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1) How did human beings first migrate to North America, what were the characteristics of early human settlement there, and how, in a general sense, did those patterns of settlement change? Ca. 15,000 BC: Early human beings first migrated into North America by crossing Beringia, the Bering Sea land bridge. These Paleo-Indians, or hunter-gatherers, followed the migration of mega-Fauna. However, around 3,000 BC these mega-Fauna began to disappear due to over-hunting, climate change, and warming temperatures. Humans adjust and this brings in the Archaic Period where humans begin sedentary, or non-nomadic, lifestyles. They settled and evolved sophisticated agricultural methods like the Three-Sisters Method of planting corn, squash, and beans. This new sedentary lifestyle introduced four consequences. The first was an introduction of a gender division of labor. Women tended to the crops and built farms, while men hunted and performed in warfare and diplomacy between people. The second consequence was the cultural differentiation between different Native American. They each began to have their own culture and linguistics. They began to become distinguishable from one another. There is no sense of unity. The third was active trade and communication between these groups. The final consequence was the arise of enormously complex societies and organizations. 2) What was the significance of the Mississippian civilizations, and what did Native American society in North America look like on the eve of contact and colonization? These civilizations created large towns (like Cahokia, the center of Mississippian civilization) that became centers of trade, religious rights and rituals, and ceremonial centers. This resulted in divisions in society. Higher classes consisted of religious and political leaders, and they demanded tributes or labor from surrounding tribes, the socially inferior. On the eve of contact and colonization, North America was already experiencing extreme change as Cahokia (pop. 40-50,000) collapsed due to soil exhaustion, over-hunting, and degradation; however, there consisted of hundreds of tribes around North America. 3) What were the chief motivations of European voyages of discovery, and what, can we say, was/were Columbus’ destination(s)? The chief motivations of European voyages of discovery were to find wealth for their country. There were economic and religious motives. Columbus wanted to find a new route to the East Indies to regain strength there. Columbus intended to use the wealth discovered in order to fund crusades to recapture Jerusalem and to increase wealth and power. 4) Define the Columbian Exchange and describe some of its consequences. The Columbian Exchange refers to the earth-altering DRAMATIC exchange of plants, animals, people, technology, and diseases between the eastern and western hemispheres. Epidemic diseases like small pox and influenza began decimating Native American populations and made effective resistance to colonization difficult. Indian trade networks worked brilliantly to spread disease. Native people were already experiencing
dramatic social change, but then came 85-90-95% mortality rates. The new generation and guardians of the past died; it was a cultural catastrophe. 5) What did English society look like on the eve of that nation’s first attempts at colonization in North America? On the eve of England’s first attempt at colonization in North America it was experiencing dramatic social change. Dramatic population growth was initiated by the Columbian exchange due to new crops increasing agricultural yield and food supply; however, as population grew, less and less land was available for cultivation. Now there was not enough food! This meant dramatic price inflation. More people were demanding food, and the price of food increased. At the same time, more people wanted to work and wages experienced a downward trend. At the same time Aristocratic landlords were now enclosing, or privatizing, lands that had previously been held in common by peasant-tenants; Enclosure Movement. Hundreds of thousands became evicted, causing disarray, disorder, and mass-poverty. This resulted in a phenomenon where large groups of people had NO PLACE TO GO. “The Strolling Poor” refers to the strangeness of this phenomenon of this time. The poor had been the elderly and unwanted, but now otherwise healthy adult individuals are poor and creating social disarray for survival. Many people began to wonder about the future survival of English society; North America is the solution!! 6) What was life like in the earliest years of settlement at Jamestown, and what did early relations between Native Americans and English colonists look like? Jamestown, Virginia, on the eastern shore of North America, was initially designed as an outpost where the English could raid the Spanish empire. It had been an abandoned Spanish outpost; it was renamed Jamestown after King James I and Virginia after the Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth I. It was also a term to describe the English point of view of the virginity of the land. This marshy swampland generated disease, and not wealth. The men that had voyaged to Jamestown were impoverished beggars and adventurous gentlemen. Neither had EXPERIENCE and neither would WORK. This resulted in a lack of food and reports of cannibalism. These were men that didn’t intend to settle in the new land, but get rich quick and leave. “There was no talk, no work except to find gold.” John Smith even got booted out for trying to establish order. Virginia “Virgin land” is actually Tsenacommacah “Densely Inhabited Place” rich with human inhabitation and with a long past. English forced to negotiate with the