Vikings
Late-medieval Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian groups who responded to land shortages and climatic conditions in Scandinavia by taking to the sea and establishing communities in various parts of western Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and North America
Muslim city-states
began to decline in the sixteenth century; the advent of Portuguese trade disrupted the old trade routes and made the Swahili commercial centers obsolete.
The Crusades
series of intermittent military campaigns in the years from 1096 to 1487, sanctioned by various Popes.
Council of Clermont
a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, which was held from November 18 to November 28, 1095 at Clermont, France. Pope Urban II's speech on November 27 was the starting point of the First Crusade.
Salah al-Din
the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of their Ayyubid dynasty, although it was named after his father.
Johann Gutenberg
German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe.
Prince Henry the Navigator
An important figure in 15th-century Portuguese politics and in the early days of the Portuguese Empire.
Portuguese Explorers
led the way when it came to exploration of the New World. The most famous Portuguese explorers included Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Bartholomeu Dias and Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real.
Christopher Columbus
An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government (Isabelle and Ferdinand) to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journeys until the time of his death in 1503.
Columbian Exchange
a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life.
Aztecs
(1200-1521) 1300, they settled in the valley of Mexico. Grew corn. Engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region. Worshipped many gods (polytheistic). Believed the sun god needed human blood to continue his journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifices and those sacrificed were captured warriors from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor.
Incas
A Native American people who built a notable civilization in western South America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The center of their empire was in present-day Peru. Francisco Pizarro of Spain conquered the empire
Sir Walter Raleigh
An English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas. In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. It failed and is known as " The Lost Colony." Introduced tobacco and the potato to Europe. Convicted of treason by James I, he was released for another expedition to Guiana and executed after its failure.
Roanoke
also known as the Lost Colony, was established on Roanoke Island in what is today's Dare County, North Carolina, United States. It was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement.
Jamestown
1607. Virginia company sponsored English colonization in Jamestown, VA. English men didn't want to work/build colony. IT was a swampy area-hard to grow crops. There was disease and disputes with indians. Once women arrived, tobacco was planted, and the colonists established trade with the indians the colony survived. This was the first permanent english settlement.
Captain John Smith
A captain famous for world travel. As a young man, he took control in Jamestown. He organized the colony and saved many people from death the next winter. He also initiated attacks on Natives. He was the council president of Jamestown beginning in 1608.
Headright System
originally created in 1618 in Jamestown, Virginia. It was used as a way to attract new settlers to the region and address the labor shortage. With the emergence of tobacco farming, a large supply of workers was needed. New settlers who paid their way to Virginia received 50 acres of land.
Virginia Company
Investors who founded Jamestown. Put their money together in order to invest in an overseas adventure.
joint-stock company
A way of pooling financial resources and sharing the risk of maritime voyages, which proved central to the development of modern capitalism.
Glorious Revolution
1688; the parliament deposed King James II, a Roman Catholic who had asserted royal rights over the rights of Parliament. Parliament gave the crown to the Protestant King William III, a Dutch prince, and his British wife, Queen Mary II (daughter of James II), as joint rulers. When the crown was offered to William and Mary, they agreed to a Bill of Rights that severely limited the king or queen's power. The British Bill of Rights is often regarded as a forerunner to the United States Bill of Rights.
Phillip II
King of Spain from 1556 to 1598 and of Portugal from 1581 to 1598. From 1554 he was King of Naples and Sicily as well as Duke of Milan. During his marriage to Queen Mary I, he was also King of England and Ireland.
Henry VIII
(1491-1547) King of England from 1509 to 1547; his desire to annul his marriage led to a conflict with the pope, England's break with the Roman Catholic Church, and its embrace of Protestantism. Henry established the Church of England in 1532.
Sir Francis Drake
A vice admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era.
Martin Luther
A German priest who wrote the 95 Theses, which accused the church of worldliness and corruption. Wanted to cleanse the church of abuses such as the sale of indulgences.
John Calvin
French-born Swiss theologian. Calvin taught that the world was divided between the elect and the damned. All persons sought salvation, but God had already determined whether one was among the elect destined to be saved. Idleness and immoral behavior were sure signs of damnation. This idea was called Predestination.
St Augustine
Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, Saint Austin, or Blessed Augustine, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy.
Jesuits
A male religious congregation of the Catholic Church.
Powhatan Confederacy
A group of Native American tribes during the 17th century that settled in Virginia. Learn about how they rose in power under Powhatan, how they reacted to English colonists at Jamestown, and how they ended up in decline.
