HIST 161B 1st Quiz

Four major wars were fought between the British, the French, and their respective allies in the period
from 1689-1763.  Which years mark the Seven Years' War (known in the North American theater as
"The French and Indian War"?

a.
1702-1713

b.
1743-1748

c.
1689-1697

d.
Duh. None of these are correct as none lasts for seven years.

e.
1754-1763

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Your answer is correct.
The four wars are:
King William’s War (1689-1697); 
Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713); 
King George’s War (1743-1748/aka War of the Austrian Succession); 
Seven Years’ War (1754-1763/aka “French and Indian War."
Conflict broke out in what is now western Pennsylvania in the spring and summer of 1754.  This war,
sometimes called the first true World War, was officially declared in 1756, hostilities ceased in North
America in 1760, but peace was not officially declared until 1763 ('63-'56= 7 years).
 

Question 2
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 Question text
Which of the following statements is correct?  Choose all the apply.

a.
In the areas of North America now known as eastern and northern Canada, the French maintained
formal imperial control until 1763, but much was in name only, as the real inhabitants of the land, the
many Native American groups, still retained effective control of inland resources, including land,
hunting territories, and major waterways.  The British asserted claims to land with Hudson's Bay
Colony (1670), trading rights in Newfoundland (since the early seventeenth century), and forays into
the Maritime provinces (what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, among others). But the best
they could hope for was French tolerance and Native forbearance; British outposts and trading
colonies, even in coastal Maine, remained small and hotly contested by the Native and French
alliance. 

b.
The Mid-Atlantic region was home to two great "cities" of the colonial period, Philadelphia and New
York, though neither had more than 30,000 people.  This region was characterized by great religious
and cultural diversity, partly due to fact that it had been colonized by people from Scotland, the
Netherlands, Sweden, Wales, England and Germany.  There were even some French Protestants,
known as the Huguenots, and many Quakers, an international religious sect that had begun in mid-
seventeenth-century England.  Economic development shifted from fur trading to farming by the
eighteenth century, and vast amounts of wheat and other crops were grown here and traded through
the port cities.  

c.
Many inhabitants of New England descended from Protestant religious radicals; the colonies quickly
pushed Native Americans to the margins, where they predominantly allied with the French to the
North and West.  The economy was characterized by fishing, lumbering, and agricultural crops
traded to the West Indies and the South.  There was a small population of people of African descent,
mostly concentrated in urban areas.

d.
The lower south included large rice-growing plantations that were run almost entirely  by African-
descended slaves; most European-descended people lived in the coastal cities and lived at their
plantations for only part of the year. The lower south maintained strong cultural and social ties with
the British Caribbean colonies of Jamaica, Barbados, and with which they shared common origins.
The enslaved here were predominantly non-Christian and many were African born unlike those in
other regions of the mainland.  Native Americans retained a powerful role in the deerskin trade and
in defense against Spanish Florida and French Louisiana, but there was also a large "Indian" slave
trade centered on Charleston and supplied by Native trading partners from the Cherokee, Choctaw
and Creek nations. 

e.
The upper south or Chesapeake region included a mix of large and small plantations, all
predominantly oriented towards tobacco production, though they would more and more produce
wheat.  The large plantations were farmed mainly by enslaved African-Americans, while the smaller
plantations and farms had a mixed workforce, mainly centered on the family with just a few or no
enslaved laborers per household.  The population had been heavily affected by the Great
Awakening, with the upcountry ("Piedmont") areas predominantly Baptist or Methodist, and the
coastal or "Tidewater" regions dominated by a planter elite that controlled the colonial assembly and
worshipped at the Anglican Church (Church of England). Once powerful Native American
confederacies were gone, and the population was divided between European- (60%) and African
descended (40%) people, with a strong White/Black color line marking out the free laborers from the
enslaved. 

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Your answer is correct.
All these answers are correct.

Question 3
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Although only a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Taylor begins his book with the story of
Robin, the kinsman of Major Molineux, as a way of dramatizing the remarkable role of mobs in
transforming colonial society and revealing the American Revolution as a civil war begotten in
tremendous violence and cruelty. 
Select one:
True

False
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See the Intro of Taylor's book.

Question 4
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True or false, Race-based slavery and racism softened class divisions among European-descended
colonists by encouraging White racial solidarity and dividing White and Black workers from each
other.
Select one:
True

False
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See Taylor pp. 20-22

Question 5
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After 1763, many colonies changed hands.  Please choose the correct transformations:

a.
French Acadia became Nova Scotia; La Florida (Spanish) became British Florida; Plymouth Colony
was joined to the Province of Massachusetts; Jamaica went from Spanish to British control.

b.
French Canadian and Mississippi River valley provinces became British; Louisiana went from French
to Spanish control; La Florida (Spanish) became British Florida; the British secured control of
Senegal on Africa's West Coast; the Spanish recovered the Philippines and Cuba. 

c.
The French obtained Quebec province and Acadia. The British assigned the area around Ft.
Duquesne to the colony of Virginia. The Spanish began extending their control into California
through series of missions.

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See the full scale of territorial realignments in Taylor on p. 47 and 48. 
Jamaica became an English colony in 1660; Acadia went from French to British control in 1713 at
the end of Queen Anne's War. Plymouth Colony merged with Massachusetts in 1691. The Spanish
did expand their colonization efforts into coastal California in the wake of war as a result of the post-
war Bourbon Reforms that reorganized their colonies in the wake of this disaster.

Question 6
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Since the seventeenth century, the British colonies had been allowed to form local assemblies as a
way of fulfilling the tasks of raising money and troops for North American conflicts, paying the
Governor and other officials, and imposing local ordinances.  This was more efficient than obtaining
direction from Parliament for every local need.  By 1700, Parliament and the Crown had transitioned
to the appointment of royal governors in all the colonies except those run by private proprietors (like
Pennsylvania), even those that had always elected their governors locally (like Massachusetts).  
Still, Royal governors remained relatively weak--caught between demands to implement crown
orders, and the resistance of colonial assemblymen to enact unpopular orders.  Usually one group of
elite families supported the governor (and were paid off with various plum posts and frontier lands),
and another coalition served as a traditional opposition party.  The arrival of the new governor often
caused these factions to swap places. Since the money to run the colonies came mostly from local
taxes imposed by the Assemblies, if local Assemblymen did not want it, it did not happen.  The only
other easy source of potential revenues for the crown was tariffs collected on certain "enumerated"
goods, like molasses, through special customs duties enacted by the British Parliament through
occasional "Navigation Acts," which had first been enacted in 1651 and were used only sporadically
and rarely upheld.  The Assemblymen could withhold the governor's salary if he displeased them.
Almost all politicians were wealthy, and had been elected by the wealthy, as Taylor notes: "Women,
children, slaves, indentured servants, free blacks, or white men without property were deemed
dependent on others." (p. 36) Personal economic independence was thought to be essential to free
and incorruptible exercise of the vote.  The colonial populations generally revered the King; when
they felt their government had harmed their interests, they would generally exercise their political
voice (since they could not vote) through mob protests or riots in the streets, attacking government
buildings or intimidating opponents.  These attempts to "nullify" bad laws were often called "regulator
riots," because common people "sought to regulate the law rather than destroy it." (p. 38)
TRUE or FALSE: Parliament thought these colonial governments, assemblies of wealthy elites,
elected by the few, were far too democratic?
Select one:
True

False
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Yes, most British people, especially a majority in Parliament, thought that American colonists had a
very low tax burden and little right or reason to complain.  See discussion Taylor, pp. 32-38.