Knowledge BLASTER! Guide to American History

By Yucca Road Productions

Looking for a time-saving review of American history?

History goes on forever; learning it doesn't have to.

We were helping a friend study for the contestant quiz of the Jeopardy! Game show when we realized we had accumulated enough information to teach the subject to almost anyone. And in only about one hundred pages!

True, if you need to know socio-economic or politico-industrial whys and wherefores, you'll have to find a much bigger book. But if you're like most of us and just want to know who-did-what and when, have we got a book for you!

Knowledge BLASTER! Guide to American History traces the sometimes-haphazard development of civilization in the New World. From the daredevil exploits of early explorers through the brazen rejection of colonial bonds by the Founding Fathers in the American Revolution. From the bloody Civil War that threatened to destroy our Great Experiment to the World Wars that ripped at the very fabric of civilization and democracy worldwide.

In these pages, you'll discover: The arts, inventions and industry of our nation's great thinkers and doers. War heroes like George Washington, Mad Anthony Wayne and General George Patton. Cowboys in the Wild West and astronauts in outer space.

You'll get answers to your questions:

Who founded the first California Mission?

What cities have served as America's capital?
What really caused the Battle of Wounded Knee?
Who were our Presidents?
When were our fifty great states added to the Union?

You'll find the KNOWLEDGE BLASTER! Series books are patterned in an efficient question-and-answer mode, stressing simplicity, brevity, and clarity.

You can use this reference work as a launch pad to propel yourself into more in-depth studies. However, if you find this little study guide provides all the information you need, then consider your knowledge...
Blasted!

We wish you the best of luck in your quest for knowledge in this fascinating subject. 'Bye now.

And, oh yes, buy now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yucca Road Productions
• Release date: Jun 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463209905

Yucca Road Productions

Yucca Road Productions started as all great enterprises do... having a cup of coffee with friends at the kitchen table. One of our little gang of misfits had decided he was destined to appear on the Jeopardy! game show. The rest of us were foolhardy enough to volunteer our surprisingly diverse knowledge sets for the task of preparing him for said destiny.A couple years later, we had accumulated so much info, it was nuts. After deleting what we decided was "trivia" in the game show's dozen or so most-used categories, we figured we could teach anybody to do well on a game show. Or an exam. Or trivia night at the neighborhood pub. Oh, yes... we nailed that one.And so, the Knowledge Blaster! series was conceived and delivered!Then Terry Marsh wrote a couple novels and approached us about getting them published. We liked the books. So, after coercing him into buying bagels for everybody, we added him to our list of ne'er-do-wells.Then Leo Moss surprised us with a book of more-or-less poetry and a novel about a reluctant magic man. We added his works to the list, too. We had to. Moss is the only guy in the group who can spell without a dictionary (so we made him editor), and we just can't find anybody else who will work for the "prestige" of it. Just kidding, Leo.So, time passes, as is its habit. We're still at the kitchen table, wondering what might happen next. We hope it involves pizza, but you never know.

Book preview

The Old World Meets the New

What Portuguese sailor rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Africa's tip, in 1488?

—Bartholomew Diaz.

When Columbus sailed for the New World in 1492, who were his financial backers?

—King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Can you name Columbus' ships?

—The Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.

What was the nickname of Prince Henry of Portugal, whose passion for sailing contributed to the world’s knowledge of seamanship?

—Henry the Navigator.

In 1497, this Portuguese explorer sailed from Lisbon to Calicut, in India, opening up a lucrative spice trade.

—Vasco de Gama.

What Italian explorer (under Spain's colors) explored the coast from Mexico to Brazil in 1497?

—Amerigo Vespucci.

This Englishman claimed Labrador for King Henry VII in 1497.

—John Cabot.

This Portuguese sailor discovered Brazil (1500).

—Cabral.

This conqueror of Puerto Rico searched for the fabled Fountain of Youth and discovered Florida.

—Ponce de León, in 1513.

In 1513 this Spaniard crossed the isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean.

—Balboa.

This Spanish sailor was the first to circumnavigate the globe, 1519 to 1522. The strait he discovered at the tip of South America bears his name.

—Magellan.

Who conquered the Aztecs of Mexico?

—Hernando Cortez of Spain.

Who conquered the Incas of Peru?

—Pizarro.

This Spaniard made a transcontinental crossing over Mexico to the Pacific in 1526.

—Cabeza de Vaca.

In 1541, he discovered the Mississippi River.

—Hernando de Soto.

This Spaniard discovered the Bay of San Francisco in 1542.

—Cabrillo.

__?__ searched Arizona and New Mexico for the Seven Cities of Gold.

—Francisco de Coronado.

Who took possession of New Mexico in 1598?

—Juan de Oñate.

Religious revolutions in Europe in the 1500s were destined to effect the New World. The Protestant Reformation had its roots in Germany. Who led the Reformation, posting his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, in 1517?

—Martin Luther.

In 1534, this king of England made Anglicanism the state religion, after annulling his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in defiance of the Pope.

—Henry VIII.

His religious reforms rocked Geneva, Switzerland, 1536.

—John Calvin, father of Calvinism.

In the 1540s, this leader of the Catholic Reformation in Spain formed the Society of Jesus.

—Ignatius of Loyola, whose followers were called Jesuits.

In 1556, this man took over Spain. He also claimed to be King of England, because he had married Queen Mary I, the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

—Phillip II.

Mary I, infamous Catholic queen of England, gained this nickname for ordering the execution of 300 Protestants.

—Bloody Mary.

The first Bourbon king of France was a Huguenot (French Calvinist) but converted to Catholicism for political reasons. In 1598, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which gave freedom of worship and political rights to Huguenots. He was...?

—Henry IV (Henry of Navarre.)

This Elizabethan sea dog (an English sailor under Queen Elizabeth, who followed Mary I) used his ship, the Golden Hind, to loot Spanish ships in the 158Os.

—Sir Francis Drake. (Drake circumnavigated the earth in the 1570s.)

In 1588, Drake and others defeated this Spanish fleet.

—The Great (or Spanish) Armada.

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Colonizing with a Vengeance

Established in 1565, this was the first permanent European settlement on the New World.

—St. Augustine, Florida. (Spanish)

Who claimed Virginia for England, in 1584? He made two attempts to colonize between 1584 and 1590.

—Sir Walter Raleigh.

In England, who led the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the houses of Parliament, under King James I in 1605?

—Guy Fawkes.

Who claimed the Great