AP U.S. History: Conflict and American Independence (1754–1800)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the causes of the American Revolution, key events and battles of the war, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitutional Convention, the Washington and Adams presidencies, and the rise of early political parties (1754–1800).

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal developed by Benjamin Franklin that provided for an intercolonial government and a system for collecting taxes for colonial defense; it was rejected because colonies refused to surrender control over self-taxation or unite under a single colonial legislature.

Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)

A conflict lasting from 1754 to 1763 between Great Britain and France (allied with Native Americans) sparked by English expansion into the Ohio Valley; the British victory granted England control of Canada and almost all territory east of the Mississippi Valley.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 uprising led by Ottawa war chief Pontiac against British posts in the Ohio Valley following English expansion, higher trade prices, and an end to rent payments on western forts; British forces quelled the rebellion in part using smallpox-infected blankets.

Paxton Boys

A group of Scots-Irish frontiersmen in Pennsylvania who, in response to Pontiac's Rebellion, murdered members of the Susquehannock tribe.

Proclamation of 1763

A British order forbidding colonial settlement west of the rivers running through the Appalachians; it marked the end of salutary neglect, agitated settlers who saw it as unwarranted interference, and established a pattern of demarcating Indian Territory.

Sugar Act of 1764

Parliamentary legislation that lowered the duty on molasses imported into the colonies from the West Indies but introduced strict enforcement measures and required violators to be tried in vice-admiralty courts without a jury.

Vice-Admiralty Courts

Military courts presided over by a single royal judge who delivered verdicts without the deliberation of a jury; used by Parliament to prosecute violators of trade regulations such as the Sugar Act.

Currency Act

A Parliamentary act that forbade the American colonies from issuing paper money, contributing to growing economic discontent and signaling an end to salutary neglect.

Stamp Act (1765)

A broad-based internal tax covering all legal documents and licenses produced within the colonies, explicitly aimed at raising revenue; it threatened the tradition of self-taxation and particularly provoked literate, argumentative colonists such as lawyers.

Virtual Representation

The British constitutional doctrine arguing that members of Parliament represented the interests of all British subjects throughout the empire, regardless of whether a particular colony or constituency elected them.

Virginia Stamp Act Resolves

Propositions drafted by Patrick Henry and passed by the Virginia legislature that protested the Stamp Act and asserted the colonists' right to self-government and self-taxation.

Sons of Liberty

Intercolonial protest groups formed to resist British taxation, specifically the Stamp Act, through organized demonstrations, boycotts, and intimidation of appointed duty collectors.

Declaratory Act

A statute passed in 1766 alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act under Prime Minister Lord Rockingham, asserting Parliament's absolute authority to tax and legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever.

Townshend Acts

A 1767 package of laws drafted by Charles Townshend that taxed goods imported directly from Britain, set aside revenue to pay tax collectors directly, created additional vice-admiralty courts, suspended the New York legislature, and instituted writs of assistance.

Writs of Assistance

General search licenses authorized under the Townshend Acts giving British authorities the power to search any premises suspected of concealing smuggled goods.

Massachusetts Circular Letter

A 1768 document written by Samuel Adams and distributed by the Massachusetts Assembly urging other colonial legislatures to protest the Townshend Acts in unison.

Boston Massacre

A March 5, 1770 incident where British troops fired into a crowd of colonists who were pelting them with rock-filled snowballs, killing five people; the soldiers were subsequently defended in court by John Adams.

Committees of Correspondence

Colonial communication networks established in 1772 to trade ideas, assess political attitudes, and coordinate collective opposition to British policies across colonies.

Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania

A series of widely circulated essays authored by John Dickinson that united colonial opposition against the Townshend Acts.

Boston Tea Party

A December 16, 1773 protest in which Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawks boarded cargo vessels and dumped approximately £10,000 worth of East India Tea Company tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxation without representation.

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)

Punitive British legislation passed in response to the Boston Tea Party that closed Boston Harbor to nonessential trade until the tea was paid for, tightened royal control over Massachusetts courts and government, and enacted a stricter Quartering Act.

Quebec Act

A 1774 British statute passed alongside the Coercive Acts that granted expanded civil liberties to Catholics and extended the territorial boundaries of Quebec, impeding colonial westward expansion.

First Continental Congress

A meeting convened in late 1774 in Philadelphia with delegates from all colonies except Georgia to enumerate American grievances, organize economic boycotts against Britain, and define the limits of parliamentary power in colonial affairs.

Continental Association

An intercolonial boycott framework created by the First Continental Congress that established local committees of observation to enforce nonimportation and nonconsumption, which gradually evolved into de facto local governments.

Battle of Lexington and Concord

The April 1775 confrontations between British troops sent to seize colonial arsenals and Massachusetts minutemen; the clash at Concord forced British redcoats to retreat and became known as the 'shot heard 'round the world.'

