apush test 2

Causes of the French and Indian War

Built up tension between France and Britain, and they were both competing to settle in the New World. Short term, George Washington led an expedition that caused a battle near Fort Duquesne, which is French territory.

Effects of the French and Indian War

It all leads to the start of the American Revolution. What came with this war was colonists facing consequences of the British, which they felt was extremely unfair. This led to rebellions (like the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre), and then lead to an actual revolution.

Proclamation of 1763

This prohibited American colonists from settling west of the Appalachians, intended to prevent conflict between colonists and Natives in the future, after the French and Indian War. Colonists saw this as an abuse towards them, and basically ignored this proclamation.

Boston Tea Party

To protest the tax on tea, American colonists dressed as Natives and dumped 340 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor off of British importation ships.

Boston Massacre

Colonists threw rock filled snowballs at Redcoats in their colonies. 5 colonists were killed. This spread propaganda of colonial unity, “if colonies didn’t unite, this would happen again.”

Stamp Act

The colonists were required to use special paper, which was taxed. This was greatly unpopular as a large variety of colonist activities revolved around paper. Ex: newspapers, playing cards

Intolerable Acts

Like the Boston Port Act, which closed the Boston Harbor until tea party damages were paid for, these acts were labeled as “intolerable” by the colonists. The Quebec Act is also an intolerable act (which gave French the right to catholicism & keeping their old traditions in Canada. I’m not so sure why this was intolerable.)

Townshend Acts

This taxed more everyday items imported to American colonies, such as glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea. Colonists still had no representation in Parliament, so they saw this as an abuse of power.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

The purpose of this was to get colonists on the side of independence. It highlighted grievances of Great Britain in “simple English” so more people were able to understand what the issues were. It was simple for the time and persuasive, and encouraged colonists to fight for their independence.

Second Continental Congress

A convention of delegates from the Thirteen colonies that founded the Articles of Confederation, which was a loose association of a “league of friendship” with one branch of government and one vote per state. Laws were passed with a ¾ majority rule, and amendments had to be unanimous (all 13 states had to agree).

Declaration of Independence: Purpose

A breakup letter to Great Britain. Separation from Britain was needed, but reasons for separation were also needed. That is what this document is. It was for Britain, stating its purpose, a list of grievances, and ending with the actual declaration, saying that with everything else, the colonies had the right to be free and independent.

Declaration of Independence: Major grievances against England

Colonial movement was restricted. The king sent Redcoats to harass colonists, even keeping them in the colonies during times of peace. Trial by jury didn’t exist. Colonies could only trade with Britain. There was taxation without colonists representation in Parliament. Local government was dissolved (states couldn’t govern themselves, the king governed all of them. Even when states were able to govern themselves, the king still saw over all their decisions.) Then, Britain took their government out of America, leaving them with nothing- Declaratory Act, colonies were in open rebellion, Redcoats were sent in. The king sent in soldiers from other countries to kill/control colonists. Britain would not let America fight back- impressment, randomly picked colonial men were forced to serve on the British navy.

Abigail Adams request to John Adams on women’s rights

“Remember the Ladies”. She wanted women to be included in the new constitution, for women to be given rights. In response, John Adams laughed at her, dismissing her complaints. For this, Abigail Adams promised rebellion, saying that eventually women will get power and men will lose their power over them.

Northwest Ordinance of 1785

This stated that a territory could become a state if it had 60,000 inhabitants + a constitution, this would make it equal to other states. This was the plan for new states. (It also stated no slavery north of the Ohio River). This was the only think kept from the Articles of Confederation in the Constitution.

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

No power to regulate commerce
Could not properly enforce tax collection
No President (figurehead) or Federal Court to settle disputes
Extremely weak military

Shays Rebellion

This exposed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Following the American Revolution, the economy suffered a post war depression. Farmers were hit particularly hard, causing Shays’ Rebellion (1786-87). Daniel Shays was a veteran of the Revolution & a farmer in Massachusetts. He began a rebellion of poor farmers. They demand lower taxes, ending foreclosures on their houses, making paper money, & ending imprisonment of debt. This exposed the Article’s weaknesses, as this Rebellion wasn’t even that big, but the military was so weak that they could not stop it.

Constitutional Convention

This was a convention to address issues of the Articles of Confederation and ratify the Constitution. After this convention, they came up with the Constitution as it is today, with a Bill of Rights. Here, they debated many topics, such as: representation by state vs population, local control vs national authority (state vs central gov), majority rule vs checks and balances, a bill of rights or no, and to abolish or keep slavery. There were compromises for all of these to make both sides happy.

Great Compromise

A compromise between representation by state vs by population. This compromise created the House of Representatives and the Senate. House of Rep: based on population and changed with the people This appeased larger states. Senate: 2 representatives per state. Senators served for longer. This appeased smaller states.

3/5 Compromise

This was a compromise between abolishing and keeping slavery. This compromise meant that slaves only counted for representation in Congress. 3/5 of the slave population counted.

Electoral College

A group who decides the president and vice president. The people were not seen as “smart enough” to directly vote for a president themselves, so each state has a number of votes based on population + 2 for each senator, and this goes through the electoral college before a president is decided. The candidate with majority electoral votes wins.

Federalist Papers

These were essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. The purpose of these were to urge the ratification of the Constitution. For this, agreement on the Bill of Rights was required, despite Federalists not wanting a Bill of Rights.

Anti-Federalists request for the Constitution

Their request was a Bill of Rights. They refused to support the ratification of the constitution without it. They argued that without a Bill of Rights, the government will over power and violate the people. The most absurd thing would be to give up power, and the absence of a Bill of Rights would give the Federal government unlimited power, making the people give up power.

federalist

supported ratification, they liked a strong central gov
(against bill of rights)

anti-federalists

opposed ratification, they wanted states & local rights
(for bill of rights, wouldnt support ratification of constitution without it)

legislative

makes laws
senate, house of representatives

executive

carries out laws
president, vice president

judicial

evaluates laws
supreme court, other federal courts

federal

national
smaller power

states

majority power to prevent abuse of gov