U.S. History Study Guide

1) Colonial Era

Enlightenment Thinkers: Beliefs & Influences

        Locke -

        Voltaire -

        Montesquieu -


Early Democratic Practices

    Mayflower Compact

    New England Town Meetings

    House of Burgesses

    Albany Plan of Union


Reasons for Independence

        Salutary neglect - no rules

        Proclamation of 1763

        Taxation without Representation

        Tyrannical Rule


What Colonies did to gain Independence

    Declaration of Independence

    Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

    Revolutionary War


2) Early Government


  • Articles of Confederation

    • Weak Central / National Government

    • Strong State

    • 1 - Branch: Unicameral legislation / Congress

    • Shays’ Rebellion


  • Constitution

    • Constitutional Convention

    • Great Compromise

    • 3/5 Compromise

    • Presidential Compromise

    • Strong Central / Weaker State

    • Separation of Powers & Checks and Balances


  • Ratification of the Constitution

    • Federalists v. Anti-Federalist

    • Federalist Papers

    • Bill of Rights


3) U.S. Constitution

  • Separation of Power

    • Legislative Branch

      • House of Representatives

      • Senate

      • Bicameral

      • Controls taxes, can declare war and currency


    • Executive Branch

      • President & Vice President

      • President’s Cabinet

      • Duties:

        • Commander in Chief

        • Chief Executive

        • Chief Diplomat


    • Judicial Branch

      • Supreme Court

      • Chosen by the President

      • Serve for life

      • Original v. Appellate Jurisdiction

      • Judicial Review

        • Marbury v. Madison

      • Checks and Balances

        • Presidential Veto

        • 2/3 Override

        • Judicial Review

        • Only Congress can declare war

        • Senate approves treaties and SC appointments


      • Flexibility (Living Document)

        • Elastic Clause (necessary & proper)

        • Amendment process

        • Judicial interpretation

      • Federalism

        • Delegated Powers -

        • Reserved Powers -

        • Concurrent Powers -

        • Implied Powers -


  • Amendments

    • Bill of Rights

      • 1st :

      • 2nd :

      • 3rd :

      • 4th :

      • 5th :

      • 6th :

      • 7th :

      • 8th :

      • 9th :

      • 10th :

    • 13th :

    • 14th :

    • 15th :

    • 16th :

    • 17th :

    • 18th :

    • 19th :

    • 21st :

    • 22nd :

    • 24th :

    • 26th : Voting age changed from 21 to 18

  • Unwritten Constitution

    • Cabinet & two term limit set by Washington - precedents

    • Two Party System (Bi - partisan politics)


4) Federalist Era

  • Proclamation of Neutrality

    • What is it?

    • Why?

  • Washington’s Farewell Address

  • Hamilton’s Financial Plan

    • National Bank

      • Why

      • Purpose

      • Elastic Clause

  • Whiskey Rebellion

    • Excise Tax

    • Increase President and Increase National government’s powers by enforcing laws


    • Hamiltonians v. Jeffersonians

      • parties development

      • Differences

    • Marshall Court

      • Judicial Review

      • Increase power of federal government

      • Supremacy Clause -

    • Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

      • Long and short term effects

5) Antebellum Era

  • War of 1812

    • Cause

    • Effect

  • Monroe Doctrine -

  • f

  • “King Andrew Jackson” - He oversteps his power

    • Spoils system

    • Veto

    • Worchester v. Georgia

    • Indian Removal Act

    • Trail of Tears

  • Abolition

    • John Brown’s Raid :

    • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe:

    • Frederick Douglass:

    • Harriet Tubman:

    • Underground Railroad:

    • William Lloyd Garrison & The Liberator

  • Women’s Rights Movement

    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

    • Susan B. Anthony:

    • Sojourner Truth:

    • Alice Paul:

    • Mary Church Terrell:

  • Key Actions

    • Seneca Falls Convention:

    • Declaration of Sentiments:

6) Westward Expansion & Manifest Destiny

  • Territory

    • Northwest Ordinance - orderly way to divide new territory

    • Louisiana Purchase -

    • Mexican Cession - After the Mexican American war we gained Southwestern territory

    • Gadsden Purchase -

  • Expansion of Slavery

    • Missouri Compromise - Didn’t settle the issue of slavery, divided the non- slave North and Slave South states

      • Declared Unconstitutional by Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

    • Compromise of 1850 - California was free by popular sovereignty, Fugitive Slave Act and still didn’t settle the issue of slavery

    • Kansas - Nebraska Act - Popular sovereignty, Bloody Kansas


7) Civil War

  • Causes

    • States rights over westward expansion (right to slavery / make decisions on their own property)

    • Increase in abolition / moral issue

    • Election of 1860 - Abraham Lincoln (Republican) v. John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democratic Party) v. Stephen A. Douglas (Northern Democratic Party)

