Vocabulary Flashcards
Horticulture
a form of agriculture in which people work small plots of land with simple tools.
Became highly popular in some communities in the Americas around 8000 to 2000 BCE.
Aztecs
an indigenous people who built an empire in present-day Mexico in the centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.
Tenochtitlán
The capital city of the Aztec Empire.
Chinampas
An aztec technology innovation that was basically artificial islands. The Aztecs took advantage of the well-watered swampy and lake areas by building theses innovations.
Maya
A civilization that established large cities on the Yucatán peninsula with strong irrigation and agricultural techniques. Settled between 900 BCE and 300 CE and was at its peak from 300 CE to its decline in 800 CE (likely from drought and heavy taxation).
Incas
Andean people who built an empire in the centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards amid the fertile land of the Andres Mountains along the Pacific coast. Reaching heights of power in the fifteenth century and had a population of approximately 16 million people. This civilization constructed an expansive system of roads and garrisons which ultimately helped the flow of food, trade goods, and soldiers. Key to their success was the fertile mountain valleys.
Pueblo
American Indian peoples who lived in present-day New Mexico and Arizona and built permanent multi-story adobe dwellings.
Pueblo revolt
1680 uprising of Pueblo Indians against Spanish forces in New Mexico that led to the Spaniard’s temporary retreat from the are. The uprising was sparked by mistreatment and the suppression of Pueblo culture and religion.
Atlatl
a weighted spear-throwing device that allowed hunters to capture smaller game. Was mainly used by hunting societies up north (near present day Colorado to Canada).
Renaissance
The cultural and intellectual flowering that began in the fifteenth-century Italy and then spread north throughout the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During this time, European rulers pushed for greater political unification of their states.
Also due to this span of time many of the now wealthy individuals required taste in fine Asian manufactured goods, as well as spices from India and China (this eventually leads to Europeans finding ways to establish oceanic trade routes to those lands).
Missionaries
People who travel to foreign lands with the goal of converting those they meet and interact with to a new religion.
caravels
Portuguese developed ships that had vessels with narrow hulls and triangular sails (which were great for navigating the coast of West Africa).
Mariners
A term for sailors
Astrolabe
A tool invented by Greek astronomers and sailors for navigation or astrological problems.
Inquisition
A religious judicial institution designed to find and eliminate beliefs that did not align with official Catholic practices (The Spanish ____ was first established in 1478).
Atlantic World
The interactions between the peoples from the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean –Africa, the Americas, and Western Europe– beginning in the late fifteenth century.
Columbian Exchange
The biological exchange between the Americas and the rest of the world between 1492 and the end of the sixteenth century. Although its initial impact was strongest in the Americas and Europe, it soon felt globally.
staple crops
Crops that are frequently planted and eaten, and therefore a central part of one’s diet. (ex. sugar)
conquistador
Also known as encomenderos, Spanish soldiers who were a central to the conquest of the civilizations of the Americas. Once conquest was complete, conquistadors often extracted wealth from the people and lands they came to rule.
Feudalism
A social and economic system organized by a hierarchy of hereditary classes. Lower social orders owed loyalty to the social classes above them and, in return, received protection or land.
The columbian exchange led to the end of this.
Capitalism
An economic system based on private ownership of property and the open exchange of goods between property holders.
The end of feudalism led to the rise of this.
Aristocratic
Members of the highest class of society, typically nobility who inherited their ranks and titles.
encomienda
System first established by Christopher Columbus by which Spanish leaders in the Americas received land and the labor of all American Indians residing on it. For American Indians, this system amounted to enslavement.
requerimiento
A legal document issued by the Spanish crown (Queen Isabella) in 1513 to justify the Spanish conquest of territory in the Americas.
mission system
System established by the Spanish in 1573 in which missionaries, rather than soldiers, directed all new settlements in the Americas.
Franciscan
Member of a Catholic religious order founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century.
tribute
The exchange of goods or services in return for protection, frequently used as a method of control or exploitation in colonies and territories.
Spanish caste system
A system developed by the Spanish in the sixteenth century that defined the status of diverse populations based on racial hierarchy that privileged Europeans.
Peninsulares
People born in Spain.
Criollos
People born of Spanish parents in the colonies.
Mestizos
People who share both Spanish and American Indian parentage.
Mulattos
People who share both African and Spanish parentage
Calvinism
Developed in Switzerland by John Calvin, a version of Protestantism (embraced by the Dutch in hopes to separate themselves from Catholic Spain) in which civil magistrates and reformed ministers ruled over a Christian society.
