Northwest Passage
a water route across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Protestant Reformation
sixteenth-century religious reform movement begun by Martin Luther
Coureurs de bois
French colonists who lived and worked in Native American lands beyond the French settlements
Alliance
an agreement between nations to aid and protect one another
Charter
legal document giving certain rights to a person or company
Burgesses
a representative to the colonial Virginia government
House of Burgesses
a representative assembly in colonial Virginia
Representative Government
a political system in which voters elect representatives to make laws for them
Magna Carta
a British document signed in 1215 that contained two basic ideas: monarchs themselves have to obey the laws, and citizens have basic rights
Indentured Servants
a person who pledges to work for a master for a period until he or she pays off a debt, such as the cost of a voyage to a colony
Bacon's Rebellion
a 1676 revolt of Virginia colonists against the colony's government
Frontier
edge of the settlement
Martin Luther
a German monk
Queen Elizabeth
a Protestant queen who ruled England
John Cabot
Italian captain who lead England's first voyage to North America
Giovanni da Verrazano
Italian captain in search of a northwest passage for the French
Henry Hudson
English explorer who sailed for the Dutch
Peter Minuit
led a group of Dutch settlers to the mouth of the Hudson River
Jamestown
English colony in North America
Roanoke
an island off the coast of present-day North Carolina