Comprehensive AP United States History Study Notes: Periods 1-9

APUSH Period 1: $1491$-$1607$ (Pre-Contact to Colonization)\n\n* Main Characters and Figures\n * Ferdinand and Isabella: Spanish monarchs who funded Christopher Columbus's voyage.\n * Christopher Columbus: Italian explorer who reached the Americas in $1492$, initiating European contact.\n * Bartolomé de Las Casas: Spanish priest who advocated for better treatment of Native Americans and debated against the Encomienda system.\n * Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda: Spanish philosopher who supported the Encomienda system and believed Native Americans were inferior.\n * Hernán Cortés: Spanish Conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire and Tenochtitlan.\n\n* Pre-Contact Native American Cultures\n * Native societies were highly diverse and shaped by the geography of their specific regions within North America.\n * Advanced Societies: Included the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans, which developed complex social structures and infrastructures.\n * Maize Cultivation: The development and spread of maize (corn) from Mexico into the American Southwest supported economic development, settlement, and advanced irrigation systems.\n\n* The Columbian Exchange\n * This refers to the interaction and transfer of various items between the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia) and the New World (Americas).\n * Crops Transferred: Maize, tobacco, and potatoes were introduced to the Old World.\n * Animals Transferred: Horses and livestock (cattle, pigs) were introduced to the New World.\n * Germs and Diseases: Smallpox and measles were introduced to the New World, leading to the \u201cGreat Dying,\u201d which decimated Native populations.\n * Ideas: The spread of Catholicism and European culture.\n\n* Effects of the Columbian Exchange\n * Impact on Natives: The introduction of horses revolutionized hunting/mobility, but the spread of smallpox and measles led to catastrophic population loss.\n * Impact on Europeans: Increased wealth and power for empires; new crops led to significant population growth in Europe.\n\n* Spanish Domination and Systems\n * Treaty of Tordesillas: A treaty supported by the Pope that divided the New World between Spain and Portugal, establishing Spanish domination in much of the Americas and Portuguese control of the African slave trade.\n * Spanish Conquistadors: Driven by the goals of Gold, God, and Glory. Notable figures include Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro (conqueror of the Incas).\n * Encomienda System: A labor system where the Spanish crown granted colonists the right to demand tribute and forced labor from Native Americans.\n * Catholic Missions: Established to convert Native populations to Catholicism.\n * Casta System: A rigid social hierarchy in Spanish colonies based on racial ancestry.\n * Asiento System: A system that allowed for the importation of enslaved Africans into the Spanish colonies, paying a tax to the crown for each enslaved person.\n\n* The Valladolid Debates\n * Occurred between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda.\n * Las Casas argued for human rights and better treatment for Natives.\n * Sepúlveda argued for the Encomienda system and believed Natives were naturally subservient.\n * Agreement: Both men agreed on the goal of Catholic conversion.\n * Disagreement: They fundamentally disagreed on the methods used for conversion and labor.\n\n# APUSH Period 2: $1607$-$1754$ (Colonial Era)\n\n* Main Characters\n * John Smith: Leader of the Jamestown colony.\n * John Winthrop: Puritan leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; famous for the \u201cCity Upon a Hill\u201d sermon.\n * Anne Hutchinson: Dissident who challenged Puritan religious authority in Massachusetts and was banished.\n * Metacom (King Philip): Wampanoag leader who led King Philip's War against New England colonists.\n * Jonathan Edwards: Leading figure of the First Great Awakening; preacher of \u201cSinners in the Hands of an Angry God.\u201d\n\n* Comparing European Colonizers\n * Spanish: Utilized Conquistadors, focused on Catholic conversion, and established the Encomienda system.\n * French: Primarily focused on the fur trade; utilized Jesuit missionaries and maintained relatively better relations with Natives.