AP United States History Exhaustive Review Guide

AP Exam Structure and Strategy

Part One: Multiple Choice and Short Answer

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)

• Consists of a total of $55$ questions to be completed in $55$ minutes.

• This section accounts for $40$ of the total exam grade.

• Content focuses on the interpretation of ideas presented in stimulus materials such as maps, charts, political cartoons, and text excerpts.

• Strategy: Answer every question.

Short Answer Questions (SAQ)

• Consists of $3$ questions to be completed in $40$ minutes.

• This section accounts for $20$ of the total exam grade.

• Question 1: Analysis of a secondary source.

• Question 2: Analysis of a primary source.

• Question 3: Student choice between two questions with no stimulus provided.

• Timing Strategy: Spend approximately $12$ minutes per question, leaving $4$ minutes for review.

• Writing Strategy: Use the ACE (Answer, Cite, Explain) strategy for every sub-part (A, B, and C) of each question.

Part Two: Document Based and Long Essay Questions

Document Based Question (DBQ)

• Consists of $1$ question to be completed in $60$ minutes.

• This section accounts for $25$ of the total exam grade.

• Scoring Components:

  • Thesis/Claim.

  • Contextualization.

  • Evidence from the Documents: Use at least $3$ of the $7$ documents to support the argument.

  • Evidence (Analysis): Use at least $4$ of the $7$ documents effectively.

  • Outside Information: Provide at least one piece of specific historical evidence not found in the documents.

  • HIPP Analysis: Correctly explain the Historical Context, Intended Audience, Purpose, or Point of View for at least $2$ of the $7$ documents.

  • Complexity: To earn the complexity point, utilize all $7$ documents or provide detailed HIPP analysis for at least $4$ documents.

Long Essay Question (LEQ)

• Consists of choosing $1$ out of $3$ provided questions to be completed in $40$ minutes.

• This section accounts for $15$ of the total exam grade.

• Scoring Components:

  • Thesis/Claim.

  • Contextualization.

  • Specific examples of evidence relevant to the topic of the prompt.

  • Specific examples of evidence used to support YOUR specific argument.

  • Historical Reasoning: Framing the argument using Comparison, Causation, or Continuity and Change Over Time (CCOT).

  • Complexity: Requires the use of at least $4$ pieces of specific evidence to develop a nuanced argument.

Course Units and Exam Weighting

• Unit 1: Period 1 ($1491-1607$) — Exam Weight: $4-6$

• Unit 2: Period 2 ($1607-1754$) — Exam Weight: $6-8$

• Unit 3: Period 3 ($1754-1800$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 4: Period 4 ($1800-1848$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 5: Period 5 ($1844-1877$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 6: Period 6 ($1865-1898$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 7: Period 7 ($1890-1945$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 8: Period 8 ($1945-1980$) — Exam Weight: $10-17$

• Unit 9: Period 9 ($1980-\text{Present}$) — Exam Weight: $4-6$

Period 1: 1491 – 1607 (Early Contact with the New World)

Timeline of Key Events

• $1491$: America before the arrival of Columbus.

• $1492$: Columbus “discovers” the New World; commencement of the Columbian Exchange.

• $1493$: Columbus reports on his first voyage, published in Europe; the Doctrine of Discovery.

• $1512$: Establishment of the Encomienda System.

• $1525$: The rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

• $1540$: Spain authorizes Coronado to explore New Mexico.

• $1550$: Bartolome de Las Casas writes on the subjugation of the Indians.

• $1555$: Tobacco arrives in Europe.

• $1586$: Sir Francis Drake attacks St. Augustine.

Native American Societies and Cultures

• Migration: Populations crossed the Bering Strait over $10,000$ years before Columbus.

• Diversity: Tribes had wide variety in social, political, and economic structures based on interactions with each other and their specific environments.

• Regional Examples:

  • Southwest (Pueblo): Arid land; relied on complex irrigation systems to grow maize (corn); known for cliff dwellings.

  • Great Plains (Lakota Sioux): Lack of resources led to nomadic lifestyles; later utilized horses for bison hunting; lived in teepees.

  • Northeast/Great Lakes (Iroquois): Permanent villages; practiced hunting, gathering, and slash-and-burn agriculture; formed the Mississippi Valley cultures.

  • Southeast: Heavily agricultural.

  • Arctic (Inuit): Hunting, gathering, and fishing (seals).

• Religion: Generally based on a relationship with nature; characteristic of animism.

Colonization and the Three G’s

• Gold: Seeking new sources of wealth and trade routes to Asia.

