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Ch 4 reading Qs

1. The cultural divide between the eastern colonies and the back country grew as more Scotch Irish and Germans settled. Germans were able to quickly establish their own communities that spoke only the German language. In contrast, the Scotch Irish were unable to quickly decide upon a patch of land as they continued to search further out west. Thus, they ended up increasingly isolated from the English communities. The colonists did not take kindly to the new immigrants because they refused to learn their language and to adapt to their Anglican society. They ended up thinking of the immigrants as merely stupid.

2. Although the urban centers had only five percent of the total population, they were the main centers for the exchange and preparation of imports and exports. Due to their constant contact with English society, they began to adopt the newest and most fashionable styles of housing. They also began to dress like the most prominent people in the English society. The new designs that were being made in every merchant’s home gave the American cities a brand new elegance.

3. The middle ground was a place between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi river where the Native Americans would trade with the Europeans for modern goods. The Natives wanted to maintain their voice during every commercial exchange, thus they were able to adopt common politics which made them able to play the English against the French. They also maintained enough warriors at their back to demand respect of any foreign merchants. Now what had once been merely a luxury was a necessity, for they came to depend on the metal tools of the Europeans due to the reason that they had forgotten the ways of their ancestors.

4. The Spanish tried to make a colony in North America, but alas, the Native Americans’ leader El Pope rebelled against them and chased them out. After this they lost much interest in the North and any expansions were careful and slow. The other two settlements that they had, California and St. Augustine, were only there to dissuade the French and the Russians from establishing their colonies closer to Central America. In the future, this would mean that the Native Americans were left with less land, which increased the amount of conflict that they would therefore have with the colonies. In the future United States, the culture in those Spanish areas would be more diversified.

5. The French noticed that they were on the losing side of the battle for North America, thus they decided to take control of the Mississippi Valley using fort Duquesne as a main fort. There, they managed to resist despite the fact that they were attacked by the English twice. These issues as well as other conflicts in North America and conflicts in Europe were the catalyst for England to declare war on France.

6. The Enlightenment managed to take many philosophies and restructure the ways in which people had thought of society. It gave Christianity a scientific view and portrayed that perfection in fact, could be achieved. This triggered people to search for knowledge, ideas, inventions, etc. in order to improve their lives as humans.

7. Through the Navigation Acts, the colonies managed to form a close bond with England. They gained more dependence on English products and England became more dependent on colonial products. The English had the most contact with the colonies during the time of the Seven Years War and this led them to consider the colonists as despicable people. The Americans bonded under this new English contact and this resulted in awareness of being part of a major empire. However, the English did not view the Americans as very English. After the Seven Years War, the Americans were forced to pay for the war which they had no desire of paying.

8. The Great Awakening was started with Jonathan Edward’s ideas which consisted of beliefs that people could not save themselves and they were completely dependent on God’s will and word. After Edwards, George Whitefield came along and he was able to captivate his audience while using merchandise in order to spread the word of expressive evangelism. This was the reason Princeton University was established and it gave people a sign to start standing up for themselves. The congregational churches in New England were ruined by this and the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists in the southern colonies were affected as well.

9. Colonial governors had the right to veto legislation, serve as military commanders, and also to dismiss judges. The governors desire for money blinded them and caused them to ignore the colonists without regarding their needs. The Assemblies were extremely pro-the-people, so they would place anyone who argued against the rights of people in jail. However, there were too many of them thus bribing was out of the question. The people that held more power were governors and despite the fact that it was the Assemblies that cast their votes for everything, the governor was still the one that had the final word.

10. At this point, the British experienced the most contact with the Americans and they regarded them “unorganized buffalos.” After aiding them with organizing their forces and forming hard-working ways, they left the Americans with a great debt to pay for the Seven Years War. The colonists took a rather long time to pay that debt, thus taxes were placed. On the other hand, the colonists had a prominent bound with Great Britain and it helped them comprehend that they were a part of a grand empire.

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Ch 2 & 3 reading Qs

1. The people who came to Virginia in Jamestown only cared about gold and did not care about making actual food. They were only used to short working shifts and they only used their spare time to dig gold instead of make food. They were troubled until John Smith came along and learned the Native American ways of producing food. When John Smith got wounded and had to go back to England he left them to starve during the harsh winter times and they were so desperate they even reserved to cannibalism. The Powhaten tribe fought with them until they were wiped out. The few who survived the struggle tried to leave and met up with De La Warr, who ruled with martial law. John Rofle comes and shows them how to cultivate tobacco. Fandyf established the House of Bourgeoisies which attracted more people. Due to the deaths amounted by the Virginia Company, the crown took the colony and made it royal.

2. The purpose behind Maryland’s foundation was simple: a haven for Catholics. Unlike the Massachusetts Bay which was a haven for protestants, Maryland had religious toleration since not everyone was Catholic. The Massachusetts Bay mostly consisted of a protestant population but since they needed merchants, they simply allowed them to remain there without taking any form of participation in the government. Religion wasn’t too important in the Chesapeake colonies and social states didn’t have much importance since most people did not come with their families or a social group. In the Massachusetts Bay there were entire communities which knew each other very well so there weren’t many opportunities for women of lower class, The Chesapeake colonies made money off of tobacco while the Massachusetts Bay only produced agriculture. When Massachusetts Bay, Maryland and Jamestown were founded they had high mortality rates yet as time went on Massachusetts Bay’s mortality rates lowered while the while the Chesapeake colonies mortality rates were still high.

3. The Puritans were strong believers of the Church of England yet they were disgusted with how corrupt it had become. Thus, they left to Massachusetts Bay in order to establish a strict religious society that could be seen as “the shining city upon a hill” .

