AP US History Summer Assignments
Each of the first three chapters have questions and terms that need to be
completed. The questions should be fully answered. This might take more
than one sentence. The terms should identify the term and also tell the
significance of the term in relation to the history.
The assignments will be collected on the first day of class. They will be the
graded and included in the first marking period grade. A class discussion will
follow for each chapter with a test to follow.
If you have any question, feel free to email me at: cacromwell@lf.k12.de.us
Chapter 1, The meeting of Cultures
Assignment #1
Textbook pgs 4-9
Questions:
1. Identify and describe the elaborate native civilizations that developed in South
and Central America and in Mexico.
2. Why did Europeans consider the Indians they met to be “savages”, regardless of
their cultural achievements?
3. Describe the way of life of the North American Indians……where they lived and
how they supported themselves.
4. What were the three largest language groups, and where did their speakers live?
5. Describe the changes taking place among North American Indians during the
century before Europeans arrived
Terms:
Tenochtitlan
Iroquois Confederation
Chapter 1
Assignment #2
Textbook pgs 9-23
1. Why was there little incentive for other Europeans to follow after the initial
voyage to America by Norse sailors?
2. What changes stimulated the Europeans to look toward new lands?
3. What did Columbus hope to achieve through his voyages, and what did he
actually accomplish?
4. Why did the conquistadors seek to eliminate the underpinnings of existing
American civilization? How was this destruction accomplished?
5. Explain how the Spanish empire was built primarily through private enterprise.
6. What were the three distinct periods that the history of the Spanish empire
spans?
7. What role did the Catholic Church play in Spanish Colonization efforts?
8. What was the “demographic catastrophe” that struck the American Indians?
What impact did it have on European colonization efforts?
9. What did Europeans gain from the Indians that proved more important than
gold?
10. What did the intermarriage of Spanish with North America reveal about the
Spanish colonial system and suggest about the Europeans who administered it?
11. Describe the cultures from which African slaves were taken and brought to
America.
12. How did the African slaves trade originate, and how did it evolve?
Terms:
Black Death
Prince Henry the Navigator
Amerigo Vespucci
Francisco Pizarro
Pueblo Indians
Mestizos
Chapter 1
Assignment #3
Textbook pgs 23-31
1. What commercial factors contributed to England’s decision to seek colonies in
the New World?
2. What arguments did Richard Hakluyt present in favor of England’s settleing
colonies?
3. How did Martin Luther’s doctrine of “faith alone” differ from john Calvin’s
doctrine of “predestination”?
4. How did the English Reformation differ from that of Luther and Calvin? Why did
it fail to satisfy the religious desires of many English people?
5. What did the Puritans wish to accomplish, and why did they clash with James I?
6. How did the English colonization of Ireland influence the way in which the
English colonized America?
7. Where did the French and Dutch establish colonies in North America, and how
did their efforts differ from those of the Spanish and the English?
8. How did nationalism inspire the English to get into the race for colonies?
9. Describe the colonization efforts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh.
10. How did James I settle the rivalry between London and Plymouth merchants
over the exploration of North America?
Terms:
John Cabot
Enclosures
Mercantilism
Huguenots
Separatists
Plantations
Chapter 2: Founding the Colonies
Assignment #1
* textbook: pg. 33 to mid-pg. 40.
Questions:
1. What were the goals and motivations behind English colonization of the
Chesapeake?
2. Why was the survival rate so low for the English settlers of early Virginia?
3. What was the headright system? How did this policy promote British
migration to the New World?
4. What was the nature of the early relationship between the Virginia colonists
and the local native Indian tribes? What happened in 1622 that changed that
relationship?
5. How did the introduction of tobacco to the Chesapeake region affect the
colony of Virginia?
6. Explain the system of indentureship. What was life like for indentured
servants?
7. Why did indentured servants become important to the early Virginia
economy and society?
8. How did the evolution of the Virginia colony between 1607 and 1625 reveal
the impact of New World conditions on aims and expectations?
9. Why was Maryland founded? How did it differ from the Virginia colony?
10. What problems plagued the Maryland colony?
11. What powers did a proprietor have?
12. What was the role of the "back-country" settlements in the early colonial
Chesapeake region?
13. Why were the back-country settlers such an annoyance to the colonial
government?
14. Why did Bacon's Rebellion occur in 1675-1676?
15. What impact did this Rebellion have on African slavery?
Terms:
* Jamestown, VA
* The "Starving Time"
* Virginia Company
* Lord De La Warr
* Captain John Smith
* Powhatan
* Pocahontas
* John Rolfe
* headright system
* House of Burgesses
* royal colony
* George Calvert
* proprietorship
* Maryland Toleration Act- 1649
* indentured servant
* Gov. William Berkeley
* Nathaniel Bacon
Assignment #2
* textbook: mid. pg. 40 - beginning-pg. 48
Questions:
1. What were the goals of the Separatists who settled in Plymouth in 1620?
2. How was the early "Plymouth Plantation" governed?
3. What was the Pilgrims' relationship with Native Americans? How did their
experiences differ from those of the Virginia settlers?
4. What were some of the religious beliefs of the early Puritans who settled in
New England? Why were they called Puritans?
5. What were the differences between Puritans and Pilgrims?
6. According to their leader, John Winthrop, what did the Puritans believe to be
their purpose in coming to America?
7. List some of the reasons for dissent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Trace
the evolution of increased political participation of the colony's male members.
8. What threats did Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson pose to the
Massachusetts Bay leadership?
9. What did the challenges to Puritan authority reveal about Puritan religious
and social beliefs?
10. What was the basis of economic wealth in the New England colonies?
11. How was agriculture and the economy in New England different from that
in the South?
