Assignment: Introduction to American History
I. Born of Empire
1. What were the three primary reasons for the establishment of European empires in North America?
2. Which European nation benefited first from the colonization of North America?
3. What was the most important consequence of Spanish colonization of the Caribbean and Mexico?
4. What was the motive to establish the first English Colony in North America?
5. Why is John Smith called the first American?
6. What was the economic basis of Virginia colony?
7. How did the French and Dutch colonies in Quebec and the New Netherlands differ from the British colonies?
8. What distinctive groups settled in New England?
9. What did the Puritans contribute to American culture?
10. How did slavery develop in the southern colonies?
11. What is the significance of Bacon's Rebellion?
12. What are the provisions of the Virginia Slave Code?
13. What were the advantages and disadvantages of the European Empires in North America in the mid-1700s?
II. The American Revolution
1. What was the nature of the "French Threat" to the British Colonies?
2. What strategic advantages did the French in North America have?
3. What was the global context of the colonial struggle between the French and the English?
4. What are the major characteristics of the Wars of Empire?
5. How (and where) did the Seven Years War start?
6. What role did George Washington play in the Seven Years' War?
7. What strategy did Britain pursue in the Seven Years' War?
8. What was the outcome of the Seven Years' War?
9. What was the fundamental misunderstanding/disagreement between Britain and the American colonies after the defeat of the French?
