Review: Establishment of the Colonies

As we review for the AP test, I thought I would post a little review of some important terms and things to know from the colonial era.  Hopefully this helps.

• Virginia Company (joint stock company) funded Jamestown expedition.
• Jamestown=earliest permanent English settlement
• nearly collapsed because English Gentlemen didn't know how to use their hands or grow crops.
• House of Burgesses=first representative legislative body in British North America
• In Virginia
• At first, all free adult men could vote.  Later on, it became more exclusive.
• John Rolfe first planted tobacco in virginia in 1612
• exported to Europe where it became very popular
• was the means by which Virginia colonists thrived economically
• Georgia was initially founded as a buffer state between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.
• New England colonies=more driven by religious reasons than economic gain.
• first New England settlers=devout Puritans
• Mayflower Compact:  called for orderly government by consent of the governed
• established Plymouth
• Drawn up by Separatists who came on Mayflower
• Rhode Island-->founded by devout puritan
• characterized by separation of church and state
• Dutch establish New Amsterdam, later known as New York
• Pennsylvania-->established for Quakers
• Philadelphia was initially greater that New York as a commercial center

There is more to come.  My next post will be about the developement of the colonies.