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What description characterizes the government of colonial Spanish America? |
Centrally controlled and tightly run → The empire was centrally controlled to protect the crown’s immensely valuable holdings. |
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Which statement describes the lives of indentured servants in the Chesapeake colonies in the seventeenth century? |
Most of them remained in poverty, and half the men died before completing the term of their contract. → Masters exploited their servants ruthlessly, and both working conditions and the prevalence of malaria reduced life expectancy of these servants. Only a very few fortunate migrants managed to escape their lives of landless poverty. |
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Who did Parliament have executed in 1649? |
King Charles I → After years of civil war, the forces under Oliver Cromwell emerged victorious in 1649. Parliament then executed King Charles I and proclaimed a republican commonwealth, banishing bishops and the rituals of the Church of England. |
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What were the "praying towns" established by the Puritans of New England in the 1670s? |
Communities of converted Indians → Like the Franciscan missions in Nuevo México, these praying towns were intended as intensely Christian communities in which Indians would shed their traditional culture in lieu of Christianity. In practice, the more than 1,000 Indian residents of praying towns infused their churches with their own traditional spiritual beliefs and created new native forms of Christianity. |
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Why was the Columbian Exchange so important? |
It devastated the native populations of the Americas. → Smallpox, influenza, measles, yellow fever, and other silent killers carried from Europe and Africa ravaged Native American communities, whose inhabitants had never encountered these diseases before and thus had no immunity to them. In the densely populated core areas, populations declined by 90 percent or more in the first century of contact with Europeans. |
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How did the colony of Virginia change when King James I assumed royal control in 1624? |
Property owners were required to pay a tax to support the Church of England. → After James I had revoked the Virginia Company’s charter in 1624 in response to the uprising of the Powhatans, he turned Virginia into a royal colony in which he decreed the legal establishment of the Church of England, meaning that residents now had to pay taxes to support the clergy. |
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Which New Amsterdam governor rejected the demands of settlers for a representative system of government, alienating the colony’s diverse population? |
Peter Stuyvesant → Stuyvesant ruled in an authoritarian fashion and rejected the notion of a representative government, which alienated New Amsterdam’s diverse colonial population. As a result, they showed little loyalty to New Netherland when England invaded the colony in 1664 and readily embraced the transformation of New Amsterdam into New York. |
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What was one consequence of the slump in tobacco prices in the 1660s? |
It forced many former indentured servants to sign new indentures. → The decline in tobacco prices from 24 pence a pound in the 1620s to one penny a pound in the 1670s prevented many freed indentured servants from gaining their own land, forcing them into additional years of indentured servitude. Prices dropped largely because of overproduction and English colonial policies that planters sell only to English merchants. |
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What was an important result of the Columbian Exchange? |
It eventually caused the population of China to triple. → Foods of the Western Hemisphere significantly increased agricultural yields and population growth in other continents. Maize and potatoes, for example, reached China around 1700; in the following century, the Chinese population tripled from 100 million to 300 million. |
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Which disease, spread by the bite of mosquitoes, was especially deadly to pregnant women on seventeenth-century plantations? |
Malaria → Transported by the female mosquito and contracted through their bloodsucking, the malaria virus multiplied best in human regions with stale bodies of water, such as the Chesapeake region. |
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Why did the Plymouth colony have lower mortality rates after the first year than the Virginia colony? |
The climate inhibited the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. → The Pilgrims’ first winter was difficult. It was not until the following spring that the Plymouth colony became a healthy and thriving community. Their work ethic, the healthier climate, and previous epidemics among local Indians all contributed to the better health of the Plymouth colony. |
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"The Indians owned that fighting was the worst way; then they propounded how right might take place; we said by arbitration. They said all English agreed against them; and so by arbitration they had had much wrong, many square miles of land so taken from them, for the English would have English arbitrators. . . . we departed without any discourtesies; and suddenly [c. June 25] had [a] letter from [the] Plymouth governor, [that] they intended in arms to [subjugate] Philip [Metacom] . . . and in a week’s time after we had been with the Indians the war thus begun. In this passage from his A Relacion of the Indyan Warre, John Easton recounts his efforts (and failure) to prevent war with the Wampanoag tribe in the 1670s. According to this document, what was this war over? |
Conflict between the English and the Wampanoags over property rights → The passage suggests that the taking of land from the Wampanoags was at the heart of the breakdown of communication between the two groups, leading to Metacom’s War of 1675-1676. |
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Why had the Dutch and Flemish provinces of the Spanish Netherlands grown so prosperous by the middle of the sixteenth century? |
The Dutch and Flemish had specialized in textile manufacturing and trade with the Portuguese. → The Spanish Netherlands were a collection of Dutch- and Flemish-speaking provinces that had grown wealthy from textile manufacturing and trade with Portuguese outposts in Africa and Asia. |
