Name ___________________________________________________________
U.S. History I-Honors
Summer Assignment
Welcome to U.S. History I Honors! I look forward to meeting you next year, and
having a successful school year. To prepare for next year, I am providing a summer
assignment. Since the curriculum is so extensive, reading the first chapter of the
text makes it possible to cover more periods of history during the school year.
The Summer Assignment includes the following:
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Read Chapter 1 of the Textbook: pages 2-23 (packet provided)
Identify the “Key Terms” (page 23)
Identify “People of Know” (page 23)
Answer the focusing questions in complete sentences
Complete four map activities
o Label a physical map of the United States
o Label the thirteen original colonies
o Label and color a map identifying the land acquisition of the U.S.
o Label and color the 50 state and their capitals
This assignment is due the first day of school: Wednesday, September 9th
If you have any questions about the assignment please stop in Room 215 any time
before the end of the school year. You can also email me during the summer and I
will get back to you as soon as I possibly can.
EMAIL: sstrunk@somervilleschools.org
Have a relaxing summer vacation. I look forward to having you in class next year!
Founding the New Nation:
1. Describe the ways in which life in the New World made the “colonists
different from their European cousins?”
2. Describe the ways in which the settlement experience divided the colonists.
3. Why did the colonists, according to the authors of the Pageant, have little
reason to complain about Britain until the 1760s, and how did this change?
Peopling the Americas AND The Earliest Americans:
Identify Pueblo
4. In what ways were the Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs
in Mexico sophisticated civilizations, and explain how maize (corn)
contributed to this?
5. Explain the significance of this statement:
“No dense concentration of population or complex nation-states
comparable to the Aztec empire existed in North America outside of
Mexico at the time of the Europeans’ arrival.” (page 8)
6. Characterize the native peoples of North America up to “European
discovery.”
7. Describe the matrilineal culture of many North American native tribes. How
does this compare to the European culture?
Indirect Discoverers of the New World:
8. According to the authors, how were Christian crusaders indirect discoverers
of the New World?
Europeans Enter Africa:
9. Describe the importance of innovation in Portuguese navigation.
10. Describe the Portuguese slave trade.
Columbus Comes Upon a New World:
11. Describe the interdependent global economic system created by Columbus’s
discovery of the New World.
When Worlds Collide:
12. What did Europeans introduce to the New World?
13. What did the New World introduce to the Old World?
The Conquest of Mexico and Peru
14. What led to the Treaty of Tordesillas?
15. How did the encomienda system work?
16. Describe what Cortes and the Spanish brought to the peoples of Mexico.
Exploration and Imperial Rivalry:
17. What led to Pope’s Rebellion and what was the outcome?
18. Explain the “Black Legend” and if it was an accurate description of the
Spanish in the New World.