AP Classroom Unit 2 and 1
The White and Black populations in New England shown in the table most directly suggest the
minimal use of enslaved labor in New England compared to other regions
English colonists in North America in the 1600s and 1700s most typically sought which of the following?
Opportunities to improve their living conditions
How were European economic systems in the American colonies in the 1500s and 1600s different from existing economic systems in Europe?
Spanish colonists used enslaved Africans to work on plantations.
In which of the following ways did the Spanish impose racial hierarchies in the regions of the Americas that they controlled during the 1500s and 1600s?
The Spanish created a caste system that incorporated people of European, Native American, and African descent.
The change in White and Black populations in the various regions shown in the table most strongly suggests the influence of which of the following?
The demand in Europe for commodities such as tobacco and sugar
What was a major difference between the Spanish encomienda system and the Spanish caste system in the Americas?
The encomienda system was based on using Native Americans for forced labor, while the caste system was based on a diverse and racially mixed population.
The efforts of Spanish colonists to convert Native Americans to Christianity were most directly influenced by which of the following simultaneous developments?
The extraction of gold and other wealth from the land in the Americas
The trend from 1660 to 1710 depicted in the table most strongly indicates which of the following?
The rise of the trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans
"In Carolina, the instances of Negroes murdering . . . their own masters or overseers are not rare . . . . [Runaways] escape by water, past Frederica [in Georgia] to St. Augustine [in Florida], where they receive freedom, be it war or peace [with Spain]. Many just run into the woods, get along miserably, [or] are secretly looked after by other Negroes. . . . "Those Negroes who have served the [colony of Georgia] well are bought and freed by the government, receive their own land, and enjoy the English rights. If a private party wants to release a Negro he must have the consent of the governor or get him out of the colony. For the free Negroes abuse their freedom, and it is feared they seduce others [to freedom]. . . . ". . . Mixings or marriages [between Black and White colonists] are not allowed by the laws; but . . . I have learned of 2 white women, one French and one German, who have secretly been with Negroes and have borne black children. . . . And all too common [are] white men . . . [who with Negro women] father half-black children. [The children] are perpetual slaves just like their mothers." Johann Martin Bolzius, German minister, report to a correspondent in Europe on life in Georgia and the Carolinas, 1751 The experience of enslaved people in the southern British colonies as described in the excerpt was similar to the experience of enslaved people in the northern British colonies because
many enslaved people in both regions developed strategies to resist slavery
"In Carolina, the instances of Negroes murdering . . . their own masters or overseers are not rare . . . . [Runaways] escape by water, past Frederica [in Georgia] to St. Augustine [in Florida], where they receive freedom, be it war or peace [with Spain]. Many just run into the woods, get along miserably, [or] are secretly looked after by other Negroes. . . . "Those Negroes who have served the [colony of Georgia] well are bought and freed by the government, receive their own land, and enjoy the English rights. If a private party wants to release a Negro he must have the consent of the governor or get him out of the colony. For the free Negroes abuse their freedom, and it is feared they seduce others [to freedom]. . . . ". . . Mixings or marriages [between Black and White colonists] are not allowed by the laws; but . . . I have learned of 2 white women, one French and one German, who have secretly been with Negroes and have borne black children. . . . And all too common [are] white men . . . [who with Negro women] father half-black children. [The children] are perpetual slaves just like their mothers." Johann Martin Bolzius, German minister, report to a correspondent in Europe on life in Georgia and the Carolinas, 1751 The reaction to the situation described in the third paragraph represented a continuity with which of the following earlier colonial developments?
A strict racial system was established that separated enslaved people from European colonists.
