible saints." Calvinists who experienced conversion were then expected to lead sanctified lives to demonstrate their destiny for salvation.
Christopher Columbus
Italian explorer who sought to reach the Indies but instead discovered the coast of the New World; called natives 'Indians' because he thought he had reached the Indies
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement
charter
Legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists' ties to Britain during the early years of settlement
primogeniture
Legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowners' younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas.
Metacom (nicknamed King Philip)
Massasoit's son; forged such an alliance and mounted a series of coordinated assaults on English villages throughout New England
indentured servants
Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically between four and seven years. Their migration addressed the chronic labor shortage in the colonies and facilitated settlement.
Great English Migration
Migration of seventy thousand refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean. The twenty thousand migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose: to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World.
Cahokia
Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as twenty-five thousand Native Americans
Aztecs
Native American empire that controlled present-day Mexico until 1521, when they were conquered by Spanish Hernán Cortés. The Aztecs maintained control over their vast empire through a system of trade and tribute. They came to be known for their advanced in mathematics and writing and their use of human sacrifices in religious ceremonies.
Act of Toleration
Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period
William III
Protestant ruler of the Netherlands; Dutch born; husband of Mary II;
Mary II
Protestant ruler of the Netherlands; English born; wife of William III; daughter of James II
Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution
Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, who was replaced with Dutch-born William III and Mary II, daughter of James II. William and Mary accepted increased parliamentary oversight and new limits on monarchical authority.
Quakers
Religious group known for their tolerance, emphasis on peace, and idealistic Indian policy, who settled heavily in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
House of Burgesses
Representative parliamentary assembly created to govern Virginia, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies
King Philip's War
Series of assaults by Metacom, King Philip, on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades.
Pequot War
Series of clashes between English settlers and Pequot Indians in the Connecticut River valley. Ended in the slaughter of the Pequots by the Puritans and their Narragansett Indian allies.
First Anglo-Powhatan War
Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish
Navigation Laws
Series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England.
joint-stock company
Short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England's early colonial ventures
Treaty of Tordesillas
Signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World. Spain received the bulk of territory in the Americas, compensating Portugal with titles to lands in Africa and Asia.
Roanoke Island
Sir Walter Raleigh's failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina
Separatists
Small group of Puritans who sought to break away entirely from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way to Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, in 1620.
Francisco Coronado
Spanish conquistador who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southeastern United States between 1540 and 1542, such as Arizona and Colorado
encomienda
Spanish government's policy to "commend," or give, Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them. Part of a broader Spanish effort to subdue Indian tribes in the West Indies and on the North American mainland.
salutary neglect
Unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws. Lasted from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763.
patroonships
Vast tracts of land along the Hudson River in New Netherlands granted to wealthy promoters in exchange for bringing fifty settlers to the property.
Massasoit
Wampanoag chieftain who signed a treaty with the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first Thanksgiving after the autumn harvests that same year
New England Confederation
Weak union of the colonies in Massachusetts and Connecticut led by Puritans for the purposes of defense and organization; an early attempt at self-government during the benign neglect of the English Civil War. basically an exclusive Puritan club; the first notable milestone on the long and rocky road toward colonial unity
Elizabeth I
a Protestant queen of England (1558) who allowed for Protestantism to become the dominant religion in England rather than Catholicism; created conflict between newly Protestant England and its territories that were still Catholic such as Ireland (who suffered brutally as consequence of their anti-Protestant uprisings); inspired English buccaneers to loot Spanish ships
three-sister farming
agricultural system employed by North American Indians as early as 1000 CE; maize, beans, and squash were grown together to maximize yields
Malinche (Doña Marina)
an epithet to describe traitorous behavior in Mexico; a woman named Malinche helped Hernán Cortés interpret the languages the native people spoke, and became his lover
Sir Edmund Andros
autocratic ruler of the Dominion of New England; curbed popular assemblies; taxed residents without their consent; strictly enforced Navigation Laws; conscientious but tactless; generated hostility with his open affiliation with the despised Church of England; put heavy restrictions on press, courts, and schools; revoked all land titles
John Rolfe
colonist who married Pocahontas, possibly the first interracial marriage in Virginia; their union served as a peace treaty to end the First Anglo-Powhatan War; killed in an Indian attack; father of the tobacco industry in Virginia
Hernán Cortés
conquered the Aztec empire
Francisco Pizarro
