history colonial culture/ government

Question 1

How were colonial governments organized?

Answer 1

The colonies had a governor who reported directly to the English Monarch. The governors also had elected assemblies that chose representatives.

Question 2

What was the purpose of town meetings (Include the General Idea)

Answer 2

Town meetings were held to make local decisions. The general idea is that the colonists were functioning on their own with very little input from England.

Question 3

What is salutary neglect? (Include its effect on the colonies):

Answer 3

Salutary neglect was the British government’s practice of interfering very little in colonial affairs – the Parliament made laws for the colonies (like the Navigation Acts) but they did not enforce them.

Question 4

What is the significance of the Magna Carta?

Answer 4

(1215) was the first document to limit the power of the English king. It gave certain rights to English nobles. For example, the monarch could not seize the property of nobles and had to guarantee trial by jury for nobles accused of a crime.

Question 5

What is the significance of the English Bill of Rights?

Answer 5

(1689) granted many of the rights to all English citizens. It made Parliament more powerful and the king by establishing the principle that the English government would be based on laws passed by Parliament and not just what the king wanted. Both documents influenced the rights that were demanded by colonists and eventually influenced those guaranteed to U.S. citizens.

Question 6

What is the British Parliament? (Include the two houses it created)

Answer 6

Parliament is the chief lawmaking body in England. It has two houses; the House of Lords (birth) and the House of Commons (elected). Although it provided the model of representative government for the colonists, the colonists did not have representatives in Parliament

Question 7

What was the triangular trade?

Answer 7

This is a trade route with one ship making three stops to unload and load cargo.
For example: A ship leaves Boston, Massachusetts with rum and iron. It goes to Africa and sells the rum and iron in exchange for enslaved Africans. The ship then goes to the West Indies (in the Caribbean) and sells the enslaved Africans in exchange for sugar and molasses. The ship returns to Boston, where it uses the sugar and molasses to make rum.

Question 7

What right was established in the colonies as a result of the trial of John Peter Zenger?

Answer 7

The right gained is freedom of the press. Zenger was a publisher of a New York newspaper who stood trial for printing criticism of the royal governor. (Freedom of the press will be protected in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.)

Question 8

What was the “Middle Passage”?

Answer 8

The voyage of the slave ships across the Atlantic was called the Middle Passage – the middle leg of a triangular trade route. Millions of Africans were transported to the Americas for work on plantations. The conditions for enslaved Africans on the slave ships were terrible and many Africans died before the voyage was over.

Question 9

What was the purpose of the Navigation Acts?

Answer 9

The navigation acts were created to better control the trade of the colonies.

Question 10

The Great Awakening

Answer 10

A religious movement that swept through the colonies in the 1730’s and 1740’s, spread by traveling ministers, such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

Question 11

Effect of the Great Awakening on colonial culture

Answer 11

As people argued over religious teaching, churches split into different protestant groups, most of which spread protestant messages of equality and the right to challenge authority.

Question 12

The Enlightenment

Answer 12

This movement stressed reason and science as the paths to knowledge. Ben Franklin was a famous Enlightenment thinker in America. Scientists explained the natural laws governing the universe.

Question 13

John Locke

Answer 13

argued that people have natural-born rights (life, liberty, and property).

Question 14

Montesquieu

Answer 14

Montesquieu: argued that government power should be separated into three branches; legislative, executive and judicial

Question 15

Effect of the Enlightenment on colonial culture

Answer 15

colonists began to question whether or not the British government was protecting their rights

Question 16

What is a Free Enterprise System?

Answer 16

A free enterprise system is a system where individuals are able to privately own their own businesses with no interference from the government.

Question 17

What were the causes of the French and Indian War? (Why they wanted the Ohio River Valley)

Answer 17

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was started by conflicts between the British and the French over land and the fur trade in the Ohio Valley. English colonists and fur trappers began to move into French territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. Native American tribes allied themselves with one side or the other – most with the French.

Question 18

Who did MOST Native Americans side with?

Answer 18

The French

Question 19

What role did George Washington play in the war?

Answer 19

George Washington was a 21-year-old major in the British army during this war. He was sent by the British to build a fort (Fort Necessity) and attack the French. His attack and the French counterattack were the beginning of the war.

Question 20

Describe the Albany Plan of Union and why it was significant.

Answer 20

The Albany Plan of Union was Benjamin Franklin’s formal proposal to unite the colonies in the fight against the French (“Join or Die”). The plan called for each colony to send representatives to a united council. The Albany Plan did not pass, but it was significant because it was an early attempt to unite the 13 colonies against a common enemy.

Question 21

What were the terms of the Treaty of Paris 1763?

Answer 21

Winner: British

British: Got all land East of the Mississippi River - (from the Appalachians to Mississippi R from France & Florida from Spain)

Spanish: Got all land West of the Mississippi River and the city of New Orleans (from France because they were their ally)

France: Lost all claims to land in North America

Question 22

Explain Pontiac’s Rebellion

Answer 22

After French forces left the Ohio Valley, the British took over the forts. The Native Americans did not like this because the British refused to give supplies to the Natives. Native Americans began to attack and destroy British forts west of the Appalachians.

Question 23

What was the purpose of the Proclamation of 1763 / what did it forbid?

Answer 23

The British government saw that defending the colonists in the west would be costly, so as a result of Pontiac’s Rebellion, the British government passed a law called the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation of 1763 said that the colonists could not settle on lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Question 24

How did the colonists react to the Proclamation of 1763?

Answer 24

This angered the colonists because they felt they had won the right to settle the Ohio River and increased tensions between the colonists and the British government

Question 25

Who were the Enlivenment thinkers?

Answer 25

John Adams
James Madison
Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton
Benjamin Franklin

Question 26

What does the Ohio River have that made Brattain and France fight over it?

Answer 26

Access to ports/ waterways
Expansion of territory
Access to trade

Question 27

What did “Join or Die” mean and who created it?

Answer 27

Each piece represents a colony and if they don’t work as a team then they will die.
Benjamin Franklin led the whole thing.

Question 28

What where the effects of the French and Indian war?

Answer 28

Was was expensive- Britain had a large war debt.
Colonists began moving west into newly acquired lands.