Vocabulary for Unit 1 and 2

Transatlantic triangular trade

• Trading goods and products across the Atlantic between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

• The trading path looks like a triangle

Mercantilism

• The theory that nations need to become wealthy by earning gold and silver and this is best done by establishing colonies and using their resources to become rich and prosperous.

Favorable balance of trade

• When the amount of exports going out of a country is larger than the amount of imports coming in

Middle Passage

• The middle leg of the transatlantic triangular oceanic trade that exported slaves to the Americas in the colonial era.

colony

• Group of people settling in another land

colonization

• The process a group of people go through when they settle in another land

Physical Migration

• When people move from one area to another

Charter

• A written grant from the sovereign power of a country such as the king conferring certain rights and privileges on a person, a corporation, or the people

• An example is the Massachusetts charter which exempted the Massachusetts colony from direct interference by the English Crown.

Proprietary

• Owned by a private individual or corporation such as the colony of Georgia

Assembly

• an assembling or coming together of a number of persons, usually for a particular purpose

• a legislative body, especially the lower house of the legislature in certain states of the U.S

• Examples-a bill before the assembly; the Georgia State Assembly.

House of Burgesses

• First Legislative assembly in the New World

• Located in Virginia

Town meeting

• Institution in New England that allowed colonists to meet and discuss their laws and government and make decisions

Treaty

• a formal agreement between two or more states in reference to peace, alliance, commerce, or other international relations.

• The treaty of Paris 1763 and the Treaty of Paris 1783

Covenant

• a solemn agreement between the members of a church to act together in harmony over an issue

• The Puritan half way covenant

Dissenters

• People who wanted to change or purify the Anglican church because they dissented with some of its practices

• Puritans

Separatists

• People who wanted to separate from the Anglican church such as the Pilgrims

Anglican

• Church of England

• The English church started by Henry VIII because the Roman catholic church would not allow him to divorce his wife

• Protestant

Roman Catholic

• The Christian church based in Rome , Italy that grew out of the teachings of Jesus

• The Pope is the head

• Has priest and nuns as religious workers

Protestant

• The Christian church based all over the world but that began in Germany with the teachings of Martin Luther

• Began originally as a protest movement against practices of the Roman Catholic church

• Religious workers are pastors, reverends, deacons, and elders

Imperial

• of, like, or pertaining to an empire.

• The imperial competition between England and France in the 7 years war that included the French and Indian war.

Competition

• the act of competing; rivalry for supremacy, a prize, etc

• The competition between the British and the Americans during the revolutionary war was bitter.

Intolerable

• not tolerable; unendurable; insufferable

• The intolerable acts placed on Boston by the British after the tea party were terrible.

unjust

• Unfair, abusive such as the practices outlined in the Declaration of Independence about George III and England towards the colonies

Proclamation

• To proclaim or tell everyone that something is so and will be that way from now on such as the Proclamation of 1763 by the British that told settlers moving west of the Appalachian mountains to move back to the original 13 colonies and leave the western lands to the Native Americans

committee

• A group of people with a like purpose or goal

correspondence

• To correspond or communicate by mail, letter, email, notes

Massacre

the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings such as in the Boston Massacre

Federalists

• The people who wanted the Constitution, a strong central government

• Hamilton, Madison and Jay

• Wrote the Federalist Papers

Anti- Federalists

• The people who wanted a less strong Constitution with a Bill of Rights added , less strong Federal government

• Men like Thomas Jefferson

Republic

• A government where the people vote for their representatives who then make the laws

• America is a republic

Representative

• The person voted into government office by the people who then does their will

Delegate

• a person designated to act for or represent another or others as a representative such as in a political convention.

• The states sent 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention

Confederation

• a group of states, more or less permanently but loosely united for a common purpose.

• The articles of Confederation

• The Confederate states of America

Constitution

• A group of loosely allied states that have more power than their central government

Legislative

• The government body that makes the laws

• Congress

• Senate and House of Representatives

• They impeach government officials

• Bills concerning money start in the House

Judicial

• The branch of government that interprets the laws

• The Supreme Court

Executive

• The government body that enforces the laws

• President

• He is commander in chief

• He can make war but not declare it

• He can veto laws Congress passes

Branches of government

• Legislative

• Judicial

• Executive

Congress

• Made up of the Senate and House of Representatives

Democracy

• government by the people

• a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

Dictator

• a person exercising absolute power, esp. a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government

Social Contract theory

• People give up sovereignty or some of their rights to a government in order to receive or maintain order through the rule of law

Convention

• a meeting or formal assembly, as of representatives or delegates, for discussion of and action on particular matters of common concern.

