Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)
Native discontent with British policies and actions in Fort Detroit.
British restricted their trade and didn’t provide guns for them
Pontiac's leadership in attacking Fort Detroit 3000 natives attacked.
Spread of Native resistance
British won
Seven Years War Causes
Dispute over land in Ohio river valley
France set up forts along the valley to prevent expansion into west.
plantation owners want to move west to produce tobaccoo
Seven Years War
War between French and British
Algonquians sided with French, Iroquois sided with Britain
Albany Plan of Union (1754) - created by Ben Franklin to organize an intercolonial government - including a system to collect taxes & recruit troops
France had previous trade relationships with Native tribes
Diseases and wars forced Native Americans to remake themselves/ piece tribes together through tribalization
Treaty of Paris (signed in 1973)
France surrendered nearly all of its claims
Native Americans of the region rejected the notion that France had the authority to cede their lands to the British
End of Seven Years War
British Victory
British see’s the colonies as a weak fighting force
Colonies see British as under experienced (fighting in the unknown territorya)
Increase of British debt - LED TO THE END OF SALUTARY NEGLECT - British needed money from the colonies to increase the nation’s revenue
Disagreements arose over taxation, expansion, & relations to the Natives
Royal Proclamation of 1763
Reaction to Pontiac’s rebellion by King George III
Drew a boundary line in the Appalachian Mountains & forbade colonists from settling the lands west of the line
British hoped to neutralize conflict between white settlers & Natives
Thousands of colonists defied the law, moving westward to claim land for themselves
Townshend Acts (1767)
Taxes on imports of glass, tea, lead, and paint
Courts were created to prosecute violators
Unleashed protest in colonies - colonists argued that British Parliament did not have the right to tax them because they lacked representation in the legislative body
Stamp Act (1765)
levied taxes on all printed material
Affected those who were most politically active
Provoked so much unrest, Britain was forced to repeal it
Sugar Act (1764) -
raised prices demanded for sweeteners like molasses and sugar
Significant because molasses was used to make gin
Quartering Act (1765)
- required colonial citizens to provide room & board for British soldiers stationed in America
Declaratory Act (1766)
eplaced the Stamp Act - maintained the right of the crown to tax the colonies as Parliament’s authority was identical in North America and Britain
Colonist Reaction to taxes and acts
Stamp Act Congress (1765) - petition to repeal the act - FIRST UNIFIED COLONIAL RESPONSE TO BRITISH POLICY - Stamp Act repealed in 1766
Assemblies of New York & Massachusetts rejected the right of taxation
Colonists organized boycotts of British goods & violent protest towardofficials (tarring & feathering)
Nonimportation Agreement - suspended all imports of British goods
Purpose: to rally opposition to British policies, to educate townspeople about the Constitutional rights, & to encourage townspeople to become politically active
British response: sending naval & military officials to Boston to enforce acts
Sons & Daughters of Liberty - group of Patriot activists who intimidated tax collectors, burned warehouses holding British imports, & enforced boycotts of British goods
Intolerable Acts
series of four laws passed by the British to punish Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party.
british occupied boston
Shut down boston port
Quebec Act- allowing french to expand its borders no allowing colonist in ohio river valley.
First Continental Congress (1774)
Colonies disagreed on boycotting british goods
Sputhern colonies depended on exports to britian for their economy
All colonies except Georgia sent delegates
Goal: develop strategy for addressing grievances, formulate colonial position on relationship between royal government and colonial governments
Came up with list of laws colonists wanted repealed
Agreed to impose boycott on British goods until grievances were redressed
Boston Tea Party
Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea imported from the British East India Company
Caused British to punish Boston & the colony of Massachusetts severely
British troops sent to occupy Boston
Shut down Boston’s port
Shut down Massachusetts’ legislative assembly
Appointed General Thomas Gage as governor - broadly expanded his power
Olive Branch Petition
1775 statement by the Continental Congress
Reasserted colonial loyalty to King George III and asked him to intervene with Parliament on the colonies behalf
King refused to recognize the Congress’ legitimacy to make such a request
Declaration of the Causes & Necessities for Taking Up Arms
Published by the Continental Congress in 1775
Justified the raising of a colonial military force & urged King George III to consider colonial grievances
The Enlightenment
Ideas of individual rights, separation of powers, and religious freedom.
