Cset Study Guide

CSET STUDY GUIDE

History & Social Science

PART II: UNITED STATES HISTORY

THE GRAND EXPERIMENT

-U.S. history is unique for at least two reasons:

for the first time in recorded history, a mass migration in which one group of people overwhelmed and eliminated another
for the first tie, a nation was founded on democratic principles, as a conscious attempt to put idealistic notions of governance into practice

-usual historical considerations: economic forces, discoveries and inventions, other social, political, and cultural developments and influences shaping the country

-themes of U.S. history:

migration/immigration
expanding democracy vs. contracting democracy
states rights vs. federalism
isolation vs. engagement
civil rights
labor rights

-1500-1800: 10 million immigrants to the Americas

Religious refuge
Owning land
Economic well-being

-American Irony: conditions that allowed newcomers to enjoy positive aspects of life came at a price for others

New World is a land of opportunity for Old World settlers at the struggle of other people

EXPLORATION [1492-1620]

-Columbus

Sailed from Spain and landed on a Caribbean island
Thought he landed in India
Discovery of North America sets in motion a series of most pivotal moments in human history:
Civilizations that were isolated were brought into the world stage
Old World meets New World
Ripple effects: move from initial period of contact, to conquest, to colonization

-European countries and their large trading companies began searching for a water route to Asia to maximize their trade advantage

Columbian Exchange: economic and cultural exchange
“ecological imperialism”
From Europe, to America, and back to Europe – wheat, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, etc.
New World experienced trauma: germs and pathogens
People in the Americas were so isolated, they had no acquired immunities
New World space emerged due to civilizations disappearing; Europeans spread into spaces left behind

-Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese sailing for Spain
First to circumnavigate the globe

-Sir Francis Drake

English sailor
Second to circumnavigate the world

-Only way to get from Europe to Asia by sailing west was to go around South America

Europeans didn’t know that…
Thought there might be a shorter route

-Jacques Cartier

Sent by French into modern-day Canada; looking for a Nortwest Oassage
Established friendly relations with the Amerindians

-Samuel de Champlain

Prominent French explorer
Mapped eastern coastline from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia
Explored the Great Lakes
Founded Montreal
Instrumental in establishing fur trade
Dominated French economic enterprises in the New World for many years

-Dutch East India Company

Sent Henry Hudson in search of Northwest Passage
found mouth of Hudson River and what is now New York harbor
Dutch Co. established the settlement of New Amsterdam on the site and began trading furs
English eventually took over and renamed it New York

-English

Exploring Atlantic coastline of North America
Claimed most of it
….except Florida
first settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts in 1620
Not official representative of England
Fleeing religious persecution from the English

JUSTIFICATIONS FOR EUROPEAN CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS

______Americas Europeans______

- Americas had no metal tools- Europeans did…

- Americas had no gunpowder- Europeans did…

- Americas had no written language- Europeans did…

- North Americans had not mastered - Europeans had

long-distance navigation

-American Indian Characteristics

Commonalities Among North American Indians
Lives were organized around religious ceremonies
Thought world was filled with spiritual power
Typically had social hierarchies
Most believed in a single creator
Europeans Versus Indians
Gender Relations:
Indians – women in most tribes participated in pre-marital sex without consequence; women had the right to divorce their partner; had important role
Europeans – women had no rights; no identity outside the home or without their husband
Property: Indians had no sense of ownership
Europeans focused on Three Things:
Religion – Europeans felt their religion was superior than the religion of the Indians
Land Use/Property – viewed Indians as lazy because they didn’t own private property
Gender Relations – sexual division of labor suggested to Europeans that the Indians were lazy and weren’t pulling their weight

…due to these factors, Europeans felt they were doing the Indians a favor by “civilizing” them

-Europeans took land from the Indians in several ways:

Claimed they didn’t have any rights to the land – but British tried to avoid conflict by trading and purchasing land
Armed conflicts between Indian and Anglo communities

THE CONQUISTADORES – those who conquer [1500’s]

-Spanish actively explored Central and South America over land and sea

Established colonies and looked for riches

-Balboa

One of the first Spanish explorers after Columbus
On an overland expedition across the Isthmus of Panama, he spied the Pacific Ocean in 1513

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA

______North America South America______

- no cities as large as those found in- had large cities

Mexico or Peru- had centralized, complicated governments

- political systems not as bureaucratic

as those found in South America

THE AZTEC EMPIRE

-Hernando Cortes (or Cortez)

First real conquistador
Conquered the Aztecs around 1521

-established an empire in central Mexico

-ruled from capital city Tenochtitlan

located in the middle of a lake
made it invulnerable to conquest

-culture:

multiple calendars
system of writing
economy heavily dependent on tribute from neighboring subject peoples

-worship of a supreme sun god was connected with human sacrifice

-ruler Mocteuzma saw Cortes’ arrival as a divine occurrence and made the mistake of allowing the Spanish into the city

THE INCA EMPIRE

-Francisco Pizarro

Was appointed governor of Peru by the Spanish crown, even though Spain did not control Peru
Peru was controlled by the Inca

