Unit 1 and 2 Short Answers Exam
1. The Columbian Exchange: Please complete the following three tasks:
a. Identify THREE different crops or livestock that were introduced by the
Spanish in the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.
b. Briefly explain how ONE of the examples from Part A changed work or trade
in the Americas.
c. Briefly explain ONE long-term result of the change explained in Part B on
American Indians.
2. European traders reached West Africa and partnered with some African groups to
recruit slave labor for the Americas.
a. Briefly explain ONE important social response in the Americas to the
statement above in the period 1492–1607.
b. Briefly explain ONE important economic response in the Americas to the
statement above in the period 1492–1607.
c. Briefly explain the impact of the social response in Part A or the economic
response in Part B on American society in the period 1492–1607.
3. Compare and contrast Jamestown (1607) with Massachusetts Bay (1620)
a. Briefly explain THREE reasons why Jamestown (1607) was an economic,
social, and environmental disaster from 1607-1615
b. Briefly explain THREE reasons why the Massachusetts Bay Company (1620)
was economically, socially, and environmentally superior to Jamestown.
4. Cultural Pluralism in the English Colonies
a. Briefly explain ONE example of cultural pluralism in one of the English
colonies in colonial North America
b. Briefly explain a SECOND example of cultural pluralism in one of the
English colonies in colonial North America
c. Explain how ONE of your examples is similar to modern US cities.
5. Political Cartoon A:
Benjamin Franklin, 1754
Political Cartoon B:
King George III and the Colonial Rebels, 1773
For question 5, address all three parts:
A. Briefly explain the meaning of Political Cartoon A.
B. Briefly explain the meaning of Political Cartoon B.
C. Describe the change in the political attitude in the American colonies between the
years 1754 and 1773. Provide one specific piece of historical evidence not used in
Part A or B to support your answer.
ANSWER Question 1: The Columbian Exchange: Please complete the following three tasks:
a.
b.
c.
Feedback
Possible responses include the following:
Horses, pigs, sugar, wheat, coffee, cows
Possible responses include the following:
Sugar led to the development of plantation-based agriculture based on slave labor.
The introduction of horses led bison-hunting societies to adapt into horse cultures.
Wheat and grazing animals led to the European demand for native lands.
Possible responses include the following:
Slave-based plantation agriculture grew and expanded for centuries.
The use of horses spread into North America and was particularly significant among
Great Plains horse cultures, such as the Comanche and Sioux.
The land itself was modified for use in settled agriculture and grazing.
OBJ: ENV-1|WXT-1|PEO-4
TOP: Historical Thinking Skills: Causation
MSC: Key Concepts: 1.2.I.C
ANSWER Question 2: The impact of West African slavery on Colonial peoples
Feedback
a.
Possible responses include the following:
African slaves became critical in replacing natives in social hierarchy.
Intermarriage with blacks became more accepted.
Enslaved Africans created unique communities.
b.
Possible responses include the following:
The slave trade grew and became an important part of global economics for centuries.
The growth of the slave trade led to a modification of the encomienda system.
Native labor was replaced with slave labor.
c.
Possible responses include the following:
There was a greater tolerance of mixed-race peoples and racial difference in the
Spanish world.
These changes led to the development of plantation agriculture based on slave labor.
The subjugation of African slaves became more intensive over time.
OBJ: PEO-5|WOR-1|WXT-1
TOP: Historical Thinking Skills: Change over Time
MSC: Key Concepts: 1.2.I.B
ANSWER Question 3 possible content: Compare and contrast Jamestown (1607) with
Massachusetts Bay (1620)
Economy
Society
Politics
Chesapeake Bay
Profit
Failed at silk, wheat, glass, timber, cotton
Cash crops = Tobacco starting 1618
Undiversified
Slavery is introduced
New England
Positive climate
Religion: Leave Anglican Church
Fishing, trade, agriculture, ship
building
Self-sufficient farms
1st New World Settlement
Negative Climate: poor settlement area,
unhealthy environment, swamp, uninhabited by
natives, contaminated water, malaria, trash in
center, Rural, no cities
Jamestown is fortified
Female subordination, forbidden to marry
Scarcity of women
Indentured Servants: 4-7 years, 50 acres
Headright system
Protestant English settlers
80% IMR
“Starving Time 1609-1610 = 80% die”
Goal: most want to improve
their own lives, First permanent
colony
½ die during the first winter, but
colony is successful after that.
Strict child discipline, Both
genders, Pilgrims and puritans, 6
kids per family,
Higher literacy, Low IMR
70 year life expectancy is higher
than Europe!
Nuclear family units and
extended family too
Later = 1692 Salem Witch Trials
40 year life expectancy
Later (1676) Bacon’s Rebellion in the West
Governor Berkley
Initial failure of John Smith (Work if you want to
eat), elite gentlemen, half work, half look for
gold,
Wealthy planters, later an East to West conflict,
appointed governors and councils.
John Rolfe and Tobacco
1619 Virginia House of Burgesses =1st
representative assembly in the New World =
forerunner for Virginia General Assembly
May Flower Compact, Pilgrims,
Puritans, White male suffrage
Theocracy, Township
governments or local governing
institutes
ANSWER Question 4 possible content: Cultural Pluralism in the English Colonies
A.
B.
C.
Feedback
Philadelphia and New York are probably the best examples
Restoration/”Middle Colonies: Profit + individual betterment… More like future America
than other colonies. 1. Economic diversity. 2. Large cities  more cosmopolitan culture.
3. Some slavery [6%-12% of the population]. 4. Ethnic and religious diversity. 5.
Religious toleration. 6. “Bread Colonies.”
New Amsterdam- Dutch and Peter Stuyvesant
Philadelphia and New York City = Commerce, Dutch, French, Swedes, Germans, multiple
languages, multiple religions, trade, mixed Christian peoples
Rhode Island- Roger Williams “Holy Experiment” Natives
Pennsylvania- William Penn, Quakers
Biggest city by 1760 = Philadelphia
ANSWER Question 5: The Albany Plan of Union and King George’s attitudes towards
Colonials in 1773.
a.
b.
c.
Feedback
The Albany Plan of Union, one of the first political cartoons, Pennsylvania Gazette,
Ben Franklin
Failed attempt to unify colonies to fight Indian threats and the French. Why did it
fail?
The artist of this cartoon demonstrated that some Americans were beginning to
believe that King George war controlling America through draconic parliamentary
decisions without input from the colonists themselves- for example, the passage of
the Stamp Act in 1765 without any input from the colonies.
The colonists began to change their attitude toward the British with the passage of
restrictive laws and regulations such as the writs of assistance, which gave the
English army the right to enter any American home and search for contraband. These
searches were a violation of the English principle that a “man’s home was his castle”
and could not be entered unless there was a good purpose. As the years passed, there
were more violations of the “right of Englishmen” enforced on the colonists- to the
point that the people began to resent the king.
OBJ: ENV-1|WXT-1|PEO-4
TOP: Historical Thinking Skills: Causation
MSC: Key Concepts: 1.2.I.C