APUSH – McNamara
Pertinent Questions & Study Guide
Unit 1: Chapters 4-6
A Breakdown of an Empire & the Greatest Revolution
The next three chapters detail the dramatic chain of events from Great Britain’s attempt to impose its new imperialism
on North America after a long period of salutary neglect to the philosophical underpinnings of the American Revolution
and its impact on many aspects and groups in society. This unit finishes with the forming of the new American
government under what was first a loose confederation of nations to a Constitution we recognize today.
Directions: Use this study guide as you read the chapters. Answer each question thoroughly with detail from the
chapter. This will become your outline notes and you will use these in class as we discuss the chapter. You may type or
write out the answers, and fill in additional information from our lectures.
Pertinent Questions
A Loosening of Ties (100-101)
1. How did the relationship between the King and Parliament change during the early 18th century? What role did
the prime minister play in this change?
2. How did British officials in the colonies carry out (or fail to carry out) their duties, and what was the effect of
their activities on the colonies?
3. How was England’s hold on the colonies weakened between 1700 and 1775?
4. What factors helped promote colonial divisions during this period?
5. What did the Albany Plan reveal about colonial unity in the mid 1700s?
The Struggle for the Continent (101-105)
6. What caused the Great War for the empire, and why is it called by that name?
7. How did the Great War for the empire become a “truly international conflict” and how did Britain carry out its
part in the struggle?
8. What role did the French and British colonies play in this war?
9. What were the terms of the Peace of Paris in 1763?
The New Imperialism (105-111)
10. What dilemma faced London policymakers at the end of the Great War for the Empire?
11. What initial policy changes occurred when George III ascended the throne, and what were the king’s motives for
these changes?
12. How were the policy changes reflected in the different acts passed under the Grenville administration? Deal
with the specific acts in this question and their objectives!
13. What was it about the post-1763 British policy that would cause the colonists in every section to see the
disadvantages rather than advantages of being part of the British Empire?
Stirrings of Revolt (111-119)
14. What was it about the Stamp Act that antagonized the American colonists so much?
15. What resolutions were proposed by colonists in response to the Stamp Act, and what was England’s response to
the American protests over the Stamp Act.
16. What role did Samuel Adams and his committees of correspondences play in the decade leading up to the
American Revolution?
17. What was the political outlook that gained a following in American and ultimately served to justify revolt?
18. Why was the Teac Act seen by so many Americans as a threat to themselves and their institutions?
19. How did the Coercive Acts and Quebec Act help to unite the colonies with Boston in opposition to Great Britain?
Cooperation and War (119-122)
20. What were the five major decisions made at the First Continental Congress and what was their significance?
The States United (126-141)
21. How did the pamphlet Common Sense address the problem of the aim of the war and what was its impact on
American colonies?
22. What were the philosophical roots of the Declaration of Independence, and what effect did the Declaration have
on the struggle?
23. Compare and contrast the British and American conduct of the war. How did each side propose to win, how
realistic was this assessment, and how did it influence the outcome of the war?
24. What were the provisions of the Treaty of Paris in 1783?
War and Society (141-148)
25. What elements in American remained loyal to the king, for what reasons, and why is theirs a “tragic story”?
26. What effect did the war have on African Americans? Native Americans?
27. How did the Revolution affect the way women thought about their status, and what changes resulted from this
new awareness?
28. What changes did the Revolution produce in the structure of the American economy?
29. What was it about the concept of a republican government that so appealed to Americans?
Creation of a New Government (149-168)
30. What were the successes and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
31. What did those who favored centralization see as the most serious problem of the Articles, and how would they
have changed them?
32. What were the two major points of view that divided the Constitutional convention? What plans did each side
propose to carry its view?
33. How were the differences between the “large-state” and the “small state” plans resolved? What other issues
divided the convention, and how were they resolved?
Primary Source Documents (Excerpts you should be familiar with. Some we will read in class!)
