UNITED STATES HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT

  1. American Beginnings

A.Three Worlds Meet

  1. Peopling the Americas

The lands that ______explorers called a New World were in fact very old. During the Ice Ages much of the world's water was bound up in ______. Sea level dropped by hundreds of feet, creating a land bridge between ______and Alaska.

______walked across to become the first human inhabitants of the Americas. When the last glaciers receded about ______years ago ancestors of the ______Americans filled nearly all of the habitable parts of North and ______America. They lived in isolation from the history—and particularly from the ______— of what became known as the Old World.

  1. Native American Societies Around 1492

The Native Americans who greeted the first Europeans had become diverse peoples. The ______of Mexico and the ______of Peru built great empires. In what is now the United States, the ______built cities surrounded by farmland between present–day ______, Missouri, and Natchez, Mississippi. ThePueblo peoples of the ______lived in large towns, irrigatedtheir dry land with river water, and ______with peoples as far away as Mexico and ______. In the East, the peoples who eventually encountered______settlers were varied, but they lived in similar ways. All of them ______much of their food. ______farmed and gathered food in the woods. Men ______, fished and made war. None of these peoples kept herds of ______animals; they relied on abundant ______game for protein. All lived in family groups, but owed their principal loyalties to a wider network ______. Some—the ______in upstate New York and the Powhatan confederacy in ______—formed alliances called ______for the purposes of keeping peace among neighbors and making ______on outsiders.

  1. European Exploration

The Ottoman Turks captured ______in 1453. These conquests gave them control over the overland ______routes to Asia as well as the sea route through the Persian Gulf. Western Europeans, on the other hand, were developing wealth and ______and a compelling need to ______. The ______of Western European nations was growing, providing a tax base and a ______force for new classes of large landholders. These wealthy landowners provided ______for goods that were available only through ______with Asia. When the expansion of ______gave control of eastern trade routes to Arab middlemen, Western Europeans had strong incentives to find other ways to get to ______.

They were also developing ______technology and knowledge of currents and winds to travel long distances on the open sea. The ______led the way. They copied and improved upon the designs of ______sailing ships and learned to mount______on those ships. In the 15th century they began exploring the west coast of ______- bypassing ______merchants to trade directly for African gold and ______. The European explorers were all looking for a ______route to Asia.

Christopher Columbus sailed for the monarchs of ______in 1492. He used the familiar prevailing winds to the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of ______, and then sailed on. In about two months he landed in the ______on an island in the Bahamas, thinking he had reached the East ______. Columbus made three more voyages. He died in 1506, still believing that he had discovered a ______route to ______.

The Spanish investigated further. Italian navigator Amerigo ______sailed to the northern coast of ______America in 1499 and pronounced the land a new ______. European ______named it America in his honor.

Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de ______crossed the Isthmus of ______and in 1513 became the first of the European explorers of America to see the ______Ocean. That same year another Spaniard, Juan Ponce de ______explored the Bahamas and ______in search of the fountain of youth.

B.Conquest of the Native Americans

For Native Americans, American history began in ______. Native Americans suffered heavily because of their ______from the rest of the world. Europe, Africa and Asia had been trading knowledge and ______for centuries. Societies on all three continents had learned to use ______and kept herds of ______animals. Europeans had acquired ______, paper and navigationalequipment from the ______. Native Americans had noneof these. They were often helpless against European conquerorswith ______, firearms and especially______and weapons.

Asians, Africans, and Europeans had been exposedto one another's ______for thousands of years. By 1500 they had developed an Old World______system that partially protected them from most ______. ______was the biggest killer of Native Americans, but illnesses such as ______and influenza also killed millionsof people. Scholars estimate that on average the population of a Native American people dropped ______percent in the first century of contact. Europeans used the new lands vacated by dead Native Americans as sources of precious ______and plantation agricultural. Both were complex operations that required ______in large, closely supervised groups. Attempts to enslave ______peoples failed, and attempts to force them into other forms of bound labor were slightly more successful but also failed because workers died of ______.

C.Importation of Africans

Europeans turned to the African slave trade as a source of ______for the Americas. During the colonialperiods of theAmericas, far more ______than Europeans came to the New World. These earliest enslaved Africans were ______, war captives and people______by their relatives to settle debts.

New World demand increased the slave ______and changed it. Some of the coastal kingdoms of present–day Togo and Benin entered the trade as ______. They conducted raids into the ______and sold their captives to European slavers. Nearly all of the Africans enslaved and brought to America by this trade were natives of the ______coastal rain forests and the inland forests of the ______and Central Africa.

The slave trade brought ______to some Europeans and some Africans, but the growth of the slave trade ______African political systems, turned slave raiding into full–scale war, and robbed many African societies of their young ______. The European successstory in the Americas was achieved at horrendous expense for the millions of Native Americans who ______and for the millions of Africans who were ______.

D.Colonial Experiments

  1. New Spain

Spain was the first European nation to ______America. Hernan Cortés invaded ______and with the help of disease and other Native Americans, he defeated the ______Empire between 1519 and 1521. By 1533 ______had conquered the Incas_of Peru. Both civilizations possessed artifacts made of precious ______, and the Spanish searched for rumored piles of gold and ______. They sent expeditions as far north as what is now Kansasand ______. They were looking for cities made of ______and did not find them. Shortly after the conquests, Catholic ______attempted to convert Native Americans to ______. They established ______not only at the centers of the new empire, but also in New Mexico and ______. Spanish______even built a short–lived mission outpost inVirginia.

