AP U.S. History: Colonial Crisis, Enlightenment, and the American Revolution

A comprehensive vocabulary flashcard set reviewing the imperial relationship, intellectual movements, geopolitical conflicts, and legislative crises leading to the American Revolution and U.S. independence.

Dominion of New England

A single centralized administrative unit created in 1686 by King James II consolidating New England, New York, and New Jersey to enforce the Navigation Acts and restrict colonial autonomy.

Sir Edmund Andros

The royal governor appointed to govern the Dominion of New England who strictly collected customs duties, invalidated colonial land titles, and suppressed town meetings until his arrest in 1689.

Glorious Revolution (1688–1689)

The political revolution in England that deposed King James II and placed William and Mary on the throne, establishing a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary supremacy while leading to the collapse of the Dominion of New England.

English Bill of Rights (1689)

A foundational English constitutional document guaranteeing freedom of speech in Parliament, regular elections, parliamentary approval for taxes, and prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, codifying the 'rights of Englishmen.'

Salutary Neglect

The British imperial policy associated with Prime Minister Robert Walpole characterized by lax enforcement of navigation trade laws in order to stimulate commerce, allowing American colonies to grow economically self-reliant and accustomed to local self-governance.

Protestant Association

An insurgent group in Maryland that overthrew the proprietary government of the Catholic Calvert family following the Glorious Revolution, converting Maryland into a royal colony and establishing the Church of England as its official religion.

The Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement celebrating rationalism, empiricism, natural laws, and political liberalism, emphasizing that truth is discovered through scientific observation and that humanity is capable of continuous progress.

The First Great Awakening

A transatlantic Protestant revival movement in the 1730s and 1740s emphasizing intense emotional faith, direct personal connection to God, internal spiritual rebirth, and challenges to traditional church hierarchies.

Old Lights vs. New Lights

The theological rift produced during the Great Awakening between traditional clergy who defended established church order ('Old Lights') and revivalist preachers who championed emotional spiritual rebirth ('New Lights').

Deism

An Enlightenment-aligned religious belief held by figures such as Benjamin Franklin that posits a benevolent, 'Clockmaker' God who created the universe and its natural laws but does not actively intervene in everyday human affairs.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

A famous 1741 sermon delivered by New Light revivalist Jonathan Edwards that used terrifying imagery of sinners dangling over the pit of hell like loathsome spiders to provoke emotional repentance.

Albany Plan of Union (1754)

A proposal drafted by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress advocating a loosely centralized intercolonial government for common defense, which was ultimately rejected by the individual colonial assemblies.

Join, or Die

A 1754 political cartoon published by Benjamin Franklin depicting a severed rattlesnake whose segmented parts represented the colonies, designed to urge intercolonial unity during the Albany Congress.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

The peace agreement concluding the French and Indian War that expelled France from mainland North America, granting Great Britain all territory east of the Mississippi River as well as French Canada.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 pan-Indian uprising led by the Ottawa chief Pontiac uniting Upper Midwest tribes against British garrisons and frontier settlements following the expulsion of the French.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A royal decree issued by King George III following Pontiac's Rebellion that prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, sparking widespread colonial resentment.

The Paxton Boys

A group of Scots-Irish frontiersmen from Paxtang, Pennsylvania, who massacred the peaceful Conestoga Indians in 1763 and marched toward Philadelphia in protest against Quaker pacifist governance and lack of frontier defense.

George Grenville

The British Prime Minister who ended salutary neglect by enacting policies to raise revenue from the colonies to service Great Britain's post-war national debt of roughly 130 million British Pounds and fund a standing army in America.

Sugar Act (1764)

British legislation that lowered the existing import tax on foreign molasses from 6 to 3 pence per gallon but created strict enforcement measures, including prosecuting smugglers in juryless vice-admiralty courts.

Vice-Admiralty Courts

Juryless British maritime courts overseen by royal judges that deprived accused colonial smugglers of a trial by a jury of their peers, which colonists viewed as a direct violation of their constitutional rights.

Stamp Act (1765)

The first direct internal parliamentary tax on the colonies, requiring paid revenue stamps on printed paper items, including legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards.

Virtual Representation

The British constitutional doctrine arguing that members of Parliament represented the interests of all British subjects throughout the empire collectively, regardless of whether subjects had directly voted for them.

Non-Importation Agreements

Organized collective boycott pledges by colonial merchants and consumers refusing to purchase or import British manufactured goods as economic leverage against parliamentary taxation.

Sons of Liberty

An intercolonial organization of radical activists that coordinated protests, enforced non-importation agreements, and used mob intimidation and violence against British stamp distributors and customs officials.

Declaratory Act (1766)

An act passed by Parliament simultaneously with the repeal of the Stamp Act, affirming Parliament's absolute authority to pass binding legislation over the American colonies 'in all cases whatsoever.'

Townshend Acts (1767)

Parliamentary duties on colonial imports of glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea, intended to generate revenue to pay the salaries of royal governors and judges and reduce their financial dependence on colonial assemblies.

Daughters of Liberty

Colonial women who supported anti-British boycotts by spinning homespun cloth to replace imported English textiles and brewing substitute domestic herbal teas such as Labrador tea.

Boston Massacre (1770)

A deadly confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers fired into an aggressive crowd of Bostonians, killing five people; the event was widely publicized as an unprovoked slaughter in an engraving by Paul Revere.

Tea Act of 1773

British legislation granting the financially distressed British East India Company a monopoly on the American tea trade and duty-free export rights, while retaining the three-penny Townshend import tax on tea.

Coercive (Intolerable) Acts (1774)

Four punitive laws enacted by Parliament to discipline Boston for the Tea Party: the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, and a revised Quartering Act.

First Continental Congress (1774)

A meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies in Philadelphia that issued the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and established the Continental Association to oversee a unified boycott of British goods.

Olive Branch Petition (1775)

A final conciliatory petition drafted primarily by John Dickinson and sent by the Second Continental Congress to King George III professing loyalty and requesting a halt to hostilities, which the King refused to read.

Common Sense (1776)

A bestselling 47-page political pamphlet published by Thomas Paine in January 1776 that used plain language to reject hereditary monarchy and urge ordinary colonists to declare immediate independence.

Articles of Confederation

The first national framework of government for the United States, featuring a unicameral legislature where each state received one vote, with powers to declare war and negotiate treaties but lacking the power to tax or draft troops.

Marquis de Lafayette

The French aristocrat and military general who aided the American cause during the Revolutionary War, serving closely with George Washington and helping secure vital French military and financial support.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The diplomatic treaty concluding the Revolutionary War, through which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States with boundaries extending to the Mississippi River, while Britain retained Canada and Spain took Florida.