Iroquois Confederacy
A group of allied American Indian nations that included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later the Tuscarora. The Confederacy was largely dissolved by the final decade of the 1700s.
inflation
Market-wide increase in prices, leading to the devaluation of currency. Pose a major challenge for the ruling class and to the economic stability of England as the sixteenth century came to an end.
Enclosure movements
The privatized use of common land for personal or financial gain by noblemen, who evicted commoners who relied on the land for subsistence. This led to increased social conflict, famine, inflation, and immigration to North America.
These movements reflected the monarchy’s and the nobility’s efforts to seek new sources of wealth (such as the development of Jamestown in the Americas)
These movements also led to a large population of landless, unemployed people who often faced prosecution.
Indentured servitude
Servants contracted to work for a set period of time without pay. Many early migrants to the English colonies indentured themselves in exchange for the price of passage to North America.
joint-stock companies
Companies in which large numbers of investors own stock. They were able to quickly raise large amounts of risk and reward equally among investors.
Act of Religious Toleration
1649 act passed by the Maryland Assembly granting religious freedom to all Christians.
Anglicization
Adoption of or becoming English in character and tradition. In colonial America, this took the form of English legal and social traditions dominating colonial institutions by the eighteenth century.
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
Series of conflicts in the 1620s between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia and Maryland.
Bacon’s Rebellion
1676 uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon. Bacon and his followers, many of whom were former servants, were upset by the Virginia governor’s unwillingness to send troops to intervene in conflicts between settlers and American Indians and by the lack of representation of western settlers in the House of Burgesses.
cash crop
A crop produced for profit rather than for subsistence.
Church of England
National church established by King Henry VIII after he split with the Catholic Church in 1534.
Colonization
The process of settling and controlling an already inhabited area for the economic benefit of the settlers, or colonizers.
common law
Law established from custom and the standards set by previous judicial rulings.
consumer revolution
A process through which status in the colonies became more closely linked to financial success and a refined lifestyle rather than birth and family pedigree during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The consumer revolution was spurred by industrialization and increased global trade.
Covenant Chain
The alliance formed between Iroquois leaders and colonists during a meeting Albany in 1677 in hopes of salvaging their fur trade and preventing future conflict.
Dominion of New England
The consolidation of Northeastern colonies by King James II in 1686 to establish greater control over them, resulting in the banning of town meetings, new taxes, and other unpopular policies. The Dominion was dissolved during the Glorious Revolution.
English Civil War
(1642–1651) Series of civil wars fought to determine who should control England’s government.
Enlightenment
European cultural movement spanning the late seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century emphasizing rational and scientific thinking over traditional religion and superstition.
gang labor
A particularly harsh labor system that forced enslaved Africans and African Americans to work at a continuous pace throughout the day.
Glorious Revolution
1688 rebellion that forced James II from the English throne and replaced him with William and Mary. The Glorious Revolution led to greater political and commercial autonomy for the British colonies.
Great Awakening
Series of religious revivals in colonial America that began in 1720 and lasted to about 1750.
headright system
Created in Virginia in 1618, it rewarded those who imported indentured laborers and settlers with fifty acres of land.
household mode of production
A system of exchange, managed largely through barter, that allowed individual households to function even as they became more specialized in what they produced. Whatever cash was obtained could be used to buy imported goods.
House of Burgesses
Local governing body in Virginia established by the English crown in 1619.
Huguenots
French Protestants who fought for religious liberties and were heavily persecuted during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the predominantly Catholic nation of France.
imperialism
A policy of expanding the border and increasing the global power of a nation, typically via military force.
impressment
The forced enlistment of civilians into the army or navy. The impressment of residents of colonial seaports into the British navy was a major source of complaint in the eighteenth century.
indulgences
Payments to the Catholic Church as penance in exchange for the forgiveness of sins.
King George’s War
1739–1748 war between France, Spain, and England fought in North America.
King William’s War
1689–1697 war that began as a conflict over competing French and English interests on the European continent but soon spread to the American frontier. Both sides pulled American Indian allies into the war.
Leisler’s Rebellion
Class revolt by urban artisans and landless renters led by Merchant Jacob Leisler in 1689 New York over new taxes and centralized rule.
libel
A false written statement designed to damage the reputation of its subject.
Mayflower Compact
Written agreement created by the Pilgrims upon their arrival in Plymouth. It was the first written constitution adopted in North America.
