Honors Summer Assignment 1.) Read the A
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Verona High School Department of History and Social Sciences United States History I – Honors Summer Assignment 1.) Read the attached Digital History packet for background information. Answer the provided guided reading and critical thinking questions. The packet is available on line on the summer assignment website, and those of your teachers. You may also access by digitalhistory.uh.edu. 2.) Read the following excerpts from primary and secondary sources, and answer all of the corresponding questions. Once you have done this, you will take a position on the issue. Your answers should be thorough, insightful, and include specific evidence. You should bring two typed copies to the first day of class – one to submit and one for your reference. Upon your return, (first or second day of class) you will write an in-class essay using these sources as well as examples from the background information from the digital history packet. (Attached) You are required to synthesize information with at least 8 of the 10 DBQ documents. Do not write the DBQ essay over the summer. Teacher Contact Information: Ms. Wallerstein: [email protected] Mr. Tamburro: [email protected] To receive the timeliest responses, it is recommended that you send any queries to both teachers! DUE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 Academic Integrity: It is expected that students will complete this task independently and in their own words. Digital History Packet Questions These readings can be found in PDF on the VHS summer assignment webpage, or by visiting the sites of Mr. Tamburro and/or Ms. Wallerstein. You may also find the sections at digitalhistory.uh.edu. The Significance of 1492 1. Why is Columbus’ legacy debated? 2. What were the most important effects of the contact between the eastern and western hemispheres that began with Columbus’s journey? 3. How did Columbus’s voyage contribute to the development of the modern idea of progress? European Commercial and Financial Expansion 4. Why did Portugal lead the revolution of sea travel during the 15th century? 5. What were Columbus’s motivations for exploration? Slavery and Spanish Colonization 6. Why were West African slaves imported to the New World? The Black Legend 7. What were the 18th century French criticisms of the European discovery of America? 8. What was the “Black Legend” and how did other European countries use it to disparage Spain? 9. Who was Bartolome de las Casas and what was his connection to the “Black Legend”? European Colonization North of Mexico 10. What were the obstacles Europeans faced in trying to establish permanent colonies north of Mexico? 11. How were English migrations to and settlements in America different from that of other European countries? 12. How were the British colonies different from Britain itself? Spanish Colonization 13. What were the defining characteristics of Spanish American colonies? 14. What was ‘mercantilism’ and what was its role in Spanish colonization? 15. How was the Spanish view of race and class different from the English? English Colonization Begins 16. What were the benefits of North American colonies for England? 17. What were the obstacles facing English settlers in Jamestown? 18. Why was Captain John Smith important to the Jamestown colony? 19. Why do people question the accuracy of Smith’s story about Pocahontas? 20. What was the basis of the economic success of the Jamestown colony? Age of Exploration DBQ Context: The time period from 1400 to 1700 C.E. is commonly referred to as the Age of Exploration. Many of the individuals who accomplished these feats of adventure and exploration, including Columbus, Magellan, and Cortes, have names that are as recognizable as any in the history of the world. Continents, countries, and cities are named after many of these men whose actions changed the world permanently. While their efforts and successes are still celebrated by modern society, the overall impact of those voyages, contacts, and conflicts have created a divided view of their cultural and historical legacy. Prompt Should the European explorers, conquistadors, and settlers from the Age of Exploration still be glorified and celebrated in modern times? Those who celebrate these explorers tend to point to the benefits of cultural diffusion in terms of knowledge, skills, and technology, as well as ideas and religion. The opposing viewpoint tends to argue that the benefits of exploration were one-sided and came at a heavy cost, that the explorers/conquerors were greedy and cruel, andthat European settlement led to the destruction of native culture and populations.or is assignmen, write your essay as a letter to your g Document A: Bernal Diaz, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. Let us state how most of the Indian natives have successfully learned all the Spanish trades…There are gold and silversmiths…and carvers also do the most beautiful work with iron tools…Many sons of chieftains know how to read and write, and to compose books…Now they breed cattle of all sorts, and break in oxen, and plough the land, and sow wheat, and thresh harvest, and sell it, and make bread, and they have planted their lands with all the trees and fruits, such as apples and pears which they hold in higher regard than their native plants, which we have brought from Spain. 1.) To what extent does this passage portray the concept of cultural diffusion? 2.) What was the effect of European conquest on native populations? Document B: Hernán Cortés. Excerpt of Letter to Charles V They have a custom, horrible, and abominable, and deserving punishment…Whenever they ask anything of their gods, in order for their request to be fulfilled, they take many boys, girls, men, and women, and in the presence of the statues of their gods they cut open their chests. While they are still alive they take out their hearts and entrails. Then they burn the organs, offering the smoke as a sacrifice to their gods…No year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice 50 souls at each temple in their kingdom… I did everything I could to steer them away from their false gods and to draw them to our Lord God. Montezuma agreed that I probably knew best…He said that as long as I taught the Aztecs our religion they would follow my directions. Therefore, I removed the statues of the false gods, cleaned the temples, and taught the people our religion. The rest of the Aztecs did not accept the new religion that I was giving them. They did make sure, though, that they did not sacrifice any more humans while I was in the city… 3.) What was the purpose of human sacrifice in the Aztec religion? 4.) What did Cortes do to end the practice of human sacrifice? Document C: William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel, “The Columbian Exchange” as found in World History. The European expansion into the Americas began the exchange of plant and animal species that have ultimately been of widespread benefit to peoples throughout the globe. The introduction of the horse, cow, and various grains vastly increased food productivity in the Americas. The cultivation of corn, manioc, and the potato, all products of the Americas, have had the same effect in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The “Columbian Exchange,” as it is sometimes called, was a process that ultimately brought benefits to all peoples. From the Western Hemisphere From the Eastern Hemisphere Corn Wheat Potatoes Rice Oats Beans Sugar Manioc Coffee Squash Horses Peanuts Cows Pigs Cocoa Chickens Turkeys Smallpox Silver Quinine (a drug for malaria) 5. How did Europeans and Native Americans benefit from the Columbian Exchange? Document D: Christopher Farman, “The Ocean Adventurers, found in Voyages of Discovery Portugal was the first country in which the new spirit of curiosity had practical results in terms of exploration. The Portuguese had many motivations to explore. They certainly had a desire for knowledge, but they were also searching for wealth through trade. A nobler purpose was the belief that it was their duty to bring Christianity to distant lands. One Portuguese who stands out for his accomplishments is Magellan. Magellan achieved what Columbus first suggested: connecting Europe with Asia by sailing west. The last great unknown ocean had been crossed. The world itself stood revealed. Much remained to be mapped, but an outline was in place for future generations to fill in. The explorers of the fifteenth century and early sixteenth centuries did not set out to make a revolution in knowledge, but that is what they achieved. The Portuguese not only ended the isolation of Europe; they also set it on the path to worldwide expansion. Their voyages of discovery stand at the very beginning of the world’s first global culture. 6. To what extent did the Portuguese reflect Western values associated with the Renaissance spirit? Document E: Arthur M. Schlesinger in Columbus on Trial European culture, like any other large-scale civilization, has produced its share of monsters and atrocities, but other civilizations in their conquests did not show anything like the concern for moral behavior and treatment of others that Europe did in theory if not always in fact. As Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., has rightly pointed out: Whatever the particular crimes of Europe, that continent is also the source—the unique source—of the liberating ideas of the individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and cultural freedom that constitute our most precious legacy and to which most of the world today aspires. In fact, it was precisely the contact with Americas that stimulated Europe to develop further some of the principles we take for granted today as constituting the basic minimum of human rights and proper international conduct.