Exam

Question 1

How would climate change have affected Paleo-Indians’ way of life?

Answer 1

. It forced them to leave a cooling Asia to resettle in the Americas.
B. The extinction of large mammals forced them to seek other sources of food.
C. Rising seas led to the destruction of existing cities.
D. Cultural diversity declined due to increased trade connections.

Question 2

Trading routes linked the kingdoms of West Africa most directly to cultures in which region?

Answer 2

A. South America
B. Northern Africa
C. Northern Europe
D. Western India

Question 3

Which of the following spiritual practices would most likely have been a feature of the cultures of both West Africans and American Indians before 1500?

Answer 3

A. religious study of the Islamic holy text
B. organized Christian religious services
C. rituals honoring deceased ancestors
D. belief in the spiritual authority of rulers

Question 4

Which reason best explains why Columbus believed he had reached the East Indies?

Answer 4

A. He mistook the islands he reached for islands off the Asian mainland.
B. He calculated he had sailed more than halfway around the globe.
C. He reached an area previously explored by Europeans.
D. He encountered people who had an abundant supply of gold and spices

Question 5

Amerigo Vespucci’s explorations of South America had what effect on Europeans’ knowledge of the globe?

Answer 5

. They now recognized South America as a continent.
B. They believed there was no direct western route to the Indies.
C. They recognized South America as a new continent.
D. They no longer believed that the globe was flat.

Question 6

Which of the following developments resulted from the spread of European diseases among American Indians?

Answer 6

. An increase in the number of imported enslaved Africans.
B. A decrease in the number European colonizers.
C. An increase in the number of American Indian groups.
D. A decrease in the number of Spanish plantations in the Americas.

Question 7

What objection did American Indians most likely have to the work of Spanish missionaries?

Answer 7

A. Missionaries represented the Catholic Church.
B. Missionaries forced Indians to give up their traditions.
C. Missionaries carried European diseases to the Americas.
D. Missionaries had little interest in seeking gold and riches.

Question 8

Which of the following developments caused the Spanish to initially lose interest in northern lands such as Florida and Texas?

Answer 8

. Explorers failed to find gold or silver in this region.
B. The Pueblo Indians staged a revolt.
C. Spanish explorers were unable to find a constant supply of food.
D. The French attacked the Spanish in this region.

Question 9

Which of the following was a main characteristic of both Spanish and French colonization?

Answer 9

A. development of trading alliances with natives
B. intention to create a vast American empire
C. enslavement of native laborers
D. desire to find wealth and resources

Question 10

How did the settlement of Louisiana benefit France?

Answer 10

. Mercantilist policies of France encouraged commerce in the colony.
B. Agriculture, while seasonal, was especially profitable.
C. Louisiana became a significant military base.
D. France established important treaties with Native Americans.

Question 11

For what key reason might the English have supported colonial expansion south of Virginia?

Answer 11

A. to defend existing colonies against encroachment
B. to diversify its religious and cultural communities
C. to encourage peaceful relations with American Indians
D. to provide a buffer against the Spanish in Florida

Question 12

What immediate impact did English colonists most likely have on the physical environment of North America?

Answer 12

A. They cleared some of the forests for farming.
B. They destroyed rivers through shipping.
C. They eliminated native plants and animals by introducing non-native species.
D. They established political boundaries among colonies.

Question 13

Relations among American Indians and the Puritans in the seventeenth century could best be described as

Answer 13

A. contentious.
B. minimal.
C. mutually beneficial.
D. peaceful.

Question 14

For what reason did New Netherland fail to attract as many colonists as the English colonies?

Answer 14

A. conflict with American Indians
B. inadequate push factors
C. insufficient land for farming
D. lack of trade opportunities

Question 15

Which statement best summarizes the position of enslaved African Americans in the colonies?

Answer 15

A. They formed only a small fraction of the population.
B. They were treated by law mostly as property.
C. They allied mostly with regional native peoples.
D. They were indentured servants.

Question 16

Why did most enslaved Africans live in the Southern Colonies?

