IBHOTA Chapter Questions

Chapter 1

How did Indian societies of South and North America differ from European societies at the time the two came into contact? In what ways did Indians retain a worldview different from that of the Europeans?
What role did disease and forced labor (including slavery) play in the early settlement of America? Is the view of the Spanish and Portuguese as especially harsh conquerors and exploiters valid—or is this image just another version of the English black legend concerning the Spanish role in the Americas?
Are the differences between Latin America and North America due primarily to the differences between the respective Indian societies that existed in the two places, or to the disparity between Spanish and English culture? What would have happened if the English had conquered densely settled Mexico and Peru, and the Spanish had settled more thinly populated North America?
Why was the Old World able to dominate the New World? What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Old World? What were the strengths and weaknesses of the New World?

Chapter 2

What did England and the English settlers really want from colonization? Did they want national glory, wealth, adventure, a solution to social tensions, and/or new sources of goods and trade? Did they get what they wanted?
Were the English colonizers crueler or more tolerant than the Spanish conquistadores? Why did the Spanish tend to settle and intermarry with the Indian population, whereas the English killed the Indians, drove them out, or confined them to separate territories? How did this pattern of interaction affect both white and Indian societies?
Was the development of enslaved Africans in the North American colonies inevitable? What role did the Spanish encomienda system and British sugar colonies play in introducing slavery to the southern colonies?
How did the reliance on plantation agriculture affect the southern colonies? Were their societies relatively loose because they were primarily rural or because they tended to rely on forced labor systems?

Chapter 3

Did the Puritans really come to America seeking religious freedom? How did they reconcile their own religious dissent from the Church of England with their persecution of dissenters like Hutchinson and Williams? Does their outlook make them hypocrites?
How were government and religion—or church and state—related in New England and the middle colonies? How does the colonial view of these matters compare with more recent understandings?
Was an American Revolution, separating the colonies from England, inevitable after the Glorious Revolution had encouraged colonists to end the Dominion of New England, England’s serious attempt at enforcing royal authority? Did England’s “salutary neglect” contribute to future problems in its empire? How might have England been able to successfully enforce its rule on the colonies without causing rebellion?
How does the founding of the New England colonies compare with the origin of the middle colonies? In what ways were New England and the middle colonies each like the South, and in what ways were they different?

Chapter 4

Why was family life in New England so different from family life in the South? Considering the extreme differences during the seventeenth century between New England and the southern colonies, was the Civil War inevitable?
Why did slavery grow to be such an important institution in colonial America? What were the effects of slavery on the Africans who were brought to the New World? What were the effects of the Africans on the New World?
What was attractive and unattractive about the closely knit New England way of life?
Were the Salem witch trials a peculiar, aberrant moment in an age of superstition, or did they reflect common human psychological and social anxieties that could appear in any age? How harshly should those who prosecuted the witches be condemned?

Chapter 5

How democratic was colonial American society? What shaped how ordinary colonists thought? Why was it apparently becoming less equal?
How were the various occupations and activities of colonial America related to the nature of the economy? Why were such occupations as lawyer, printer, and artisan taking on greater importance?
What were the causes and effects of the Great Awakening? How did such an intense religious revival affect those who experienced conversion as well as those who did not? How did the Awakening help to create a sense of shared American identity?
To what degree was a unique American nationality developing in the eighteenth-century colonies? Were regional differences in the colonies growing more pronounced or retreating in the eighteenth century?

Chapter 6

How did the treatment of Americans by British officers and the military, during the war, contribute to simmering resentment against the mother country? Do the attitudes and behavior of the colonists during the war suggest that Americans felt less real patriotic loyalty to Britain and that the ties had become largely practical ones?
How important was William Pitt’s leadership in winning the Seven Years’ War? Is strong political leadership essential to military victory? Is strong political leadership or strong military leadership more important to winning a war? What about during revolutions?
From Britain’s perspective, were stationing soldiers in the New World permanently and issuing the Proclamation of 1763 good colonial policies? What problems were these policies trying to address? How else might have Britain solved those problems while limiting colonial contempt?
Should the French and Indian War be considered one of the major causes of the American Revolution? Why or why not?

