,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 1: The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
Review Questions
1. Which of the following Indian peoples built homes in cliff dwellings that still exist?
Answer
A. Anasazi
2. Which culture developed the first writing system in the Western Hemisphere?
Answer
C. Olmec
3. Which culture developed a road system rivaling that of the Romans?
Answer
B. Inca
4. What were the major differences between the societies of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya and the
Indians of North America?
Answer
North American Indians were fewer in number, more widely dispersed, and did not have
the population size or organized social structures of the Maya, Aztec, or Inca societies.
The Eastern Woodland peoples, in particular, lived in small clan groups and adapted to
their singular environments. Some North American Indians lived by hunting and
gathering rather than cultivating crops.
5. The series of attempts by Christian armies to retake the Holy Lands from Muslims was known
as ________.
Answer
A. the Crusades
6. ________ became wealthy trading with the East.
Answer
D. Venice
7. In 1492, the Spanish forced these two religious groups to either convert or leave.
Answer
A. Jews and Muslims
8. How did European feudal society operate? How was this a mutually supportive system?
Answer
In feudal society, lords owned the land, which serfs worked and knights defended. Lords
thus utilized the labor of serfs and the military service of knights, who in turn received
the protection of the lord’s castle or city walls and, sometimes, the ability to rent land on
which to live and farm.
9. Why did Columbus believe he could get to the Far East by sailing west? What were the
problems with this plan?
Answer
It was known that the Earth was round, so Columbus’s plan seemed plausible. The
distance he would need to travel was not known, however, and he greatly
underestimated the Earth’s circumference; therefore, he would have no way of
recognizing when he had arrived at his destination.
10. The city of ________ became a leading center for Muslim scholarship and trade.
Answer
B. Timbuktu
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
11. Which of the following does not describe a form of slavery traditionally practiced in Africa?
Answer
D. a system in which people are enslaved permanently on account of their race
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 2: Early Globalization: The Atlantic World, 1492–1650
Review Questions
1. Which country initiated the era of Atlantic exploration?
Answer
D. Portugal
2. Which country established the first colonies in the Americas?
Answer
C. Spain
3. Where did Christopher Columbus first land?
Answer
B. the Bahamas
4. Why did the authors of probanzas de méritos choose to write in the way that they did? What
should we consider when we interpret these documents today?
Answer
Probanzas de méritos featured glowing descriptions of lands of plenty. The Spanish
explorers hoped to find cities of gold, so they made their discoveries sound as
wonderful as possible in these letters to convince the Spanish crown to fund more
voyages. When we read them now, we need to take the descriptions with a grain of salt.
But we can also fact-check these descriptions, whereas the Spanish court could only
take them at face value.
5. Where did the Protestant Reformation begin?
Answer
A. Northern Europe
6. What was the chief goal of the Puritans?
Answer
B. to eliminate any traces of Catholicism from the Church of England
7. What reforms to the Catholic Church did Martin Luther and John Calvin call for?
Answer
Luther was most concerned about indulgences, which allowed the wealthy to purchase
their way to forgiveness, and protested the Church’s taxation of ordinary Germans. Both
wanted the liturgy to be given in churchgoers’ own language, making scripture more
accessible.
8. Why didn’t England make stronger attempts to colonize the New World before the late
sixteenth to early seventeenth century?
Answer
A. English attention was turned to internal struggles and the encroaching Catholic
menace to Scotland and Ireland.
9. What was the main goal of the French in colonizing the Americas?
Answer
B. trading, especially for furs
10. What were some of the main differences among the non-Spanish colonies?
Answer
Many English colonists in Virginia were aristocrats who had never worked and didn’t
expect to start. They hoped to find gold and silver and were unprepared for the realities
of colonial life. Farther north, the English Puritan colonies were largely founded not for
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
profit but for religious reasons. The French and Dutch colonies were primarily trading
posts. Their colonists enjoyed good relationships with many native groups because they
made alliances with and traded with them.
11. How could Spaniards obtain encomiendas?
Answer
A. by serving the Spanish crown
12. Which of the following best describes the Columbian Exchange?
Answer
B. an exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between Europe and the Americas
13. Why did diseases like smallpox affect Indians so badly?
Answer
C. Indians had no immunity to European diseases.
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 3: Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
Review Questions
1. Which of the following was a goal of the Spanish in their destruction of Fort Caroline?
Answer
C. reducing the threat of French privateers
2. Why did the Spanish build Castillo de San Marcos?
Answer
B. to defend against imperial challenges
3. How did the Pueblo attempt to maintain their autonomy in the face of Spanish settlement?
Answer
As the Spanish tried to convert the Pueblo to Catholicism, the native people tried to fold
Christian traditions into their own practices. This was unacceptable to the Spanish, who
insisted on complete conversion—especially of the young, whom they took away from
their families and tribes. When adaptation failed, native peoples attempted to maintain
their autonomy through outright revolt, as with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. This revolt
was successful, and for almost twelve years the Pueblos’ lives returned to normalcy.
