U.S. History Skillbook
Unit 1: The Atlantic World
Discussion Questions
- What factors prompted Portugal and Spain to expand in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?
- Why did the Europeans have an interest in Africa in the late fifteenth century?
- How was slavery a different institution in Africa, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere?
- In what ways was Christopher Columbus a hero and a villain?
- Who benefited most from the Columbian Exchange? Who benefited the least?
- What role did religion play in shaping the Atlantic world?
- Why were the Incas and the Aztecs unable to defend their civilizations from the conquistadors?
- How did the encomienda system reflect Spanish colonial values and motives in colonizing the Western Hemisphere?
- How did the Black Legend provide motivation to Spain’s colonial rivals?
- In what ways were the Spanish, French, and English colonies similar to each other? In what ways were they different?
- How did the development of the Atlantic world change sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere?
