Unit 1 (1491-1607)

Big Picture: Societal makeup of Americas before and after European contact

Theme 1: The Native Americans were diverse due to their different environments

• Bering Land Bridge connected Siberia and Alaska during Great Ice Age

  • Great ice age was from 2 MYA to 10,000 years ago

    • Original Native Americans migrated to the Americas

South American Natives

• Olmecs (Mother Culture)

  • Gave rise to much of Mesoamerican cultures

• Mayan (Yucatan Peninsula)

  • Society based heavily on trade

  • Absorbed by Aztecs before 1492

• Aztec Empire (Mexico)

  • Brutal warriors

  • Conquered most of Modern Mexico and Guatemala

    • Later Moctezuma II overthrown by Hernan Cortes

  • Tenochtitlan is modern-day Mexico City

• Incan Empire (Peru)

  • Connected by trade

  • Warriors kept unification in South America

    • Later Atahualpa overthrown by Francisco Pizarro

North American Natives

• Pueblos (Utah and Colorado)

  • Farmers who settled

    • Beans, squash, and maize

  • Advanced irrigation systems (diverted river systems)

  • Small urban centers of clay bricks (cliffside civilizations)

    • Later revolted against the Spanish

• Great Plains Native Americans (Colorado to Canada)

  • Organized nomadic people

  • Hunter-gatherers

  • Kinship bands

  • Ute people

• Pacific Coast

  • Diversity of fish, plants

  • Chumash, Chinook people

• Iroquois (Northeast)

  • Farmers who settled

  • Lived in longhouses

    • Used abundant timber

• Mississippi River Valley

  • Farmers who settled

  • Trade up and down the waterways

  • Religious mounds

  • Cahokia people

Theme 2: European demand for trade facilitated exploration and American contact

Search for Wealth

• European kingdoms were changing

  • Many were becoming more centralized

• European upper-class enjoyed trade with Asia, but Muslims prevented easy access

  • Europeans looked for sea-based routes to Asia

    • Portugal would create a trading-post empire around Africa and Asia

      • New Maritime technology

• Spain just got out of their Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula

  • Spain wanted to explore new lands for God, glory, and gold

Discovering the New World

• Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for Spain (Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand)

  • He discovered the Americas, landing in the Caribbean

  • Opened European contact in the New World

The Exchange Between Worlds

• Columbian Exchange

  • New World

    • Received

      • Wheat, rice, soybeans

      • Cattle, pigs, horses

      • Disease (Measles, smallpox)

      • African slaves

  • Old World

    • Received

      • Tomatoes, potatoes, maize

      • Turkeys

      • Gold, silver

      • Syphilis
        

• Triangular Trade

  • A trade system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas

  • Europe received raw resources such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton

  • Africa received textiles, rum, and manufactured goods

  • Americas received slaves

    • Known to be the brutal Middle Passage

Economic Switch

• Feudalism to Mercantilistic Capitalism

  • Feudalism: Peasants work on noble’s land for protection

  • Capitalism: Economic system based on private ownership and free exchange

    • Joint-Stock Company: Limited liability organization in which investors pool money to fund a venture

Theme 3: European conquest throughout the Americas explodes

Spanish Conquest

• Encomienda System

  • Colonial labor system where the Spanish (encomenderos) enslaved Natives to farm and mine in the Americas

  • In return, Natives receive protection and religious teaching

    • Native Americans found many ways to escape the forced labor

    • Many Native Americans ended up dying to disease if they didn’t escape

• African Slaves

  • To solve their Native American issue, the Spanish started using African slaves

    • Africans are unknown to the land so don’t know ways to escape

      • Didn’t die to disease as much

• Caste System

  • Organized people into their societal positions through their racial ancestry

    • Spanish at the top

    • Mestizos and Mulattoes in the middle

    • Africans and Native Americans in the bottom
      

European and Native American Culture Shock

• Europeans looked down upon the Native Americans

  • Felt the need to teach them about God

    • Used this to justify mass exploitation and expansion

• Even went as far to say Native Americans were less than humans

Unit 2 (1607-1754)

Big Picture: How did European Powers establish colonies in North America

Theme 1: The European powers get a foothold in America

Spanish

• Encomienda System

• Extract wealth through cash crops and mining

• Introduced Caste System

French

• Mostly interested in trade (fur)

• Established many trading settlements

• Married Native Americans

  • Helped to benefit both sides with trade

Dutch

• Established fur trading in Hudson River (New York)

