Free Clep Prep US History I Study Guide

The Thirteen Colonies

Many states on the East Coast of the United States originated as larger colonies.
These colonies varied in size and influence. The original 13 colonies declared independence from England.

Northern Colonies (New England)

Composed of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
The first area to be settled, primarily by people from England.
The economy was mainly driven by trade, fishing, timber, and whaling.
- Province of Massachusetts Bay
  - One of the first settled areas, grew due to religious persecution in England.
  - In 1620, the Pilgrims established the second permanent English colony in the Americas at Plymouth.
  - The Puritans soon followed and settled in what is now known as Boston.
  - Notable events: Boston Tea Party, Salem Witch Trials, and Shay’s Rebellion (covered later).
  - Maine was part of the Province and became a state with the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
- Connecticut Colony
  - Originally settled by the Dutch, then English settlers from Boston.
  - Started as part of the New Netherland colony of the Dutch but was later absorbed into a larger colony under British rule.
- Province of New Hampshire
  - Colonized in the early 1600s.
  - The first colony to break away from British rule and declare independence.
- Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
  - Settled by religious groups on land bought and gifted by Native Americans.
  - Known for religious freedoms and early abolition of slavery.
  - Notable events included battles during King Phillip’s War, with the killing of King Phillip.

Middle Colonies

Refers to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
Known for great cultural diversity and a high population of slaves.
They primarily produced ships from their shipbuilding yards, wheat products, and textiles.
- Province of New York
  - Part of the New Netherlands colony, colonized by the Dutch.
  - Captured by the English to gain trading superiority and renamed New York after the Duke of York.
  - New Jersey, Maine, and Delaware were later split off to form their colonies.
- Province of New Jersey
  - Originally settled by the Dutch as part of the New Netherland colony, later became an English colony.
  - Heavily settled by people from surrounding colonies.
  - Saw many battles during the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Trenton, and was known as the “Crossroad of the Revolution” due to its location.
- Province of Pennsylvania
  - Founded by William Penn.
  - One of the most populous colonies in early America, home to Philadelphia, the largest city of the 1700s.
- Delaware Colony
  - Colonized by Swedish and Dutch settlers, later taken over by the Duke of York for the English.
  - The first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Southern Colonies

Largely agrarian colonies concentrated on tobacco and cotton.
They had large amounts of slaves to work on those plantations and much of their local politics were affected by the large slave populations.
This had grave implications later on when these colonies became states.
- Province of Maryland
  - Created as a Catholic refuge and stronghold.
  - Later saw Catholicism outlawed.
  - Enjoyed fast growth and a robust economy in the 1700s but was very dependent upon indentured servitude and slavery for its tobacco crops.
- Colony and Dominion of Virginia
  - A huge colony that consisted of the area now inhabited by West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and even parts of modern-day Ohio.
  - Home to the first permanent English settlement in North America named Jamestown.
  - Heavily reliant on the export of tobacco and the slave labor that went along with it.
- Province of North Carolina
  - Originally there was only one “Colony of Carolina” but it was split in the early 1700s into North and South Carolina.
  - The location of many early settlement attempts, including the lost colony of Roanoke.
  - Parts of North Carolina were heavily settled by the Scottish, Irish, and Germans, but all were under British rule.
- Province of South Carolina
  - After the split from North Carolina, the colony of South Carolina enjoyed tremendous growth during the 1700s, primarily due to the large amounts of shipping and exported goods from Charleston, its capital city.
- Province of Georgia
  - Founded by James Oglethorpe as a place where debtors could go to make something of themselves (instead of going to debtors’ prison).
  - Started off with strict rules against alcohol and slavery.
  - Over time, those rules went away and Georgia became like other southern colonies in regards to slavery.

Early Colonization to the Revolutionary War (1600-1775)

