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201 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Western Hemisphere
When discussing the world longitudinally, geographers divide the world into two halves. This half includes North, Central, and South America as well as the Caribbean.
Crusades
Military expedition undertaken by European Christians in the 11th through 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Holy Land
Palestine, which is now divided into Israel, Syria, Jordan, and the West Bank. Home to Jews, Muslims, Christians.
Kennewick Man
The name given to a human
skeleton discovered next to
the Columbia River near
Kennewick, Washington, in
1996. The skeleton is believed
to be over nine thousand years
old and appears to have facial
features unlike those of other
ancient Indian relics.
Maize
Corn, this word comes from Native American Term
Mound Builder
The name given to a human
skeleton discovered next to
the Columbia River near
Kennewick, Washington, in
1996. The skeleton is believed
to be over nine thousand years
old and appears to have facial
features unlike those of other
ancient Indian relics.
Mohammad
Born ca. 570 into an infuential family in Mecca,
on the Arabian Peninsula,
around 610 Mohammed
began having religious visions
in which he was revealed as
“the Messenger of God.” The
content of his various visions
was recorded as the Qur’an,
the sacred text that is the
foundation for the Islamic
religion.
Moors
Natives of northern Africa who converted to
Islam in the eighth century,
becoming the major carriers
of the Islamic religion and
culture both to southern Africa
and to the Iberian Peninsula
(Spain and Portugal), which
they conquered and occupied
from the eighth century until
their ouster in the late ffteenth
century.
Reconquista
The campaign undertaken by European
Christians to recapture the
Iberian Peninsula from the
Moors.
Ferdinand and Isabella
Joint rulers of Spain (r. 1469–1504);
their marriage in 1469 brought
together the rival kingdoms of
Aragon and Castile and united
Spain.
Longhouses
Communal dwellings, usually built of poles
and bark and having a central
hallway with family apartments
on either side.
pre-Columbian
Existing in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus
sub-Saharan Africa
The region of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
millet
A large family of grain grasses that produce nutritious,
carbohydrate-rich seeds used for
both human and animal feed.
Fictive ancestor
A mythical figure believed by a social group
to be its founder and from
whom all members are believed
to be biologically descended.
Henry the Navigator
Prince who founded an observatory
and school of navigation and
directed voyages that helped
build Portugal’s colonial empire.
Songhai Empire
A large empire in West Africa whose
capital was Timbuktu; its rulers
accepted Islam around the year 1000.
Cape of Good Hope
A point of land projecting into the
Atlantic Ocean at the southern
tip of Africa; to trade with Asia,
European mariners had to sail
around the cape to pass from
the South Atlantic into the
Indian Ocean.
astrolabe
An instrument for measuring the position of
the sun and stars; using these
readings, navigators could
calculate their latitude—their
distance north or south of the equator.
Christopher Columbus
(Cristoforo Colombo) Italian explorer in the service of Spain
who attempted to reach Asia
by sailing west from Europe,
thereby arriving in America in 1492.
Bahamas
A group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, east of
Florida and Cuba.
John Cabot
(Giovanni Caboto) Italian explorer who led the
English expedition that sailed
along the North American
mainland in 1497.
Amerigo Vespucci
Italian explorer of the South American
coast; Europeans named
America after him.
New World
A term that Europeans used during the
period of early contact and
colonization to refer to the
Americas, especially in the
context of their discovery and
colonization.
Northwest Passage
The rumored and much-hoped-for
water route from Europe to Asia
by way of North America that
was sought by early explorers.
Jacques Cartier
French explorer who, by navigating
the St. Lawrence River in 1534,
gave France its primary claim to
territories in the New World.
Shamans
People who act as a link between the visible
material world and an invisible
spirit world; a shaman’s duties
include healing, conducting
religious ceremonies, and
foretelling the future.
idolaters
A person who practices idolatry—idol
worship—a practice forbidden
in the Judeo-Christian and
Muslim traditions.
reciprocal trade
A system of trading in which the objective is
equal exchange of commodities
rather than proft.
