AP U.S. History: Enlightenment to the Early Republic

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Enlightenment, the Great Awakening, imperial conflicts, the American Revolution, the Constitution, and early American political factions.

Secularism

An Enlightenment concept arguing that government and other institutions should exist entirely separate from religion and the Catholic Church.

Deism

The belief in a distant God combined with the denial of organized religion, basing one's belief on the light of reason (practiced by figures such as Benjamin Franklin).

Common Sense

A widely distributed pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that called for a democratic system based on frequent elections, a written constitution, and independence from British imperial rule.

The Social Contract

A political work by John Locke stating that government is created to protect citizens' natural rights of life, liberty, and property, arguing that the 'divine right of kings' is illegitimate.

Leviathan

A work written by Thomas Hobbes arguing that only an absolutist government is capable of saving man from his natural state of savagery and selfishness.

The First Great Awakening

An 18th-century religious revival that rejected stoic Calvinist predestination in favor of spiritual salvation and questioned the established colonial social, political, and church-state status quo.

George Whitefield

A Calvinist preacher who sparked the religious revival in New England, inspired the rise of Dissenting churches, and owned 50 slaves by the end of his life to support his orphanage and the Georgia colony.

Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)

A conflict between Great Britain and France sparked by competing territorial claims in the Ohio River Valley, considered the first major imperial war and the 'first world war.'

Mercantilism

An economic regulation system based on the belief that a nation's international power derives from its wealth in gold and silver, where colonies supply raw materials and buy finished goods from the mother country.

Treaty of Paris of 1763

The treaty ending the Seven Years' War, under which Great Britain gained all of France's land holdings in colonial America, resulting in Native Americans losing their middle ground and land to Britain.

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal by Benjamin Franklin for colonial unification for defense, proposing a Crown-appointed president and a Grand Council of state delegates; it was rejected by the colonies.

Join, or Die

A political cartoon created by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 to popularize the Albany Plan of Union.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

A 1763 uprising of 300 Native Americans from various tribes led by Chief Pontiac to resist British territorial encroachment, inspired by teachings of Native unity and rejection of European dependence.

Navigation Acts

Trade laws passed between 1650 and 1673 requiring colonial trade to use English ships, imports to pass through English ports, and valuable goods (like tobacco) to be exported exclusively to England.

Dominion of New England (1686-1692)

A consolidated administration of the northern colonies governed by Sir Edmund Andros, established by King Charles II to tighten Crown control, which was overthrown after King James II fled the throne.

Salutary Neglect

The British policy from the early to mid-18th century characterized by loose trade enforcement and minimal supervision of colonial internal affairs, which ended after the Seven Years' War.

John Peter Zenger

A New York Weekly journalist acquitted of libel charges in 1734 after criticizing the royal governor of New York, establishing a major symbol for freedom of the press.

Proclamation of 1763

A British order prohibiting colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflict with Native Americans, which was widely defied by land-seeking colonists.

Writs of Assistance

General search warrants issued by the British in 1763 allowing customs officers to search any ship or building suspected of housing smuggled goods.

Stamp Act (1765)

A direct British tax on all printed materials and legal documents in the American colonies intended to raise revenue to pay off British war debts.

Stamp Act Congress

A 1765 meeting of colonial delegates that represented the first unified colonial response to British taxation policies.

Virtual Representation

The British political theory countering 'no taxation without representation,' asserting that members of Parliament reserved the right to speak for the interests of all British subjects and colonists alike.

Declaratory Act (1766)

An act passed by Parliament alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, asserting Britain's ultimate right of control and legislative authority over the colonies.

Townshend Acts

Parliamentary measures that imposed taxes on colonial imports of glass, lead, paint, and tea, dispatched new customs officers, and established courts of admiralty to prosecute smugglers.

Boston Massacre (1770)

A confrontation where British soldiers fired on an unarmed crowd of colonial workers, famously depicted in anti-British propaganda produced by Paul Revere and published in the Boston Gazette.

