A CHANGING COLONIAL WORLD: THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

• The french and indian war began because the British had many more settlers than the french so they moved into their territory, kicking the french out

  • the french got angry and revolted

  • 1754-1763 French fought with their Indian allies and the British fought with their Indian allies.

  • the British beat the french and drove them out of Canada and the territory west of the Appalachian mountains.

  • the war officially ended with the treaty of pairis which was between britian, France and Spain. it gave control of all french territory east of the Mississippi river

  • treaty of pairs 1763 ended the war

    • between British, France, and pain

    • gave control of all french territory east of the missippi river to the British, the Spanish gave east and west Florida to the British,. and the Spanish received Louisiana and new Orleans

• colonist were happy but then got angry over the fact that the British wanted to tax the Americans for the war debts.

  • tea act (1763), tax on tea

  • sugar act (1764) tax on sugar

  • stamp act (1765) tax on all legal documents

• made the colonists angry because they got no representation in the parliament

• proclamation of 1763 - said that the colonists couldn’t settle west of the Appalachian mountains - angered them cause they couldn’t settle in land that they just fought over

A CHANGING COLONIAL WORLD: LOCKE AND PAINE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

• Enlightenment 3 characteristics

  • philosophers used science and reasoning to look at problems in society

  • developed new ideas about the rights of people and their relationship with rulers

  • gave rise in an intelligent way to talk about why they hated the British

• john locke and natural rights

  • he said that all people were born with rights that rulers can’t take away

  • life, liberty, and property

  • it was also the duty of the people to overthrow the government if they weren’t protecting your rights

• what is a social contract

  • people willingly gave up total freedom to a government that would protect them

  • ordered liberty - freedom limited by the need for order in society

• Thomas paine

  • he wrote “common sense” which challenged the rule of American colonies by the king of england

  • and he helped push for the independence from Britain

• political ideas that were used by our founding fathers

  • natural rights, consent of the government, social contract, ordered liberty, separation of the church and state, and separation of powers

    • these were all used to blend the colonial government system with enlightenment political philosophies to shape the new nation.

TAKING SIDES AND REASONS FOR AMERICAN VICTORY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

• Advantages of the British vs. the Americans

  • the British had a more powerful military that was well-trained and equipped

  • Americans however had the advantage of fighting a defensive war and committed political leadership

    • British thought it was stupid to waste money and lives on in America

  • developments that led to colonial victory in the revolutionary war

    • americas victory at the battle of saratoga led to the treaty of alliance negotiated by ben franklin with france

    • Americas victory at the battle of Yorktown, command was George Washington with the assistance of the french navy and army

  • The Boston massacre

    • 1770 on march 5th

    • people were angry at the presence of troops sending enforced taxes and quartering acts(forced citizens to house soldiers during the war)

    • colonists began taunting with snowballs and the British opened fire killing 5 people

  • the Boston tea party

    • tea act of 1773 put a tax on all British tea and banned all tea that wasn’t British

    • sons of liberty dumped British tea into the Boston harbor as a protest against the tax

    • British punished boston by bringing troops and blockading the city

  • the first continental congress

    • delegates from every colony except Georgia discussed how they would respond to the blockade

    • 1st time meeting was in Philadelphia in oct 26. 1774

    • petitioned the king to end taxation/intolerable act

    • created the olive branch petition

      • a petition sent by the citizens of British colonies in America to the British government and King George III. Its main purpose was to appease the British government and create reconciliation between the colonies and the British government.