12. What factors caused relations between the Native Americans and the
colonists in New England to result in the Pequot War?
13. What were the causes of King Philip's War? What were the long-term
affects of this war on Native Americans? on the New England colonists?
14. How was New England society different from that created in the
Chesapeake colonies?
Terms:
* English Reformation
* "The Great Migration"
* [1620-1633] Puritan
* Church of England [Anglican Church]
* Congregationalists
* Pilgrims [Separatists]
* the "elect"
* Mayflower Compact (1620)
* MA Bay Colony
* John Winthrop (pic)
* covenant
* New England town meetings
* Roger Williams
* Anne Hutchinson
* theocracy
* Pequot War
* King Philip's War
* flintlock musket
Assignment #3
* textbook: mid-pg. 48 - pg. 62
Questions:
1. How did the Stuart Restoration affect those English colonies already
established in America? How did it affect attitudes about founding more
settlements?
2. What sort of social order took root in the Carolinas? Why was it different
from that proposed under Carolina's Fundamental Constitution?
3. How did southern Carolina's close ties with the British island of Barbados
influence the development of the colony's society?
4. Why were the Carolinas one of the most unstable of all the English colonies
in America?
5. Why did the English resent the Dutch presence in America?
6. Why did power in New York remain widely dispersed? Who shared this
power?
7. Why were the Dutch unable to maintain a colony in New York? How were
the British able to acquire it?
8. List some of the major social and economic characteristics of the royal
colony of New York.
9. Identify the key beliefs and practices of the Quakers. Why can it be said that
they were the most anarchistic and democratic of all the Protestant sects?
10. What plans did William Penn have for the establishment of a new colony
from the land granted him by King Charles II?
11. How did the influence of the Quakers make Pennsylvania an unique colony?
Why was it called a "holy experiment?"
12. Why did social and political tensions eventually occur in the Pennsylvania
colony?
13. Why did British colonists in the Caribbean turn to African slavery as a
source of labor?
14. Why was it difficult to establish a stable society and culture in the Caribbean
colonies?
15. Why was Georgia founded? How was it different from the other British
colonies?
16. What were the colonization policies of James Oglethorpe and his fellow
trustees in Georgia? Why did the strict rules governing life in the colony ensure
the failure of Oglethorpe's vision?
17. Explain the relationship between Europeans and Native Americans in the
"middle grounds."
Terms:
* Stuart Restoration
* Peter Stuyvesant
* Dutch Reformed Church
* Quakers [Society of Friends]
* "Inner Light"
* Charters of Liberty [1701]
* William Penn
* Barbados
* John Locke
* Two Treatises on Government [1691]
Chapter 3 Society and Culture in Provincial
America
Assignment #1
* textbook: pps. 65-86;
Questions:
1. Describe the economy of the Chesapeake region, and explain why it developed
as it did.
2. How did the economy of South Carolina and Georgia differ from that of the
Chesapeake? How was it similar?
3. Explain the commercial economy that emerged in the northern colonies
alongside the agricultural one. What role did technology play in this?
4. What were the limitations of colonial technology? Just how self-sufficient were
American colonists?
5. What were the goals of a mercantilist economic policy?
6. What was the "Triangle Trade?" How was it a response to British mercantile
policies?
7. How were the Navigation Acts an example of Britain's mercantilist thinking?
How successful were they in achieving their goals?
8. Explain the growing preoccupation with consumption of material goods in the
British colonies and how this preoccupation was associated with social status.
9. How did the plantation system in the American South illustrate both the
differences between the colonial and English class systems and the way in which
colonial communities evolved in response to local conditions?
10. What were the characteristics of plantation slavery?
11. How was the plantation an economic unit? a social unit?
12. What was the cause of the Stono Rebellion?
Terms:
* Atlantic trading system
* indigo
* African "Rice Coast"
* mercantilism
* Dominion of New England
* Navigation Acts (1651, 1673, 1696)
* Stono Rebellion
Assignment #2
* textbook: pp. 86-91
Questions:
1. What were the characteristics of communities that emerged in Puritan New
England?
2. How was the family central to the Puritan community?
3. How did the experience of America affect the patriarchal family?
4. Why did people accuse someone of witchcraft?
5. Who were the typical accused? typical accusers?
6. Why did "witchcraft" seem to appear so suddenly in Salem, MA in 1692? Were
there any political / economic / cultural reasons?
7. How did the witchcraft hysteria of the 1680s and 1690s result from a "gap
between the expectations of a united community and the reality of a diverse and
divided one?"
Terms:
* Rev. Increase Mather
* Salem Witch Trials
* Rev. Cotton Mather
* Rev. George Burroughs
Assignment #3 * textbook: pg. 91 - pg. 97
Questions:
1. How was the Halfway Communion [Halfway Covenant] a move to address these
tensions?
2. What was the First "Great Awakening?" Who brought it about? What groups in
colonial society were most attracted to this religious movement?
3. Identify the differences between the "Old Lights" and the "New Lights."
4. What were the effects of the Great Awakening?
5. What was the Enlightenment? How did it differ from the Great Awakening?
6. What colonial colleges were in operation by 1763? Why was each founded, and
what subjects were studied in the mid-18c?
7. What evidence was there that the influence of the Enlightenment was spreading
in America?
8. Explain the working of the law in colonial America--the concepts on which it was
based, and the way it functioned.
9. What was the significance of the John Peter Zenger trial?
Terms:
* Halfway Covenant
* First Great Awakening
* John Wesley
* Methodism
* Jonathan Edwards
* George Whitefield
* The Enlightenment
* "dame" schools
* almanacs
* John Peter Zenger