Questions and Themes for Unit One
By the end of this unit, through reading, homework, and class discussion we
will have covered these questions and topics. Copy and answer the following
questions on a separate paper. Turn in the day of the test.
1. What was the interaction of the European colonizing nations with Native
Americans? How did contacts among American Indians, Africans, and Europeans
challenge the worldviews of each group?
2. How did European settlers adapt to and transform their diverse environments?
3. How did the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in the 15th and 16th
centuries trigger extensive and demographic and social changes on both sides of the
Atlantic?
4. Compare and contrast the political, religious, and economic goals and
accomplishments of the Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonies. How did the
differences in imperial goals, cultures, and North American environments that the
European countries confronted lead the Europeans to develop diverse patterns of
colonization?
5. What were the goals of the Jamestown settlers and were they successful? What is the
connection between their goals and how their colony developed?
6. What were the motivations for the settlement of each of the Thirteen Colonies? How
did the original motivation affect the development of that colony?
7. What were the similarities and differences in the development of England’s New
England, Middle, and Southern colonies? What factors determined how each region
developed and why are these differences important in American history? What was
the importance of geography in the development of each region?
8. To what extent was there religious freedom in each of the Thirteen Colonies? What
was the relationship between religious toleration and political rights? What led to the
Salem witch trials?
9. In the economic history of each region, what was the role of indentured
servants? How did that change? What was the relationship between the use of
indentured servants and the growth of slavery?
10. How did the slave trade develop? How did the colonies interact through the
triangular trade? What impact did that trade have American history? Why did slavery
come to be concentrated in the South?
11. How did the increasing political, economic, and cultural exchanges within the
“Atlantic World” affect the development of colonial societies in North America?
12. How did economics affect political development in the English colonies? To what
extent did democracy develop in the English colonies?
13. What were women’s roles in the New World? How did these roles change?
14. What tensions were there between the eastern and western settlements in the
colonies? What impact will these differences have on American history?
15. Define and analyze England’s policies of mercantilism and salutary neglect. What
were the advantages and disadvantages to both England and the colonies of
mercantilism? How did these policies affect the development of the colonies
economically, politically, and culturally?
16. Which played a greater role in the development of the colonies: economics or
religion?
17. What was the Great Awakening? How did it change American society?
18. What was the impact of the Enlightenment on the colonies?
19. To what extent were the Thirteen Colonies connected economically, politically, and
culturally in this period?
20. What caused the conflicts between France and Great Britain in this period? Why and
how did the British win the French and Indian War? What was the role of the
colonists in the war? How did the interaction of the American colonists and British
soldiers in the war change their views of each other? What were the consequences of
the war
21. How did Britain’s victory over France in the imperial struggle for North America lead
to new conflicts among the British government, colonists, and American Indians,
culminating in the creation of the United States?
22. Explain the interrelationships regarding cause and effect for British laws and
American reactions.
23. Summarize the intellectual arguments put forth by colonial leaders to justify
revolution.
24. Connect the geographic and social differences in support for the Revolution.
25. Explain the different arguments from the American and British perspectives for what
caused the war.
26. Discuss the extent to which the Revolution was a radical or a conservative change.
27. Explain the development of a sense of unity among the colonists due to the
revolution.
28. Explain the advantages and disadvantages each side brought to the war; Analysis of
why the Americans won the Revolution; The strategy and tactics used to fight the
war.
29. Discuss the economic and social changes brought forth by the Revolution.
30. Summarize the roles of women in this period.
31. Explain the effect of the Revolution on slavery, Native Americans, and religion.
32. How migration within North America intensified conflicts among peoples and led to
contests over the creation of a multiethnic, multiracial national identity.