• Glory: Increasing the power and status of individuals and their home countries.

• God: Aiming to convert Native populations to Christianity.

The Columbian Exchange

• From Europe/Africa to Americas: Horses, pigs, and diseases like smallpox.

• From Americas to Europe: Maize (corn) and potatoes.

• Human Impact: Massive population shift; by some estimates, $\frac{4}{5}$ of migrants were enslaved.

Spanish and Portuguese Influence

• Treaty of Tordesillas: Divided the New World between Spain and Portugal.

• St. Augustine: The first permanent European settlement in North America.

• Encomienda System: A system of forced labor where the Spanish Crown granted land and native labor to settlers in exchange for a promise to Christianize the natives.

• Social Hierarchy (Casta System): Emergence of racially mixed populations including Mestizos (Spanish and Native American) and Mulattoes (Spanish and African).

• Resistance: Indigenous groups resisted Spanish control, most notably in Pope’s (Pueblo) Rebellion.

• The Great Debate over Treatment:

  • Juan de Supulveda (or Sepulveda): Argued that Native Americans were less than human and benefited from Spanish subjugation.

  • Bartolome de las Casas: Argued for the humanity of Native Americans and criticized the brutality of the Spanish system

Period 2: 1607 – 1754 (Colonization of North America)

Timeline of Key Events

• $1607$: Jamestown, Virginia founded (First permanent English settlement).

• $1619$: Enslaved Africans land in Jamestown.

• $1620$: Separatists land in Plymouth.

• $1626-1664$: New Amsterdam established by the Dutch.

• $1630$: Boston founded; John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill.”

• $1637$: Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

• $1662$: Creation of the Half-way Covenant.

• $1675$: King Philip’s War.

• $1680-1692$: The Pueblo Revolt.

• $1692$: Salem Witchcraft Hysteria.

• $1702-1713$: Queen Anne’s War.

• $1733$: Slave revolt in the West Indies.

• $1744$: Height of the religious revival known as the First Great Awakening.

European Patterns of Colonization

• Spain: Colonized the Southwest utilizing state-sponsored funding (the Crown); focused on the Encomienda system, Catholic Missions, and a rigid social hierarchy (Casta system).

• France: Established colonies and trading hubs in Louisiana and Canada (Quebec); had few settlers; focused on trade (furs) and intermarriage with Natives (Huron alliance).

• Netherlands (Dutch): Established New Amsterdam funded by joint-stock companies; focused on trade; relatively few settlers.

• England: Arrived for social, economic, and religious reasons; settled from Massachusetts to Virginia; primarily farmers; tended to live separate from Native populations; established $13$ unique colonies.

Regions of British Colonies

• Chesapeake (Virginia/Maryland) and North Carolina: Settled for economic reasons; dominated by tobacco and a plantation economy; Jamestown ($1607$); site of Bacon’s Rebellion.

• New England (Massachusetts, Plymouth): Settled for religious reasons (Puritans/Separatists); Mayflower Compact ($1620$); John Winthrop and the “City Upon a Hill” ($1630$); characterized by small towns, family farms, and commerce.

• Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania): Originally New Netherlands; highly diverse; relied on cereal crops (“Breadbasket”); Pennsylvania founded by Quakers (William Penn).

• Lower South and West Indies (Carolinas, Georgia, Barbados, Jamaica): Plantation-based economy; focused on staple crops like sugar and rice; Georgia established as a buffer.

Colonial Governance and Trade

• Self-Government: Many colonies utilized representative systems.

  • New England: Town meetings.

  • Virginia: House of Burgesses.

  • Plymouth: Mayflower Compact.

• Mercantilism: The economic theory that colonies exist to benefit the mother country by providing raw materials and serving as a market for finished goods; sought a favorable balance of trade.

• Navigation Acts: British laws intended to regulate colonial trade and reinforce mercantilism; often ignored during the period of Salutary Neglect.

• Transatlantic Trade/Triangle Trade: Exchange of raw materials (tobacco, sugar, rice, wheat) for manufactured goods and enslaved people; included the brutal Middle Passage.

Conflict and Culture

• Native Conflicts: Pequot War ($1636-37$), King Philip’s War ($1675-76$), Anglo-Powhatan Wars ($1610-1640\text{s}$), Beaver Wars ($\text{mid-}1600\text{s}$), and the Pueblo Revolt ($1680$).

• First Great Awakening: Religious revival characterized by intense emotion; led by Johnathan Edwards (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”) and George Whitefield; split churches into “New Lights” and “Old Lights.”

