The Magna Carta

1. Magna Carta [1215] (52): The Magna Carta was an agreement that insured protection of noble (feudal) liberties from usurpation by the King. The Magna Carta influenced the development of common law (legal precedent), as well as constitutional principles (as seen in the United States Constitution). 2. Chief Powhatan (59): Chief Powhatan was the chief of Algonquian-speaking villages (Powhatan Confederacy) in eastern Virginia, chief of about 10,000 Indians. Powhatan took 80% of the corn his people grew and traded that and hides for weapons. As a result, the English people took over his lands. . Mercantilism (163): Mercantilism was a national program that said that the total amount of the world’s gold and silver stayed the same and only what percent of that each nation had changed then one nation could only become richer by taking another’s gold and silver and taking over its trade. As a result, nations had to develop and protect its own shipping and had to take advantage of the colonies. 4. London (Virginia) Company (57): The Virginia Company was a joint-stock between the First Colony of London and the Second Colony of Plymouth.

King James had them go on a religious mission to bring the Christian religion to the natives of the colonies. The settlers trying to change the natives religion led the relations between the two to become tenser. 5. John Smith (59): John Smith was appointed by the Virginia Company to manage Jamestown. Smith was strict and made everyone work. If settlers bickered, he imprisoned them, whipped them and forced them to work. He bargained with Indians and explored and mapped the Chesapeake region. Because of him, Jamestown survived, but he was not well liked by the colonists. . Jamestown (58): Jamestown was the first permanent colony in Virginia by the Virginia Company. The 105 men built a fort, huts, a storehouse and a church. Trade with the Indians and the teachings of the Indians were the only reason Jamestown initially survived. 7. John Rolfe (62): John Rolfe was the reason tobacco became a popular crop. He got a hold of some seeds and tobacco became popular. It had a big profit and helped the economy. It also led indentured servants to come over, boosting the population. John Rolfe also married Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan’s daughter.

She married John Rolfe and they moved to London. John Rolfe was the reason for the tobacco industry in the colonies and more stability between the colonists and Indians. 8. House of Burgesses: 9. Pocahontas (63): Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She saved John Smith when he trespassed. Powhatan let Smith go in exchange for weapons, beads and trinkets. She was captured in 1614 by Jamestown to try and blackmail Powhatan. She ended up converting to Christianity, changed her named to Rebecca, and married, had a kid and moved to London with John Rolfe.

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She was a reason Indians and colonists relations improved. 10. Sir William Berkeley (64): Sir William Berkeley was Virginia’s royal governor starting in 1642 and stayed it for the next 35 years. Berkeley favored the richest planters and the commoners rebelled against him in Bacon’s Rebellion. In the end, Berkeley regained control. 11. Headright System (63): The headright system said that anyone who bought a share in The Virginia Company could get 50 acres and 50 more if they brought servants along. Sir Edwin Sandys instituted this reform. It helped the population grow. 12.

Indentured servants (62): Indentured servants were people who couldn’t afford to go to America so in exchange for labor, planters would pay for their ride over. This increased the flow of immigrants to the colonies. 13. Bacon’s Rebellion (65): Lowered tobacco prices, rising taxes and freed servants wanting Indian lands contributed to Bacon’s Rebellion. Bacon’s Rebellion grew out of the hatred for Berkeley for favoring the rich planters and hating commoners. Freed indentured servants wanted land and led them to take the Indian’s land. Berkeley didn’t support them so they rebelled.

The planters and Indians started to become violent. In 1676, Bacon defied Berkeley by taking command of a group of frontier men. Bacon wanted all Indians dead and Berkeley didn’t. Bacon’s rebellion was the first struggle of common folk versus aristocrats. Berkeley regained control after hanging 23 rebels. A royal commission made a peace treaty with the Indians. The results of the rebellion were new lands opened to colonists and wealthy become more cooperative with commoners. 14. William Bradford (69): William Bradford led 100 men, women and children to the colonies aboard the Mayflower.

He and the pilgrims landed at Plymouth and they built on an abandoned Indian village. Bradford led to the Indians and Pilgrims having better relations with each other and Thanksgiving. 15. City on a Hill (72): John Winthrop envisioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a city on a hill. Winthrop used hill metaphorically to show that he felt they would above rest of the colonies. 16. John Winthrop (72): John Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and wanted to use the colony as a refuge for Puritans.

