Chapter Five: The American Revolution: From Elite Protest to Popular Revolt, 1763-1783

Practice Quiz:

1. How did ordinary colonists respond after the wealthy elite had initiated the American rebellion?
a. They reject the lead of their “betters.”
b. They lost rights gained during the colonial period.
c. They turned an elite movement into a mass movement.
d. They fought for a social-economic revolution against the gentry.

2. Which of the following linked religious ideas to the practice of government?
a. colonial newspapers.
b. the Great Awakening.
c. theories of the Earl of Bute.
d. the ideas of John Locke.

3. In the 1760s and 1770s, colonists viewed the political struggle with Britain in terms of
a. haves against have-nots.
b. democracy against aristocracy.
c. good against evil.
d. West against East.

4. The English philosopher most often cited by the rebels was
a. Edmund Burke.
b. William Pitt.
c. John Locke.
d. David Hume.

5. The Sugar Act differed from earlier regulations, such as the Navigation Acts, in which way?
a. Its purpose was the show the colonists who was in control.
b. It taxed sugar for the specific benefit of the East India Company.
c. It had nothing to do with trade.
d. Its purpose was to collect revenue from the Americans.

6. The Stamp Act affected
a. only businessmen and merchants.
b. primarily colonial manufacturers.
c. ordinary people, as well as elites.
d. only those in direct trade with Great Britain.

7. The radical group that first emerged during the Stamp Act crisis was known as
a. the Loyalists.
b. the Sons of Liberty.
c. Oliver’s Raiders.
d. Hessians.

8. The fundamental issue leading to the Boston massacre was the
a. British attempt to enforce the Tea Act.
b. sinking of the Gaspee.
c. Boston Tea Party.
d. presence of so many British troops in American cities.

9. While repealing the Townshend duties, why did the North ministry retain a tax on tea?
a. to stabilize the price on tea.
b. to punish American smugglers.
c. to symbolize Parliaments’s power to tax Americans.
d. to ensure that tea from England would be boycotted.

10. The Tea Act of 1773 was passed in order to
a. save the East India Company.
b. raise revenue to pay royal governors’ salaries.
c. punish colonists for the Boston Massacre.
d. recover revenue lost by reducing the tax on molasses.

11. What was the significance of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense?
a. It had little immediate popularity among the colonists.
b. It acknowledged the sovereignly of the monarch.
c. It provided the colonists with a rationale for revolution.
d. It did not criticize all monarchs, just George III.

12. Most of the text of the Declaration of Independence was
a. written by Benjamin Franklin.
b. later adopted as the first Constitution of the United States.
c. a list of grievances against King George III.
d. all of the above.

13. Which of the following explains why England lost the Revolutionary War?
a. The British government did not believe it could win the war.
b. British finances could not support the war.
c. British strategists did not understand how to fight the war.
d. British soldiers sympathized with the Americans.

14. What was the primary significance of the Battle of Yorktown?
a. It was America’s most humiliating defeat.
b. It began an eventually successful colonial invasion of Spanish Florida.
c. It encouraged the French to commit to an open alliance with the colonists.
d. It was the final major battle of the war.

15. American Loyalists, who sided with the British during the War for Independence
a. tended to be wealthy conservatives.
b. were known for their wickedness and immorality.
c. came from all occupations and social classes.
d. were pacifists who opposed war for any reason.

16. What was the significance of the Treaty of Paris of 1783?
a. It established the American border at the Appalachian Mountains.
b. It ensured Loyalists would not be compensated for their lands.
c. It ended the French and Indian War.
d. It allowed Americans the opportunity for an independent nation.