AP US - AP Test Flashcards
Impact of crusades
New ideas and goods brought to Western Europe. Better maps, ships, compasses, weaponry, and other technologies.
Increasing appetite for trade items (silk, spices, etc.) encouraged Colombus to find trade route to East, but ended up “discovering America.”
The Commercial Revolution
Period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism, lasting from the 16th century to the early 18th century.
The Geographic Revolution
The series of events that led to the expansion of colonial colonies in America, and their transformation in becoming the independent United States.
Impact of the defeat of the Spanish Armada
If the British hadn’t defeated King Philip II’s Spanish fleet in 1588, Britain would have been weakened and would not have made it over to America for a much longer time. Instead, Spain would seek colonization in the “open” lands of the New World while Britain recovered.
Mercantilism
In order to build economic strength, a nation must export more than it imports.
Americans provided raw goods to Britain, and Britain used these raw goods to produce manufactured goods to be sold in European markets and back in colonial markets.
(Remember Navigation Acts)
Joint Stock Company
A business entity that is owned by shareholders, each shareholder owning a portion of the company in proportion to his ownership of the company’s shares.
New England Colonies Breakdown
Massachusetts Bay (1630/C) - John Winthrop [Rel. freedom for Puritans]
Rhode Island (1636/C) - Roger Williams [Rel. freedom for all]
Connecticut (1636/C) - Thomas Hooker [Rel. freedom for Puritans]
New Hampshire (1638/R) - John Mason [Rel. freedom for Puritans]
Navigation Acts
Between 1651 and 1673, Parliament passed four acts to ensure proper mercantilist trade balance. Acts severely restricted colonial trade in order to benefit England.
- Only English or colonial ships could carry cargo between imperial ports.
- Certain goods, including tobacco, rice, and furs, could not be shipped to foreign nations except through England or Scotland.
- Parliament would pay “bounties” to Americans who produced certain raw goods, while raising protectionist tariffs on the same goods produced in other nations.
- Americans could not compete with English manufacturers in large-scale manufacturing.
Middle Colonies Breakdown
Virginia (1607/R) - London Company [Trade and profits]
New York (1626/R) - Peter Minuit [Trade and profits]
New Jersey (1664/R) - Lord Berkeley & George Carteret [Broke apart from NY]
Pennsylvania (1682/P) - William Penn, Jr. [Rel. freedom for specifically Quakers, but basically errybody]
Delaware (1702/P) - William Penn, Jr. [Broke apart from PA in 1701]
Southern Colonies Breakdown
Virginia (1607/R) - London Company [Trade and profits]
Maryland (1633/P) - George & Cecil Calvert [Rel. freedom for Catholics]
Carolina (1653/R) - Lords Proprietors [Rel. freedom for Catholics]
Georgia (1732/R) - James Oglethorpe [Debtors]
Jamestown: Early Issues
- Settlers were inexperienced with agriculture and construction
- Settlers were foolishly greedy and focused entirely on the search for gold and other valuable resources
- Starvation
- Mosquitoes
- Sickness
- Indians were hostile for mostpart
- Insufficient shelter
Settlers were not men who were trained in fields of farming or hunting, and therefore could not sustain living off the land. Instead, these were men who focused on gold mining or other greedy endeavors. Starvation was the result; in a year, half of the 100 colonists would die.
Since little or no gold was found, that meant that the colonists had no product with which to trade with the mother country for basic necessities that would help them survive– farm tools, clothes, firearms, etc.
Indians sometimes offered settlers food, but for the most part they treated the White Man with hostility and coldness.
Come winter, shelter was weak and the weather was bitter. Sickness spread and starvation worsened. Mosquitoes also contributed to disease.
John Smith came, helped bring health and sustenance to colony, but left in 1609. He left for England but was injured in gunpowder explosion. He’d expected settlers to continue trading food with Indians and believed they’d had a good amount to live off while he was gone. During this “Starving Time,” roughly 440 of the 500 colonists had perished before an English ship arrived in 1610.