He took advantage of the charter by the Massachusetts Bay Company by taking its charter with them, transferring government authority so they could have local control. 17. Pilgrims/separatists (69): The Pilgrims were part of the most radical section of Puritans, the Separatists (Nonconformists). They didn’t like the Church of England and decided it couldn’t be fixed so they would create their own godly congregations. Separatist leaders were imprisoned and sometimes hung. King James I wanted to eliminated them. As a result, they left and went to the colonies to escape. 18.

Puritans (68): The Puritans were a group of English Protestants. The Puritans in England executed King Charles and made his son the king. The Puritans settled in New England. They were very religions and claimed to be on a divine mission to create a model Christian society. 19. Massachusetts Bay Colony (72): Massachusetts Bay Colony was intended to be a holy commonwealth. Most of the Puritans there were Congregationalists who formed self-governing churches. 20. Plymouth Colony (69): Plymouth Colony held a land grant but had no charter of government form any English authority. The Mayflower Compact governed it.

Its population never rose above 7,000. 21. Mayflower Compact (69): The Mayflower Compact was made by 41 Pilgrim leaders who entered into a formal agreement to obey the laws made by the leaders of their choosing. The Mayflower Compact was the primary source of government for Plymouth Colony. 22. Anne Hutchinson (77): Anne Hutchinson argued with Puritan leaders. She lived in Boston and held sermons in her home. Soon they become popular sermons led by her. She claimed that she got revelations from the Holy Spirit that convinced her that only a few Puritan ministers preached the appropriate covenant of grace.

She said the rest of them were “godless hypocrites” and incompetent. 23. Predestination: Predestination is the Calvinist theory that God has predetermined who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. This led people such as Roger Williams to question why church was necessary. 24. Roger Williams (75): Roger Williams was one of the “purest of Puritans” and was troubled by the failure of the Massachusetts Nonconformists to get rid of the Church of England. He championed liberty and said that the true covenant was between God and the individual.

He posed a question that if one’s salvation depends solely upon god’s grace and you can’t affect it, why even bother having churches? Why not just let people exercise their free will in worship? 25. Pequot War (82): The spark of the Pequot War was when settlers in Massachusetts accused a Pequot of murdering a colonist. The settlers got revenge by setting fire to a Pequot village. As the Pequot’s fled, the Puritans shot and killed them. The Pequot’s refuted by attacking the English. The colonists and their allies-the Narragansett- killed hundreds of Pequots. 26.

Iroquois League (96): The Iroquois League was made up for 12,000 people governed by 50 chiefs. The chiefs made decisions for all the villages and acted as peacemakers. They seized Canadian hunting grounds and defeated western tribes to hunt beaver in the region to extinction. French and Indian allies gained the advantage over them and reduced their population by a third. The Iroquois made peace with the French in 1701. 27. Quakers (98): The Quakers were the most influential of the radical religious groups. George Fox founded them in 1647. They were an extremely tolerant group of people.

They believed everyone should have complete religious freedom. 28. William Penn (98): William Penn was the founder of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania. When he took control of Pennsylvania, there was already a scattering of religions and races and he made efforts to bring in more settlers of any religion as long as they believed in God. He offered land and the colony grew rapidly. He purchased land titles from the Indians and even learned an Indian language. The Indians and colonists lived side by side in peace. 29. Atlantic Slave Trade: When plantations increased, the need for slaves increased.

This led to the creation of the Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic Slave Trade was the selling and transporting of African slaves across the Middle Passage. However, 1 in 7 slaves died during the trip. 30. Stono Slave Rebellion (123): Mistreated slaves rebelled against their masters. The slaves who participated in this rebellion were killed and their heads were set up on mile marks to warn other slaves not to rebel. 31. Triangular Trade (135): New Englanders shipped rum to Africa which they traded for slaves, took the slaves to the West Indies and returned home with molasses which they used to make rum.

In another version, they shipped provisions to the West Indies, carried sugar and molasses to England and got good manufactured in Europe. 32. Halfway Covenant (139): In 1662, an assembly of Boston ministers accepted this. It said that baptized kids of church members could get halfway membership and secure baptism for their children in turn. They couldn’t vote in church nor take Communion though. 33. Salem Witch Hysteria (139): In 1691, several teenagers met in the kitchen of the village minister. Soon, the girls began to shout, bark, grovel and twitch for no reason.

They told people that three women were Satan’s servants and tormenting them. The three women were arrested. At the hearing, the “afflicted” girls had fits. One of the accused confessed and gave names of other people who she claimed were working for the devil. The governor disbanded the witch court in Salem and ordered the remaining suspects should be released. Nineteen “witches” were dead and more than 100 were in jail. Some historians say that it was all about land feuds between people. Most of the accused defied the traditional female roles, which could have been another reason.