  1. New France

By the 1530s French explorers had scouted the coast of America from Newfoundlandto the Carolinas. Samuel de ______built the foundations of what would become French ______(New France). From the beginning, New France concentrated on two activities: ______trade and Catholic ______. Missionaries and traders were often at odds, but both knew that the success of New France depended upon friendlyrelations with the native peoples. While ______converted thousands of Native Americans, French traders roamed the ______.

  1. Dutch Settlements

Sailing for the Dutch in 1609, Henry ______explored the river that now bears his name. The Dutch established a string of agricultural settlements between New Amsterdam (______City) and FortOrange (______, New York) after 1614. They became the chief European traders with the Iroquois, supplying them with ______, blankets, metal tools, and other European trade goods in exchange for ______. The Iroquois used those goods to nearly destroy the ______and to push the Algonquins into Illinois and Michigan. As a result, the Iroquois gained control of the Native American side of the ______trade.

E.English Colonization

  1. Why the English Came to the Americas

In the 1530’s King ______VIII broke with the Catholic Church. The newChurch of England developed a ______theology, but it retained much of it’s Catholicpractices and rituals. Within the Church of England radical Protestants later called ______, wanted to get rid of the remaining Catholic practices and rituals. The success of the Puritans depended on the religious ______of English monarchs.

Queen ______I, who ruled from 1553 to 1558, was a committed ______who tried to roll back the tide of religious change; she ______hundreds of Protestants and chased many more into exile. Her successor, ______I, invited the exiles back and tried to resolve differences within the English church. The______kings who followed her, James I and Charles I, again ______Puritans. As a result, Puritans became willing to ______to America.

Another reason for English colonization was that land in England had become ______. The population of England ______from 1530 to 1680. In the same years, many of England's largest landholders evicted tenants from their lands, ______the lands, and raised sheep for the expanding ______trade. The result was a growing number of young, ______, underemployed, and often desperate English men and women. It was from their ranks that colonizers ______most of the English population of the mainland colonies.

  1. English Colonies in the South

Permanent English settlement began in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1607. ______began as a misguided business venture and as a ______society of young men. Over time, however, Virginia was transformed into a slave-based ______colony where slaves were carefully disciplined.

  1. Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in America, began as a ______venture that failed. The Virginia Company of ______sent 104 colonists to Chesapeake Bay in 1607. The colonists were to look for gold and ______, for a passage to ______, and for other discoveries that would quickly reward investors. If the work was heavy, the colonists were to force ______peoples to help them. The colonists included silversmiths, goldsmiths, and far too many ______who were unprepared for ______colonial life. The colonists found a defensible spot on low ground and named it ______. None of their plans worked out, and the settlers began to die of dysentery and ______fever. At the end of the first year, only about ______remained alive.In 1619 the Virginia Company reorganized. The colony gave up the search for quick profits and turned to growing ______. Under the new plan, colonists received ______acres from the company for paying a person's ______to Virginia. The new settlers were ______servants who agreed to work off the ______of their passage. In 1624 King ______I of England made Virginia the first ______colony. He revoked the Virginia Company's charter and appointed a royal governor and established a House of ______elected by the settlers.

  1. Mortality Rate

Chesapeake ______growers needed able–bodied servants. Most of those imported to Virginia and Maryland were young, poor, ______men. Disease, bad water and ______native peoples produced a horrific death rate. Surviving planters continued to import servants. Some servants lived long enough to end their ______, but many others died. In addition, there were too few ______in the Chesapeake to enable surviving men to build ______and produce new Virginians. More than two-thirds of men never ______and the white population of Virginia did not begin to sustain itself until at least the 1680’s. Before that, the colony survived only by ______new people to replace those who ______.

  1. Introduction of Slavery

______servants worked Chesapeake tobacco farms until the late 17th century. But earlier in the century, English tobacco and ______planters in the Caribbean had adopted African ______, long the chief labor system in Portuguese and Spanish sugar colonies in the Caribbean. By 1700 the English islands were characterized by large ______and by populations that were overwhelmingly ______.

These African slaves were victims of a particularly ______and unhealthy plantation system that ______most of them. Beginning around 1675, Virginia and Maryland began ______large numbers of African slaves. By 1690 black slaves ______white servants in the colonies.

F.English Colonies in the North

Colonization began in Massachusetts in 1620. Massachusetts settlers were ______. They arrived as whole ______and sometimes as whole congregations and they lived by laws derived from the Old ______. New England began as a refuge for religious ______. The first English settlers were the ______. They were Separatists or Protestants who, unlike the Puritans seceded from the Church of England rather than try to ______it. After difficult early years, they established a community of farms at ______that was ultimately absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Company.

Mayflower Compact –

The Puritans left England because of religious persecution, but they, too, were ______. In Massachusetts they established laws derived from the ______, and they ______or expelled those who did not share their beliefs. Government officials were expected to enforce Godly authority, which often meant punishing religious ______. In the 1650s they persecuted ______, and in the 1690s they executed people accused of witchcraft. Massachusetts ______provided relatively safe ______water and New England's cold winters kept dangerous microbes to a minimum. Therefore disease and early ______were not the problems that they were farther south. The Puritans migrated in ______, and there were about two women for every three men. Nearly all colonists married and then produced ______at two-year intervals. With both a higher ______and a longer life expectancy than in England, the Puritan population ______rapidly almost from the beginning.

G.The English and Their Empire

The English government had little interest in ______governing its colonies. The government was, however ______: It wanted colonial ______activity to serve England. The Navigation Act of 1651 stipulated that ______into British harbors and colonies could be carried only in ______ships and that colonial trade could be carried only in English ships. For the most part the Navigation Act succeeded in making colonial trade ______England. The act also made the colonists accustomed to and ______upon imported English goods. But the act did not amount to a colonial administration. Private companies, wealthy ______and the settlers themselves did what they wanted without official English ______.