Common Sense
Declaration of Independence
Land Ordinance of 1785
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Articles of Confederation
Federalist Paper 10
Self-Test: True/False and Multiple Choice
1. By the 1750s most Americans felt little loyalty to the British crown.
2. The Paxton Boys and the regulator movement, like Bacon’s Rebellion, revealed that colonists in the west
believed they were not being treated fairly by colonists in the East.
3. After the Peace of Paris of 1763, England was inclined to let the policy of salutary neglect continue within her
colonies.
4. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and in the Declaratory Act it declared it would not tax the colonies in this
way again.
5. Among the basic principles held by Americans was the belief that people should be taxed by Great Britain only
with their own consent.
6. Women, especially southern woman, took no part in the protest and boycotts rising from the Coercive Acts.
7. At least one fifth and maybe as many as one third, of the American colonists were loyal to Britain during the
Revolution.
8. In the newly created states, the privileges that churches enjoyed in the colonial era were largely stripped away.
9. The system for surveying and selling western lands set up under the Ordinance of 1785 favored small farmers.
10. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 laid out the requirements for western territories to become states.
1. The local committees of correspondence organized by Samuel Adams
a. Promoted his bid to become governor of Massachusetts
b. Did not generate any enthusiasm within the colonies
c. Promised independent action in each colony to the support the British
d. Kept opposition to the British alive, through exchange of info and propaganda
e. Served as precursor to the U.S. Postal Service
2. The Declaration of Independent did all the following EXCEPT
a. Invoke the natural rights of humankind to justify revolt
b. Blame the colonists problems on British’s Parliament
c. Catalog the tyrannical actions of King George III
d. Argue that royal tyranny justified revolution
e. Say that all men are created equal
3. The Articles of Confederation actually
a. Confirmed the weak, decentralized system of government already in operation
b. Drew the states together into a strong government
c. Put the powers in the hands of the military
d. Put the power in the hands of the executive and his appointees.
4. In the 1750s, the relationship between the British Empire and the American colonies was
characterized by
a. most Americans believing that the benefits of the empire far outweigh the costs
b. the British strictly enforcing colonial trade regulations
c. most Americans objecting to their membership in the British Empire
d. the British constantly intervening in American affairs
e. most cities experiencing anti-British demonstrations
5. The French and Indian War had all of the following effects on the postwar world except
a. the war made the British very unhappy with colonial contributions to the war effort
b. the war convinced British authorities that they needed to give the colonists more control over
their own affairs
c. the war gave American soldiers a profound contempt for the attitudes and behavior of British
regulars
d. the war led to a gradual decline in the power of the Indians
e. the war caused a decline in the power of the Ohio Valley Indians
6. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 petitioned the king and the Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act because
a. the tax gave London merchants an unfair advantage in the colonial trade
b. the price of the stamps was more than the colonists could afford
c. it believed that only the colonial assemblies could place taxes on the colonies
d. the method of selling the stamps was unworkable
e. they believed that external taxes were intrinsically unfair
7. Americans of the 1770s based their opposition to the British on all of the following ideas except
a. government should be distributed among several elements of society, not concentrated in a single center
b. taxes should be levied on people only if they participated in the process
c. sovereignty should be indivisible, with only a single, ultimate authority in a country
d. people should resist the government if it oppressed them, and they had the right to overthrow the
government if necessary
e. a belief that people needed safeguards against abusive power
8. An important outcome of the Battle of Saratoga was
a. an alliance between America and France
b. charges of treason against Benedict Arnold
c. the withdrawal of Cornwallis’s forces from Virginia
d. growing disenchantment over American failures on the battlefield
e. the death of General Burgoyne
9. For most African-Americans, the American Revolution
a. provided no opportunity to run away to freedom
b. was an insignificant event
c. destroyed all support for ending slavery in the North
d. had limited but profound significance
e. resulted in a decrease in plantation slavery
10. For the Constitutional Convention to reach agreement on the power of the federal government to regulate
commerce, the members agreed that
A) a listing of individual rights would be added to the Constitution
B) trade with France and England would be banned
C) Congress would not be able to tax either exports or imports
D) the government would not be permitted to stop the slave trade for twenty years
E) the federal government would regulate foreign trade, but not interstate trade