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1. Why was the French and Indian War of 1754 significant for Great Britain?
A) Great Britain was unaffected by it.
B) Great Britain lost land in the struggle.
C) Great Britain gained land in the struggle.
D) Great Britain was defeated by the French.
2. Which European nation aspired to form an alliance with the powerful Iroquois
Confederacy in 1754 to protect its territory from other Indians and rival Europeans?
A) Great Britain
B) France
C) Spain
D) The Netherlands
3. What was the name of the 1754 gathering of colonial leaders to discuss matters of
frontier defense, trade, and territorial expansion?
A) The Philadelphia Union
B) The Continental Congress
C) The Albany Congress
D) The Constitutional Convention
4. How did the British crown react to news of the union forming among colonial leaders in
the 1750s?
A) They were glad the colonies were finally working together.
B) They were threatened by this newfound unity.
C) They hoped it would relieve them of burdensome decision making.
D) They supplied the union with weapons to further validate it.
5. Which European power established extensive trade networks with Indians throughout
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that subsequently gave them Indian military
support during times of war?
A) The Netherlands
B) Spain
C) Great Britain
D) France
6. In the 1750s, struggles to further European imperial claims were inspired by signs of
A) French weakness in North America.
B) British weakness in North America.
C) Native American weakness in North America.
D) Native American strength in North America.
Page 1
7. Whose military leadership inspired a transformation of the political and military
landscape in the British war with the French in 1757?
A) William Pitt
B) George Washington
C) Edward Braddock
D) Benjamin Franklin
8. What key step was necessary to finalize the Peace of Paris in 1763, drawing the French
and Indian War to an end?
A) The destruction of weapons
B) Land cession
C) Recognition of Indian sovereignty
D) Dissolution of the British Empire
9. What impact did the French and Indian War have on the relationship between the British
crown and its North American colonies?
A) It left the colonists feeling neglected by the crown.
B) It finally resolved colonial issues with Native Americans.
C) It tightened the bond between the crown and the colonies.
D) There was a dramatic loss of land and connection.
10. What inspired the Cherokee nation to dissolve its long-term trade agreement with South
Carolina in late 1759?
A) The French were more desirable partners.
B) The Cherokee ran out of fur to trade.
C) The British failed to pay their debts.
D) Colonists kept encroaching into Cherokee hunting grounds.
11. What were the political consequences of repeated Cherokee attacks on British
borderland settlements?
A) The British increased expenditures on military supplies and defense, driving them
into debt.
B) Backcountry settlers resented political leaders from more settled regions who failed
to provide sufficient soldiers or funds for defense.
C) Indian laws and community values were adopted by the British settlers, resulting in
a more powerful Indian nation.
D) Backcountry settlers were unable to vote, leading them to disengage from colonial
politics.
Page 2
12. What was General Jeffrey Amherst's general philosophy toward Indians?
A) All Indians threatened Europeans and should be exterminated.
B) Indians were peaceful people unjustly caught up in European wars.
C) Some Indians were evil and deserved to be killed.
D) Europeans must learn to coexist with Indians for everyone's survival.
13. A group of men from Paxton Creek, Pennsylvania, known as the “Paxton Boys,”
marched to Philadelphia to
A) present local Indians to Philadelphia for trial.
B) demonstrate the need for a railroad.
C) demand the right to vote in local and statewide elections.
D) elicit protection from Indians on the frontier.
14. What inspired the conflict among the colonists and Britain in New York's Hudson
Valley and New Jersey, even before the French and Indian War?
A) The French walked all over the colonists' land rights.
B) Landlords and speculators exploited working people.
C) Settlers were unable to secure the land from local Indian tribes.
D) Britain levied an extremely high usage tax on settlers.
15. On what basis was much land granted by European governments to North American
settlers in the seventeenth century?
A) Sale to the highest bidders
B) Defeat of local Indian tribes
C) Successful development proposals
D) Personal connections
Page 3
16. What key grievance led frontier settlers in North Carolina, like Hermon Husband, to
instigate armed resistance against the proprietary government?