Columbian Exchange
The exchange of people, plants,
and animals among Europe,
Africa, and North America that
occurred after Columbus’s
arrival in the New World.
acquired immunity
Resistance or partial resistance
to a disease; acquired immunity
develops in a population over
time as a result of exposure to
harmful bacteria or viruses.
syphilis
An infectious disease
usually transmitted through
sexual contact; if untreated, it
can lead to paralysis and death
malarial
Related to malaria, an
infectious disease characterized
by chills, fever, and sweating;
malaria is often transmitted
through mosquito bites.
cash crops
A crop raised in large quantities for sale
rather than for local or home
consumption.
manioc
Also called cassava, a root vegetable native to South
America that became a staple
food source throughout the
tropical world after 1500.
nonliterate
Lacking a system
of reading and writing, relying
instead on storytelling and
mnemonic (memory-assisting) devices such as pictures.
Slave Coast
A region of
coastal West Africa adjacent
to the Gold Coast; it was the
principal source of the slaves
taken out of West Africa from
the sixteenth to the early
nineteenth century.
absolute monarchs
Rulers of a kingdom in which every aspect
of national life—including
politics, religion, the economy,
and social affairs—comes under
royal authority.
Ninety-five theses
A document prepared by Martin
Luther in 1517 protesting
certain Roman Catholic
practices that he believed were
contrary to the will of God as
revealed in Scripture.
Reformation
The sixteenth-century rise of Protestantism,
with the establishment of state-
sponsored Protestant churches
in England, the Netherlands,
parts of Germany and
Switzerland, and elsewhere.
the elect
According to Calvinism, the people chosen by
God for salvation.
Protestantism
From the root word protest, the beliefs
and practices of Christians who
broke with the Roman Catholic
Church; rejecting church
authority, the doctrine of “good
works,” and the necessity of
the priesthood, Protestants
accepted the Bible as the only
source of revelation, salvation
as God’s gift to the faithful, and
a direct, personal relationship
with God as available to every believer.
divine right
The idea that
monarchs derive their authority
to rule directly from God and
are accountable only to God.
Holy Roman Empire
A
political entity, authorized by
the Catholic Church in 1356,
unifying central Europe under
an emperor elected by four
princes and three Catholic archbishops.
Henry VIII
King of England
(r. 1509–1547); his desire to
annul his frst marriage led
him to break with Catholicism
and establish the Church of
England.
Elizabeth I
Queen of England
(r. 1558–1603); she succeeded
the Catholic Mary I and
reestablished Protestantism in
England; her reign was a time
of domestic prosperity and
cultural achievement
dissenters
People who do
not accept the doctrines of an
established or national church.
encomendero
A landowner
or proprietor in the encomienda
system, Spain’s system of
bonded labor in which Indians
were assigned to Spanish
plantation and mine owners in
exchange for a tax payment and
an agreement to “civilize” and
convert them to Catholicism.
conquistadors
Spanish
soldiers who conquered Indian
civilizations in the New World.
Treaty of Tordesillas
The
agreement, signed by Spain and
Portugal in 1494, that moved
the line separating Spanish
and Portuguese claims to
territory in the non-Christian
world, giving Spain most of the
Western Hemisphere.
Hernando Cortes
Spanish
soldier and explorer who
conquered the Aztecs and
claimed Mexico for Spain.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Spanish soldier and
explorer who led an expedition
northward from Mexico in
search of fabled cities of gold,
passing through present-day
New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado,
Oklahoma, and Kansas; gave
Spain a claim to most of the
American Southwest.
Stuart Kings
The dynasty of
English kings who claimed
the throne after the death of
Elizabeth I, who left no heirs.
The Netherlands/Holland/Dutch
Often used
interchangeably, the frst two
terms refer to the low-lying area
in western Europe north of
France and Belgium and across
the English Channel from
Great Britain; the Dutch are the
inhabitants of the Netherlands.
privateer
A captain who owned
his own boat, hired his own
crew, and was authorized by
his government to attack and
capture enemy ships.
gentry
The class of English
landowners ranking just below
the nobility.
Sir Walter Raleigh
English
courtier, soldier, and adventurer
who attempted to establish the
Virginia Colony in 1578
Roanoke Island
Island off
North Carolina that Raleigh
sought to colonize beginning
in 1585.
