APUSH Period 3: 1754-1800 -- The Crisis of Empire, Revolution, and Nation Building

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context for period 3

in the late 1700s, Britain’s attempts to control the colonies after the French and Indian War led to intense colonial resistance and revolution — the new resulting American republic struggled over its social, political, and economic identity in the years after

causes of the French and Indian War

• expansion and overlapping land claims

  • British colonists from VA settling in the French-claimed Ohio River Valley in the 1740s and 1750s

  • 1754 skirmishes between these British colonists at Fort Necessity and the French at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)

• persistent conflicts between GB and France in Europe

years of the French and Indian War

1754-1761

Albany Plan

• Benjamin Franklin’s plan for intercolonial government

• proposed when colonial leaders met in Albany in 1754 but rejected by delegates

William Pitt

• British Prime Minister

• took charge of the French and Indian War starting 1756

• initially alienated colonists with heavy-handed tactics

• when met with colonial resistance, tried to work with the colonies and reinforced the war effort with more British troops in 1758

Treaty of Paris (1763)

• France surrendered virtually its entire North American empire

• GB gained French territory in Canada and east of the MS River

• Spain gained French territory west of the MS River

impacts of the French and Indian War

• virtually eliminated France from North America

• led to increased British taxation of the colonists because of war debts

• American Indians in previously-French land were in an increasingly vulnerable position

Sugar Act

enacted in 1764; lowered the existing tax on French molasses but shifted prosecutions of smuggling cases from local jury trials to British maritime courts

Stamp Act

enacted in 1765; purely designed to raise revenue, it taxed all sorts of printed material and met the most intense colonial opposition (rescinded in 1766)

Quartering Act

enacted in 1765; allowed for British soldiers in the colonies to be housed in local inns, pubs, or private residences if necessary

unlike the French, the British _____________ with Native Americans

did not work to maintain good relations (through gifts or negotiations)

Neolin

• Delaware leader

• 1760-1761 encouraged American Indians to curb contact with European fur traders; reduce the presence of gun, alcohol, and European goods; and lessen infighting

• efforts set stage for unified, violent resistance

Pontiac’s Rebellion

• 1763-1764 (skirmishes until the Revolution)

• After the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Ottowa chief Pontiac and other NA leaders organized attacks on British-held forts and colonial settlements

• many British soldiers and colonists were killed or captured

• caused by dissasfaction with British occupation of the Great Lakes region

• led to the British Proclamation of 1763

Proclamation of 1763

• GB’s order to colonists not to settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains

• prompted by Pontiac’s Rebellion

• GB didn’t want to provoke more warfare with NAs

• upset colonists, who wanted to settle the new land they had just helped fight for in the F&I War

settlement of the American interior after the French and Indian War led to tensions between __________ and __________

ruling authorities in the eastern cities, poorer settlers inland

the Scots-Irish

• Presbyterians from Scotland who had settled in Ireland

• largest immigrant group in the 1700s

• difficult economic conditions led many to migrate to Pennslyvania and the other Middle Colonies, where there was land and a need for workers

the Paxton Boys

• a vigilante group of Scots-Irish immigrants on the Pennsylvania frontier

• organized raids against American Indians because of tensions over land the Scots-Irish had encroached upon

• in 1763 attacked peaceful Conestoga people, many of whom were Christian

• expressed bitterness at NAs as well as the Quaker elite who maintained a more lenient policy toward NAs

Stamp Act Congress

• met in October 1765 in New York; delegates from nine colonies

• the Declarations of the Stamp Act Congress asserted “no taxation without representation” in response to the Stamp Act (1765)

• first significant, coordinated protest against British policies in the colonies

virtual representation

the British theory that members of Parliament represented the entire British Empire and therefore “virtually represented” the colonists, even though the colonists didn’t vote for them

committees of correspondence

• committees organized by opponents of British policies starting in 1764

• spread info and coordinated resistance actions

• became virtual shadow governments by 1770s, challenging legislative assemblies and royal governors

Sons of Liberty

group of colonists who harassed and occasionally attacked Stamp Act agents throughout the colonies

Townshend Acts

enacted in 1767, in the wake of the Stamp Act crisis; imposed taxes on imports like tea, paint, etc. and was met in 1768 by a boycott movement against British goods

standing armies

name for the British troops deployed in the colonies; colonists saw them as threats to liberty and didn’t like that they competed with colonists for jobs

Boston Massacre

• 1770 in Boston

• disagreement between a colonist and British soldier escalated into a scuffle where the British fired on the colonists and killed 5

• used as colonial propaganda to illustrate the brutality of British troops

Gaspee affair

in June 1772, local colonists looted and torched the Gaspee, a British revenue schooner looking for smugglers in Rhode Island; represented a shift toward more militant tactics by colonial protestors

