APUSH - Fall Final 2025

Benjamin Franklin shaped America through… (6)

Securing French aid, signing the Declaration and Constitution, things like the First lending library, post office, and fire department

Benjamin Franklin invented… (3)

Lightning rod, Bifocals, Franklin stove, importance of polymath

James Madison

Father of the Constitution

Virginia Plan (4)

Made by James Madison, his “brainchild”, a new government, congress with representation based on state POPULATION, independent executive to carry out laws (President)

The “Great Compromise”

Agreement during the Constitutional Convention to make a two-house legislature, also called the Connecticut Compromise

Judicial review

The power of a court to examine the actions of the Legislative and Executive branches to see if they’re being constitutional

Article I … which branch?

Legislative Branch

Legislative branch

Congress, Senate, House of representativesS

Senators serve for…

6 yearsR

Representatives serve for…

2 years

How many senators per state?

2

How many representatives per state?

Determined by population

Article 1, Section 8 lists what?

Specific congressional powers (interpretive)

Article II - what branch?

Executive Branch

How is the president chosen?

Each state appoints electors —> they meet to vote by ballot for two people, one person cannot live in their state —> votes are counted in front of the Senate and House

How is the VP chosen?

The person with the second greatest number of votes

How many years do President and VP serve for?

4 years

Who is the commander in chief and chief executive?

President

Who enforces federal law?

President

Who commands the armed forces?

President

Who manages treaties and directs foreign policies?

President

Who vetoes bills?

President

Who recommends legislation?

President

President can’t… (3)

declare war, change/make laws, spend federal money without congressional approval

Vice president’s role is to… (2)

take the role of the president if needed, president of the Senate

Impeachment

Bringing formal charges against an elected offical

To remove the president from office…

Impeachment by the House, typed out charges are brought to the senate, 2/3 majority in the senate to impeach

Article III - what branch?

Judicial branch

Judicial branch has what positions?

Supreme court

Justices are appointed…

by the president with senate's consent

How long do justices serve?

Life until retirement or they do something bad

Who interprets the constitution to decide if something is unconstitutional?

Judicial branch

Who protects civil rights and liberties and resolves disputes between states?

Judicial branch

Hamilton’s economic plan was designed to…

promote manufacturing in the U.S. by getting money from potential investors and strengthen the federal government

How was revolutionary war debt paid back?

through bonds; citizen’s would buy a bond from the government and it would gain interestS

State debts were paid by…

the federal government

National Bank!

Happened due to an unofficial compromise

Why would people fight to keep the National Bank?

because if the bank went away, so did their money

Tariffs during Hamilton’s time

For the protection of U.S. Manufacturers, but not much to protect

Jay’s Treaty

1794; A British promise to pay for the U.S. ship’s confiscated goods, nothing about impressment (making U.S. sailors into British soldiers), opens more ports for U.S. trade, asserts that England can take goods destined for its enemies, Federalist's didn’t like him

Pinkney’s Treaty

With Spain, allowed the U.S. to have open access to New Orleans, facilitated trade for Western Farmers using the river system

Washington’s Farewell Address

OG written by James Madison, Hamilton used it as a base to write the speech Washington actually used

Market revolution was…

the development of a modern, integrated economy in the US

Market Revolution impacted…

transportation, manufacturing (industrialization), agriculture, economy, politics, social and demographic trends, etc.

Transportation outcomes from the Market Revolution

Plank roads, canals, steamboats, railroads

Who invented the steamboat?

Robert Fulton

New technology in the Market Revolution

Steel plows (mechanical reaper), transportation, communication

Samuel Slater

“Father of the American Industrial Revolution”, new technology

Use of wage labor (jobs)

Poor men, women, immigrants, children

“Putting out” system

Decentralized method where merchants gave raw materials (wool, cotton) to rural families who processed it into finished goods (yarn, cloth) and then returned it to the merchant for paymentL

Lowell System

America’s first integrated factory model

Depression of 1819 was caused by…

the market revolution due to boom and bust cycles

plank roads

cheap all-weather routes, connected rural farms to growing city markets, better transport for farmer’s goods

The Steamboat was awesome because it…

conquered river currents, allowed upstream travel, cut ship travel times

Cotton Gin was invented by…

Eli Whitney was given credit but it had already been invented

Cotton Gin was what?

A machine that took the seeds out of the cotton, increased cotton production times

Ban on the importation of slaves, 1808

Officially: act prohibiting the importation of slaves, signed by Thomas Jefferson

Missouri Compromise

Law admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintained the North vs South balance in the senate, prohibited slavery in the rest of the US to the north of the new “line”

Republican Motherhood

Defined women’s civic duty as raising virtuous patriotic children to become informed citizens, kept women in domestic sphere, instilled republican values within the home

The Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity)

True Womanhood is piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity

Women belong in what sphere?

