Exploration & Native Societies
Describe one key cultural or subsistence difference between Native American societies in the Arctic and the Southeast
Arctic: hunting marine mammals, igloo/seasonal camps; Southeast: agriculture (maize), settled villages, mound-building.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The transfer of plants, animals, people, diseases, and cultures between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after 1492
What was the encomienda system?
Grant by Spanish crown allowing colonists to extract labor and tribute from indigenous people in exchange for supposed protection and Christianization.
What was salutary neglect?
British policy of minimal enforcement of imperial regulations allowing colonial self-government; its end led to tensions.
Which battle is commonly identified as the first battle of the American Revolution?
Lexington and Concord (April 1775)
How did Plains peoples adapt their lifestyle after the introduction of the horse?
Horses transformed hunting mobility, expanded buffalo hunting, increased nomadism and warfare.
Name two important crops that moved from the Americas to Europe and one Old World animal introduced to the New World
New World → Old World: maize, potatoes; Old World animal → New World: horses (also cattle, pigs).
Summarize Bartolomé de las Casas’s role and his argument regarding native peoples
De las Casas criticized Spanish cruelty, advocated for indigenous rights, and urged reform (e.g., New Laws)
What was the Proclamation Line of 1763 and why did it anger colonists?
Proclamation of 1763 prohibited colonial settlement west of Appalachian Mountains to avoid Native conflicts and control westward expansion; colonists resented limitations on land opportunity
Why was Thomas Paine’s Common Sense influential to the Revolution?
Common Sense argued for independence, accessible to broad audience, framed monarchy as illegitimate.
Identify two major features of Northeast (Iroquoian) political or social organization that distinguished them from Southwestern societies.
Iroquoian: matrilineal clans, longhouses, confederacies; Pueblo: pueblo villages, irrigation agriculture, multi-storied adobe structures.
Explain one direct demographic effect in Europe caused by New World crops and one demographic consequence in the Americas due to European contact
Europe: population growth due to calorie-rich crops (potatoes, maize). Americas: catastrophic population decline from Old World diseases (smallpox)
Explain how joint-stock companies and similar business changes encouraged English colonization.
Joint-stock companies pooled capital, spread risk, and financed long-term colonial ventures (e.g., Virginia Company)
Explain the theory of virtual representation and why colonists rejected it.
Virtual representation: Parliament claimed it represented all British subjects even without direct colonial representatives; colonists argued it did not account for their interests.
Explain the significance of the battles of Trenton and Saratoga to the Revolutionary cause.
Trenton: raised Patriot morale after winter retreat; Saratoga: major turning point — French alliance secured after American victory.
Explain how environment shaped the lifeways of Northwest coastal peoples (include at least two examples).
Northwest: abundant salmon/seafood, plank houses, potlatch ceremonies, complex social stratification
Define mercantilism and explain how it shaped European colonial policy
Mercantilism: economic theory that colonies exist to provide raw materials and markets to increase national wealth; led to trade restrictions and navigation acts
Compare and contrast Spanish, English, French, and Dutch approaches to Native American relations (give one distinctive policy or practice for each).
Spanish: encomienda, missions, conversion; English: land acquisition, displacement and settler colonization; French: trade alliances (fur trade), intermarriage, fewer settlements; Dutch: trade-focused, commercial outposts (New Amsterdam) and patroonships.
Choose two of these acts (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act, Intolerable Acts) and explain the colonial reaction and political consequence.
Example: Stamp Act — direct tax on printed materials produced widespread protest and the Stamp Act Congress; Townshend Acts — external duties led to boycotts and heightened tensions, including the Boston Massacre; Tea Act → Boston Tea Party → Intolerable Acts prompting colonial unity.
What arguments in the Declaration of Independence reflect John Locke’s political philosophy? Give two specific examples.
Examples: natural rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) echo Locke’s rights to life, liberty, property; government deriving power from consent of the governed.
Describe three major impacts of silver and gold inflows from the Americas on European economies and social structures.
Pueblo: irrigation, sedentary villages in arid region; Mississippian: large riverine chiefdoms, intensive maize agriculture, mound centers (e.g., Cahokia).
Describe three major impacts of silver and gold inflows from the Americas on European economies and social structures.
Massive bullion inflows fueled inflation (price revolution), weakened feudal obligations, funded state militaries and centralization, and shifted economic power toward merchants.
Describe the role of religion in settlement for two different colonial societies (e.g., Puritans, Spanish missionaries) and how religion influenced colonial policy or daily life.
Puritans: sought to build a godly community, strict moral codes, church-centered governance; Spanish missionaries: missions to convert and assimilate indigenous populations, often tied to colonial administration.
How did Enlightenment ideas and the First Great Awakening each contribute differently to revolutionary sentiment?
Enlightenment: intellectual emphasis on rights, consent of the governed, and natural law (e.g., Locke). First Great Awakening: religious revivalism that challenged traditional authority and encouraged individualism and questioning of hierarchy.
Describe the causes, events, and significance of Yorktown in ending major fighting in the Revolutionary War.
Yorktown: combined Franco-American siege forced Cornwallis’s surrender (1781), effectively ending major combat and leading to negotiations for peace.