Tea Act

enacted in 1773; reduced taxes on tea sold by the struggling British East India Company in the colonies and angered colonists, who responded with the Boston Tea Party (dumped tea into Boston harbor)

Intolerable Acts

enacted in 1774, in the wake of the Boston Tea Party; put MA under direct British control, allowed British authorities to move MA trials to Britain, closed the port of Boston to trade, and required Bostonians to house British troops upon their command

Quebec Act

the fifth act of the Intolerable Acts, unrelated to the Boston Tea Party; allowed Catholics in Quebec to freely practice their religion and was seen by Protestant Bostonians as an attack on their faith

First Continental Congress

• met in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774

• involved representatives from each of the thirteen colonies, except GA

• convened as colonists grew angrier at the British and power shifted from royal governance to extralegal colonial bodies

• passed resolutions to cut off all trade with Britain and create local Committees of Safety for enforcement; recommended military preparations against British invasion

Daughters of Liberty

• formed in 1765 during protests against the Stamp Act

• group of women in the opposition movement who organized boycotts, “spinning bees”, and public protests throughout the 1770s

• made and distributed homemade substitutes of teas sold by the British East India Company

ways women participated in resistance against Britain

• Daughters of Liberty — protests, boycotts

• making clothing to honor boycotts and supply American troops in the war

• worked as nurses and water carriers on the battlefield

• Deborah Sampson, disguised as a man, fought in the Continental Army

spinning bees

public events in which colonial women produced homespun cloth to protest against the British; example of women participating in public protests and reform movements while both challenging and adhering to gender norms

ways artisans participated in resistance against Britain

• encouraged boycotts of British goods

• participated in anti-British street actions in Boston and Philadelphia

• during the Revolution, made up the bulk of local militias and Continental Army units

• in 1776 Philadelphia, with Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush, formed extra legal committees and militia groups in support of revolution and crafted a democratic constitution

Protestant evangelicalism

a more intense and radical form of Protestantism, more focused on individual conversion and less centered on established churches

• arose in the 1700s

• overlapped with republicanism often as colonists viewed the struggle against Britain as a struggle against godless tyranny

Enlightenment thinking and revolution

• the Enlightenment shaped the thinking of many patriots and provided a lens through which to perceive and resist British rule

• several revolutions followed the American Rev., all articulating new ideas about governance, individual liberty, and reason

• Montesquieu's argument for a balance of power (1748) influenced Americans

Olive Branch Petition

• petition sent by the Continental Congress to King George III in July 1775

• affirmed loyalty to the king

• proposed a structure in which colonies could exercise greater autonomy and Britain could enact more equitable trade and tax regulations

• rejected by the king

Common Sense

• Thomas Paine’s best-selling pamphlet (January 1776)

• argued that the American colonies declare independence from Britain

• put the blame for the colonial crisis on King George III

Declaration of Independence

• ratified by delegates to the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776

• written mainly by Thomas Jefferson

• preamble contains key elements of Locke’s natural rights theory — "all men are created equal”

• ideas have shaped democratic practices in US and beyond

republic

a country in which sovereignty (power) ultimately rests with the people rather than a monarch

competing views of republicanism

1. republican citizens should embody civic virtue and put community interests over their own (ancient Rome, Puritan ideas)

2. republican citizens should pursue their own self-interests because competition can lead to greater prosperity for all (Adam Smith)

first fighting of the American Revolution

April 1775, “the shot heard round the world” at Lexington and Concord; resistance —> rebellion

advantages for the British

• highly trained, professional army

• strongest navy in the world

• substantial financial resources

• 1/3 of the colonial population were loyalists

• offered freedom to slaves who joined them

  • could rely on a majority of American Indian peoples for support

disadvantages for the British

• fighting far from home

• war was long and took place over a large area

• enemies like France wanted to see GB defeated

advantages for the colonists

• excellent leadership — Washington, Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox

• European volunteer officers — Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, etc.