Colonists

Early colonists came from all walks of life, but the first wave of colonists was not what you'd think of as hardy adventurers.
The companies funding the expeditions often misled people about the dangers and work required to survive in the New World, and many colonies didn’t survive long.
Starvation, exposure, illnesses, and conflicts with Native Americans were all very real dangers.
Other early colonists were people fleeing from religious persecution.
- Indentured Servants
  - People who wanted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to North American America but couldn’t afford to pay for the journey.
  - They would indenture themselves to work for 3 to 7 years as exchange for the money to cross the Atlantic.
  - Indentured servants often could not marry while indentured and were treated little better than slaves.
  - They were given food and clothing and would be freed after their time of service, but were rarely paid for their work.
- Puritans
  - A group of English Protestants (formed in “Protest” of the Catholic Church) who were prosecuted by the Church of England, with the result of immigration to the United States.
  - They felt that the Church of England was too tolerant of Catholic practices and wished to begin their own branch of Protestantism.
  - They eventually left for the new world to free themselves from religious oppression.
  - The Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth were Puritans.
- Quakers
  - The Quaker religion started in England and believed that it was possible to know Christ even without a church and clergymen.
  - The Catholic and Protestant divisions were heating up during this time, and they were heavily prosecuted in England.
  - To avoid this, many Quakers decided to immigrate to the American colonies.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America in the Province of Virginia.
The settlement was primarily made up of entrepreneurs and merchants, looking for precious metals and things to export back to Europe.
While at first, it looked as if there would be no profitable exports, an Englishman by the name of John Rolfe found a type of tobacco that would flourish and it became a staple of the economy in a very short time.

Pocahontas

An American Indian from a tribe in Virginia, near Jamestown.
Captured in battle and taken to Jamestown, where she eventually settled and married John Rolfe, the same man who was responsible for tobacco being grown in Jamestown.
Pocahontas was known for being relatively friendly to the early colonials and helped them survive, as well as work with the Native Americans in the area.
She even traveled to England and became quite popular as an “Indian Princess” before dying there from illness.

Plymouth Colony

Created by religious outcasts known as “Pilgrims”, this was the second permanent English settlement in the New World.
At first getting along well with the Native Americans who lived nearby, it is generally accepted that the modern-day holiday of “Thanksgiving” started here.
Over time, the relationship with the Native Americans soured, leading to many armed conflicts, like King Phillip’s War.

King Phillip

He was a Native American who was also called Metacomet.
Though his family had originally been friendly with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and his father had even taken on English names for himself and his sons, relationships quickly soured and King Phillip led an attack on the English colonists in 1675.
These hostilities, known as King Phillip’s War, lasted for a year until King Phillip was killed in 1676.

Bacon’s Rebellion

By the later part of the 1600s, more colonists were arriving and the situation with the Native Americans over land and trade were growing tense.
The British governors of the colonies had to walk a fine line between keeping the colonists happy and not starting a war with the local tribes.
In 1676, this came to a head. Some Native Americans had attacked a settlement in Virginia, and the colonists wanted Governor William Berkeley to punish them.
When the governor’s actions failed to satisfy the people, Nathanial Bacon began an uprising which quickly spread and was known as Bacon’s Rebellion.
The rebellion culminated in the burning down of Jamestown before Bacon died of dysentery.
Afterwards, ships from England arrived and helped hunt down the last of the rebels. Already, signs of tension between the colonists and their Crown-appointed rulers were appearing.

1689 Boston Revolt

In the 1680’s, the Crown decided to reorganize and reform the colonies.
Some of this was a desire for more effective governance, but it was also because many in England believed that the colonies were becoming too independent.
Things erupted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when King Charles II revoked the colony’s charter.
He did so because the Puritans in Boston rejected the terms of the reforms. The Governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andros was put in charge and came to Boston, instituting many changes that were hated by the general populace.
These included enforcing taxes from England, denying land titles that were based upon the old charter, and promoting the Church of England.
The latter was not a popular move in a city that was founded by Puritans escaping religious persecution by that very church. The people revolted, and the Governor was arrested and sent to England for trial.
Things in Boston settled down under a new British governor and promises of more religious tolerance, though the Puritans never regained the ability to govern their own city.

Jacob Leisler

Jacob Leisler was a German American merchant who led another rebellion against the unpopular British Lieutenant Governor of New York.
After hearing about the Boston Revolt, he led his own uprising, successfully seizing New York City and governing it for several years.
Royal authority was restored in 1691 when troops were sent from England along with a new governor.
Leisler was captured and executed for treason, which did not sit well with the populace. It was seen as yet another instance of England not caring about the welfare of the colonies.

Virtual Representation

One of the key complaints from the colonies is that they had no representation in Parliament.
Taxes were created for their goods, unpopular governors were appointed, and decisions were made about their welfare in which they had no voice.
British Prime Minister Grenville claimed that the colonies were ‘virtually’ represented due to the fact that Parliament represented all of Great Britain, not just Britain herself.
This did not go over well with the colonies and the tension kept rising.