Answer 16

A. Enslaved Africans only agreed to work in that region.
B. New England and the Middle Colonies did not permit slavery.
C. Spanish and Portuguese slave ships would not sail farther north.
D. The Southern Colonies depended more heavily on labor-intensive agriculture.

Question 17

What key purpose did the Navigation Acts serve?

Answer 17

A. to control shipping lanes in the Atlantic
B. to grow the slave trade
C. to maintain order in the colonies
D. to reinforce mercantilism

Question 18

Which of the following best describes the status and role of most colonial women?

Answer 18

A. They could not own property but they could participate in government.
B. They focused on raising children and engaged in few other economic activities.
C. They had numerous economic opportunities and other rights but lacked suffrage.
D. They contributed to the economic activities of their families but had no political rights.

Question 19

How did New Amsterdam become New York?

Answer 19

D. The English gain Dutch colonies in North America after defeating the Dutch at sea.

Question 20

How did the Great Awakening affect colonial society?

Answer 20

. The move to expand political rights for women increases.
B. Religious diversity increases as does the growing awareness of individual equality.
C. In the Middle colonies, religious toleration decreases.
D. The demand to increase the role of the government in religious organizations increases.

Question 21

Which factor gave France the greatest advantage over Britain in the competition for territory in North America?

Answer 21

A. The large number of French settlers in the interior.
B. The good relations France had with American Indians.
C. The control the French Navy exercised over Atlantic trade routes.
D. The steady supply of raw materials from French colonies in the West Indies.

Question 22

What change in British policy resulted from the end of the French and Indian War?

Answer 22

A. Colonists were given free land west of the Appalachian Mountains.
B. Royal governors were replaced with governors elected by the colonists.
C. Frontier settlements were required to organize and maintain citizen militias.
D. The government began enforcing tax laws that had largely been ignored in the past.

Question 23

Which of these assumptions was fundamental to Patrick Henry’s Virginia Resolves?

Answer 23

. Taxation without representation is illegitimate.
B. Citizens should organize militias to fight tyranny.
C. Every citizen has a right to freedom of speech and press.
D. The American colonies should be a single, unified nation.

Question 24

Which of the following was the most widespread form of protest against the new laws passed by Parliament after the French and Indian War?

Answer 24

A. refusing to buy British-made goods
B. quitting jobs with the British government
C. attacking the homes of wealthy British merchants
D. destroying shipments of weapons for the British Army

Question 25

One source of resentment among colonists in the late 1760s was the British government’s use of tax money to pay

Answer 25

A. American Indians for land taken by the colonists.
B. merchants for shipping goods to the American market.
C. Loyalists for quartering British soldiers in their homes.
D. public officials who were loyal to the British government.

Question 26

Unlike the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress

Answer 26

A. took direct action to prepare for war.
B. resulted in the formation of new institutions.
C. urged Americans to boycott British-made goods.
D. was attended by delegates from both the North and the South.

Question 27

Many Loyalists resented the Patriots’ willingness to

Answer 27

A. form alliances with European powers.
B. violate the colonists’ individual rights.
C. take military supplies without paying for them.
D. support merchants suspected of supporting the Monarch

Question 28

How was the Battle of Saratoga a turning point in the Revolutionary War?

Answer 28

. A. It brought the Patriots foreign support.
B. It significantly reduced the size of the British Army.
C. It convinced many Loyalists to join the Patriot cause.
D. It forced the British to abandon their defensive strategy.

Question 29

What was Spain’s main motivation for helping the Patriots during the Revolutionary War?

Answer 29

A. To establish good trade relations with the Americans.
B. To gain an ally in its fight against hostile Indian tribes.
C. To weaken its main competitor for territory in North America.
D. To prevent ideas of self-government from spreading to its colonies.

Question 30

The changes brought by the Treaty of Paris did the most to expand the political power of

Answer 30

A. free blacks.
B. unmarried women.
C. property-owning men.
D. native peoples on the frontier.

Question 31

Why were many southern whites against the practice of manumission following the Revolution?

Answer 31

. A. They were fearful that freed slaves would seek revenge.
B. They believed African Americans should not be considered citizens.
C. They wanted to keep the southern population high for tax purposes.
D. They thought it showed weakness in the wake of a foreign war

Question 32

What effect did the American Revolution have on the world?