"On the western side of the ocean, movements of people and ideas . . . preceded the Atlantic connection. Great empires—in the Valley of Mexico, on the Mississippi River . . . —had collapsed or declined in the centuries before 1492. . . . As Columbus embarked on his first transatlantic voyage, the Mexica, or Aztecs, were consolidating their position [in Mexico]; their city was a center of both trade and military might. Tenochtitlán [the Aztec capital] . . . held 200,000 people, a population greater than in the largest city in contemporary Europe. ". . . The Mississippian culture spread east and west from its center, the city of Cahokia, on the Mississippi River near the site of modern St. Louis. It was a successor to earlier cultures, evidence of which can be seen in the great ceremonial mounds they built. Cahokia declined and was ultimately abandoned completely in the later thirteenth century. . . . Throughout the Southeast, smaller mound-building centers continued." Karen Ordahl Kupperman, historian, The Atlantic in World History, 2012 Which of the following most directly contributed to the advanced development of both pre-Columbian American societies described in the excerpt?
Adaptation to and use of the natural environment for their own benefit
"The New England settlers more closely resembled the non-migrating English population than they did other English colonists in the New World. . . . While the composition of the emigrant populations in the Chesapeake and the Caribbean hindered the successful transfer of familiar patterns of social relationships, the character of the New England colonial population ensured it. The prospect of colonizing distant lands stirred the imaginations of young people all over England but most of these young adults made their way to the tobacco and sugar plantations of the South. Nearly half of a sample of Virginia residents in 1625 were between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine, and groups of emigrants to the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century consistently included a majority of people in their twenties. In contrast, only a quarter of the New England settlers belonged to this age group. "Similarly, the sex ratio of the New England emigrant group resembled that of England's population. If women were . . . scarce in the Chesapeake . . . they were comparatively abundant in the northern colonies. In the second decade of Virginia's settlement, there were four or five men for each woman; by the end of the century, there were still about three men for every two women. Among the emigrants [in New England], however, nearly half were women and girls. Such a high proportion of females in the population assured the young men of New England greater success than their southern counterparts in finding spouses." Virginia DeJohn Anderson, historian, "Migrants and Motives: Religion and the Settlement of New England, 1630-1640," published in 1985 Which of the following best describes an overall argument of the excerpt?
By the end of the seventeenth century, the population makeup of the British colonies resembled the population makeup of England.
"The second chief and principal end [of colonization] . . . consists in the [sale] of the mass of our clothes and other commodities of England, and in receiving back of the needful commodities that we now receive from all other places of the world. . . . This one thing is to be done, without which it were in vain to go about this; and that is the matter of planting [colonies] and fortification. . . . We are to plant upon the mouths of the great navigable rivers which are there [in America], by strong order of fortification, and there to plant our colonies. . . . And these fortifications shall keep the [native] people of [America] in obedience and good order. . . . ". . . Without this planting in due time, we shall never be able to have full knowledge of the language, manners, and customs of the people of those regions. . . . And although by other means we might attain to the knowledge thereof, yet being not there fortified and strongly seated, the French that swarm with [a] multitude of people, or other nations, might secretly fortify and settle themselves before us." Richard Hakluyt, English government official, A Discourse on Western Planting, 1584 Which of the following developments in the 1500s is best illustrated by the excerpt?
Europeans sought new sources of wealth in the Americas.
"The isolation of the [native peoples] of the Americas . . . from Old World germs prior to the last few hundred years was nearly absolute. Not only did very few people of any origin cross the great oceans, but those who did must have been healthy or they would have died on the way, taking their pathogens with them. . . . [Native Americans] were not without their own infections, of course. [But Native Americans] seem to have been without any experience with such Old World maladies as smallpox [and] measles. . . . "Indications of the susceptibility of [Native Americans] . . . to Old World infections appear almost immediately after the intrusion of the whites. In 1492, Columbus kidnapped a number of [Arawak Indians] to train as interpreters and to show to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Several of them seem to have died on the stormy voyage to Europe [in 1493]. . . . In 1495, Columbus . . . sent 550 [Arawak] slaves . . . off across the Atlantic. . . to be put to work in Spain. The majority of these soon were also dead. . . . ". . . What killed the Arawaks in 1493 and 1495? . . . Columbus certainly did not want to kill his interpreters, and slavers and slaveholders have no interest whatever in the outright slaughter of their property. . . . The most likely candidates for the role of exterminator of the first [Native Americans] in Europe were those that killed so many other Arawaks in the decades immediately following: Old World pathogens." Alfred W. Crosby, historian, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, published in 1986 Which of the following developments in the late 1400s and early 1500s is depicted in the excerpt?