[I]t has been the Opinion of all the several Legislative Bodies, both of Great-Britain and
her Colonies, that peaceable Possession, especially of back waste vacant Lands, is a
Kind of Right, always looked upon quite sufficient to entitle them to the Preference or
Refusal of a farther [legal] Title. . . . Now the Earl of Granville's Office, shut in such a
manner, that no one in the Province knew but it would open again every year. . . . [B]ut
four or five years being now elapsed, there is so much of the Lands seated under these
Circumstances [cleared and cultivated], that Individuals in Power, and who has Money,
are Marking them out for a Prey . . . because an Opinion seems to be propagated, that it
is Criminal to cut a Tree down off the vacant Lands. Who can justify the Conduct of any
Government who have countenanced and encouraged so many Thousands of poor
Families to bestow their All, and the Labour of many Years, to improve a Piece of waste
Land, with full Expectation of a Title, to deny them Protection from being rob[b]ed of it
all by a few roguish Individuals, who never bestowed a Farthing thereon?
A) The proprietors were cutting down trees on the vacant land that the settlers wanted
for building houses.
B) The proprietors were preventing colonists from settling the wasted land on the
frontier.
C) Colonial offices were closed, so settlers couldn't get their land claims legalized.
D) The colonial government failed to protect the frontier settlers from attacks by
neighboring Indians.
17. What movement unified men and women, blacks and whites, and people of all classes in
the mid-eighteenth century?
A) War resistance
B) Tax evasion
C) Abolition of slavery
D) Resistance to impressment
18. What event during the early eighteenth century both served as a vital mode of
communication and advanced efforts among colonists to forge alliances over issues of
British abuse?
A) The Great Awakening
B) Naval Impressment
C) The Peace of Paris
D) The Albany Congress
Page 4
19. What religious denomination grew out of the Great Awakening and proclaimed a
message of absolute spiritual equality?
A) Episcopal
B) Catholic
C) Separate Baptist
D) Unitarian
20. Why did London merchants petition Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act?
[I]n consequence of the trade between the colonies and the mother country, as
established and permitted for many years, and of the experience which the petitioners
have had of the readiness of the Americans to make their just remittances to the utmost
of their real ability, they have been induced to make and venture such large exportations
of British manufactures, as to leave the colonies indebted to the merchants of Great
Britain in the sum of several millions sterling. . . . [T]hat at this time the colonists . . .
declare it is not in their power, at present, to make good their engagements, alleging,
that the taxes and restrictions laid upon them . . . have so far interrupted the usual and
former most fruitful branches of their commerce, restrained the sale of their produce,
thrown the state of the several provinces into confusion, and brought on so great a
number of actual bankruptcies, that the former opportunities and means of remittances
and payments are utterly lost and taken from them; and that the petitioners are, by these
unhappy events, reduced to the necessity of applying to the House, in order to secure
themselves and their families from impending ruin; to prevent a multitude of
manufacturers from becoming a burthen to the community, or else seeking their bread in
other countries, to the irretrievable loss of this kingdom; and to preserve the strength of
this nation entire.
A) Stamp taxes would anger the Americans and cause them to declare independence.
B) Stamp taxes left the colonists unable to pay the money they owed to the merchants.
C) Stamp taxes were used to pay for programs that would burden the community.
D) The merchants were afraid that they would be taxed next.
21. Why did the king and Parliament allow local governments in the British North
American colonies to exercise some control over decisions?
A) The king believed in local sovereignty.
B) They believed that allowing local governments some sense of autonomy made it
easier to rule.
C) That was the agreement they had made with local governments.
D) They thought that they couldn't stop local governments even if they wanted to.
Page 5
22. What inspired George Grenville, prime minister and chancellor of the Exchequer, to
reassert British economic and political authority in the colonies?
A) The colonies had become too willful and independent.
B) Britain was deeply in debt.
C) Economic growth gave Britain new resources for colonial rule.
D) Colonial governors asked for more British involvement.
23. What was the popular name for the American Duties Act of 1764?
A) King George's Act
B) Navigation Act
C) Stamp Act
D) Sugar Act
24. What mid-eighteenth-century act restricted the supply of money in the North American
colonies?