Their autonomy was short-lived, however, as the Spanish took advantage of continued
attacks by the Pueblos’ enemies to reestablish control of the region.
4. What was patroonship?
Answer
C. a Dutch system of granting tracts of land in New Netherland to encourage
colonization
5. Which religious order joined the French settlement in Canada and tried to convert the natives
to Christianity?
Answer
D. Jesuits
6. How did the French and Dutch colonists differ in their religious expectations? How did both
compare to Spanish colonists?
Answer
The Dutch allowed the most religious freedoms; they didn’t try to convert native peoples
to Christianity, and they allowed Jewish immigrants to join their colony. French Jesuit
missionaries tried to convert Indians to Catholicism, but with much more acceptance of
their differences than Spanish missionaries.
7. What was the most lucrative product of the Chesapeake colonies?
Answer
B. tobacco
8. What was the primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?
Answer
A. former indentured servants wanted more opportunities to expand their territory
9. The founders of the Plymouth colony were:
Answer
A. Puritans
10. Which of the following is not true of the Puritan religion?
Answer
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
D. Only men could participate.
11. How did the Chesapeake colonists solve their labor problems?
Answer
They encouraged colonization by offering headrights to anyone who could pay his own
way to Virginia: fifty acres for each passage. They also used the system of indenture, in
which people (usually men) who didn’t have enough money to pay their own passage
could work for a set number of years and then gain their own land. Increasingly, they
also turned to African slaves as a cheap labor source.
12. What was the Middle Passage?
Answer
C. the transatlantic journey that African slaves made to America
13. Which of the following is not an item Europeans introduced to Indians?
Answer
A. wampum
14. How did European muskets change life for native peoples in the Americas?
Answer
European guns started an arms race among Indian groups. Tribes with ties to
Europeans had a distinct advantage in wars with other tribes because muskets were so
much more effective than bows and arrows. Guns changed the balance of power
among different groups and tribes and made combat more deadly.
15. Compare and contrast European and Indian views on property.
Answer
Indians didn’t have any concept of owning personal property and believed that land
should be held in common, for use by a group. They used land as they needed, often
moving from area to area to follow food sources at different times of year. Europeans
saw land as something individuals could own, and they used fences and other markers
to define their property.
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 4: Rule Britannia! The English Empire, 1660–1763
Review Questions
1. To what does the term “Restoration” refer?
Answer
C. the restoration of Charles II to the English throne
2. What was the predominant religion in Pennsylvania?
Answer
A. Quakerism
3. What sorts of labor systems were used in the Restoration colonies?
Answer
Since the proprietors of the Carolina colonies were absent, English planters from
Barbados moved in and gained political power, establishing slave labor as the
predominant form of labor. In Pennsylvania, where prospective servants were offered a
bounty of fifty acres of land for emigrating and finishing their term of labor, indentured
servitude abounded.
4. Which of the following represents a concern that those in England and her colonies maintained
about James II?
Answer
D. that he would institute a Catholic absolute monarchy
5. What was the Dominion of New England?
Answer
B. the consolidated New England colony James II created
6. What was the outcome of the Glorious Revolution?
Answer
James II was overthrown, and William III and Mary II took his place. The 1689 Bill of
Rights limited the future power of the monarchy and outlined the rights of Parliament
and Englishmen. In Massachusetts, Bostonians overthrew royal governor Edmund
Andros.
7. The Negro Act of 1740 was a reaction to ________.
Answer
B. the Stono Rebellion
8. What was the “conspiracy” of the New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741?
Answer
C. slaves conspiring to burn down the city and take control
9. What was the First Great Awakening?
Answer
B. a Protestant revival that emphasized emotional, experiential faith over book learning
10. Which of the following is not a tenet of the Enlightenment?
Answer
A. atheism
11. Who were the Freemasons, and why were they significant?
Answer
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
The Freemasons were a fraternal society that originated in London coffeehouses in the
early eighteenth century. They advocated Enlightenment principles of inquiry and
tolerance. Masonic lodges soon spread throughout Europe and the British colonies,
creating a shared experience on both sides of the Atlantic and spreading Enlightenment
intellectual currents throughout the British Empire. Benjamin Franklin was a prominent
Freemason.
