History Exam 1 Review You should be familiar with the following aspects of each time period: (use

your book and the power-points!)

Pre-history before Columbus

What discovery enables societies to establish permanent settlements? Who were the Paleo Indians?
What was meso-america? Where did we find the Mound Builders? The Pueblo peoples? Who were the
Mayans and Aztecs? Was there evidence of trading between tribal groups? What was different about
most of the eastern woodlands Indians?

First Contact

Which kingdom eventually financed Columbus’s expedition? Where do we think he most likely landed
on the new world? What year was this first contact made? Why did Columbus sail westward anyway?
What was he trying to find? Why did he refer to the indigenous peoples as Indians? What are some
examples of the Columbian exchange? Which disease was most devastating to the native peoples?

Early Explorations and Colonization

How did Spain’s discovery of gold in the new world encourage more exploration? What role did the
Church play? Where did Raleigh attempt to establish the first colony in Virginia? Where was the first
permanent settlement made in Virginia? Where had the Dutch establish control? What was the main
motivation of the French in the New World? What role did the demand for sugar play? What was the
issue with native labor, and why was African slavery encouraged? For what purpose was the colony of
Georgia founded? Maryland? Who first colonized what became New York & New Jersey?

Competing Religious issues

What was the one “true” Church in Europe? What was the complementary relationship between the
Church and the various Kings/Monarchs of Europe? Who was Martin Luther and why did he create the
schism within the Catholic church? Why was the resulting Protestant reformation important? What
lesson did it teach subsequent generations? Why might this play an important role in America’s
founding? Who were the Puritans and why did they want to come to the New World? Who was Roger
Williams and what was his concern? Where did he eventually settle? Who were the Quakers? What is
the Great Awakening and what were some of the concerns that brought it about?

Economic Activity

What were the principal sources of revenue for the early colonies? How did plantation agriculture
develop in the South? If sugar was such an important commodity, how was it typically processed for the
long voyages back to Europe? Which European country first developed the slave trade? What is the
middle passage? What was the “triangle trade” and how was the new world impacted? What were the
roots of the African slave trade? What was Mercantilism? Why is it eventually a source of problems for
the colonists? Why did the British declare the Proclamation line of 1763? On the whole, what was the
economic situation in the American colonies? What role did headrights and indentured servitude play?
Growing Political Unrest

Which colony was the source of much of the early colonial agitation? Why do you think this might be so?
What event led to the demand that colonists pay taxes to England? Who were the Sons of Liberty? What
was the colonial response to the sugar tax? What other means did the colonists use to resist the British
demands for more taxes? How did they protest? How did the British respond? What led up to the
Boston tea party and what was the immediate result?

Independence and Revolution

What came of the first continental Congress and why was it called? What happened at the second
continental congress? Finally, what happened at what was the third continental congress in 1776? Who
authored the document that resulted from this decision? Who did we seek to ally with against Britain?
Who eventually came to our aid? What was the pamphlet “Common Sense”? Who wrote it? Why? What
was the result? Who were the Minutemen? Be familiar with the overall strategy of both sides, first in the
north, and then in the South. What was Lord Dunmore’s proclamation? Where did the British ultimately
surrender? What was their General? Where was the 1783 treaty that ended the war occur? What was
the immediate result for the new United States?