• Protestant beliefs

  • Little interest in converting Natives though

• Highly interested in economics like French

British

• Motivated by new economic opportunities and religious freedom

  • Primogeniture laws forced younger brothers to relinquish all inheritance to their oldest brother

    • Motivated younger sons to settle in the New World

  • Religious prosecution inspired many to flee to the New World

    • They would be known as the Separatists and be mainly composed of the Puritans and Quakers

Theme 2: The English Colonies host many differences

Jamestown and the Chesapeake

• First permanent English colonial settlement

  • Mayflower Compact gave Jamestown a self-governing legislature

• Created through a join-stock company

• All about profit-seeking ventures

  • First 2 years, almost half the settlers died

  • Disease and lack of food was terrible

• In 1612, John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a cash crop for the settlers

  • Crops were mostly tended to by indentured servants

    • Indentured servants: Individual who worked based on labor contracts in the New World, serving usually 4-7 years under the contract

      • Once the contract ended, you would receive freedom dues (land, tools, money)

• When white people needed land, they encroached on the Native Americans

  • Natives would raid the settlers a lot

  • There was a whole spiel between the Powhatans and the English

    • Notable characters: John Smith, Pocahontas, Powhatan people

• House of Burgesses was the first representative legislative body in the American colonies

• Bacon’s Rebellion

  • A rebellion staged by Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy planter, leading many poor white and black farmers

  • Targeted the Natives who raided them and then Governor William Berkeley for his inaction against the Natives

  • Ended with the burning of Jamestown and the rebellion failing

Southern Colonies

• Based on plantation work (economic powerhouse)

  • Many cash-crops harvested

    • Indigo, tobacco, rice, cotton

• Used slavery as major form of labor

  • Slaves were abused physically, verbally, and psychologically

  • Slave Codes legalized the poor treatment of slaves and considered them property

• Extremely hierarchical

  • Planters, then Yeomen Farmers, then Poor Whites, then White Indentured servants, then Slaves

New England

• Society based on Christian beliefs (Puritans) in Massachusetts Bay

  • Heavy social order based on strict Puritan beliefs

  • Strong Protestant work ethic

  • Banished those who did not agree with the Puritan agenda

    • Led to Rhode Island and Connecticut

    • New Hampshire, Maine, and New Haven were Massachusetts Puritan spin-offs

• Massachusetts Royal Charter let Massachusetts Bay make their own rules

• Disease wasn’t as bad compared to Virginia
  

• Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony and started Rhode Island

  • Rhode Island gave religious freedom

• Thomas Hooker was also banished from the MBC and started Connecticut

  • Connecticut gave religious freedom

Middle Colonies

• New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware developed a middle ground between the New England Puritans and hierarchical Southern Colonies

• People consisted of Jesuits, Jews, Catholics, Protestants (Quakers, Dutch Reformed, Calvinists, Dissenters)

• William Penn founded Pennsylvania for religious freedom for all

  • Unusually friendly with the Natives

• Dominated by elites (landlords for example)

Theme 3: Europe uses their colonies for exponential power

Mercantilism

• dominant economic theory in Europe that emphasized building wealth through a favorable balance of trade

  • Involved gold, silver, and exporting more than you import

• England was heavily motivated by mercantilism leading to trade policies and Navigation Acts in their colonies

  • Forced the colonies to trade specifically with the British, or at least through them

Theme 4: Religion takes hold in the Colonies

Great Awakening

• A massive religious revival in intense Christianity

• Two major figures are George Whitfield and Johnathan Edwards

  • Use of strong sermons

  • Fire-and-brimstone preaching style

• Large scale return to personal religious experience, weakening the Puritans

  • Many new Christian denominations open up all over America

Unit 3 (1754-1800)

Big Picture: America becomes a distinct collective country with distinct qualities

Theme 1: Colonial Dissent begins against the British

7 Years’ War (French and Indian War)

• British and French already had a terrible relationship

• British and French both wanted imperial control of North America, hence the war

  • War spills over into the colonies

  • French and British have their own Indian allies

    • French had Huron

    • British had Iroquois

• George Washington gained leadership and strategist skills

  • Fostered a future American hero

• Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Congress, but was overall rejected

  • Laid the mold for the future Continental Congress

• Ended with British victory, but also gave British insane war debts

• The Colonists feel underappreciated because

  • Redcoats look down at local militias

  • Colonists are taxes for the following years to repay British war debts

  • Colonists are taxed despite putting in hard efforts to help win the war

• Colonists build resentment for the British

Pontiac’s Rebellion

• Rebellion led by Native American Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa

• Started right after the end of the 7 Years’ War

  • Took advantage of lack of French forces, weakened Spanish, and confused British army

• Eventually squashed, but convinced King George III that there needs to be more soldiers in the colonies

  • Proclamation of 1763 stated that no colonist could venture west of the Appalachians to prevent Native American conflict

  • King started a standing British army in the colonies despite times of peace

  • Fueled the Colonists’ hate more

Salutary Neglect

• An era of relaxed enforcement of English laws in the American colonies

• Allowed the American colonies build their own methods of self-governance

  • Colonies prospered on their onw

• After the 7 Years’ War, this era of a lack of English control ended and English “tyranny” cracked down on the colonists

Theme 2: The British would impose many Acts and Laws that infuriated the Colonists

The Many British Acts

• Sugar Act

  • Taxed colonial trade with foreign imports on sugar and molasses

    • Especially with French West Indies

• Townshend Act

  • A tax on legit everything

  • Taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea

• Tea Act

  • Established a monopoly by the English East India Company

• Stamp Act

  • A tax on all printed items to have a British stamp

  • This one was so unpopular, an entire Stamp Act Congress was made to get rid of it

• Declaratory Act

  • In response to the repeal of the Stamp Act, declaring British Parliament to have immense power over the colonists

    • Parliament can create laws as they please

• Quartering Act

  • Required American colonists to provide housing and supplies to British soldiers stationed in the colonies

• Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)

  • Punitive Laws against the colonists

  • Included Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, and Quartering Act

    • All of these lessened colonial power and gave more power to the British

• Navigation Laws

  • Restricted trade to move from the colonies to England directly, or at least through England first

  • Kept colonial economy in infancy

• Quebec Act

  • Attempted to reorganize Quebec colony

    • Extend Quebec territory and accommodate French-speaking population
      

• Literally every single one of these acts increased Colonial tensions against England

  • The colonists were infuriated by the lack of colonial representation for all these laws

• With every new act, the colonists gained more and more hatred for the British

  • Most of the colonists weren’t even British, there was a wide assortment of ethnicities

    • Scots, Irish, Germans, Flemish, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, Poles, Portuguese, Italians, Bohemians

Boston Massacre

• A wild clash between a rowdy colonial protest and British redcoats

  • The redcoats felt threatened by the colonists and open-fired, killing 5 colonial men and injuring many

• Used as massive propaganda by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere to fuel colonial hatred

Boston Tea Party

• A response to the Tea Act by the Sons of Liberty (formed by Samuel Adams)

• 50 colonial men dressed as Native Americans boarded merchant ships in the Boston Harbor and threw off 342 crates of tea

  • Made England pass the Coercive Acts

The Patriots and Loyalists

• The colonists started to divide themselves into 2 groups

  • Patriots who supported American independence

  • Loyalists who stayed loyal to the Crown

• Their division led to societal issues and many Loyalists lost their land during the Revolutionary War

Legislature and The Social Contract

• Continental Congress

  • Made in response to the Intolerable Acts

  • Brought representatives from 12 out of the 13 colonies (not Georgia)

  • Resisted Parliament laws

  • wanted to stay as British subjects, but wanted their liberties back

• 2nd Continental Congress

  • Created to oversee the American Revolutionary War

  • Established the United States

  • Gave King George III the Olive Branch Petition

    • The colonies attempted peace

    • The king rejected it
      

• The Enlightenment

  • Shift towards explaining the world through logic and science

    • Natural Rights: All humans are given rights by God and no government can ever take that away

    • Social Contract: The power to govern is in the hands of the people which is willingly given to create a government to protect their natural rights

      • the people can revolt against the government if it fails to protect their natural rights

        • The Declaration of Independence is directly inspired by John Locke’s idea of the social contract and natural rights

Theme 3: The colonies fight a common enemy, establishing an American identity

The Revolutionary War

• George Washington

  • Leader of the Continental Army

  • Inspiring, strong, resistant

  • Central figure of the Revolutionary War

    • Major reason why Americans won
      

• Thomas Paine

  • Writers and pamphleteer

  • Wrote “Common Sense” and “The American Crisis” in 1776

    • Inspired soldiers and the general colonial population to continue the fight for independence against the British
      

• Battle of Trenton

  • Pivotal battle which ended with American victory

  • Surprise attack by George Washington on Hessian forces

    • “Crossing the Delaware”