Metacom’s War
1675–1676 conflict between New England settlers and the region’s American Indians. The settlers were the eventual victors, but fighting was fierce and casualties on both sides were high.
Middle Passage
The brutal voyage of slave ships laden with human cargo from Africa to the Americas. It was the middle segment in a triangular journey that began in Europe, went first to Africa, then to the Americas, and finally back to Europe.
Methodism
A form of Protestantism based on Pietist ideas, founded by Englishman John Wesley.
mercantilism
Economic system centered on maintaining a favorable balance of trade for the home country, with more gold and silver flowing into that country than flowed out. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British colonial policy was heavily shaped by mercantilism.
Navigation Acts
1798 act passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress that raised the residency requirement for citizenship from five to fourteen years to delay the naturalization of immigrants who largely voted Democratic-Republican.
New Light clergy
Colonial clergy who called for religious revivals and emphasized the emotional aspects of spiritual commitment. The New Lights were leaders in the Great Awakening.
Old Light clergy
Colonial clergy from established churches who supported the religious status quo in the early eighteenth century.
original sin
Christian belief that all humans are born into sin because of the biblical sin of Adam eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
patriarchal family
Model of the family in which fathers have absolute authority over wives, children, and servants. Most colonial Americans accepted the patriarchal model of the family, at least as an ideal.
Pequot War
1636–1637 conflict between New England settlers, their Narragansett allies, and the Pequots. The English saw the Pequots as both a threat and an obstacle to further English expansion.
Pietist
German Protestants who criticized the power of established churches and urged individuals to follow their hearts rather than their heads in spiritual matters. Pietism had a profound influence on the leaders of the Great Awakening.
Pilgrims
Also known as Separatists, a group of English religious dissenters who established a settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Unlike more mainstream Protestants, the Pilgrims aimed to cut all connections with the Church of England.
Powhatan Confederacy
Large and powerful confederation of Algonquian-speaking American Indians in Virginia. The Jamestown settlers had a complicated and often combative relationship with the leaders of the Powhatan Confederacy.
predestination
Religious belief that God has pre-determined who is worthy of salvation, and thus it could not be earned through good works or penance.
Privy Council
A powerful group of advisors appointed to provide guidance to the British monarch.
Protestant Reformation
Widespread break from the Roman Catholic Church due to its perceived abuses of power throughout the sixteenth century. It spurred the creation of many Protestant religions and was a source of conflict throughout Europe and North America during the seventeenth century.
Puritan Migration
The mass migration of Puritans from Europe to New England during the 1620s and 1630s.
Puritans
Radical English Protestants who hoped to reform the Church of England. The first Puritan settlers in the Americas arrived in Massachusetts in 1630.
Queen Anne’s War
1702–1713 war over control of Spain and its colonies; also known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Although the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the war in 1713 was intended to bring peace by establishing a balance of power, imperial conflict continued to escalate.
redemptioners
Immigrants who borrowed money from shipping agents to cover the costs of transport to America, loans that were repaid, or “redeemed,” by colonial employers. Redemptioners worked for their “redeemers” for a set number of years.
seditious
Behavior or language aimed at starting a rebellion against a government.
slave code
Laws restricting enslaved peoples’ rights, largely due to slaveholders’ fears of rebellion.
slave laws
A series of laws that defined slavery as a distinct status based on racial identity and which passed that status on through future generations.
Stono Rebellion
1739 uprising by enslaved Africans and African Americans in South Carolina. In its aftermath, white fear of slave revolts intensified.
subsistence farmers
Farmers who grow crops for their own needs rather than for profit.
theologians
People who study religious beliefs or theology.
Treaty of Utrecht
1713 Treaty that ended Queen Anne’s War. It aimed to achieve peace by balancing the interests of European powers and their colonial possessions.
Tuscarora War
War launched by Tuscarora Indians from 1711 to 1715 against European settlers in North Carolina and their allies from the Yamasee, Catawba, and Cherokee nations. The Tuscaroras lost their lands when they signed the peace treaty and many then joined the Iroquois Confederacy to the north.
veto
The right to block a decision made by a governing body.
Walking Purchase
1737 treaty that allowed Pennsylvania to expand its boundaries at the expense of the Delaware Indians. The treaty, likely a forgery, allowed the British to add territory that could be walked off in a day and a half.
Yamasee War
A pan-American Indian war from 1715 to 1717 led by the Yamasee who intended, but failed, to oust the British from South Carolina.