more powerful and extensive Native American community. The native people, the Powhatans, had spent the past 2 years conquering surrounding communities, including the Spanish settlement. They had become rich and powerful, but had plenty of enemies. Chief Powhatan saw the arrival of the English as an opportunity for himself. He saw them as potential allies to establish trading with and to draw other native people into his power. English and Native American relations, however, were plagued with many instances of MUTUAL MISCOMMUNICATION and MISUNDERSTANDING. Christopher Newport (Governor of Jamestown) tried to force Chief Powhatan to kneel and sweat allegiance to King James I. From Chief Powhatan’s POV he believed King James should be going to them. He takes his mantel, representing people under his control, and puts it over Newport to make him subordinate to him. He believed
8) What were the causes and consequences of Bacon’s Rebellion? Indentured servants in Virginia were working and living in poor conditions. The government consisting of the royally appointed governor Sir William Berkeley and the House of Burgesses did nothing to help alleviate their grievances. The House of Burgesses consisted of wealthy individuals that owned land, and used their power to help other wealthy landowners. Sir William Berkeley did the same and enriched his friends the Greenspring Fashion. He ignored the colonist’s complaints of Indian attacks, because of his lucrative trading business with the Native Americans. Nathanial Bacon saw this as a political opportunity for himself, and channeled these frustrations to make a militia of indentured servants and poor colonist. This militia became enormously popular and became a war on ALL Native Americans. Berkeley responded by declaring Bacon guilty of treason, and Bacon responded by burning Jamestown, 1676. There were three lessons learned: A more popular form of government was needed to avoid future frustrations, the way to political fame was of vocal support of Indian slaughter, and a more stable form of labor was needed. 9) What were some of the chief tenets of Puritanism? What motivated Puritan settlement in New England? Describe what made the Great Migration a very different immigrant stream than others within the Atlantic World. Puritans wanted to remove all traces of popery and catholic superstition from the Church of England. They believed in the complete sovereignty of god and the utter depravity of humanity. They believed in “Predestination”, one’s “Calling” and the spiritual equality of the godly. They were not simply a religious group or movement, but also a political group that pursued revolutionary political and social goals. After King Charles I dissolved parliament and began to persecute Puritans, they began to look for a new place to go. They fled persecution in English society and immigrated to America. There they established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England. They sought to inspire reform in England itself. They believed that by creating a godly society in New England they could inspire old England to morally reform itself. “We must be knit together in this work as one man, labor together, suffer together, for we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” It would be a Christian utopia. 14,000 people emigrate in what was called the Great Migration. This migration was different than others in that it primarily consisted of whole families, not just men. They fled religious persecution, and believed they were on a godly mission. They worked hard for sufficiency; not for profit. 10) Describe events surrounding the English Civil War, and its effect on colonial society in North America. In 1629 King Charles I dissolved Parliament. He attempted to rule as an absolute monarch; however, in 1640 Charles needed revenue to wage a war against a rebellion in Scotland. Only Parliament had the power to generate revenue, and so he reconvened parliament hoping they would pass the measures he needed. Those elected in 1640 were comprised almost entirely of Puritan representatives. They were the most vocal proponents for reform and critics of the King. They set aside all revenue questions and began to impeach royal officials and attempt to reform the Church of England. Charles takes this as an act of treason and rebellion and begins to gather an army. Parliament
does the same. Thus begins the English Civil war. Charles I is executed in 1649, and England is briefly declared a republic. Oliver Cromwell then declares himself Lord Protector of England; a military dictator. After the death of Cromwell, the English restore the monarchy and allow Charles II to return to England and assumes the thrown. This entire 25-year period allows North American colonists to go about their own business and establish their own institutions. They become accustomed to managing their own affairs. When parliament won the war, the Puritans felt like they had accomplished their mission. They believed they had inspired reform in Old England; however, during the restoration they felt great despair. It was the end of puritan rule. Their errand into the wilderness and all of gains from their work were erased. This resulted in spiritual devastation. Many began soul-searching thinking they had misinterpreted their role in the world. Now many began to feel England was hopelessly lost to them and could not be reformed nor saved. 