Chapter 2 (The American Colonies Emerge) Flashcards
Hernando Cortes
Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztec empire in 1519.
conquistador
one of the Spaniards who traveled to the Americas as an explorer and conqueror in the 16th century.
New Spain
A Spanish colony founded by Cortes after defeating the Aztecs. He called the capital Mexico City.
mestizo
person of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry
encomienda
a system in which Spanish authorities granted colonial landlords the service of Native Americans as forced laborers.
Juan Ponce de Leon
explorer who discovered Florida in 1513 and claimed it for Spain
conversion
A change in which a person adopts a new belief, opinion, or religion.
John Smith
British soldier who helped Jamestown Colony survive by discipline and order
joint-stock companies
businesses in which investors pool their wealth for a common purpose
Jamestown
First permanent English colony founded in 1607 in Virginia
Powhatan
a group of Native American peoples that lived in eastern Virginia at the time of the first English settlements there.
Headright system
the Virginia Company’s policy of granting 50 acres of land to each settler and to each family members who accompanied him.
indentured servants
a person who has contracted to work for another for a limited period, often in return for travel expenses, shelter, and sustenance.
royal colony
a colony under the direct control of the English monarch
Nathaniel Bacon
A twenty-nine year old planter who led a rebellion of frontier settlers against the government of the Virginia Colony in 1676
Puritans
church members who wanted to “purify” or reform the Church of England
John Winthrop
a leader in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the first governor of the Puritans
Plymouth Colony
British colony founded by Separatists in 1620 that was the second permanent English colony in North America
Separatists
Puritans who did not think that it was possible to reform the Church of England from within so they formed independent congregations with their own ministers. Known today as the Pilgrims.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
British colony founded in 1630 by Puritans, it quickly grew as a result of a migration greater in size than all previous expeditions to North America.
Roger Williams
Considered an extreme Separatist; he expressed two then controversial views: #1. English settlers had no right to land unless purchased from Native Americans. #2. Government officials had no business punishing settlers for their religious beliefs.
Anne Hutchinson
Believed worshippers needed neither the church nor its ministers to interpret the Bible for them. She was banished by Puritan leaders from colony in 1638 and made her way to Rhode Island.
Metacom
Native American chief of Wampanoag tribe whom the English called King Philip. He organized an alliance of other tribes to fight back against the English
King Philip’s War
a conflict, in the years 1675-1676, between New England colonists and Native American groups allied under the leadership of the Wampanoag chief Metacom (King Philip)
William Penn
a Quaker who was given a charter for land in America that he hoped to establish on Quaker principles of equality, cooperation, and religious toleration. The colony was called Pennsylvania.
New Netherland
a colony started by the Dutch West India Company in 1621 to expand the thriving fur trade
Quakers
members of the Society of Friends, a religious group persecuted for its beliefs in 17th-century England
