Age of Discovery
U.S. History
Unit #1 – Objectives
“Age of Discovery”
(1450-1756)
Vocabulary Terms: discovery, native, democracy, culture, inheritance, colonies, religion
Upon completion of Unit #1, students will be able to:
1. Explain European Exploration of the Western Hemisphere, including…
a. Peoples Native to the Americas – Aztecs, Incas, Mayas, Iriquois
b. Columbus’ Voyages of Discovery (1492-1504)
c. Spain – southwestern North America and Florida
d. France – Mississippi and St. Lawrence river valleys
e. England – Canada and North America east of the Appalachians
f. The Netherlands – Hudson River valley
2. Explain the importance of the English Colonies in the Development of American
Democracy and Culture, including…
a. Political heritage – English common law and The Magna Carta;
representative
government
b. Religious and cultural inheritance
i. Heterogeneous nature of each colony
ii. Development of American religious movement: The First Great Awakening;
George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards
3. Explain the Political Developments in the English Colonies
a. Settlement of Jamestown
b. Popularly elected colonial assemblies (Virginia House of Burgesses, 1619)
c. The Mayflower Compact (1620)
d. Town meetings in New England
e. Attempts towards colonial unity – Albany Congress (1754); Benjamin Franklin
f. Early resistance and rebellion
i. Self-government in Rhode Island and Connecticut
ii. Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia, 1676); Nathaniel Bacon
iii. Paxton Boys (Pennsylvania, 1763-64)
4. Analyze the Economic Factors in the English Colonies
a. Land use by region: New England, Middle Atlantic, Southern
b. The labor system – subsistence farming, tobacco
c. Introduction of indentured servants (1619) and development of slave laws
d. Sources of wealth
e. The Navigation Acts (1660, 1663, 1673) and the development of “salutary neglect”
5. Describe the Cultural Factors in the English Colonies
a. Education
i. Early colleges: Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), Princeton
(1746)
ii. Primary education
1. Wealthy families: private tutors
2. Frontier families: home schooling
b. Social stratification
c. Family
d. Books and newspapers
i. Benjamin Franklin and the first lending library
ii. Poor Richards’ Almanac (1732: “A penny saved is a penny earned”_
iii. Freedom of the Press (John Peter Zenger case, 1734-35)
e. Arts
f. Science: smallpox inoculation (1721)
6. Describe Religion in the English colonies
a. Basic Judeo-Christian character of early settlers
b. Puritan and Congregational influence in New England
i. Puritans and Separatists
ii. Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony
iii. William Bradford
c. Catholic settlement in Maryland
d. Jews in New York, Charleston, and Newport
e. Quakers and Lutherans in Pennsylvania
f. Religious persecution
i. In Europe
ii. In the colonies (Salem Witch Trials, 1692)
g. Development of religious toleration in practice and in law
i. Rhode island – Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson
ii. Pennsylvania – William Penn, Quakers
iii. Maryland – The Act of Toleration
VIP’s: Lord Baltimore, William Berkeley, Massassoit, James
Oglethorpe, King Philip, Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan, John Rolfe, John
Smith, Squanto, Perer Stuyvesant, Phillis Wheatley, John Winthrop
District 145 Public Schools
and
Educational Service Unit #6, Milford, Nebraska
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