\n * Dutch: Established New Amsterdam and focused on trade.\n * English: Characterized by mass migration, families settling, and a focus on agriculture and permanent settlement.\n\n* Comparing British Colonial Regions\n * Chesapeake Colonies (Virginia/Jamestown and Maryland):\n * Organized by Joint-Stock Companies.\n * Economy: Heavily reliant on tobacco plantations.\n * Labor: Initially used indentured servitude, later shifted heavily to enslaved African labor.\n * Government: House of Burgesses was the first representative assembly in the colonies.\n * Maryland: Established as a Catholic haven by Lord Baltimore; passed the Act of Toleration.\n * New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth):\n * Founded by Pilgrims and Puritans seeking religious freedom.\n * Governance: Mayflower Compact (early self-government); John Winthrop's \u201cCity Upon a Hill\u201d ideal.\n * Strict religious society; saw events like the Salem Witch Trials.\n * Economy: Based on education, mixed farming, and trade.\n * Middle Colonies (Pennsylvania, New York):\n * Pennsylvania: William Penn founded it as a Quaker haven; known for religious toleration and better relations with Natives.\n * Economy: Known as the \u201cBread Basket\u201d due to grain production; highly ethnically diverse.\n * Southern Colonies (Carolinas, Georgia):\n * Economy: Rice and indigo plantations; intensive use of enslaved labor.\n * Georgia: Established as a \u201cbuffer colony\u201d against Spanish Florida.\n\n* Trade and Economics\n * Mercantilism: An economic system where colonies provide raw materials to the mother country to ensure a favorable balance of trade.\n * Triangular Trade: A trade route connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas (including the Middle Passage which brought enslaved Africans to the New World).\n * Navigation Acts: British laws designed to restrict colonial trade to British ships and ports.\n * Salutary Neglect: A period where Britain relaxed enforcement of trade laws, allowing colonies to develop independent political and economic habits.\n\n* Labor Systems and Conflicts\n * Shift from Indentured Servitude to Enslaved Labor: Accelerated after Bacon's Rebellion ($1676$) when poor farmers and former indentured servants revolted against the Virginia elite and Governor Berkeley.\n * Slave Codes: Laws enacted to control the enslaved population.\n * Stono Rebellion ($1739$): A major slave uprising in South Carolina.\n\n* Native Conflicts\n * Driven by competition for land and resources.\n * Examples: Powhatan Uprising, Pequot Wars, King Philip's War (Metacom), and the Pueblo Revolt against Spanish control.\n\n* The First Great Awakening\n * A religious revival led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.\n * Resulted in divisions between \u201cOld Lights\u201d and \u201cNew Lights,\u201d new denominations, and shared colonial experiences that encouraged questioning of authority.\n\n# APUSH Period 3: $1754$-$1800$ (Revolution and Foundation)\n\n* French and Indian War\n * Origin: Conflict over the Ohio River Valley.\n * Albany Plan: Early proposal by Benjamin Franklin to unite colonies.\n * Treaty of Paris ($1763$): Ended the war; France lost North American territory.\n * Effects: Pontiac's Rebellion led to the Proclamation Line of $1763$ (forbidding settlement west of the Appalachians), and the end of Salutary Neglect as Britain needed to pay off war debt.\n\n* Causes of the American Revolution\n * Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Declaratory Act: Various taxes and assertions of British authority.\n * \u201cNo Taxation Without Representation\u201d: The primary colonial grievance.\n * Resistance groups like the Sons of Liberty.\n * Escalating events: Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and the Coercive/Intolerable Acts.\n * Continental Congresses: Formed to coordinate colonial resistance.\n\n* Enlightenment Influence\n * John Locke: Philosophy of natural rights, social contract, and consent of the governed.\n * Thomas Paine: Wrote \u201cCommon Sense,\u201d arguing for independence.\n * Declaration of Independence ($1776$): Authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson.\n\n* The American Revolution\n * Patriots vs. Loyalists.\n * Strengths/Victory: US had knowledge of the land, Guerilla tactics, and leadership from George Washington.