The Great Awakening

An interesting side-note during this time, the Great Awakening refers to a period around 1740 in which religion in the colonies went through a great transformation.
Especially in the New England area, old ways of worshipping (and the churches they were attached to) were challenged by new religious leaders, most notably Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield.
These Evangelicals encouraged people to do their own Bible study at home and be involved with the sermons in the churches. They also preached the idea of worshipping God through good works, similar to the Protestant ideas of a “Religious Calling”. Many thinkers of this time were influenced by the idea of Deism, which says that reason and observation of the world is enough to prove the existence of God.

Eliza Lucas

In the early 1700s, tobacco and rice were still the main crop exports coming from the southern colonies. Growing indigo (a plant used for dyes and inks) had been tried before, but proved unsuccessful in the American climate.
Eliza Lucas was the daughter of an English Lt Colonel who was the Lieutenant Governor of the island Antigua. Her family moved to South Carolina, and Eliza began growing indigo with seeds her father sent her from Antigua.
With the help of slaves who knew the plant from Africa, she was successful in growing indigo and making it commercially viable. Within a few years, the colonies were exporting indigo as a major crop, second only to rice.

The French and Indian War (1754-1761)

While Britain was busy with colonies on the coast, the French had colonized large portions of land in the middle of North America. French trappers had made many friends among the Native Americans, and often land disputes would arise between English and French colonists over waterways and trapping.
Britain and France both sent troops to protect their colonists and further their own goals. With all these troops and high tensions, war erupted in 1754. Native American tribes friendly to the French often raided English settlements.
In turn, English militias led by people such as George Washington often ambushed French patrols. After seven years, the war ended with an English victory and the signing of the Treaty of Paris but put Britain heavily into debt. This would have implications for the future of the colonies.

The Stamp Act (1765)

Desperate to regain money spent defending their colonies in North America, the British government passed a series of taxes on goods coming in and out of the colonies.
One of the most famous is the 1765 Stamp Act, which forced the colonies to pay a tax on all paper used for a variety of goods, including legal documents, newspapers, magazines, etc.
To the British government, this was justified seeing how they had gone into debt to protect the colonies.
To the colonies, these taxes were too heavy and they had no representation in Parliament to stop them from happening. “No taxation without representation!” became a battle-cry and protests such as the Boston Tea Party became commonplace across the colonies.

Boston Tea Party

Protests against taxes came to a head in Boston when the Tea Act was put into place.
The Tea Act attempted to force the colonists to buy their tea only from the British East India Company. This tea was taxed, of course, and it was seen by many as another way of making a point that Parliament could tax the colonies at will.
The colonists were having none of this, and when three ships loaded with the tea arrived in Boston, they decided to do something about it. Boarding the ships, they threw the crates of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the entire shipment.

The Intolerable Acts

These were a series of laws that the King George III put into place as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
There were five laws total, but four of them punished Massachusetts and Boston in particular. They did this by removing the right of Boston to govern itself, stationing British troops in Boston and forcing the people to feed and house them, and closed down Boston port to all but British ships, effectively strangling trade in the city.
The idea behind the laws was to show other colonies what would happen if they revolted. It didn’t work out as the Crown intended. Writers in the colonies referred to these laws as “The Intolerable Acts” or the “Coercive Acts” and used them as justification for revolt.

Age of Enlightenment

A movement of intellectuals that strove to disprove superstition and advance knowledge and science.
The Age of Enlightenment began in Europe in the early 1600s and spread to the Americas in the 1700s. Many of the great thinkers of the time (Voltaire, Locke, and Rousseau) had an impact on American statesmen like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin wrote the Silence Dogood letters, which were a series of letters talking about government and why the U.S. should revolt against the British.
Later, he was known as ‘America’s First Statesman’ due to his efforts as an ambassador for the United States of America. Considered one of the founding fathers of the United States, he also invented items such as the Franklin stove and spectacles.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was a propagandist who was well known for his inflammatory writings.
He authored the pamphlet 'Common Sense', which inspired people to rise up against the British. He also played a major role in getting French support for the Revolutionary War and believed that writing was the key to winning the war.

Republican Motherhood

The idea of Republican Motherhood started before the American Revolution but continued afterward as well.
Republican Motherhood taught that mothers should do their best to instill the idea of republicanism to their children. This included the idea of sacrificing oneself for the greater good of all, and protecting their freedoms.
A by-product of this movement was that education for women was greatly increased, since it was seen as essential for teaching the next generation to value the freedoms they were fighting for.

Shakers

The Shakers were a religious group which had left England and settled in New York in 1774.
Mother Ann Lee was the leader of this group and was unique in that few women were in charge of churches during this time. The Shakers' actual name was the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but they were known as Shakers due to the type of dancing used during their worship.
They were also an example of a Utopian Society, in that they attempted to make a perfect community based on religious beliefs.