Answer 32

A. The idea of overthrowing an old regime seemed impossible.
B. Many European nations were inspired to rewrite their existing constitutions.
C. French soldiers who fought with the Americans returned to France determined to support the existing monarchy.
D. Achieving liberty and equality became realistic goals and inspired other revolutions.

Question 33

Which of these political reforms would have led conservative Patriots to worry about the “tyranny of the majority”?

Answer 33

A. expanding the powers of the governor relative to the legislature
B. abandoning a bicameral legislature in favor of a unicameral legislature
C. limiting voting rights to free white men with a certain amount of property
D. preventing the government from providing support for particular religions

Question 34

How did Congress under the Articles of Confederation differ from the state legislatures that operated in the United States during the 1780s?

Answer 34

A. Delegates in Congress did not represent a particular constituency.
B. Representation in Congress was not proportional to the population.
C. State legislatures could not pass the kind of trade laws that Congress could.
D. Congress required only a bare majority rather than a supermajority to pass laws.

Question 35

Which new problem was created by states’ solutions to the issues raised by Shays’ Rebellion?

Answer 35

A. States taxes rose too greatly.
B. Creditors faced the loss of investments.
C. State governments became less stable.
D. Militias suffered significant labor shortages.

Question 36

The representatives from five states that gathered at Annapolis asked Congress to call another meeting because they

Answer 36

A. did not want their political opponents to accuse them of acting in secrecy.
B. felt that they should meet in a location that was easier to reach from all thirteen of the states.
C. believed that Articles of Confederation needed to include better protections for individual rights.
D. knew that the consent of every state would be needed to change the Articles of Confederation.

Question 37

The outcome of the Constitutional Convention differed from the original purpose of the meeting because the meeting was originally intended to

Answer 37

A. amend rather than completely replace the Articles of Confederation.
B. prevent the problem of majority tyranny rather than create a more democratic system.
C. protect individual liberties rather than increase the powers of the national government.
D. fix the weaknesses of the state governments rather than the weaknesses of the national government.

Question 38

Which of the following people would have been most likely to serve as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787?

Answer 38

A. a white small farmer from the Northwest Territory
B. a freed African American landowner from Connecticut
C. a wealthy white plantation owner from Virginia
D. an immigrant middle-class New York City merchant

Question 39

At the Constitutional Convention, discussions of slavery were tied up with debates about which other issue?

Answer 39

A. states’ rights
B. individual liberty
C. presidential elections
D. congressional representation

Question 40

The Constitution created a bicameral legislature because the delegates reached a compromise about

Answer 40

A. which powers Congress should have.
B. what limits to place on the powers of Congress.
C. how states should be given Congressional representation.
D. who should have the right to vote in Congressional elections.

Question 41

Which of the following did the ratification of the Constitution by Virginia and New York do?

Answer 41

A. It provided a regional balance of representation in the new Congress.
B. It reaffirmed popular support for the new federal government.
C. It provided the minimum number of states to put the Constitution into operation.
D. It demonstrated that Antifederalist fears about abuses of power were unwarranted.

Question 42

Which statement explains why Federalists promised to add a bill of rights once the Constitution was ratified?

Answer 42

A. They wanted to assure Antifederalists that the new federal government would respect individual liberties.
B. They wanted to demonstrate that the system of checks and balances would effectively limit the power of the federal government.
C. They wanted to make sure that the new system went into effect with a minimum set of civil and criminal laws already in existence.
D. They wanted to show that the Constitution truly embodied the republican principles for which the Revolutionary War had been fought

Question 43

The Bill of Rights most likely would not have been ratified by enough of the states if it had included which of the following?

Answer 43

A. a blanket statement about the equality of all humans
B. an unambiguous description of due process and probable cause
C. a clear disclaimer that would allow other rights to be added later
D. a detailed listing of the religious freedoms that would be protected

Question 44

The requirement that the ratification of the Constitution take place in state ratifying conventions is an example of which Constitutional principle?

Answer 44

A. federalism
B. due process
C. limited government
D. indirect democracy