1. The document contains multiple choice questions about European exploration and colonization in the Americas from the 15th-17th centuries, the establishment of the British colonies, slavery and the slave trade, and events leading up to the American Revolution. Key details covered include Portugal's role as the pioneer of European exploration, diseases devastating native populations, the expansion of the slave system and tobacco cultivation in Virginia, religious motivations for the Puritan settlement of Massachusetts, and the economic and political tensions between the colonies and Britain in the 17th-18th centuries.

1. 1.
Europe’s pioneer in the area of exploration was
A) Spain
B) Holland
C) Germany
D) Portugal
2. The greatest loss of life among the Indian population came
from
warfare with the European invaders
True
False
3. The expansionist impulse of European monarchs in the latter
fifteenth century was
A) temporarily subdued by the growth of Renaissance
culture.
B) motivated by a desire to bypass Muslim merchants in
trade with Asia and
Africa.

2. C) nourished by population decline and civil disorder.
D) entirely unsuccessful
4. In the latter half of the fifteenth century, Christopher
Columbus
A) reaped significant fame and riches from his four
voyages of exploration.
B) argued that Europeans could reach the Indies by sailing
west rather than east.
C) received financial backing from Prince Henry the
Navigator for a westward voyage.
D) overestimated the distance between Europe and Japan.
5. Spanish and Portuguese explorations of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries
A) helped soothe the Catholic-Protestant division within
Christianity.
B) prompted immediate competition from England and
France.
C) stimulated the growth of western European economies.
D shifted commercial power from Atlantic ports to those of
the Mediterranean.

3. 6. The population of the Americas dramatically declined
following the arrival of Europeans
primarily because of the
A) policy of systematic genocide employed by European
explorers toward Native
Americans.
B) loss of morale and sense of hopelessness that pervaded
Native American societies.
C) Lack of natural immunity among Native Americans to
European diseases.
D) enslavement and brutal treatment of Native Americans
by Europeans.
7. The massive flow of silver bullion from the Americas to
Europe in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries
A) delayed further exploration of America.
B) further advanced the European economies into
capitalism.
C) hampered capitalist modes of production.

4. D) increased prevailing wage rates in Europe.
8. The primary enterprise of the Portuguese in Brazil during the
late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries involved the
A) production of sugar.
B) conversion of the natives to Catholicism.
C) enslavement of indigenous laborers.
D) extraction of silver.
9. English colonizing ventures in the New World differed from
prior Spanish and Portuguese
efforts in that English attempts were
A) strictly coordinated and governed by the Crown.
B) Immediate and major successes.
C) privately organized and financed.
D) met with little or no native resistance.
10. A negative image of Native Americans among English
settlers

5. A) explained for them the easy conquest of the natives by
the Spanish.
B) resulted from their lack of information about indigenous
peoples of the Americas.
C) spurred their desire to civilize and convert the natives to
Christianity.
D) justified their claim that natives had disqualified
themselves as rightful owners of the land.
11. "By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1540s, the
indigenous Pueblo people were
using irrigation canals." "Indigenous people" refers to those
who
A) react against something unjust or unworthy.
B) live naturally in an area.
C) resist capture or control by others.
D) cleverly devise practical solutions.
12. The Virginia Company attracted new settlers to its colony
after 1609 by
A) offering them a share of the company's profits.