First Continental Congress

The first Continental Congress was called in 1774 to discuss the recent passing of the “Intolerable Acts”.
The call for independence from British rule was common by this time, but the first Continental Congress was split on the decision to separate the colonies from Britain. Instead, they decided to boycott British goods and send a list of complaints to Parliament and the King. If no action was taken to address their complaints, they resolved to meet again and take further action.

Phyllis Wheatley

Phyllis Wheatley was an African American poet who was emancipated from slavery when her master died.
She was the first African American woman to publish in the U.S. in the late 1700s and enjoyed considerable success both in the colonies and England. She often wrote about current events, thanking King George III in one of her poems for repealing the unpopular Stamp Act.
In 1775 she created a poem dedicated to George Washington named “To His Excellency, George Washington.”

The Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

Paul Revere

A local silversmith, Paul Revere rode to warn the militia that British soldiers were coming to seize supplies at Lexington and Concord. Lamps hung in the church steeple told him from which way the British were coming (one lamp if by land, two if by sea).
After seeing the signal of two lamps in the steeple, which meant the British were coming by boats on the Charles River, Paul Revere rode to Lexington and Concord to notify the militia so they could arm themselves.

Battle of Lexington

The first battle of the Revolutionary War occurred in Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts Colony.
Though war had not yet been declared, Boston was under military occupation and tensions were high. The British thought the surrounding towns were staging areas for weapons and supplies to be used for attacks on British soldiers.
The British sent a detachment of soldiers to seize these supplies but were met by members of the local militia and shots were fired. This is the battle that Ralph Waldo Emerson described as the “shot heard ‘round the world”. The British were driven back to Boston and open rebellion would spread to other colonies.

Dunmore’s Proclamation

This was a proclamation by the Royal Governor of Virginia, John Murray 4th Earl of Dunmore in 1775.
In this proclamation, Dunmore declared martial law in Virginia and offered slaves their freedom if they would fight with the British against the colonists who were revolting.
Though some slaves did take him up on the offer, the majority of colonists looked upon the proclamation as a hostile act against them and drove Dunmore out from Virginia.

Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress was begun in 1775 once it became apparent that Britain was not interested in resolving many of the complaints from the colonists. Hostilities were breaking out at this time and the Congress soon became involved in managing the burgeoning Revolutionary War and also putting together the necessary government for a new nation.
It oversaw the establishment of the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander.

The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration was the document which officially announced that the United States was no longer under British rule. It was signed by 56 delegates from the 13 colonies during the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776.
It started with the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was the first governing document signed for the U.S.
Importantly, the federal government was not given the ability to tax the colonies (or if they were, the tax was not enforceable) and had no power to make treaties. The colonies were leery of handing over too much power to a single government when they were fighting for their very independence.
This document proved to be ineffective, and it was replaced by the U.S. Constitution later on when the war ended.

Battle of Trenton

In the winter of 1776, General Washington’s army was freezing to death, recruitment was low and the colonies were severely demoralized. Crossing the Delaware River in the middle of the night on December 26th, 1776; the Continental Army with George Washington at its head, managed to capture almost 1000 German Hessians who were fighting for the British.
This victory provided a much-needed boost to colony morale.

Battle of Saratoga

This battle took place in 1777 and is considered by many to be the turning point of the American Revolution.
Until this point, things had not gone well for the American army aside from the brief victory at Trenton. At Saratoga however, British General John Burgoyne’s army was defeated and he surrendered to American General Horatio Gates. This defeat of the British caused French King Louis XVI to begin the talks that would see France enter into the war on the side of the Americans.

Battle of Yorktown

The last major battle of the American Revolution which occurred in 1781.
British General Cornwallis found himself trapped between the Continental Army and their French allies at Yorktown, Virginia. Upon his surrender, it signaled the end to hostilities between British and American forces in the colonies, though the actual Treaty of Paris wouldn’t be signed until 1783.

Post-Revolutionary War to 1820

Immediately following the Revolutionary War, the country was in an entirely new crisis. The fledgling government of the Continental Congress needed to form itself into an actual government to run the country. Everyone had their own ideas about what form of government that was going to be…

Federalists (Federal Party)

Founded by Alexander Hamilton, the party members believed that the bulk of power needed to be with a strong central (federal) government rather than the states themselves.
Many people at the time were afraid of a return to a central government having just freed themselves from the monarchy of England. The Federalists believed that a strong central government was the only way the new country would be able to survive. They wanted a central bank, tariffs on goods coming into the country and a good relationship with England.