11) What was King Philip’s War and what did it reveal about colonial New England? During the mid-17th^ century, in an attempt to resist further theft of their land, some Native Americans began to circulate New England trying to produce an alliance amongst themselves. Although it was difficult for them to set aside all of their historic differences, Sachem King Philip/Metacom of the Wampanoag effectively preached Pan- Indianism. It was a message of unity; Indians were a unified group of people. The English see this as a dangerous mission and attempt to kill Metacom before his message could reach more people. They raise a colonial militia against Metacom’s village to destroy him. They instead ended up killing some Narragansets in the process, and they became very receptive to Metacom’s mission. A massive Native American war resulted. 52/92 towns of New England are attacked and 12 are totally destroyed. It was not until the end of 1676 that the English were able to convince enough Native Americans to join them and a civil war among Indians ensued. In 1676 Metacom is captured and executed; his head is put outside of Plymouth. 12) What were some of the new features of the eighteenth-century British Atlantic empire, and how did this later period compare to the initial phase of English colonization? Describe Anglicization and its effect upon British North America. The 17th^ century was plagued with violence and was conflict ridden. The 18th century, however, was blessed with mutual peace and prosperity. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade made plantations lucrative and eliminated the instability of labor uprising. The 18th^ century also marked the beginning of colonial supervision. The Board of Trade was a central planning office meant to direct and control settlements and economic development. It appointed royal officials and sent them to the colonies. It was also responsible for appointing royal governors that would supervise colonial legislatures. They were granted veto power over all pieces of colonial legislation. Mercantilism also emerged. Colonists were only allowed to trade within the empire. Colonists were now being asked to do what’s best for the empire instead of themselves. A new developing imperial system where control and power was concentrated in Britain itself and radiated across the colonies. Britain became more careful of policing its empire. People began to prosper, and soon North America was attracting people from across Europe.
predisposed to exact revenge. Post Seven Years’ War in North America was characterized by the same chaos that characterized the 17th^ century. The British victory also meant a rise in patriotism amongst colonists in North America. They were proudly British citizens; however, the debt acquired from funding the Seven Years’ War lead the empire to impose many unwanted taxes on colonists. 15) What was the Whig view of politics and how did it shape the way events in North America from 1763 to 1776 were perceived? Why did SOME people in the British Empire declare for independence, while others remained loyal to the Crown? The Whig party was the dominant party in British North America. It was the party of more common individuals. They were advocates of Constitutional monarchism or “mixed government” with legislative supremacy rooted in parliament. The British constitution was a mixed, balanced system of representative government comprised of three components: the Crown, the aristocracy, and the People. Whigs were not against the Crown, but were against the idea of absolute monarchy or the existence of a supremely powerful, autocratic King; therefore, they were fierce advocates for the English Bill of Rights, which established protected civil liberties. The Whigs also believed that history was a science that could be studied to know essential truths about human kind. One of the most essential lessons learned from studying history was that liberty was very fragile. They also believed that human nature was fundamentally corrupt. The temptation and abuse of power was inevitable, and it was only a matter of time before liberty would be trampled upon by ambition and selfish desire. Knowing this, Whigs were paranoid and were prepared to find potential corruption and potential tyranny in any new set of laws or political players. Colonists had believed that the empire was a shared endeavor between equals and that a British colonist was not less equal than a British subject in Great Britain; however, in Great Britain the empire looked quite different. They believed that colonists were dependent on them and owed their allegiance. They believed colonists to be subordinate to the center and could be dictated to. Leading up the revolution, colonists began to realize they had been sorely mistaken. After the Seven Years’ War, Great Britain had an enormous debt to pay off and had to pay for the administration of new land that it had acquired from France. George Grenville, the Prime minister, first attempted to limit the cost of colonial protection by instating the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade British settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. A standard army in North America was then provided to govern the line. To colonists, it seemed outrageous to have a standing army in a period of peace. They felt that the empire was siding with the ‘savages’ instead of fellow subjects. They felt that the soldiers were prohibiting them from participating as British subjects within the basic political operation of the colonies. You needed land to vote, and they were not allowed to gain more land. Furthermore, to pay for this garrison along the proclamation line, Great Britain instituted the American Revenue Act, or the Sugar Act of 1764. This placed a direct tax on the importation of sugar and molasses into British North America. Colonists felt that this taxation was illegal, because they had no direct representation in Parliament. To which Parliament responded by stating that colonists were virtually represented because Parliament inherently spoke for all British people. This tax was