6. B) advertising the benefits of Virginia's healthy
environment and comfortable living conditions.
C) paying significantly higher wages than those prevailing
throughout Europe.
D) promising free land at the end of seven years labor for
the company.
13. The sustained economic salvation for the Virginia colony
proved to be the
A)mining of silver.
B) invention of the cotton gin.
C) cultivation of tobacco.
D)trade with the Powhatan Indians.
14. The primary cause for continuing conflicts between English
colonists and Native
Americans in Virginia was the
A) English murder of Nemattanew, a Powhatan war captain
and religious prophet.
B) organization of Chesapeake tribes by the proud and
talented leader Opechancanough.
C) refusal of Powhatan to allow his daughter Pocahontas to

7. marry planter John Rolfe.
D) steady encroachment by land-hungry settlers on Indian
territories.
15. Who were the largest class of laborers in British North
America before 1670?
A) indentured servants
B) black slaves
C) Russian immigrants
D) white slaves
16. Which word or phrase best describes the status of black
people in early Virginia?
A) set in stone
B) ambiguous
C) independent
D) completely subordinate
17. By about 1700, the British colonies had practically replaced
indentured servitude with

8. black slavery. What factor(s) caused this to happen?
A) The British could look to their established precedent of
slavery in the Caribbean as an
example.
B) The British had gained control of the slave trade in
Africa, and this caused the price
of slaves to go down.
C) Fewer indentured servants were willing to go to the
Chesapeake.
D) All of these are correct.
18. How did British racism affect the nature of slavery in their
colonies during the 1600s?
A) Laws were made, making penalties for blacks harsher
than those for whites.

9. B) Black women were never assigned to do anything except
the most routine house chores.
C) Laws in the early 1600s forced all blacks into slavery
for life, allowing only whites to be indentured servants.
D) British racism had really not developed at this time.
Racism only came about later, when slavery was well
established.
19. How can historians see that blacks' labor status evolved into
a lifetime term, rather than
just the 5-7 years of a typical indentured servant?
A) Legal punishments for blacks, but not whites, could
include life terms added to service.
B) Laws in Virginia and Maryland demonstrated that blacks
could be held for life.

10. C) Prices for blacks became more expensive than whites.
D) All of these are correct.
20. What was characteristic of most slaves' daily lives on
plantations from 1700-1750?
A) Most slaves worked in the homes of their masters.
B) Most slaves worked seven days a week, without rest
from dawn to dusk, and had other tasks at night to complete
before sleeping.
C) Most slaves lived on small tracts of land and worked
closely with their masters.
D) None of these are correct.
21. How would the British have described the race of a person
who was part white and part
black?

11. A) Anyone with black blood was automatically considered
black, and therefore inferior.
B) The child was always considered the same race as the
mother.
C) That person would be adopted into white society if his
or her skin color was light enough.
D) All of these are correct.
22. In contrast to Virginia, the colony of Massachusetts Bay
thrived almost from the
beginning because the early Puritan settlers
A) emigrated due to religious convictions rather than
predatory instincts.
B) were less educated and thus less easily dissatisfied.
C) arrived as young, single, and healthy males unburdened
by family commitments.
D) chose a location uninhabited by hostile Indians.

12. 23. The Puritans of England
A) shunned the notions of social reform and missionary
activity.
B) welcomed changes sparked by England's accelerating
commercial activity.
C) wished to rid the Church of England of all Catholic
beliefs and practices.
D) loyally supported the rule of King Charles I.
24. Which of the following traits of American culture might be
traced to the Puritans?
A) celebration of religious and cultural diversity.
B) belief in America's special mission in the world.
C) individual freedom of thought and action.
D) separation of church and state.
25. Like their southern counterparts, the Puritans of New
England failed to
A) build a sound economy.
B) create a tax-supported school system.

13. C) establish a successful government.
D) reach an accommodation with native Americans.
26. The distribution of land in the Puritan villages of
Massachusetts Bay
A) challenged existing differences in wealth and status.
B) depended partly upon a man's usefulness to the
community.
C) created socialistic and egalitarian communities.
D) followed the dictates of the colony's General Court.
27. Puritans decided to emigrate from England during the 1630s
because of
A)political repression.
B) public degeneracy.
C) economic depression.
D) religious persecution.
E) All of the above.
28. The Sugar Act (1764) placed a duty, or tax, on

14. A) imported French molasses
B) domestic refined sugar
C) British molasses.
D) Canadian rum.
29. Europe’s most fiercely Catholic society as the sixteenth
century began was Spain.
True
False
30. Which of the following statements about early Jamestown is
most correct?
A) It was a great success.
B) It was saved by the discovery of silver.
C) It was a deathtrap.
D) It was a profitable venture for the London Company.
31.