\n * French Alliance: Secured after the Battle of Saratoga.\n * Key Battles/Locations: Valley Forge, Saratoga, Yorktown.\n\n* Articles of Confederation\n * Weaknesses: No power to tax, no national currency, no executive or judicial branch, required unanimous consent to amend.\n * Strengths: Land Ordinance of $1785$ and Northwest Ordinance of $1787$ (organized new territories and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory).\n * Shay's Rebellion: Exposed the federal government's weakness under the Articles.\n\n* The Constitution and Ratification\n * Great Compromise: Created a bicameral legislature (House and Senate).\n * Three-Fifths Compromise: Counted $3/5$ of enslaved persons for representation.\n * Federalism: Division of power between federal and state governments.\n * Federalist Papers: Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay to support ratification.\n * Bill of Rights: Added to appease Anti-Federalists and protect individual liberties.\n\n* Washington and Adams Presidencies\n * Washington: Established a Cabinet, Neutrality Proclamation, Whiskey Rebellion (showed federal strength), Jay's Treaty, Pinckney's Treaty.\n * Washington's Farewell Address: Warned against political parties and permanent foreign alliances (Isolationism).\n * First Two-Party System: Federalists (Hamilton - loose interpretation, National Bank) vs. Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson - strict interpretation, agrarian focus).\n * John Adams: Faced the Quasi-War with France and the XYZ Affair; signed the Alien and Sedition Acts which were opposed by the VA and KY Resolves.\n\n# APUSH Period 4: $1800$-$1848$ (Expansion and Reform)\n\n* Jeffersonian Democracy\n * Revolution of $1800$: First peaceful transition of power between parties.\n * Louisiana Purchase ($1803$): Expanded the US; explored by Lewis and Clark.\n * Embargo Act ($1807$): Intended to stop impressment; unintentionally spurred domestic industry.\n\n* The Marshall Court\n * Led by Chief Justice John Marshall (Federalist).\n * Marbury v. Madison: Established Judicial Review.\n * McCulloch v. Maryland: Established federal supremacy over states.\n * Worcester v. Georgia: Ruled that Georgia had no authority over Cherokee land (ignored by Jackson).\n\n* War of 1812\n * Causes: Impressment of sailors, British influence on the frontier, War Hawks' influence.\n * Hartford Convention: Led to the downfall of the Federalist Party.\n * Outcome: Treaty of Ghent; Andrew Jackson became a war hero at the Battle of New Orleans.\n\n* Era of Good Feelings\n * Monroe Doctrine: Warned Europe to stay out of the Western Hemisphere.\n * Sectionalism: Emerged over slavery and economics.\n * Missouri Compromise ($1820$): Created the $36^\circ 30'$ line to balance free and slave states.\n * Henry Clay's American System: Protective tariffs, Second National Bank, and Internal Improvements (roads/canals).\n\n* Jacksonian Democracy\n * Expansion of suffrage to all white males (Common Man).\n * Nullification Crisis ($1832$): Conflict with South Carolina over tariffs; Jackson used the Force Bill.\n * Bank War: Jackson's veto of the Second National Bank.\n * Indian Removal Act: Led to the Trail of Tears.\n * Formation of the Whig Party: In opposition to \u201cKing Andrew.\u201d\n\n* The Market Revolution\n * Innovations: Textile mills (Lowell Mills), the Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney), Railroads, Steamboats, Canals (Erie Canal), and the Telegraph.\n * Labor: Shift toward wage labor and unskilled labor (including women, children, and immigrants).\n * Immigration: Large-scale Irish (potato famine, cities, Catholic) and German (farmers, Midwest) immigration; resulted in Nativism and the Know-Nothing Party.\n\n* Antebellum Reforms\n * Second Great Awakening: Religious revival leading to social reform movements.\n * Abolitionism: Leading figures like Frederick Douglass.\n * Women's Rights: Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments.\n * Temperance, Education reform, Utopian communities, and Transcendentalism.\n\n# APUSH Period 5: $1844$-$1877$ (Expansion and Conflict)\n\n* Manifest Destiny\n * The belief that the US was destined to expand to the Pacific. Popularized by John O'Sullivan.\n * Election of James K. Polk ($1844$): Campaign slogan \u201c$54^\circ 40'$ or Fight\u201d (Oregon territory).