• Anglicization: The process of colonies becoming more like England through political systems, legal traditions, Enlightenment ideas, and commerce.

• Slavery: Varies by region; New England used limited slave labor; the Chesapeake and South relied heavily on it; the West Indies had an enslaved majority. Resistance occurred (e.g., Stono Uprising).

Period 3: 1754 – 1800 (Conflict, Nation Building, and Expansion)

Timeline of Key Events

• $1754-1763$: Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War).

• $1763$: Proclamation of $1763$.

• $1765$: Stamp Act.

• $1770$: Boston Massacre.

• $1773$: Boston Tea Party.

• $1775$: Battles of Lexington & Concord.

• $1776$: Declaration of Independence; publication of Common Sense.

• $1777$: Battle of Saratoga.

• $1781$: Battle of Yorktown; Articles of Confederation ratified.

• $1783$: Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War.

• $1787$: Constitutional Convention.

• $1788$: Washington’s Election.

• $1798$: XYZ Affair; Alien & Sedition Acts.

The French and Indian War and Its Aftermath

• Cause: British encroachment onto French lands in the Ohio River Valley.

• Alliances: Most Natives sided with the French; the Iroquois sided with the British.

• Albany Plan of Union ($1754$): Benjamin Franklin’s failed attempt to unite the colonies.

• Outcome: Britain wins (Treaty of Paris, $1763$) but incurs massive debt, leading to the end of Salutary Neglect.

• Proclamation Line of $1763$: Britain forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachians to avoid Native conflict (Pontiac’s Rebellion), upsetting colonists.

The Road to Revolution

• British Policy (Reasserting Control): Enforcement of Navigation Acts, Sugar Act ($1764$), Stamp Act ($1765$), Quartering Act ($1765$), Declaratory Act ($1766$), Townshend Acts ($1767$), Tea Act ($1773$), Intolerable (Coercive) Acts ($1774$), and the Quebec Act ($1774$).

• Colonial Resistance: Stamp Act Congress, Sons of Liberty, Committees of Correspondence, Boston Tea Party, and the First Continental Congress ($1774$).

• Ideology: Inspired by Enlightenment thinkers (Locke, Rousseau) and Republican ideals; articulated in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence.

The Revolutionary War

• Continental Army: Led by George Washington.

• Turning Point: Battle of Saratoga ($1777$) led to French assistance.

• Final Victory: Yorktown ($1781$).

• Reasons for Victory: Home-field advantage, ideological commitment, superior leadership, and French support.

Creating a New Government

• Articles of Confederation: Very weak central government; lacked power to tax; no executive branch; failures highlighted by Shays’ Rebellion.

• The Constitution ($1787$): Created to provide a stronger central government.

  • Great Compromise: Created a bicameral legislature (House based on population, Senate equal representation).

  • $3/5$ Compromise: Countants $3/5$ of enslaved people for representation and taxation.

  • Key Principles: Separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and republicanism.

• Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists: Federalists supported the Constitution (Federalist Papers); Anti-Federalists demanded a Bill of Rights to protect individual liberties.

The Early Republic

• Hamilton’s Financial Program: Assumption of state debts, excise taxes (Whiskey Rebellion), high tariffs, and a National Bank.

• First Party System: Federalists (strong central gov, manufacturing, loose interpretation) vs. Democratic-Republicans (weak central gov, agriculture, strict interpretation).

• Washington’s Farewell Address: Warned against permanent foreign alliances and political parties.

• John Adams (Second President): XYZ Affair with France; Alien and Sedition Acts; responded to by the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (Nullification theory).

• Westward Expansion: Land Ordinance of $1785$, Northwest Ordinance of $1787$ (banned slavery in Northwest Territory).

• Election of $1800$: Thomas Jefferson wins; known as the “Revolution of $1800$,” the first peaceful transfer of power between parties.

Continuing—no wording changes, only formatting:

Period 4: 1800 – 1848 (Modern American Democracy)

Timeline of Key Events

• $1803$: Louisiana Purchase.

• $1812-1815$: War of $1812$.

• $1816-1824$: Era of Good Feelings.

• $1820$: Missouri Compromise.

• $1823$: Monroe Doctrine.

• $1828$: Election of Andrew Jackson.

• $1830$: Indian Removal Act.

• $1832$: Nat Turner’s Rebellion.

• $1830-1850$: Rise of Manifest Destiny.

• $1836$: Battle of the Alamo.