15. At first, men outnumbered women in Virginia and Maryland
True
False
32.
The policy of mercantilism entails all of the following except
that
A) colonies exist for the benefit of the mother country.
B) colonies should act as a source of raw materials for the
mother country.
C) colonies should act as markets for the mother country.
D)colonies should develop manufacturing to export
products to the mother country.
33.
The Navigation Acts were tremendously successful and
accomplished just what they were
designed to do

16. True
False
34. High literacy prevailed wherever slavery predominated.
True
False
35.
The Great Awakening of the 1740s refers to
A) a massive religious revival.
B) the beginning of colonial strains with Great Britain.
C) the British attempt to implement imperial controls.
D) the rapid spread of disease in America.

17. 36. What factor(s) had prevented the spread of Christianity
among slaves prior to the
Great Awakening?
A) Masters feared that Christianity would bring ideas of
freedom and equality to slaves.
B) Masters had prohibited slaves from converting to
Christianity.
C) Africans continued to practice their own native
religions.
D) All of these are correct.
37. Although the Great Awakening included elements of
equality, some factors pushed
blacks to organize their own churches. Which was not one of
those factors?
A) Black churchgoers wanted to continue some elements of
African worship, like

18. dancing, shouting, clapping and singing that some
denominations thought inappropriate.
B) Black members had to sit apart from white members in
church services.
C) Black men were never allowed to hold leadership roles
or become preachers in the
church.
D) White masters emphasized elements of Christianity
"appropriate" to slaves, like
obedience, and subservience.
38. Legally, in colonial America, women were considered equal
to men.
True
False
39. Which one of the following was NOT a major problem

19. facing the British at the end of
the French and Indian War?
A) French territorial holdings in North America
B) governing an enlarged colonial territory in North
America
C) Indian uprisings on the North American frontier
D) a large national debt
40. The Seven Year's War proved to be one of the bloodiest
wars fought in the New World.
True
False
41. George Grenville, who became chief minister in Parliament
in 1763,
A) was sympathetic toward American colonists.
B) was a close friend and favorite of George III.
C) was a devout mercantilist who insisted on strict
enforcement of the Navigation Acts.
D) wanted to renew the traditional colonial policy of
"salutary neglect."

20. 42. George Grenville's program to raise revenue proposed that
all imperial debts be paid
by the American colonists.
True
False
43. What was the primary purpose of the Proclamation of 1763?
A) to encourage rapid development of the Trans-
Appalachian West
B) to help England avoid having to pay for costly Indian
wars in the colonies
C) to promote the interests of private land companies in the
colonies
D) to punish the colonists for their lack of cooperation
during the French and Indian War
44. In 1763, the British Parliament made three pivotal policy
decisions regarding the North
American colonies. These included all the following EXCEPT
A) garrisoning British regular troops in the North

21. American frontier.
B) using British naval vessels to halt colonial smuggling
and enforce the collection of
customs duties.
C) halting the colonists incursion into the trans-
Appalachian West.
D) imposing direct taxes on the colonies to raise revenue to
reduce England's national
debt.
45. The Coercive Acts were implemented in response to the
Boston Massacre.
True
False
46. Parliamentary restrictions passed after the Boston Tea Party
were deemed "intolerable"
by Americans but justly "coercive" by most Englishmen.
True
False

22. 47. The Stamp Act was the last in a series of direct taxes on the
colonies.
True
False
48. When colonists protested the Stamp Tax with the cry "no
taxation without
representation," George Grenville argued that
A) each member of Parliament, regardless of his residence,
represented all colonists in
the empire.
B) the colonists were adequately represented in their own
colonial assemblies.
C) Parliament could tax the colonists even though they were
not represented in the
House of Commons.
D) colonists, through their agents in London, were
represented in Parliament.
49. Why did colonists oppose the Stamp Act?
A) It was an indirect or "hidden" tax.