\n * Expansion Routes: Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, Mormon Trail.\n\n* Mexican-American War\n * Caused by Texas Annexation and border disputes along the Rio Grande.\n * Wilmot Proviso: Proposed ban on slavery in land won from Mexico (failed).\n * Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo: Granted the Mexican Cession to the US; finalized southern borders with the Gadsden Purchase.\n\n* Sectional Tensions and Compromises\n * Compromise of $1850$: Included the Fugitive Slave Act and Popular Sovereignty for new territories.\n * Kansas-Nebraska Act: Led to \u201cBleeding Kansas\u201d and the formation of the Republican Party (opposed expansion of slavery).\n * Dred Scott v. Sandford: Supreme Court ruled enslaved people were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories.\n * Abolitionist activity: Underground Railroad (Harriett Tubman), Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriett Beecher Stowe), and John Brown's raid.\n\n* The Civil War\n * Election of $1860$: Abraham Lincoln wins; South Carolina and others secede to form the Confederacy.\n * Strengths: North (Industry, population, railroads); South (General leadership, defensive war).\n * Key Events: Fort Sumter, Antietam, Emancipation Proclamation (changed war goals to abolition), Gettysburg, Sherman's March (Total War), and Appomattox Court House (surrender).\n\n* Lincoln's Leadership\n * Suspicion of Habeas Corpus, implementation of the Draft (led to riots), and the Gettysburg Address.\n\n* Reconstruction\n * Successes: Freedmen's Bureau, $13^{th}$, $14^{th}$, and $15^{th}$ Amendments (ended slavery, granted citizenship and voting rights to Black men).\n * Failures: Jim Crow laws, Black Codes, Poll taxes, Literacy tests, and the KKK.\n * Compromise of $1877$: Ended Reconstruction by removing federal troops from the South.\n\n# APUSH Period 6: $1865$-$1898$ (The Gilded Age)\n\n* Industrial Capitalists and Robber Barons\n * Andrew Carnegie (Steel): Promoted the \u201cGospel of Wealth.\u201d\n * John D. Rockefeller (Oil) and Cornelius Vanderbilt (Railroads).\n * Business practices: Vertical and Horizontal Integration; Monopolies and Trusts.\n * Theories: Social Darwinism and Laissez-Faire capitalism.\n\n* Gilded Age Politics\n * Republican dominance; political machines like Tammany Hall (Boss Tweed).\n * Pendleton Civil Service Act: Ended the Spoils System after Garfield's assassination.\n * Sherman Antitrust Act ($1890$): First major law to limit trusts (difficult to enforce initially).\n\n* Labor Movement\n * Unions: Knights of Labor (all workers) and American Federation of Labor (skilled workers).\n * Unrest: Haymarket Square Riot, Great Railroad Strike, Pullman Strike, Homestead Strike. Government usually favored big business.\n\n* Reforms and Modernity\n * Social Gospel: Using Christian principles for social reform.\n * Settlement Houses: Jane Addams' Hull House for immigrants.\n * Urbanization: Jacob Riis's \u201cHow the Other Half Lives\u201d exposed poverty. Rise of streetcar suburbs and consumer culture.\n\n* The New South and Immigration\n * \u201cNew South\u201d: Henry Grady called for industrialization.\n * Jim Crow: Plessy v. Ferguson established \u201cseparate but equal.\u201d\n * Civil Rights Debates: Booker T. Washington (economics first) vs. W.E.B. DuBois (political rights first).\n * Immigration: \u201cNew Immigrants\u201d from Southern/Eastern Europe; rise of Nativism and the Chinese Exclusion Act ($1882$).\n\n* Westward Expansion and Natives\n * Homestead Act and Transcontinental Railroad encouraged settlement.\n * Impact on Natives: Plains Wars, Sand Creek Massacre, Wounded Knee, and the decimation of the buffalo.\n * Dawes Severalty Act: Aimed at forced assimilation.\n * Helen Hunt Jackson: \u201cA Century of Dishonor.\u201d\n\n* Populism\n * Prompted by farmers' struggles; led to the Grange and the Populist Party (Omaha Platform).\n * William Jennings Bryan: \u201cCross of Gold\u201d speech supporting Bimetallism.\n\n# APUSH Period 7: $1890$-$1945$ (Imperialism to WWII)\n\n* American Imperialism\n * Causes: New markets, raw materials, closing of the frontier. Supporters like Alfred Mahan (Navy) and Josiah Strong.\n * Spanish-American War ($1898$): Yellow Journalism, sinking of the USS Maine. Ended with the Treaty of Paris ($1898$); US gains Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.