US History 1301 ACC Exam 1

Why did Mesoamericans revere astronomers?

The best and brightest were recruited in order to interpret their world. There wasn't a distinction between the natural and supernatural, and cultural aspects were built according to this belief system (such as architecture, polotical transitions)

Identify at least two Mesoamerican Empires.

Aztecs & Mayans

Identify at least two West African Nations prior to 1492.

Akan, Benin, Mali, Songhai, Igbo

Explain how the Commercial Revolution contributed to the rise of Nation States in Europe.

The commercial revolution was fueled by the desire to explore and own the available resources opened up to Europe during the age of discovery. Joint venture stock companies, trade, and banking all required a government with a vested interest in business. Revenue provided money for the acquisition of more land and for war. "Us vs them" mentality- "owning more than that other nation".

Which European Nation State first established colonies in America?

Spain

What environmental factors played a role in the European colonization of America?

First, the "Westerlies"are tradewinds connecting England with the West African nations and the colonies in America. This would fuel "Triangular trade".

New world meant new diseases. Colonists brought with them plants (ex: Kentucky bluegrass) and animals (ex: pigs and rats) that would change the lay of the land entirely.

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Describe the goals and character of the first English colony in Virginia.

1607 Jamestown: private Joint-stock business (Virginia Company of London) hiding out in the Chesapeake Bay between territory controlled by France in the north and Spain to the south. All male soldiers. England was not strong enough to support its own colonization, and relied on private business to do so and granted royal charters. Major quality: free enterprising

What was the mission and theology of New England Puritans?

The Puritans under the 1620 Plymouth Company of London colonized New England as a church community. Close-knit, middle-class families. Educated. Believed the Anglican church was backasswards, and came out west to "create a better England" as it "should have been"

Explain John Winthrop's notion of the "City on a hill".

John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, preached to his puritan flock that basically, they were to reform the corrupt Church of England by their example of godliness in the New World. The "city on a hill" is the notion that all eyes would be upon them.

Describe at least three ways Europeans & Indians interacted in ways other than warfare.

Trade, conversion to Christianity, marriage

How was African slavery different from American slavery?

African slavery was situational. Slaves were captured in battle or were indebted to their captors. More fluid. Not hereditary, not for life. Various situations may earn freedom.

American slavery was racialized SYSTEM of slavery. White men could not be enslaved. This was backed by laws, documents, system of rules. People are property. Hereditary.

How did Puritan theology change as it spread to the frontier?

Congregationalism ; each village church was independent of outside interference. No bishops, the people were the church, as a body they pledged to uphold God's law

Explain the consequences of England's victory in the Seven Years War.

Expansion of English territorial claims in the New World. The cost of the war required England to seek better forms of revenue. Sets up a system to manage debt.

Describe Spain's reconquista and how it impacted conquest in the New World.

Spain did not exist as a united nation before the 1400s and Isabella and Ferdinand were wed. The retaking of Spain from the Moors created an "Us and Them" basis for defining what it meant to be Spanish. In the New World, this applied to the Natives who were seen as the lowest of the classes.

Identify the contributing factors to the British colonies decision to declare independence.

Experience of colonists forged a somewhat new identity different from simply being "British." This includes the French and Indian War and the Great Awakening. Crisis of British colonial policy. Resentment toward Parliment- not the King. Colonies had been experiencing benign neglect since England could not afford to fund its colonies, when they decided to step back in it seemed to be a little too much.

What did Bartolome de Las Casas argue regarding Spain's treatment of "los Indios?"

Horrified at the brutal mistreatment of the Natives- argued (summarized) "why would they want to accept the god of the Christians?"

How did John Smith's narrative of Pocahontas reveal central characteristics of Powhatan culture?

John Smith's story of Pocahontas's rescue from her chief and father's hands was largely misinterpreted. It was a ceremony meant to induct Smith into the folds of their society, and Pocahontas's role in "saving him" was the demonstration of the tribe's willingness to incorporate Smith and the white strangers into the Powhatan's empire.

What do Roger William's and Anne Hutchinson's narratives reveal about Puritan culture?

The promise of a godly society and the puritan's emphasis on individual Bible study led New Englanders toward different visions of godliness. The smallest of errors or differences in doctrine and policy created unproportionate rifts.

Explain the social changes that ocurred as a result of the Great Puritan Migration of the 1630s.

The original Puritan settlers in 1620 were a close-knit community. The migration of 30,000 people upset their balance and led them to question the outsiders and their part within the community.

Explain the causes and consequences of Bacon's rebellion.

