Colonial Period to the American Revolution (1500-1787)

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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.
This treaty, established in 1494, divided land between Spain and Portugal in the Americas.: Treaty of 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, _________, a Spanish conquistador, crossed the isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.: Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
___________ was a Spanish conquistador who explored and claimed Florida in 1513 (same year as Balboa discovered the Pacific). He is also known for his search for the fountain of youth.: Juan Ponce de Leon. Juan 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. Hernando 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 looking for the "Seven Cities of Cibola," which were supposedly full of gold. 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.
__________ was a Spanish conquistador who started in Mexico, and explored what is now the southwestern United States.: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explored what is now the southwestern US. His men ended up being the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.
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, _________, a French explorer, claimed portions of Canada for France: Jacques Cartier. Jacques Cartie 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 oldest city in North America is __________.: St Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine, in Florida, was originally built as a fort to protect Spanish land. It is the oldest city in North America.
In 1588, Spain sent a mighty fleet, the _________, to conquer England. This fleet was destroyed by the English navy, and resulted in a war between England and Spain which lasted until 1604.: Spanish Armada.
The Jamestown settlement in Virginia was financed by a group of English merchants who formed the ______________.: The London Company was formed by English merchants. 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.
___________ started the first English settlement in North America on Roanoke Island, and named a portion of land "Virginia.": Sir 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 _________. It looked doomed to failure like previous attempts, had it not been for the leadership of John Smith.: Jamestown. 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 strong reason to want to colonize America.
In an effort to encourage colonists 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. The House of Burgesses was the first representative assembly in the English colonies.
___________ 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 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.
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. Samuel de Champlain established a trading post in Quebec which resulted in "New France."
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 1690, the _________ came from England in the Mayflower and settled Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They were originally known as the Separatists.: Pilgrims. The Pilgrims left England for religious freedom, and settled Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The ___________ settled Massachusetts in large numbers under the leadership of John Winthrop.: Puritans. 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
Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts by the Puritans and ended up founding _________.: Portsmouth. 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 __________ colony was founded primarily to show the world how a proper Christian society should be.: Massachusetts. 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 ___________ toleration.: Religious. Rhode Island 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.
____________ believed that there should be no government interference with religion, and established Rhode Island.: Roger Williams. 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.
This colony was founded as a refuge for English Catholics, and was a gift from the King of England to Lord Baltimore for his loyalty. ___________: Maryland. Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore, and guaranteed political rights to all Christians
__________ was the first English colony founded for trade and profit instead of for religious reasons.: Virginia. Most of the earliest colonies were founded for religious reasons; Virginia was founded for trade and profit--primarily through the growth of tobacco.
The _______________ colony developed as an overflow from the Virginia colony.: North Carolina. 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 __________ colony was settled by emigrants from the overcrowded West Indies. They started Charleston, named after the King, and had rice as a cash crop.: South Carolina. 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 Dutch colony of New Netherlands was conquered by _________, the brother of King Charles II, and became New York.: James. 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.
The _________ colony had a significantly higher life expectancy and literacy rate than the other colonies.: New England. The New England colony, predominantly Puritan, had a life expectancy 25-30 years higher than other colonists. They were also better educated than the others.
Many settlers in Virginia and Maryland paid their way there by agreeing to work as _____________.: Indentured servants. They came as indentured servants, which meant they agreed to work a certain number of years in return for passage to America.
In colonial times, who was at the bottom in Southern society? __________: Black slaves. Black slaves were on the bottom rung of Southern society.
By the early __________ century, black slaves outnumbered the white population of South Carolina.: Eighteenth. Due to the large numbers of slaves imported, by the early 18th century, black slaves outnumbered the white population in South Carolina. There were a large number of slaves in the Chesapeake colonies as well, but South Carolina had the most since it was dominated by large populations.
The objective of British _____________ was to maximize the nation's wealth.: Mercantilism. British mercantilism, which is taken from the word "merchant," involved managing the economy, as opposed to allowing free markets, to maximize profits for Britain.
The ___________ Acts passed by the British Parliament severely limited with who and how the colonies could trade. There were four parts to these Acts, passed between 1651 and 1673.: Navigation. The Navigation Acts were passed, limiting who the colonies could trade with. It drove down the price of American goods, and raised the price of British goods, angering the colonists.
Under the Navigation Acts, certain products could be shipped only to England. At the same time, the colonies gained an advantage in the British market for many of these products, to include iron, raw silk, hemp, and _______ stores (i.e. masts, tar, pitch: Naval. Iron, raw silk, hemp, and naval stores are examples of some items for which Great Britain gave the colonies a market advantage. Naval stores include items such as masts, yards, bowsprits, etc.--the northern colonies were known for their shipbuilding.