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What did the Virginia Company do to attract settlers to its colony? |
The company granted land to freemen and created a system of representative government. → To attract settlers, the Virginia Company allowed freemen to claim 100 acres and more for every servant they brought to the colony, and in 1619, it created the representative House of Burgesses. |
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They wanted to avoid oppressive taxes levied by a distant government. → Wanting to avoid the oppressive taxes of a distant government, Puritans placed town meetings in control of taxation and other governmental functions. |
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On what grounds did the Massachusetts Bay leaders defend colonists’ seizure of Indian lands? |
They saw their own population growth and the demise of Indian communities as a signal of divine favor. → Initially, New England colonists pondered the morality of acquiring Native American lands. But John Winthrop detected God’s hand in events like a smallpox epidemic that destroyed native populations: "If God were not pleased with our inheriting these parts," he asked, "why doth he still make roome for us by diminishing them as we increase?" Experiences like the Pequot War confirmed New Englanders’ confidence in their enterprise. |
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How did the Spanish colonizers manage to tap the enormous wealth of Mesoamerica and the Andes? |
By capitalizing on preexisting systems of tribute and labor discipline → Spanish colonizers capitalized on preexisting systems of tribute and labor discipline to tap the enormous wealth of Mesoamerica and the Andes. Once native rulers were overthrown, the Spanish monarchs transferred their institutions—municipal councils, the legal code, and the Catholic Church—to America. |
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Why did Virginia introduce the headright system? |
To increase the number of indentured servants working in the tobacco fields → The headright system led to the concentration of land in the hands of the few planters; however, it also stimulated the importation of indentured servants, who were necessary to work the expanding acreage. |
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New France succeeded as a colonial experiment in what role? |
As a fur-trading center → Once Samuel de Champlain had founded the fur-trading post of Québec in 1608, the French had access to trade with Iroquois-speaking Hurons; Cree-speaking Montagnais; and Algonquian-speaking Micmacs, Ottawas, and Ojibwas. They gave the French access to mink, otter, and beaver, which were in great demand in Europe. |
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What happened after Bacon’s Rebellion? |
Planters shifted away from using indentured servitude and toward using African slaves. → In the wake of Bacon’s Rebellion, planters forestalled future rebellions by poor whites by reducing the reliance on indentured servants and instead importing thousands of African laborers. In fact, the Virginia House of Burgesses explicitly legalized slavery in 1705. |
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Why did the first migrants to Virginia settle in the pattern visible on the map? |
They settled along the James River in order to ship their tobacco more easily. → Access to the James River was crucial for tobacco planters and led to a settlement pattern of early Virginia communities that stretched all along the James River. |
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Why did Maryland grow so quickly after 1634? |
Lord Baltimore imported many artisans and offered ample lands to wealthy immigrants. → Maryland grew quickly because Baltimore imported many artisans and offered ample lands to wealthy migrants. |
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Why did the English mariner Henry Hudson travel up the river that now bears his name in 1609? |
The correct answer is He was looking for a navigable route to Asia. → In 1609, Dutch merchants dispatched the English mariner Henry Hudson to locate a navigable route to the riches of the East Indies. What he found instead was an abundance of furs along the river that now bears his name. |
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How did the restoration of the monarchy in England affect Puritans in America? |
They began to see their American settlements as permanent. → Puritans had come to New England to preserve the "pure" Christian church, expecting to return when England was ready to receive the true Gospel. With the return of the monarchy, many Puritan ministers abandoned this idea and exhorted their congregations to create a permanent new society in America based on their ideals and faith. |
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Why was Opechancanough opposed to the presence of the English in Virginia well before 1622? |
He resented English proposals to place Indian children in missionary schools. → Opechancanough resisted English proposals that would have placed Indian children in schools to be "brought upp in Christianytie." |
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Why did the Portuguese establish sugar mills on each plantation it established in Brazil? |
Sugar cane is too heavy and perishable to transport long distances. → Each large plantation had its own milling operation because sugar cane is extremely heavy and rots quickly. It must be processed on site, which made sugar plantations look like Industrial Revolution-era factories. By 1590, more than a thousand sugar mills had been established in Pernambuco and Bahia. |
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Why did Philip II send the Spanish Armada against England in 1588? |
He wanted to restore Catholicism in England. → In 1588, Philip sent a Spanish Armada of 130 ships and 30,000 men against England. Philip intended to restore the Roman Church in England and then to wipe out Calvinism in Holland. But he failed utterly: a fierce storm and English ships destroyed the Spanish fleet. |
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Why did Charles I grant the colony of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert in 1632? |
Charles I had sympathies for Catholics who were persecuted in England. → King Charles I was secretly sympathetic toward Catholicism, so he granted lands bordering the vast Chesapeake Bay to Catholic aristocrat Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who made Maryland the refuge for Catholics because they were being persecuted in England. |
