Social Studies
What was the Virginia Company?
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies (the Plymouth Company and the London Company) chartered by James I in 1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.
What powers were granted to the central government under the Articles of Confederation?
The authority to declare war, make treaties, determine the amount of troops and money each state should contribute to a war effort, settle disputes between states, admit new states to the union, and borrow money.
Sumerian culture gave rise to what important innovations?
The calendar, cuneiform writing, the plow, the potters wheel, and wheeled carts.
What was "John Smith's law" in Jamestown?
"He that will not work shall not eat."
What two factors contributed to the evolution of superficial traits such as skin color and hair texture in humans?
(1) Adapting to specific habitats in (2) genetic isolation from one another.
When was John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) sent to find a northern route to the Pacific by England?
1497
What was the Columbian Exchange?
A dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres.
What was an encomienda?
A legal system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor. Many natives were forced to do hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted.
What changes in culture allowed for the development of pottery?
A sedentary life style afforded by the development of villages after the last ice age.
What was the English Royal African Company?
A slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660.
When was the end of the last Ice Age?
About 10,000 B.C.E.
When did humans first migrate out of Africa?
About 100,000 B.C.
When and where did modern homo sapiens first appear in the fossil record?
About 200,000 B.C.E. in Africa.
When did Neanderthals become extinct?
About 30,000 B.C.
When did modern humans begin to populate Europe?
About 40,000 B.C.
When was the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) period?
About 40,000 B.C.E. to 10,000 B.C.
When did modern humans first migrate from the Middle East across Central Asia to China?
About 50,000 B.C.
When were the Battles of Lexington and Concord?
April 19 1775
How were the first African Americans brought to the New World?
As indentured servants.
How did the Inuit traditionally survive?
As maritime hunters - focusing on seal and walrus.
How did the Kwakiutl traditionally survive?
As salmon fishermen.
What events resulted in the Battles of Lexington and Concord?
British General Gage ordered his troops to arrest the leaders of the colonial resistance (including Samuel Adams and John Hancock) and destroy a reported weapons stockpile in Concord.
Who was George Grenville?
British Prime Minister who enacted the Stamp Act, an exclusive tax on the colonies in America, which provoked widespread opposition in Britain's American colonies and was later repealed. He also sent the British Navy to suppress American smuggling and enforce the Navigation Acts.
When did the Neolithic (new stone) movement become evident in the Middle East?
By 8,000 B.C.
How did Ferdinand and Isabella unite Spain as a Catholic country?
By defeating the last Muslim ruler in Iberia in Granada in early 1492.
What did the Boston Port Act do?
Close the Port of Boston until residents would agree to pay for the lost tea (from the Boston Tea Party).
What choice did Ferdinand and Isabella give Spanish Jews after they united Spain in 1492?
Convert to Catholicism or leave Spain.
How did the First Continental Congress decide to respond to the Intolerable Acts?
Denouncing the Intolerable Acts and boycotting British goods - as well as calling for the preparation of local militia companies should the British resort to military force.
What did the Quebec Act do?
Extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio River.
What Babylonian king conquered all of Mesopotamia?
Hammurabi
When and where was the first permanent European settlement in the present-day United States established?
In 1565 when the Spanish founded St. Augustine, Florida.
When was the London Company's charter revoked and why did this happen?
In 1624 it was made into a Royal Colony by King James, who wanted to take advantage of Virginia's tobacco profits.
When and why was the Stamp Act of 1765 repealed?
In 1766 in response to colonial resistance. Local protest groups, led by colonial merchants and landowners, created a loose coalition that extended from New England to Georgia. Protests and demonstrations initiated by the Sons of Liberty often turned violent and destructive. Very soon all stamp tax distributors were intimidated into resigning their commissions, and the tax was never effectively collected.
What were the Townshend Acts and when were they enacted?
In 1767 the Townshend Acts placed import taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.
When did the Second Continental Congress begin to meet?
May 1776
When and where did Sumerian culture first blossom?
Mesopotamia from about 3,500 to 3,000 B.C.E.
When and where are urban centers believed to have first develop in human culture?
Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium B.C.
What are native people who lived in the Mississippi River valley known as collectively?
Mound Builders
What was the main function of the Second Continental Congress?
Operating as the de facto government of the colonies.
What happened to political rights when Virginia became a royal colony?
Political rights were revoked.
What did the Administration of Justice Act do?
Provided that royal officers accused of crimes could be tried elsewhere other than the colonies.
What type of structures did the Anasazi life in after the abandoned their cliff dwellings?
Pueblos
When did the First Continental Congress meet?
September 1774
What native people lived in the southwest, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona are today?
The Anasazi (or cliff-dwellers).
What battle of the Revolutionary War was an early morale booster?
The Battle of Trenton, when General Washington launched a surprise attack on Christmas, 1776, and captured a large troop of Hessian soldiers with few colonial losses.
