Unit 3 (1754-1800) APUSH

Albany Plan of Union

Albany Plan of Union

was a plan that aimed to unify eleven of the thirteen American colonies, with the opportunity for more colonies to join in the future. the plan failed because it was rejected by the British and American colonies.

Battle of Saratoga

was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. the American defeat of the superior British army lifted patriot morale, furthered the hope for independence, and helped to secure the foreign support needed to win the war.

Coercive Acts/ Intolerable Acts

were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party; the 4 acts: the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act.

Common Sense (Thomas Paine)

Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense in 1776, in which argued that the colonists should free themselves from British rule and establish an independent government based on Enlightenment ideals - one that would protect man's natural rights.

Democratic-Republicans

was led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, favored a more decentralized government with greater powers for the states. they supported a strong agrarian economy and a more limited federal government.

Great Compromise

(also called the Connecticut Compromise) made to settle a dispute in the drafting of the Constitution. the Compromise devised a system that would please both the large and small states by dividing the legislative branch into two houses; Members of the House of Representatives would be allocated according to each state's population and elected by the people; idea was brought up by Roger Sherman

Mercantilism

an economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought.

Loyalists (Tories)

those in the colonies who remained loyal to the British crown during the American war for independence.

Patriots

the people who were rebelling against Britain during the war, they were considered traitors to the British Empire, and their goal was to fight against the oppression of England.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

an uprising of Native American Indian tribes following the French and Indian War that led to the passage of the Proclamation of 1763 and the British decision to establish a permanent standing army in North America.

Republican Motherhood

the idea of women beginning to become educated, in order for them to be able to teach their children so the republic would succeed.

Second Continental Congress

established a Continental army and elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, but the delegates also drafted the Olive Branch Petition and sent it to King George III in hopes of reaching a peaceful resolution.

French & Indian War/ Seven Year’s War

the French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War. the French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

Townshend Acts

a new tax legislation that was put in place by Charles Townshend once he gained control over the parliament. this taxed colonial imports of paper, paint, glass, and tea.

Alien and Sedition Acts

the Alien Act granted the President unilateral authority to deport non-citizens who were subjects of foreign enemies. the Sedition Act attacked the core of free speech and a free press—the right to criticize the government.

Battle of Yorktown

supported by the French army and navy, Washington's forces defeated Lord Charles Cornwallis' veteran army dug in at Yorktown, Virginia. victory at Yorktown led directly to the peace negotiations that ended the war in 1783 and gave America its independence.

Declaration of Independence

a formal document in which the Continental Congress representing the American colonies detailed its reasons for breaking political bonds with Great Britain. the document was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and was greatly influenced by the works of the 17th-century philosopher John Locke.

Minutemen

provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to military threats.

Quartering Act

required the colonists to provide food, shelter, and other supplies to British soldiers stationed in the colonies.

Salutary Neglect

an unofficial and long-term 17th & 18th-century British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep American colonies obedient to England.

Tea Act

gave Britain's East India Company a monopoly on tea. only the East India Company was allowed to sell tea to the colonies. the Tea Act meant that the colonists had to buy their tea from the East India Company. they could either pay the tax on tea or not drink tea at all.

Sugar Act

provided for a strongly enforced tax on sugar, molasses, and other products imported into the American colonies from non-British Caribbean sources.

Stamp Act

imposed a tax on all printed materials, including newspapers, legal documents, and even playing cards. It was met with significant resistance from colonists in America, who argued that it violated their rights as Englishmen.

Valley Forge

military camp where the Continental Army struggled to manage a disastrous supply crisis while retraining and reorganizing their units. about 1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died from disease, possibly exacerbated by malnutrition.

Revolution of 1800

Thomas Jefferson called his election "the Revolution of 1800" because it marked the first time that power in America passed from one party to another.

Shay’s Rebellion

an uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shays' followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system; contributed to the demise of the Articles of Confederation

US Constitution

document which established the organization, function and powers of the government and is considered the "Supreme Law of the Land"; it followed the Articles of Confederation and was drafted at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Articles of Confederation

first American constitution that established the United States as a loose confederation of states under a weak national Congress, which was not granted the power to regulate commerce or collect taxes; Articles were replaced by a more efficient Constitution in 1789.

Bill of Rights

document that guarantees the protection of citizens' rights, freedom of speech, religion, press, and other rights; 10 amendments

Committees of Correspondence

organized by patriot leader Samuel Adams, was a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies. they provided the organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament.

Declaratory Act

(1766) granted Great Britain's Parliament the authority to tax the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." the main purpose of this act was to assert power to enforce taxes on British colonies in North America.

First Continental Congress

a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies (not Georgia) that met on September 5, 1774 at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a response to the Coercive/Intolerable Acts; met to discuss America's future under growing British aggression

Jay’s Treaty

it said that Britain was to pay for American ships that were seized in 1793, that Americans had to pay British merchants debts owed from before the revolution, and that Britain had agreed to remove their troops from the Ohio Valley.

Lexington and Concord

the battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the Revolutionary War between the American colonists and the British. British governor Thomas Gage sent troops to Concord to stop the colonists who were loading arms. the next day, on April 19, 1775, the first shots were fired in Lexington, starting the war.

Northwest Ordinance

it established the pattern by which the rest of the West would be settled. all other territories would have to go through the same process of becoming a state. the Northwest Ordinance made sure that the settlement of the West was orderly.

Pinckeny’s Treaty

treaty between the U.S. and Spain which gave the U.S. the right to transport goods on the Mississippi river and to store goods in the Spanish port of New Orleans.

Proclamation of 1763

a proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east; treaty was a result of the French and Indian War, the Western territories belonged to the French and Indians.

Whiskey Rebellion

the first test of federal authority in the United States. this rebellion enforced the idea that the new government had the right to levy a particular tax that would impact citizens in all states.

Treaty of Paris

This treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, between the American colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

American colonists who supported the patriot cause. the Sons used threats, protests, and acts of violence to intimidate loyalists and make their grievances clear to the British Parliament.

XYZ Affair

an incident in which french agents attempted to get a bribe and loans from US diplomats in exchange for an agreement that French privateers would no longer attack American ships. it led to an undeclared Naval War between the two countries.