Short essay/answers:
1. Think about the ways in which contact, cooperation, and conflict occurred between Europeans and Native Americans in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Was conflict inevitable? Why did it occur with some European colonies and not with others?
2. Consider the early attempts by Great Britain to colonize North America. What were the primary motives behind these efforts? How did British colonization differ from that of other European nations?
3. Be familiar with concepts of slavery and freedom in the colonial world. How and where did African slavery develop in North America? Why did British authorities adopt it as a labor system in some areas?
4. What were the factors that led to a sense of American identity in the eighteenth century? What role did British authorities have in this development? Do you think that the creation of an American identity inevitably led to the movement to seek independence from Great Britain? What was (were) the most significant development(s) in securing this independence?
5. What major challenges faced the new American nation after they secured independence from Great Britain? What institutional and/or cultural solutions did Americans develop to confront them? How did Americans deal with the large physical space of the United States?
6. How did Americans struggle to enact a republican form of government? What challenges arose to it? How did the formation of political parties influence it in the first half-century after independence?