HIST 1001 A

Flashcard deck · History

Chapters 1-6 of An Unfinished Nation

Terms in this deck

What were Indigenous societies in the Americas before European arrival?: The many distinct Native societies that existed throughout the Americas before European arrival. They differed greatly in political organization, agriculture, religion, settlement patterns, and adaptation to regional environments.
How did agriculture affect Native American societies?: Agriculture supported permanent settlements, larger populations, and more complex societies in many parts of the Americas.
What was the Mississippian culture?: A large agricultural culture centered in the Mississippi River Valley that developed substantial towns, trade networks, and political centers.
Who was Christopher Columbus and what did he do?: Italian navigator whose 1492 voyage for Spain initiated sustained contact between Europe and the Americas.
What was the Columbian Exchange?: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, peoples, and resources between the Americas and Europe, Africa, and Asia following sustained contact.
What role did epidemic disease play in Spanish conquest?: Diseases such as smallpox brought by Europeans. Because Indigenous peoples generally lacked immunity, epidemics caused massive population loss and weakened many societies.
What was the Atlantic slave trade?: The forced transportation of Africans across the Atlantic to supply labor in European colonies, especially plantation regions.
What was Cahokia?: A major Mississippian settlement near present-day St. Louis. Its size and earthworks demonstrate the existence of complex, densely populated societies in North America before European contact.
What was the Atlantic World?: The interconnected system linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas through trade, migration, warfare, colonization, and slavery.
What was the encomienda system?: Spanish colonial labor system in which colonists received rights to Indigenous labor, supposedly in exchange for protection and Christian instruction.
Who was Bartolomé de Las Casas?: Spanish priest who condemned harsh treatment and exploitation of Indigenous peoples by Spanish colonists.
What is a mestizo?: A person of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry; mixed populations became especially important in Spanish America.
What is mercantilism?: Economic theory that colonies should strengthen and enrich the mother country by supplying resources and purchasing its manufactured goods.
What is imperialism?: The extension of a nation's political, economic, or military control over other peoples or territories.
What is colonization?: The establishment of permanent settlements and political control over another territory.
What was the Protestant Reformation and how did it affect colonization?: Religious movement that divided Western Christianity and contributed to European political and religious rivalries that shaped colonization.
When and where was Jamestown founded?: Founded in Virginia in 1607, the first permanent English settlement in North America. Its early years were marked by disease, hunger, leadership problems, and conflict with Native peoples.
Who was Powhatan?: Leader of a confederation of Indigenous peoples in the Chesapeake region; the term is also used for the peoples of that confederacy.
What was tobacco's significance to Virginia?: Virginia's major cash crop. Its profitability encouraged expansion onto Indigenous land and created a large demand for labor.
What was the headright system?: Virginia policy granting land to colonists who paid for their own passage or the passage of other settlers, encouraging immigration and plantation expansion.
What were indentured servants?: People who agreed to work for an employer for a fixed number of years in exchange for transportation to America, food, and shelter.
What was the Virginia House of Burgesses?: Representative legislative assembly established in Virginia; an early example of representative government in English America.
What was Bacon's Rebellion?: 1676 Virginia uprising involving Nathaniel Bacon and frontier settlers against Governor William Berkeley. It exposed tensions involving land, Native policy, political power, and class.
What were slave codes?: Laws that increasingly defined slavery as permanent, racial, and hereditary while sharply restricting the rights and movement of enslaved people.
Who was John Winthrop?: Puritan leader and governor associated with Massachusetts Bay and the effort to create an exemplary Christian community.
Who was Roger Williams?: Religious dissenter who challenged Puritan authorities, supported greater religious freedom, and founded Rhode Island.
Who was Anne Hutchinson?: Religious dissenter expelled from Massachusetts Bay after challenging religious authorities and accepted teachings.
Who was Metacom?: Wampanoag leader known to the English as King Philip who led resistance against New England settlers.
Who was William Penn?: Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who promoted religious toleration and initially pursued relatively peaceful relations with Indigenous peoples.
What were the Navigation Acts?: English laws regulating colonial commerce so that trade would benefit England and remain within its mercantilist system.
Who were the Puritans?: English Protestants who wanted to further reform the Church of England and established important settlements in New England.
What was the Massachusetts Bay Company?: Puritan-led company responsible for a major migration and settlement in Massachusetts beginning in 1630.
What was the Mayflower Compact?: Agreement made by Plymouth settlers to create a government and obey laws established for the good of the colony.
What was Plymouth Plantation?: Colony established by Separatist Pilgrims in present-day Massachusetts beginning in 1620.
What is a theocracy?: A government in which religious authority and political authority are closely connected.
What was the Pequot War?: Violent 1630s conflict between New England colonists and the Pequot that resulted in devastating losses for the Pequot.
What was King Philip's War?: Major 1670s war between New England colonists and Indigenous forces led by Metacom; one of the most destructive conflicts of colonial New England.