12. What was the primary goal of Britain’s wars for empire from 1688 to 1763?
Answer
C. greater power in Europe and the world
13. Who were the main combatants in the French and Indian War?
Answer
D. Great Britain against the French and their Indian allies
14. What prompted the French and Indian War?
Answer
Virginia planters, pinched by stagnant tobacco prices, wanted to expand westward.
However, France contested Britain’s claim to that land and built Fort Duquesne to
defend it. The battle over this land sparked the war that eventually ended France’s
presence in North America.
, OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 5: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763–1774
Review Questions
1. Which of the following was a cause of the British National Debt in 1763?
Answer
D. both B and C (the French and Indian War and the continued British military presence
in the American colonies)
2. What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act of 1764?
Answer
C. It strengthened enforcement of molasses smuggling laws.
3. What did British colonists find so onerous about the acts that Prime Minister Grenville
passed?
Answer
The Currency Act required colonists to pay British merchants in gold and silver instead
of colonial paper money. With gold and silver in short supply, this put a strain on
colonists’ finances. The Sugar Act curtailed smuggling, angering merchants, and
imposed stricter enforcement. Many colonists feared the loss of liberty with trials without
juries as mandated by the Sugar Act.
4. Which of the following was not a goal of the Stamp Act?
Answer
D. to declare null and void any laws the colonies had passed to govern and tax
themselves.
5. For which of the following activities were the Sons of Liberty responsible?
Answer
B. the hanging and beheading of a stamp commissioner in effigy.
6. Which of the following was not one of the goals of the Townshend Acts?
Answer
B. greater colonial unity
7. Which event was most responsible for the colonies’ endorsement of Samuel Adams’s
Massachusetts Circular?
Answer
D. Lord Hillsboprough’s threat to dissolve the colonial assemblies that endorsed the
letter
8. What factors contributed to the Boston Massacre?
Answer
Tensions between colonists and the redcoats had been simmering for some time.
British soldiers had been moonlighting as dockworkers, taking needed jobs away from
colonists. Many British colonists were also wary of standing armies during peacetime,
U.S. History
Chapter 1: The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
Review Questions
1. Which of the following Indian peoples built homes in cliff dwellings that still exist?
Answer
A. Anasazi
2. Which culture developed the first writing system in the Western Hemisphere?
Answer
C. Olmec
3. Which culture developed a road system rivaling that of the Romans?
Answer
B. Inca
4. What were the major differences between the societies of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya and the
Indians of North America?
Answer
North American Indians were fewer in number, more widely dispersed, and did not have
the population size or organized social structures of the Maya, Aztec, or Inca societies.
The Eastern Woodland peoples, in particular, lived in small clan groups and adapted to
their singular environments. Some North American Indians lived by hunting and
gathering rather than cultivating crops.
5. The series of attempts by Christian armies to retake the Holy Lands from Muslims was known
as ________.
Answer
A. the Crusades
6. ________ became wealthy trading with the East.
Answer
D. Venice
7. In 1492, the Spanish forced these two religious groups to either convert or leave.
Answer
A. Jews and Muslims
8. How did European feudal society operate? How was this a mutually supportive system?
Answer
In feudal society, lords owned the land, which serfs worked and knights defended. Lords
thus utilized the labor of serfs and the military service of knights, who in turn received
the protection of the lord’s castle or city walls and, sometimes, the ability to rent land on
which to live and farm.
9. Why did Columbus believe he could get to the Far East by sailing west? What were the
problems with this plan?
Answer
It was known that the Earth was round, so Columbus’s plan seemed plausible. The
distance he would need to travel was not known, however, and he greatly
underestimated the Earth’s circumference; therefore, he would have no way of
recognizing when he had arrived at his destination.
10. The city of ________ became a leading center for Muslim scholarship and trade.
Answer
B. Timbuktu
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
11. Which of the following does not describe a form of slavery traditionally practiced in Africa?
Answer
D. a system in which people are enslaved permanently on account of their race
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 2: Early Globalization: The Atlantic World, 1492–1650
Review Questions
1. Which country initiated the era of Atlantic exploration?
Answer
D. Portugal
2. Which country established the first colonies in the Americas?
Answer
C. Spain
3. Where did Christopher Columbus first land?
Answer
B. the Bahamas
4. Why did the authors of probanzas de méritos choose to write in the way that they did? What
should we consider when we interpret these documents today?
