chapter 2 (level 1)

2.1.L1.1: Why was France so slow to begin colonizing North America during the 1500s?

France was plagued by domestic religious conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, including the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572.

2.1.L1.2: How did the political governance of New France differ from that of the English colonies?

New France was completely autocratic under direct royal rule, with no elected representative assemblies or trial by jury.

2.1.L1.3: What factors kept the white population of New France small compared to British North America?

French peasants had good land at home, Protestant Huguenots were banned from emigrating, and France favored its wealthy Caribbean sugar islands.

2.2.L1.1: What economic activity drove the expansion of New France across North America, and who carried it out?

The beaver fur trade, carried out by French coureurs de bois and voyageurs along with Indigenous trade partners.

2.2.L1.2: What role did Jesuit missionaries play in New France despite making few religious converts?

They served as vital geographical explorers, cartographers, and chroniclers of the North American wilderness.

2.2.L1.3: Why did the French establish outposts at Detroit, Illinois, and New Orleans?

To secure interior trade routes, control Mississippi River grain shipments, and block English and Spanish territorial expansion.

2.3.L1.1: How did the purpose of Spanish settlements in Florida and New Mexico differ from Spain's southern colonies?

Florida and New Mexico were non-profit missionary and military outposts built to protect imperial claims rather than export treasure.

2.4.L1.1: How did the English Reformation under King Henry VIII alter England's geopolitical relationship with Spain?

It transformed England into a Protestant nation, ending its early alliance with Catholic Spain and launching a global imperial rivalry.

2.4.L1.2: How did English brutal tactics during the Irish uprisings influence early English attitudes toward Native Americans?

English soldiers developed a deep cultural contempt for non-English "savages," applying the same ruthless violence to Indigenous North Americans.

2.5.L1.1: What was the primary motivation of Elizabeth I's "sea dogs" like Sir Francis Drake?

To promote Protestantism and seize plunder by attacking Spanish treasure ships and colonies.

2.5.L1.2: Why was the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 a major turning point in Atlantic history?

It weakened Spain's naval dominance, sparked a surge of English national pride, and opened the way for England's Atlantic colonization.

2.6.L1.1: What economic and social pressures inside early 1600s England produced a large population eager to migrate to America?

Land enclosure laws created agricultural unemployment, primogeniture forced younger sons to seek fortunes elsewhere, and population growth created an apparent "surplus population."

2.6.L1.2: What was the joint-stock company, and why was it essential to early English colonization?

A financial enterprise where investors pooled capital to limit individual risk, providing the funding necessary to establish colonies like Virginia.

2.7.L1.1: What was the primary purpose of the Virginia Company of London in establishing Jamestown in 1607?

To strike quick wealth through gold discovery or find a water passage to Asia, liquidating the company for investor profits within a few years.

2.7.L1.2: Why was the legal guarantee in the Virginia Company charter historically significant for American colonists?

It guaranteed overseas settlers the exact same "rights of Englishmen" as if they had stayed in England, establishing a principle that later fueled independence.

2.8.L1.1: How did relations between Virginia settlers and the Powhatan Confederacy shift between 1607 and 1646?

Initial tense trade and shaky peace gave way to all-out warfare ("Irish tactics") under Lord De La Warr, ending in the expulsion and reservation isolation of Native people.

2.8.L1.2: Why did the Chesapeake Native Americans lack economic value to the Virginia colonists compared to Native populations in Spanish colonies?

Powhatans had no gold or silver, could not be reliably enslaved for labor, and were viewed as an obstacle to acquiring land for tobacco.

2.9.L1.1: How did the origin and character of New Netherland differ from other European colonies in North America?

It was established as a commercial, quick-profit fur enterprise run autocratically by the Dutch West India Company, creating a highly diverse, aristocratic colony.

2.10.L1.1: How did the Dutch handle the Swedish attempt to establish a colony on the Delaware River in 1655?

Director-General Peter Stuyvesant led a bloodless siege that forced New Sweden to surrender, absorbing its land and population into New Netherland.

2.11.L1.1: How did New Netherland transition into English hands in 1664, and what was its new name?

English forces under the Duke of York forced Stuyvesant to surrender without a shot, renaming the colony New York.

2.12.L1.1: How did European trade goods, particularly firearms and horses, reshape Native American societies?

Firearms escalated intertribal competition for hunting grounds, while horses transformed forest tribes into mobile Great Plains buffalo hunters.

2.12.L1.2: What was the "middle ground" in European-Native American relations during the 17th century?

An interior borderland region where Native tribes (like the Algonquins) held sufficient power to compel European traders to adapt to Native customs.