What was the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War?
The Battle of Yorktown (October 1781)
After what battles did France decide to join the American colonists in open hostility against Britain?
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777)
What restricted all transportation of goods to and from the American colonies to British ship and listed colonial products that could only be shipped to England?
The British Navigation Acts of 1660
What large native urban culture replaced Mississippian native cultures in the southeast?
The Cherokee
What laws were enacted by the British in response to the Boston Tea Party?
The Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)
What was the first representative assembly in the United States and when and where was it founded?
The House of Burgesses founded in 1619 in Virginia.
What did the First Continental Congress meet in response to?
The Intolerable Acts
What Native American tribe lives in the Arctic region?
The Inuit
What native peoples lived in the area from California to Alaska?
The Kwakiutl
Who controlled Maine before it became a state in 1820?
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
What acts made up the Intolerable Acts?
The Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, Boston Port Act, Quartering Act, and the Quebec Act.
What are the native peoples who lived in Florida known as?
The Seminoles
What were the first direct taxes imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies?
The Stamp Act of 1765.
What powers were denied to the central government under the Articles of Confederation:?
The power to levy taxes, raise troops, or regulate commerce.
What was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787?
The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory (Great Lakes area). The legislation established the precedent for new lands to be administered by the central government, albeit temporarily, rather than under the jurisdiction of the individually sovereign original states, and mandated the creation of new states from the region, once a population of 60,000 had been achieved within a particular territory. The law also prohibited slavery in the territory and included a 'Natural Rights' section which foreshadowed the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.
What were the main achievements of the Second Continental Congress?
The signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
What was the main result of the Battle of Yorktown?
The surrender of Cornwallis' army prompted the British government eventually to negotiate an end to the conflict.
How was Congress structured under the Articles of Confederation?
There was a unicameral Congress in which each state had one vote.
Why did the British ignore some violations of the Navigation Acts until 1763?
They were focused on fighting the French and Indian (Seven Year's) War.
Why did James Oglethorpe want to found Georgia?
To address problems of debtor's prisons.
Why was the House of Burgesses established?
To encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for its inhabitants.
Why were Harvard and Yale founded?
To ensure an adequate supply of ministers for the Puritan community.
What was the goal of the British Navigation Acts of 1660?
To force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the Netherlands, France and other European countries.
What was required to amend the Articles of Confederation?
Unanimous consent of all states.
When and how was New York founded?
When the British captured the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in 1664.
What did the Sugar Act of 1764 do?
placed import tariffs on sugar, coffee, wine, and other goods
The transition from Neolithic culture to a more advanced civilization involved what two things?
(1) a culture founded on settled agricultural communities and (2) the development of urban centers with literate hierarchies (whose members asserted control over matters such as irrigation, water control, religion, military power, and taxation).
When did Ferdinand Magellan discover the southern route to the Pacific (and India)?
1519
When did John Smith lead the Jamestown colony?
1608-1609
When was tobacco first exported from the Jamestown colony?
1612
What year was the Mayflower Compact signed?
1620
When was the Virginia Slave Code established?
1705
When was the French and Indian War?
1754-1763
When was Pontiac's Rebellion?
1763-1766
When was the Sugar Act enacted?
1764
When was the Quartering Act enacted?
1765
What year was the Boston Massacre?
1770
What year was the Boston Tea Party?
1773
When was the Northwest Ordinance enacted?
1787
By what percentage is the native population in the Americas believed to have declined by 1800?
70%
When did modern humans first populate India and Southeast Asia?
About 90,000 B.C.
What is considered the "cradle of humanity"?
Africa
What did the Quartering Act of 1773 do?
Allowed the new Massachusetts governor to quarter his troops more places, including unoccupied private homes.
Who was Pontiac?
An Ottawa leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-1766), an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian War.
Who is credited with the first code of laws?
Hammurabi (~1750 B.C.E.)
When and where was the first English settlement in the New World established?
In Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
Where did Executive Authority lie under the Articles of Confederation?
In a Committee of 13, with one member from each state.
Where was Mesopotamia?
In the 600 mile long plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, stretching from Anatolia to the Persian Gulf.
What did the Massachusetts Government Act do?
Increased the power of the Massachusetts Royal Governor at the expense of the elected legislature.
What was the most important impact of Thomas Paine's Common Sense?
It helped overcome the loyalty that many still felt toward England.
What came of the Plymouth Company?
It was abandoned after about 1 year and became inactive.
Which political philosopher argued that natural rights entail the rights of life, liberty and property; that to secure these rights people had to submit to governments; and that governments who abuse these rights may be justly overthrown?
John Locke
Who is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia?
John Rolfe
What was the Siege of Boston?
The Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 - March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within. After eleven months of siege, the American colonists, led by George Washington, forced the British to withdraw by sea.
What treaty ended the Revolutionary War?
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783.