4. The New England colonies had a patriarchal society due to their low mortality rates. They mixed church and state which showed that they had a strict religious society that allowed for closely knit communities.
This paved the way towards xenophobia since they wanted to keep religious purity. The Chesapeake had a high mortality rate and not many family units. They didn’t see religion as important as government was and they grew tobacco as a crop. The Middle Colonies had mostly Quaker rule which kept the government very cooperative with people and since they put more thought into their colonies they were able to establish a well structured government which allowed for an attempt at religious freedom. Pennsylvania only traded with other colonies, but not England.

5. Quakers rule in Pennsylvania had religious toleration towards other branches of Christianity, and they were not as strict with their discipline as other groups were. This freedom of movement let them establish a working government system and allowed them to form the first frame of government which included elective assembly, the capacity to veto bills, trial by jury, the abolishment of capital punishment, and the incorporation of Habeas Corpus.

6. After the civil wars in England, Catholics and Protstants were persecuted , thus many people migrated to the Americas bringing new ideas with them, and so on. England alternated between periods of war and peace causing people to migrate every time a war occurred. This allowed for an influx of new ideas every certain amount of time coming from England.

7. A covenant was established, so that the Puritans would obey the law. It allowed their leader to punish them individually so that not everyone would be punished because of the individual’s mistake. New Englanders experienced longevity which made tight communities, making them xenophobic. Overtime, the church and the state began to separate which allowed them to form the Body of Liberties that granted freedom to foreigners, women, servants, children, and animals. A new development was that they used juries to decide appeals and they produced universal baptism that included non converts.

8. There weren’t many family units in the Chesapeake colonies due to the fact that their ration of 5 men to 1 woman didn’t allow for this to happen., unlike New England colonies which had whole communities which consisted of families. Mortality rates in the Chesapeake colonies lowered but they were still higher than in the New England colonies. New England had a patriarchy, while the Chesapeake colonies had weak patriarchy. Finally, the Chesapeake colonies attained slaves before the New England colonies.

9. Mercantilism was seen as a way of gaining wealth which came directly from their colonies and the trade. England established the first Navigation Act which required goods to be shipped on English vessels and it stopped foreigners from trading between one English port and another. The colonist were angered by this interference, so England sent a naval fleet to enforce their cooperation. The Navigation Act had some specifications which included that the captain and three fourths of the crew had to be English, certain goods could only be shipped to England or other colonies and that other goods could be shipped to wherever they pleased. The Staple Act and the Plantation Duty Act allowed the English to rule the Atlantic Trade.

10. Virginia started using slaves but they inexperienced until 1680 when they had a racial caste system set. When the slaves were put to work, they were placed in groups and constantly guarded throughout their entire work day. Slavery required brute force to keep it running, yet some slaves were allowed skills and to become artisans. Slavery let them change their crops from tobacco to wheat which led to the establishment of cities within Virginia.

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ch 1 reading Qs

1. Native Americans in North America used kinship to define their place in society as well as non-lethal wars. However, when people did die, their plans for revenge were cyclical. They also had matrilineal and patrilinial leaders. The Agricultural Revolution affected central and South America and helped them become sedentary, thus forming government bureaucracies, hieroglyphic writing, and accurate solar calendars. Unfortunately, the Northern Indians were merely hunter-gatherer groups which kept them from forming a stable civilization.

2. The Portuguese were purchasing about a thousand slaves a year on the West African Coast. Often, the slaves worked on the sugar plantations of Madeira and the Canaries, which were Atlantic islands that were used for the European’s experimentation with unfree labor that would later on be enforced in the American colonies. About 10.7 million Africans were taken as slaves.

3. Quite a few changes occurred in Europe prior to exploration and colonization of the new world. In the 15th century, Europe became more prosperous, political authority was a bit more centralized, and of course the Renaissance gave literate people a more thorough vision in the arts and sciences. It encouraged a new way of thinking which involved more boldness and creativity, and wasn’t as narrow. As for political authority, it became centralized under a group of rulers called the New Monarchs. Prior to this, Small districts in Europe were controlled by feudal nobles. The final prerequisite to exploration was reliable technical knowledge. Mapping, the invention of printing from movable type by Johann Gutenberg, etc. enhanced the European’s knowledge and pushed them towards exploration.

4. England had just been through a civil war and there were too many powerful subjects, yet Henry the 8th married Catherine of Aragon who was a devoted catholic. This caused plenty of social conflict with the population due to the fact that the Protestant reformation was already taking shape. The king became dissatisfied with his wife since she was unable to bear him a son. However, Catholicism did not allow him to have a divorce, but he divorced her anyway and formed his own Church of England, seceding from Roman Catholicism. He had a child named Queen Elizabeth who was able to end the conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants. She was an avid ruler and she created an identity for the people of England: a good Englishman loves the queen, supports the church of England and hates Catholics. After uniting England they domesticated Ireland in order to practice before moving on to the New World.

5. The experiences of the French, Spanish, and English while colonizing the new world are tough to compare, due to the vast amount of differences they had. However, they all ended up stealing the land from the Native Americans, no matter how they treated them afterwards, and they were all exposed to the diseases of the Natives that they had never faced before and weren’t immune to them. Their relationships with the Native Americans were quite different. At first, the English were friendly. Early colonists relied on the Natives for trade and survival tips. However, as time passed by, the greed for land grew and it led to major disrespect towards the Natives and a lot of conflicts. The French, on the other hand, had more respect for the Natives and they figured out a polite way to trade fur, and so on. Spanish missionaries saw Native Americans as heathens to be converted to Christianity, and their soldiers viewed them as targets that were only suitable for killing or subjugation.

September 18