Answer
Probanzas de méritos featured glowing descriptions of lands of plenty. The Spanish
explorers hoped to find cities of gold, so they made their discoveries sound as
wonderful as possible in these letters to convince the Spanish crown to fund more
voyages. When we read them now, we need to take the descriptions with a grain of salt.
But we can also fact-check these descriptions, whereas the Spanish court could only
take them at face value.
5. Where did the Protestant Reformation begin?
Answer
A. Northern Europe
6. What was the chief goal of the Puritans?
Answer
B. to eliminate any traces of Catholicism from the Church of England
7. What reforms to the Catholic Church did Martin Luther and John Calvin call for?
Answer
Luther was most concerned about indulgences, which allowed the wealthy to purchase
their way to forgiveness, and protested the Church’s taxation of ordinary Germans. Both
wanted the liturgy to be given in churchgoers’ own language, making scripture more
accessible.
8. Why didn’t England make stronger attempts to colonize the New World before the late
sixteenth to early seventeenth century?
Answer
A. English attention was turned to internal struggles and the encroaching Catholic
menace to Scotland and Ireland.
9. What was the main goal of the French in colonizing the Americas?
Answer
B. trading, especially for furs
10. What were some of the main differences among the non-Spanish colonies?
Answer
Many English colonists in Virginia were aristocrats who had never worked and didn’t
expect to start. They hoped to find gold and silver and were unprepared for the realities
of colonial life. Farther north, the English Puritan colonies were largely founded not for
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
profit but for religious reasons. The French and Dutch colonies were primarily trading
posts. Their colonists enjoyed good relationships with many native groups because they
made alliances with and traded with them.
11. How could Spaniards obtain encomiendas?
Answer
A. by serving the Spanish crown
12. Which of the following best describes the Columbian Exchange?
Answer
B. an exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between Europe and the Americas
13. Why did diseases like smallpox affect Indians so badly?
Answer
C. Indians had no immunity to European diseases.
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 3: Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
Review Questions
1. Which of the following was a goal of the Spanish in their destruction of Fort Caroline?
Answer
C. reducing the threat of French privateers
2. Why did the Spanish build Castillo de San Marcos?
Answer
B. to defend against imperial challenges
3. How did the Pueblo attempt to maintain their autonomy in the face of Spanish settlement?
Answer
As the Spanish tried to convert the Pueblo to Catholicism, the native people tried to fold
Christian traditions into their own practices. This was unacceptable to the Spanish, who
insisted on complete conversion—especially of the young, whom they took away from
their families and tribes. When adaptation failed, native peoples attempted to maintain
their autonomy through outright revolt, as with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. This revolt
was successful, and for almost twelve years the Pueblos’ lives returned to normalcy.
Their autonomy was short-lived, however, as the Spanish took advantage of continued
attacks by the Pueblos’ enemies to reestablish control of the region.
4. What was patroonship?
Answer
C. a Dutch system of granting tracts of land in New Netherland to encourage
colonization
5. Which religious order joined the French settlement in Canada and tried to convert the natives
to Christianity?
Answer
D. Jesuits
6. How did the French and Dutch colonists differ in their religious expectations? How did both
compare to Spanish colonists?
Answer
The Dutch allowed the most religious freedoms; they didn’t try to convert native peoples
to Christianity, and they allowed Jewish immigrants to join their colony. French Jesuit
missionaries tried to convert Indians to Catholicism, but with much more acceptance of
their differences than Spanish missionaries.
7. What was the most lucrative product of the Chesapeake colonies?
Answer
B. tobacco
8. What was the primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?
Answer
A. former indentured servants wanted more opportunities to expand their territory
9. The founders of the Plymouth colony were:
Answer
A. Puritans
10. Which of the following is not true of the Puritan religion?
Answer
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
D. Only men could participate.
11. How did the Chesapeake colonists solve their labor problems?
Answer
They encouraged colonization by offering headrights to anyone who could pay his own
way to Virginia: fifty acres for each passage. They also used the system of indenture, in
which people (usually men) who didn’t have enough money to pay their own passage
could work for a set number of years and then gain their own land. Increasingly, they
also turned to African slaves as a cheap labor source.
12. What was the Middle Passage?
Answer
C. the transatlantic journey that African slaves made to America
13. Which of the following is not an item Europeans introduced to Indians?
Answer
A. wampum
14. How did European muskets change life for native peoples in the Americas?
Answer
European guns started an arms race among Indian groups. Tribes with ties to
Europeans had a distinct advantage in wars with other tribes because muskets were so
much more effective than bows and arrows. Guns changed the balance of power
among different groups and tribes and made combat more deadly.
