US History
Environmental factors
Shelby Miyamoto-Kim
Raiden Sherk
Priyanka Desai
Aly Refaat
Kent Seeberger
Columbian Exchange Examination
ENV-1
Explain how the introduction of new plants, animals, and technologies altered the
natural environment of North America and affected interactions among various groups
in the colonial period.
●Introduction of new crops and farming techniques
●indentured servants and eventually slaves
●Old World domestic animals were brought to America
●Colonists used timber and sent it back to the Britain
●Guns came from Europe to both the Americas and Africa
●Exchange of diseases, nearly wiping out Native populations
ENV-2
Explain how the natural environment contributed to the development of distinct
regional group identities, institutions, and conflicts in the precontact period through the
independence period.
●Swamp-like conditions in the south encouraged the use of slaves
●Slaves were brought in from Africa as indentured servitude waned when England’s
economy improved
●Slaves were seen as being easier to control after Bacon’s Rebellion
●New England colonies were cooler and rockier, more town-centered
●Southern colonies grew cash crops like tobacco, leading to indentured
servitude
●Battle of Fallen Timbers: Northwestern Confederation surrenders
Ohio territory
ENV-3
Analyze the role of environmental factors in contributing to regional economic and
political identities in the 19th century and how they affected conflicts such as the
American Revolution and Civil War.
●Colonists used guerilla warfare to their advantage during the Revolutionary War
●North became industrial, South became agricultural
●North supplied weapons and had better supply lines
●Factories in the North became powered mostly by water/steam
●Both Southern and Northern politics were based off their economy
●Thomas Jefferson’s Common man – advocated yeoman farmers to fuel the economy
ENV-4
Analyze how the search for economic resources affected social and political
developments from the colonial period through Reconstruction.
●The North developed the factory system, and industry flourished, especially textiles
●The cotton boom, partially caused by Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, turned
the South into a hub of commercial agriculture
●Crops of tobacco and indigo were quickly replaced with cotton and this labor
intensive work kept the value of slaves high
●Constant need of new farmland pushed expansion further and further west
●The Gold Rush pushed people into the western states such as Colorado, California,
and South Dakota very quickly, which rapidly depleted resources around boom
towns
Cotton, Indigo, Sugar, and Tobacco plantations
ENV-5
Explain how and why debates about and policies concerning the use of natural
resources and the environment more generally have changed since the late 19th
century.
●Frontier closed and increased imperialism - “White Man’s Burden”
●Evolution into US as “police country” in Middle East - protect oil
●Conservation v. Preservation
●Progressive conservation reforms under Teddy Roosevelt
●Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy
●Dust Bowl and Great Depression
●Environmental problems in ‘60s and ‘70s - smog, pollution
●Led to Clean Air and Clean Water Act, Environmental Protection Agency
●OPEC oil embargo
●Reagan - cut funding for EPA - business over environment
Multiple Choice Practice
“For over a week we have been having troublesome times. The dust is something fierce. Sometimes it lets up enough
so we can see around; even the sun may shine for a little time, then we have a frenzied time of cleaning, anticipating the
comfort of a clean feeling once more. We keep the doors and windows all shut tight, with wet papers on the sills. The tiny
particles of dirt sift right through the walls. Two different times it has been an inch thick on my kitchen floor.”
Letter from a Dust Bowl Survivor, March 24, 1935
1.
The conditions described above were a result of which of the following?
A. Severe drought in the early 1930’s
B. The inappropriate use of farming techniques developed for different climates
C. A wave of intense wind storms sweeping across the nation
D. All of the Above
2. Who was most affected by the these dust storms?
A. Farmers who lost huge crops during this time
B. Consumers who saw heavy increases in food prices
C. Businesses who weren’t getting materials and food to sell
D. The government, which was forced to pay subsidies in order to keep farms going
3. What was the most common reaction to these dust storms?
A. The population staying put and waiting out the storms
B. Farmers leaving their farms to go west
C. People trying to plant crops that would keep the soil in place
D. Shifting agriculture to areas less affected by the dust