    • Secession - The Confederacy is formed

    • Fort Sumter - Open act of Rebellion against Federal Government

  • Lincoln’s Goals

    • PRESERVE THE UNION

    • Lincoln suspends habeas corpus, increases power of the federal government

    • Emancipation Proclamation     

      • What did it do

      • why

      • how to went above lincoln powers

8) Reconstruction

  • Confederates out, South is under military rule - Military Reconstruction Act

    • Major damage to homes, families, and infrastructure

    • 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were granted

      • How the south responded

  • Tenant Farmers and sharecroppers

    • what were they

    • problems

  • Radical Republicians - What they wanted

  • Lincoln’s plans for reconstruction -

  • Freedman’s Bureau

    • Who vetos it

    • who created it

    • why was it created

  • Restrictions to African Americans (Freedman’s) Rights

    • Black Codes - limited freedom, repealed by the Civil Rights Act of 1866

    • Formation of the KKK

    • Jim Crow Laws

    • Plessy v. Ferguson

    • Disenfranchisement :

      • literacy tests

      • poll tax

      • grandfather clause

  • Civil Rights Activists

    • Booker T. Washington - vocational training

    • W.E.B. Dubois

  • Solid South - Democrats come back to power

  • Compromise of 1877 - what was it & why it ended reconstruction

  • New South - Becomes more industrialized

9) Gilded Age

  • Laissez-Faire Capitalism -

  • Business Organization

    • Monopoly / Trust

    • Vertical / Horizontal Intergration / Consolidation

  • Captains of Industry/Robber Baron or Philanthropists

    • Andrew Carnegie

    • J.P. Morgan

    • John D. Rockefeller

    • Henry Ford

  • Social Darwinism -

  • Philantropy -

  • Gospel of Wealth -

  • Grangers and Populists


  • Interstate Commerce Act / ICC -

  • Sherman Anti - Trust Act : Later the Clayton AntiTrust Act

  • Referendum, Initiative, Recall, Secret Ballot, Direct election of U.S. senators, gives citizens more participation in government

  • Homestead Act

  • Dawes Act & Carlisle Schools - Assimilation, Kill culture, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”

  • Unions

    • Samuel Gompers

    • Eugene Debs

    • Terrance Powerderly

  • Collective Bargaining

  • Injunctions

  • Arbitration

  • Yellow Dog Contracts

  • Knights of Labor and American Confederation of Labor - AFL more successful because it had specific goals and skilled laborers

  • Strikes - used violence to get their way and caused them to lose support

    • Homestead

    • Haymarket

    • Pullman

  • Urbanization

    • Positives -

    • Negatives -

  • Immigration

    • Open- shore then quotas

      • Chinese Exclusion Act -

      • Gentlement’s Agreement -

      • Literacy Tests -

      • Emergency Quotas

      • National Origins

    • Melting Pot / Pluralism

    • Assimilation

    • Nativism - hostility towards new immigrants

      • New v. Old

    • Know Nothing Party -

  • Civil Service Reform

    • Pendleton Act - eliminates the spoils system, patronage, and political machines


10) American Imperialism

  • Commodore Mathew Perry to Japan

  • Open door policy to China

  • Boxer Rebellion in China suppressed by Americans

  • Spanish American War

    • Yellow Journalism -

    • Humanitarianism -

    • Sinking of the Maine -

    • De Lome Letter -

    • Results -

  • Roosevelt Corollary - Added to the Monroe Doctrine

  • Great White Fleet -

  • Panama Canal -

  • Dollar Diplomacy -

  • Moral Diplomacy -

  • Good Neighbor Policy - FDR :


11) Progressive Era

  • Muckrackers

    • Upton Sinclair -

    • Jacob Riis -

    • Ida Tarbell -

    • Lincoln Steffens -

  • Meat Inspection Act -

  • Pure Food and Drug Act -

  • Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall - political boss running political machines, patronage, corruption and spoils system

  • Jane Addams -

  • Margaret Sanger -

  • Temperance Movement -

  • NAACP -

  • State Reforms

    • Initiative

    • Secret Ballot

    • Referendum

    • Recall

    • Direct primary

  • Teddy Roosevelt and the Square Deal

  • Amendments

    • 16th:

    • 17th:

    • 18th:

    • 19th:

  • Standard Oil v. United States -

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

  • Clayton Antitrust Act


12) America & World Wars

  • WWI Causes

    • Militarism -

    • Alliances -

    • Imperialism -

    • Nationalism -

  • German Submarine Warfare - unrestricted (shoot anything in their territory)

  • U.S. joins WWI - “Keep the World Safe for Democracy”

    • Sussex Pledge -

    • Lusitania -

    • Zimmerman Note -

    • Bolshevik / Russian Revolution -

  • Wilson mobilizes towards ;

    • Total Food and Fuel Administration -

    • War Labors Broad -

    • War Industries Broad -

    • War Revenue Act -

    • Committee on Public Information -

    • Selective Service Act -

  • Espionage and Sedition Acts -

  • Schenck v. United States -

  • Wilson’s 14 Points -

    • League of Nations -

  • Senate refuses to sign Treaty of Versailles & join the League of Nations to maintain neutrality and avoid future conflicts

  • Red Scare -

    • Palmer Raids -

    • Nativism increases

    • Sacco and Vanzetti

  • Washington Naval Conference -

  • Kellogg - Briand Pact -






13) Prosperity & Depression

14) Cold War

15) Reaction to Communism

16) Civil Rights

17) Modern America