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What was one of the key movements that influenced colonial groups to desire independence?
Which war significantly altered the relationship between the American colonists and Britain?
Which of the following best describes anti-British sentiments during the Colonial American period?
How did 'New Light' modes of worship generally challenge existing religious practices?
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What underlying condition motivated some colonial groups to consider independence?
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Which source of resentment contributed significantly to colonial unrest?
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What was a major ideological shift that occurred as a result of the Enlightenment?
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How did the French and Indian War affect colonial identity?
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What was the primary argument against Calvinism made by certain colonial groups during the Enlightenment?
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Which demographic was more likely to receive a college education in the colonies during the mid-eighteenth century?
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What did the colonies largely rely on for understanding the world before the Revolutionary War?
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What characterized the period known as the era of benign or salutary neglect?
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Which conflict prompted William Pitt to advocate for fighting in the 'New World'?
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What were colonial assemblies responsible for during the period before the Revolutionary War?
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How did the neglect from the British influence colonial attitudes?
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What was a significant result of the colonists fighting alongside the British?
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What was the primary aim of the Proclamation of 1763?
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What role did the Paxton Boys play during Pontiac's Rebellion?
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What was the significance of the Currency Act of 1764?
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What was one of the first acts that sought to raise revenue directly from the American colonies?
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What were Vice-admiralty courts used for in the colonial system?
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What was the underlying reason for the tensions raised by the Sugar Act of 1764?
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What event prompted the British government to issue the Proclamation of 1763?
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How did Native American resistance influence British colonial policies after the French and Indian War?
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What was a significant impact of the Toleration Act on nonconformists in British colonies?
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Which of the following best describes the core difference between the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment?
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What was one consequence of the First Great Awakening for social classes in British America?
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Which groups primarily made up the evangelists during the First Great Awakening?
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What was the reaction of elite ministers, often referred to as 'Old Lights', to the First Great Awakening?
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In what way did the Toleration Act impact Catholic political power in the colonies?
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What was a defining characteristic of the 'New Lights' during the First Great Awakening?
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Why were some colonies such as Pennsylvania and Rhode Island significant in the context of the Toleration Act?
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What was the primary reason King George II granted a charter for the colony of Georgia?
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In what year did James Oglethorpe lead the initial settlement of Georgia?
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Which of the following was not part of Oglethorpe's vision for the colony of Georgia?
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How did colonial settlers from other regions react to Oglethorpe's bans in Georgia?
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What was significant about Georgia being a government-funded colonial project?
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What agricultural product became prominent in Georgia by the 1750s?
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What distinguished the fighting patterns of British colonists in the eighteenth century?
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Which conflict specifically involved Britain against Spain in the context of colonial wars?
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Study Notes
The Enlightenment
- The Enlightenment muted the Calvinist emphasis of a predestined elite, arguing that God's greatest gift to humankind was reason and that all human beings could reach salvation.
- By the mid-eighteenth century, more than half of all White men (and a small percentage of White women) were literate.
- White men from wealthier families of English ancestry were more likely to earn a college education than those who were from poorer or immigrant households.
- The great majority of colonials still looked for truth in biblical revelation rather than human reason and explained the workings of the world in terms of divine action rather than natural laws of science.
- The many new churches built by the mid seventeen hundreds strengthened attachment to Christian beliefs.
Colonial Self-Governance
- During the period preceding the Revolutionary War, colonial groups became comfortable running their own lives and making their own decisions.
- They developed proto-democratic institutions such as the various colonial assemblies to which they elected their own representatives, which made many of the laws governing their conduct and trade.
- The time leading up to the Revolutionary War is sometimes called the era of benign or salutary neglect.
- The British were too preoccupied with conflicts over European succession and constant worry over the actions of their imperial rivals, particularly France and Spain, to devote much attention to the 13 colonies.
- The neglect allowed the colonies to develop certain attitudes and practices of independence, including the ability to ignore strict trade regulations such as the Navigation Acts.
- Colonials got used to doing things their way.
The French and Indian War
- The last of the continental wars, the French and Indian War, pitted France and its Indigenous allies versus Britain and its colonists.
- The colonists fought side by side with the British and were critical to achieving a British victory that all but vanquished the French from any claims they had to North America.
The Great Awakening
- The British Atlantic experienced an outburst of Protestant revivalism known as the First Great Awakening in the eighteenth century.
- Evangelists came from the ranks of several Protestant denominations: Congregationalists, Anglicans (members of the Church of England), and Presbyterians.
- They rejected what appeared to be sterile, formal modes of worship in favor of a vigorous emotional religiosity.
- New evangelical ministers spread a message of personal and experiential faith that rose above mere book learning.
- Individuals could bring about their own salvation by accepting Christ, an especially welcome message for those who had felt excluded by traditional Protestantism: women, the young, and people at the lower end of the social spectrum.
- The Great Awakening caused a split between those who followed the evangelical message (the “New Lights”) and those who rejected it (the “Old Lights”).
- The elite ministers in British America were firmly Old Lights and they censured the new revivalism as chaos.
Georgia
- James Oglethorpe, a member of Parliament and advocate of social reform, petitioned King George II for a charter to start a new colony.
- George II granted the charter to Oglethorpe and twenty like-minded proprietors in 1732.
- Oglethorpe led the settlement of the colony, which was called Georgia in honor of the king.
- Parliament funded the migration of twenty-five hundred settlers, making Georgia the only government-funded colonial project.
- Oglethorpe’s vision for Georgia followed the ideals of the Age of Reason, seeing it as a place for England’s “worthy poor” to start anew.
- The Oglethorpe Plan provided for a utopia: “an agrarian model of sustenance while sustaining egalitarian values holding all men as equal.”
- Oglethorpe’s vision called for alcohol and slavery to be banned, but colonists who relocated from other colonies, especially South Carolina, disregarded these prohibitions.
- By the 1750s, Georgia was producing quantities of rice grown and harvested by the enslaved.
Wars for Empire
- Great Britain fought four separate wars against Catholic France from the late 1600s to the mid-1700s.
- Another war, the War of Jenkins’ Ear, pitted Britain against Spain.
- These conflicts for control of North America also helped colonists forge important alliances with native peoples, as different tribes aligned themselves with different European powers.
- Generations of British colonists grew up during a time when much of North America, especially the Northeast, engaged in war.
- Colonists knew war firsthand, and in the eighteenth century, fighting was seasonal (armies mobilized in the spring, fought in the summer, and retired to winter quarters in the fall).
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Description
Explore the significant changes in thought and governance during the Enlightenment and its impact on colonial America. This quiz examines the shift from religious revelation to reason and the development of self-governance amongst the colonies. Test your knowledge on the literacy rates, educational disparities, and religious influences of the time.