Inflation
Rising prices that
occur when the supply of
currency or credit grows faster
than the available supply of
goods and services.
armada
A fleet of warships.
cabildo secular
Secular
municipal council that provided
local government in Spain’s
New World empire.
feudal
Relating to a system in
which landowners held broad
powers over peasants or tenant
farmers, providing protection in
exchange for loyalty and labor.
requiremento
A provision
in Spanish colonial law that
required conquistadors to
inform Indians that they were
subject to Spanish authority
and to absorb them peacefully.
serfs
Peasants who were bound
to a particular estate but, unlike
slaves, were not the personal
property of the estate owner
and received traditional feudal
protections.
Henry Hudson
Dutch ship
captain and explorer who
sailed up the Hudson River in
1609, giving the Netherlands a
claim to the area now known as
New York.
Dutch West India Company
Dutch investment company
formed in 1621 to develop
colonies for the Netherlands in
North America.
patroonships
Huge grants of
land given to any Dutch West
India Company stockholder
who, at his own expense,
brought ffty colonists to New
Netherland; the colonists
became the tenants of the estate
owner, or patroon.
New Netherland
The colony
founded by the Dutch West
India Company in present-day
New York; its capital was New
Amsterdam on Manhattan
Island.
burghers
Town dwellers
who were free from feudal
obligations and were
responsible for civic government
during the medieval period in
Europe; in New Amsterdam
these were men who were not
Dutch West India Company
offcials, but who governed civic
affairs through their political
infuence.
Saint Augustine
First
colonial city in the present-
day United States; located in
Florida and founded by Pedro
Menéndez de Aviles for Spain
in 1565.
Samuel de Champlain
French explorer who traced the
St. Lawrence River inland to
the Great Lakes, founded the
city of Quebec, and formed the
French alliance with the Huron
Indians.
New France
The colony
established by France in what
is now Canada and the Great
Lakes region of the United
States.
Company of New France
Company established by
Cardinal Richelieu to bring
order to the running of France’s
North American enterprises.
coureurs du bois
Literally,
“runners of the woods”;
independent French fur traders
who lived among the Indians
and sold furs to the French.
Community of Habitants of New France
Company
chartered by Anne of Austria to
make operations in New France
more effcient and proftable; it
gave signifcant political power
to local offcials in Canada.
Company of the West
Company chartered by Colbert
after New France became a royal
colony; modeled on the Dutch
West India Company, it was
designed to maximize profts to
the Crown.
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
French explorer who
followed the Mississippi River
from present-day Illinois to the
Gulf of Mexico, giving France a
claim to the entire riverway and
adjoining territory.
Louisiana
French colony
south of New France; it
included the entire area drained
by the Mississippi River and all
of its tributary rivers.
Don Juan de Onate
Spaniard
who conquered New Mexico
and claimed it for Spain in
the 1590s.
Acoma pueblo
Pueblo
Indian community that resisted
Spanish authority in 1598 and
was subdued by the Spanish.
Hopi indians
Indians who
were related to the Comanches
and Shoshones and took up
residence among the Pueblo
Indians as agricultural town-
dwellers; their name means
“peaceful ones.”
Santa Fe
Spanish colonial
town established in 1609;
eventually the capital of the
province of New Mexico.
ascetic
Practicing severe
abstinence or self-denial,
generally in pursuit of spiritual awareness
Pueblo Revolt
Indian
rebellion against Spanish
authority in 1680 led by Popé;
succeeded in driving the
Spanish out of New Mexico for
nearly a decade.
Creek Confederacy
Alliance of Indians living in
the Southeast; formed after
the lethal spread of European
diseases to permit a cooperative
economic and military system
among survivors.
Fort Orange
Dutch trading
post established near present-
day Albany, New York, in 1614.
Mohicans
Algonquin-
speaking Indians who lived
along the Hudson River, were
dispossessed in a war with the
Haudenosaunee Confederacy,
and eventually were all but
exterminated.
buffalo
The American bison, a
large member of the ox family,
native to North America and
the staple of the Plains Indian
economy between the ffteenth
and mid-nineteenth centuries.
Caddoan
A family of languages
spoken by the Wichitas,
Pawnees, Arikaras, and other
Plains Indians.
Lakotas/Dakotas
Subgroups
of the Sioux Nation of Indians;
Lakotas make up the western
branch, living mostly on the
Great Plains; Dakotas, the
eastern branch, live mostly in
the prairie and lakes region of
the Upper Midwest.
subsistence farming
Farming
that produces enough food for
survival but no surplus that can
be sold.
bosch loopers
Dutch term
meaning “woods runners”;
independent Dutch fur traders.
