History Midterm Study Guide

  • colonizing the Western World 

  • Christopher Columbus: Italian explorer, sailed under the Spanish flag, credited with discovering America

  • Amerigo Vespucci: Italian explorer, sailed under the Portuguese flag

  • Juan Ponce de Leon: Spanish explorer looking for the Fountain of Youth explores Florida

  • Columbian Exchange: trading of goods between the old and new world; disease slaves, crops, . . . 

  • Middle Passage: refers to the time slaves spent on the ship in the Atlantic during the slave trade

  • Slavery in the colonies: slavery rose as tobacco became more and more demanded and resulted in the breakup of many families 

  • Roanoke Colony: referred to as the lost colony

  • Jamestown: first permanent English settlement in new world 

  • Plymouth: first European settlement in New England

  • Pilgrims: Puritans that sailed to Plymouth to escape Religious persecution in England

  • Mayflower: the ship the Pilgrims came on

  • Pocahontas: daughter of Powhatan chief, tries to make peace between the two sides, marries John Rolfe

  • Bacon’s Rebellion: rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia Governor William Berkly for how he ran the colony

  • Roger Williams: left Massachusetts colony and founded Rhode Island

  • Virginia House of Burgesses: government style of Virginia, models Congress

  • Mayflower Compact: document that set up government in Massachusetts

  • New Netherlands: colonies of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware that were all owned by the Dutch

  • The 13 Colonies: ruled by the British - New England, Middle, Southern

  • Massachusetts (Founding, Purpose): 1620, Puritans/Pilgrims, religious tolerance 

  • Pennsylvania (Founding, Purpose): 1682, William Penn, religious freedom for Quakers, Latin for woodlands

  • Delaware (Founding, Purpose): originally Swedish then Dutch and finally British in 1664 

  • Maryland (Founding, Purpose): 1633, Lord Baltimore, religious freedom for Catholics, named after Queen Henrietta Maria

  • Virginia (Founding, Purpose): 1607, John Smith and John Rolfe, founded at Jamestown, powhatans Wars, named for Elizabeth I (Virgin Queen)

  • Georgia (Founding, Purpose): 1732, James Oglethorpe, haven for debtors, buffer colony to protect from Spanish Florida

  • John Winthrop: first governor of Massachusetts

  • John Smith: founder/settler of Jamestown

  • John Rolfe: married Pocahontas

  • tobacco: cash crop of the colonies

  • Indentured Servitude: pay off debts by working for a master (sort of like slavery); after a certain amount of time, they gain their freedom


III.  The French and Indian War 


  • fought between Britain, France, and the Natives

  • fought over the Ohio River Valley

  • British won, expelling France from the New World 

  • Proclamation of 1763: forbade any settlement by colonists west of the Appalachian Mountains; went against the bRitish policy of Salutary Neglect 

  • what the countries gained after French and Indian War - Britain gained control of Canada and most of the United States 

  • new territory gained as a result of the French and Indian War - British control of the Ohio River Valley


IV.  The American Revolution


  • 1775-1781 fighting, 1783 treaty

  • fought over taxes and the tyrannical rise of the British Government

  • US gained their independence

  • King George III: King of England that raises the taxes on the colonists 

  • Colonial Protests: boycotting, Boston Tea Party

  • British advantages - 

  1. superior army

  2. weaponry

  3. money

  4. manpower


  • “No taxation without representation”: rallying cry of the colonist against Britain

  • Sons of Liberty: group that planned and carried out the Boston Tea Party

  • Boston Massacre: a street brawl between the American colonists and the British soldiers 

  • Boston Tea Party: American colonists frustrated at BRitain for imposing taxation without representation; dumped 342 chests of tea imported by the British East India COmpany into Boston harbor

  • Quartering Act: all colonists must quarter (house) British soldiers

  • Stamp Act: a tax on newspaper and legal and commercial documents

  • Declaratory Act:  Parliament has the power to pass laws on the colonies in all cases whatsoever

  • Townshend Act: tax on British goods including - paint, paper, lead, glass, and tea

  • Tea Act: created a monopoly in the American colonies for tea; it allowed the British East INdia Company to sell its tea at a lower price charged by colonial competitors

  • Intolerable Acts: 4 laws passed on Boston after the Boston Tea Party - 

  1. closed the port/harbor of Boston to all trade

  2. ordered a full regiment of British troops to be garrisoned (stationed) within Boston

  3. ordered that any British soldier charged with a crime would be returned to England for trial

  4. forbade public assemblies of colonists

  • John Dickinson: dominated talks at the First Continental Congress

  • Shot heard round the World: first shot of the revolution at Lexington 

  • Lexington and Concord: the first battles of the revolution, Lexington was a win for the British, Concord was a win for the colonists; the British were on their way to seize guns and ammunition from Concord

  • Green Mountain Boys: Vermont militia that aided in the taking of Fort Ticonderoga

  • Siege of Boston: the entrapment of British forces in Boston

  • George Washington: Commander of the Continental Army 

  • Battle of Bunker Hill: a win for the British at Breed’s Hill but showed the colonists could fight; “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

  • Olive Branch Petition: final attempt by colonists to avoid going to war with Britain; colonists pledged their loyalty to the crown

  • Thomas Paine: author of Common Sense and the Crisis

  • Common Sense: was written by Thomas Paine; it proclaimed that the time had come to declare independence from England

  • Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776; declares independence from Britain; act of treason; all men are created equal; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, inspired by John Locke and Thomas Paine

