Colonial Period to the American Revolution (1500-1787) Flashcards
The earliest inhabitants of America, the Native Americans, are believed to have arrived on the continent by crossing a land bridge which connected _______ to present day Alaska.
Siberia
Over 10,000 years ago, a slowly receding glacier left open a neck of land between Siberia and present-day Alaska. Waves of people made their way into America across this bridge before it was covered by ocean waters.
The Treaty of ___________, established in 1494, divided land between Spain and Portugal in the Americas.
Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed upon between Spain and Portugal in 1494. Originally the pope set the “Line of Demarcation” to split up the New World, but it was unfair to the Portuguese, so the two countries worked out their own line.
Spain used armies led by ______________ to conquer the Americas from the Indians.
Conquistadores.
“Conquistadores” were Spanish adventurers who led soldiers in exploring and seizing American land. Often the European diseases they carried with them were more effective than their weapons in wiping out the Indians.
In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish conquistador, crossed the isthmus of ______ and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
Panama.
__________________ was a Spanish conquistador who explored and claimed Florida in 1513 (same year as Balboa discovered the Pacific).
Juan Ponce de Leon.
Ponce de Leon searched for gold and the “fountain of youth,” and in the process claimed Florida for Spain.
In 1519, _______________, a Spanish conquistador, led an army against the Aztec Indians of Mexico.
Hernando Cortes.
Cortes led an expedition to conquer the Aztec Indians. He ended up wiping out the Aztec empire and getting substantial wealth.
________________ led a 600-man expedition through the southeastern portion of North America. He was buried on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Hernando de Soto.
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish Conquistador and played a big role in broadening Spain’s knowledge of North America. He landed in Florida in 1539 and led the largest expedition of the 16th and 17th century through the southeast and midwest of the present-day United States.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was a Spanish conquistador who started in ______, and explored what is now the southwestern United States.
Mexico.
Coronado explored what is now the southwestern US. His men ended up being the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.
He set out about the same time as de Soto; his goal was to find the “Seven Cities of Cibola,” which were supposedly full of gold.
The first country to bring horses to the Native Americans was _____.
Spain.
Early Spanish explorers such as Coronado brought horses to the Americas, some of which ended up free and resulted in a growing population of wild horses. It wasn’t until decades later that the Native Americans learned how to tame and train horses for their own use.
In 1497, __________, an Italian explorer, set out to find a Northwest Passage, and ended up claiming mainland North America for England.
John Cabot.
John Cabot was looking for the Northwest Passage–a route to Asia going through the Americas. He found none, but ended up hitting mainland North America and claiming it for England.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier a French explorer, claimed portions of Canada for ______.
France.
Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence river, hoping to find a Northwest Passage to Asia. He ended up claiming large portions of present day Canada for France.
The ______ city in North America is St Augustine, Florida.
Oldest.
St. Augustine, in Florida, was originally built as a fort to protect Spanish land.
In 1588, Spain sent a mighty fleet, the Spanish Armada, to conquer England. This fleet was destroyed by the English navy, and resulted in a war between England and Spain which lasted until ____.
1604.
The Jamestown settlement in Virginia was financed by a group of English merchants who formed the ______ Company.
London.
It was given a charter by the king to set up a colony in Virginia. Its goal was profit–not to set up an agricultural community, but a trading post which earned gold.
Sir ______________ started the first English settlement in North America on Roanoke Island, and named a portion of land “Virginia.”
Walter Raleigh.
Sir Walter Raleigh named the mainland area he intended to colonize Virginia, but Roanoke Island was actually off the coast of present day North Carolina. Roanoke Island did not last long; it was found deserted when the leader returned from a trip to England.
The first permanent settlement in North America by the English was Jamestown. It looked doomed to failure like previous attempts, had it not been for the leadership of __________.
John Smith.
Jamestown, Virginia, was the first permanent settlement by the English in North America. John Smith’s leadership was key to its survival.
In 1612, John Rolfe started growing _______ in Virginia, which became a huge cash crop, and motivated England to increase its attempts at settlement.
Tobacco.
John Rolfe discovered that tobacco grew well in Virginia. There was a lucrative market for tobacco in Europe, so this gave England a compelling reason to want to colonize America.
In an effort to encourage _________ to settle in Virginia, English settlers were promised the same rights as people in England–this resulted in the first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses.
Colonists.
The House of Burgesses was the first representative assembly in the English colonies.
__________ servants differed from slaves in that they were free after working for a specified period of time. Also, they had legal rights that could be enforced in court, and there was no social stigma attached to this type of servitude.
