Pre-Columbian and Early Colonial America Quiz

Time Period 1: Pre-Columbian and Early Colonial America

• Beringia: A land bridge connecting Siberia and North America, allowing migration.
• Pre-Columbian Societies: Diverse Native American groups across the Americas, with varying agricultural and societal structures.
  • Maize cultivation: significant development, leading to settled villages and population growth. Growing corn.
  • Irrigation systems: developed by some groups (Pueblos) in the Rio Grande.
  • Hunting and gathering: Less emphasized as agriculture became more prevalent.
  • Permanent villages: established due to agricultural surpluses.
• Great Plains and Great Basin: Native groups adapted to the environment; focused on bison hunting. Bison and sheep were important animals.
• Northeast: Mixed hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies, establishing permanent villages. The Iroquois were a prominent example. Their societies were adapted to their environments and burned forests to hunt and grow crops. Villages were built around maize.
• Mississippi River Valley: Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, with large earthen mounds.
• Atlantic Seaboard: Algonquian groups, relying on hunting, fishing, and farming (Three Sisters). Growing corn, beans, squash (Three Sisters farming).
• European Context: The Middle Ages, Crusades, Renaissance, and Reformation shaped Europe's worldview on the eve of exploration.
  • Middle Ages: Primarily agricultural, social hierarchy. Most lived in small villages, were Christian, and organized by social hierarchy with merchants being appealing.
  • Crusades: Increased trade, weakened nobles, strengthening monarchs. Christians attempted to regain the Holy Land (Jerusalem). Trade routes opened, weakening nobles and strengthening monarchs.
  • Renaissance: Cultural rebirth, print technology (Gutenberg), exploration (Marco Polo's travels). Movable type (Gutenberg) and caravel ships, compass, and maps aided exploration.
  • Reformation: Religious reform and conflict (Martin Luther's 95 Theses).
• Christopher Columbus: Sponsored by Spain, embarked on a westward voyage to Asia, reached the Americas in 1492. Columbus persuaded Isabella and Ferdinand to sail west to India.
• European Exploration Motives: "God, Gold, and Glory."
• Columbian Exchange: Exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and people between Europe and the Americas.
  • Americas to Europe: Potatoes and maize, leading to a rise in European populations.
  • Europe to Americas: Horses, guns, diseases (cataclysmic impact on native populations).

Time Period 1: Spanish Colonization and Interactions

• Encomienda System: Granting land to Spanish colonists, who were granted the right to use Indigenous peoples as labor; claimed slavery of Natives was justified under Christianity, with Indigenous people being used for labor.
• Bartolomé de las Casas: Advocated for humane treatment of Indigenous peoples, criticizing the encomienda system and playing a role in ending the system.
• Conquistadors: Spanish conquerors, including Hernán Cortés (Aztecs) and Francisco Pizarro (Incas). Conquered and exploited indigenous empires.
• Spanish Exploration Impact: Devastating impact on native populations due to diseases (killing 90% of natives).
• New Crops and Livestock: Introduction of wheat, rice, sugar to the Americas; horses significantly impacting the Great Plains.
• Spanish Colonization Structure: Intermarriage (with natives and Africans), royal officials, caste systems, and the focus on precious metals (gold & silver) and agriculture (sugar cane).
• Spanish Interactions with Natives: Mistrust of natives, desire to convert them to Christianity (desire to convert natives to Christianity), and exploitation (enslavement under encomiendas).
• Portugal: Spanish colonization rival; Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Americas between them.
• French Colonization:
  • Samuel de Champlain: Established Quebec in 1608, promoting trade and intermarriage (metis). Sent fewer individuals than the Spanish and English; mostly men.
  • Focused on trade with Natives; friendly relationships; did not take a lot of land from natives. Relationships with natives: Did not force natives into slavery. Christian Indians, freedom.
  • Natives killed by diseases.
• Dutch Colonization: Henry Hudson reached New York in 1609, establishing trade posts, focused on trade.
• Pueblo Revolt (Pope's Rebellion): Native American uprising against Spanish repression (Spanish priests and government suppressed native practices inconsistent with Christianity). Pope, a native religious leader, killed hundreds, and forced Spanish to flee. Greater tolerance towards natives followed.
• Maroons: Escaped slaves forming communities. Primarily in Jamestown.

Time Period 2: British Colonization

• Mercantilism: Economic policy focusing on enriching the mother country (Britain); favorable balance of trade, more exports than imports.
• British Colonization Motives: Rivalry with Spain (Defeated Spanish Armada 1588), search for resources, and religious freedom. Primogeniture (oldest son inherits) contributed to emigration.
• Colonies:
  • Jamestown (1607): First successful English Colony; funded by the Virginia joint stock company interested in mining gold. John Smith: "Those who shall not work, shall not eat" to encourage labor. Economic boom: John Rolfe: tobacco. Headright system: 50 acres of land for each person. Wealthy aristocrats would bring their servants(indentured servants). House of Burgesses: first elected assembly; only landowners could vote, with the Virginia company or governor having veto power.
  • Plymouth (1620): Group of separatists/pilgrims. Mayflower compact. Colonists agreed to obey “Just and equal laws shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony."
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629): Puritans seeking to establish a "city upon a hill." Government not truly a democracy; only church members could be elected & vote. Spiritual equality: Women were allowed to become church members, but only men could be ministers. Roger Williams: separation of church and state = religious freedom; banished to Rhode Island. Anne Hutchinson: Antinomianism.
• Chesapeake Bay (Maryland & Virginia): Tobacco and fishing were key economic activities. Maryland: granted to Lord Baltimore; refuge for Catholics; Act of Toleration: all Christians.
• Pennsylvania: Founded by William Penn, a Quaker. Quakers: no established church; religious freedom. Women, peace, no slavery.
• Southern Colonies: Cash crops (tobacco, rice, indigo), relying on indentured servitude, eventually transitioning to enslaved African labor. Warm climate and fertile land.
• New England Colonies: Mixed economy (agriculture, commerce, shipbuilding, whaling, etc). Small towns, family farms. Higher life expectancy compared to other parts of the colonies. Slavery did exist, smaller scale.
• Middle Colonies: Economy based on cereal crops (wheat, rye, barley); ship building; diverse population.