Politics and the Marshall Court

• John Marshall: Supreme Court Chief Justice who strengthened the federal government and established the judiciary as a co-equal branch.

  • Marbury v. Madison: Established Judicial Review.

  • McCulloch v. Maryland: Confirmed the constitutionality of the second BUS; established federal supremacy.

  • Gibbons v. Ogden: Reinforced federal control over interstate commerce.

The Age of Jackson

• Rise of the Common Man: Elimination of property requirements for voting (white male suffrage).

• Second Party System: Democrats vs. Whigs (Whigs led by Henry Clay).

• Nullification Crisis ($1832$): South Carolina (John C. Calhoun) attempted to nullify federal tariffs; Jackson threatened force (Force Bill).

• Bank War: Jackson vetoed the Second Bank of the US, leading to “pet banks.”

The Second Great Awakening and Reform

• Revivalism: Led by Charles Finney; focused on spiritual reform from within.

• Social Reform Movements: Temperance, prison reform (Dorothea Dix), abolition, women’s rights (Seneca Falls Convention, $1848$), education, and Utopian societies (Mormons).

Sectionalism and Southern Identity

• Market Revolution: Linking of Northern industry with Western and Southern farms via advances in transportation (canals, railroads), communication (telegraph), and industry (interchangeable parts).

• Cotton Gin: Invented by Eli Whitney; increased cotton production and the demand for enslaved labor.

• Southern Social Structure: Only $25$ of Southerners owned slaves; creation of a plantation aristocracy. Slavery defended as a “positive good” (George Fitzhugh).

• African American Identity: Fused African religions with Christianity; resistance via sabotage, running away, and rebellion (Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner).

• Missouri Compromise ($1820$): Maine as free, Missouri as slave; prohibited slavery north of the $36^{\circ} 30’$ line in the Louisiana Territory.

Nationalism and Foreign Policy

• Henry Clay’s American System: National Bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements (roads/canals).

• Monroe Doctrine ($1823$): Warned European powers to stay out of the Western Hemisphere.

• War of $1812$: Caused by impressment and British interference; ended with the Treaty of Ghent. Resulted in a surge of nationalism and the end of the Federalist Party (Hartford Convention).

• Indian Removal: Indian Removal Act ($1830$); Worcester v. Georgia (ignored by Jackson); Trail of Tears.

Period 5: 1844 – 1877 (Civil War and Reconstruction)

Manifest Destiny and Expansion

• Philosophy: Belief in US cultural and racial superiority; a divine mission to civilize the continent.

• Territorial Gains: Texas Annexation ($1845$), Oregon Treaty ($1846$ — “$54^{\circ} 40’$ or Fight”), Mexican Cession via Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ($1848$).

• Impact: Forced the issue of slavery into the center of national politics; decimated buffalo populations; led to Native American conflicts (Sand Creek, Little Big Horn).

The Sectional Crisis

• Compromise of $1850$: California as a free state; stricter Fugitive Slave Act; popular sovereignty in territories; end of slave trade in D.C.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act ($1854$): Proposed by Stephen Douglas; used popular sovereignty; repealed the Missouri Compromise; led to “Bleeding Kansas” and the birth of the Republican Party.

• Dred Scott v. Sandford ($1857$): Ruled African Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories.

• Abolitionist Escalation: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe); Underground Railroad; John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry.

The Civil War ($1861-1865$)

• Causes: Election of Abraham Lincoln ($1860$); debates over states’ rights and slavery expansion.

• Strategy: North (Anaconda Plan, greater resources, Grant/Sherman); South (defensive war, superior military leadership like Lee/Jackson).

• Key Battles: Bull Run, Antietam (led to Emancipation Proclamation), Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fall of Atlanta.

• Emancipation Proclamation ($1863$): Changed the purpose of the war to ending slavery; kept Europe from aiding the South; allowed African Americans to serve (MA $54^{\text{th}}$ Regiment).

Reconstruction ($1865-1877$)

• Amendments:

  • $13^{\text{th}}$: Abolished slavery.

  • $14^{\text{th}}$: Granted citizenship, equal protection, and due process.

  • $15^{\text{th}}$: Black male suffrage.

• Successes: Reunited the Union; political opportunities for former slaves (Hiram Revels).

• Failures/Resistance: Black Codes; Ku Klux Klan violence; Jim Crow laws; Sharecropping; Supreme Court cases (Plessy v. Ferguson).

• End: Compromise of $1877$ removed federal troops from the South following the contested Election of $1876$.