Europeans undertook voyages across the Atlantic to the Americas in search of new sources of wealth.
"The isolation of the [native peoples] of the Americas . . . from Old World germs prior to the last few hundred years was nearly absolute. Not only did very few people of any origin cross the great oceans, but those who did must have been healthy or they would have died on the way, taking their pathogens with them. . . . [Native Americans] were not without their own infections, of course. [But Native Americans] seem to have been without any experience with such Old World maladies as smallpox [and] measles. . . . "Indications of the susceptibility of [Native Americans] . . . to Old World infections appear almost immediately after the intrusion of the whites. In 1492, Columbus kidnapped a number of [Arawak Indians] to train as interpreters and to show to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Several of them seem to have died on the stormy voyage to Europe [in 1493]. . . . In 1495, Columbus . . . sent 550 [Arawak] slaves . . . off across the Atlantic. . . to be put to work in Spain. The majority of these soon were also dead. . . . ". . . What killed the Arawaks in 1493 and 1495? . . . Columbus certainly did not want to kill his interpreters, and slavers and slaveholders have no interest whatever in the outright slaughter of their property. . . . The most likely candidates for the role of exterminator of the first [Native Americans] in Europe were those that killed so many other Arawaks in the decades immediately following: Old World pathogens." Alfred W. Crosby, historian, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, published in 1986 In the excerpt, Crosby makes which of the following claims about the transmission of Old World diseases to the Americas?
It was an unintended consequence of contact between the New World and the Old World.
Which of the following was the most important reason that Native American relations with English settlers differed from Native American relations with other groups of European settlers in the 1600s?
Larger numbers of English colonists settled on land taken from Native Americans.
"The next matter I shall recommend to you is the providing more effectively for the security of your frontiers against [American] Indians, who notwithstanding the many parties of Rangers [militia, or local men who volunteered for colonial defense] have . . . killed and carried off at least twenty of our outward inhabitants and Indian allies; I have attempted by several ways to oppose those [invasions] but after some trouble and expense have only experienced that our people are not ready for warlike undertakings. . . . The [condition of our Indian allies has] of late approved themselves to be ready and faithfully allied, and I am persuaded that setting them along our frontiers without all our inhabitants . . . would be a better and cheaper safeguard to the country than the old method of Rangers." Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood, addressing the members of the House of Burgesses, 1713 Which of the following groups would most likely oppose the ideas expressed in the excerpt?
Members of allied American Indian groups
"The second chief and principal end [of colonization] . . . consists in the [sale] of the mass of our clothes and other commodities of England, and in receiving back of the needful commodities that we now receive from all other places of the world. . . . This one thing is to be done, without which it were in vain to go about this; and that is the matter of planting [colonies] and fortification. . . . We are to plant upon the mouths of the great navigable rivers which are there [in America], by strong order of fortification, and there to plant our colonies. . . . And these fortifications shall keep the [native] people of [America] in obedience and good order. . . . ". . . Without this planting in due time, we shall never be able to have full knowledge of the language, manners, and customs of the people of those regions. . . . And although by other means we might attain to the knowledge thereof, yet being not there fortified and strongly seated, the French that swarm with [a] multitude of people, or other nations, might secretly fortify and settle themselves before us." Richard Hakluyt, English government official, A Discourse on Western Planting, 1584 Hakluyt's call for the English to learn about Native American "language, manners, and customs" best represents which of the following developments in the 1500s?
Native Americans and Europeans partnered for trade.