Indentured.
Indentured servants were people who paid for their passage from Europe by agreeing to work without pay for a specified time period. Unlike slaves, they were free after fulfilling their contract, and had legal rights. Many settlers in Virginia and Maryland paid their way there by agreeing to work as indentured servants.
The French established a successful fur trade with the Indians in North America. In 1608, a French explorer named ___________________ established a trading post in Quebec, which was the beginning of “New France.”
Samuel de Champlain.
In 1609, Holland sent ____________ to search for the Northwestern Passage through America to Asia. He ended up discovering a large river named after him.
Henry Hudson.
Henry Hudson sailed to North America trying to find a Northwestern Passage. He ended up finding the Hudson River. The Dutch went on to establish a profitable fur trade on present-day Manhattan Island, which they named New Amsterdam.
In 1620, the Pilgrims came from England in the Mayflower and settled ________, Massachusetts.
Cape Cod.
The Pilgrims were originally known as the Separatists, left England for religious freedom, and settled Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Founded in ____, the most important colony founded in the Massachusetts Bay area was the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- The colony was founded by the Puritans and many of their democratic ideas heavily influenced other English speaking colonies. Many of the early colonists fled to America to escape the religious persecution of King James I.
The Puritans settled Massachusetts in large numbers under the leadership of _____________.
John Winthrop.
The Puritans settled Massachusetts shortly after the Pilgrims. By 1642, there were over 20,000 puritan settlers.
The ________ who founded the New England colony did not believe in separation of church and state–they followed strict moral codes which were enforced by the government.
Puritans.
The Puritans followed strict moral codes. Judges administered the laws of the colony and the rules of the church. Education was important to the Puritans, and they had a high literacy rate because every person needed to be able to read the Bible.
A puritan preacher, ______________, founded Providence, Rhode Island after being asked to leave Massachusetts for his disruptive activities.
Roger Williams.
Roger Williams was a Puritan preacher who ended up fleeing from Massachusetts and founding Providence. He later combined Providence, Portsmouth and several other settlements to create Rhode Island.
_______________ was banished from Massachusetts by the Puritans and ended up founding Portsmouth.
Anne Hutchinson.
Anne Hutchinson founded Portsmouth, in what is now Rhode Island.
In 1636, Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts and founded ________.
Hartford.
Thomas Hooker led a group of settlers to found Hartford, in what is now Connecticut.
The Massachusetts colony was founded primarily to show the world how a proper _________ society should be.
Christian.
The Puritans settled Massachusetts with the intent of creating a model Christian community. Religious freedom was a secondary reason.
Roger William’s colony, Rhode Island, was unique in that it granted complete religious __________.
Toleration.
____________ was one of the colonies which did not have an established church, and was known for its climate of freedom and diversity, with Quakers, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Jews settling there.
Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, was known for its complete religious freedom, as opposed to mere religious toleration. It was one of the four colonies which did not have an established church–the other three being New Jersey, Delaware, and Rhode Island.
Roger Williams believed that there should be no government ____________ with religion, and established Rhode Island.
Interference.
After being banished from New England, Roger Williams founded the Rhode Island colony. Part of the reason he was banned from New England was that he was outspoken on his belief that the government should not have control over religion.
Maryland was founded as a refuge for English _________, and was a gift from the King of England to Lord Baltimore for his loyalty.
Catholics.
Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore, and guaranteed political rights to all Christians.
Virginia was the first English colony founded for trade and profit instead of for _________ reasons.
Religious.
Most of the earliest colonies were founded for religious reasons; Virginia was founded for trade and profit–primarily through the growth of tobacco.
The North Carolina colony developed as an overflow from the ________ colony.
Virginia.
The North Carolina colony was founded by settlers who drifted down from Virginia. Originally, the Carolinas were one colony, but differences in interest and outlook resulted in two different colonies.
The South Carolina colony was settled by emigrants from the overcrowded West Indies. They started Charleston, named after the King, and had ____ as a cash crop.
Rice.
The South Carolina colony was settled by emigrants from the West Indies. From the beginning, South Carolina had slavery as a fully developed institution.
The _____ colony of New Netherlands was conquered by James, the Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II, and became New York.
Dutch.
James, the Duke of York, conquered New Netherlands with little bloodshed. He renamed it New York.
The __________ colony was founded by two of the proprietors who owned the Carolinas.
New Jersey.
New Jersey was founded when King James II granted a chunk of New York to two of the original Carolinas proprietors.