Private sphere

Depression of 1819 was what?

the first major nationwide economic collapse in US history, bank failures, foreclosures, plummeting land values, high unemployment, due to post-war of 1812 shifts, drop in european demand for american goods b/c european war ended

John Quincy Adams

Avoided an all out war with France, built up the US navy, first president to live in the white house, established the library of congress, not a great president though, chosen by a tie breaker vote by the house (lowkey rigged b/c speaker of the house liked JQA better)

Henry Clay

Ran for president 3 times, lost all of them, speaker of the House

Andrew Jackson

Expanded presidential power, dismantled the second back of the US, enforced federal authority over states, signed the indian removal act, support for the “common man”, used the “spoils system”

Indian Removal Policy

Signed by Andrew Jackson, government strategy to forcibly relocated native americans to the west, over 60,000 people were forced out

What’d the Cherokee due b/c of the indian removal act?

They sued Georgia 2 times! 1st time, only the president can deal with the natives; 2nd time, president only deals with legit leaders of the Native Americans

Trail of Tears

Result of the indian removal policy, forced natives out during the winter at gunpoint, many died on the trek out of their native land

2nd Bank of the US, re-charter bill and Jackson’s veto

Henry Clay attempting to make himself look good for the next election, bank was a good thing at the time and jackson didn’t like the bank so henry gave jackson a bill that was in support of the bank and jackson stuck to his beliefs and vetoed the bill

Jackson’s veto of the bank

The US bank was done for decade, no more

Nullification Crisis

1832-1833, political showdown between South carolina and the government about overprotective tariffs, deemed unconstitutional

States rights

Political doctrine arguing that states held power over the federal government, primarily used by southern states to protect slavery from federal interference, also invoked for tariffs and internal improvements

John C. Calhoun

Was a VP, secretary of war and senator, on the side of the south (slavery, states rights), argued that slavery was a “positive good”, pushed nation towards the civil war

“Spoils system”

A political practice where the winning party rewarded loyal supporters with government jobs based on politics, not qualifications, Andrew Jackson used it but criticized it as corrupt

2nd great awakening

massive protestant religious revival in america, marked by Emotional camp meetings, Fiery sermons, A shift to free will in salvation , Birth of new denominations like Mormonism, Driving significant moral reform movements for temperance, Abolition, Women’s Rights 

Lyman Beecher

Presbyterian minister, revivalist, social reformer… known for leading the temperance movement, shaping American religions voluntarism

Charles Grandison Finney 

prominent american revivalist preacher, lawyer turned evangelist, educatorT

Temperance

A social and political movement for the reduction or elimination of alcohol consumption 

Horace Mann and the education reform

“Father of the American Public School system”, Supported the Common School Movement for free tax-supported, non-sectarian public education for all children regardless of background 

Dorothea Dix and asylum reform

19th century activist who spearheaded the asylum reform movement which exposed the horrific conditions of the mentally ill in prisons and almshouses and lobbying for state-funded hospitals with humane treatment, Lead to the creation of dozens of new asylums and transforming care for the mentally ill in the U.S. and beyond 

Abolition 

social reform effort to abolish slavery in the US, women were for it

William Lloyd Garrison

Prominent american abolitionist, journalist, social reformer, famous for publishing an anti-slavery newspaper (the liberator), co-founder of the american anti-slavery society, all for women’s rights

Frederick Douglass

Former slave, abolitionist, orator, writer, statesman, fought for emancipation, civil rights, woman’s suffrage, famous black leader due to autobiographies, moves to Britain until he could pay to ensure his freedom in the US

David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World 

abolitionist pamphlet urging black people to resist slavery and racism, powerful rhetoric (christianity, natural rights, american ideas), inspiring black resistance and terrifying white southerners

seneca falls convention

The first women’s rights convention in the US , Organized by Elizabeth Cady Santon and Lucretia Mott, Launching the women’s rights movement by issuing the Declaration of Sentiments, Modeled on the Declaration of Independence , Demanded equal rights, Suffrage (The right to vote) 

Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments 

foundational document of the US women’s rights movement, presented at the 1848 seneca falls convention

Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton

American social activists, Early leaders of the Woman’s Rights movement, Shared frustration at being denied full participation in the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention

Indentured servants

poor europeans who traded 4-7 years of labor for passage to the colonies, got food and clothing, worked in tobacco fields, bound by contract, could be sold, faced harsh conditions, some were convicts of political prisoners

Puritans

Early protestants, Believed the church of England was still too similar to Catholicism, Sought to ‘purify’ it of its remaining Catholic rituals and practices 

John Winthrop and his “Model of Christian Charity” talk 

had the line “city upon a hill”, first governor of Massachusetts bay colony, established a model puritan society