conquered the Incan empire
Pocahontas
daughter of Powhatan who saved Captain John Smith; married John Rolfe as part of the first known colonial interracial marriage: the peace settlement ending the First Anglo-Powhatan War
capitalism
economic system characterized by private property, generally free trade, and open and accessible markets; European colonization of the Americas, and in particular, the discovery of vast bullion deposits, helped bring about Europe's transition to capitalism
Roger Williams
extreme Separatist; popular Salem minister who posed a threat to Puritan leaders; has radical ideas and no desire to hold them back; hounded his fellow clergymen to make a clean break with the corrupt Church of England; challenged the legality of the Bay Colony's charter, which he condemned for expropriating the land from the Indians without fair compensation; denied the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior; banished from the colony and yet continued his criticisms; fled to Rhode Island and built what was probably the first Baptist church in America, establishing freedom of religion for all; made Rhode Island the most liberal of the colonies at the time
John Winthcrop
first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; attorney and manor lord from England; believed he had a "calling" from God to lead the new religious experiment in the Bay colony; his skill helped Massachusetts prosper, becoming the biggest and most influential of the New England outposts
Canadian Shield
first part of the North American landmass to emerge above sea level
Jamestown
first permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company; named after James I
Father Junipero Serra
founded more than 20 missions throughout California, the first one being in San Diego; forced the natives he encountered to adopt Christianity
Lord Baltimore
founder of Maryland colony in 1634; came from a prominent English Catholic family; did so to reap financial profits and to create a refuge for his fellow Catholics; permitted freedom of worship to all in hopes he would gain freedom of worship for Catholics outside the colony; Act of Toleration came about
James I
granted a charter to the Virginia joint-stock company that granted permission to colonize in Virginia; Jamestown is named after him
Sir Walter Raleigh
half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert who tried to begin a colony on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina; he failed and his colony completely disappeared
Ferdinand of Aragon
husband of Isabella of Castile; known for completing the Reconquista, which rid Spain of Muslim and Jewish people; financially aided Christopher's Columbus journey to the New World
Anne Hutchinson
intelligent, strong-willed, talkative woman; carried to logical extremes the Puritan doctrine of predestination: claimed that a holy life was no sure sign of salvation and that the truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either God or man; claimed her beliefs came from a direct revelation from God and was banished with her family; was killed later on by natives
plantation
large-scale agricultural enterprise growing commercial crops and usually employing coerced or slave labor; European settlers established plantations in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the American South
Peter Stuyvesant
leader of a small military expedition dispatched by the Dutch in 1655; called "Father Wooden Leg" by the Indians because he had lost his leg while soldiering in the West Indies; fort fell after a bloodless siege, where Swedish rule came to an abrupt end; colonists were absorbed by New Netherland
Lord De La Warr
new governor sent to control Jamestown; implemented a harsh military regime on the colony and an ever more aggressive military plan against the natives; he eventually declared war (known as the First Anglo-Powhatan War) against the natives in the Jamestown region
William Bradford
one leader of the Pilgrims; self taught scholar who read Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch; first governor of the Plymouth colony; worried that independent, non-Puritans settlers would try to corrupt his "godly experiment in the wilderness"
Hiawatha
one of the founders of the Iroquois Confederacy; wanted territorial supremacy
mestizos
people of mixed Native American and European heritage, notably in Mexico
John Calvin
religious leader from Geneva; inspired by Martin Luther's reformative mindset; began Calvinism; argued that God was all powerful and all good and all knowing, and he knew who was going to heaven and who was going to hell
Charles II
restored to the English throne in 1660, allowing the royalists and their Church of England allies to gain control again; Puritan hopes of eventually purifying the old English church were destroyed; he was determined to take an active, aggressive hand in the management of the colonies; his plans ran directly against the habits that decades of relative independence had bred in the colonies
conquistadores
sixteenth-century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan empires
caravel
small regular vessel with a high deck and three triangular sails; they could sail more closely into the wind, allowing European sailors to explore the western shores of Africa, previously made inaccessible due to prevailing winds on the homeward journey
nation-states
societies in which political legitimacy and authority overlay a large degree of cultural commonality
James Oglethorpe
solider statesman; keenly interested in prison reform because one of his friends died in a debtor's jail; competent military leader; repelled Spanish attacks; imperialist; philanthropist; energetic leader; one of the men trying to keep slavery out of Georgia
Henry VIII
somewhat responsible for the English Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century; split from the Church because the Pope would not grant him the ability to annul/divorce his wife
Columbian exchange
the transfer of goods, crops, and diseases between the New and Old World societies after 1492
Isabella of Castile
wife of Ferdinand of Aragon; known for completing the Reconquista, which rid Spain of Muslim and Jewish people; financially aided Christopher's Columbus journey to the New World