Midterm Study Guide

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Christopher Columbus

• 4 voyages
• Sailed for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand
• “Gold, God and Glory”
• Columbian Exchange
• Voyage 1
  • Ferdinand and Isabella outfit
  • Ships: Niña, Pinta, Santa Maria
  • Niña and Pinta have 18 men each
  • Santa Maria had 52 men
  • 10000 mile trip
  • Some men are from prisons
  • Left Aug 3, 1492
  • Land spotted Oct 12, 1492
  • Santa Maria gets caught on rocks and sinks
  • Columbus thinks he is in India and wants the men to build a colony
• Voyage 2
  • Leave Sep 23, 1493
  • 3 large caravels, 14 frigots, and 1500 men
  • 12 missionaries
  • La Navidad is not doing well
  • Natives are slaves and Columbus fills 5 ships with them
  • Voyage lasts 3 years
• Voyage 3
  • 6 ships
  • Sees South America coast
  • Spies find him mistreating natives
  • Put on trial, found guilty, put in prison
• Voyage 4
  • Leaves May 9, 1502
  • Hurricane hits and he has to return
  • Dies a year later

Columbian Exchange

• Caused by the discovery of the Americas by Columbus
• Natives to Europeans - maize, potatoes, tobacco, fruits, vegetables
• Europeans to Natives - horses, cattle, smallpox
• Smallpox killed over 90 percent of the natives
• Caused the death of many natives

Important crop from Aztecs to Spaniards

• Maize/corn

Aztecs

• Cortes meets Moctezuma, king of Aztecs

• Moctezuma thinks Cortest may be the god Quetzalcoatl

• Moctezuma invites Cortes and men into Tenochtitlan, the capital

• Tenoctitlan has 100,000 warriors and canals

• Spaniards observe

  • Human sacrifice
  • Zoos
  • Aztec ball game

• Spaniards want to go home

• Cortes orders sails burned and attacks Tenoctitlan

Class system for the Aztecs

• Royalty
• Nobility
  • Military leaders, priests, lords, land owners, judges
• Warriors
• Commoners
  • Farmers, artisans, merchants
• Slaves and Serfs

Tenochtitlan

• The capital of the Aztecs
• Located in present-day Mexico City
• 100,000 warriors and canals
• Human sacrifice, zoos, violent Aztec ball game

Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Caused by the introduction of tobacco
• As other Europeans established American colonies, they also imported enslaved Africans in large numbers
• During the colonial era, more Africans than Europeans crossed the Atlantic to the Americas
• Slave traders sent between 10 million and 15 million enslaved people from Africa
• Between 10 percent and 15 percent died on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, called the Middle Passage

Jamestown

• Virginia Company
• Patent given to start a colony in Jamestown, VA
• Dec 1606 (144 colonists and 3 ships)
• Jobs to complete
  • Self sufficient
  • Mine for gold/silvers
  • Plant grapes/make wine
  • Plant mulberries/make silk
• Took many colonists, but no farmers/hunters
• Arrived Apr 1607
• 39 had died at sea
• Seached for 1 month for a location
• Settled in a bad location (swamp)
• Man died (by the summer 46 more had died) leaving 59/144
• Second wave arrives
  • Captain John Smith leads the colonists
  • Befriends the Inidans
  • Passes law “Don’t work, don’t eat”
  • Jailed at first, but let out and moved colony, made colonists hunt and plant, and negotiated with Indians
• 3rd wave
  • John Smith leaves
  • New wave of 600 come (sick, cannot fight)
  • Natives break off truce and colonists move back to swamp
  • Starving Time - resorted to cannibalisms due to no hunting and farming

Maryland

• Founded by Lord Baltimore in 1634
• Second plantation colony (cash crop tobacco)
• Fourth English colony
• Refuge for Catholics
• 1st colony to grant religious toleration (still had the death penalty for Jews and atheists)

New England Characteristics

• Longer lifespan
• Cool climate
• Strong family unit
• Very religious
• High literacy rate
• Unfit soil for farming - merchants, ship builders, fishermen, traders

Middle Characteristics

• Religiously and culturally diverse
• Combination of agriculture (PA cash crop oats) and business
• Cool climate
• Strong family unit

Chesapeake Characteristics

• Disease
• Short life span
• Men greatly outnumbered women
• Cash crops - tobacco, rice
• Slaves and indentured servants
• Founded for economic reasons
• Families are few
• Poor education
• Hot, humid climate
• Fertile soil - more agriculture and “hard” work

Triangular Trade

• Caused by the development of mercantilism
• A ship loaded with barrels of rum would start out from a New England port like Boston and cross the Atlantic to West Africa
• Rum traded in West Africa for hundreds of captive Africans --- ships would set out on the Middle Passage --- slaves aboard these ships would be traded in West Indies for sugar cane
• Ship returns to a New England port where sugar would be sold to make rum

Mercantilism

• Colonies exist to make the “mother” country money and in return, the “mother” country provides military protection
• Led to the Triangular Trade

Navigation Acts

• Implemented by England to establish a mercantilist policy in the colonies
• 3 rules for colonial trade
  • Trade to and from the colonies could be carried only by English or colonial-built ships, which would be operated only by English or colonial crews
  • All goods imported into colonies, except for some perishables could pass only through ports in England
  • Specified goods from the colonies could be exported only to England (for example tobacco)
• Effects
  • Positive
  • New England shipbuilding prospered
  • Chesapeake tobacco had a monopoly in England
  • English military forces protected the colonies from potential attacks by French and Spanish
  • Negative
  • Colonial manufacturing was severely limited
  • Chesapeake farmers received low prices for their crops
  • Colonists had to pay high prices for manufactured goods from England
• Enforcement
  • Was often relaxed and British agents were known for their corruption
  • Salutary neglect: rules put in but are not enforced

Protestant Reformation

• Marked the beginning of modern Europe and influenced the development of Western Civilization
• Began as an attempt to reform the Catholic church and resulted in the destruction of religious unity of Western Europe
• Protestantism was adopted by the growing nation–states of the North
• Influenced the development of nationalism, capitalism, democracy, and science
• Causes:
  • Corruption of the Roman Catholic Church
  • Simony: sale of church offices
  • Nepotism: working in a position above a family member
  • Sale of indulgences: buying forgiveness of sins
  • Decline of morality among clergy
  • Impact of Renaissance humanism
  • Humanist “glorification of humanity” which contradicted the church’s emphasis on salvation
  • Declining Prestige of the Papacy
  • Babylonian captivity: 14th Cent. Popes were subservient to French King; took up residence in Avignon and lost prestige in Christendom
  • Great Schism(divide): beginning in 1378 when French and Anti-French cardinals elected 2 popes (1 in Rome and 1 in Avignon)
  • Influence of Religious Reformers
  • Wycliffe, Huss, Lutheran, Calvin
  • Stressed personal communication with God
  • Diminished importance of sacraments
  • Weakened influence of the clergy
  • Resentment of the Secular Rulers over the power of the Popes and Clergy
  • Invention of the Printing Press - allowing dissenters to spread their ideas throughout Europe and making the Bible available to the common people
• Results:
  • Northern Europe and most of Germany adopted Protestantism
  • Religious wars break out between Protestant and Catholics
  • Growth of the Protestant Faith leads to Catholics establishing the Reformation (Spanish Inquisition

Predestination

• Proposed by John Calvin and adopted by Puritans
• The idea that it has been determined before birth whether you are going to heaven or hell and you cannot change that
• Men/women are sinful by nature
• Only a few (the “elects”) will be saved from sin
• God has known from the beginning who will be saved
• Everyone must live a “pure” life

Boston Massacre

• Cause
  • Britain upset with the colonists and their protesting over the Townshend Acts — so Britain sent troops to Boston to help keep the peace
  • The colonists do not want the British troops in Boston — so the situation between the colonists and British soldiers become very tense
• March 5, 1770
• British soldiers and colonists confront each other in Boston
• Sodiers competing with colonists for jobs in Boston (rope walk)
• Soldier gets job, thinks he’s too good for cleaning, and colonist gets mad
• Make wandering night groups
• Colonists find a sentry at night and call him names
• 7 British soldiers called by Captain Preston
• Crowd has grown to 700 and start throwing snowballs with rocks, have ladles and sticks
• Town bell rings for a fire
• Crowd yells fire and soldiers think captain yells fire
• Engraving by Paul Revere
• Effects
  • Result 5 Americans were killed “Boston Massacre” (first is Mulatto)
  • Captain is tried and acquitted
  • The trial results in the Impartial Administration Act

Stamp Act

• Passed to pay for war debt and military protection
• Passed in 1765
• All legal documents including newspapers, diplomas, decks of cards, dice, almanacs, etc. had to have a stamp
• Stamps ranged in price from 2 pence to 6 pounds
• Law managed to offend editors, lawyers, students, gamblers, etc.
• Effect
  • “No taxation without representation” was chanted
  • Colonists are protesting because they dislike virtual representation and are demanding direct representation
  • The law produced a rebellious nature in the American colonies
  • Colonists began to protest, demonstrate and riot as a result of the stamp and sugar acts
  • Colonists used crowd politics - Led by Sons of Liberty (Samuel Adams)
  • Act is repealed

Population Trends in the Colonies 1670-1790

• Rapid growth
  • 1700: 250000
  • 1750: 1.5 million
• Immigrants and high birthrates
• Variety of people
  • Immigrants coming in
• Social class and mobility
  • Upper, middle, lower, slave
  • Could move between classes

Population Trends in the US 1790-1860

• 1790: the est. population was 4 million
• 1860: the est. population was 32 million with half of the people in territories/states that did not exist in 1790
• Natural Increase
  • Birth rates dropping in North
  • People living longer, especially in North - late 50s, in South - late 30s/early 40s
• Immigration
  • Britain - Protestant
  • Germany - middle class, Protestant, productive
  • Ireland - Catholic, worked in factories, poor

Indentured Servants

• Indentured servants - served 7 years in exchange for paid trip, food, and shelter, and burned down Jamestown in Bacon’s Rebellion
• Led to slavery as indentured servants ran out of time, and the colonists wanted cheap, replaceable labor

African Slaves

• Slaves were introduced in 1619
• 1670 - 3,000 slaves
• 1750 - 10,000 slaves
  • Half of Virginia and two-thirds of South Carolina were slaves
• 1861 - 4 million slaves in the Chesapeake colonies alone
• Located mostly in the Middle and Chesapeake colonies

King Philip’s War

• One of the bloodiest wars in New England’s history
• War named after Mettacom (who is Massasoit’s son and was called King Philip)
• War starts in 1675 in Plymouth when the colonists seize and hang 3 Wampanog Indians for murdering a “praying town” Indian
• Result ---UPRISING --Wampanog Indians were initially the only Indians fighting –then other tribes join in
• Puritans responded to the attacks by attacking Indians (even tribes that were neutral)
• Puritans saw it as their mission to destroy the Indians ---(Puritans even attacked the Praying Towns and slaughtered the Indians there)
• The war turned in favor of the Puritans and what is left of the Pequot tribe and the Mohegans join in their fight against the Indians
• Puritans begin to fight like Indians and win the war in 1677
• Puritan philosophy – NO POW’s therefore prisoners were executed or sold into slavery

Development of Political Parties

• Political parties made an appearance as early as Washington’s first administration
• Parties arise in a democracy when people with similar interests and ideas band together to advance their program by peacefully gaining control of the government
• The bitter struggle over financial matters during Washington’s administration resulted in the formation of 2 political parties: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
• Federalists
  • Led by Hamilton and John Adams
  • Were mostly wealthy and well educated
  • Favored a strong central government
  • Supported Hamilton’s Financial Program
  • Tended to favor Britain in foreign affairs
  • Strongest in the north
  • Favored a loose interpretation of the Constitution
  • In power = more military spending
• Democratic-Republicans
  • Led by Jefferson and Madison
  • Common people
  • Favored the state’s rights
  • Opposed Hamilton’s Financial Program
  • Tended to favor France in foreign affairs
  • Strongest in the south
  • Favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution
  • In power = less military spending

Alexander Hamilton

• Constitutional Convention
  • Spokesman for Propertied Class
  • National Bank
  • Jefferson argued that the Constitution did not give Congress the power to create a bank
  • Hamilton (secretary of Treasury) argued that the document’s “necessary and proper” clause authorized Congress to do whatever was necessary to carry out its duties
  • Washington supported Hamilton on the issue and the bank was established
  • The Bank of the United States was privately owned by shareholders
  • As a major shareholder of the bank, the federal government could print paper currency and use federal deposits to stimulate business
  • Universal Male Suffrage
  • Every propertied man has the right to vote
  • Those who don’t have property will waste their vote

Constitutional Convention

• Hardly any representatives were sent that represented the common person that made up 90% of the country’s population
• Several Revolutionary leaders were also absent: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, etc
• Consisted of 55 delegates from 12/13 colonies
• Represented the wealthy, propertied class
• Men who were knowledgeable in law, history and government
• President - George Washington
• Secretary - James Madison
• Spokesman for Propertied Class - Alexander Hamilton
• Lent prestige and wisdom - Ben Franklin
• Came to the conclusion that the Articles could not be revised - they need to start over

Articles of Confederation

• Achievements
  • Brought the American Revolution to a successful conclusion
  • Negotiated and signed the Treaty of Paris 1783
  • Kept the states united in name, if not always in fact
  • Passed the Land Ordinance of 1784 and 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787
• Weaknesses
  • Congress was practically unable to enact laws because:
  • Passage of a bill required 9/13 colonies in favor
  • Delegates from more than 10 colonies were rarely present at one time
  • No provisions for a chief executive (all law enforcement was left to individual states)
  • No central courts existed to handle disputes between citizens of different states
  • Amendments required a unanimous vote (13/13)
  • Congress had no power to levy taxes
  • Congress could issue money, but so could each state
  • Congress had no power to raise an army (could request help from states)
  • Congress had no power to control interstate commerce (each state established its own tariffs and regulations)
  • Congress had no power to control foreign commerce
  • Congress commanded little respect abroad and was ineffective when dealing with foreign governments

Branches of Government

• Executive
  • President, VP, and Cabinet
  • Enforces laws
• Legislative
  • Congress (House and Senate)
  • Makes laws, declares war, regulates commerce
• Judicial
  • Supreme Court
  • Acts as the highest legal court

Great Compromise

• Government with 3 branches
• Legislative Branch - bicameral
• House of Rep (large state plan) based on states population
• Senate (small state plan) based on equal representation (ea. state 2 representatives)

3/5's Clause

• Added to address slave population in the Great Compromise
• Said that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person when calculating population for representation

Nullification

• First introduced in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
• The right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal laws deemed unconstitutional

Great Awakening

• A movement characterized by fervent expression of religious feelings among masses of people between the 1730s–1740s
• Only took place in the Middle and New England Colonies (among the middle class; Chesapeake did not have a middle class)

Nativism

• Anti-foreign feeling
• Nativism grew within the US because of large numbers of Irish and German immigrants moving to the US
• Americans feared that immigrants would:
  • Outnumber and out-vote them (vote Democrat)
  • Take away their jobs
  • Cause the growth of Catholicism
• Directed towards Irish in the 1860s
• Changed to xenophobia (strong hatred of foreigners) around WWI to Germany and added Japan in WWII

Manifest Destiny

• American expansionists who felt it was their God-given right to expand the US
• Promoted by:
  • Land-hungry Americans who wanted more land
  • Patriots who feared Great Britain would take land
  • Eastern merchants who wanted to begin trading with Asia and needed ports on the West Coast
  • Democratic-minded individuals who wanted to spread democracy
  • Nationalists who supported American greatness

Spot Resolution

• Abraham Lincoln’s request for President James K. Polk to identify the exact spot where American blood was spilled right before the Mexican War

Mexican War

• Caused by border disputes over Texas among other things
• Mexico responded to US sending troops to disputed area by sending Mexican troops
• Fire was exchanged and blood was shed
• President Polk claimed that “American blood had been shed on American soil” and went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war
• Abraham Lincoln felt that the war was unconstitutional and throughout the war called for “spot resolutions”
• General Zachary Taylor won victory after victory in Northern Mexico and later becomes President
• General Winfield Scott captured Vera Cruz and Mexico City and later becomes US Head of Military
• Captain John C. Fremont led American settlers to drive Mexican authorities out of California and established CA (Bear Republic), later becomes the first Republican presidential candidate
• Mexican War proved to be the training ground for many Civil War generals - Lee, Grant, Sherman, etc
• For Mexico, the war was a disaster
• Mexico sued for peace and had to concede the loss of its northern lands
• Mexico had little choice but to agree to US terms

Kansas/Nebraska Act

• Passed in 1854
• Stephen Douglas, a Sen. From Illinois secured the passage of a bill that:
  • Divided the remaining LA Purchase into the territories of KS and NB
  • Authorized people in the territories to follow popular sovereignty
  • Repealed the MO compromise
• It passed because it was understood the KS would be slave and NB free — but what happened was everyone followed popular sovereignty and created a war in Kansas

Andrew Jackson

• Spoils System and Rotation of Office Holders

• Jackson believed in appointing people to federal jobs based on their party loyalty

• Therefore, if you helped him win the election, Jackson believed he owed you a federal job, even if you were not qualified

• Because Jackson owed so many supporters jobs, he advocated a rotation of office

• Every couple of years a new person would be rotated into a job

• Jackson believed that “no man had any more intrinsic claim to office than another”

• Promoted government corruption

Indian Removal Act

• In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act
• By 1835, most eastern tribes had reluctantly moved west to reservations
• Cherokees challenged this law and won the case, but the act was passed anyway
• Led to the Trail of Tears

Force Bill

• Gave the President the power to use the army and navy if necessary to enforce that South Carolina follow the Tariff of Abomination
• South Carolina was very upset over this, so Henry Clay will step in and write a compromise (Compromise Tariff of 1833)

Veto of National Bank

• Jackson took his re-election as a pronouncement by the people to revoke the National Bank’s charter
• So, in 1832, Jackson vetoed the renewal of the National Bank’s charter, saying that it enriched the wealthy at the common people’s expense
• The majority of voters approved of Jackson’s action
• Jackson creates pet banks/wildcat banks, which are state banks
• Jackson will order governemnt funds withdrawn from the National Bank and distributed to these state banks
• The problem is that there are no rules for how loans are to be given out and state banks printed too much paper money
• Caused many banks to go bankrupt and leads to the Specie Circular forcing people to pay in gold and silver

Worcester v Georgia

• Cherokees challenged the Indian Removal Act
• Ruled that the laws of Georgia had no force within Cherokee territory
• The decision was not enforced because President Jackson did not support it

Henry Clay

• Known as the “Great Compromiser”
• Led the War Hawks with John C. Calhoun
• Led the Whigs with John Quincy Adams
• Ran for president multiple times
• Proposed his American System consisting of tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvments
• Wrote the Missouri Compromise
• Wrote the Compromise Tariff of 1833
• Used his influence to provide John Q. Adams votes to win the presidential election

Missouri Compromise

• The issue at hand is that at this time there is the same number of slave states and free states
• Compromise (written by Henry Clay):
  • Missouri would be a slave state
  • Maine would be a free state
  • What is left of the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30′ line (Mason-Dixon Line) would prohibit slavery
• This compromise passed

Universal White Male Suffrage

• New western states adopted state constitutions that allowed all White males to vote and hold office
• Free black men could vote too
• They omitted any religious or property qualifications for voting
• Most eastern states soon followed suit, eliminating such restrictions
• As a result, throughout the country, all White males could vote regardless of their social class or religion
• Voting for president rose from about 350,000 in 1824 to more than 2.4 million in 1840 mostly as a result of changes in voting laws
• In addition, political offices could be held by people in the lower and middle ranks of society
• However, this could also mean that those who aren’t knowledgeable or qualified can make important decisions
• Property owners (Whigs) didn’t like this because they felt that the poor and uneducated could cast an “inaccurate” vote

German and Irish Immigrants

• Germans - middle class, Protestant, productive workers
• Irish - Catholic, poor, worked in factories, suffered from nativism

Decline of the Federalist Party

• The Hartford Convention caused the Federalist Party to disappear
• Convention held in Hartford - advocated states rights doctrine and nullification
• Demanded that the Constitution be changed to a 2/3 vote to declare war and hinted if this did not happen that the Federalist would secede
• Almost immediately after Hartford Conventions demands are made, the US learns of Jackson’s victory at New Orleans
• Nationalism increases within the US and this group is seen as traitors

Formation of the Whig Party

• Formed during the 1830s by the union of diverse factions that opposed the policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party
• Many supported Henry Clay, a proponent of internal improvements, protective tariffs, and a national bank

South Carolina Exposition and Protest

• Caused by Adams’s passage of the Tariff of Abomination and was based off of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolution
• John C. Calhoun was the leading spokesman against the Tariff of Abomination
• He wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest
  • The federal government was created by the states to serve the states
  • States have the power to declare laws passed by Congress as unconstitutional or null and void
  • Calhoun also believed that states could terminate their compact with the Union and secede
• Would lead to SC being the first state to secede from the US

Nullification Crisis

• Caused by the South Carolina Exposition and Protest
• In 1832, South Carolina was upset over the 1828 Tariff (Abomination)
• They decided to nullify the tariff and then threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to collect the tariff duties within South Carolina
• Jackson accepted the challenge and told South Carolina that nullification went against the Constitution, and that he would take steps against South Carolina if they nullified the law
• Caused the passage of the Force Bill

Marbury vs. Madison and Judicial Review

• “Midnight Judges” were appointed by Adams hours before he left office (at midnight)
• Jefferson takes issue with this appointment because the judges are Federalists and he refuses the appointments
• The case goes to the Supreme Court and is heard by Chief Justice John Marshall
• They decided to keep the appointments but also established judicial review
• Judicial review: the legal power of a court to determine if a decision contradicts or violates the Constitution
• Judicial review led to the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, removing the Midnight Judges

Role of Women in the Second Great Awakening

• The Second Great Awakening was largely driven forward by middle-class women who were its earliest converts
• More than one hundred women crisscrossed the country as itinerant preachers, holding meetings in barns, schools, or outside in fields
• They were the first group of women to speak publicly in America

Role of Women in Reform Movements

• By the beginning of the new century, women's clubs in towns and cities across the nation were working to promote suffrage, better schools, the regulation of child labor, women in unions, and liquor prohibition
• 1812 Temperance Movement was launched mostly by women – made up around 65% of membership

New Religious Deonominations in the 2nd Great Awakening

• Millerites/Seventh Day Adventists
• William Miller – founder
• In the 1830’s Miller preached that God would return on Oct 22, 1844
• When Christ did not return, he decided he had misinterpreted the Bible
• Latter Day Saints/Mormons
  • Joseph Smith –founder
  • Smith was killed in the “burned out district” in New York for his practice of polygamy
  • Mormons were persecuted because of polygamy belief – so Brigham Young led them to Utah to settle
• Unitarians
  • Located mostly in New England area
  • Emphasized reason not revelation
  • Rejected idea of the trinity
  • Played a big role in the Abolitionist Movement

Louisiana Purchase

• 1800 Napoleon comes to power in France
• Napoleon wants to invade the US
• Failed Invasion of US leads to Napoleon selling territory to US
• Jefferson sent Livingston and Monroe to France with an offer to buy New Orleans and Florida
• Napoleon had just gotten the news of his defeat in Haiti
• Napoleon offers Livingston and Monroe: New Orleans and all of the LA Territory for $15 million
• Leads to constitutional issues and Jefferson changing his interpretation

Transportation Improvements 1790-1860

• Roads built
• Robert Fulton - steamboat (1820: 69 steamboats, 1825: 720)
• Erie Canal - “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” 364 mi from Albany to Buffalo, reduced $100 per ton to $8, caused more canals to be built
• Railroads

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