According to Adichie, how is a single story created?
A. By telling many different stories at once
B. By letting people speak for themselves
C. By showing a people as only one thing, over and over
D. By using facts and numbers only
C. By showing a people as only one thing, over and over
Easy explanation:
A single story happens when one idea about a group is repeated again and again.
What does Adichie say is the main problem with stereotypes?
A. They are always completely false
B. They are funny
C. They are based on science
D. They are incomplete and make one story seem like the only story
D. They are incomplete and make one story seem like the only story
Easy explanation:
Stereotypes may have some truth, but they leave out many other important stories.
Why do all stories matter, according to Adichie?
A. Because stories are entertaining
B. Because there is never only one story about a place or people
C. Because stories replace history
D. Because stories end conflict
B. Because there is never only one story about a place or people
Easy explanation:
When we accept many stories, we understand people more fully and fairly.
What were travel tales?
A. Stories told by Indigenous people about Europe
B. Neutral history books
C. Stories told by white European travelers based on their own opinions
D. Modern news reports
C. Stories told by white European travelers based on their own opinions
Easy explanation:
Travel tales were written by Europeans and did not include Indigenous voices.
What did many European travelers focus on in travel tales?
A. Indigenous education systems
B. Indigenous family life
C. Indigenous languages
D. Shocking ideas like cannibalism and violence
D. Shocking ideas like cannibalism and violence
Easy explanation:
They focused on “ear-catching” stories instead of real daily life and values.
How did travel tales affect colonialism?
A. They helped protect Indigenous lands
B. They shaped negative views and justified colonial policies and land theft
C. They had no long-term impact
D. They ended conflict
B. They shaped negative views and justified colonial policies and land theft
Easy explanation:
These stories were used to explain and excuse taking Indigenous land.
What happened in the early 1600s in Plymouth?
A. Indigenous people settled European land
B. Pilgrims settled in Plymouth
C. Metacom led a war
D. Canada was formed
B. Pilgrims settled in Plymouth
Easy explanation:
Pilgrims arrived and settled on Indigenous land in the early 1600s.
How did the peace treaty with Massasoit become a single story?
A. It showed constant peace forever
B. It became the simplified Thanksgiving story of friendship and harmony
C. It ended colonization
D. It gave land back to Indigenous peoples
B. It became the simplified Thanksgiving story of friendship and harmony
Easy explanation:
One shared meal became the only story people remember, leaving out what came later.
Massasoit was the Wampanoag chief who made a peace treaty with the Pilgrims in the early 1600s so both sides could survive. Later, this moment became a single story called Thanksgiving, which focuses only on friendship and sharing a meal. What the story leaves out is what happened after: settlers kept taking Indigenous land and breaking agreements. After Massasoit died, his son Metacom (also called King Philip) became a leader and led a war to protect Indigenous lands. Because of the single Thanksgiving story, many people remember only peace and not the conflict and harm that followed.
What important event does the Thanksgiving story often ignore?
A. Pilgrims leaving America
B. Metacom (King Philip) being killed in 1676 while fighting for Indigenous land
C. The creation of Canada
D. European retreat
B. Metacom (King Philip) being killed in 1676 while fighting for Indigenous land
Easy explanation:
The popular story hides later violence, land loss, and Indigenous resistance.
According to the dictionary definitions on the slide, what is colonialism?
A. A cultural exchange between equal nations
B. A voluntary migration of people
C. Political domination and control of one people by another
D. A short historical event that ended long ago
C. Political domination and control of one people by another
“the political domination of a people or area by a foreign state or
nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s
political and economic control over another people or area”
(MerriamWebster Dictionary)
*
“the political takeover and domination of one country by
another, such that it becomes a colony governed by a foreign
administration (Oxford Reference, A Dictionary of African Politics)
colonialism is best described as:
A. A local issue only
B. A religious movement
C. A global phenomenon
D. A natural process
C. A global phenomenon
Easy explanation:
Colonialism happened all over the world, not just in one place.
When does colonialism begin in the Americas, according to the slide?
A. 1776
B. 1600
C. 1492
D. 1867
C. 1492
Easy explanation:
1492 marks the start of European colonization in North and South America.
is colonialism finished?
A. Yes, it ended in the 1800s
B. Yes, after independence
C. No, it is ongoing through settler colonialism
D. No, but only outside Canada
C. No, it is ongoing through settler colonialism
Easy explanation:
Settler colonialism means colonial systems still exist today.
How does Dr. Annie Ross describe colonization?
A. Only as land theft
B. As a philosophy and an attitude
C. As accidental settlement
D. As cultural sharing
B. As a philosophy and an attitude
Easy explanation:
Colonization is not just actions — it is a way of thinking.
Colonization = a philosophy / mindset
It is an attitude settlers had.
They believed land belonged to them.
“Imagined place”
Settlers imagined they had the right to the land.
That right was not natural or real, but something they told themselves.
Right of possession
Courts said settlers had a legal right to take land.
This was a made-up legal idea to justify land theft.