Chapter 7

Evaluate the system of mercantilism. What were the benefits for Britain and for the colonies? What were the costs to Britain and to the colonies? Is the system of mercantilism sustainable or will colonies inevitably revolt?
Was the American Revolution inevitable? What could the British have done to stop the Revolution?
Were all the American grievances really justified, or were the British actually being more reasonable than most Americans have traditionally believed?
What was the Revolutionary movement, at its core, really all about? Was the Revolution truly a radical overturning of government and society—the usual definition of a revolution—or something far more limited or even conservative in its defense of traditional rights?

Chapter 8

What was radical and new in the Declaration of Independence and what was old and traditional? What did statements like “all men are created equal” mean in their historical context and what did they come to mean later?
Was military strategy or politics the key to American victory in the war? How did the two coincide?
If the “Model Treaty” that John Adams authored had been the basis for the American alliance with France, would the results of the Revolution have been the same? Do you agree that Benjamin Franklin’s French alliance is an example of “practical self-interest trumping idealism,” as the authors state? In what other situations during the Revolutionary War does practical self-interest trump idealism?
How important were the diplomatic relations between European nations in determining the success of the American Revolution? How significant a role did the French play in securing American independence? How significant a role did the rest of Europe play? How did the American Revolution change diplomatic relations in Europe?

Chapter 9

Was the United States in a crisis under the Articles of Confederation, or was the crisis exaggerated by the Federalists to justify their movement? Could the United States have survived if the Articles had stayed in effect? What successes did the Articles of Confederation achieve? Was the Constitutional Convention a second American Revolution?
Why was the United States so uniformly held in contempt by European governments after the Revolution? Was it due more to the Articles of Confederation or to being a recently created nation?
Should the Founding Fathers’ general elitism and indifference to the rights of people, women, African Americans, and Indians be held against them? Or should they be viewed with more understanding in their historical context?
What was really at stake in the debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists? Did the Federalists win primarily because of their superior political skills or because they had a clearer view of the meaning of the Revolution and the future of the United States? What role did the ratification process play in the fight between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists (and did it favor one side or the other)?

Chapter 10

Why did Hamilton move so rapidly to create large financial commitments by the federal government? Since we normally think of the federal debt as something bad, why did Hamilton think of it as something good and necessary for the national welfare?
Why were political parties viewed as so dangerous by the Founding Fathers? Why did parties come into being at all, and why did they come to be accepted as legitimate ways to express political disagreement?
How wise was Washington’s insistence on neutrality? What about the fact that, while this foreign policy stance may not have violated the letter of the alliance with France, it did violate the spirit of the alliance? Does a nation have an obligation to maintain alliances previously established, even when it is no longer in that nation’s self-interest?
Contrast the Hamiltonian Federalist belief that the wealthy and well educated ought to run the government with the Jeffersonian Republican belief that the common person, if educated, could be trusted to manage public affairs.

Chapter 11

In what sense, if any, is the idea of a Revolution of 1800 justified? (Note that Jefferson himself always considered that his election represented a genuine revolution—but what did he really mean or understand by that term in this context?)
Why was Jefferson willing to fight for the freedom of the sea versus the pasha of Tripoli (who required tribute) but not against Britain (which was impressing American sailors)? Did Jefferson make a mistake in fighting for freedom in only one of these instances? When should America fight for its freedom and when should it not?
How did Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase transform America’s understanding of itself and its future? Was it inevitable that the West would become part of a much greater United States, or was there real danger in efforts like Aaron Burr’s to break those areas off from the country?
Was there any merit at all in Jefferson’s embargo policy? Could some other policy have succeeded? Was Madison’s ill-prepared stumble into war any better than the embargo, or was the United States simply stuck in an impossible position between Britain and France? How influential was Napoleon on American history?

Chapter 12

Did the Missouri Compromise effectively deal with the sectional conflict over slavery or merely shove it out of view?
To what degree was the War of 1812 truly a Second War for Independence? Compare it with the Revolutionary War.
What was significant about the strong spirit of nationalism that appeared in America from 1815 to 1824? What were its accomplishments?
Was the Monroe Doctrine a valuable assertion of the principles of liberty and self-determination in the Americas against potential European and monarchical intrusion or was it, in effect, an early manifestation of a patronizing and potentially imperialistic attitude by the United States toward Latin America?