Time Period 2: British Colonial Development & Conflicts

• Triangular Trade: Trade between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
• Navigation Acts: Regulated colonial trade to benefit Britain. Colonists could only trade with Britain.
• Metacom/King Philip's War: Conflict between colonists and Native Americans (Wampanoag). Metacom was the leader of the Wampanoag. Encroachment by colonists. 1675: 3 Wampanoags were hanged.
• Bacon's Rebellion: Virginia colonists against Governor Berkeley's policies (favoring wealthy planters, protecting Indians). Increased reliance on enslaved Africans to replace indentured servants after the rebellion.
• Salem Witch Trials: Series of accusations and executions in Massachusetts, reflecting societal anxieties.
• First Great Awakening: Religious revival promoting individualism and challenging religious authority. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield; impacts included new christianity emerged, competition to attract followers, and rejected authority -> individualism -> republicanism -> challenged the authority of the king.
• Transatlantic Exchanges: Diffusion of Christianity from Europe to America. Growing religious diversity.

Time Period 3: The Road to Revolution

• French and Indian War (1754): Conflict between Britain and France for control of North America.
  • Albany Plan of Union: Colonial attempt for unified defense, rejected. Benjamin Franklin devised a plan for a colonial government to provide defense but was rejected.
  • William Pitt: Helped Great Britain by focusing on Montreal and Quebec.
  • Treaty of Paris (1763): Ended the war; France loses most North American territories. Spain acquires French lands west of the Mississippi and New Orleans. The british acquired French Canada and land east of the Mississippi. End of salutary neglect; Britain attempted to assert imperial authority.
  • Fort Duquesne: George Washington sparked the war there. General Braddock-British commander during the French and Indian War. Known for his failed attempt to capture Fort Duquesne.
• Pontiac's Rebellion: Native American resistance against British encroachment led to the Proclamation Act of 1763.
• Taxation Measures: Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Currency Act, Quartering Act, Townshend Acts (taxes on everyday items).
• Colonial Resistance: Sons and Daughters of Liberty; boycotts; Stamp Act Congress (challenging taxation without representation); Committees of Correspondence.
• Boston Massacre: Clash between colonists and British soldiers, fueling anti-British sentiment.
• Tea Act: British East India Company's tea monopoly, sparking the Boston Tea Party.
• Coercive/Intolerable Acts: Punitive measures against Massachusetts; increased colonial resentment; Boston port act, MA government act, administration of justice act, quartering act, quebec act.
• First Continental Congress: Colonial representatives seek redress of grievances; boycotts and resistance grow.
• Lexington and Concord: Conflict marks the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Time Period 3: Revolutionary War

• Second Continental Congress: Established the Continental Army, led by George Washington.
• Loyalists vs. Patriots: Divisions within the colonies.
• Declaration of Independence (1776): Formal declaration of independence from Great Britain, emphasizing natural rights.
• Revolutionary War Battles: Key battles include Bunker Hill, Long Island, Trenton, Valley Forge, Saratoga, and Yorktown.
• Common Sense (1776): Pamphlet by Thomas Paine advocating for independence, inspiring revolutionaries.
• Treaty of Paris (1783): Officially ends the war, granting the United States independence.
• Changes After the War: Increased educational opportunities; changing gender roles (republican motherhood); emergence of republicanism—citizen as a source of power; separation of church and state.
• Global Context: Influence of the American Revolution on other revolutions (French, Haitian, Latin American).

Time Period 3: Early Republic

• Articles of Confederation: First governing document, characterized by weak central authority.
• Northwest Ordinance: Established a framework for admitting new states and prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory.
• Shay's Rebellion: Farmers' uprising highlighting the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation.
• Constitutional Convention (1787): Creation of the U.S. Constitution, addressing issues from the Articles.
• Structure of Government: Limited government, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances.
• Great Compromise: Balancing representation, creating the House of Representatives and Senate.
• ⅗ Compromise: Determining representation based on a portion of the enslaved population.
• Federalists vs Anti-Federalists: Debate over the balance of power among states and the national government.
• Bill of Rights: First 10 amendments, protecting individual liberties.

Time Period 3: Early Presidents

• George Washington: First president; establishing precedents; dealing with internal and external conflicts. Whiskey rebellion, foreign entanglements, neutrality, Jay Treaty, Pinckney’s Treaty, Farewell Address.
• John Adams: Conflicts with France (XYZ affair). Alien and Sedition Acts, response from Jefferson and Madison's Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
• Thomas Jefferson: Louisiana Purchase, shift towards a more expansive interpretation of executive powers; Embargo Act.
• James Madison: War of 1812; following conflicts with Britain; expansionism; Hartford Convention.
• James Monroe: Era of Good Feelings; Monroe Doctrine (US asserting influence in the Americas).

Time Period 3: American Nationalism

• Events Under Monroe: Missouri Compromise (Maine/Missouri issue and future states in Louisiana territory); Adams-Onis Treaty (bought Florida).
• John Quincy Adams: Corrupt Bargain.
• Andrew Jackson: Spoils system; Jacksonian Democracy (Universal white male suffrage; elimination of property requirements for voting). Indian Removal Act.