15. Compare and contrast European and Indian views on property.
Answer
Indians didn’t have any concept of owning personal property and believed that land
should be held in common, for use by a group. They used land as they needed, often
moving from area to area to follow food sources at different times of year. Europeans
saw land as something individuals could own, and they used fences and other markers
to define their property.
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 4: Rule Britannia! The English Empire, 1660–1763
Review Questions
1. To what does the term “Restoration” refer?
Answer
C. the restoration of Charles II to the English throne
2. What was the predominant religion in Pennsylvania?
Answer
A. Quakerism
3. What sorts of labor systems were used in the Restoration colonies?
Answer
Since the proprietors of the Carolina colonies were absent, English planters from
Barbados moved in and gained political power, establishing slave labor as the
predominant form of labor. In Pennsylvania, where prospective servants were offered a
bounty of fifty acres of land for emigrating and finishing their term of labor, indentured
servitude abounded.
4. Which of the following represents a concern that those in England and her colonies maintained
about James II?
Answer
D. that he would institute a Catholic absolute monarchy
5. What was the Dominion of New England?
Answer
B. the consolidated New England colony James II created
6. What was the outcome of the Glorious Revolution?
Answer
James II was overthrown, and William III and Mary II took his place. The 1689 Bill of
Rights limited the future power of the monarchy and outlined the rights of Parliament
and Englishmen. In Massachusetts, Bostonians overthrew royal governor Edmund
Andros.
7. The Negro Act of 1740 was a reaction to ________.
Answer
B. the Stono Rebellion
8. What was the “conspiracy” of the New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741?
Answer
C. slaves conspiring to burn down the city and take control
9. What was the First Great Awakening?
Answer
B. a Protestant revival that emphasized emotional, experiential faith over book learning
10. Which of the following is not a tenet of the Enlightenment?
Answer
A. atheism
11. Who were the Freemasons, and why were they significant?
Answer
,OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
The Freemasons were a fraternal society that originated in London coffeehouses in the
early eighteenth century. They advocated Enlightenment principles of inquiry and
tolerance. Masonic lodges soon spread throughout Europe and the British colonies,
creating a shared experience on both sides of the Atlantic and spreading Enlightenment
intellectual currents throughout the British Empire. Benjamin Franklin was a prominent
Freemason.
12. What was the primary goal of Britain’s wars for empire from 1688 to 1763?
Answer
C. greater power in Europe and the world
13. Who were the main combatants in the French and Indian War?
Answer
D. Great Britain against the French and their Indian allies
14. What prompted the French and Indian War?
Answer
Virginia planters, pinched by stagnant tobacco prices, wanted to expand westward.
However, France contested Britain’s claim to that land and built Fort Duquesne to
defend it. The battle over this land sparked the war that eventually ended France’s
presence in North America.
, OpenStax U.S. History Instructor Answer Guide
U.S. History
Chapter 5: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763–1774
Review Questions
1. Which of the following was a cause of the British National Debt in 1763?
Answer
D. both B and C (the French and Indian War and the continued British military presence
in the American colonies)
2. What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act of 1764?
Answer
C. It strengthened enforcement of molasses smuggling laws.
3. What did British colonists find so onerous about the acts that Prime Minister Grenville
passed?
Answer
The Currency Act required colonists to pay British merchants in gold and silver instead
of colonial paper money. With gold and silver in short supply, this put a strain on
colonists’ finances. The Sugar Act curtailed smuggling, angering merchants, and
imposed stricter enforcement. Many colonists feared the loss of liberty with trials without
juries as mandated by the Sugar Act.
4. Which of the following was not a goal of the Stamp Act?
Answer
D. to declare null and void any laws the colonies had passed to govern and tax
themselves.
5. For which of the following activities were the Sons of Liberty responsible?
Answer
B. the hanging and beheading of a stamp commissioner in effigy.
6. Which of the following was not one of the goals of the Townshend Acts?
Answer
B. greater colonial unity
7. Which event was most responsible for the colonies’ endorsement of Samuel Adams’s
Massachusetts Circular?
Answer
D. Lord Hillsboprough’s threat to dissolve the colonial assemblies that endorsed the
letter
8. What factors contributed to the Boston Massacre?
Answer
Tensions between colonists and the redcoats had been simmering for some time.
British soldiers had been moonlighting as dockworkers, taking needed jobs away from
colonists. Many British colonists were also wary of standing armies during peacetime,