Chapter 13

Which side fared better as a result of the nullification crisis: the national government (and federal supremacy) or South Carolina (and states’ rights)? Why?
How dramatically did President Jackson change the balance of power between the three branches of government? Did he dramatically expand the power of the executive branch? Consider Jackson’s democratic views, his reaction to the nullification issue, his support for expansion, and his attack on the Bank of the United States.
What were the causes and consequences of the Texas revolt? Why did Texas remain for a time an independent nation rather than become a state of the Union?
How did the log-cabin and hard-cider campaign of 1840 demonstrate the nature of the two-party system in the New Democracy?

Chapter 14

How does the image of the frontier compare with the reality of pioneer life as described in the chapter?
Review the push factors that forced Europeans (specifically the Irish and Germans) from their home countries. What were the pull factors that attracted them to the United States? Why was the United States more appealing than other locations for European immigrants?
Why was transportation—particularly the canals and the railroads—so important in the early stages of industrialization? Would industrialization have occurred more quickly if the federal government had been unimpeded in offering financial assistance to transportation projects?
What effects did the movement from a subsistence to a market economy have on American society, including farmers, laborers, and women? What were the advantages and disadvantages of the change?

Chapter 15

What particular qualities did Evangelical religion give to the early American culture? Why did so many of its energies move toward the reform of society? Were there elements of American religion that resisted the reform impulse?
How important is a free public education to a republic? If it is important, why then was early education so poor? If it is not important, why did it begin? Do you agree that public education was “an insurance premium that the wealthy paid for stability and democracy,” as the authors assert? Is it important to a republic to have compulsory public education?
Why did America produce so many reform and utopian movements? What did they contribute to American culture?
What made women such prominent leaders in the religious and reform movements? How did the women’s rights movement compare with the other movements of the period? What obstacles did women reformers face? Why did women often have more difficulty working on their own behalf than they did advocating other causes?

Chapter 17

Was American expansion across North America an inevitable development? How was the idea of Manifest Destiny used to justify expansionism?
How did rivalry with Britain affect the American decision to annex Texas, the Oregon dispute, and lesser controversies of the period?
What caused the Mexican War? Did Polk provoke the Texas-boundary conflict in order to gain California or expand slavery, as war opponents such as Lincoln charged?
What were the benefits and costs of the Mexican War both immediately and in the longer run of American history?

Chapter 18

Was the Compromise of 1850 a wise effort to balance sectional differences or a futile attempt to push the slavery issue out of sight? Could a better compromise have been met if California had not skipped the regular territorial phase?
Why did the North so strongly resent the Fugitive Slave Law and why did the South resent northern resistance to enforcing it?
Did the North, South, or West benefit most from the Compromise of 1850? Why?
Why was the issue of acquiring Cuba so controversial in the 1850s? Could some of the Caribbean islands or parts of Central America have become incorporated as slave states with the United States? How would American designs for expansion into the Caribbean and Central America effect U.S. relations with Latin America? Did European turmoil in the late 1840s and early 1850s encourage American expansionist dreams?

Chapter 19

How did each of the major crisis events of the 1850s contribute to the advent of the Civil War?
Why did Douglas’s popular sovereignty approach to the slavery question prove to be unworkable in Kansas and elsewhere?
What did the Supreme Court decide in the Dred Scott case? Did the Court do too much in its ruling or was it within its traditional constitutional boundaries? What effect did the decision have in the territories, in the North, and in the South?
Why was sectional compromise impossible in 1860, when such compromises had previously worked in 1820 and 1850? Since Lincoln had guaranteed to protect slavery in the states where it existed, why did the seven southern states secede as soon as he was elected?

Chapter 20

What were the advantages of the South during the Civil War? What were the advantages of the North? What advantage proved most important to each side? What were the disadvantages of each side? Which disadvantage proved most troublesome to each side?
To what degree did Britain get involved in the American Civil War? Assess the importance of that degree of involvement to the North and to the South. Review key events involving the British (cotton, grain, Trent affair, Alabama, and Laird rams).
How did the American Civil War reshape the Americas? What did European powers do in the Americas during the American Civil War?
How was the impact of the Civil War different for the soldiers and civilians of the North and South?

Chapter 21