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