APUSH Period 3 Study Guide (c. 1754 - 1800) Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key historical terms, acts, events, and concepts from APUSH Period 3 (c. 1754 - 1800).

Proclamation of 1763

British decree following the French and Indian War that prohibited Anglo-American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflict with Native Americans.

Treaty of Paris - 1763

Peace treaty ending the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War), through which Great Britain gained French Canada and Spanish Florida, removing France from mainland North America.

Stamp Act

A 1765 direct tax imposed by the British Parliament on printed paper, legal documents, and publications in the American colonies, provoking widespread colonial protest.

Coercive and Intolerable Acts

A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, closing Boston Harbor and stripping Massachusetts of self-governance.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Patriotic grassroots groups that led colonial resistance against British taxation policies through public protests, boycotts, and non-importation agreements.

“No taxation without Representation”

A colonial slogan protesting British taxes imposed by Parliament, asserting that colonists could not be legitimately taxed without elected representation in Parliament.

Virtual Representation

The British doctrine claiming that members of Parliament represented all British subjects across the empire, regardless of whether colonists had voted for them.

Boston Massacre

A March 1770 conflict in Boston where British troops fired into an aggressive colonial crowd, resulting in five colonial deaths and heightened anti-British outrage.

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 direct-action protest in which the Sons of Liberty boarded British ships and destroyed 342 chests of East India Company tea to resist the Tea Act.

Olive Branch Petition

A 1775 petition adopted by the Second Continental Congress as a final attempt to avoid full-scale war by expressing loyalty to King George III, which the King rejected.

“Common Sense”

A 1776 political pamphlet authored by Thomas Paine that persuaded many colonists to advocate for complete independence from Great Britain and the establishment of a republic.

Declaration of Independence

The 1776 document, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson, formally severing the 13 colonies' ties to Great Britain and asserting fundamental natural rights.

Loyalists and Tories

American colonists who remained faithful to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War and opposed separation from Great Britain.

Battle of Saratoga

A major 1777 military victory for American forces that served as a turning point in the Revolutionary War by convincing France to form a formal military alliance with the colonies.

Battle of Yorktown

The 1781 final major battle of the Revolutionary War in which joint American and French forces trapped General Cornwallis, forcing a British surrender.

Treaty of PAris - 1783

Peace treaty ending the American Revolutionary War, in which Great Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States and defined its territorial borders.

Articles of Confederation

The first written constitution of the United States (1781), establishing a loose confederation of sovereign states with an intentionally weak central government.

Shay’s rebellion

A 1786–1787 armed revolt by indebted western Massachusetts farmers led by Daniel Shays, exposing the weaknesses of the national government under the Articles of Confederation.

Northwest Ordinance

A 1787 law regulating the settlement of the Northwest Territory, establishing a pathway for admitting new states to the Union on equal standing and prohibiting slavery in the region.

Connecticut “Great” Compromise

Agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention creating a dual-system legislature: a Senate with equal state representation and a House of Representatives based on population.

⅗ Compromise

Constitutional agreement counting three out of every five enslaved individuals for purposes of state population representation in Congress and direct federal taxation.

Federalist Papers

A series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym Publius to promote ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Federalists v. Anti-Federalists

The debate between proponents of a stronger central federal government under the new Constitution (Federalists) and defenders of states' rights who demanded a Bill of Rights (Anti-Federalists).

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 to guarantee specific individual liberties and limit the power of the federal government.

Repubilcan Motherhood

Post-Revolutionary concept attributing civic importance to women as moral educators tasked with raising educated, virtuous sons to maintain the American republic.

Necessary and Proper Clause

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution granting Congress implied powers to execute its enumerated responsibilities (also known as the Elastic Clause).

“Checks And Balances”

A constitutional design that grants each branch of government mechanisms to limit or influence the powers of the other branches to prevent despotism.

Role of Alexander Hamilton

The first Secretary of the Treasury, who devised a national financial program including full debt funding, federal state debt assumption, tariffs, and a national bank.

Whiskey Rebellion

A 1794 insurrection by western Pennsylvania farmers protesting an excise tax on whiskey, which President Washington suppressed with federal troops to demonstrate government authority.

Jay Treaty

A 1794 agreement negotiated with Great Britain that averted war and secured British withdrawal from Northwest posts, but drew public backlash for failing to resolve impressment.

Pinckney Treaty

A 1795 agreement between the U.S. and Spain opening the Mississippi River to American navigation and granting Americans the right of deposit in New Orleans.

Washington’s Farewell

George Washington’s 1796 valedictory message setting traditions for the executive office and advising against permanent foreign alliances and partisan political strife.

XYZ Affair

A 1797 diplomatic crisis in which French foreign officials demanded bribes from American envoys, sparking anti-French hostility and the undeclared Quasi War.

Alien & Sedition Acts

1798 Federalist laws designed to restrict foreign immigration and punish anti-government speech, targeted at suppressing Democratic-Republican opponents.

Virginia And Ketucky

State resolutions written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison asserting that states held the power to declare unconstitutional federal laws (like the Alien and Sedition Acts) null and void.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

A 1763 Native American confederacy attack against British military posts in the Ohio Valley following the French and Indian War, prompting the Proclamation Line of 1763.

Quartering Act

British parliamentary legislation mandating that colonial local governments furnish food and housing for British troops stationed in North America.

Townshend Duties

1767 parliamentary acts placing external taxes on colonial imports of glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea, leading to wide-scale colonial non-importation agreements.

Battles of Lezington and Concord

April 1775 military encounters between British troops and Massachusetts militia, marking the opening armed hostilities of the American Revolution.

Judicial Review

The constitutional principle authorizing the federal courts to review and invalidate laws passed by legislative bodies if found unconstitutional.

Land Ordinance of 1785

Law authorizing the federal government to survey and divide the Northwest Territory into square townships, reserving plot sections to fund public education.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

1794 military victory by U.S. forces over a Native American confederacy, forcing indigenous leaders to sign the Treaty of Greenville.

Treaty of Greenville

1795 agreement following the Battle of Fallen Timbers in which Native American tribes surrendered claims to most of present-day Ohio to the United States.

Quasi War with France

An undeclared naval conflict (1798–1800) between the U.S. and France triggered by French seizures of American merchant shipping.

Deism

Enlightenment-era religious belief system asserting a supreme creator established natural laws governing the universe but does not perform direct divine interventions.

Writs of Assistance

Broad, non-specific search warrants granted to British customs officials to search colonial vessels and properties for untaxed contraband.

Declaratory Act

1766 law passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, affirming Parliament's full right to enact laws binding the American colonies in all circumstances.

Committees of Correspondenc e

Colonial communication networks formed to share news of British measures and organize joint opposition among the colonies.

Annapolis Convention

A 1786 regional conference held in Maryland to address interstate commerce disputes, which recommended a full convention to revise the Articles of Confederation.

Full Funding/Assum ption of STate Debts

Hamilton's economic strategy in which the federal government paid off revolutionary bonds at face value and assumed state war debts to consolidate federal credit.