SELECTED NAMES AND/OR TERMS
BRINKLEY, CHAPTERS 1-5
The following are some of the important names and terms taken from Brinkley, Alan, American
History: A Survey. They are intended as a study aid, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. This is not
an exhaustive list, however, and the instructor reserves the right the select other terms for the examination.
Other items in the chapters are important, too. For each term, be prepared to discuss in class and on
examinations what is its significance for American development and its approximate time of action.
Aztecs
Mayas
Incas
Woodland Indians
Chaco Canyon
Cahokia
Algonquin
Iroquois
Muskogean
Leif Eriksson
Prince Henry the Navigator
Bartholomeu Dias
Vasco da Gama
Pedro Cabral
Christopher Columbus
Vasco de Balboa
Ferdinand Magellan
conquistador
Hernando Cortés
Francisco Pizarro
Hernando de Soto
Francisco Coronado
encomienda
St. Augustine
Santa Fe
Juan de Oňate
Pueblo Indians
mercantilism
Richard Hakluyt
Calvinism
Church of England
Puritan
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
Sir Walter Raleigh
coureurs de bois
Samuel de Champlain
Dutch West India Company
Henry Hudson
New Netherland
Jamestown
Sir Francis Drake
Spanish Armada
Roanoke “Lost Colony”
Plymouth Company
London (Virginia) Company
Capt. John Smith
Lord De La Warr
Virginia
“starving time”
John Rolfe
headright system
House of Burgesses
Pocahontas
Lord Baltimore
Maryland
proprietorship
“Act Concerning Religion” (Toleration Act)
Sir William Berkeley
Bacon’s Rebellion
Caribbean Colonies
Plymouth Plantation
William Bradford
Massachusetts Bay
John Winthrop
Connecticut
New Haven
Roger Williams
Rhode Island
Anne Hutchinson
New Hampshire
Pequot War
King Philip’s War
The Carolinas
Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury)
John Locke
New York
New Jersey
Sir John Berkeley
Sir George Carteret
Quakers
William Penn
“holy experiment”
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Georgia
James Oglethorpe
Navigation Acts
Dominion of New England
“Glorious Revolution of 1688”
indentured servants
Royal African Company
Salem witchcraft trial
Halfway Covenant
Great Awakening
Congregationalists
Presbyterians
George Whitefield
John and Charles Wesley
The Enlightenment
Harvard
Cotton Mather
John Peter Zenger
Marquette and Joliet
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
Pierre Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye
Louisbourg
Iroquois Confederacy
King William’s War
Queen Anne’s War
George’s War
Albany Plan (of Union)
French and Indian War
Great War for Empire
George Washington
Fort Duquesne
William Pitt (Lord Chatham)
Wolfe and Montcalm
Peace of Paris, 1763
Acadians (Cajuns)
George III
Pontiac
Proclamation of 1763
Sugar (Revenue) Act of 1764
Mutiny (Quartering) Act of 1765
Regulator Movement
Paxton Boys
Stamp Act Crisis
Patrick Henry
Declaratory Act
Townshend Program
Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Lord North
Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer
“Virtual” representation
Gaspee affair
British East India Company
Tea Act
Boston Tea Party
Mercy Otis Warren
Sons of Liberty
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
First Continental Congress
Lexington and Concord
“Olive Branch Petition”
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
Taking Up Arms
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Hessians
Second Continental Congress
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
Loyalists (Tories)
Patriots
Valley Forge
Marquis de Lafayette
Bunker Hill
Gen. Thomas Gage
Moore’s Creek
Battle of Long Island
Trenton
Gen. William Howe
Brandywine Creek
Germantown
Gen. John Burgoyne
Saratoga
French alliance
Benedict Arnold
Sir Henry Clinton
Lord Cornwallis
Nathanael Greene
Yorktown
Peace of Paris, 1783
Articles of Confederation
(Land) Ordinance of 1784, 1785
Northwest Ordinance
Treaty of Greenville
Shay’s Rebellion
ESSAY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
1.
As a historian, what specific types of information, especially primary sources, would you use
to learn about Native Americans? What were the strengths and weakness of each type?
(Consider what types of information you would use to learn about the English colonial period,
too.)
2.
Discuss the effect of the discovery and colonization of the New World on Europe and Africa
and its people. How, in turn, was the New World itself affected?
3.
Discuss the circumstances that encouraged Spanish voyages of exploration and discovery.
Explain why the Spanish explored and established an American empire well in advance of the
English.
4.
Compare and contrast the motives of each of the different European nations that colonized the
New World. How do you explain the difference in approach? Cite examples to support your
argument.
5.
Who were the most important peoples and nations involved in the development of what would
become today the United States of America? What were the major contributions that each
made to the development of the area?
6.
How did the religious background of the colonies of all nations affect their development?
Does this condition change over time? Explain thoroughly, citing examples.
7.
Discuss the three different types of English colonies, citing at least one example of each. In
what ways did these three types different from each other? How were they alike? By the
time of the Revolution, which type of colony outnumbered the others? Why?
8.
If you were potential colonist would colony would you pick and why? Be specific and
explain your answer fully. Consider the time period you would arrive and situation in each
colony in that time.
9.
Compare the economic and social structures of the New England and the Southern colonies.
How were they alike? How were they different? How do you account for the differences?
10. What is meant by “salutary neglect,” and what were the political and economic consequences
for the English colonies? Why was the same policy not followed by the other European
powers?
11. Discuss the mistakes made by England in administering its American colonies between 1763
and 1770. Could colonial complaints have been avoided? If so, how? If not, why not?
12. How did the colonial background affect and shape the political, economic, social, and cultural
development of the independent United States? Explain fully.
13. Imagine yourself a patriot in 1776. What arguments would you make to convince your
neighbors of the necessity for rebellion and independence? In contrast, if you were opposed
to the rebellion, what arguments would you make against independence?
14. How did the American patriots manage to win the Revolutionary War against what seemed
like overwhelming odds? Explain your answer thoroughly and thoughtfully, citing examples
to support your reasoning.
Consider also the information and questions in the McClellan text.