\n * Foreign Policy: Open Door Policy (China), Big Stick Policy (Roosevelt), Dollar Diplomacy (Taft), Moral Diplomacy (Wilson).\n\n* The Progressive Era\n * Muckrakers: Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Ida B. Wells.\n * Presidents: T. Roosevelt (Square Deal, Conservation), Taft, and Wilson (Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Reserve).\n * Progressive Amendments: $16^{th}$ (Income tax), $17^{th}$ (Direct election of senators), $18^{th}$ (Prohibition), $19^{th}$ (Women's suffrage).\n\n* World War I and the 1920s\n * WWI: US joined due to unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram. Ending with Wilson's $14$ Points and the League of Nations (not joined by US).\n * 1920s: Roaring 20s culture, Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong).\n * 1920s Tension: Red Scare, Nativism/Quota Acts, Prohibition, Flappers, and the Scopes Trial (Science vs. Religion).\n\n* Great Depression and New Deal\n * Depression: Caused by buying on margin, overproduction, and the Dust Bowl.\n * New Deal: FDR's three R's (Relief, Reform, Recovery). Alphabet agencies: CCC, PWA, TVA, WPA, SSA.\n\n* World War II\n * US Entry: Pearl Harbor ($1941$) ended neutrality (previously Cash/Carry and Lend-Lease).\n * Homefront: Japanese Internment (Korematsu v. US), Rosie the Riveter, Code Talkers.\n * End of War: D-Day, Island Hopping, and the Manhattan Project (Atomic Bomb).\n\n# APUSH Period 8: $1945$-$1980$ (Cold War and Turmoil)\n\n* 1950s Culture and Early Cold War\n * 1950s: GI Bill, Baby Boom, Levittowns, Interstate Highway System, culture of conformity vs. the Beats/Rock & Roll.\n * Cold War: Containment policy, Truman Doctrine (Greece/Turkey), Marshall Plan (European recovery). Conflicts in Korea and the Cuban Missile Crisis.\n * Red Scare: McCarthyism and nuclear fears.\n\n* Civil Rights Movement\n * Judicial victories: Brown v. Board of Education (overturned Plessy).\n * Actions: Montgomery Bus Boycott (Rosa Parks), MLK Jr. (Letters from Birmingham Jail, March on Washington), Greensboro Sit-ins.\n * Legislation: Civil Rights Act of $1964$ and Voting Rights Act of $1965$.\n * Perspectives: MLK Jr. (non-violence) vs. Malcolm X (Black Nationalism).\n\n* Vietnam War and Great Society\n * Vietnam: Escalated by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, influenced by Domino Theory. Led to massive counterculture and protests (Tet Offensive, My Lai, Pentagon Papers).\n * Great Society: LBJ's War on Poverty; created Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and shifted immigration policy with the Immigration and Nationality Act of $1965$.\n\n* Nixon, Ford, and Carter\n * Nixon: D\u00e9tente, visit to China, SALT I, but resigned due to the Watergate Scandal.\n * Ford: Pardoned Nixon.\n * Carter: Camp David Accords, but faced the Iranian Hostage Crisis and Oil Crisis.\n\n* Rights Movements and Environmentalism\n * Women's Rights: Betty Friedan's \u201cFeminine Mystique,\u201d NOW, Title IX, and Roe v. Wade.\n * Environmentalism: Rachel Carson's \u201cSilent Spring,\u201d Clean Air/Water Acts, EPA.\n * Other movements: LGBTQ+ (Stonewall), Latino Rights (C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez), and American Indian Movement (Alcatraz).\n\n# APUSH Period 9: $1980$-Present (Modern Era)\n\n* Ronald Reagan and the Conservative Turn\n * Reaganomics: Supply-side economics (\u201ctrickle down\u201d). Increased military spending (Star Wars/SDI).\n * Foreign Policy: Iran-Contra Affair, focus on ending the Cold War (\u201cTear down that wall\u201d).\n\n* George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton\n * H.W. Bush: Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), Americans with Disabilities Act, end of the Cold War.\n * Clinton: NAFTA, budget reform, Brady Bill, and impeachment/acquittal.\n\n* George W. Bush and the War on Terror\n * Bush v. Gore ($2000$ election).\n * $9/11$ Attacks: Led to the USA PATRIOT Act, Department of Homeland Security, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\n * Great Recession ($2008$).\n\n* Barack Obama and Economics\n * Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).\n * Globalization: Interconnectedness through the Internet, World Bank, and WTO.\n * Demographic shifts: Move to the Sun Belt; loss of manufacturing in the Rust Belt; shifts in Latino and Asian immigration patterns.