Dutch Reform Church
Calvinistic Protestant
denomination; the established
church in the Dutch Republic
and the offcial church in New
Netherland.
Natchez
An urban, mound-
building Indian people who
lived on the lower Mississippi
River until they were destroyed
in a war with the French in
the 1720s; survivors joined the
Creek Confederacy.
Chickasaws
An urban,
mound-building Indian
people who lived on the lower
Mississippi River and became
a society of hunters after
the change in climate and
introduction of disease after
1400; they were successful in
resisting French aggression
throughout the colonial era.
Choctaws
Like the
Chickasaws, a mound-building
people who became a society of
hunters after 1400; they were
steadfast allies of the French in
wars against the Natchez and
Chickasaws.
Chesapeake
The Chesapeake
was the common term for the
two colonies of Maryland and
Virginia, both of which border
on Chesapeake Bay.
Church of England
The
Protestant church established
in the sixteenth century by King
Henry VIII as England’s offcial
church; also known as the
Anglican Church.
Parliament
The lawmaking
branch of the English
government, composed of the
House of Lords, representing
England’s nobility, and the
House of Commons, an elected
body of untitled English
citizens.
Restoration
The era
following the return of
monarchy to England,
beginning in 1660 with King
Charles II and ending in 1688
with the exile of King James II.
Glorious Revolution
A term
used to describe the removal
of James II from the English
throne and the crowning of the
Protestant monarchs, William
and Mary.
entrepeneur
A person who
organizes and manages a
business enterprise that involves
risk and requires initiative.
joint-stock company
A
business fnanced through
the sale of shares of stock to
investors; the investors share in
both the profts and losses from
a risky venture.
Jamestown
First permanent
English settlement in mainland
America, established in 1607
by the Virginia Company and
named in honor of King James I.
head right system
The grant
of 50 acres of land for each
settler brought over to Virginia
by a colonist.
House of Burgesses
The
elected lawmaking body of
Virginia, established by the
Virginia Company; the assembly
frst met in 1619.
staple crop
A basic or necessary
agricultural item, produced for
sale or export.
Indentured Servants
People
working out their compulsory
service for a fxed period of
time, usually from four to seven
years, in exchange for passage
to the colonies; a labor contract
called an indenture spelled out
the agreement.
separatists
English Protestants
who chose to leave the Church
of England because they
believed it was corrupt.
Pilgrims
A small group of
separatists who left England
in search of religious freedom
and sailed to America on the
Mayfower in 1620.
William Bradford
The
separatist who led the Pilgrims
to America; he became the
frst governor of Plymouth
Plantations.
Mayflower Compact
An
agreement drafted in 1620 when
the Pilgrims reached America
that granted political rights to
all male colonists who would
abide by the colony’s laws.
Squanto
A Patuxet who
taught the Pilgrims survival
techniques in America and
acted as translator for the
colonists.
John Winthrop
One of the
founders of Massachusetts Bay
Colony and the colony’s frst
governor.
Great Migration
The
movement of Puritans from
England to America in the
1630s, caused by political and
religious unrest in England.
hierarchy
A system in which
people or things are ranked
above one another.
femme couverte
From the
French for “covered woman”;
a legal term for a married
woman; this legal status limited
women’s rights, denying them
the right to sue or be sued, own
or sell property, or earn wages.
sainthood
Full membership in
a Puritan church.
Quakers
Members of the
Society of Friends, a radical
Protestant sect that believed in
the equality of men and women,
pacifsm, and the presence of
a divine “inner light” in every
individual.
heretic
A person who does not
behave in accordance with an
established attitude, doctrine,
or principle, usually in religious
matters.
Roger Williams
Puritan
minister banished from
Massachusetts for criticizing its
religious rules and government
policies; in 1635, he founded
Providence, a community based
on religious freedom and the
separation of church and state.
Anne Hutchinson
A
religious leader banished from
Massachusetts in 1636 because
of her criticism of the colonial
government and what were
judged to be heretical beliefs
magistrates
Civil officers
charged with administering
the law.
Pequot War
Confict in
1636 between the Pequot
Indians inhabiting eastern
Connecticut and the colonists
of Massachusetts Bay and
Connecticut: the Indians were
destroyed and driven from
the area.