A) Currency Act
B) Dollar Bill Act
C) Stamp Act
D) Treasury Act
25. What was the effect of the Continental Congress on former colonies like Massachusetts?
A) It recognized the important leadership of Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty.
B) It drew power away from colonial entities like Massachusetts.
C) It appointed Samuel Adams of Massachusetts the leader of its organizing efforts.
D) It emphasized the power of northern states over southern states.
26. What was the intent of the first Continental Congress when it assembled in Virginia in
1774?
A) To draft the Constitution of the United States
B) To draft the Peace Treaty of 1774
C) To form a union of colonies against Britain
D) To discuss the impact of British policies
27. What situation led many colonists to arm themselves against what they saw as an
encroachment on their rights and institutions?
A) The East Indian Company Tea monopoly
B) The Boston Massacre
C) The imposition of the Intolerable Acts
D) The imposition of the Stamp Act
Page 6
28. How did the British government immediately respond to the Boston Tea Party?
A) They successfully charged, convicted, and executed the protestors.
B) They sent in troops and opened fire on the crowd.
C) They closed the port of Boston and demanded compensation.
D) They revoked the monopoly granted to the East Indian Company on tea sales.
29. When the Sons of Liberty organized their “tea party” and rallied against the British by
boarding British ships and dumping forty-five tons of tea into the sea, they dressed like
A) the artisans they were.
B) Indians.
C) pilgrims.
D) the king of England.
30. Why did Parliament offer the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade in the
colonies?
A) The crown wanted to punish the Boston Tea Company.
B) Colonists proved unable to efficiently distribute tea on their own.
C) The East India Company offered the most unique teas at the best prices.
D) The East India Company was on the verge of economic collapse.
31. South Carolina Regulators seized control of the western regions of the colony, took up
arms, and established their own system of justice, which led to
A) representation in the colonial assembly.
B) a brutal attack by the governor.
C) permission to set up their own community as long as it was isolated from colonial
policies.
D) colonial integration into Indian communities and adoption of Indian culture.
32. The governor of what colony sent troops to the frontier to quell what he viewed as an
open rebellion by Regulators following the Stamp Act crisis?
A) Virginia
B) North Carolina
C) Massachusetts
D) South Carolina
Page 7
33. Why did John Dickinson, writing as “A Farmer,” argue that even though the Townsend
Duties did not cost much, they were still unjust?
For who are a free people? Not those over whom government is reasonably and
equitably exercised but those who live under a government, so constitutionally checked
and controuled, that proper provision is made against its being otherwise exercised. The
late act is founded on the destruction of this constitutional security.
If the parliament have a right to lay a duty of four shillings and eight pence on a hundred
weight of glass, or a ream of paper, they have a right to lay a duty of any other sum on
either. They may raise the duty, as the author before quoted says has been done in some
countries, till it “exceeds seventeen or eighteen times the value of the commodity.” In
short, if they have a right to levy a tax of one penny upon us, they have a right to levy a
million upon us: For where does their right stop? At any given number of pence,
shillings, or pounds? To attempt to limit their right, after granting it to exist at all, is as
contrary to reason, as granting it to exist at all is contrary to justice. If they have any
right to tax us, then, whether our own money shall continue in our own pockets, or not,
depends no longer on us, but on them.
A) The taxes undermined the system of checks and balances.
B) Colonists accepted general regulations on trade, but not internal taxes.
C) Americans already paid for their defense through other means.
D) Accepting even a small tax set a precedent that would justify any tax.
35. How were the funds collected under the Stamp Act to be spent?
A) For personal use by the king
B) Toward improvements to roads and waterways
C) For defense and protection of the colonies
D) For replanting forests used to make paper
36. Before passage of the Stamp Act, how did the tax burden of the average Englishman
compare to that of the average Bostonian?
A) It was 100 times greater.
B) It was 25 times greater.
C) It was 10 times greater.
D) It was twice as much.
Page 8
37. Why did British soldiers compete for jobs with colonists?
A) To gain control of the economy
B) To make sure they had work during peacetime
C) To supplement their wages
D) To anger the British crown
38. Which of the acts imposed by Parliament upset ordinary North American colonists the
most?
