Chapter 1 Focus Questions
1. Where do you think a U.S. history course should begin? Why? Explain. In so doing you are practicing a key skill in this course: periodization.
2. Place the Columbian Exchange in historical context by explaining the interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic into the larger story of World History. Is this exchange the first big step in Globalization?
3. Why is 1492 so pivotal for the Western Hemisphere?
4. Explain how settlers migrated across North America over time and identify and explain how they developed complex societies by adapting to and transforming their environments.
5. To what degree did maize cultivation support economic development and social diversification in Mexico and the American southwest?
6. Discuss the reasons why the Great Basin and western Great Plains Native Americans developed largely mobile lifestyles.
7. Identify the Columbian Exchange and how it was the result of European overseas expansion. Create a T chart showing what was traded/moved back and forth. What were the pros and cons of the exchange? What were the impacts on native settlement patterns, and economic, political, and social development in the Western Hemisphere? Think of long term effects on both sides of the Atlantic. Now answer the prompt with a thesis statement and referring to the T chart and info above. The Columbian Exchange was more beneficial for the Old World than detrimental. Support, refute or modify this statement.
8. What were the impacts of Spanish and Portuguese exploration, conquest and settlement?
9. What new crops from the Americas stimulated European population growth?
10. What new sources of wealth moved Europe from feudalism to mercantilism to capitalism?
11. How did contacts among Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans challenge the world views of each group?
12. Explain the ongoing debate among Spanish and Portuguese explorers and missionaries about how to treat and civilize Native Americans. Make sure to discuss the arguments of Las Casas and Sepulveda. Did these debates result in a growing feeling of white superiority? How? Why? Read Contending Voices on page 16 to help.
13. Give examples of how Native Americans strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy in the face of European challenges to their independence and core beliefs.
14. How did the first people get to North America and the Western Hemisphere? How many lived in the Western Hemisphere by the time the European age of exploration began? Do historians agree on this number?
15. Look at Examining the Evidence on pg 7. What clues to the European mentality of the time does the map offer? How did misconceptions about geography of the Americas influence settlement patterns?
16. Identify three sister farming.
17. Discuss the diversity of cultures that developed as a result of interactions with the environment and with each other before the arrival of Europeans. Create a T chart with one side having similarities and one side having differences. Divide the similarities and differences into categories like religious, political, economic and social. Look at the pictures of Cahokia on pg 10 and Tenochtitlan on pg 20 to help.
18. Now answer the following prompt with a thesis statement and a brief outline referring to the T chart above. American Indian cultures were more similar than different in the period prior to 1491. Support, refute or modify this statement.
19. Why are European explorers considered to be indirect discovers of the Western Hemisphere? What were the causes of European exploration, conquering and settling of the New World? Consider social, economic, political and religious reasons.
20. What role did Africa play in the development of slavery in the New World? Why did the Portuguese begin to traffic in slaves?
21. Identify the encomienda system of the Spanish and explain why it was developed by Spain. What role did the conquistadores play? Missionaries?
22. In what ways is pre 1600 Mexico and American southwest history understood differently now that so many Latin American immigrants are substantially affecting modern U.S. history and policy?
23. What was the effect of imperial competition on growing European exploration and settlement in the New World? How did Native Americans attempt to maintain their culture? Give examples of open resistance.
24. Attempt to answer the following prompt with a clear thesis and outline. The differences between the settlements of Latin America and North America are due primarily to the differences between the respective Indian societies that existed in the two places rather than to the disparity between Spanish and English culture. Support, refute or modify this statement.
Chapter 2 Focus Questions
1. What caused the cultural clashes between English colonists and American Indians in the 17th century? Give examples of these clashes.
2. How did the development of the British colonies in the Chesapeake, southern Atlantic coast, and West Indies change throughout the 17th century? How did it stay the same?
3. How did the British colonies in number 2 above compare with the development of the Spanish colonies in Mexico and the American southwest?