Metacom
A Wampanoag
chief, known to the English as
King Philip, who led the Indian
resistance to colonial expansion
in New England in 1675.
guerilla tactics
A method
of warfare in which small
bands of fghters in occupied
territory harass and attack their
enemies, often in surprise raids;
the Indians used these tactics
during King Philip’s War.
Half-Way Covenant
An
agreement (1662) that gave
partial membership in Puritan
churches to the children of
church members even if they
had not had a “saving faith”
experience.
Dominion of New England
A
megacolony created in 1686 by
James II under the control of
one royal governor; William and
Mary dissolved the Dominion
when they came to the throne
in 1689.
patronage
Jobs or favors
distributed on a political basis,
usually as rewards for loyalty or
service.
suffrage
the right to vote
property requirement
The
limitation of voting rights to
citizens who own certain kinds
or amounts of property.
William Penn
English
Quaker who founded the colony
of Pennsylvania in 1681.
yeoman
Independent
landowner entitled to suffrage.
James Oglethorpe
English
philanthropist who established
the colony of Georgia in 1732 as
a refuge for debtors.
indigo
Shrublike plant with
clusters of red or purple fowers,
grown on plantations in the
South; it was a primary source
of blue dye in the eighteenth
century.
femme sole
From the French
for “woman alone”; a legal term
for an unmarried, widowed,
or divorced woman who has
the legal right to own or sell
property, sue or be sued, or
earn wages.
unprecedented
Unheard
of or novel.
subsistence society
A society
that produces the food and
supplies necessary for its
survival but does not produce a
surplus that can be marketed.
absentee planter
An estate
owner who collects profts
from farming or rent but does
not live on the land or help
cultivate it.
tidewater
Low coastal land
drained by tidal streams in
Maryland and Virginia.
carrying trade
The business
of transporting goods across
the Atlantic or to and from the
Caribbean.
seasoning
A period during
which slaves from Africa were
held in the West Indies so they
could adjust to the climate and
disease environment of the
American tropics.
middle passage
The
transatlantic voyage of
indentured servants or African
slaves to the Americas.
apprentice
A person bound by
legal agreement to work for an
employer for a specifc length of
time in exchange for instruction
in a trade, craft, or business.
manumit
To free from slavery
or bondage.
demographics
statistical data
on population.
Scots-Irish
Protestant Scottish
settlers in British-occupied
northern Ireland, many of
whom migrated to the colonies
in the eighteenth century.
Stono Rebellion
Slave revolt
in South Carolina in 1739; it
prompted the colony to pass
harsher laws governing the
movement of slaves and the
capture of runaways.
Paxton boys
Settlers in
Paxton, Pennsylvania, who
massacred Conestogans in
1763 and then marched on
Philadelphia to demand that
the colonial government
provide better defense against
the Indians.
Enlightenment
An
eighteenth-century intellectual
movement that stressed the
pursuit of knowledge through
reason and challenged the value
of religious belief, emotion, and
tradition.
Philosophe
Any of the
popular French intellectuals
or social philosophers of
the Enlightenment, such as
Voltaire, Diderot, or Rousseau.
deism
The belief that God
created the universe in such
a way that it could operate
without any further divine
intervention such as miracles.
social contract
A theoretical
agreement between the
governed and the government
that defnes and limits the
rights and obligations of each.
established church
The
offcial church of a nation or
colony, usually supported by
taxes collected from all citizens,
no matter what their religious
beliefs or place of worship.
congregationalism
A
form of Protestant church
government in which the local
congregation is independent
and self-governing; in the
colonies, the Puritans were
Congregationalists.
charismatic
Having a spiritual
power or personal quality that
stirs enthusiasm and devotion
in large numbers of people.
itinerant
Traveling from place
to place.
Great Awakening
A series of
religious revivals based on fery
preaching and emotionalism
that swept across the colonies
during the second quarter of
the eighteenth century.