A) The Stamp Act
B) The Sugar Act
C) The Navigation Act
D) The Currency Act
39. Which colonial government first stood against the Stamp Act?
A) Massachusetts
B) Rhode Island
C) Virginia
D) Pennsylvania
40. Who led the Sons of Liberty in Boston in protesting the Stamp Act?
A) Andrew Oliver
B) Thomas Hutchinson
C) John Henry
D) Samuel Adams
41. Who assumed the leadership role in the Stamp Act protests?
A) Judges, sheriffs, and colonial officials
B) Artisans and small farmers
C) Merchants, lawyers, and local leaders
D) Servants, slaves, and the working poor
Page 9
42. Why did Captain Thomas Preston gather his troops near the Boston Customs House on
the evening of March 5, 1770?
About Nine some of the Guard came to and informed me, the Town-Inhabitants were
assembling to attack the Troops, and that the Bells were ringing as the Signal for that
Purpose, and not for Fire, and the Beacon intended to be fired to bring in the distant
People of the Country. This, as I was Captain of the Day, occasioned my repairing
immediately to the Main-Guard. In my Way there I saw the People in great Commotion,
and heard them use the most cruel and horrid Threats against the Troops. In a few
Minutes after I reached the Guard, about an hundred People passed it, and went towards
the Custom-House, where the King's Money is lodged. . . . I was soon informed by a
Townsman, their Intention was to carry off the Soldier from his Post, and probably
murder him. . . . This I feared might be a Prelude to their plundering the King's Chest. I
immediately sent a non-commissioned Officer and twelve Men to protect both the
Sentinel and the King's-Money, and very soon followed myself, to prevent (if possible)
all Disorder; fearing lest the Officer and Soldiery by the Insults and Provocations of the
Rioters, should be thrown off their Guard and commit some rash Act.
A) To fire on the mob
B) To protect the customs house from robbery
C) To show that the crowd there was an unlawful assembly
D) To protect the governor
43. In the aftermath of the Stamp Act Congress and calls of resistance to British laws that
were unjust, the delegates proclaimed their loyalty to
A) Parliament.
B) the king of England.
C) God alone.
D) the king of France.
44. How long after the Stamp Act Congress of October 1765 did Parliament repeal the
Stamp Act?
A) One month
B) Six months
C) One year
D) Two years
45. Why were most elite colonists concerned about the energies stirred up by the Stamp Act
crisis?
A) They feared further rebellion against them by poorer people.
B) They worried that Britain would abandon them economically and militarily.
C) They feared that elites from other nations would not want to trade with them.
D) They worried that slaves would side with Britain against the colonies.
Page 10
46. In the aftermath of the successful Stamp Tax protests, how did Parliament reassert its
supremacy?
A) It increased the tax on sugar and other imported goods to raise the missing revenue.
B) It declared war on the colonies and sought to destroy them.
C) It declared its authority to pass any law on the colonies whenever it wanted.
D) It sent over more representatives from the crown to run state and local
governments.
47. What broke the year-long peace between Britain and its North American colonies
following the resolution of the Stamp Act crisis?
A) Colonial elites decided to reject the Navigation Act.
B) Britain decided to reintroduce the Stamp Act.
C) Britain created a new tax on many imported items.
D) Samuel Adams led a rebellion against British rule.
48. When the colonies declared a boycott on British goods, who formed the backbone of the
movement?
A) Artisans
B) Small farmers
C) Sea captains
D) Women
49. Ordinary people showed their support for the boycott of British goods by refusing to
A) buy goods manufactured in England.
B) buy stamps or any other paper products.
C) pay any taxes to the crown.
D) house British soldiers.
Page 11
50. What was the basis of the defense John Adams presented at the trial of the soldiers
accused in the Boston Massacre?
When the multitude was shouting and huzzaing, and threatening life, the bells ringing,
the mob whistling, screaming, and rending like an Indian yell, the people from all
quarters throwing every species of rubbish they could pick up in the street, and some
who were quite on the other side of the street throwing clubs at the whole party,
Montgomery in particular smote with a club and knocked down, and as soon as he could
rise and take up his firelock, another club from afar struck his breast or shoulder, what
could he do? Do you expect he should behave like a stoic philosopher lost in apathy? . .