4. Trace the establishment of permanent English colonies based on agriculture, the reliance on the cultivation of cash crops and the switch from using Native Americans and indentured servants to slavery.
5. Why did the English colonies make the switch? Explain.
6. Describe Native American culture along the Northeast Atlantic seaboard.
7. How did the Protestant Reformation and the desire to compete with Spain spur English colonization in the new world? What other factors/motives were behind England exploring and creating settlements?
8. Practice sourcing the picture on page 26. Sourcing a document requires one to analyze the source for contextualization, point of view, purpose and audience. Use APPARTY or SOAPSTONE to do this.
9. Read Contending Voices on page 27 and account for the differences in views of the two men.
10. Explain how the English settlements developed legal ties to England that would reinforce their status as English. Identify charter, joint stock company.
11. Discuss and provide examples of how trade and contact with Europeans impacted Native American cultures and vice versa.
12. Create a T chart comparing the Spanish and English interactions with American Indians. What are the reasons for these differences? What are the effects on both the Europeans and the American Indians? Were the English colonizers crueler or more tolerant than the Spanish conquistadores?
13. Identify early development of Maryland and how it was different than Va.
14. Identify early traces of democratic development-House of Burgesses, Act of Toleration.
15. What role did the Spanish encomienda system and British sugar colonies play in introducing slavery to the southern colonies?
16. Explain the development of labor systems such as slavery, indentured servitude and free labor in the colonial period.
17. Compare and contrast the regional differences of the British colonies.
18. Create a list of both positive and negative interactions between American Indians and European settlers. Use this list to answer the prompt. The English settlers along the Atlantic seaboard had more positive than negative interactions with American Indians in the period 1607-1754. Support, refute, or modify this statement. We will come back to this prompt at the end of chapter 3 and 4 as well and add to the list and note continuities or changes over time.
19. Read Makers of America: The Iroquois-What role did the Iroquois play in the politics and warfare of British North America? How did they handle the ongoing conflicts between the French and English? Why would they side with the British in the Revolutionary War?
20. Choose a date that is a turning point in the chapter and defend your choice.
1. Where do you think a U.S. history course should begin? Why? Explain. In so doing you are practicing a key skill in this course: periodization.
2. Place the Columbian Exchange in historical context by explaining the interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic into the larger story of World History. Is this exchange the first big step in Globalization?
3. Why is 1492 so pivotal for the Western Hemisphere?
4. Explain how settlers migrated across North America over time and identify and explain how they developed complex societies by adapting to and transforming their environments.
5. To what degree did maize cultivation support economic development and social diversification in Mexico and the American southwest?
6. Discuss the reasons why the Great Basin and western Great Plains Native Americans developed largely mobile lifestyles.
7. Identify the Columbian Exchange and how it was the result of European overseas expansion. Create a T chart showing what was traded/moved back and forth. What were the pros and cons of the exchange? What were the impacts on native settlement patterns, and economic, political, and social development in the Western Hemisphere? Think of long term effects on both sides of the Atlantic. Now answer the prompt with a thesis statement and referring to the T chart and info above. The Columbian Exchange was more beneficial for the Old World than detrimental. Support, refute or modify this statement.
8. What were the impacts of Spanish and Portuguese exploration, conquest and settlement?
9. What new crops from the Americas stimulated European population growth?
10. What new sources of wealth moved Europe from feudalism to mercantilism to capitalism?
11. How did contacts among Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans challenge the world views of each group?
12. Explain the ongoing debate among Spanish and Portuguese explorers and missionaries about how to treat and civilize Native Americans. Make sure to discuss the arguments of Las Casas and Sepulveda. Did these debates result in a growing feeling of white superiority? How? Why? Read Contending Voices on page 16 to help.
13. Give examples of how Native Americans strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy in the face of European challenges to their independence and core beliefs.
14. How did the first people get to North America and the Western Hemisphere? How many lived in the Western Hemisphere by the time the European age of exploration began? Do historians agree on this number?
15. Look at Examining the Evidence on pg 7. What clues to the European mentality of the time does the map offer? How did misconceptions about geography of the Americas influence settlement patterns?