George Whitefield
English
evangelical preacher of the
Great Awakening whose
charismatic style attracted huge
crowds during his preaching
tours of the colonies.
denomination
A group of
religious congregations that
accept the same doctrines and
are united under a single name.
proprietor
In colonial America,
a proprietor was a wealthy
Englishman who received a
large grant of land from the
monarch in order to create a
new colony.
insubordination
Resistance to
authority; disobedience.
sovereignty
The ultimate
power in a nation or a state.
policy
A course of action taken
by a government or a ruler.
salutary neglect
The British
policy of relaxed enforcement of
most colonial trade regulations
as long as the mainland
colonies remained loyal to the
government and proftable
within the British economy.
enumerated
Added to the list
of regulated goods or crops.
corporate colony
A self-
governing colony, not directly
under the control of proprietors
or the Crown.
bureaucrat
A government
offcial, usually appointed, who
is deeply devoted to the details
of administrative procedures.
power of the purse
The
political power that is enjoyed
by the branch of government
that controls taxation and the
use of tax monies.
deference
Yielding to the
judgment or wishes of a social
or intellectual superior.
Creek Confederacy
Alliance
of the Creeks and smaller
Indian tribes living in the
Southeast.
Treaty of Paris
The treaty
ending the French and Indian
War in 1763; it gave all of
French Canada and Spanish
Florida to Britain.
George III
King of England
(r. 1760–1820); his government’s
policies produced colonial
discontent that led to the
American Revolution in 1776.
delusions
False beliefs that
are strongly held in spite of
evidence to the contrary.
George Grenville
British
prime minister who sought
to tighten controls over the
colonies and to impose taxes to
raise revenues.
Covenant Chain
An alliance
of Indian tribes established to
resist colonial settlement in the
Ohio Valley and Great Lakes
region and to oppose British
trading policies.
Pontiac
Ottawa chief who
led the unsuccessful resistance
against British policy in 1763.
Proclamation Line of 1763
Boundary that Britain
established in the Appalachian
Mountains, west of which white
settlement was banned; it was
intended to reduce confict
between Indians and colonists.
mercantile theory
The
economic notion that a nation
should amass wealth by
exporting more than it imports;
colonies are valuable in a
mercantile system as a source of
raw materials and as a market
for manufactured goods.
import duties
Taxes on
imported goods.
Currency Act
British law of
1764 banning the printing of
paper money in the American
colonies.
customs service
A government
agency authorized to collect
taxes on foreign goods entering
a country.
Sugar Act
British law of
1764 that taxed sugar and other
colonial imports to pay for
some of Britain’s expenses in
protecting the colonies.
civil court
Any court that hears
cases regarding the rights of
private citizens.
vice-admiralty court
Nonjury
British court in which a judge
heard cases involving shipping.
depression
A period of drastic
economic decline, marked by
decreased business activity,
falling prices, and high
unemployment.
Stamp Act
British law of
1765 that directly taxed a
variety of items, including
newspapers, playing cards, and
legal documents.
direct tax
A tax imposed to
raise revenue rather than to
regulate trade.
external taxation
Revenue
raised in the course of
regulating trade with other
nations.
Sons of Liberty
A secret
organization frst formed in
Boston to oppose the
Stamp Act.
Samuel Adams
Massachusetts revolutionary
leader and propagandist who
organized opposition to British
policies after 1764.
Thomas Hutchinson
Boston
merchant and judge who served
as lieutenant governor and later
governor of Massachusetts;
Stamp Act protesters destroyed
his home in 1765.
Patrick Henry
Member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses and
American revolutionary leader
noted for his oratorical skills
boycott
An organized
political protest in which people
refuse to buy goods from a
nation or group of people
whose actions they oppose.
loyalist
An American colonist
who remained loyal to the king
during the Revolution.
Minutemen
Nickname frst
given to the Concord militia
because of their speed in
assembling; the term later
applied generally to colonial
militia during the Revolution.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
Two confrontations
in April 1775 between
British soldiers and patriot
Minutemen; the frst recognized
battles of the Revolution.
American Prohibitory Act
British law of 1775 that
authorized the royal navy
to seize all American ships
engaged in trade; it amounted
to a declaration of war.
Common Sense
Revolutionary pamphlet
written by Thomas Paine in
1776; it attacked George III,
argued against monarchy, and
advanced the patriot cause.
Declaration of Independence
A formal
statement, adopted by the
Second Continental Congress
in 1776, that listed justifcations
for rebellion and declared the
American mainland colonies to
be independent of Britain.
insurrection
An uprising
against a legitimate authority or
government.