Chapter 1 American Roots

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Chapter 1American Roots

• Beginnings to 1732

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Lesson 1

• What are the roots of American government?
• What is the connection between Judaism and
  Christianity?
• How did Judeo-Christian beliefs support the idea
  of equality?

• American constitutional government has its roots
  in Greek, Roman, and English Parliamentary
  traditions
• Jesus, whose life and teachings inspired the
  Christian religion, was Jewish Christianity
  embraced Jewish traditions such as belief in one
  God and the Ten Commandments
• They taught that all people were equal in Gods
  eyes

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1

• Why is education important in a democracy?
• Who made important decisions in Athens?
• What Greek and Roman traditions became part of
  American government?

• Citizens in a democracy are responsible for the
  outcomes of government, so they need the ability
  to analyze problems and make decisions
• Free males who were citizens made the decisions
• Direct democracy, a Greek tradition, changed into
  the American principle that a government gets its
  power from the people. Ordinary American citizen
  do not vote directly about most laws and
  government decisions Both are interested in
  citizens role in government, the rights and
  responsibilities of citizens, and the way trails
  are conducted

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• What did the Magana Carta do that had never been
  done before?
• How did the English bill of Rights protect the
  freedom of the people?
• List two rights guaranteed by the Magna Carta?

• It set limits on the power of the king
• It upheld individual rights, such as trail by
  jury and habeas corpus, and emphasized the
  limited power of the monarch
• The Magna Carta limited the monarchs right to
  tax without consulting the people. It also
  guaranteed the right to trial by jury

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Lesson Two

• How did European exploration link the Americas to
  other parts of the world?
• What two powerful civilizations in the Americas
  in the 1400s and where were they located
• What ties linked Asia and Africa in the 1400s?

• European exploration resulted in the Columbian
  Exchange, linking the Americas to Europe and Asia
• Aztecs in present-day Mexico Incas along the
  western coast of South America
• An extensive trade network existed between the
  Muslims in Africa Asia Muslims traded with the
  Chinese along the Silk Road the Chinese explored
  the South China Sea Indian Ocean, reaching
  eastern Africa

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2

• Why did Europeans monarchs send out explorers?
• How did Prince Henry help to expand trade?
• What was the goal of Columbuss voyage in 1492?

• European monarchs were eager for the wealth
  promised by trade they wanted to find a direct
  sea route so they could bypass Italian and Muslim
  merchants and increase their profits
• He founded a school for sailors and sent sea
  captains to sail around Africa. He also
  encouraged the design and production of more
  efficient tools and ships
• To find a shorter route to Asia

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2

• Why did Columbus call the people he met in the
  Bahamas Indians?
• How did the depopulation of the Americas help
  create the need for African slavery?
• List three results of the Columbian Exchange.

• He thought he had reached the East Indies
• European settlers turned elsewhere t meet their
  desire for captive labor
• New products, ideas, and skills were introduced
  to both the American and Europe European
  diseases wiped out many Native Americans the
  need for labor in the Americas led to a complex
  slave trading network

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Lesson Three

• What chain of events led to the founding of the
  early colonies and their experiments with
  self-governments?
• How did investors make money from exploration?
• How did mercantilism lead to the development of
  colonies?

• The Spanish discovery of gold prompted other
  Europeans countries, including England, to found
  colonies in the Americas. The distance of the
  colonies from Europe caused them to develop means
  of self-government
• They formed companies to provide for expeditions
  and establish colonies. In return, the companies
  profited from the wealth brought in by the
  colonies
• Mercantilism required nations to export more
  goods than they imported, nations established
  colonies to produce raw materials for those
  exports and to buy good the nations exported

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3

• How did capitalism support exploration?
• Why did France, the Netherlands, and England want
  to colonize North America?
• What did John Smith do to improve life in the
  Jamestown colony?
• Why did the Virginia Company give settles the
  right to self-government?

• Investors looking for profits formed companies to
  equip sea voyages or start colonies
• They wanted to get rich from the resources in the
  Americas like Spain had
• He set strict rules and required colonist to grow
  food
• Company leaders in England realized they were too
  far away to make day-to-day decisions about the
  governing the colony

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• How were members of the House of Burgesses
  chosen?
• Why was the Mayflower Compact necessary?
• Why was the Mayflower Compact important?

• Male settlers voted for representatives to the
  House of Burgesses
• The Pilgrims had expected to land in Virginia,
  where the colonists had already set up the
  beginnings of a government. In Plymouth, the
  colonists had to establish order and make laws
• It strengthened the English tradition of
  representative government in the colonies

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Lesson Four

• How did the 13 colonies develop economies based
  on agriculture, commerce, and handmade goods?
• Why was farming difficult in New England?

• The colonies made use of available resources to
  build their economies
• The land was hilly and the soil was thin and
  rocky.

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4

• How was New Englands environment closely
  related to its economy?
• What conditions in the Middle Colonies favored
  farming?
• How did Penns colony contribute to the idea of
  religious freedom?
• How did the settlers in the Middle Colonies use
  their resources to build their economy?

• Forest products were used in shipbuilding.
  Fishing and whaling were big industries.
  Subsistence farming suited the short growing
  season and rocky soil
• The Middle Colonies had a mild climate and
  fertile soil
• Quakers taught that all people are equal, so all
  people could worship in their own ways
• The mild climate and fertile soil gave rise to
  large farms that produced cash crops colonists
  created and sold good made from the iron found in
  the Delaware River valley

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• Why did slavery grow in the Southern Colonies?
• Why was mercantilism bound to lead to conflict
  between the parent country and its colonies?
• What was the purpose of the Navigation Acts?

• Plantation farmers began to import slaves because
  the farmers depended on a large labor force to
  work the plantations
• The theory that colonies exist to serve the
  parent country put colonist at an economic
  disadvantage to those in the parent country
• To regulate colonial trade and create jobs for
  English workers