10. Why was the Stamp Act resisted so fiercely by the Colonies?
11. What segment of the population was most opposed to the Stamp Act?
12. Who were the Sons of Liberty?
13. What did the Stamp Act Congress accomplish?
14. How did Benjamin Franklin soften the demands of the Congress?
15. How were the Townsend Acts related to Franklin's interpretation of the Stamp Act Congress demands?
16. What were the most significant aspects of the Townsend Acts?
17. Who was the more radical John Dickinson or Sam Adams?
18. What was the cause of the Boston Tea Party?
19. What were the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts?
20. Why was the Quebec Act so poorly timed?
21. Why did the Quebec Act so anger Virginians?
22. What were the decisions of the First Continental Congress?
23. What could have been done to reconcile American and British interests?
24. What were the significant events of the New England phase of the Revolutionary War?
25. What principles are at the heart of the Declaration of Independence?
26. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
27. How did the second stage of the revolution (the War in the Middle States) go for the Americans?
28. Why did France agree to send troops and ships to America?
29. Why did the Mohawk nation support Britain in the Revolution?
30. What mistakes did the British make in transferring the War to the American South?
31. How did Washington win the Battle of Yorktown?
III. Confederation to Constitution
1. What powers did the Articles of Confederation give to the US government?
2. How much territory was succeeded to the United States by Britain?
3. What were the flaws in the Articles of Confederation?
4. What were the Land ordinance and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787?
5. What was the most important aspect of the Northwest Ordinance?
6. What caused Shay's rebellion?
7. What was the significance of the Mount Vernon Conference and the subsequent Annapolis Conference?
8. What was the model for the concept of an American Republic?
9. Who were the delegates to the Constitutional Convention?
10. How was the problem of representation solved?
11. What is the three fifths compromise?
12. How is power divided between the different branches of government?
13. What powers were given to the President?
14. What is the easiest way to describe the Electoral College?
15. What dose Congress do?
16. What was the purpose of the Supreme Court?
17. Why was the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution?
18. What are the major rights guaranteed by the document?
IV. The War of 1812
1. What are the main policies and principles of the Federalist Party?
2. What population groups were the Federalist Party's main supporters?
3. What are the main policies and principles of the Democratic Republican Party?
4. What population groups were the Democratic Republican's main supporters?
5. What were the foreign policy challenges facing the Washington administration?
6. What was the significance of the Jay and Pickney treaties?
7. How did the John Adams administration deal with the challenge posed by the wars between Britain and France?
8. What was the purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts?
9. What was the significance of the election of 1800?
10. Why did Arron Burr and Alexander Hamilton fight a duel?
11. What circumstances lead to the purchase of Louisiana?
12. How did Jefferson avoid war with England?
13. What was the Chesapeake Affair?
14. What was the economic impact of non-importation?
15. How do the British torment James Madison?
16. What troubles plagued his administration?
17. What was the importance of the new Native religion created by Tenskwatawa (the Prophet)?
18. How did his brother Tecumseh use the new religion to forge a military alliance?
19. What forced Tecumseh to ally himself, and his coalition partners, with Britain?
20. What grievances did Madison list as cause for declaring war on Great Britain?
21. How did the early stages of the War of 1812 unfold?
22. What was Britain's plan to defeat the Americans?
23. What were the demands of the Hartford Convention?
24. What were the results of the War of 1812?
25. How many American and British war aims were met?
26. How did America and Britain began to reconcile their interests after the War of 1812?
V. The Transformation of America
1. What changing material conditions began the process of transforming American society and pushing the regions apart?
2. How did the United States acquire Florida?
3. What is the significance of the Missouri Compromise?
4. How did James Monroe have the confidence to promulgate the Monroe Doctrine?
5. Who was Andrew Jackson?
6. What was the problem(s) with the election of 1824?
7. How did Andrew Jackson reinvent American politics?
8. What role did the new Irish and German immigrants play in the new political environment?
9. What were the principles and policies of the new(ish) Democratic Party?
10. Who were the Democrats main supporters?
11. Why did the Whig Party appear?
12. What were the Whig Party's principles and who supported it?
13. What was the greatest strength of the second party system?
14. What was Transcendentalism?
15. What did Ralph Waldo Emerson believe people should do to take control of the lives in 1840s America?
16. How did Henry David Thoreau differ from Emerson?
17. What Thoreau's enduring contribution to American culture and society?
18. What were the goals of the early women's rights movement?
19. What circumstances caused the outpouring of religious experimentation in the Ante-Bellum period?
20. Why can the Mormon religion be thought of as a distinctly American concept?
21. What factors combined to expand the practice of slavery and increase its profitability?
22. What is the importance of Cherokee Nation versus the State of Georgia?
23. What is a domestic dependent nation?
24. What was the Trail of Tears?
25. How did the process of Indian removal work?
26. Why do slaves and their masters have such different perspectives and experiences regarding slavery?
27. Where did most slaves live?
28. How many slaves did the average slave owner have?
29. What differences are there between the experiences of slaves on large and small plantations?
30. How did the average slave live?
31. How many slaves were there?
32. How did southern abolitionists plan to end the practice of slavery?
33. What was the impact of the Nat Turner revolt on southern attitudes towards slavery?
34. What issues separate the advocates of Northern Abolitionism?
35. Who was Frederick Douglas?
VI. Mexico and the Civil War
1. What issues did the annexation of Texas create for the United States?
2. Why did President James Polk declare war on Mexico?
3. Why did the Whig Party oppose the declaration of war on Mexico?
4. Why did John C. Calhoun oppose the Wilmot Proviso?
5. What is the significance of the discovery of gold in California?
6. How did the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo settle the US/Mexican War?
7. What solutions did James Buchannan and Senator Lewis Cass propose to the issue of how to resolve the issue of slavery in the new territories?
8. What are the provisions of the Compromise of 1850?
9. What was the great weakness of the compromise?
10. How were Fugitive Slave Act commissioners paid?
11. What was one of the flaws in the fugitive slave act?
12. Who was Dred Scott?
13. What were the most important aspects of the Supreme Court decision?
14. Why did Chief Justice Roger Taney make such an effort to defend slavery?
15. Why did John Brown's raid fail?
16. Why did John Brown's raid so anger the south?
17. How many political parties participated in the election of 1860?
18. Why did the Democratic Party split in 1860?
19. What platforms did the different political parties advocate in the 1860 election?
20. How did Lincoln win the election of 1860 without a majority of the popular vote?
21. What options did President James Buchanan have when the southern states began to succeed?
22. What circumstances convinced southern leader they could win the Civil War?
23. How important was the leadership of Robert E. Lee?
24. What advantages and disadvantages did each region (North and South) possess as they prepared for war?
25. How did Congress reinvent the United States during the Civil War?
26. How important was the river war to the outcome of the Civil War?
27. What was England's role in the American Civil War?
28. Understand the most important battlefield events during each phase of the Civil War.
29. What was the impact of the Civil War on the American South?
30. How did the war affect the American North?