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In what way were Virginia and Maryland very much alike? |
They both focused on the cultivation of tobacco as a cash crop. → Both Maryland and Virginia quickly focused on the cultivation of tobacco as their main crop, and it was this similarity, rather than any religious difference, that ultimately made the two colonies very much alike in their economic and social systems. |
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What statement describes the status of Africans in Virginia prior to 1660? |
Personal initiative and religion were as important as race in determining social status. → During the early years of Virginia, a significant number of Africans escaped bondage by working for a number of years or converting to Christianity. Some of these freed Africans managed to acquire land, to become planters, and to gain acceptance by English settlers to the point that they purchased the contracts of white servants and married English women, demonstrating that personal initiative and religion were as important as race in determining social status in early Virginia. |
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William Penn established the colony of Pennsylvania to provide a refuge for which religious group? |
Quakers → William Penn had designed Pennsylvania as a refuge for his fellow Quakers, who were persecuted in England because they refused to serve in the military or pay taxes to support the Church of England. |
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Which of these tools was an essential instrument that facilitated transactions in the triangular trade between West Indian planters, London merchants, and North American farmers? |
Bills of exchange → Bills of exchange were central for connecting the sugar economy with Britain’s larger Atlantic empire. Planters used these bills to buy slaves from Africa and to pay North American farmers and merchants for their provisions and shipping services. |
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How did English political leaders respond to the conflicts between the colonies and Britain over trade and paper money? |
They were angered by the conflicts and vowed to reassert their power in America. → Internal unrest and salutary neglect had weakened Britain’s political authority in the colonies; recognizing the threat of self-government, British officials in the late 1740s vowed to reassert their power in America. |
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How did Pennsylvania differ from most other colonies? |
It guaranteed religious freedom. → Designed by William Penn as a refuge for Quakers, Penn’s Frame of Government (1681) extended Quaker radicalism into politics by guaranteeing religious freedom to Christians of all denominations and allowing all property-owning men to vote and hold office. Rhode Island, following the ideas of Roger Williams, also allowed freedom of religion. |
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Why did the Creeks and Yamasees kill about 400 colonists in the Carolinas in 1715? |
Traders has demanded payment from Creek Indians for trade debts. → When English traders demanded payment for trade debts in 1715, the Creeks and the Yamasees revolted and killed 400 colonists. Shortly thereafter, they themselves were overwhelmed by the Carolinians and their new Indian allies, the Cherokees. |
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How did the massive abduction and export of men that was part of the slave trade change the social order in some parts of West Africa? |
It prompted African men to take several wives. → The sexual imbalance that resulted from the abduction of men in West Africa prompted men to engage in polygamy. |
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Why did the English navy attack the Dutch in the Atlantic between 1652 and 1674? |
To gain a share of the slave trade → The English navy contested Holland’s control of the Atlantic slave trade by attacking Dutch forts and ships along the West African coast. |
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The powerful African kingdom of Benin was particularly known for |
opposing the slave trade and, for a time, prohibiting the export of male slaves. → The slave trade changed the nature of West African society by promoting centralized states and military conquest. Yet slaving remained a choice for Africans, not a necessity. The old and still powerful kingdom of Benin resolutely opposed the slave trade, prohibiting the export of male slaves for over a century. |
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Why did tobacco planters increasingly prefer to buy female slaves? |
Female slaves could expand a planter’s workforce. → Many tobacco planters increased their workforce by buying female slaves and encouraging them to have children. Often they had sexual relations with their slaves themselves, expanding their bound labor force with their own children. |
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Why did Virginia’s political elite lower the annual head tax on adult men over the course of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries? |
They sought to strengthen social ties among whites across class lines. → Virginia’s political elite gradually lowered taxes and encouraged yeomen to improve their economic lot by using slave labor in order to strengthen the alliance of the gentry with middling and poor whites and thereby forestall dangerous social revolts like the one they had witnessed with Bacon’s Rebellion. |
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What was the English Parliament’s intention in passing the Navigation Act in 1651? |
To exclude Dutch merchants from buying Chesapeake tobacco → The Navigation Acts were designed to exclude Dutch ships from England’s colonies, as they permitted only English or colonial-owned ships to enter American ports and trade tobacco from the Chesapeake or sugar from the West Indies. |
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Why did Creek Indians seek war against the Apalachees in the early eighteenth century? |
The Creeks fought neighboring tribes in order to become the dominant tribe in the region. → To become the dominant tribe in the region, the Creeks needed to vanquish their longtime enemies, the pro-French Choctaws to the west and the Spanish allied Apalachees to the south. |
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