• defending home territory

• deep belief in cause of independence among soldiers

disadvantages for the colonists

• lack of financing

• lack of a strong central governing authority

first phase of the revolution

• 1775-1776

• primarily in New England

• 2nd Continental Congress declared independence July 1776

• British undermined Patriot sentiment and thought a minority in NE was the problem

• British reevaluated strategy after heavy losses in their victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill (March 1776)

second phase of the revolution

• 1776-1778

• primarily in the Middle Colonies

• British strategy was to isolate New England by taking NY; drove Washington out of NYC by summer 1776

• major colonist victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777

• starting in early 1788, France gave colonists military assistance

Battle of Saratoga

October 1777; major colonist victory that showed France that the colonists stood a chance in battle and led to French military aid to Americans in early 1778

third phase of the revolution

• 1778-1783

• primarily in the South

• Britain hoped to rally loyalist sentiment among Southerners and slaves but failed

• British victories at Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC

• stalemate in the North

• October 1781 American-French campaign brought British surrender at Yorktown, VA

• revolution officially ended with the 1783 Treaty of Paris

financial difficulties of the Continental Army

• the Continental Army was underfunded and frequently short of basic supplies

• Congress didn’t have the power to levy taxes

• Congress printing money led to inflation

• merchants refused to sell to the army because of the soldiers’ worthless currency

Valley Forge

• winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

• Washington’s troops suffered from food shortages

• in part because merchants wouldn’t sell to the army because of inflation

moves to abolish slavery during/after the Revolution

• the language of equality in the Declaration and in state constitutions was used by enslaved African Americans to argue for freedom

• MA voting rights were extended to tax-paying African Americans — no taxation w/o representation

• MA slavery effectively ended through courts

• Vermont (14th state) outlawed slavery in 1777 constitution

• 1780 PA voted to end slavery by gradual emancipation

changes in ideas around gender roles

• women’s participation in the struggle for independence led to a sense of egalitarianism among many

• Abigail Adams’ “remember the ladies” March 1776; don’t give men “unlimited power”

• many saw the tyranny of king over subject analogous to tyranny of husband over wife

• republican motherhood

republican motherhood

• idea that women had civic responsibilities in the new nation

• women should raise civic-minded republican sons and reform the morals and manners of men

• expanded possibilities for women’s education

• still confined women to a largely domestic role

French Revolution

• 1789-1799

• inspired by Enlightenment and by American Rev.

• initially national legislature against absolutist monarchy — had widespread American support

• 1793 became more radical and violent; 40,000 executed — Americans increasingly divided

• Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power after its end

Haitian Revolution

• 1791-1804

• revolution in French colony Saint Domingue on Caribbean island of Hispaniola

• sugar-producing slave society — whites, mixed-race people, African slaves

• 1. white colonists resisted French rule — inspired by American and French Revs.

• 2. mixed-race planters challenged second-class status

• 3. slave rebellion led by Toussaint L’Overture — scared southern US planters

• Haiti gained independence as first Black republic in the Americas 1804

Latin American revolutions

• starting in 1808, several Spanish colonies in Latin America rebelled against Spanish rule

• inspired by ideology, geopolitics, and material interests

• the revolution that was most similar to American Rev. — cutting ties with European powers, deep internal divisions, slavery

Revolution-era state governments

• by 1778, 10 states had drawn up constitutions

• all state constitutions affirmed that government ultimately rests on the consent of the governed

• most reflected old-republican idea that government should be small to avoid tyranny

• Pennsylvania had the most radical constitution — abolished property voting qualifications and abolished office of governor - voice for artisan and lower-class rather than merchant elite

Articles of Confederation

• written 1776, ratified 1781

• created a weak “league of friendship” among the states

• unicameral legislature with delegations from each state

• larger majority vote needed for bigger changes — unanimous vote for amendments to the document itself

• could not directly tax the people and instead relied on voluntary state contributions

indications of the Articles’ weaknesses

• 1780s serious economic problems — inflation and government debts

• Robert Morris’ 5% impost (import tax) rejected by RI and NY — Congress faced difficulties in passing important reforms

• Shay’s Rebellion (1786-1787) — no strong central militia to put down uprising

Shay’s Rebellion

• 1786-1787

• hundreds of Massachusetts farmers led by veteran Daniel Shays protested and took up arms against hard currency taxes and farm foreclosures by banks

• response to perceived injustice like when under British rule

• reflected ongonig tensions between coastal elites and struggling inland farmers

• raised concerns over the ability of authorities to put down future uprisings

Land Ordinance of 1784

divided the Northwest Territory (land between the Appalachain Mtns. and the MS River) into 10 potential new states, each with the guarantee of self-government

Land Ordinance of 1785

reduced number of potential states in the NW Territory from 10 to 5; created townships with lots set aside for education and public use

Northwest Ordinance

passed in 1787; set up a process by which areas could become territories, then states — also banned slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River

effects of land ordinances 1784-1787

• clarified status of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains

• encouraged settlement of the land that would become Ohio (state 1803), Indiana, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and part of Wisconsin

• pushed out American Indians more

Constitutional Convention

• met in Philadelphia in 1787

• delegates drafted the Constitution, designed to strengthen the central government

• deliberated for four months and decided on compromises that formed the basis of the Constitution