doubly evil for colonists, because violation of the act was tried in a military court with no jury. All people were presumed guilty and had to prove their innocence; reversal of the principle enshrined by the English Bill of Rights. The Stamp Act of 1765 was another tool to derive revenue that would help pay for the empire. It was essentially a tax on paper/all public business/all legal forms/all newspapers/even playing cards. They all needed a special stamp that proved that an individual had paid tax on it. The problem with this tax was that it angered the WRONG people: Lawyers and newspapermen. Printers would quite likely rally a protest movement around the stamp act, and lawyers with legal training would construct elaborate arguments against the act. Responses to this act were urban protests and the mobbing of excise collectors, lead by the Sons of Liberty; non-importation agreements in which everyone agreed to refuse to bring in and purchase any British goods; and the meeting of a Stamp Act Congress, which issued a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.” All these protests were written in a way to demonstrate affection for the King and the British Constitution. It was framed in a language to emphasize violation of British Liberties as British subjects. The law was repealed in 1766; however, each side in the controversy learned the wrong lesson and this generated further protest. Parliament believed that the debt that they had acquired had been incurred defending the colonists and did not understand the protests. They believed the colonists were out of control and parliament could not back down again from a confrontation or else they would lose complete control over North America. Colonists believed that there was a conspiracy against British North American liberties. They believed that they should keep resisting. In 1770 the British East India Company began to approach bankruptcy and so parliament offered a bailout by granting them a temporary monopoly of all tea sales in North America. These tea sales would them be taxed by Parliament as a source of revenue. Colonists argue that this is just another form of the same conspiracy against British liberties in North America. The Massachusetts Tea Party of 1773 was organized in response to this tea tax, and this begins to break down from parliament’s point of view all authority within British North America. This generates armed military conflict. Parliament passes a series of laws known as the Coercive Acts of 1774. This closed the art of Boston to all trade until restitution was made on East India tea, suspended the Massachusetts colonial legislature, and removed legislative control from the hands of British North Americans. An ‘aha!’ moment, colonists felt their conspiracy theory was now proven. The Quebec Act further confirms the conspiracy. It closed off all British settlement to the province of Quebec in Canada and created the province of Quebec for French Canadians. Colonists felt that parliament was taking key liberties from them, and giving them to the Catholic enemies! The only colonists against separation, the loyalists, were mostly concentrated in the Caribbean where the British had not passed such coercive acts. 16) Explain how the American Revolution was not a single conflict, but in fact a series wars occurring simultaneously. First shots had been outside of Boston; small skirmishes. Then Thomas Paine published Common Sense, which stated that the king was nothing more than a criminal descended from criminals that had taken the thrown from opportunity. He felt that colonists had the opportunity to begin the world over again. King George than responds
constitutional conventions began to write individual state constitutions. All states inputted some form of republican ideology into their constitution, which included rejection of all forms of inherited authority, placing political power into the hands of “the People”, allowing those “People” to rule themselves, and stating that the law would be the supreme authority in the republic. State governments were now radically committed to public education, because educated voters could allow a republic to thrive. They also dramatically REDUCED property qualifications to vote and hold office. Some states argued over the RADICAL potential of words like “liberty.” Things like gradual emancipation and wealth redistribution laws begin being passed. Vermont for example thought it hypocrisy to fight for liberty and hold slaves. New Jersey even experimented with women’s suffrage. State legislatures passed economic laws attacked privileges of wealth. If all men are created equal how can wealth be distributed unequally? This attacked bankers, merchants, large property holds, and the wealthy elite of society. Laws were passed to favor the interest of the debtors over the lenders. Laws were passed permitting the printing of more and more paper money. Many colonists were indebted to both a local elite and Boston creditors who held titles to their farms. These men had fought during the revolution, and yet they were losing their property because they could not afford payment on their mortgages. Rebellions ensued (Shays’ Rebellion 1786). There was too much anarchy in the states, and a new and more powerful government was needed to dissolve all of the disorder and chaos. The federal constitution responded to this by insulated the voting decisions of ordinary people. The new government was designed to be moved from the decision- making powers of the people. Why? Ordinary people did stupid, suspicious things; therefore, the only political body directly voted on by the people was the House of Representatives. The object of this new federal government was to SLOW GOVERNMENT DOWN. It was against popular disorder.
