Question - What was the result of the Bush administration’s unwillingness to recognize that climate change is being accelerated by human activity?

What was the result of the Bush administration’s unwillingness to recognize that climate change is being accelerated by human activity?

Answer: 

The administration refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and, as a result, the United States has not been required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, climate scientists have experienced interference with their work. For critics of climate change, this hampering of scientific research and consensus has provided further evidence of the lack of agreed-upon conclusions about climate change.

Question - In what ways did the U.S. government attempt to deny the rights of prisoners taken in Afghanistan and Iraq?

In what ways did the U.S. government attempt to deny the rights of prisoners taken in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Answer: 

The United States denied the rights of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Iraq by imprisoning and interrogating them outside of the United States, where they were not protected by U.S. law. The U.S. also classified these prisoners as “unlawful combatants,” so that they would not be entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Question - What did British colonists find so onerous about the acts that Prime Minister Grenville passed?

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.

Question - Who were the Freemasons, and why were they significant?

Who were the Freemasons, and why were they significant?

Answer: 

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.

Question - What sorts of labor systems were used in the Restoration colonies?

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.

Question - Compare and contrast European and Native American views on property.

Compare and contrast European and Native American views on property.

Answer: 

Native Americans 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.

Question - How did the Chesapeake colonists solve their labor problems?

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 enslaved Africans as a cheap labor source.

Question - How did the Pueblo attempt to maintain their autonomy in the face of Spanish settlement?

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.