Jamestown: Accomplishments
- John Smith restored order and health to crumbling settlement
- John Rolfe’s tobacco crops became America’s first cash crop and sent the economy soaring
Captain John Smith stepped up to be leader of the colony, seeing that Jamestown was in desperate need. He established the rule that if one didn’t work, he wouldn’t eat. This encouraged and forced the settlers to plant food, build sturdier shelters, and construct fences to protect the colony.
Officials if the Virginia Company established the colony to make a profit. They expected the colonists to find marketable natural resources, develop industries, or produce some kind of agricultural product that would succeed in making BANK. None of such was found or created until BAMMIN SLAMMIN John Rolfe finally created a sweet variety of tobacco.
This tobacco became all the rage in Europe, so more people were needed to come settle in Jamestown to help build the tobacco empire of Virginia. And so, America’s first cash crop was soaring and Jamestown’s rough past soon became forgotten.
House of Burgesses
- First democratically elected government in America.
- 1619-1776
- Successful because members were agreeable and representatives gained power throughout years
The first democratically elected legislative body (basically, government) in English America, it was an assembly of elected representatives (governor, six councilmen, numerous burgesses/reps.) from Virginia that met from 1619 to 1776.
Successful because:
- Members disagreed rarely, allowing for a friendly environment where important things could swiftly be accomplished.
- Obtained more power throughout the years, eventually more so than the governor and council.
Later members of the House would include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, all of whom would assume major leadership roles in the American movement for independence in the 18th century.
Puritans
- Plymouth colony: Separtists
- Mass. Bay colony: Non-separatists
- Revolted Roman Catholicism
- Believed in predestination
- Believed they had closer relationships with God
Separatist puritans saw themselves as different from the corrupt English society around them. Disillusioned with the Anglican Church (Church of England) and by the king’s challenge to their beliefs, they fled to the New World. This Plymouth colony (pilgrims!) established what they felt were ideal Christian communities.
Non-separatist puritans remained in England because they believe that they could still reform the church from the inside. Their work failed and, though still committed to the Church but not its “impurities,” a group secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629.
As far as actual religious beliefs go, puritans were largely into predestination. They also claimed they were closer to God and had “intimate contact” with Him. In the new institutions of faith they would establish in America, they wished to purge every remnant of Roman Catholic ritual and practice and practice only the customs that the New Testament described for the “early Christian church.”
Mayflower Compact
- The Pilgrims’ written agreement that in order to be successful in the New World, they must establish a system of government that would guide the settlers to survival and achievement.
A written agreement composed by a consensus of the settlers arriving at Plymouth in November of 1620. The Mayflower’s passengers knew that the New World’s earlier settlers failed due to a lack of government, and so, the Compact determined authority within the settlement (free of English law) and was observed until 1691.
Essentially, covenants were not only to be honored between God and man, but also between each other.
Puritan Colonies: Early Issues
- America was last hope for religious and cultural freedom
- Faced struggles similar to those that Jamestown settlers faced, though not quite as severe: food, shelter, living conditions, Indian threat, lack of communication
In England, puritans faced persecution from the church. They tried moving to Poland, but they didn’t like that they had to grow accustomed to the different culture, as well as raise their children in this unfamiliar culture.
So, let’s all go to AMERICA! Except the puritans faced the same struggles the Jamestown settlers met when they first arrived, though the puritans handled them better, as they were more prepared for the venture. Lack of food, difficult living conditions, threat of Indian attacks, and no communication with people were amongst the problems.
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
- Tension was brewing between poor whites and rich whites of Virginia.
- Poor, lead by Nathaniel Bacon, were anti-Indians
- Rich/elite, lead by gov. William Berkeley, were pro-Indians
- Civil war resulted over dispute of enslaving Indians and the poor’s desperation for some kind of racial superiority
A civil war in Virginia lead by Nathaniel Bacon, caused by dislike of Indians and Africans. Bacon’s followers were advocates of slavery and even wanted to enslave the Indians, whereas governor William Berkeley wanted to maintain peace and trading with the Indians.