Manifest Destiny
Settlers believed it was their destiny or right to take land.
They thought it was meant to happen.
Not man’s law — creator’s law
Settlers believed a higher power (God) gave them the land.
This made colonization seem moral and justified to them.
Why this matters
This mindset made land theft seem normal and acceptable.
It ignored Indigenous peoples and their rights.
What belief allows colonizers to think land belongs to them?
A. Community law
B. Indigenous law
C. Right of possession / manifest destiny also imagined place, creators law
D. Environmental law
C. Right of possession / manifest destiny
Easy explanation:
Colonizers believed land was theirs by destiny or God, not by consent.
Right of possession
Colonizers believed that if they arrived and used the land, it automatically belonged to them, even without Indigenous consent.
Manifest Destiny
Colonizers believed God or destiny wanted them to expand and take Indigenous land.
What is the “myth of emptiness”?
A. The land had no resources
B. Indigenous people were nomads
C. The belief that nothing and no one existed on the land
D. The land was uninhabitable
C. The belief that nothing and no one existed on the land
Easy explanation:
Colonizers acted like Indigenous people did not exist.
Colonization is not just about taking land but is a philosophy or mindset where settlers believed the land belonged to them.
This belief was supported by ideas like the myth of emptiness, which treated Indigenous land as if no one lived there,
and the myth of the European miracle, which claimed European culture was the source of everything good and superior.
Colonialism did not happen only in the past but occurred in waves and continues to affect Indigenous peoples today. These waves included residential and boarding schools, forced loss of language, and the renaming of Indigenous lands, which erased sacred meanings and identities.
Under colonialism, trade meant exploiting resources on a global scale rather than fair exchange.
Colonialism also involved religious intolerance, where Indigenous spiritual beliefs connected to land, plants, rocks, and the spirit world were rejected, and only European beliefs were accepted.
What is the “myth of the European miracle”?
A. Europe discovered everything first
B. Europe was peaceful
C. Europe was seen as the source of all that is good and worthy
D. Europe had no colonies
C. Europe was seen as the source of all that is good and worthy
Easy explanation:
This myth says Europe created everything important — which is false.
Which of the following is described as part of colonialism?
A. Cultural exchange
B. Boarding schools, renaming places, re-languaging
C. Equal education
D. Environmental protection
B. Boarding schools, renaming places, re-languaging
Easy explanation:
Colonialism changes names, languages, and education systems.
Colonialism is a series of events. It’s not one thing that happened some other time in the mythic past.
In the colonial system, what did trade usually mean?
A. Fair exchange
B. Gift giving
C. Global resource exploitation
D. Local cooperation
C. Global resource exploitation
Easy explanation:
Trade was about taking resources, not fairness.
Exploitation means using people, land, or resources unfairly for your own benefit.
In the colonial system, trade was about exploitation because colonizers took Indigenous resources for profit without fairness, consent, or equal benefit.
Colonialism is described as religiously intolerant because it:
A. Encouraged many beliefs
B. Ignored religion
C. Rejected Indigenous spiritual systems
D. Protected sacred places
C. Rejected Indigenous spiritual systems
Easy explanation:
Colonialism did not respect Indigenous spiritual beliefs.
How did colonialism change gender roles in the Americas?
A. Strengthened matriarchal systems
B. Kept community leadership
C. Replaced maternal systems with male-dominated structures
D. Removed politics
C. Replaced maternal systems with male-dominated structures
Maternal systems are systems where women, especially mothers, held power, which colonialism replaced with male-dominated structures.
colonialism reshaped Indigenous societies in many ways.
It redefined gender roles by replacing community-based and maternal systems with male-dominated paternalism and individual political power.
Colonialism was enforced through violence and wars used to impose colonial policies. It relied on laws, policies, and treaties to control Indigenous peoples and define who was Indigenous, what nature was, and what was worth protecting.
These laws criminalized Indigenous religions, political and social practices, and even subsistence activities such as fishing in order to force assimilation.
Colonialism also worked through education by rewriting history to glorify colonizers and promote myths like the European miracle, presenting European culture as superior.
Colonialism is also described as:
A. Peaceful
B. Accidental
C. A series of wars and violence to enforce policy
D. Temporary
C. A series of wars and violence to enforce policy
Easy explanation:
Violence was used to force colonial rules.
Why does colonialism use laws and treaties?
A. To protect Indigenous culture
B. To control and enforce colonial systems
C. To end conflict
D. To restore land
B. To control and enforce colonial systems
Easy explanation:
Laws were made to control Indigenous peoples.
Colonialism criminalized which of the following?
A. European religion
B. Trade
C. Indigenous religious, social, and subsistence practices
D. Education
C. Indigenous religious, social, and subsistence practices
Easy explanation:
Fishing, ceremonies, and governance were made illegal.
Basic activities people do to survive and meet daily needs, not to make money.
Easy examples:
Fishing to feed your family
Hunting for food
Gathering plants or berries to eat or use
Farming just enough for your community
