Exam study guide

Question 1

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

Answer 1

The extinction of large mammals forced them to seek other sources of food.

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Northern Africa

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

rituals honoring deceased ancestors

Question 4

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

Answer 4

He mistook the islands he reached for islands off the Asian mainland

Question 5

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

Answer 5

They recognized South America as a new continent.

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.

Question 7

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

Answer 7

Missionaries forced Indians to give up their traditions.

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

Question 9

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

Answer 9

desire to find wealth and resources

Question 10

How did the settlement of Louisiana benefit France?

Answer 10

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

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

They cleared some of the forests for farming

Question 13

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

Answer 13

contentious.

Question 14

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

Answer 14

inadequate push factors

Question 15

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

Answer 15

They were treated by law mostly as property.

Question 16

Why did most enslaved Africans live in the Southern Colonies?

Answer 16

The Southern Colonies depended more heavily on labor-intensive agriculture.

Question 17

What key purpose did the Navigation Acts serve?

Answer 17

to reinforce mercantilism

Question 18

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

Answer 18

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

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 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

The good relations France had with American Indians.

Question 22

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

Answer 22

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.

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

refusing to buy British-made goods

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

public officials who were loyal to the British government.

Question 26

Unlike the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress

Answer 26

took direct action to prepare for war.

Question 27

Many Loyalists resented the Patriots’ willingness to

Answer 27

violate the colonists’ individual rights.

Question 28

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

Answer 28

It brought the Patriots foreign support.

Question 29

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

Answer 29

To weaken its main competitor for territory in North America.

Question 30

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

Answer 30

property-owning men.

Question 31

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

Answer 31

They were fearful that freed slaves would seek revenge.

Question 32

What effect did the American Revolution have on the world?

Answer 32

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

abandoning a bicameral legislature in favor of a unicameral legislature

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

Representation in Congress was not proportional to the population.

Question 35

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

Answer 35

Creditors faced the loss of investments.

Question 36

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

Answer 36

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

amend rather than completely replace the Articles of Confederation.

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 wealthy white plantation owner from Virginia

Question 39

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

Answer 39

congressional representation

Question 40

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

Answer 40

how states should be given Congressional representation

Question 41

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

Answer 41

It reaffirmed popular support for the new federal government

Question 42

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

Answer 42

They wanted to assure Antifederalists that the new federal government would respect individual liberties.

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 blanket statement about the equality of all humans

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

federalism