John Rolfe
Pocahontas' husband. Arrives carrying a tobacco plant.
tobacco
The role of tobacco in colonial tidewater Virginia provided the economic salvation of the colony, stemmed from the Indians & was improved by John Rolfe, was initially opposed by King James I who later supported it due to the revenue it produced.
indentured servitude
labor system where people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere.
"seasoning"
Malaria, Typhoid, and dysentery. 40% didn't survive long enough to be free. Life span of 20 years in Virginia for servants. If you survived there was a real possibility of advancement.
Mayflower Compact
Before they got off the ship, they agreed to conduct themselves by the laws of God and man. First concern: adhering to law and order, doing this by choice, not by someone telling them to. Suffer the same fate as Jamestown - half are dead by the end of the first year.
Pilgrims
Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.
John Winthrop
As governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop (1588-1649) was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world. He opposed total democracy, believing the colony was best governed by a small group of skillful leaders.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
1629 - King Charles gave the Puritans a right to settle and govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area. This colony established political freedom and a representative government. In Massachusetts Bay People arrived in family units, Puritans refused to formally separate from the Church of England, The town was the center of life, The mortality rate was relatively low.
Puritans
A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay.
Anne Hutchinson
More substantial challenge to Puritans. Preaching "covenant of grace" to women in their homes. Banished and eventually killed by Indians.
Roger Williams
A dissenter, Roger Williams clashed with Massachusetts Puritans over the issue of separation of church and state. After being banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he traveled south, where he founded the colony of Rhode Island, which granted full religious freedom to its inhabitants.
great migration
John Winthrop elected governor in October 1629. Helped to organize 1st phases of the Great Migration. 1630 on the Arbella, preaching Puritanical Vision of New England.
halfway covenant
A Puritan church document; In 1662, the Halfway Covenant allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; It lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; Women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.
chattel slavery
Slavery in North America, between 1492-1700 more Africans than Europeans came to the New World. However, only 4.5% coming to the English Colonies.
"middle passage"
For slaves, the voyage across the Atlantic - known as the Middle Passage because it was the second, or middle, leg in the triangular trading routes linking Europe, Africa, and America.
James I
King of Scotland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death.
Charles I
Monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.
Oliver Cromwell
English military, political, and religious figure who led the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War (1642-1649) and called for the execution of Charles I. As lord protector of England (1653-1658) he ruled as a virtual dictator.
Charles II
Monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Charles II's father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War.
James II
King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Stono Rebellion
Slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, with 42-47 whites and 44 blacks killed.
The Enlightenment
18th century, Enlightenment - secular tradition has begun to expand and incorporate other areas of life; Define natural laws to predict and explain phenomenon becomes an increasingly accepted part of society as well - natural sciences and then to development of social sciences; The movement of the Enlightenment finds itself in a cultural war with the church as increasingly more areas of European life that were previously dominated by religion are now developing cultural battles for new understandings (natural laws); No longer under the dark rule of superstition - becoming enlightened.
Great Awakening
(1730s and 1740s) Religious movement characterized by emotional preaching (Jonathan Edwards & George Whitefield). The first cultural movement to unite the Thirteen Colonies. Associated with the democratization of religion.
Jonathan Edwards
Massachusetts Congregationalist minister who pioneered an intensely emotional style of preaching. Edwards's famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God portrayed sinful man as a "loathsome insect" suspended over a bottomless pit of eternal fire by a slender thread that might break at any moment.
George Whitefield
English Anglican cleric who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain and, especially, in the American colonies.
Navigation Acts
A series of British regulations which taxed goods imported by the colonies from places other than Britain, or otherwise sought to control and regulate colonial trade. Increased British-colonial trade and tax revenues. The Navigation Acts were reinstated after the French and Indian War because Britain needed to pay off debts incurred during the war, and to pay the costs of maintaining a standing army in the colonies.
Enumerated goods
colonial products permitted to be exported only to limited destinations, generally British colonies, England, Ireland, Wales, Berwick on Tweed, or, after 1707, Scotland. The first article enumerated was tobacco in 1621, by order in council.
Mercantilism
An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought.