-Inca

One of great Amerindian civilizations of pre-Columbian America
Extended from the equator to Chile, between the AndesMountains and the Pacific Ocean
Conquered all the peoples of the area
Introduced practice of terracing and irrigating the steep mountainsides
Built system of roads that enabled trade along the coast

-Pizarro’s Arrival

Inca were experiencing a smallpox epidemic and a civil war
With the help of tribes who had been under the Inca’s domination, Pizarro and less than 200 men were able to defeat the Incan army of 40,000 within 5 years and take possession of their treasures

THE MAYA EMPIRE

-widely dispersed

could not all be conquered at once

-empire seemed to have already splintered prior to the arrival of conquistadores

-built stepped pyramids, used multiple calendars, and had extensive astronomical knowledge

-understood concept of zero before Europeans

-civilization peaked several hundred years before the Spanish arrived

-no certain explanation as to why the empire declined

war among local groups seems to have been a factor

-Francisco Montejo managed to take the Mayan city that is now Merida in the Yucatan

-Last of Maya remained independent well into the 1800’s

EARLY SETTLEMENTS

-Colonial Era in North America lasted from 1500 until the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775

-Primarily a period of English settlement – founded mainly in 1640’s-1710’s

Polyglot Assortment of Settlements
Founded at different times
Different economic bases
Different social compositions
Different cultural values
Different ethnic/racial compositions
Different relations to metropolis

-Primary reasons for immigration included:

Search for economic opportunity
People usually settled in the south
Could be a reason why slavery became more established in the south despite being legal in all the colonies
Freedom of religious expression
People usually settled in northern colonies
Adventure

-British came in greater number that French or Spanish conquerors

British there to stay; French and Spanish there for trade
British colonists extremely dependent on mother country for protection and rebuilding the population

-Indentured Servants

Voluntarily gave up freedom to come to the New World
Term lasted 5-7 years
Women had difficult time – if they became pregnant, their term was increased to cover their pregnancy
Most didn’t live through their term of service

The South [Chesapeake]

-first permanent English settlement in America was Jamestown, Virginia – settled in 1607

-colonial settlers introduced tobacco to English

trading relationship was established

-slavery is the defining element

-slave pop. increases in 18th century due to immigration, importation of slaves, and natural reproduction

-heavily tied to Atlantic economy

-Virginia

Cultural epicenter of the South until well after American independence
Headright System [adopted in 1618]
Awards 50 acres of land per paid voyage to the New World
Thus a certain class of people is able to accumulate a huge amount of land
Leads to plantation system
House of Burgesses [1619]
Elected assembly
White, property-holding males
Sets precedent: the British Crown able to veto its laws
Virginia Co. eventually hands Jamestown over to the Crown
It is no longer profitable
Crown is not interested in ruling it so leaves Jamestown alone
Leads to great amount of autonomy for Jamestown
Local elites start to grow tobacco; VA becomes plantation-economy and comes to rely on imported African slave trade
by 1680, 10% of population is made up of slaves
1750: slaves make up 50% of VA’s population
Growth of slaves leads to racial anxiety
Leads to VA Slave Code of 1705
Imbeds principles of white supremacy into the law: slaves can be bought, sold, leased, etc.
VA transforms from a society that had slaves to a slave society

-Maryland – 1634 English king grants land to the Calvert family

Colony was to be established for Catholics
Could escape the religious persecution they endured in England since the Reformation
Lord Baltimore opened colony up to all people
Maryland Toleration Act of 1649: makes religious tolerance mandatory
Starts to move toward plantation-economy but maintains religious freedom
Did not want to intentionally install slavery as mode of economy: just happened due to decrease in indentured servants...decrease occurs due to:
Economy in England improved
Headright System prevents indentured servants from coming

…also, slavery was preferred to indentured servitude because:

slavery is more profitable
slaves are easily identifiable
slavery is hereditary: your slaves’ kids are also your slaves
term of slavery was one’s lifetime

-North Carolina

Established as a colony in 1663
Two attempts at settlement has failed prior to the establishment of Jamestown

-South Carolina

Part of the 1663 charter granted to North Carolina; two were not separated until 1729
Unstable society
Whites conscious of the fact that blacks were the majority of the population
Very afraid of slave uprisings
Slavery most influential factor in shaping politics, social reforms, etc.

-Georgia

Founded in 1733 as a buffer against the Spanish in Florida
Last of original 13 colonies to be established

-Farms in the South

Largest and most prosperous in the colonies
Fortunes made from work of African slaves and indentured servants
First brought to Virginia in 1619 to work on the tobacco plantations when the settlers’ attempt to use the Amerindians as slaves was unsuccessful

The North [New England] – founded in 1620’s

-slavery rare in New England

children were main source of labor for Puritan communities

-large distribution of wealth

-tied to Atlantic world with shipping

-least prosperous region in mainland

-Massachusetts

first settlers to arrive in Massachusetts were the Pilgrims
“hyper-Puritans”
Thought Church of England could not be saved – only thing to do was to separate themselves from the church and England itself
religious groups who had broken away from the Church of England
first moved to Holland to escape religious persecution
failed there, so group of them set sail in 1620
Mayflower Compact
First declaration of self-government in the New World
Laws would be written by people the Pilgrims chose
First experiment with a democratic-republic
Puritans
Protestants who believed British-Anglican church was corrupt
Believed in two groups of people:

1.Elect: those who God has predestined to go to Heaven

2.Damned: those who God has predestined to go to Hell

…nothing you can do about your destiny

people acted well no matter what – peer and community pressure
elected would not act badly, since it was a mark of the damned
Had the most influence on the government and social structure of the New England region
Arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1629
Governor John Winthrop wrote that they had a covenant with God to create the perfect society – a “city on a hill”

-Rhode Island

Made up of people who were exiled from Massachusetts for independent religious thought
A colony that accepted all who sought religious freedom
First government in America to recognize the separation of church and state

-New Hampshire

Made up of people who disagreed with religious intolerance of the Puritans in Massachusetts
Settled in 1638
Their Exeter Compact was modeled after the Mayflower Compact

-Connecticut

1639: drew up a constitution – the Fundamental Orders – for a ConnecticutCommonwealth
Said to be the first constitution that recognized no authority other than its own
Governed for the commonwealth fro over 100 years

Mid-Atlantic Colonies – colonized by Dutch in early 17th century

-religious toleration

-heavily tied to the Atlantic

immigration
trade

-not all settlers were English…

-1638: delegation from Sweden landed at Delaware Bay and established a Swedish colony

More ships arrived from Sweden; farms developed
Swedish rule lasted less than 20 years
Delaware became part of the land granted to William Penn in 1681

-William Penn

Was a Quaker – different kind of English religious dissenter
Granted substantial land in North America – became Pennsylvania
Set up a constitution that guaranteed rights and freedoms to all religions, and women
Pennsylvania was perhaps the first true Enlightenment-inspired governmental entity; also first state to abolish slavery beginning in 1780

Caribbean Colonies

-quite different from the mainland

-slave majority – approximately 90% slaves

-slaves literally worked to death; more profitable to produce sugar and buy more slaves

-frequent slave uprisings

due to the violence, not many people wanted to live in this region
most landowners are absentee landowners – they live in Britain

Miscellaneous Things to Know – Colonial America

-1657: Parliament passes Navigation Act

Any goods coming out of British colonies must be on a British ship and first taken to a British port

-Glorious Revolution (1680’s-1690’s)

Intense turmoil in England
Long-standing struggle between the Crown and Parliament
Results in Britain:
William and Mary installed as monarchs by Parliament
Establishes parliamentary control over British law; parliamentary law is supreme
Troublesome for the colonies: Parliament begins to look at the colonies and regulate internal life
EXAMPLE: Parliament combines Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies into one; under control of the governor who is elected by Parliament

-by 1750, there is not one system of slavery, there are three:

tobacco-based plantations – Chesapeake
rice-based plantations – Carolina & Georgia
non-plantation slavery – Middle Colonies & New England

-Albany Congress

3 Groups/Motivations

Indian Negotiations: interested in getting their land back or money; political alliance to be renegotiated to be more positive for the Indians
London officials/Imperial diplomats: recreate alliance with the Iroquois to establish them as subjects of the crown
Colonial Officials: largest group at the meeting; New York wants to protect its role as the chief negotiator with the Indians and other colonies want to replace them
Results
Indian claims barely satisfied; got paid for lost land but didn’t get fair prices
Colonial officials don’t achieve their goals
Imperial Officials the closest winners – Indian diplomacy taken away from the individual colonies; will hopefully prevent a crisis
Two Superintendents of Indian Affairs Created
New York – will deal with sorthern Indians
South Carolina – will deal with southern Indians
Albany Plan
Establishes Intercolonial Grand Council
Levy taxes on the colonists
Create Indian policies
Represent the colonies to the British Parliament
Approved in the congress, but colonies wont pass it; Parliament doesn’t like it
no one felt they were getting enough power; Parliament felt it was an infringement on their authority
colonies used to certain amount of autonomy

…neither side is interested in a compromise

Ultimate Significance
Decreased the power of the Crown and Parliament

-Planter Class: largest system in 1750; had to own 30+ slaves

very small percentage of the white population
owned majority of slave population
dominate economics, politics, and wealth
slaves in Chesapeake come into constant contacts with whites

-Mercantilism

Mother country export finished goods to the colonies and import raw materials from the colonies
Leads to balanced trade
Strong sense that colony is playing secondary role to mother country/serving the mother country

-Atlantic Slave Trade

1700-1775: Slaves make up 50% of people who came to British North America

-Triangular Trade

Slaves move from Africa, to Europe, to the New World
Finished products from Old World, to Africa and the New World
Raw materials: from New World to Old World

-Middle Passage

Voyage for slaves across the Atlantic
Incomprehensibly inhumane
High mortality rates due to starvation and epidemics
Few rebellions
Called Middle Passage because the voyage had three components:
Interior of Africa to the port
Travel across the Atlantic – MIDDLE
From slave market to final destination

-How British Colonists Interpreted Their Identity