. It is impossible you should find him guilty of murder. You must suppose him divested
of all human passions, if you don't think him at the least provoked, thrown off his guard,
and into the furor brevis [brief madness], by such treatment as this. . . .
. . . Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the
dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law
less stable than the fact; if an assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear,
they had a right to kill in their own defence; if it was not so severe as to endanger their
lives, yet if they were assaulted at all, struck and abused by blows of any sort, . . . this
was a provocation, for which the law reduces the offence of killing, down to
manslaughter, in consideration of those passions in our nature, which cannot be
eradicated. To your candor and justice I submit the prisoners and their cause.
A) The soldiers were only following their captain's orders.
B) The crowd provoked the soldiers into firing.
C) The soldiers were acting to protect innocent lives.
D) The soldiers fired their weapons accidentally.
Page 12
Answer Key
1. C
2. A
3. C
4. B
5. D
6. B
7. A
8. B
9. C
10. D
11. B
12. A
13. D
14. B
15. D
16. C
17. D
18. A
19. C
20. B
21. B
22. B
23. D
24. A
25. B
26. D
27. C
28. C
29. B
30. D
31. A
32. B
33. D
34. C
35. C
36. B
37. C
38. A
39. C
40. D
41. C
42. B
43. B
44. B
Page 13
45. A
46. C
47. C
48. D
49. A
50. B
Page 14
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Se alejó. Nachito, con las manos trémulas, apilaba la plata. Le
llenaba de terror angustioso el absurdo de aquel providencialismo
maléfico, que dándole tan obstinada ventura en el juego, le tenía
decretada la muerte. Sentíase bajo el poder de fuerzas invisibles, las
advertía en torno suyo, hostiles y burlonas. Cogió un puñado de dinero
y lo puso a la primera carta que salió. Deseaba ganar y perder. Cerró
los ojos para abrirlos en el mismo instante. Chucho el Roto volvía la
baraja, enseñaba la puerta, corría la pinta. Nachito se afligió. Ganaba
otra vez. Se disculpó con una sonrisa, sintiendo la mirada aviesa de
bandolero tahúr:
—¡Posiblemente esta tarde voy a ser ultimado!
II
III
Conforme adelantaba el día, los rayos del sol, metiéndose por las
altas rejas, sesgaban y triangulaban la cuadra del calabozo. En
aquellas horas, el vaho de tabaco y catinga era de una crasitud
pegajosa. Los más de los presos adormecían en sus hamacas, y a
rebullirse alzaban una nube de moscas, que volvía a posarse apenas e
bulto quedaba inerte. En corros silenciosos otros prisioneros se
repartían por los rumbos del calabozo, buscando los triángulos sin sol
Eran raras las pláticas, tenues, con un matiz de conformidad para las
adversidades de la fortuna: Las almas presentían el fin de su
peregrinación mundana, y este torturado pensamiento de todas las
horas revestíalas de estoica serenidad. Las raras pláticas tenían un
dejo de olvidada sonrisa, luz humorística de candiles que se apagan
faltos de aceite. El pensamiento de la muerte había puesto en aquellos
ojos, vueltos al mundo sobre el recuerdo de sus vidas pasadas, una
visión indulgente y melancólica. La igualdad en el destino determinaba
un igual acento en la diversidad de rostros y expresiones. Sentíanse
alejados en una orilla remota, y la luz triangulada del calabozo realzaba
en un módulo moderno y cubista la actitud macilenta de las figuras.
S E X TA PA RT E
ALFAJORES Y VENENOS
LIBRO PRIMERO
LECCIÓN DE LOYOLA
II
III
IV
VI
II
III
IV
—¡Querido Celes!