Occurred as a result of class tension between poor whites and elite whites. “Elite” southerners believed that the presence of slaves would defuse class tension by instilling poor whites with a sense of racial superiority.
Then, when slave codes followed upon the heels of the Rebellion, they accomplished just this, and led to a racism that united whites of all classes.
Headright System
- Newcomers to America would come work with a colonist and would in return be granted a portion of that colonist’s land
Colonists residing in Virginia were granted two “headrights”, meaning two tracts of 50 acres each, or a total of 100 acres of land.
New settlers who paid their own passage to Virginia were granted one headright. Since every person who entered the colony received a headright, families were encouraged to migrate together, as the new settler would come work for the original settler.
Indentured Servants
- British looking for work could travel to America, their expenses paid by a settler
- The worker would serve settler in whatever need, and would pay off the cost of his passage to America in this way
Large numbers of workers were needed to work on the tobacco fields in Virginia. Unfortunately, the American labor shortage existed at the same time that widespread unemployment gripped England.
So, an English worker could have free passage to America by signing an indenture agreement, which stipulated that he was borrowing money for his transportation and would repay the lender by performing labor for a set period.
Skilled laborers were often indentured for four or five years, while unskilled workers often had to remain under the master’s control for seven or more years.
Early Slavery in America
- Slaves were more afforadable compared to indentured servants
- Economy in England was improving, and indentured servants were going back to England because jobs were becoming available
- Only a fraction of Africans were carried to colonial America; most went to Carribean Islands or Brazil, since Portugal and Spain were the “slave superpowers” of the time.
Indentured servants became less reliable and a more expensive source of labor, making slaves more attractive as an investment. The internal market in England improved dramatically during this time and, as a result, laborers who once took their chances by migrating to America were now able to find jobs at home.
Slavery became the heart of southern colonial society and the economy at the turn of the 18th century. When the Dutch monopoly on the slave trade ended in 1690, British merchants began carrying thousands of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean to the southern colonies to work in the tobacco fields. Most went to the West Indies and Brazil, but large numbers did go to the Chesapeake region, perhaps as many as 100,000 in the 1700s.
As slaves were imported, and as they increased naturally, the southern colonies evolved from a society with slaves to a slave society.
Anne Hutchinson
- Role in Great Awakening– encouraged people to seek individual connection to God rather than follow the traditional, institutionalized beliefs and strict precepts of ministers.
(Mass. Bay, then later Rhode Island) She stressed the individual’s intuition as a means of reaching God and salvation, rather than the observance of institutionalized beliefs and the precepts of ministers. Her opponents accused her of antinomianism—the view that God’s grace has freed the Christian from the need to observe established moral precepts.
Pequot War (1638)
- First serious conflict between Indians and settlers in New England
- Pequot tribe of Connecticut Valley damaged severely in horrific battles
- Defeat of Pequot eliminated Indian resistance in New England for 40 years
The first serious armed conflict between Indians and settlers in New England, the powerful Pequot tribe that occupied and controlled the Connecticut Valley was obliterated.
Significant because the defeat of the Pequots eliminated the possibility of Indian resistance to the settlements of New Haven and Guilford (CT). So much that the Connecticut Valley was not to see significant “Indian troubles” for forty years, until the outbreak of King Phillip’s War.
King Philip’s War (1675)
- Last major effort by Indians of New England to drive out Puritan settlers.
- Lead by Metacom, “King Philip,” several tribes joined to fight but were unsuccessful
- Puritans saw their victory as blessing from God
It marked the last major effort by the Indians of southern New England to drive out the English settlers (This case, Puritans). Led by Metacom, the Pokunoket chief called ‘King Philip’ by the English, several tribes joined together to fight.
Most Indians’ resentment of the settlers had been growing since the 1660s, while some decided to side with English. After fourteen months, “King Phillip’s” tribes were defeated, and The Puritans interpreted their victory as a sign of God’s favor, as well as a symbolic purge of their spiritual community.
Act of Toleration
Proposed by Lord Baltimore, it provided religious tolerance for all Catholic colonists and other religions who believed in the divinity of Christ in colonial Maryland.