23. B) It would hinder the highly profitable colonial trade with
the West Indies.
C) Its revenues were to be used to pay off England's own
national debt.
D) They did not think Parliament had the constitutional
authority to impose revenue taxes on them.
50. Economic difficulties in the 1760s and 1770s led craftsmen
in Philadelphia to band
together within their craft and their community.
True
False
51. Actual fighting in the American Revolution began when the:
A) British army landed in New York.
B) British army, sent to seize colonial arms, was
interrupted by colonists at Lexington.
C) British navy shelled the colonial port of Norfolk,
Virginia.
D) colonial army under Washington forced the British to
evacuate Boston.

24. 52. George Washington's early military setbacks convinced him
to:
A) seek a final attempt at reconciliation with the British.
B) seek an alliance with the Spanish in Mexico.
C) engage the British in frontal combat.
D) harass the British, making the war as costly for them as
possible.
53. Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense urged American
colonists to:
A) consider carefully the tremendous obstacles of war.
B) pursue every avenue of possible compromise.
C) declare their independence from a tyrannical king.
D) remain loyal to the mother country.
54. As the Revolutionary War lengthened and its costs
increased, which of the following
groups would have been LEAST likely to contribute soldiers for
the cause?
A) recently arrived immigrants

25. B) artisans and farmers
C) men of wealth and influence
D) former indentured servants
55. "Employing what today would be called guerrilla tactics,"
the American commander
harassed the British. Guerrilla tactics might be simply
described as those of:
A) defensive retreat.
B) hit and run.
C) tactics based on the habits of animals.
D) reliance on overwhelming force.
E) head-on confrontation.
56. "Britain's...mercenaries raised. . .fears particularly among
the women." Mercenaries
are soldiers:
A) having no mercy or pity.
B) lacking professional equipment or training.

26. C) who fight for the enemy.
D) hired for money from a foreign country.
57. Many American black slaves sought their freedom during
the Revolution by:
A) attempting to take lands from western Indians.
B) fleeing to the maritime provinces of Canada.
C) fighting with the Americans.
D) fighting with the British.
58. The agricultural areas of the colonies formed the vital core
of revolutionary agitation.
True
False
59. The peace treaty ending the war between Britain and
America was the
A) Treaty of London.
B) Treaty of Paris.

27. C) Treaty of Lisbon.
D) Versailles Treaty.
60. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) prohibited slavery in the
Northwest (Ohio) Territory.
True
False
61. With passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts it became
obvious that the Federalists
equated preservation of their own political power with national
security.
True
False
62. President George Washington thought the supposed threat of
the Whiskey Rebellion
to his government was greatly exaggerated and refused to
authorize a military force in
opposition.

28. True
False
63. Short-staple cotton was hardy, but it became a popular crop
only after
True
False
64.
The cotton gin resulted in
A) the death of slavery
B) no noticeable increase in slavery.
C) the rejuvenation of slavery.
D) the extension of slavery to the North.
65. The task system encouraged slaves to work together.
True
False

29. 66. Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored
A) promoting the revolutionary concepts of limited
government.
B) establishing stronger ties with England instead of
France.
C) the economic interests of merchants, bankers, and
businessmen.
D) expanding the power of the national government.
67. The “War Hawks” were northeastern Federalists who
opposed the War of 1812.
True
False
68.
James Madison was president of the United States during the

30. War of 1812.
True
False
69. The assimilationists cared deeply about the physical and
spiritual fate of the Native
Americans as well as preservation of their cultural
independence.
True
False
70. The doctrine of judicial review refers to the power of the
Supreme Court to judge the
True
False