Virginia Plan

• result of larger states’ dissatisfaction with one-vote-per-state system of the Articles

• would have created a bicameral legislature with the number of representatives from each state being proportional to population

New Jersey Plan

• result of small states’ fears that their voices would be drowned out if the number of representatives was based on population

• would have created a one-house legislature with each state getting one vote (like the Congress under the Articles)

Great Compromise

called for a House of Representatives, in which representation would be based on population, and a Senate, in which each state would get two members

Three-Fifths Compromise

• compromise over who would be counted in determining a state’s population for representation in Congress

• southern states could count three-fifths of their slave populations in the census

evidence that the Constitution recognized and condoned slavery

• tacit (implied) approval of slavery shown in delegates voting to protect the international slave trade for 20 years

• Constitution provided for the return of fugitive slaves

Federalists

supporters of the Constitution; prominent figures were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

The Federalist papers

a series of articles written by Hamilton, John Jay, and Madison in support of ratification in 1788

• outlined failures of the Articles and benefits of a powerful government with checks and balances and separation of powers

• argued that a complex government was the best guarantee of liberty

Anti-Federalists

opponents of the Constitution; prominent figures were Patrick Henry and George Mason — concerned that individual rights weren’t adequately protected

ratification of the Constitution

• all states had ratified the Constitution by May 1790 (the required 9 by June 1788)

• 7 of the states only approved after Federalists assured them that they would make a national bill of rights

Bill of Rights

• the first ten amendments to the Constitution, added December 1791

• its creation was one of Congress’s first acts; created to relieve Anti-Federalists

• mainly written by James Madison

First Amendment

• prohibits the establishment of an official religion in the US

• affirms freedom of speech and press and the right to peacefully assemble and petition the government

Second Amendment

guarantees the right to bear arms

Third Amendment

prohibits the forced quartering of soldiers in Americans’ homes

Fourth Amendment

guarantees protection from unreasonable searches and seizures by government officials

Fifth Amendment

• guarantees the right to indictment (formal accusation) by a grand jury

• forbids “double jeopardy” (being tried for the same crime twice)

• prohibits the forcing of a suspect to testify against themself

• prohibits the seizure of private property unless through "eminent domain” (government can take property if for public use and if compensation is given)

Sixth Amendment

guarantees suspects the right…

• to a speedy and public trial

• to be informed of charges

• to question witnesses

• to call friendly witnesses

• to have a lawyer

Seventh Amendment

guarantees right to a trial by jury, even in civil cases involving money

Eighth Amendment

prevents cruel and unusual punishment and the setting of excessive bail

Ninth Amendment

guarantees that additional rights not mentioned in the Bill of Rights shall be protected from government infringement

Tenth Amendment

asserts that powers not delegated to the federal government, nor prohibited by the Constitution, shall be retained by the states and by the people

Fifteenth Amendment (later)

1870 — prohibits voting restrictions based on race

Nineteenth Amendment (later)

1920 — prohibits voting restrictions based on gender

Twenty-sixth Amendment (later)

1971 — lowered the voting age to 18

powers of the legislative branch (Congress)

• detailed in Article I of the Constitution

• levy taxes, regulate trade, coin money, establish post offices, declare war, approve treaties

• make laws it deems “necessary and proper” to carry out its listed powers

elastic clause

clause in the Constitution that stretches the powers of Congress by allowing it to create laws it deems “necessary and proper” to carry out its listed powers

powers of the executive branch (president)

• detailed in Article II of the Constitution

• suggest legislation, command the armed forces, nominate judges

• job is to carry out the laws of the land

powers of the judicial branch (Supreme Court)

• detailed in Article III of the Constitution

• hear cases involving people or entities from different states and cases involving federal law

• later able to nullify laws it deems unconstitutional (judicial review; 1803 Marbury v. Madison)

judicial review

the Supreme Court’s power to nullify laws that it deems inconsistent with the Constitution — assumed in the Marbury v. Madison case (1803)

checks and balances

system under which each branch of the goverment has the ability to check the powers of the other branches — goal is to keep branches in balance

federalism

mode of government with powers split between the national government and the states

reserved powers

powers kept by the states under the Constitution

delegated powers

new powers given to the national government under the Constitution

expanded national powers under the Constitution

• power to tax, borrow money, regulate commerce, and promote the “general welfare”

• national government is the “supreme law of the land”

issues the US faced in its first years of independence

• continued presence of Euoprean powers in North America — had to safeguard borders

• war and conflict in Europe — hard to pursue free trade and neutrality

• status of American Indians in the US not clarified — set stage for future conflicts

• debates over a national bank, the future economic direction of the US, and the proper balance between security and civil liberties