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In Unit 1, students will analyze America's beginnings to 1783 by learning how complex societies of Native Americans came into contact with peoples from Europe and Africa, resulting in a cultural mingling filled with tension and adaptation.  Students will examine both how British colonies developed, expanded and matured as well as how the colonists' differences with Great Britain eventually impelled them toward independence.

 

For Discussion:

  1. Genocide and holocaust are strong value- laden words that are usually associated with the horrible actions of Nazi Germany during World War II. Do these words apply to what the Spanish did to the native people they encountered? If so, what motivated such unpardonable actions- was it a conscious greed for gold or an unconscious disregard for human life?
  2. How does Gary Nash believe that slavery and racial prejudice influenced each other?
  3. Assess why, over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, colonists went from considering themselves "British subjects" to identifying themselves as Americans.
  4. Was the American Revolution a radical departure on the part of Americans or a conservative attempt to reassert control over their political world?