"The isolation of the [native peoples] of the Americas . . . from Old World germs prior to the last few hundred years was nearly absolute. Not only did very few people of any origin cross the great oceans, but those who did must have been healthy or they would have died on the way, taking their pathogens with them. . . . [Native Americans] were not without their own infections, of course. [But Native Americans] seem to have been without any experience with such Old World maladies as smallpox [and] measles. . . . "Indications of the susceptibility of [Native Americans] . . . to Old World infections appear almost immediately after the intrusion of the whites. In 1492, Columbus kidnapped a number of [Arawak Indians] to train as interpreters and to show to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Several of them seem to have died on the stormy voyage to Europe [in 1493]. . . . In 1495, Columbus . . . sent 550 [Arawak] slaves . . . off across the Atlantic. . . to be put to work in Spain. The majority of these soon were also dead. . . . ". . . What killed the Arawaks in 1493 and 1495? . . . Columbus certainly did not want to kill his interpreters, and slavers and slaveholders have no interest whatever in the outright slaughter of their property. . . . The most likely candidates for the role of exterminator of the first [Native Americans] in Europe were those that killed so many other Arawaks in the decades immediately following: Old World pathogens." Alfred W. Crosby, historian, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, published in 1986 Which of the following describes Crosby's overall argument in the excerpt about the reason for the change in Native American populations after 1492 ?
Native Americans had no immunity to new diseases introduced by Europeans.
"The isolation of the [native peoples] of the Americas . . . from Old World germs prior to the last few hundred years was nearly absolute. Not only did very few people of any origin cross the great oceans, but those who did must have been healthy or they would have died on the way, taking their pathogens with them. . . . [Native Americans] were not without their own infections, of course. [But Native Americans] seem to have been without any experience with such Old World maladies as smallpox [and] measles. . . . "Indications of the susceptibility of [Native Americans] . . . to Old World infections appear almost immediately after the intrusion of the whites. In 1492, Columbus kidnapped a number of [Arawak Indians] to train as interpreters and to show to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Several of them seem to have died on the stormy voyage to Europe [in 1493]. . . . In 1495, Columbus . . . sent 550 [Arawak] slaves . . . off across the Atlantic. . . to be put to work in Spain. The majority of these soon were also dead. . . . ". . . What killed the Arawaks in 1493 and 1495? . . . Columbus certainly did not want to kill his interpreters, and slavers and slaveholders have no interest whatever in the outright slaughter of their property. . . . The most likely candidates for the role of exterminator of the first [Native Americans] in Europe were those that killed so many other Arawaks in the decades immediately following: Old World pathogens." Alfred W. Crosby, historian, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, published in 1986 Which of the following best describes evidence used by Crosby to support his argument about the change in Native American populations after 1492 ?
Native Americans who were taken to Europe as slaves experienced high mortality rates.
"In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as [a traveling] preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all [members of different religious groups] that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation to me . . . to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him. . . . It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. "And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to its [harsh conditions], the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed . . . and the work [of erecting the building] was carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia." Benjamin Franklin, from his autobiography, describing events in 1739 Which of the following developments most directly contributed to the events described in the excerpt?
Protestant evangelism came to the colonies from Great Britain and Europe.
"In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as [a traveling] preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all [members of different religious groups] that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation to me . . . to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him. . . . It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. "And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to its [harsh conditions], the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed . . . and the work [of erecting the building] was carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia." Benjamin Franklin, from his autobiography, describing events in 1739 Which of the following most directly contributed to the decision in Philadelphia referenced in the excerpt to build a specific meeting house for the new preachers?
Religious pluralism was more accepted in the middle colonies and particularly in the colony of Pennsylvania than elsewhere.