Al penetrar en el salón, con sonrisa belfona recataba la congoja de
ánimo, estarcido de suspicacias: ¡Don Celes! ¡Las cartas! ¡La mueca
del Tirano! Un circunflejo del pensamiento sellaba la tríada con intuición
momentánea, y el carcamal rememoraba su epistolario amoroso, y la
dolorosa inquietud de otro disgusto lejano, en una Corte de Europa. E
Ilustre Gachupín era en el estrado, con el jipi y los guantes sobre la
repisa de la botarga: Bombón y badulaque, tendida la mano, en el sali
de la penumbra dorada se detuvo fulminado por el ladrido del faldero
que, arisco y mimoso, sacaba el agudo flautín entre las zancas de Su
Excelencia:
—No quiere reconocerme por amigo.
Don Celes, como en un pésame, estrechó largamente la mano de
carcamal, que le animó con gesto de benévola indiferencia:
—¡Querido Celes, trae usted cara de grandes sucesos!
—Estoy, mi querido amigo, verdaderamente atribulado.
El Barón de Benicarlés le interrogó con una mueca de suripanta:
—¿Qué ocurre?
—Querido Mariano, me causa una gran mortificación dar este paso
Créamelo usted. Pero las críticas circunstancias por que atraviesan las
finanzas del país me obligan a recoger numerario.
El Ministro de Su Majestad Católica, falso y declamatorio, estrechó
las manos del ilustre gachupín:
—Celes, es usted el hombre más bueno del mundo. Estoy viendo lo
que usted sufre al pedirme su plata. Hoy se me ha revelado su gran
corazón. ¿Sabe usted las últimas noticias de España?
—¿Pero hubo paquete?
—Me refiero al cable.
—¿Hay cambio político?
—El Posibilismo en Palacio.
—¿De veras? No me sorprende. Eran mis noticias, pero los sucesos
han debido anticiparse.
—Celes, usted será Ministro de Hacienda. Acuérdese usted de este
desterrado y venga un abrazo.
—¡Querido Mariano!
—¡Qué digna coronación de su vida, Celestino!
Falso y confidencial, hizo sentar en el sofá al orondo ricacho, y
sacando la cadera, cotorrón, tomó asiento a su lado. La botarga de
gachupín se inflaba complacida. Emilio le llamaría por cable. ¡La Madre
Patria! Se sintió con una conciencia difusa de nuevas obligaciones, una
respetabilidad adiposa de personaje. Experimentaba la extraña
sensación de que su sombra creciese desmesuradamente, mientras e
cuerpo se achicaba. Enternecíase. Le sonaban eufónicamente
escandidas palabras —Sacerdocio, Ponencia, Parlamento, Holocausto
—. Y adoptaba un lema: ¡Todo por mi Patria! Aquella matrona entrada
en carnes, corona, rodela y estoque, le conmovía como dama de tablas
que corta el verso en la tramoya de candilejas, bambalinas y telones
Don Celes sentíase revestido de sagradas ínfulas y desplegaba
petulante la curva de su destino con casaca bordada, como el pavo
real la fábula de su cola. Fatuas imágenes y suspicacias de negociante
compendiaban sus larvados arabescos en fugas colmadas de
resonancias. El Ilustre Gachupín temía la mengua de sus lucros, s
trocaba la explotación de cholos y morenos por el servicio de la Madre
Patria: Se tocó el pecho y sacó la cartera:
—Querido Mariano, real y verdaderamente, en las circunstancias po
que atraviesa este país, con la incertidumbre y poca fijeza de sus
finanzas, me representa un grave quebranto la radicación en España
¡Usted me conoce, usted sabe todo lo que me violenta apremiarle
usted, dándose cuenta de mi buena voluntad, no me creará una
situación embarazosa!...
El Barón de Benicarlés, con apagada sonrisa, tiraba de las orejas a
Merlín:
—¡Carísimo Celestino, pero si está usted haciendo mi rol! Sus
disculpas, todas sus palabras, las hago mías. No es a usted a quien
corresponde hablar así. ¡Carísimo Celestino, no me amenace usted
con la cartera, que me da más miedo que una pistola! Guárdesela para
que sigamos hablando. Tengo en venta una masía en Alicante. ¿Po
qué no se decide usted y me la compra? Sería un espléndido regalo
para su amigo el elocuente tribuno. Decídase usted, que se la doy
barata.
Don Celes Galindo entornaba los ojos, abierta una sonrisa de
oráculo entre las patillas de canela.
VI