Republican Party

Founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, this party believed that the future of the United States lay with a smaller government while the states managed themselves.
They were against any relationship with England and said the Federalists were intent on setting up another monarchy within the United States.

Antebellum Period

The Antebellum Period refers to the years after the Revolutionary War until the beginning of the Civil War. This period saw a rapid rise in the economy of the South and constant fighting over the issue of slavery.

Land Ordinance of 1785

In an attempt to raise money, Congress authorized the surveying and sale of land. Land would be surveyed into townships (six square miles) and then divided further for sale to settlers and farmers.

Shay’s Rebellion

The rebellion was named after Daniel Shay, a Revolutionary War veteran turned farmer and one of the ring-leaders of the rebellion.
Taking place in Massachusetts in 1787, this rebellion was about the post-war recession felt by the colonies. A true episode of class warfare took place during this time, with many of the farmers and veterans of the war unable to pay taxes or buy goods from the merchant class who controlled many of the cities.
When courts tried to collect back-taxes, protests were held in order to shut down the courthouses. These protests turned violent and Shay and another veteran named Job Shattuck organized a few thousand men into a fighting force and unsuccessfully marched on a federal armory.
Though defeated by a private militia, many believe this rebellion had an impact on the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which was meeting to draft the country’s new Constitution. The rebellion may have served to strengthen the case of the Federalists-minded individuals, who were pushing for a strong central government.

Constitutional Convention

Also called the Philadelphia Convention, this meeting was convened in 1787 to discuss the effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation and decide if they were effective. The Convention decided that a new governing document was needed, in the form of the US Constitution.

US Constitution

The replacement for the Articles of Confederation and the new guiding document for the United States of America. Influenced heavily by John Locke (Social Contract and Consent of the Governed) and Montesquieu (Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances), the document was finished in 1787, but not ratified by all thirteen states until 1790.

Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights, which is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, was signed and ratified in 1791. The Bill of Rights guaranteed freedoms such as freedom of speech, right to bear arms, and right to a speedy trial. This was primarily done to soothe the critics of the original Constitution who still feared a large and oppressive government.

3/5th Compromise

During the Philadelphia Convention, there were many questions raised about how politicians were going to be elected and how much power each state had in the new government. The Southern states knew that many in the more populous North didn’t approve of slavery and wanted to blunt their power in the new Congress.
The 3/5th Compromise stated that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person when determining representation and taxation. This gave the South more 'population' and influence than they previously had, but less than they wanted to (they wanted each slave to count as a full voter).

Protective Tariff

The use of a protective tariff, which is a tax on imported goods from other nations, is used to protect the domestic economy. Before the Constitution, the government lacked the power to establish tariffs. The lack of tariffs before then greatly impacted the U.S.’s ability to form homegrown industries and collect taxes on imported goods.

President Washington

George Washington was named the first President of the United States in 1789. He moved the national capital from New York to Philadelphia, and then finally to Washington DC. Though he didn’t believe in political parties, he did believe in a strong central government, and Alexander Hamilton (who founded the Federalists) was his Secretary of the Treasury.
Washington served two terms before voluntarily stepping aside in 1796. In his Farewell speech to the nation, he warned against the formation of political parties and foreign alliances while stressing the importance of ethics and morality.

Alexander Hamilton

Founder of the first American political party (Federalist Party), Alexander Hamilton had a tremendous role in the shaping of the United States. He was Chief of Staff to George Washington during the Revolutionary War and the Secretary of the Treasury when Washington was elected President.
He was a prolific writer, responsible for the majority of the Federalist Papers, which is still used today as an interpretation of the desires of the Founding Fathers. He believed in the need for a National Bank and was instrumental in getting one established by Congress along with the U.S. Mint.

Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion occurred in 1794 when the U.S. government imposed a new tax on whiskey produced by farmers, as part of an attempt to pay off post-Revolutionary war debt. It was the first test of the centralized federal government. George Washington (then President), called out the militia and personally led them to put the rebellion down.
It was a small rebellion but served to show the citizens of the United States that the federal government was truly in charge.

Industrialization

Beginning in the late 18th century, the United States underwent the process of industrialization. It was during this period of time as well that steam power was first invented, and the rise of industrial equipment, such as the cotton gin and textile mill, were invented. These inventions allowed the U.S. to become more self-sufficient and allowed the production of goods that were previously only produced in Europe.

Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney was a well-known inventor who was most famous for the invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin, invented in 1793, allowed for rapid processing of cotton into clean fiber, and was incredibly important to the South due to the large amounts of cotton grown there.

Election of 1796

John Adams, a Federalists member, defeated Thomas Jefferson for the Presidency in 1796. This was a victory for the Federalists, but that party’s fortunes would soon change with the passing of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

XYZ Affair

During John Adams’ Presidency, relations with the new French Republican government were tense. After deposing of the monarchy in the French Revolution, much of the friendliness between the two countries had disappeared. France had been seizing American shipping and calls for war were increasing.
Adams sent peace envoys to France, but French government officials demanded bribes before they would even discuss the matter of peace. Adams’ envoys sent word of these demands back to America, and Adams released the reports to Congress, changing the names of the three government officials to “X”, “Y”, and “Z”. This caused an uproar in the United States and Congress began preparing for war with France. Ironically, this caused the French government to change their minds and settle the matter peacefully.

Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were a series of laws passed in 1798. The Acts were looked upon by the Federalist Party as a means to control the Democratic Republican party (who were supporters of France), as well as to give the government more control over the people, in case of an actual war. No tax was involved in the Alien and Sedition Acts, but they proved extremely unpopular and were later repealed.
To make matters worse for the Federalists, President John Adams succeeded with his peace envoys to Paris and war with the new French government was averted, robbing the Federalists of their reason for the Acts in the first place. All this political fighting served to fracture the Federalist Party, allowing the Democratic Republicans to defeat them in the 1800 elections.

Revolution of 1800

The Revolution of 1800 referred to the first great shift of power in the U.S, when the Federalists lost power to the Democratic Republicans in the election of 1800. In that election, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams. Jefferson didn’t like large cities and believed that the future of the United States was with the farmers and explorers. His administration bought the Louisiana Purchase from France and actively encouraged the exploration of those lands.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the concept of continental expansion, or 'sea to shining sea' that greatly influenced early American colonialism and expansion. This led to the Louisiana Purchase, as well as to the Lewis and Clark Expeditions and further acquisition of land in North America. This idea had a very drastic effect on the Indian population however. Due to the rapid expansion and the thought that Indians did not own any land, many Indians were driven out of their homes and continually forced west.

Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

A US Supreme Court case which helped firmly establish the idea of judicial review in the United States. Judicial review is when the judicial branch reviews the actions of the legislative/executive branches for legality. It is an important part of the checks and balances system of government we have in the United States. The case itself dealt with the executive branch (in this case Secretary of State James Madison) not delivering a commission to William Marbury who was supposed to begin duties as the Justice of the Peace in Washington DC.

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition began in Missouri, and ended up in Washington/Oregon. The expedition was commissioned by President Jefferson after the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, and was meant as an exploratory trip to see what exactly the U.S. had gained in the purchase.

Embargo of 1807

This embargo attempted to address the ongoing war between France and Britain. Both were guilty of seizing American merchant ships and claiming the cargo as a prize of war. The Embargo of 1807 was signed into law by President Jefferson as an attempt to hurt the two countries economically. Instead, it ended up hurting American merchants and was revoked in 1809.

War of 1812

Hostilities broke out again with Britain in 1812. Britain was heavily engaged in their war against Napoleon of France and required large numbers of sailors to man the ships of the Royal Navy. When Britain ran out of sailors at home, they impressed (kidnapped) almost 10,000 American sailors from American ships in the Atlantic. Britain had also been supplying Indians like Tecumseh in America with guns and supplies which were then used to raid American settlements. All of this resulted in war being declared in 1812 by President James Madison.
The war of 1812 itself didn’t resolve much. The United States attempted to invade British holdings in Canada many times but was repulsed. The biggest US victory in that region came when the Indian leader Tecumseh was killed by US forces and his Indian Confederacy fell apart. After defeating Napoleon in France, the British invaded Chesapeake Bay and captured Washington DC, burning down the newly constructed White House. That same invasion force was later turned back at Baltimore in 1814. It was during the Baltimore battle that the “Star-Spangled Banner” was written.

Treaty of Ghent

This treaty ended the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States of America. Signed in Belgium in December of 1814, it then had to be ratified by the US Congress, which didn’t occur until January 1815. During this time, hostilities were still occurring, including the famous Battle of New Orleans which resulted in a large British defeat at the hands of General (later President) Andrew Jackson. According to the treaty, all land won during the war was to be returned, so the only real loser was the American Indians who had sided with the British and