"In Carolina, the instances of Negroes murdering . . . their own masters or overseers are not rare . . . . [Runaways] escape by water, past Frederica [in Georgia] to St. Augustine [in Florida], where they receive freedom, be it war or peace [with Spain]. Many just run into the woods, get along miserably, [or] are secretly looked after by other Negroes. . . . "Those Negroes who have served the [colony of Georgia] well are bought and freed by the government, receive their own land, and enjoy the English rights. If a private party wants to release a Negro he must have the consent of the governor or get him out of the colony. For the free Negroes abuse their freedom, and it is feared they seduce others [to freedom]. . . . ". . . Mixings or marriages [between Black and White colonists] are not allowed by the laws; but . . . I have learned of 2 white women, one French and one German, who have secretly been with Negroes and have borne black children. . . . And all too common [are] white men . . . [who with Negro women] father half-black children. [The children] are perpetual slaves just like their mothers." Johann Martin Bolzius, German minister, report to a correspondent in Europe on life in Georgia and the Carolinas, 1751 Which of the following represented a change in the labor force of the southern British colonies by the 1700s as depicted in the excerpt?
Slavery became more widespread than indentured servitude.
"The next matter I shall recommend to you is the providing more effectively for the security of your frontiers against [American] Indians, who notwithstanding the many parties of Rangers [militia, or local men who volunteered for colonial defense] have . . . killed and carried off at least twenty of our outward inhabitants and Indian allies; I have attempted by several ways to oppose those [invasions] but after some trouble and expense have only experienced that our people are not ready for warlike undertakings. . . . The [condition of our Indian allies has] of late approved themselves to be ready and faithfully allied, and I am persuaded that setting them along our frontiers without all our inhabitants . . . would be a better and cheaper safeguard to the country than the old method of Rangers." Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood, addressing the members of the House of Burgesses, 1713 Which of the following best describes a purpose of the excerpt?
The Virginia governor is seeking support from the colonial legislature for his plan to address conflict between settlers and American Indians in frontier areas.
"I . . . write an account to Your Majesty as the first [person] to come among these natives. . . . "These Indian people of New Spain [Mexico] are vassals of Your Majesty. . . . I dare plead with you for a remedy because, for their people to be saved, they are in great need of relief in order to devote themselves at least somewhat to matters of Faith. After all, it is the struggle for their salvation that justifies their discovery. . . . "I firmly believe that if the decrees Your Majesty sent here for their benefit were implemented, and if the governors and judges did more than pretend to do so, great good would have come to these people. Even more firmly I believe that Your Majesty's intention is that they be saved and that they know God. For this to happen, they must have some relief, so that with the moderate labor needed to meet their tribute obligation, they can still give themselves wholeheartedly to our teachings. . . . Otherwise, God will have good reason to complain, for Spaniards came to this land and have taken their property for their own benefit, and Your Majesty has extracted great benefit from them, too. . . . ". . . Your Majesty . . . should know that the Indians who are required to labor for a master in Mexico City in domestic service and bring firewood, fodder, and chickens leave their pueblo for a month at a time. . . . And the poor Indians often have to buy these things because they are not to be found in their pueblos. . . . Take pity on them and consider what is happening to the poor Indian woman who is in her house with no one to support her and her children, for her husband is hard pressed to meet his tribute requirement. . . . ". . . I advise you that if Your Majesty does not establish that . . . [the Indians] be required to pay tribute only from what they have, within thirty years these parts will be as deserted as the [Caribbean] islands, and so many souls will be lost." Fray (Friar) Pedro de Gante, Spanish Catholic friar and missionary, letter to Emperor Charles V, king of Spain, 1552 Which of the following best describes an argument made by de Gante in the letter?
The Spanish should require less tribute after conquest to avoid Native American depopulation.