  • Loyalists

    • also known as tories

    • stayed loyal because they were recent immigrants or traded with the British to make money

    • thought taxing was fair to pay for french and indian war

    • fled to Canada

  • patriots

    • wanted complete independence from Britain

    • inspired by locke, paine, and a speech by Patrick henry

    • fought in the American army led by George Washington.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• John Adams led the second continental congress

• John Adams, ben franklin, and thomas jefferson were on the declaration committee

  • declaration of Independence was ratified on july 4th 1776

  • Thomas Jefferson was the main author

• declaration of independence had ideas on natural rights, ordered liberty, social contract, and consent of the governed. all these were inspired by john locke

• thomas paine influenced the declaration

  • jefferson complains about the kings abusive treatment of the American colonies - common sense challenge the rule of the king and contributed to independence of great britain

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

• America tried to create a national government based on different principles

  • basic republican government principles

    • the idea that the people elect representatives to the government who makes the laws for society

  • main influence of the structure of the new government

    • americas pre revolutionary relationship with england

    • they feared a powerful central government like englands

  • main problems with this new government

    • national legislative body was the only major branch or part of the government (they lacked an executive and judicial branch)

      • the executive would enforce the laws

      • judicial branch would interpret and explain the meaning of laws

    • congress lawmaking power was very limited - no power to regulate commerce + no power to tax

    • no common currency

    • each state had one vote in congress regardless of size ( large population states hated this)

    • weaknesses led to the constitutional convention

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

• 5 things the delegates to the constitutional convention needed to figure out

  • decide whether the government should be strong or weak

  • make sure you could stop the government from being too powerful

  • states with large vs small populations needed to be represented fairly

  • delegates from north + south argued about the future of slavery in the us

  • convenient way to fix the new government so that they didn’t end up in the same situation

• james madison role during and after the constitution

  • created the virgina plan ( 3 branches of government - executive, judicial, legislative)

  • wrote the bill of rights

  • kept many notes that historians use to understand debates

THE CONSTITUTION

• the delegates had to make compromises about the strength of the government, how to limit government power, how to balance between small and large states, and what to do about slavery

• according to the constitution the federal law was the supreme law of the land

• federalism - the system of shared power between state and federal government

• to balance the power between small and large states the delegates create bicameral (two-part) legislative with the House of reps and the Senate

• 3 things that kept the government from getting too powerful

  • 3 equally powerful branches (legislative, executive, judicial)

  • system of checks and balances

  • powers of federal government were only limited only to those written in constitution

• how did they make sure you could fix problems within the government

  • the delegates who wrote the constitution provided a system to amend the constitution if changes needed to be made

• 3 things the constitution said about slavery

  • 3/5ths compromise - slaves counted as 3/5ths of a person for representation and taxation

    • southerners wanted the Constitution to protect slavery and allow slaves to count as part of the population for representation

    • northerners didn’t want slaves to count as representation but did want them to count during taxes

  • fugitive runaway clause - allowed Southerners to catch their runaway slaves in free states in the north

  • banned international slave trade (starting in 1808) but allowed slaves to be traded within the united states

THE BILL OF RIGHTS

• the constitution gave power to the government not the people

• the Americans wanted a bill of rights to protect their freedoms and natural rights

• the first 10 amendments make up the bill of rights - written by james madison

• George mason - his virginia declaration of rights influenced ideas on basic human rights that shouldn’t be violated by the government

• thomas jefferson - Virginia statute of religious freedom - outlawed an official government church and protected peoples right to worship

RATIFYING THE CONSITUTION

• people feared a strong government and tyranny because of the revolution

  • angry with the articles of confederation because they thought it was useless and it didn’t get anything done

• federalist

  • in favor of ratifying the constitution

  • supported strong national government

  • fearful of anarchy (chaos, lack of control) instead of tyranny

  • the strong federal government would help with economy and social/public improvements

• antifederalist

  • in favor of not ratifying the constitution

  • thought the new government was too powerful and lead to tyranny

  • favored state governments

  • thought the strong central government would deny states and individuals their rights and liberties

  • people should have more power than the central government states

UNIT TWO VOCAB TERMS

• common sense

  • written by Thomas Paine

  • had ideas on why the rule of the king was unfair and why they should push for independence against Britain.

• declaration of independence

  • written by the founding fathers. main authors were thomas jefferson, john adams, ben franklin. it pushed for independence against britian and was ratified on July 4th 1776

• natural rights

  • an idea created by John Locke saying that all people were born with rights that can’t be taken away from the government. stated 3 things - life, liberty, property

• enlightenment

  • period during the late 1650s-1770s where there was a new way of thinking that focused more on science and reasoning to challenge problems in society

• french and indian war

  • fought in the ohio valley between the french and their indian allies and the British and the indian allies. this provided britian enormous territorial gains when they pushed the french out of Canada. however this led to many taxes against the Americans to pay for the war debts

• proclamation of 1963

  • said that no amercians could settle west of the Appalachian mountains, limiting them from taking over that land. made them angry because they lost the land that they just fought over.