1676 Virginia: The peace between the Indians and the colony in Virginia was fragile and only protected by the government's insistence to not push westward. Nathaniel Bacon was a recently freed servant in search of land and resented the protection the governor placed on Native territory. After stirring up trouble, the governor declares Bacon a rebel and attempts to call for an election that would put into power those he believed would support his get-tough policy. Somehow Bacon lands in power, and under pressure, the governor had to concede to Bacon's policy of Indian warfare. Wealthy planters, snubbed by Bacon's Laws that supported the lesser man, convinced the governor that Bacon was the real threat. Bacon then declared war on everyone, attacking Jamestown and burning the fields.

Describe what Johnathan Edwards meant by the term "Sense of the heart."

Johnathan Edwards (Great Awakening) believed that faith will slow the moral decline in the colonies. All walks of life, especially the people the colonists saw as unfit (Indians, frontiersmen) had the ability shared by all people to understand faith in god and this would save them.

What impact did George Whitfield's evangelical revivals have on marganilized people?

Revivals contributed to a set of common experiences that bridged colonial divides of faith, region, class, and status.

Explain the significance of Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" on the American Revolution.

The pamphlet, written by an artisan and coffeehouse intellectual, was written in such a way that appealed to the masses rather than simply the aristocracy, and its language (such as comparing the king to an ass) broke through the automatic deference colonists still had for the monarchy. Support for independence, although marginal, grew.

Describe the economic system of "Mercantilism" and how it contributed to conflict in the English American colonies.

Mercantilism arose after the decline of Feudalism. Here, a transfer of wealth and power left by the decrease in population begins to be consolidated with fewer people possessing the majority of wealth. Enclosure arises, which is the principle that products gleaned from the land such as wool is far more valuable than the people that might of in a feudal society. As land is used for specific purpose, trade grows. The merchant class is demanded, fueling the need for government bodies to exist to allow trade to grow (such as transportation, laws, taxes). The colonies were created in order to bolster the wealth of England. In the colonies, France was to the north and Spain was to the south- leaving England to forage for as much resources as possible within those boundaries all the while coming into conflict with foreign bodies and native Americans. This transforms the people who go through these experiences with outside forces into their own identity.

How did the Great Awakening contribute to English-American colonists shifting their sense of identity?

The Great Awakening was specifically an American phenomenon. Mixed groups of people lived along the frontier, mingling with communities, and coming into contact with Native Americans. Increasingly, Americans belonged to a rising class with its own diversity of religious and social people. The religious saw this as a decline of morality in the colonies, making it their mission to reach as many colonists as they could with the word of god. This brought even more bodies to the fringes of society, increasing diversity. Young people were especially suspicious of traditional religion. In the seminars, a colonial institution, these young educated religious people began re-imagining philosophy and theology. This boiling pot of ideas, religious views, and the various classes of the colonists fostered a new sense of identity.

What did Charles Woodmason mean when he described the Carolina frontiersmen as a "mixed medley"?

The people he came across on the frontier, that were behaving and living in ways the Church did not approve of, were a sort of rabble of people coming from a number of backgrounds and ethnicities.

What argument did the Virginia Resolves put forth regarding colonial/metropole relations?

Colonial assemblies discussed the introduction of the Stamp Act, and a series of resolutions were debated and passed known as the Virginia resolves. The most radical was the fifth, asserting the Virginia assembly alone had the right to tax Virginians. The sixth denied legitimacy to any tax law originating outside of Virgina and the seventh labeled any opposition an enemy.

Describe how Parliament's response to the non-importation movement undermined their power in the Colonies.

Parliament responded to the colonist's boycotting by rescinding their Acts, effectively stating that the colonists could get rid of any law they wanted as long as they protested enough.

What does the Stono Rebellion reveal about the African-American experience in the colonies?

The Stono Rebellion of 1739 highlighted the intense stratification of land and the plantation systems. The African slaves living under the Task system in South Carolina experienced nominal independence without white oversight. Because of this, they could keep the traditions of their homelands alive and in many ways lived wholly different lives than the whites that lived in the cities. When a white patrol came across a group of slaves walking down the road and accoste them, the African Americans by resisting behaved in a way that makes it understood they were aware of the social aspects existing outside of their lands.

. In what way did the Stamp Act Congress reveal a powerful "British" identity in the American colonies?

The "life, liberty, and property" that the delegates were defending against England's stamp act are inherent rights for all free British subjects. A powerful tradition of British political thought invested the representative government with the duty of protecting individual properties against abuse, which the colonists viewed parliament was failing in.

Why did the 1st Continental Congress not call for independence?