Federalism

• pertaining to the nature of a union of states under a central government distinct from the individual governments of the separate states

• For example the national or federal government of the U.S.

Bicameral

• Two bodies of government such as Senate and House of representatives

Unicameral

• One body of government as was in the Articles of Confederation

Senate

• the upper house of the legislature of certain countries, such as the United States

Supreme Court

• the highest court of the U.S.

Framers

• The men who wrote or framed our Constitution

Mode

• Way or Method as in Mode of passing a Bill in congress means how one would pass a bill

Bill of rights

• First 10 amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing American citizens basic freedoms or rights such as the freedom of religion, press, assembly, due process

Separation of Powers

• political doctrine according to which the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power

Cabinet

• an advisory body to the president, consisting of the heads of the 13 executive departments of the federal government.

Faction

• a group or clique within a larger group, party, government, organization, or the like: a faction in favor of the Executive serving for life

Commerce

• Trade and business

Democracy

Government by the people, both directly or indirectly, with free and frequent elections.

Republic

• A Representative democracy in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws

• The USA

Constitutionalism

• The set of arrangements, including checks and balances, federalism, separation of powers, rule of law, due process, and a bill of rights, that requires our leaders to listen, think, bargain, and explain before they act or make laws. We then hold them politically and legally accountable for how they exercise their powers.

Majority

The candidate or party that wins more than half the votes cast in an election

Articles of Confederation

The first governing document of the confederated states drafted in 1777, ratified in 1781, and replaced by the present Constitution in 1789

Territory

In American, government an organized political entity not yet enjoying full equal terms of a state.

Constitutional Convention

The convention in Philadelphia, May 25 to September 17, 1787, that debated and agreed upon the Constitution of the United States

Shays’s Rebellion

Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786-1787, protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.

Virginia Plan

Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.

New Jersey Plan

Proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by William Paterson of New Jersey for a central government with a single-house legislature in which each state would be represented equally.

Connecticut or Great Compromise

Compromise agreement by states at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with a lower house in which representation would be based on population and an upper house in which each state would have two senators.

Three-fifths compromise

Compromise between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Federalists

Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government

Antifederalists

Opponents of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government, generally.

The Federalist

• – Essays promoting ratification of the Constitution, published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.

Separation of powers

• Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law, the executive applying and enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law.

Veto

A formal decision to reject the bill passed by Congress

Checks and balances

Constitutional grant of powers that enables each of the three branches of government to check some acts of the others and therefore ensure that no branch can dominate.

Marbury v. Madison

• A landmark case in United States law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States, under Article Three of the United States Constitution.

• The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who had been appointed as Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams shortly before leaving office, but whose commission was not delivered as required by John Marshall, Adams's Secretary of State.

• When Thomas Jefferson assumed office, he ordered the new Secretary of State, James Madison, to withhold Marbury's and several other men's commissions. Marbury and three others petitioned the Court to force Madison to deliver the commission to Marbury.

• The Supreme Court denied Marbury's petition, holding that the statute upon which he based his claim was unconstitutional.

Judicial review

The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or a government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or, in a state court, the state constitution.

Impeachment

• Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official, the first step in removal from office.

cabinet

The body of official advisers to the head of a government; in the United States, it consists of the heads of the major executive departments. “The Constitution does not mention a cabinet…”

Federalism

Constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and subdivisional governments, called states in the United States. The national and the subdivisional governments both exercise direct authority over individuals.

Necessary and proper clause

Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3) setting forth the implied powers of Congress. It states that Congress, in addition to its express powers has the right to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out all powers the Constitution vests in the national government.

Commerce clause

The clause in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.

Concurrent powers

Powers that the Constitution gives to both the national and state governments, such as the power to levy taxes.

Enumerated or delegated powers

The powers expressly given to Congress in the Constitution.

Necessary and proper” clause

Clause in the Constitution that states that “Congress should have the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. . . .” This clause is also known as the elastic clause as is a major and significant power of Congress, granting Congress the ability to interpret its lawmaking ability in a broad manner.

Natural rights

The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.

Popular sovereignty

A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.

Demographics

The study of the characteristics of populations.

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