Bacon's Revolution
Led by Nathaniel Bacon. William Berkeley is causing the problems. Owning land was a symbol of status and freedom. If there weren't an issue with classes, this wouldn't have been an issue. Had to get the army involved to stop this. Reduced the tax on tobacco in the need. Used slaves - didn't want white people attacking each other over land and class. Berkeley runs away at the end of the rebellion and Bacon dies by the end of it. Teaches the colonists not to trust the rich because they are loyal to the Crown. Bacon's rebellion in 1676 Virginia was led by Nathaniel Bacon, saw the backcountry rise up against the planter elite, ended up with part of Jamestown being burned & Bacon dying, scared the planters to abandon indentured servants for slave labor.
Great War for the Empire
A war (1756-1763) fought by Britain against the French and their Native American allies, part of the conflict known in Europe as the Seven Years' War. Britain, emerging victorious, took possession of the French territories in Canada and became the dominant colonial power in North America.
George Washington
Commander of the army authorized by the Second Continental Congress.
virtual representation
The British response to the First Continental Congress in the American colonies. The Congress asked for representation in Parliament in the Suffolk Resolves, also known as the first olive branch petition. Parliament claimed that their members had the well being of the colonists in mind.
Paxton Boys
Frontiersmen of Scots-Irish origin from along the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania who formed a vigilante group to retaliate in 1763 against local American Indians in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion.
King Philip's War
About 1,000 Indians were killed. Only reason they get it under control is because King Philip dies, and certain praying Indians start to help the colonists. Two things: when Massachusetts Bay asked the other colonists for help, the colonies were not willing to help. The pleas to the Crown to send a royal army were not answered. It was an Indian problem. The colonists start to learn unity, and that the Crown only cares about issues that effect the Crown.
Dominion of New England
An administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America.
Sir Edmund Andros
English colonial administrator in North America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence.
Sugar Act
(1764) (otherwise known as Revenue Act) British deeply in debt partly to French & Indian War. English Parliament placed a tariff on sugar, coffee, wines, and molasses. colonists avoided the tax by smuggling and by bribing tax collectors.
Stamp Act
1765, Act meant to help pay for the British army in America. It placed a tax on all legal documents, newspapers, etc, and unintentionally brought a temporary halt to commerce. It inspired large spread resistance (including the stamp act congress, burning of tax collectors, buildings, etc.). It was eventually repealed and replaced with the Declaratory Act.
Stamp Act Congress
A meeting held between October 7 and 25, 1765 in New York City, consisting of representatives from some of the British colonies in North America; it was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation.
Townshend Duties
Passed by Parliament in 1767, this act imposed import duties on tea, paper, glass, red and white lead, and painter's colors. It provoked the imperial crisis of 1767-1770. In 1770 Parliament repealed all of the duties except the one on tea.
Patrick Henry
American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s.
Daniel Dulany
Maryland Loyalist politician, Mayor of Annapolis, and an influential American lawyer in the period immediately before the American Revolution.
John Dickenson
A Founding Father of the US, was a solicitor and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware known as the "Penman of the Revolution" for his twelve Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, published individually in 1767 and 1768. As a member of the First Continental Congress, where he was a signee to the Continental Association, Dickinson drafted most of the 1774 Petition to the King, and then as a member of the Second Continental Congress wrote the 1775 Olive Branch Petition, two attempts to negotiate with King George III of Great Britain.
Declaratory Act
(1766) Stated that the British Parliament had the same power to tax in the colonies as it did in Great Britain. Parliament emphasized its authority to make binding laws on the American colonies.
Gaspee Affair
British customs schooner that had been engaged in anti-smuggling operations, ran aground in shallow water on June 9, 1772, near what is now known as Gaspee Point in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island, while chasing the packet boat Hannah. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, looted, and torched the ship.
Tea Act
1773 act which eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. Led to the Boston Tea Party.
Intolerable Acts
Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, to have a male child so he could have an heir to his throne. He wanted to remarry Anne Boleyn but because Catherine was the nephew of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, The pope could not allow it in the Catholic religion. SO he closed monasteries and killed Thomas More and he worked to strengthen his throne. HE had his new church end his marriage.
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773 destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and other political protests such as the Tea Party movement after 2010 explicitly refer to it.
Boston Massacre
In 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists who were teasing and taunting them. Five colonists were killed, including Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Native American ancestry.
Non-importation Associations
Series of commercial restrictions adopted by American colonists to protest British revenue policies prior to the American Revolution. Britain's Stamp Act of 1765 triggered the first non importation agreements. To protest taxation without representation, New York merchants agreed collectively to embargo British imports until Parliament repealed the stamp tax, and they persuaded the merchants of Boston and Philadelphia to do likewise. Under pressure from British exporters who lost business, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act within a year.