Who were the Quakers?: Religious group emphasizing an individual's direct relationship with God and spiritual equality; especially associated with Pennsylvania.
What were middle grounds?: Contested regions where no single group had complete control and Indigenous peoples and Europeans negotiated trade, diplomacy, and cultural relations.
What was the Atlantic trade?: Commercial network connecting Britain, its North American colonies, Africa, the Caribbean, and other parts of the Atlantic world.
What was a plantation economy?: Agricultural economy based on large-scale production of profitable staple crops and heavily dependent on coerced or enslaved labor.
What is slavery?: System in which people were legally treated as property and forced to labor. In British North America it increasingly became racialized and hereditary.
What was consumer culture in colonial America?: Growing colonial desire and ability to purchase imported manufactured goods, especially British products.
What was the Great Awakening?: Eighteenth-century religious revival emphasizing emotional conversion and personal religious experience while challenging some established churches and clergy.
What was an itinerant preacher?: Traveling minister who delivered sermons in different communities; itinerant preachers helped spread the Great Awakening across colonial boundaries.
What was the Enlightenment?: Intellectual movement emphasizing reason, observation, scientific inquiry, and the ability of people to understand and improve society.
What was triangular trade?: Atlantic trading patterns connecting Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America through exchanges of goods, raw materials, and enslaved people.
What was the Middle Passage?: The brutal Atlantic voyage transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas.
What was the Stono Rebellion?: 1739 uprising by enslaved people in South Carolina that led to stricter controls over the enslaved population.
Who was Jonathan Edwards?: Influential minister and theologian associated with the Great Awakening.
What is an evangelist?: Religious preacher who seeks converts through revival preaching and an emphasis on personal religious experience.
Who was John Peter Zenger?: New York printer whose trial became associated with greater freedom to criticize government officials in print.
What were the Salem witchcraft trials?: 1692 Massachusetts trials in which accusations of witchcraft led to prosecutions and executions, reflecting religious and social tensions.
What was the Seven Years' War / French and Indian War?: Global conflict between Britain and France that began in North America. Britain's victory expanded its empire but created heavy debt and new problems governing western territory.
What was the Treaty of Paris (1763)?: Treaty ending the Seven Years' War. France surrendered most of its mainland North American holdings, leaving Britain dominant in eastern North America.
What was Pontiac's War?: Indigenous resistance after the Seven Years' War against British occupation and colonial expansion in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions.
What was the Proclamation of 1763?: British attempt to limit colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, partly to reduce warfare with Indigenous peoples.
What was the Sugar Act?: 1764 British revenue measure involving sugar and molasses that also strengthened customs enforcement.
What was the Stamp Act?: 1765 tax requiring revenue stamps on many printed materials. It triggered widespread colonial protest over Parliament's right to tax the colonies.
What was the colonial argument of "no taxation without representation"?: Colonial argument that Parliament should not tax Americans who did not elect representatives to Parliament.
What was the Declaratory Act?: Law passed after repeal of the Stamp Act declaring Parliament's authority to legislate for the colonies.
What were the Townshend Duties?: Taxes imposed on imported goods such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea.
What was nonimportation?: Colonial agreements to boycott British goods as a form of economic and political protest.
What was the Boston Tea Party?: 1773 protest in which colonists dumped East India Company tea into Boston Harbor in opposition to British policy.
What was the Tea Act?: 1773 law designed partly to aid the East India Company. Colonists opposed it because it maintained the principle of parliamentary taxation and affected colonial merchants.
What were the Coercive Acts / Intolerable Acts?: British measures punishing Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party, including restrictions on self-government and closure of Boston's port.
What was the Continental Congress?: Intercolonial meeting organized to coordinate colonial responses to British policy.
What happened at Lexington and Concord?: April 1775 battles between British troops and Massachusetts colonists that marked the beginning of armed Revolutionary War fighting.
What was Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan?: 1754 proposal for greater colonial cooperation; colonial governments rejected it.
What was the Sons of Liberty?: Colonial protest organization that opposed British taxation and helped organize resistance.
What was the Daughters of Liberty?: Women who supported resistance through boycotts and production of substitutes for British imports.
What was the Boston Massacre?: 1770 confrontation in which British soldiers killed colonists in Boston, becoming an important part of patriot propaganda.
What were Committees of Correspondence?: Networks used by colonists to spread political information and coordinate resistance between communities and colonies.
What was the British argument of virtual representation?: British argument that members of Parliament represented the interests of all British subjects, including those who did not directly elect them.
What was the Declaration of Independence?: 1776 document formally declaring the colonies independent from Britain and asserting principles of natural rights and government based on consent.
Who were Patriots?: Americans who supported independence from Britain.
Who were Loyalists?: Americans who remained loyal to Britain during the Revolution.