In 1676, England sent troops and ships to Virginia as a result of _________ Rebellion, led by Nathaniel Bacon.: Bacon's. Bacon's Rebellion was started by Nathaniel Bacon. He ended up dying of dysentery, but as a result England sent troops to Virginia, and tried to run the colony more strictly.
In 1675, around 2000 settlers were killed by Indians in what is known as ___________ War.: King Phillip's. King Phillip's War, led by Wampanoag chief King Phillip, resulted in the death of around 2000 settlers
King James II had a plan to create a unified government for New England, New York, and New Jersey, which he planned on calling the _________.: Dominion of New England. This was to be called the Dominion of New England, and would get rid of the representative assemblies currently in those colonies, and would impose the Church of England on the Puritans.
A total of _______ people were killed in the Salem Witch Trials in Salem Village.: Twenty. Twenty people were executed before Puritan ministers could intervene.
Pennsylvania was founded as a refuge for a group of people called the _______, who wanted to escape persecution for their beliefs.: Quakers. Pennsylvania was founded as a refuge for the Quakers by William Penn.
Pennsylvania was founded by _________ for Quakers to escape persecution.: William Penn. William Penn received the land for Pennsylvania from King Charles and personally worked to maintain peaceful relations with the local Indians.
__________ War, which was mainly fought in Europe did result in raids by Indians. It eventually was resolved with the Treaty of Ryswick.: King William's. King William's War in 1689 was primarily fought in Europe, and lasted 8 years.
___________ War, started in 1702 against France and Spain, gave Britain major territorial gains and trade advantages. It was ended with the Treaty of Utrecht.: Queen Anne's. Queen Anne's War was started in 1702, and lasted 11 years.
In 1739, _________ War was fought with France and Spain, and was the first of England's wars in which the colonist troops played a major role. It was ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.: King George's. King George's War lasted nine years, and thousands of colonial troops were killed fighting the French.
The __________ colony was founded in 1732 to act as a buffer between South Carolina and Florida. It was to be settled by the debtors and paupers who filled English jails.: Georgia. General James Oglethorpe founded the Georgia colony, which ended up being a lot like South Carolina.
Prior to the American Revolution, ___________ from the Chesapeake region accounted for nearly half of BritainÂ’s trade with the colonies.: Tobacco. Before the cotton gin, tobacco was the most profitable crop to grow in America, and accounted for nearly half of the colonies' exports. Before the American Revolution, due to the Navigation Acts, the colonies were not allowed to export products to countries other than Britain.
The ______________ system was implemented by the London Company in Virginia to stimulate immigration. Every head of family already in Virginia received 50 acres of land, and 50 acres of land was given to every person who came to the colony.: Headright. This was known as the "headright" system. The London Company owned the charter for Virginia, and hoped to populate its colony without expense by offering the one resource it had plenty of--land.
In the 18th century, an intellectual movement was occurring in Europe, centered around the concept of rationalism. This movement was known as the ________.: Enlightenment. The Enlightenment movement was embraced by some Americans, and one of the most famous American followers was Ben Franklin.
An English philosopher during the "Enlightenment" came up with a set of natural laws, saying that governments who did not provide the rights of life, liberty, and property could be overthrown. His name was _______.: John Locke. John Locke came up with this "law of nature," which many Americans equated with the universal law of God.
The author of Poor Richard's Almanac was __________, and it contained bits of wisdom and humor.: Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin wrote Poor Richard's Almanac.
From the 1720's the 1740's a movement known as the __________ occurred in the colonies, resulting in the founding of some Ivy League Schools and a division in the religious community between "Old Lights", and "New Lights. ": Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was a time of religious revivals, and resulted in a division in the religious community.
The ___________ War was started in 1754 when George Washington was ordered to lead militiamen to expel the French settling in Western Pennsylvania.: French and Indian War. The French and Indian War lasted seven years, and was known as the "Seven Year's War" in Europe.
The _________ War resulted in France losing all of its lands in North America, and expanded Britain's holdings to include Canada and the lands east of the Mississippi River.: The French and Indian War, ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris resulted in enormous expansion of England's land holdings in North America.
In 1763, ________ became prime minister of England, and was the first in a string of English leaders who agitated the colonists to the point of the Revolutionary war.: George Grenville. George Grenville passed laws through Parliament such as the Sugar Act, the Proclamation of 1763, and the Stamp Act.
