General Historical Concepts and Colonial History

General Historical Concepts

• Academic History: The professional study of the past, using evidence, research, and analysis.
• Historiography: The study of how history is written and interpreted, considering different viewpoints and methods.
• Primary Sources: Original documents or artifacts from a historical period (letters, diaries, etc.).
• Secondary Sources: Works analyzing, interpreting, or summarizing primary sources (textbooks, scholarly articles).
• Public History: Applying historical methods outside academia (museums, archives, documentaries).
• Top-Down History: Focuses on elites (leaders, governments) in shaping events, neglecting everyday people.

Colonial & Indigenous History

• Agency: The ability of individuals or groups to influence events despite oppression.
• Afal: Term relating to indigenous history and adaptation, likely involving agriculture or survival.
• Bottom-Up History: Focuses on ordinary people, marginalized groups, and social movements.
• Captain Gabriel Archer: Early English settler, Jamestown, significant in colonial leadership, and conflicts with Natives.
• Columbian Exchange/Mutual Transformation: The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Old and New Worlds.
• Conquistadors: Spanish explorers and warriors who conquered indigenous empires.
• Destruction of Natives in America: Decline in Indigenous populations due to disease, warfare, displacement, and colonization.
• Enclosure: The fencing off of common lands in England, displacing peasants and prompting migration to the Americas.

European Exploration & Colonization

• England War with Spain: Conflicts (e.g., defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588) enabling English colonial expansion.
• Five Cs of History: Framework for historical analysis: Change, Context, Causality, Contingency, and Complexity.
• Four British Migrations to America: Distinct waves of English settlers (Puritans, Cavaliers, Quakers, Borderlanders).
• Four Keys to European Exploration: Motivations: God, Glory, Gold, and Goods.
• Headright System: Land grant system rewarding settlers for bringing indentured servants, encouraging migration.

Religious and Cultural Influence

• Hegemonic Liberty: Elites' freedom to rule over others, justifying social hierarchies.
• Henry VIII/Tudor Monarchs: English rulers (1485–1603), Henry VIII's break from the Catholic Church resulted in the Church of England.
• Jamestown: First permanent English settlement in North America (1607).
• Jane (Jamestown Skeleton): Evidence of cannibalism during the "Starving Time" in Jamestown.
• John Winthrop: Puritan leader, Massachusetts Bay Colony, the "City Upon a Hill" sermon.
• King's Trees: Valuable timber reserved for British shipbuilding, demonstrating British control.
• Material Culture: Physical objects reflecting society's customs and values.
• Merchant Class: Growing economic class in colonial America involved in trade and commerce.

Colonial Societies & Conflicts

• Middle Colonies: Region of the American colonies (New York, New Jersey, etc.), known for religious diversity and mixed economies.
• Ming Dynasty: Chinese dynasty (1368–1644), known for trade, naval exploration, and later isolationist policies.
• Monograph: Detailed study on a single historical topic.
• Native American Relations (Virginia/N.E.): Various interactions between English settlers and Indigenous groups, often violent in Virginia and more cooperative in New England.
• Natural Liberty: Unrestricted freedom of individuals, associated with early democratic ideals.
• Neolithic People: Early farming societies.
• Paleolithic People: Early hunter-gatherer societies.
• Pilgrims: Puritans who established Plymouth Colony in 1620 for religious freedom.
• Powhatan Confederacy: Native American tribes in Virginia, led by Chief Powhatan, resisting and cooperating with English colonization.
• Protestant Reformation: 16th-century religious movement challenging the Catholic Church, leading to various Protestant sects.
• Puritan World: Religious society in New England, emphasizing moral discipline and community.
• Puritan Dissent: Disagreements within Puritan communities.
• Quakers: Religious group promoting pacifism, equality, and tolerance, influencing Pennsylvania.
• Reciprocal Liberty: Mutual obligations between rulers and the ruled.
• Roanoke: First English attempt at colonization.
• Salem Witch Trials: Series of witchcraft accusations and executions.

Economic & Agricultural Systems

• Spanish Missionaries: Catholic missionaries aiming to convert Indigenous people in the Americas, often through coercion and cultural suppression.