Committees of Correspondence

A network initiated by Samuel Adams in 1772 to educate townspeople on constitutional rights, rally opposition to British measures, and encourage political activism across the colonies.

Somerset v. Stewart (1772)

A British legal ruling involving escaped Virginia slave James Somerset that was widely interpreted as outlawing slavery within Great Britain, creating alarm among American slaveholders.

Tea Act (1773)

A British law granting the financially struggling British East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to the American colonies.

Boston Tea Party

A direct action protest by the Sons of Liberty against the Tea Act in which 342 crates of East India Company tea (valued at about $1.7 million in modern currency) were dumped into Boston Harbor.

Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

Punitive British legislation that closed Boston's port, dissolved the Massachusetts assembly, sent troops to occupy Boston, and allowed indicted officials to be tried outside the colony.

Quartering Act

Legislation approved alongside the Intolerable Acts permitting British military forces to be housed in private buildings across all American colonies.

First Continental Congress

A late 1774 assembly of colonial delegates convened in support of Massachusetts that initiated a boycott of British goods and drafted the Declaration of Colonial Rights and Grievances.

Olive Branch Petition

A July 1775 appeal adopted by Congress as a final attempt at reconciliation that reaffirmed colonial loyalty to the British Crown.

Battles of Lexington and Concord

The opening military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, fought in April 1775, commonly referred to as the 'shot heard 'round the world.'

Declaration of Independence

A formal document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing the colonies' total separation from Great Britain.

Articles of Confederation

The first national framework of government for the United States; it featured a unicameral legislature requiring 9 of 13 state votes, but lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, or resolve interstate conflicts.

Shays’ Rebellion

An August 1786 armed uprising of debt-burdened Massachusetts farmers and Revolutionary War veterans led by Daniel Shays, which highlighted the central government's weakness under the Articles of Confederation.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

An Articles of Confederation law establishing the admission process for five new states between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, which banned slavery in the region and recognized Native American land claims.

Virginia Plan

James Madison's proposal at the 1787 Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with state representation determined by population, favoring large states.

New Jersey Plan

A constitutional proposal favored by smaller states advocating a unicameral legislature with one vote per state, retaining the basic legislative structure of the Articles of Confederation.

Connecticut Compromise

An agreement creating a bicameral legislature consisting of the House of Representatives (representation apportioned by population) and the Senate (two seats per state).

Three-Fifths Compromise

A constitutional agreement stipulating that every five enslaved individuals would be counted as three persons for the purposes of congressional representation and direct taxation.

Fugitive Slave Clause

A constitutional clause requiring escaped slaves to be returned to their owners, preventing them from gaining legal freedom simply by escaping to free states.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, added to satisfy Anti-Federalist concerns by formally guaranteeing the protection of individual natural rights against federal power.

The Federalist Papers

A collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay arguing for the ratification of the Constitution and articulating the framers' original intent.

Federalist no. 10

An essay written by James Madison arguing that a large, commercial republic is the most effective means to control the dangerous effects of majority factions.

Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

A western Pennsylvania protest against Alexander Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey that was quelled by a federal militia led by George Washington, affirming federal authority.

Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

Four measures passed under John Adams that increased citizenship requirements for immigrants, facilitated deportations, and restricted free speech critical of the government.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Statements drafted by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson asserting that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional and arguing for states' rights to dispute federal overreach.

XYZ Affair

A French diplomatic controversy during the Adams presidency involving demands for bribes, which led to an undeclared naval 'Quasi-War' between the United States and France.

Strict Constructionism

A philosophy of constitutional interpretation favored by Democratic-Republicans that adheres strictly to the literal text of the Constitution and rejects implied federal powers.

Hamilton’s Financial Program

A five-point economic plan to assume state debts, create a national debt, charter the Bank of the United States, enact an excise tax on whiskey, and levy protective tariffs.

Essex Junto

A group of extreme New England Federalists that plotted secession and sought to back Aaron Burr to lead a separate northern confederacy.