Olive Branch Petition

A conciliation petition adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775, under John Dickinson's leadership; it served as a final attempt to avoid armed conflict but was rejected by King George III.

Common Sense

A January 1776 pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that sold over 100,000 copies in three months, using plainspoken language to advocate colonial independence and the superiority of republicanism over monarchy.

Battle of Saratoga

An October 17, 1777 American victory against British troops in upstate New York that ended British dominance in the region and convinced the French government to enter into a formal military alliance with the United States.

Battle of Yorktown

The October 1781 siege in Virginia where British General Cornwallis surrendered his forces after being encircled by French naval forces and George Washington's Continental troops, marking the symbolic end of the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The peace treaty concluding the American Revolutionary War, granting the United States official independence and generous territorial boundaries.

Articles of Confederation

The first national constitution of the United States, sent for ratification in 1777, which created a intentionally weak national government lacking an executive branch, a judicial branch, the power to levy taxes, and the power to raise an army.

Shays's Rebellion

An armed 1786–1787 uprising led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays and fellow Massachusetts farmers facing courthouse foreclosures, highlighting the weakness of the central government under the Articles of Confederation and motivating the Constitutional Convention.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A landmark law enacted under the Articles of Confederation that established guidelines for territorial sale and statehood, guaranteed basic civil rights like trial by jury and religious freedom, and abolished slavery in the Northwest Territory.

Virginia Plan

A constitutional blueprint largely designed by James Madison calling for a three-branch federal government with a bicameral legislature, in which state representation in both houses was based on population.

Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise)

An agreement reached at the 1787 Constitutional Convention that created a bicameral legislature consisting of a lower house (House of Representatives) with proportional representation by population and an upper house (Senate) with two seats per state.

Three-Fifths Compromise

A constitutional agreement specifying that each enslaved person would count as three-fifths of a person for determining both representation in Congress and direct federal taxation.

The Federalist Papers

A collection of persuasive essays anonymously authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay that urged ratification of the United States Constitution, particularly targeting voters in New York.

Strict Constructionism

The constitutional philosophy championed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison arguing that Congress is limited exclusively to enumerated powers or those strictly 'necessary and proper' to execute those powers.

Broad (Loose) Constructionism

The constitutional doctrine championed by Alexander Hamilton arguing that the federal government possesses implied powers under the Constitution to do anything not explicitly forbidden in order to carry out its enumerated responsibilities.

Hamilton's Financial Plan

A financial program initiated by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton calling for the federal government to assume state Revolutionary War debts, fund national debt, establish a National Bank, and levy excise taxes, secured via a compromise to locate the permanent capital in Washington, D.C.

Neutrality Proclamation

President George Washington's 1793 declaration declaring the United States' intention to stay impartial and friendly toward both France and Great Britain during their renewed conflict, countering Citizen Edmond Genêt's attempts to recruit American aid.

Whiskey Rebellion (1791)

An armed protest by western Pennsylvania farmers opposing Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey; Washington dispatched federalized militia to quell the resistance, proving that the new constitutional government had and would use force to uphold federal law.

Jay's Treaty

A 1794 treaty negotiated with Great Britain by John Jay to avert war and secure the evacuation of British forts in the Northwest Territory; heavily criticized in the United States for making excessive concessions to the British.

Executive Privilege

The presidential precedent established by George Washington when he refused to submit diplomatic files on Jay's Treaty to the House of Representatives, affirming the president's right to withhold confidential national security materials.

Pinckney's Treaty (Treaty of San Lorenzo)

A 1796 accord negotiated with Spain by Thomas Pinckney granting the United States duty-free navigation of the Mississippi River, access to world markets, the removal of Spanish forts on U.S. soil, and Spanish promises to restrain hostile Native American attacks.

Washington's Farewell Address

A 1796 valedictory statement composed in part by Alexander Hamilton warning the American public against partisan divisions, sectional animosity, and permanent foreign alliances.

Republican Motherhood

An early republic concept assigning women the civic duty to cultivate private virtue in suitors and educate sons to become moral, educated, and productive male citizens for the nation.

XYZ Affair

A 1797 diplomatic scandal under John Adams in which French agents demanded bribes before opening talks with American diplomats; its publication incited widespread anti-French hostility and sparked the naval Quasi-War.

Alien and Sedition Acts

A series of 1798 Federalist laws that empowered the president to deport dangerous foreigners, extended the naturalization residency requirement to 14 years, and criminalized writing or publishing malicious statements against the federal government.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Anonymous resolutions drafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison asserting that states have the power to judge the constitutionality of federal legislation and claim nullification authority against laws like the Alien and Sedition Acts.