APUSH Chapters 1-4 questions Flashcards
What was the process that led the first people to come to the Americas?
Ice glaciers were covering most of the world’s oceans, a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska was revealed, nomadic Asian hunters went across this bridge about 15-16 thousand years ago
How did agriculture, specifically corn cultivation, shape the early Americas?
It led to the creation of advanced civilizations like the Aztecs and Incas, and it provided a way to feed mass populations, and cultivated maize
What was life for the Incas and Aztecs like?
The Incas lived in Peru and the Aztecs lived in Mexico. Their civilizations were very advanced, they would make constant, brutal sacrifices to their gods, and corn cultivation was a staple within both the Incas and Aztecs
What are some of the “indirect” reasons for European exploration of the New World?
Norse seafarers traveling from Scandinavia and Christian crusaders searching for a faster route to the East’s finery
How and why does the practice of European slavery start with the Portuguese exploration of Africa?
Italian adventurer Marco Polo, whose stories and drawings pressured European expansion, which led to the creation of the caravel, making sub-Saharan Africa accessible to explorers. They set up trade in Africa, where Arab flesh merchants and Africans had a slave system going, and the Europeans adopted that system
How does the Renaissance create a spirit of exploration in Europe?
It spread scientific knowledge through printing presses, nurtured their ambitions further, and there were new sea travel discoveries
What was the columbian exchange?
A trade system that started when Columbus came to the Americas, new plants and crops that became vital to the Old World, like potatoes, and crops and animals, especially swine, cattle, and horses that became important to the New World
How did the Treaty of Tordesillas benefit the Spanish?
They gained the bigger portion of the “heathen lands” of the New World that they split with Portugal, providing resource and supply space during the Spanish invasion
What conquistadors explored the New World, and what areas did they claim for Spain?
Hernan Cortes, Vasco Nunez Balboa, Pizarro, Ferdinand Magellan, Juan Ponce de Leon, Cabrillo Francisco Coronado, Don Juan de Onate, and Hernando de Soto, claiming Panama, many cities and towns in North America, Peru, and Mexico, St. Augustine, Florida, some of California, and New Mexico
How was Cortés able to conquer the Aztecs?
Promising them revenge on their rivals, bringing with him an army of about 20,000 Indian allies to help fight, coming into their city, ending up fighting them, and winning with the help of a smallpox epidemic that broke out among the Aztecs
How did the conquering of Mexico by Cortés change the culture of the area?
The bringing of animals, languages, crops, laws, religions, customs, and through intermarriages
What was the response of the native Pueblos to the creation of Spanish missions in New Mexico?
Starting the Pueblo revolt, destroying all the Catholic churches in the Province, killing priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers, and building a kiva
Why did the Spanish establish settlements in Texas?
To slow the French’s exploratory threats
What was the Spanish presence in California?
It was late, but strong, and they sought to Christianize the 300,000 native Californians, they doomed the non immune Californians and their cultures soon overshadowed any of the native’s
What was the overall impact of the Spanish on the New World?
They influenced many natives with their culture, language, laws, and religion, created an empire, established many Spanish-speaking nations, created a colonial establishment, and founded much better relationships with the natives than the other explorers
How did France gain strength in Canada?
Their location, as it was very plentiful and had a lot of resources, Champlain founded Quebec and negotiated alliances with the tribes in the St. Lawrence river area
How does New France expand its territory and what are the challenges therein?
Fur trade, their challenges included Spain and other competing colonizing countries
What role did the Spanish play in Europe settling North America?
A conflicting conquering group
What was the impact of English explorers such as Drake, Gilbert, and Raleigh?
They gained a lot of profits from their adventures and claimed a lot of land for England
What is the significance of the defeat of the Spanish Armada for the New World?
It gave England much more power, letting them create their own colonial village
What conditions and laws in England led to the birth of English exploration in the 17th century?
Primogeniture and joint stock companies, and the desire to convert other people to Christianity
What was the purpose of the Virginia Company?
To create a settlement in the New World
Why is the charter of the Virginia Company a significant document in American history?
It gave the settlers overseas the same rights that they would have back at home
What were the early years at Jamestown like, and how did John Smith respond?
Very rough, they were unprepared and were expecting lots of gold, John Smith told the people “He that will not work, shall not eat,” which shows that he did not give up
What was the relationship between the settlers at Jamestown and the local Powhatan Confederacy?
They had a beneficial relationship, helping each other out and providing resources, after John Smith was kidnapped by their chief
Following the Second Anglo-Powhatan War, what happens to the Powhatan Indians?
They were forced out of their native land, the Chesapeake Bay, and their relationship with the colonists became much worse
How did the “three Ds” impact the Powhatans? (Disease, disorganization, and disposability)
It had a negative effect, they were exposed to diseases and a decrease in crops they needed to survive due to European expansion taking over
What was different about the Dutch settlements compared to the British?
The Dutch settlements were less populated and more commercial based compared to the British, who colonized for more religious reasons
How did interactions with Europeans change life for the Native Americans?
It caused the introduction of new diseases and the conquering of their ancestral homes and lands, the Europeans introduced new crops and weaponry that benefited the Native Americans
How did the introduction of tobacco to Virginia by John Rolfe change the fate of that colony?
It saved the colony, they experienced an economic boom, and it rescued them from the brink of collapse and lack of resources
What was the House of Burgesses’s relevance?
Its part in the birth of Representative self-government, the first of many future mini parliaments to come
What was the economic and religious significance of the colony of Maryland?
The colony of Maryland was very prosperous with tobacco, being the second plantation colony, religiously, it focused on Christianity, with the threat of death for those who denied Jesus’ divinity, at the end of the colonial era, Maryland was a main shelter for Roman Catholics
What was the economy of the islands in the West Indies?
Sugar crops, for labor, they used black slaves for the land clearing, extensive planting, and refining through a sugar mill
What was the Barbados Slave Code and how did it eventually affect the American colonies?
It was the settlers way of controlling the slaves, denying them basic human rights, which affected the American colonies later on when there was a growth of governing slavery