In 1692, some of the afflicted girls shouted “a witch” and began acting possessed. No one noticed so the girls stopped and left meaning it all could have been for attention. 34. Ben Franklin (150): Ben Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1732, which was a collection of homely maxims on success and happiness. He founded a library, a fire company, helped start University of Pennsylvania and organized a debating club that became the American Philosophical Society. He created the Franklin stove, lightening rod, and glass harmonica. He was a freethinker with no true religion.

He believed that people could unlock the mysteries of the universe and shape their own destinies. 35. Poor Richard’s Almanac (150): Poor Richard’s Almanac was written in 1732 by Ben Franklin. It contained a collection of homely maxims on success and happiness. 36. Jonathon Edwards (154): Jonathon Edwards was a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts. He believed that Christians became too preoccupied with money and that religion had become too intellectual causing it to lose its emotional force. He didn’t like people who had cast off religion. He described hell and heaven, which in turn led people to become more spiritual again. 7. George Whitefield (155): George Whitefield was a minister and the catalyst of the Great Awakening. He wanted to restore religious fervor the American congregations. He preached in Philadelphia, Georgia and New England. Even Ben Franklin went to see Whitefield preach. He was responsible for a lot of religious rebirths. 38. John Locke (150): John Locke was a philosopher who argued that humanity is a product of the environment. Therefore, the best way to improve society and human nature was to use and improve reason. 39. Enlightenment (149): The Enlightenment was all about reason, science and freedoms.

Enlightened thinkers were willing to disregard religious beliefs in favor of more rational ideas. As a result, the colonies became less religious. 40. Great Awakening (154): The Great Awakening affected all 13 of the colonies. George Whitefield basically started it. It led people to embrace religion again as they did before the Enlightenment. 41. New Lights (158): New Lights was one of the divisions of the Congregationalists. Many went over to the Baptists or Presbyterians. This was a result of the Great Awakening undermining churches. 42. Old Lights (158): Old Lights was one of the divisions of the Congregationalists.

This was a result of the Great Awakening undermining churches. 43. Navigation Acts (163): The Navigation Act of 1651 required that goods imported to England or the colonies must be on English ships whose crew was mostly English. The Navigation Act of 1660 said that the crew had to be at least ? English, not just mostly. It also said certain goods could only be shipped to England or other English colonies. The Navigation Act of 1663 said that all colonial imports from Europe to the colonies be offloaded, and have duty paid on them before their reshipment to the colonies.

The Navigation Acts gave England a monopoly over tobacco and sugar. 44. Salutary neglect (168): Salutary neglect was Walpole’s relaxed policy toward the colonies that gave them greater freedoms. It ultimately led to the colonies having political independence and seeking to become independent from England. 45. George Washington (178): George Washington went to the French fort Fort Le Bouef because the French built forts in Pennsylvania to defend their interests after England got control over more land near Virginia.

He went and asked the French to move and they refused. He led volunteers and their Iroquois allies to built a fort where the French had built theirs. He led an ambush on the French. The deaths during were the first tragedies of the French and Indian War. George Washington surrendered after the French attacked a month later. 46. Albany Plan of Union (179): The Albany Congress created The Albany Plan of Union in 1754. It called for a chief executive, supreme governor, and a supreme assembly. It was the basis of the current democracy system. 7. King George III (183): King George III wanted to seek peace and eventually end the French and Indian War and he forced Pitt out of office. He gave England control of most of the United States. 48. Join or Die (180): Join or Die was the first political cartoon created by Ben Franklin. It was created to unite the colonies against the French in 1754. 49. French and Indian War (177): The French and Indian War began after Virginias crossed into French territory to trade with Indians and survey land granted to them by the king.

This made the French mad. In 1755, a British fleet captured Nova Scotia and killed most of its French population. The French had a victory, which demonstrated that backwoods warfare depended upon Indian allies and frontier tactics. In 1756 the colonial war became the Seven Years’ War in Europe. Pitt offered people of the colonies subsidies for their help in the war effort. The tides turned in 1758 when the English captured a French fort and the Iroquois (French allies) called off attacks on the English. 50.

Treaty of Paris of 1763 (183): The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War and ended French power in America. England took all French possession east of the Mississippi River and Spanish Florida. England invited the Spanish to stay there, but most left and sold their land really cheap to the English. The lands given to the English from the French weren’t the French’s to give, it was Indian land. The Indians struck back and killed people and raided forts. These attacks convinced most colonists that Indians were bad.

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