1. What fundamental factors drew the Europeans to the exploration, conquest, and colonization of the New World? What was the impact on the Indians, Europeans, and Africans when each of their previously separate worlds “collided” with one another? What caused the shift from indentured servant to African slaves as the dominant labor force in the southern colonies?
2. Who were the Puritans and how did Puritans organize their local communities? Why did the religious fervor of New England Puritans decline after 1660? How did the Salem witch episode reflect the tensions and changes in seventeenth-century New England life and thought?
3. What efforts were made to strengthen English control over the colonies in the seventeenth century, and why did they generally fail? What were the causes of the Bacon Rebellion and what impact did the rebellion have on Virginia politics and slavery?
4. Identify the basic beliefs and assumptions of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. How did these two movements affect colonial development? How did the American colonies move from loyalty to protest to rebellion in the twelve years following the end of the French and Indian War?
5. What were the differences between the First and Second Continental Congress? What were the causes and consequences of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776? Why did Americans choose not only to break from Britain, but to adopt a republican form of government?
6. What advantages and disadvantages did the American rebels and the British possess as the war began? Why was the Battle of Saratoga such a key to American success in the Revolutionary War? What role did France play in winning the America’s independence and what were the long term implications for France?
7. Which problems of the post-Revolutionary period and weaknesses of the Article of Confederation lead to the adoption of a new Constitution? What were the basic features of the new Constitution, and how did it differ from the government under the Articles of Confederation? Who were the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist, what were the issues that divided them, and why did the Federalist win?
8. Discuss the issues of John Adams’s presidency, and explain how he and the country dealt with dissent. Discuss the significance of the XYZ Affair, the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
9. Define Jeffersonian Democracy, and explain Jefferson’s domestic and foreign policies. Discuss the significance of the Louisiana Purchase and how his presidency both defined and contradicted that political philosophy.
10. What was the essential idea behind Jefferson’s imposition of the embargo, and why did it finally fail? What were the causes of the War of 1812 and why was New England opposed to the War of 1812? What happened to the Federalist after the War of 1812?
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