  • Ben Franklin: one of the members of the Declaration committee that was one of the biggest advocates for independence 

  • Committee members: Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, Sherman

  • Valley Forge: winter of 1777-1778; Washington’s militia becomes a professional army 

  • Baron Von Steuben: Prussian commander that trained the American soldiers at Valley Forge 

  • Washington Crosses the Delaware: on Christmas night 1776 on way to Trenton

  • Battle of Trenton: sunrise attack against the Hessians, win for the colonists, convince soldiers to reenlist

  • Hessians: German mercenaries 

  • Battle of Monmouth: a stalemate or a tie, after the botched attack by Charles Lee

  • Battle of Saratoga: turning point of the war, France and Spain join the colonists in fight against British

  • Guerilla Warfare: hit and run tactics

  • Battle of Yorktown: the final battle of the war; the British were surrounded by French and Continental groups; Washington was helped by Lafayette and Rochambeau

  • Treaty of Paris: officially ends the war in 1783, two years after the battle of Yorktown, Article 1 grants freedom and independent America


V.  Creating a New Nation


  • republic: a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch 

  • Federalism: government style in which one area is governed by at least 2 sets of government (ie state and federal governments)

  • Articles of Confederation: first constitution of the US; STATES had more power

  • Shays’ Rebellion: armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in opposition to a debt crisis among the citizenry and the state government’s increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades; showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation 

  • Constitutional Convention: was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation; resulted in a new Constitution 

  • checks and balances: process of keeping one branch of government from becoming too powerful 

  • Virginia Plan: proposed a very powerful bicameral (2 house) legislature; representation in both houses of the legislature would be determined proportionately (by population); big states benefited from this plan

  • New Jersey Plan: closer to the initial call for the Convention - drafting amendments to the Articles of Confederation to fix the problems in it; under the New Jersey, the existing continental congress would remain, but it would be granted new powers, such as the power to levy taxes and force their collection; benefited smaller states 

  • ratify: sign or give formal consent to (a treaty, contract, or agreement), making it officially valid 

  • compromise: an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions

  • The Great Compromise: created by Roger Sherman; bicameral legislature; upper house equal representation, lower house representation based on population 

  • Three-Fifths Compromise: question on whether slaves should count towards population; the compromise solution was to count three out of every five slaves as people for this purpose 

  • Federalists: believed in the Constitution and a strong central government (ie John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay)

  • Anti-Federalists: opposed ratification of constitution (ie Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee)

  • Federalist Paper: written by Hamilton, Madison, an Jay to advocate for the ratification of the Constitution 

  • James Madison: father of the Constitution, as he wrote the Bill of Rights to appease Anti-Federalists

  • Bill of Rights: first ten amendments; basic rights of the people 

  • The First Amendment: freedom of speech, religion, press, petition, and assembly 

  • The Second Amendment: right to bear arms

  • The Fourth Amendment: unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause or warrant

  • The Eighth Amendment: no cruel or unusual punishment

  • The Thirteenth Amendment: abolishes slavery

  • The Nineteenth Amendment: gave women the right to vote

  • Article I: set up Legislative branch (Congress)

  • House of Representatives: based on population; led by the Speaker of the House (Mike Johnson)

  • Senate: equal representation; led by the President pro tempore if the VP is not available 

  • how does a bill become a law - starts in either house -> goes through committee -> voted on floor (simple majority) -> goes to other house for simple majority vote -> president signs or vetoes bill 

  • Article II: set up Executive branch 

  • cabinet: Presidential advisors on different aspects 

  • Positions in the Cabinet: Secretary of State, Defense, Treasure, Education, Interior, Attorney General

  • The Electoral College: the body that chooses the President and VP every 4 years

  • how many electoral votes are needed to win the election - 270

  • how is it determined how many electoral votes a state gets - number of members in the House + number of senator (= to that state’s members of Congress)

  • Article III: set up Judicial branch, appointed by the President 

  • Judicial Review: the ability of a court to examine and decide if a statute, treaty, or administrative regulation contradicts or violates the provisions of existing law, a State Constitution, or ultimately the United States Constitution; main power of the 9 justices of the Supreme Court 

  • current Chief Justice - John Roberts

  • first state to ratify the Constitution? - Delaware

  • first President and VP? - George Washington and John Adams


VI.  Geography


  • Great Lakes: HOMES - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

  • Key Rivers

  1. Rio Grande (separates the US from Mexico)

  2. Mississippi (separates the West from the East)

  3. Colorado (flows through the Grand Canyon)

  4. Delaware (separates NJ from PA)


  • Atlantic and Pacific Ocean: Atlantic (east), Pacific (west)

  • Regions of the US

  1. New England

  2. Mid-Atlantic

  3. Southwest

  4. Great Lakes

  5. Midwest

  6. Southwest

  7. West


  • Appalachian and Rocky Mountains: Appalachian (east), Rocky (west)

  • location of states - 

  1. New Jersey - Mid-Atlantic

  2. California -  West

  3. Texas - Southwest

  4. Pennsylvania - Mid-Atlantic

  5. Utah - West

  6. Missouri - Midwest

  7. Michigan - Great Lakes

  8. Oklahoma - South West

  9. Minnesota - Great Lakes

  10. North Carolina - Southeast

  11. Oregon - West

  12. Louisiana - Southeast

  13. Maine - New England

  14. Florida - Southeast

  15. Nebraska - Midwest

  16. Nevada - West

  17. Ohio - Great Lakes

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