What was the significance of Saratoga?: Major American victory in 1777 that helped persuade France to formally ally with the United States.
What was the French alliance?: Formal alliance with France that provided the Americans with money, soldiers, weapons, and naval support essential to defeating Britain.
What was the significance of Yorktown?: 1781 American and French victory in Virginia where General Cornwallis surrendered a major British army, effectively ending large-scale fighting.
What was the Treaty of Paris (1783)?: Treaty ending the Revolutionary War in which Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States.
What is republicanism?: Political philosophy emphasizing government based on the people rather than hereditary monarchy and stressing civic participation and the public good.
What is popular sovereignty?: Principle that legitimate government authority comes from the people.
What were state constitutions?: Written governing documents created by the newly independent states.
What were the Articles of Confederation?: First national framework of government. Congress could conduct diplomacy and war but lacked important powers such as directly taxing citizens or regulating interstate commerce.
What was Shays's Rebellion?: 1786-1787 Massachusetts uprising fueled in part by economic hardship and taxation; it intensified arguments that the national government under the Articles was too weak.
What was the Second Continental Congress?: Colonial meeting that coordinated the war effort, selected George Washington to command American forces, and eventually moved toward independence.
What was Common Sense by Thomas Paine?: Widely read 1776 pamphlet arguing that Americans should completely break with Britain.
Who was Thomas Paine?: Writer whose Common Sense helped popularize the case for independence.
What was Lord Dunmore's Proclamation?: British Virginia governor's offer of freedom to enslaved people belonging to rebels who escaped and joined British forces.
Who were the Hessians?: German soldiers hired by Britain to fight in America.
What was the Northwest Ordinance?: Confederation-era law establishing a system for governing western territories and admitting new states.
What was the Virginia Plan?: Constitutional Convention proposal favoring a stronger national government and representation in Congress based on population.
What was the New Jersey Plan?: Alternative proposal that retained equal representation for states while increasing some congressional powers.
What was the Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise)?: Agreement establishing a bicameral Congress: representation by population in the House and equal representation for each state in the Senate.
What is federalism?: Division of governmental authority between the national government and state governments.
What is the separation of powers?: Division of national authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is the system of checks and balances?: System allowing each branch of government to limit or check the powers of the others.
Who were the Federalists?: Supporters of the Constitution who favored the stronger national government it created.
Who were the Antifederalists?: Opponents or critics of the Constitution who feared excessive national power and argued for stronger protections for individual liberties.
What was the Bill of Rights?: First ten amendments to the Constitution, added to protect individual liberties and address major Antifederalist concerns.
Who was Alexander Hamilton and what was his role?: Leading Federalist who supported a strong national government and developed an ambitious financial program under President Washington.
What was Hamilton's assumption of debts proposal?: Proposal for the federal government to assume outstanding state Revolutionary War debts, strengthening national credit and federal authority.
What was the National Bank (Bank of the United States)?: Financial institution proposed by Hamilton to hold government funds, issue loans, and strengthen the national economy.
What are implied powers?: Powers not explicitly listed in the Constitution but considered reasonably necessary for carrying out expressly granted powers.
What was the Whiskey Rebellion?: 1794 resistance to a federal whiskey tax. Washington's administration used federal power to suppress the uprising, demonstrating the new government's capacity to enforce its laws.
What was Jay's Treaty?: 1794 agreement with Britain intended to resolve remaining disputes but highly controversial in the United States.
What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?: 1798 laws passed under the Federalists that increased federal powers over immigrants and restricted certain criticism of the government.
What was the Revolution of 1800?: Election in which Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans defeated the Federalists; significant for the peaceful transfer of national political power between competing parties.
Who was James Madison and what was his role?: Major architect of the Constitution, advocate of the Virginia Plan, and important Federalist during ratification who later became a leader of the Republican opposition.
What were the Federalist Papers?: Essays written primarily by Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay defending the Constitution and arguing for ratification.
Who were the Republicans (Democratic-Republicans)?: Political opposition to the Federalists associated with Jefferson and Madison; generally more suspicious of centralized federal authority and Hamilton's economic program.
What was the XYZ Affair?: Diplomatic crisis with France that increased anti-French sentiment and contributed to an undeclared naval conflict.
What was the Quasi-War?: Undeclared naval conflict between the United States and France during the Adams administration.
What were the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions?: Statements written in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts that argued states could judge the constitutionality of federal actions.
What was the first party system?: Political competition primarily between Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson and Madison's Republicans during the 1790s.

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