Examples ofenlightenment philosphers Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson
John Locke
Enlightenment philosepher
(natural rights) & separation of powers)influenced republicanism, democracy, individual rights, the separation of powers, and science over religion (deism)
Believed in the social contract between the government and the governed
Contact allowed the government to govern while protecting the rights of life, liberty, and property
Locke argued that if natural rights weren’t granted, citizens had the right & responsibility to abolish the government
Enlightenment ideas influenced ben franklin, alexander hamilton, james madison, john adams, thomas jefferson
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776)
argued that it was contrary to common sense for the large land of America to be governed by the tiny England
Argued for a republican form of government - emphasis on equality
Frowned upon hereditary passing of power
The Great Awakening
Emphasized individual salvation
Rejection of the Anglican Church
Questioned the dependency on authority to connect to God - this reflected in a political sense
The Declaration of Independence
Second Continental Congress - assembly of delegates from the 13 colonies that passed the Declaration of Independence & the Articles of Confederation
Declaration contained a preamble that heavily reflected Enlightenment ideas about natural rights as well as 27 grievances and wrongdoings aimed at the Crown and English Parliament
Republican Motherhood
Because a woman’s role in the household was to educate their sons to be politically active citizens, women needed increased education in order to do so
This created a shift in the social status of women
Treaty of Paris (1783)
Ended the American Revolutionary War
America promised not to punish loyalists
Geographic boundaries of the British Empire & the United States
Recognized the US as an independent state
US agreed to pay back debts to British merchants
Articles of Confederation (1781
No executive branch of government - didn’t want to create a “too centralized federal government”
Federal government did not have the power to regulate commerce or levy taxes, no judicial branch, all states had to agree upon amendments
This created competition & disagreements between states about tariffs & whether they should charge each other
Land Ordinance of 1785
Established the basis for the Public Land Survey System in which settlers could purchase land in the undeveloped west
Allowed government to sell land in the West in order to pay of national debt
Government could organize this land into townships & plots of land for public schools
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Established guidelines for statehood
60,000 people
Banned slavery to the North of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi
One successful act under the Articles of Confederation
Shay’s Rebellion (1787)
Rebellion led by farmer Daniel Shay
Uprising against tax and debt collection
Rebellion crushed by the state army
Showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation & spurred the Constitutional Convention
Creation of Constitution
Virginia plan
-favored larger states
- called for representation in both legislative bodies to be based on population
New Jersey plan
- favored smaller states
- called for equal representation in the legislative branch
Connecticut Compromise
- proposal that one legislative body would be based on population & the other would have equal representation
Bill of Rights - first 10 amendments of the Constitution
Created to secure the support of Anti-Federalists in the ratification of the Constitution by explicitly stating individual rights and state sovereignty
System of checks and balances between the legislative, executive, & judiciary branches
Electoral college
- compromise at the Constitutional Convention regarding how to elect the president
electors cast votes as representatives of their states, which delegates believed would protect the election process from corruption and the influence of factions (political parties)
3/5 Compromise
Three-fifths Compromise - slave population would be counted as ⅗ of it’s actuarial population (Southern states had so many slaves that they wanted slave population to count toward total population)
Federalist Papers
Collection of papers written in the late 1780s urging the ratification of the Constitution
Whiskey Rebellion (1791)
Test of the government’s power under the new Constitution
Excise officials sent to collect the text were faced with refusal and violence
Farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over being taxed on distilled liquors such as whiskey
Quickly defeated - proved central government’s power to stop rebellions & maintain peace
Marbury vs. Madison (1803)
Established the doctrine of judicial review - first legal case in which US Supreme Court first ruled an act of Congress as unconstitutional
Judicial review - power of the courts to examine the actions of the legislative and executive branches and determine whether their actions are consistent with the Constitution
Sparked by Adam’s midnight justice appointment to keep court ruled by the Federalist party
National Bank of the United States
Proposed by Alexander Hamilton
Established in 1791 to serve as a repository for federal funds & as the government’s fiscal agent
Opposed by Thomas Jefferson on Constitutional grounds
Political Parties
Federalists - supported a strong national government & the ratification of the Constitution
Democratic-Republicans - founded by Anti-Federalists and agrarian interests
Deeply committed to the principles of republicanism which they feared were being threatened by the aristocratic tendencies of the Federalists
Wanted increased power for the state governments (feared a strong centralized power)
Opposed the ratification of the Constitution (especially without the Bill of Rights)
Opposed the national bank
Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793
Declaration of neutrality of America in the ongoing conflicts between Britain & France resulting from the French Revolution
Supported by George Washington & Hamilton who believed that America was too young & had too much debt to aide another nation in war
Opposed by Jefferson & Madison
Jay’s Treaty
Negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay in 1794
Realized several American economic goals (like removing British forts from the Northwest Territory)
Britain benefited - gave British trading rights & allowed them to continue anti-French maritime policies
Angered the French & Democratic-Republicans
Pickney’s Treaty
Treaty between the US and Spain that was ratified in 1796
Negotiated a settlement of boundary, right of navigation along the Mississippi River, and right to deposit goods for transportation at the Port of New Orleans
Spanish made negotiations in order to avoid an alliance between the US and Britain
Farewell Address
Open letter by George Washington in 1797
Urged against permanent alliances & political parties/ sectionalism
XYZ Affair
Three French diplomats demanded a large sum of money as a loan and additional birbes from an American diplomatic delegation just as an opportunity to speak with French officials - delegation refused to comply