16. Identify three sister farming.
17. Discuss the diversity of cultures that developed as a result of interactions with the environment and with each other before the arrival of Europeans. Create a T chart with one side having similarities and one side having differences. Divide the similarities and differences into categories like religious, political, economic and social. Look at the pictures of Cahokia on pg 10 and Tenochtitlan on pg 20 to help.
18. Now answer the following prompt with a thesis statement and a brief outline referring to the T chart above. American Indian cultures were more similar than different in the period prior to 1491. Support, refute or modify this statement.
19. Why are European explorers considered to be indirect discovers of the Western Hemisphere? What were the causes of European exploration, conquering and settling of the New World? Consider social, economic, political and religious reasons.
20. What role did Africa play in the development of slavery in the New World? Why did the Portuguese begin to traffic in slaves?
21. Identify the encomienda system of the Spanish and explain why it was developed by Spain. What role did the conquistadores play? Missionaries?
22. In what ways is pre 1600 Mexico and American southwest history understood differently now that so many Latin American immigrants are substantially affecting modern U.S. history and policy?
23. What was the effect of imperial competition on growing European exploration and settlement in the New World? How did Native Americans attempt to maintain their culture? Give examples of open resistance.
24. Attempt to answer the following prompt with a clear thesis and outline. The differences between the settlements of Latin America and North America are due primarily to the differences between the respective Indian societies that existed in the two places rather than to the disparity between Spanish and English culture. Support, refute or modify this statement.
Chapter 2 Focus Questions
1. What caused the cultural clashes between English colonists and American Indians in the 17th century? Give examples of these clashes.
2. How did the development of the British colonies in the Chesapeake, southern Atlantic coast, and West Indies change throughout the 17th century? How did it stay the same?
3. How did the British colonies in number 2 above compare with the development of the Spanish colonies in Mexico and the American southwest?
4. Trace the establishment of permanent English colonies based on agriculture, the reliance on the cultivation of cash crops and the switch from using Native Americans and indentured servants to slavery.
5. Why did the English colonies make the switch? Explain.
6. Describe Native American culture along the Northeast Atlantic seaboard.
7. How did the Protestant Reformation and the desire to compete with Spain spur English colonization in the new world? What other factors/motives were behind England exploring and creating settlements?
8. Practice sourcing the picture on page 26. Sourcing a document requires one to analyze the source for contextualization, point of view, purpose and audience. Use APPARTY or SOAPSTONE to do this.
9. Read Contending Voices on page 27 and account for the differences in views of the two men.
10. Explain how the English settlements developed legal ties to England that would reinforce their status as English. Identify charter, joint stock company.
11. Discuss and provide examples of how trade and contact with Europeans impacted Native American cultures and vice versa.
12. Create a T chart comparing the Spanish and English interactions with American Indians. What are the reasons for these differences? What are the effects on both the Europeans and the American Indians? Were the English colonizers crueler or more tolerant than the Spanish conquistadores?
13. Identify early development of Maryland and how it was different than Va.
14. Identify early traces of democratic development-House of Burgesses, Act of Toleration.
15. What role did the Spanish encomienda system and British sugar colonies play in introducing slavery to the southern colonies?
16. Explain the development of labor systems such as slavery, indentured servitude and free labor in the colonial period.
17. Compare and contrast the regional differences of the British colonies.
18. Create a list of both positive and negative interactions between American Indians and European settlers. Use this list to answer the prompt. The English settlers along the Atlantic seaboard had more positive than negative interactions with American Indians in the period 1607-1754. Support, refute, or modify this statement. We will come back to this prompt at the end of chapter 3 and 4 as well and add to the list and note continuities or changes over time.
19. Read Makers of America: The Iroquois-What role did the Iroquois play in the politics and warfare of British North America? How did they handle the ongoing conflicts between the French and English? Why would they side with the British in the Revolutionary War?
20. Choose a date that is a turning point in the chapter and defend your choice.