The ________, passed by George Grenville, did not allow settlers to move west of the Appalachians.: Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation of 1763 forbade settlers from moving west of the Appalachians, and was supposed to appease the Indians, who were constantly attacking settlers and costing England a lot of money.
Samuel Adams formed an organization to resist English tyranny as a result of the Stamp Act and other unfair laws. This organization was _________.: Sons of Liberty. Samuel Adams started the Sons of Liberty.
Grenville was replaced with Lord Rockingham, who repealed the hated Stamp Act, and passed the __________, which stated that England had the right to impose any laws or taxes on the colonies.: Declaratory Act. The Declaratory Act was targeted at the Americans' cry against "taxation without representation." Most Americans, happy with the repeal of the Stamp Act, ignored the Declaratory Act.
George Grenville was replaced by Lord Rockingham, who was quickly replaced by Charles Townshend, who passed the __________ Acts. What was known as the Boston Massacre occurred soon after.: Townshend. Charles Townshend had Parliament pass what was known as the Townshend Acts, which was another attempt by England to impose taxes on the colonists. Many colonists resisted, and five Bostonians were killed in what became the "Boston Massacre."
Charles Townshend was replaced by Lord North, and all taxes were repealed except for the tax on tea. Relations settled down between the colonists and England until the _______ of 1773.: Tea Act. The Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773. This lowered the cost of British tea, making it cheaper than smuggled tea even though it was taxed. This resulted in the Boston Tea Party, where Bostonians dressed as Indians boarded a British merchant ship and threw the tea overboard.
Under the ____________ Acts, England had a monopoly over the American colonies' shipping: Navigation. The Navigation Acts were meant to make the colonies and parent country dependent on each other--foreign vessels could not trade with English colonies, English vessels had a monopoly over all colonial shipping, and for certain products, the colonies could only trade with England, and the English merchants could only purchase these products from the colonies.
The _________ Party was the Bostonian response to the Tea Act of 1773, and involved people dressed as Indians boarding a British merchant ship and dumping the tea overboard.: Boston Tea. The Boston Tea Party was organized by the Sons of Liberty, who dressed as Indians and dumped thousands of dollars worth of tea into the ocean.
The _______ Act gave the British East India Company a monopoly on all tea shipped to America, allowing the East India Company to charge prices lower than the tea smuggled in by colonial merchants.: Tea. The Tea Act, also known as the East India Company Act, resulted in the Boston Tea Party as Americans resisted buying British tea. In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts.
The British response to the Boston Tea Party in the form of five acts was known by the Americans as the __________ Acts.: Intolerable. The colonists called the Quebec Act and the four acts passed in response to the Boston Tea Party the "Intolerable Acts."
In response to the Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts, the ________ Congress met in Philadelphia in September 1774.: First Continental. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and tried to negotiate with Parliament, in addition to calling for the colonists to boycott and to prepare local militias to respond to possible use of military force by the English.
The ____________ Acts placed the Massachusetts colony under military rule and forced colonists to provide food and housing for the soldiers who ruled them.: Intolerable. These were two of the main acts in the five acts known as the Intolerable Acts. In response to the Intolerable Acts, the First Continental Congress met to assert American rights and demand withdrawal of the Intolerable Acts.
The First Continental Congress was created in answer to the Intolerable Acts. England decided to ignore this Congress, however, and marched on _________, starting the Revolutionary War.: Concord. They marched on Concord, Massachusetts, looking to destroy a stockpile of colonial arms. The arms were gone, but a skirmish between colonial militia and the British broke out. This was the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
The bloodiest battle of the war was fought at ____________, on June 17, 1775. Over one thousand British soldiers were killed or wounded.: Bunker Hill. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought when the Americans fortified a hill from which they planned to bombard the British troops who were occupying Boston. The British lost over a thousand men trying to seize control of this hill.
In May, 1775, the ________ Congress met, making a final plea to King George to intercede and restore peace. It also put George Washington in command of the New England army surrounding Boston.: Second Continental. The Second Continental Congress met in May 1775. The "Olive Branch Petition" was their attempt to get King George to come up with a peaceful solution to the conflict.
In January 1776, Thomas pain wrote ________, a pamphlet arguing for complete independence.: Common Sense. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. It argued for complete independence, and is considered to have swayed thousands of Americans who had half-formed feelings about going to war with Britain.
The _________ Act by England was virtually a declaration of war on America, by declaring the colonies in rebellion.: Prohibitory. The Prohibitory Act was declared by England as they made preparation for all out war against the colonies.
Early in the Revolutionary War, Fort Ticonderoga was captured by Ethan Allen and _______________.: Benedict Arnold. Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga with ease.

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