Test yourself under real exam conditions: 50 timed questions, 60 on the clock, pass mark 70%%. Instant score with a full review of everything you got wrong. Free — no account needed.
Exam details
The first inhabitants were Paleo-Indians who migrated from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge approximately 15,000–20,000 years ago. They spread throughout North and South America, developing diverse cultures adapted to various environments.
Major groups included the Mississippian culture (builders of Cahokia), the Ancestral Puebloans of the Southwest, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, and the diverse Plains, Northwest Coast, and Southeastern nations. Each had distinct languages, governments, and traditions.
The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) was a political union of five (later six) Native American nations in the Northeast, possibly founded as early as the 12th century. Its democratic structure of governance influenced some Founding Fathers' thinking about the U.S. Constitution.
European colonization was driven by the desire for wealth (gold, trade routes), religious freedom (Puritans, Quakers), national competition, and expansion of empires. Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands all established colonies.
Jamestown (1607) was the first permanent English settlement in North America, located in Virginia. It struggled with starvation and conflict with Native Americans but survived through tobacco cultivation, which became a profitable cash crop.