Colonial America and the American Revolution

Question 1

These acts were passed by Parliament in England as a punishment for the Boston Tea Party. These were seen by American colonists as part of a British plan to deny Americans representative government.

Answer 1

The Intolerable Acts (England called them the Coercive Acts)

Question 2

These two skirmishes marked the beginning of the fighting in the American Revolution. British troops left Boston and marched into the countryside to seize a stockpile of weapons and ammunition. These battles ended with the British retreating to Boston.

Answer 2

Lexington and Concord.

Question 3

Who was the author of Common Sense?

Answer 3

Thomas Paine

Question 4

What was the central idea in the pamphlet Common Sense?

Answer 4

Thomas Paine argued that the American colonists should break free from England by declaring independence and establish a new government.

Question 5

What is the central idea contained in the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 5

The Declaration justified the colonists abolishing British government in America and forming a new government. Why? Everyone is given natural rights. If a government fails to protect these rights, it is the right of the people to change that government or to abolish (end) that government.

Question 6

This battle marked the end of the Revolutionary War, as the British surrendered after being surrounded on both land and at sea. Help from France made this possible.

Answer 6

The Battle of Yorktown

Question 7

This treaty ended the American Revolutionary War and granted the US its independence. Under this treaty, the US gained all territory EAST OF the Mississippi River (Except for Florida).

Answer 7

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Question 8

What was the Boston Tea Party?

Answer 8

A 1773 event in which patriots from Boston, protesting Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded British ships in Boston harbor and dumped the cargo into the harbor.

Question 9

In March of 1770, a crowd of colonists protested against British customs agents and the presence of British troops in Boston. Violence broke out and five colonists were shot and killed by British Redcoats. What was this event?

Answer 9

The Boston Massacre (1770)

Question 10

What were the Townshend Acts (or Duties)?

Answer 10

A series of taxes passed by Parliament in England that forced colonists to pay taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea entering the colonies. The colonists objected and the relationship between the colonies and England was further damaged.

Question 11

Angered over the Stamp Act, representatives of nine colonial assemblies met in New York City at this gathering. The colonists stated that Parliament could NOT tax anyone outside of Great Britain, concluding that only representatives elected by the colonies could tax the colonies.

Answer 11

The Stamp Act Congress (1765)

Question 12

This 1765 law required colonial Americans to buy special watermarked paper for newspapers, playing cards, and all legal documents. This law led to the first organized response to British taxes/acts being passed by Parliament.

Answer 12

The Stamp Act (1765)

Question 13

Explain the concept of Salutary Neglect.

Answer 13

When the colonies were first developing in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the government in England did NOT enforce trade laws or keep a close watch over the colonies. Instead, the government of England ‘neglected’ the colonies. This actually HELPED (‘salutary” means beneficial or healthful) the colonies because they developed their own economic, political and social institutions.

Question 14

How did the French and Indian War help lead to tensions and later, a revolution, between the colonists in America and England?

Answer 14

Wars, like the French and Indian War, cost blood and treasure. After the French and Indian War, England passed new taxes and laws to try to make the colonies in America pay their “fair share” of the cost of the war. These news acts and taxes angered the colonies, eventually leading to the American Revolutionary War.

Question 15

What was the first legislative assembly in colonial America? HINT: Think Virginia.

Answer 15

The Virginia House of Burgesses was formed in 1619. This was an early example of DEMOCRACY and SELF-GOVERNMENT in America.

Question 16

What was the name of the early form of DEMOCRACY and SELF-GOVERNMENT in NEW ENGLAND colonies, like Massachusetts, during Colonial America?

Answer 16

Town Meetings (Sometimes called Town-Hall Meetings). Every adult (church member and land owner) would gather and vote on decisions affecting the town. This is called DIRECT DEMOCRACY.

Question 17

This was the framework for SELF-GOVERNMENT of the Plymouth Colony (in New England) signed by settlers before getting off their ship in 1620.

Answer 17

The Mayflower Compact (1620)

Question 18

In colonial America, individuals who agreed to work without wages for a period of time in exchange for their paid transportation to the colonies.

Answer 18

Indentured Servants

Question 19

What is meant by the phrase ‘Middle Passage’?

Answer 19

The forced transport of enslaved Africans from West Africa to the Americas. The conditions on these slave ships were horrific and many enslaved Africans died during the journey.

Question 20

What was the triangular trade?

Answer 20

The three-way patterns of trade that involved England (Europe), West Africa, and colonies in the New World, including the 13 English colonies.

Question 21

Define/Explain Mercantilism

Answer 21

Mercantilism is an economic policy under which a nation accumulates (builds up) wealth by exporting more goods than it imports. The key is to establish a FAVORABLE BALANCE OF TRADE for the Mother Country, often at the expense of her colonies.

Question 22

What was the purpose of England’s Navigation Acts?

Answer 22

Navigation Acts were British trade laws enacted by Parliament during the mid-1700s that regulated colonial commerce. The goal was to help the economy of the mother country (England) at the expense of her ‘children’ (the colonies). These began to be enforced more strictly after the French and Indian War, angering the colonists.

Question 23

What was the Proclamation of 1763?

Answer 23

This was a royal declaration by the British king ordering all colonists to remain east of the Appalachian Mountains after winning the French and Indian War. This angered colonists as they expected to be able to move west into those lands.

Question 24

Why did the English King issue the Proclamation of 1763?

Answer 24

American colonists moving west across the Appalachian Mountains came into contact with Natives, leading to a conflict known as Pontiac’s Rebellion in the Great Lakes region. England wanted to protect colonists AND did NOT want to spend more $$$ protecting colonists from the Natives.

Question 25

What was the Albany Plan of Union? Why was it significant?

Answer 25

The Albany Plan of Union was Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 proposal to create one government for the 13 colonies. It failed. However, it was the FIRST real attempt to create ONE GOVERNMENT for the colonies (states) in America.

Question 26

In ONE WORD, why did the Southern colonies develop slavery on a larger scale than the Middle and New England colonies?

Answer 26

CLIMATE!

The climate of the South allowed for large plantations for cash crops to make enormous profits ($$$). The other regions did not have the climate for cash crops like tobacco, rice, cotton, etc…

Question 27

What were Committees of Correspondence?

Answer 27

Committees of Correspondence were networks of local groups
that informed colonists of British measures and the
opposition to them in the years before the Revolutionary
War. In other words, groups in colonial America communicating with other groups.

Question 28

Can you recite the mnemonic device to remember the steps on the Road to Revolution?

Answer 28

Poor Sad Thomas Broke Tea Cups In Frustration Leaving Several Cups Destroyed

STUDY IT!!!

Question 29

What is the significance of the John Peter Zenger Trial?

Answer 29

In 1734, John Peter Zenger - a publisher of a newspaper called the New York Weekly Journal - was put on trial for libel (printing falsehoods). He was found NOT GUILTY, helping to establish FREEDOM OF THE PRESS in America.

Question 30

This was a common slogan during the Revolutionary Era. The words illustrate one of the main grievances (complaints) the Patriots had against the King of England and Parliament.

Answer 30

“No Taxation Without Representation!”

Colonists claimed they were NOT REPRESENTED in Parliament and therefore should NOT have to pay any taxes established by Parliament.

Question 31

Who were some of the MAJOR thinkers of the European Enlightenment that had an influence on the American Revolution and the founding of America?

Answer 31

John Locke - Natural Rights

Baron de Montesquieu - Separation of powers into 3 branches with checks and balances

Jean Jacques Rousseau - Social Contract