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Jamestown
The very first permanent English colony was established to provide profit for the mother country. It was only after tobacco , an important cash crop was established that Jamestown became a succes. King James 1 granted a charter to a group of settlers called the Virginia Company to sail to Virginia to look for gold. -
House of Burgesses
This colonial governing body allowed the colonist their first taste of self-government. Representatives from each burgess or district would meet and establish taxes and laws for their area. This had to meet with the royal governor's approval, but colonists still felt that they had power. This is the lower house of the colonial Virginia legislature. -
Mayflower Compact
The Puritians from the Plymouth colony (Mass.) decided to creat their own laws, which established the important self-governing principle of majority rule. The document was signed on the English ship the Mayflower on November 21 -
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
First written constitution by a colony ;that limits the power of government; majority rule, consent of the governed, protected minority rights. This was writtenin North America by Puritain Clergymen. -
Mercantilism
Economic system that was beneficial to the home/mother country because of favorable trade balance (more exports than imports) accumalation of wealth ( especially gold and silver), and the colonies that provided raw materials and markets for goods. -
Triangular Trade
New England merchants traded basic supplies with the west Indies in return for sugar and molasses which can be madeinto rum. Africawas added to the route that traded the slaves to the West coast of Africa to the New England colonies which became known as the Middle passage. This trade was done without the english government. -
Maryland Toleration Act
Law granting religious freedomtoall christains ( protestant and Catholic) living in the Maryland colony ( did not include Jewish religion. Also known as the Act concerning religion. And was passed on April 21. -
Navigation Act
England felt that the American colonies were gaining great profit through overseas trade and wanted share of profit. Theseacts strictly enforced policies that established Britian as the middleman in colonial trade. This act ended 200 years later. -
John Peter Zenger
Accused of sedition and libelby a royal offical who took offense to the newspaper man's criticism of limits on free expression. He was put on trial in front of the colonies which they have found him innocent because he printed the truth. -
Great Awakening
Colonists began expressing their religious ideasthrough new churches other than the Church of England. This direct break with the official religiousauthorityin England shows that colonists began thinking for themselves and choosing to differ from themother country. -
French and Idian War
The war started by the French and British fightingover the land called the Ohio Valley. The British won and took Canada. The outcome for the Native Americans were the proclamation that forbade them to settle to the west of the Appalchin mountains. Also made the sugar act that taxes sugar and molases. -
Albany Plan
Benjamin Franklin's attempt to unite volunteersfrom all colonies to establish a common defense.The plan didn't work but it was the first time colonists planned to unite to defened themselves without the help of England. -
Proclamation of 1763
To settle the Native Americans along the frontier, England banned all colonial settlement to go past the Appalachin Mountains. Which occured after the French and Idian war to the people who where in it. -
Stamp Act
The attempt thatEngland made to get money from the colonies in forms of direct tax on goods. The colonists protest by going after custom agents and later organize a more effective boycott of English goods. -
Boston Massacre
Tension between colonists and the standing army left over from the French and Indian war has been high. Many citizens feel that the soldiers were spying on them, others resent the competition they present for local jobs. -
Tea Act
The Brittish government passes this act which gives all colonial tea buisness to the India Company but at lower cost. Its principal over objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea -
Intalerable Acts
was the American Patriots' name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. -
Quartering Act
a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the 18th century. Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. -
Lexington and Concord
the first battle of the American Revolution 1775 fighting between colonial militias. were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. -
Olive Branch Petition
a final attempt to avoid a full-on war between the Thirteen Colonies that the Congress represented, and Great Britain. The petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated the king to prevent further conflict. -
Declaration of Independence
as the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. An example of the Declaration of Independence was the document adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776. -
Common Sense
A popular pamphlet written by Thomas Paine states that it is obvious that England and her American colonies that shouls not remain united. The two are different that they can't have common goals. The only common sense is to declare independence.