"I . . . write an account to Your Majesty as the first [person] to come among these natives. . . . "These Indian people of New Spain [Mexico] are vassals of Your Majesty. . . . I dare plead with you for a remedy because, for their people to be saved, they are in great need of relief in order to devote themselves at least somewhat to matters of Faith. After all, it is the struggle for their salvation that justifies their discovery. . . . "I firmly believe that if the decrees Your Majesty sent here for their benefit were implemented, and if the governors and judges did more than pretend to do so, great good would have come to these people. Even more firmly I believe that Your Majesty's intention is that they be saved and that they know God. For this to happen, they must have some relief, so that with the moderate labor needed to meet their tribute obligation, they can still give themselves wholeheartedly to our teachings. . . . Otherwise, God will have good reason to complain, for Spaniards came to this land and have taken their property for their own benefit, and Your Majesty has extracted great benefit from them, too. . . . ". . . Your Majesty . . . should know that the Indians who are required to labor for a master in Mexico City in domestic service and bring firewood, fodder, and chickens leave their pueblo for a month at a time. . . . And the poor Indians often have to buy these things because they are not to be found in their pueblos. . . . Take pity on them and consider what is happening to the poor Indian woman who is in her house with no one to support her and her children, for her husband is hard pressed to meet his tribute requirement. . . . ". . . I advise you that if Your Majesty does not establish that . . . [the Indians] be required to pay tribute only from what they have, within thirty years these parts will be as deserted as the [Caribbean] islands, and so many souls will be lost." Fray (Friar) Pedro de Gante, Spanish Catholic friar and missionary, letter to Emperor Charles V, king of Spain, 1552 In the third paragraph of the excerpt, which of the following pieces of evidence does de Gante use to support his argument about the emperor of Spain's obligations to Native Americans?
The emperor has benefited from the riches acquired in the Americas.
"Similarly, the sex ratio of the New England emigrant group resembled that of England's population. If women were . . . scarce in the Chesapeake . . . they were comparatively abundant in the northern colonies. In the second decade of Virginia's settlement, there were four or five men for each woman; by the end of the century, there were still about three men for every two women. Among the emigrants [in New England], however, nearly half were women and girls. Such a high proportion of females in the population assured the young men of New England greater success than their southern counterparts in finding spouses." Virginia DeJohn Anderson, historian, "Migrants and Motives: Religion and the Settlement of New England, 1630-1640," published in 1985 The second paragraph of the excerpt makes which of the following claims about the populations of men and women in the colonies?
The populations of men and women in New England were roughly equal from the time of its founding.
"The New England settlers more closely resembled the non-migrating English population than they did other English colonists in the New World. . . . While the composition of the emigrant populations in the Chesapeake and the Caribbean hindered the successful transfer of familiar patterns of social relationships, the character of the New England colonial population ensured it. The prospect of colonizing distant lands stirred the imaginations of young people all over England but most of these young adults made their way to the tobacco and sugar plantations of the South. Nearly half of a sample of Virginia residents in 1625 were between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine, and groups of emigrants to the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century consistently included a majority of people in their twenties. In contrast, only a quarter of the New England settlers belonged to this age group." Virginia DeJohn Anderson, historian, "Migrants and Motives: Religion and the Settlement of New England, 1630-1640," published in 1985 The first paragraph of the excerpt makes which of the following claims?
The settlers of New England varied in age more than emigrants to the Chesapeake did.
"On the western side of the ocean, movements of people and ideas . . . preceded the Atlantic connection. Great empires—in the Valley of Mexico, on the Mississippi River . . . —had collapsed or declined in the centuries before 1492. . . . As Columbus embarked on his first transatlantic voyage, the Mexica, or Aztecs, were consolidating their position [in Mexico]; their city was a center of both trade and military might. Tenochtitlán [the Aztec capital] . . . held 200,000 people, a population greater than in the largest city in contemporary Europe. ". . . The Mississippian culture spread east and west from its center, the city of Cahokia, on the Mississippi River near the site of modern St. Louis. It was a successor to earlier cultures, evidence of which can be seen in the great ceremonial mounds they built. Cahokia declined and was ultimately abandoned completely in the later thirteenth century. . . . Throughout the Southeast, smaller mound-building centers continued." Karen Ordahl Kupperman, historian, The Atlantic in World History, 2012 Which of the following best characterizes the Mississippian societies described in the excerpt?
They had mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies that favored the development of permanent villages.