• stamp act of 1765

  • required the colonists to pay tax on papers, cards, and documents to pay for the war debts.

• boston massacre

  • turning point for American quest for independence. helped galvanize boston and the colonies against the mother country. March 5th 1770

• Shay Rebellion

  • Daniel Shay led the rebellion

  • revolts against the new government in Massachusetts in 1776

  • several states had borrowed money during the war and state leaders decided to raise taxes to pay off the debts. if people couldn’t pay the tax they would lose land

  • Daniel Shay followers made a plan to attack arsenal which is a place for weapons are stored

  • the us government learned about this plan but was too weak to solve the crisis

• Problem that the new government had to solve

  • What to do with land north of the ohio river and east of the Mississippi river. this area was called the northwest territory which is land that belongs to the government but isn’t a state.

    • the british had owned this area before the war and now American settlers were claiming this land.

    • The Northwest Ordinance was passed in 1787 (ordinance was a set of laws)

      • they described the steps that territories had to take in order to become new states

      • territory would be splits into smaller territories

      • after 5,000 freemen of voting age settled in an area, they could elect a legislature

      • territories could ask for statehood after reaching a population of 60,000

      • allowed settlers to buy one square mile of land for $640

      • no slavery allowed in the territories

      • provided method for admitting new states and self-government

Using the Declaration of Independence

• Eugene V. Debs

  • they used the declaration saying that every man has an inalienable right to life and the same should apply to the right to work

• Seneca falls

  • they used the declaration saying that “it includes all men and women should be created equal

• i have a dream

  • quotes the declaration - “life liberty and pursuit of happiness” and should apply to all people including blacks. call for civil rights and an end to racism.

• Franklin Roosevelt - Commonwealth Club

  • everyone has equality and that the government has the role in protecting rights. life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. right to life and right to comfortable living everyone has the right to property that is attainable with his living

Landmark cases of the Marshall court

• Marbury vs. Madison

  • supreme court has the authority to strike down federal laws. (Judicial Review) The court could decide if the actions of the legislative and executive branches were constitutional

• McCulloch vs. Maryland

  • not all powers had to be explicitly written out in the constitution to be laws (implied powers)

• Gibbons vs Ogden

  • said that Congress had the power to regulate interstate commerce

Important dates in order

• french and indian war (1754-1763)

• tea act (1763)

• Proclamation of 1763

• Treaty of Paris 1763

• sugar act (1764)

• stamp act (1765)

• boston massacre (1770)

• boston tea party (1773)

• 1st continental congress (1774)

• battle of concord and Lexington (1775)

• 2nd continental congress (1775)

• Declaration of Independence (1776)

• Shay’s Rebellion (1776)

• Virginia declaration of rights (1776)

• battle of saratoga (1777)

• battle of Yorktown (1781)

• Virginia statute of religious freedom (1786)

• Northwest ordinance (1787)

• constitution ratified (1788)

• battle of timbers (1795)

BILL OF RIGHTS SIMPLIFIED

• 1st - freedom of speech, press, and religion

• 2nd - right to bear arms. government can’t take away your weapons

• 3rd- no quartering of troops, only allowed with permission or by the law

• 4th - no unessary search and must need a warrant

• 5th- plead the 5th and right to remain silent. cannot testify against self

• 6th - right to speedy and public trial

• 7th - suit at common law. right to trial if civil trial amount disputed is over $20

• 8th - no excessive bails, fines, or punishments

• 9th - laws not stated in the constitution can still be protected. other rights than in the constitution

• 10th - powers not delegated by the constitution is in the hands of the state and the people

WE THE PEOPLE READING ID TERMS

SLAVERY AND REVOLUTION AND DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY