APUSH Period 3 Review

I used Heimler’s History videos for these notes so feel free to follow along as you watch the video! If you find this helpful, I have notes for some other units on APUSH so go check those out as well :)

How did the United States go from being Britain's colonies to its own independent nation? How did we begin to develop a national identity? 1754-1800

This period began with the French and Indian War, which was a battle between the British and French forces about border disputes along the Ohio River valley.

For the British, the war wasn’t going well, therefore Benjamin Franklin Proposed the Albany Plan of Union (JOIN OR DIE)

Which called for a more centralized government, which would allow them to have a more coordinated effort for the frontier/western defense.
The proposal was rejected, but set the foundation for later revolutionary events.
The British eventually won the war, and they signed the Peace of Paris in 1763
- French were almost completely ousted from North America, and the Louisiana Territory was given to Spain.
- British more than doubled their land hold in North America, gaining all the land east of the Mississippi River.

Consequences of the French and Indian War

Colonists hungry for land began to push westward into the Ohio River Valley, intensifying conflicts with Natives who lived there.
- The news of the land encroachment reached the Ottowa leader Pontiac, so he gathered up some people and led raids on the encroaching colonists. The colonists were dumbfounded at these Indian aggressions.
- The British put a stop to this tension because they wanted to protect the lives of their colonists but also keep trade relations favorable, through the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade colonists from taking land in the Ohio River Valley- West of the Appalachian Mountains
  - This deeply frustrated colonists who fought in the war, so deeply felt entitled to the spoils of war. They thought that they could improve their lives by moving westward and that they had shed their blood to gain this land.
The war was EXPENSIVE
- Over the course of the war, Britain’s debt doubled, and the cost of running the colonies multiplied by five.
- So, the British… TAXED the colonies like crazy
- Taxation without representation
- In order to pay for the war, the British decided to make the colonies help bear the burden.
- The colonists were deeply disturbed by these taxes
  - Although Britain had political sovereignty over the colonies, they largely allowed the colonies to manage their own affairs, due to the large distance between the two. So even if colonists flouted laws such as the navigation acts, Britain didn’t really care. AKA Salutary Neglect
    - It gave the colonists a sense that they were managing their own affairs without much involvement from parliament.
    - But now, in order to pay of these debts, the era of Salutary Neglect was over.
- Immediately, parliament enacted a much stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts, which were disliked by colonists who avoided these laws by smuggling and setting their own terms for trade.
- Parliament also passed the Quartering Act of 1765 which meant that even though the war was over, imperial troops would remain in the colonies in order to enforce these new laws. The law also stated that it was the colonists who were responsible for housing and feeding these soldiers if the quarters of the soldiers were inadequate.
- The Sugar Act imposed taxes on coffee, wine, and other luxury items. It also started enforcing the existing tax on molasses.
- Stamp Act of 1765 imposed taxes on all paper items like newspaper, playing cards, and contracts, which was especially threatening to the colonists because during this year they were experiencing declining wages and a rise in unemployment.
  - It was in this act that really heated up the debates in the colonies about whether it was just to tax the colonies if they were not represented in Parliament.
  - British leaders counteracted this argument by saying that the colonists were in fact represented in the parliament by Virtual Representation
    - The idea was that members of Parliament represented all classes of British citizens, not necessarily every locality.
    - This argument wasn’t very convincing to colonists who have grown more accustomed to local representations in their own representative bodies
- So groups like Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty sprang up and dedicated themselves to the repeal of the stamp act
  - When these tensions heated up, 27 delegates from 9 different colonies assembled in New York in what became known as the Stamp Act Congress.
    - The result of this meeting was a formal appeal to the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act
      - “Taxation without representation was tyranny”
      - Even when as the congress was rejecting the stamp act, they did so as loyal subjects to the British crown and to their countries
        It was NOT A BID FOR INDEPENDENCE, it was British subjects trying to have the full rights of British citizens applied to them.
    - The parliament actually listened and repealed the Stamp Act and Sugar Act the year after. (In response to the protests in the colonies, the destruction of property, and the threats to the lives of tax collectors
- The same time that they passed these resolutions, they also passed the Declaratory Act which stated that Parliament has the right to pass any law that they wanted to in the colonies. So that the colonies remember who is in charge.
  - To the colonists, the repeal of those acts was a victory, and didn’t really mind the declaratory acts.
- In 1767, Parliament passed the Townsend Acts which levied new taxes to items imported into the colonies such as paper, glass, and tea.
  - In response, there were highly organized protests between the colonists, with members from all of American society.
    - Their main plan of attack was to boycott many British goods.
    - The colonists especially depended on women for this boycott since they were the ones in charge of purchasing household items.
      - So instead of buying manufactured British textiles, these women spun their own cloth
      - Instead of drinking imported tea, they learned to brew their own herbal tea.
All of these tensions brewing between the colonists and the British reached a boiling point in 1770 in the Boston Massacre.
- One night a group of boys and young men began harassing a a group of British imperial troops who were stationed to enforce the laws, in Boston.
- They hurled insults towards the soldiers and resulted in throwing stones and snowballs at them.
- A shot was fired (we don’t know why) among the soldiers and that led to more shootings.
- In the end, 11 colonists were wounded and 4 were dead.
- When these soldiers were put on trial, 6 out of 8 were freed from any wrong doing, but to the colonists, the massacre was a sure sign of increasing British tyranny. (oppressive and cruel)
Boston Tea Party (public resistance against British encroachment)
- Response to the Tea Act of 1773, which gave the British East India company exclusive rights to buy and ship tea in the colonies, which angered colonists who were used to dealing in smuggled tea from the dutch.
- In december of 1773, 50 colonists disguised themselves as American Indians and boarded merchant ships and dumped about 45 tons of British Tea into the Boston Harbor
- In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts which closed down the Boston harbor until all the tea was paid for.
- They also enacted new Quartering Act
  - Taken together, theses legislations were called the Intolerable Acts
News of these tyranny spread throughout the colonies increasingly by people who called themselves patriots
- As the news began to spread, colonists began organizing themselves into armed groups vowing to protect themselves against further British tyranny
In addition, leaders from different colonies gathered in the Continental Congress of 1774
- Despite their different views on what should be done, the colonists agreed that the colonies needed to resist further violations of their liberty done by the Parliament
- Even still, they did so as men who wanted to remain British subjects, independence was not an apparent discussion
- Some guiding principles that animated the colonists’ thoughts in the congress were Enlightenment thoughts
  - Natural rights: All human beings are endowed with certain rights by God, and not a government, and therefore a government can never take them away
  - Social Contract: The power to govern is in the hands of the people and they willingly give over some of that power to create a government capable of protecting their natural rights
  - Seperation of Powers: Enables the various branches to check and balance the power of the others
By 1776, the Continental Congress was in its second meeting and they were still debating these things even when shooting had begun in Lexington and Concord
- They came to the point that independence from Britain was the only way that their nation could survive and thrive
- These were only the elite thinky-thinky people of the colonies, and even though they were convinced by independence, the majority of the American colonists were not yet convinced…
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776) Pamphlet in which he argued that the only rational way forward for America was independence from Britain
- He used allusions to the Bible and structured it with Enlightenment principles.
- This pamphlet spread rapidly and everywhere in the colonies
- By spring of 1776, the majority of colonists had been convinced; independence was the only option
So in that year, the Second Continental Congress tasked Thomas Jefferson with writing a formal Declaration of Independence-shot through with Enlightenment thoughts
- “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are dowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”-Natural RIghts
- “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. That wherever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter of abolish it”-Social Contract
- There’s more but just know that the DoI is deeply influenced by Enlightenment thoughts
- The declaration of Independence was presented to Congress and adopted on July 2nd 1776, on July 4th it was made public, and then, the American Revolutionary war begun.
Not everyone in the colonies were on board with independence. There was a sizable opposition to independence in a group called Loyalists.
- They were called loyalists because they did not want to separate from Britain, they wanted to stay loyal

American Revolution

The Continental Congress approved the assembly of the Continental Army and named George Washington as its general
- As a group, this army sucked! They were ill-equiptted, ill-trained, ill-paid, and just generally ill.
As the fighting began, the Americans suffered many humiliating defeats at the hands of the British-Britain possessed one of the most powerful militaries in the world, so the Continental Congress surely knew that they wouldn’t gain the victory of this war if they didn’t secure help from a foreign ally.
The decisive moment came in 1777, when against all odds, the colonies won against the British in the Battle of Saratoga
- This was their turning point because it was their victory here, that convinced the French to ally with the Americans against the British, which was largely due to Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic work in France
So the French sent guns, ships, and Marchini Marfette (fighting french men)
Long story short, the British didn’t have the resources to outlast their American enemies, so after their defeat at the Battle of Yorktown, (1781), the British army surrendered.
America, against all odds, was an INDEPENDENT NATION 🎉
- The success of the American revolution inspired similar revolutions in France, and later in Haiti.

POST REVOLUTION AMERICA

Okay, so now that we had our own nation, we needed ourselves a constitution and a government
They were both in the Articles of Confederation
- Before, during and after the Revolution, states have assembled their own constitutions and governments
  - In those states, they largely put the power for governance in the legislative body-the law making body
- So, when congress began building up the AoC, they largely borrowed from that model.
- By 1781, the states have ratified that document, making it the Constitution of the new United States
- The provisions made is this document for the new federal government included
  - All power for the federal government (like the states’) were put into the legislative body.
    - There was no executive office (president), no judicial branch either.
    - Additionally, there were no provisions for a national military force
  - *The federal government, under the Articles of Confederation, had very limited power to tax.
- Some immediate problems that needed to be handled by this new government was the problem of westward migration
  - Warfare between westward pushing settlers and Indians continued to occur, and there were many people pushing west and settling on the land without any legal ownership
  - In order to regulate this territory, congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (prob the best thing that the federal government did during the time they were under AoC)
    - This provided a plan for how unformed territories could be occupied and then applied to the union for statehood
    - This also abolished slavery in the Northwest territory
- The articles showed its’ weakness, revealed by the Shay’s Rebellion
  - Economically, the U.S., during this time was tough.. Many farmers have fallen into debt while they were out in the battlefields fighting in the Revolution
  - When they returned, many of them were unable to pay their debts due to inflation and new taxes being imposed upon them.
  - They made formal petitions to the federal government for relief, but it wasn’t successful\
  - Daniel Shays was one of those farmers, living in massachusetts. He gathered a militia of about 1,000 other angry fathers and headed to the town arsenal where they planned to arm themselves and rebel.
  - They were pretty quickly squashed by the loca militia
  - THIS REBELLION IS IMPORTANT because it displayed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation
    - This uprising alarmed state national leaders who began to wonder how many other angry farmers could rise up and try to kill them
    - When they realized that there was no president to call, and there was no national army to come help them in the situation, the articles, then seemed like a very weak/flimsy document
- So with all that being said, a Constitutional Convention (1787) was called.
  - The purpose of this convention was the revise the articles and to shore up its weaknesses.
  - But, it soon became apparent to all who attended, that what really was needed was a new Constitution all together.
  - So, debates began on the ideas of a new constitution of the U.S.
    - Almost immediately, two factions began to form
    - Federalists: more urban folks with a commercial background, wanted a stronger central government
    - Anti-federalists: more rural folks, and they liked the states having the power, and they opposed an increase in the federal government’s power
  - Of the many debates they had within that congress, the most heated one, was over how the people would be represented in this new government.
    - 2 ideas:
    - Virginia Plan: representation by population, favored the big states
    - New Jersey Plan: Equal representation regardless of population, favored the smaller states
    - Out of this debate, came out The Great Compromise
      - Under this plan, the legislative branch would be split into 2 houses, which is to say, a bicameral congress
      - In the House of Representatives, states would be represented by population,
      - In the Senate, states would have equal votes; 2 votes per state
  - Another debate over representation was how to account for the large enslaved population in America, especially in the south
    - Southerners wanted all their enslaved laborers to be counted because that’d boost their power in the House
    - Northerners, who had relatively fewer slaves, opposed this
    - The compromise they reached was the Three-Fifths Compromise
      - Stated that for purposes of representation, they’d just count up all the enslaved people in a particular state and take ⅗ of that number and that’s how many seats will be added to their house representation
- So, a new constitution was drawn up that
  - Provided for more robust central government
  - Split government into three branches (check and balance the power of the central government)
    - Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches
  - Once it was done, the new Constitution went to the states for ratification, meaning that they had to agree to submit themselves to authority.
- Federalists took the newspapers and wrote persuasive essays in a dizzying super lightning pace
  - Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, wrote these essays in order to convince the American public of the good worthy (mertis) of the constitution
  - These essays together, became known as the Federalist Papers
- Anti-federalists began to argue against the ratification of the Constitution because it lacked a Bill of Rights which would elaborate individual liberties and protections of the individual against the federal government
- In the end, the Federalists won, partly because they were very persuasive, but also because they agreed to add a Bill of Rights as soon as the Constitution was ratified
  - So, in March 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect
- The first government under this new Constitution was one that set all kinds of presidents.
  - George Washington was elected president and John Adams vice president.
  - To bring order to his administration, Washington established the departments of treasury, state, war, and justice.
  - He appointed Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the treasury. (He introduced many sweeping policies)
    - Drove a plan for the federal government to assume the states revolutionary war debts.
      - Consolidating these debts, he argued, would bind the nation together while simultaneously improving the credit of the nation
    - He proposed the creation of a national bank (Bank of the United States)
      - Many critics of this idea argued that the Constitution made no provision for a bank.
      - However, Hamilton involved the Elastic Clause of the Constitution, which says that Congress has the right to make any law that is necessary and proper in order to carry out its other responsibilities
      - So, Hamilton argued that since Congress is responsible for taxation and the regulation of interstate commerce, that a bank was necessary and proper.
      - So, despite the resistance the National bank and the debt plan passed, and they largely had the effect that Hamilton said they’d have
  - policies like these fired up the opposition
  - Washington and Hamilton were Federalists, so these policies that strengthened the central government made sense to them
    - It also made sense to them to remain neutral during the French Revolution of 1789
    - It also made sense to them to do what they did in the…
    - Whiskey Rebellion of 1794
      - One of Hamilton’s policies included a tax on Whiskey, which was made and consumed mainly by poor frontier farmers.
      - And in this, farmers in anger, attacked and assaulted these tax collectors who tried to collect revenue from them
      - remember back to shay’s rebellion, under the articles of confederation, there was no national army, & they had to hastly gather a militia together to put it down
      - But now, Washington federalized 4 state militias and sent them in to crush the rebellion
  - These policies, taken together, enraged those who opposed the federalists, AKA Democratic-Republicans.
    - Represented by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
    - They thought that the debt plan, the national bank, and the response to the Whiskey Rebellion was clear evidence of Federal Overreach
  - After 2 4-year terms as the president, George Washington didn’t run for a 3rd term - shocking everyone
    - In his parting, he gave the nation some hard-earned advice, namely Washington’s Farewell Address.
    - In this, he cautioned the nation against the formation of political parties and their divisive effects
    - He also cautioned the nation against getting entangled in foreign affairs, especially European alliances
    - After his speech, America got involved in both!
  - John Adams became the 2nd president of the United States
    - His presidency was lowkey rough ngl
    - Almost immediately, war broke out between Britain and France, and even though Adams insisted that America remain neutral in the conflict, the French seized American trade ships that were going to Britain
    - So, Adams sent a delegation to France to negotiate some kind of settlement, but the three French men who met them on behalf of the French government, demanded a bribe before they would even sit down at the table
      - When this report was made public to the U.S., these three French men were only identified as X,Y,Z, thus making this the XYZ Affair
      - The outrage against this affair was shared among the Federalists and the democratic republicans
    - Adams passed a new set of laws that destroyed any found unity among the two parties.
      - Adams feared dissent both at home and abroad, so the Federalists- dominated congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts
        The Alien Acts made it easy and legal to deport any non-citizen of the U.S., chiefly aimed at the growing Irish and Scottish Immigrants who opposed the federalists sympathies for Britain.
        The Sedition Acts made it illegal to criticize the government publicly
      - The democratic republicans viewed this as clear federal overreach.
        Their response to the Alien and Sedition acts were formed in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
        In these resolutions, the democratic republicans argued that any laws passed by the federal government that is bluntly unconstitutional, can, with good conscience, be nullified by the state.
      - With all this shambles, John Adams was NOT elected to his second term in 1800, passing it on to Thomas Jefferson
American Culture during this time period
- A distinctive American culture was growing up during this time
- There was a desire to find a distinct American culture soon after the revolution was won…
  - To this end, state national leaders proposed ambitious plans for public education
  - In addition, artists devoted attention to painting historical themes, notably, Charles Wilson Pill and Samuel Jennings.
  - WOMEN during this period
    - They were not yet societally equal to men
    - The Development of the Republican Motherhood assigned women a new purpose
      - Women could best influence political realities, not by voting, but by raising virtuous sons instructed in the principles of liberty

Relationship between the U.S., Britain, Spain, and the American Indians
- There was a common concern among political elites stretching all the way back to the Washington Administration, about these three entities and their threats to political sovereignty
- In order to deal with the increasing conflicts with Indians and Americans, who were migrating west, Congress passed the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act
  - This law regulated the relationships among settlers and Indians and made provisions for fair dealing.
  - However, American settlers largely ignored this... So when migrants increased, so did conflicts with American Indians- and the British, who supported them.
- Spain
  - Also due to westward migration, there was tension with Spain, on the southern frontier border of the U.S.
  - So, to tidy that up, we got the Pinckney Treaty
    - Pickney Treaty decided once and for all, where the border was between the U.S. and Spain (border was established set to 31st parallel)
Legacy of Slavery in the Newly Formed Nation
- As we settled into independence, distinct regional attitudes towards slavery begin to emerge
  - In Northern states, there was a rapid population growth of free blacks.
    - Some states, like New Jersey, granted free blacks who owned property the right to vote!
    - In Philadelphia, blacks formed the African American church denomination in the U.S., AKA African Methodist Episcopal Church
  - However, in the South, it was a different story…
    - There, the black population was mainly enslaved, and that enslaved population was growing rapidly.
    - New legislation made it almost impossible to free slaves
    - As slaveholders began to migrate into western territories, they brought their enslaved people with them and established the institution in places where it had never existed.
      - This caused all sorts of problems in the next half of the 19th century, but that’s for period 4 😂

The journey from British colonies to an independent nation for the United States between 1754 and 1800 was a complex and tumultuous process shaped by various factors including economic tensions, political disagreements, and philosophical shifts. Here's a breakdown of key events and factors:

French and Indian War (1754-1763): This conflict between the British and French over territorial disputes in North America left Britain deeply in debt. The British victory led to increased tensions with Native American tribes and sparked colonial expansion into the Ohio River Valley.
Taxes and Colonial Resistance: The British government imposed taxes on the American colonies to help pay off war debts. Acts such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts were met with resistance from colonists who felt they were being taxed unfairly without representation in Parliament.
Formation of Colonial Identity: Events like the Stamp Act Congress and the Boston Tea Party brought colonists together in opposition to British policies. While initially seeking redress of grievances within the British system, colonial leaders increasingly began to envision a separate identity from Britain.
Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence: The Continental Congress convened in response to British actions, culminating in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This document articulated Enlightenment ideals of natural rights and self-governance, laying the philosophical groundwork for independence.
American Revolutionary War: The colonies fought a grueling war for independence against the British, receiving aid from France, and eventually securing victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
Post-Revolution Governance: The Articles of Confederation served as the first attempt at a national government but proved ineffective due to its weak central authority. Shays' Rebellion highlighted the weaknesses of this system, leading to calls for a stronger central government.
Constitutional Convention and Ratification: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 led to the drafting of the United States Constitution, which established a stronger federal government with separate branches and a system of checks and balances. The ratification process involved debates between Federalists, who supported the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists, who sought to limit federal powers.
Washington's Presidency: George Washington's leadership as the first President of the United States helped stabilize the new nation. His administration, along with figures like Alexander Hamilton, established key institutions and policies, such as the creation of a national bank and assumption of state debts.
Cultural and Social Developments: American culture began to evolve, with efforts to establish a distinct national identity through education and the arts. However, issues such as slavery persisted, leading to regional tensions and debates over the institution's future.
Foreign Relations: The United States navigated complex relationships with European powers such as Britain, France, and Spain, as well as interactions with Native American tribes, shaping its diplomatic and territorial policies.

Overall, the period from 1754 to 1800 marked a transformative era in American history, characterized by the struggle for independence, the establishment of a new nation, and the exploration of national identity and governance.

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