Unit 1: The Atlantic World - Discussion Questions

U.S. History Skillbook

Discussion Questions

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