Period 6: 1865 – 1898 (The Gilded Age)

Industrialization and Big Business

• Technological Innovation: Bessemer process (steel), railroads, oil (Rockefeller), electricity (Edison), and telephone (Bell).

• Business Leaders: Andrew Carnegie (Steel/Gospel of Wealth), John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil Trust), J.P. Morgan (Banking), Cornelius Vanderbilt (Railroads).

• Philosophy: Social Darwinism (“survival of the fittest”); Laissez-faire economics.

Labor and Reform

• Unions: Knights of Labor (collapsed after Haymarket Square Riot); American Federation of Labor (Samuel Gompers) focused on “bread and butter” issues.

• Strikes: Great Railway Strike of $1877$, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike.

• Urbanization: Rise of the middle class; ethnic enclaves; tenement housing; Hull House (Jane Addams).

The West and the “New South”

• The New South: Term by Henry Grady; attempted industrialization but remained largely agricultural and segregated (Jim Crow/Lynchings).

• Populism: Farmers Alliance and Grange Movement led to the Populist Party; demanded silver coinage (William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”), direct election of senators, and regulation of railroads.

• Native Americans: Reservation system; Dawes Severalty Act ($1887$) aimed at assimilation; Ghost Dance movement ended with Wounded Knee ($1890$).

Period 7: 1890 – 1945 (Global Conflict and Reform)

Imperialism and Progressivism

• Imperialism: Spanish-American War ($1898$); acquisition of Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico; Open Door Policy in China; Panama Canal.

• Progressive Era: Pushed for government intervention in society; Muckrakers (Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis); Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal; $17^{\text{th}}, 18^{\text{th}}, \text{ and } 19^{\text{th}}$ Amendments.

World War I

• Cause of Entry: Unrestricted submarine warfare (Lusitania), Zimmermann Telegram.

• Homefront: Total War; War Industries Board; Great Migration of African Americans to Northern cities; suppression of civil liberties (Schenck Case).

• Outcome: Wilson’s $14$ Points; League of Nations (US failed to join); Treaty of Versailles.

The 1920s and the Great Depression

• $1920\text{s}$: Mass production (Ford’s assembly line); Harlem Renaissance; Flappers; Red Scare; Nativism (National Origins Act of $1924$).

• Great Depression: Caused by overproduction, stock speculation, and bank failures.

• New Deal (FDR): The “Three Rs” (Relief, Recovery, Reform). Created the SSA, FDIC, PWA, and TVA. Expanded the role of the federal government.

World War II

• Mobilization: Pearl Harbor (Dec $7, 1941$); War Production Board; Japanese Internment (Executive Order $9066$; Korematsu v. US).

• Strategy: Island hopping in the Pacific; D-Day in Europe.

• End: Manhattan Project (Hiroshima/Nagasaki). US emerges as the world’s most powerful nation.

Period 8: 1945 – 1980 (Cold War and Civil Rights)

Global Cold War

• Containment: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and NATO established to stop the spread of Communism.

• Conflicts: Korean War ($1950-53$); Vietnam War (Gulf of Tonkin, Tet Offensive, Credibility Gap).

• Tensions: Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Berlin Airlift.

Domestic Issues and Civil Rights

• Civil Rights Movement: Brown v. Board ($1954$); Montgomery Bus Boycott (Rosa Parks/MLK); March on Washington; Civil Rights Act of $1964$; Voting Rights Act of $1665$.

• Great Society (LBJ): Medicare, Medicaid, and the “War on Poverty.”

• Other Movements: Feminist movement (NOW, The Feminine Mystique); Chicano movement (Cesar Chavez); Gay Liberation (Stonewall).

• Counterculture: Hippies, Woodstock, Kent State Massacre.

Period 9: 1980 – Present (Modern Conservative Era)

The Rise of Conservatism

• Ronald Reagan ($1980$): Reaganomics (supply-side/trickle-down); deregulation; large military spending (Strategic Defense Initiative).

• End of Cold War: Relationship with Gorbachev (Glasnost/Perestroika); Fall of Berlin Wall ($1989$); Collapse of USSR ($1991$).

The Post-Cold War World

• $1990\text{s}$: Persian Gulf War; NAFTA; Clinton Impeachment.

• Terrorism: $9/11$ attacks; War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq; Patriot Act; Department of Homeland Security.

• 21st Century: Election of Barack Obama ($2008$); Great Recession; Affordable Care Act; Trump Administration; COVID-$19$ pandemic; Election of Joe Biden ($2020$).

Everything is now fully organized, nothing changed.