"On the western side of the ocean, movements of people and ideas . . . preceded the Atlantic connection. Great empires—in the Valley of Mexico, on the Mississippi River . . . —had collapsed or declined in the centuries before 1492. . . . As Columbus embarked on his first transatlantic voyage, the Mexica, or Aztecs, were consolidating their position [in Mexico]; their city was a center of both trade and military might. Tenochtitlán [the Aztec capital] . . . held 200,000 people, a population greater than in the largest city in contemporary Europe. ". . . The Mississippian culture spread east and west from its center, the city of Cahokia, on the Mississippi River near the site of modern St. Louis. It was a successor to earlier cultures, evidence of which can be seen in the great ceremonial mounds they built. Cahokia declined and was ultimately abandoned completely in the later thirteenth century. . . . Throughout the Southeast, smaller mound-building centers continued." Karen Ordahl Kupperman, historian, The Atlantic in World History, 2012 Which of the following contributed most significantly to the population trend in pre-Columbian Mexico described in the excerpt?
Trade and settlement resulting from maize cultivation
"I . . . write an account to Your Majesty as the first [person] to come among these natives. . . . "These Indian people of New Spain [Mexico] are vassals of Your Majesty. . . . I dare plead with you for a remedy because, for their people to be saved, they are in great need of relief in order to devote themselves at least somewhat to matters of Faith. After all, it is the struggle for their salvation that justifies their discovery. . . . "I firmly believe that if the decrees Your Majesty sent here for their benefit were implemented, and if the governors and judges did more than pretend to do so, great good would have come to these people. Even more firmly I believe that Your Majesty's intention is that they be saved and that they know God. For this to happen, they must have some relief, so that with the moderate labor needed to meet their tribute obligation, they can still give themselves wholeheartedly to our teachings. . . . Otherwise, God will have good reason to complain, for Spaniards came to this land and have taken their property for their own benefit, and Your Majesty has extracted great benefit from them, too. . . . ". . . Your Majesty . . . should know that the Indians who are required to labor for a master in Mexico City in domestic service and bring firewood, fodder, and chickens leave their pueblo for a month at a time. . . . And the poor Indians often have to buy these things because they are not to be found in their pueblos. . . . Take pity on them and consider what is happening to the poor Indian woman who is in her house with no one to support her and her children, for her husband is hard pressed to meet his tribute requirement. . . . ". . . I advise you that if Your Majesty does not establish that . . . [the Indians] be required to pay tribute only from what they have, within thirty years these parts will be as deserted as the [Caribbean] islands, and so many souls will be lost." Fray (Friar) Pedro de Gante, Spanish Catholic friar and missionary, letter to Emperor Charles V, king of Spain, 1552 One piece of evidence that de Gante used in the excerpt to support his overall argument about the treatment of the people of Mexico is that Native Americans
did not have enough supplies to support their families
"The next matter I shall recommend to you is the providing more effectively for the security of your frontiers against [American] Indians, who notwithstanding the many parties of Rangers [militia, or local men who volunteered for colonial defense] have . . . killed and carried off at least twenty of our outward inhabitants and Indian allies; I have attempted by several ways to oppose those [invasions] but after some trouble and expense have only experienced that our people are not ready for warlike undertakings. . . . The [condition of our Indian allies has] of late approved themselves to be ready and faithfully allied, and I am persuaded that setting them along our frontiers without all our inhabitants . . . would be a better and cheaper safeguard to the country than the old method of Rangers." Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood, addressing the members of the House of Burgesses, 1713 The point of view expressed by the Virginia governor in the excerpt is that he
feels a responsibility to protect White frontier settlers from violent encounters with American Indians
"In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as [a traveling] preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all [members of different religious groups] that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation to me . . . to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him. . . . It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. "And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to its [harsh conditions], the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed . . . and the work [of erecting the building] was carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia." Benjamin Franklin, from his autobiography, describing events in 1739 The events of the First Great Awakening illustrated by the excerpt led to
new denominations attracting followers who were drawn to the dynamic sermons of the new preachers