• Battle of Saratoga

  • Crushing English defeat at the hands of the Americans

    • American forces led by General Horatio Gates and General Benedict Arnold

      • Benedict Arnold later defected to the British

    • British forces led by John Burgoyne

  • Inspired the French to join the American cause for independence

    • Get back at England for the 7 Years’ War (they also just hate each other)

• George Rogers Clark

  • Prominent American military officer

  • Led forces in the Western frontier

  • Successful campaigns weakened British influence in the West and secured future American territories
    

• Battle of Yorktown

  • Ended the Revolutionary War

  • George Washington and General Rochambeau won this battle for the Americans

  • British General Cornwallis got clapped

Theme 4: The American Revolution wasn’t a radical transformation, but it brought political innovation and some social change

Radical and Political in Ways

• Political changes and innovations

  • Some states separated church and state

  • Some states abolish slavery

  • Political constitutions began to be written

Political power shifted from eastern seaboard to new frontier

Weak Central Government

• Articles of Confederation were weak

  • Central government had no real authority

  • Nonexistent foreign policies

  • Weak commerce policies interstate and intrastate

• Articles of Confederation only had 2 W’s

  • Northwest Ordinance of 1787

  • Land Ordinance of 1785

• Shay’s Rebellion

  • Challenged the federal government

    • Showed the weaknesses of the central government

• Philadelphia Convention (Summer of 1787)

  • Constitutional Convention

    • Topics discussed include strong central government, strong executive, protection of property rights, republican values, and states’ rights

  • Federalists vs Antifederalists become huge (first political parties)

    • Federalists won out by compromising by making a Bill of Rights

Theme 5: Compromise was a vital part of the new federal Constitution

Understanding what it means to Compromise

• Big vs Small States

  • Virginia Plan (Big states)

    • Representation based on state population

  • New Jersey Plan (Small states)

    • Representation based on equal representation no matter population

  • Connecticut Compromise (Great Compromise)

    • House of Representatives for Virginia Plan (Representatives based on state population)

    • Senate for the New Jersey Plan (Only 2 senators per state)

• Slavery

  • 3/5 Compromise

    • 3/5 of the enslaved population counted for representation

    • Precedent for a huge moral dilemma that would haunt the U.S.

• Central Government vs State Government

  • Central government can tax, create federal laws, and have more power

  • Checks and Balances

    • All three branches of central government are at equilibrium

      • Executive, judicial, legislative

    • No one branch can be more powerful than the other two

      • Legislative

        • Authority to impeach executive

        • Approve presidential appointments

        • Control appropriations over presidential vetoes, treaties, and war

        • lay and collect taxes

      • Executive (everything you’d expect already)

        • Vetoes and judicial appointments

      • Judicial

        • Judicial review (is something Constitutional or Unconstitutional)

        • Interpret the law of the Constitution

  • The Constitution can be ratified if ever need be

Theme 6: The first administration under Constitution laid a foundation for the new federal government

George Washington

• Set the precedent for future presidents

  • 2 terms

  • Neutrality stance on foreign affairs

• Creation of the cabinet

  • Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury)

  • Henry Knox (Secretary of War)

  • Jefferson (Secretary of State)

  • Randolph (Attorney General)

• American Symbol

  • Truthful, honest, credible, patriotic, down-to-earth

  • “Father of the Country” and hero/leader of the people

Alexander Hamilton

• Leads the Federalist Party

• Creates the First National Bank of the U.S.

  • Promotes economic growth

    • Organized tax system (loans and debts)

      • Customs taxes: Imports

      • Excise taxes: Goods made within the U.S.

    • Federal government assumes all state debts

• Strengthened political and economic foundations

James Madison and George Mason

• Supports the idea of a Bill of Rights

  • Mason writes the Bill of Rights

  • Madison sponsors the Bill of Rights

• Pleases Anti-Federalists with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution

Theme 7: Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans create great conflict

Federalists

• Strong central government to protect the people

• Loose construction of Constitution (as necessary and proper)

• Rich and well born check, help, and protect the masses

  • Best control of the government

  • Masses as in the average U.S. Citizen

• Does not support the French Revolution (too violent)

Anti-Federalists

• States’ Rights must be protected

• Strict construction of Constitution

• Strongly into agriculture

• When the masses are well-informed, they are the best to control the government

  • Supports country-wide education

• Supports the French Revolution

  • Same ideals as the U.S.

  • Jefferson is very pro-French (he doesn’t like Washington’s neutrality stance)

National Bank

• Constitutional Issue

  • Federal vs State power

    • Hamilton argues it’s necessary to have an economically sound country, and therefore a political independent nation

    • Jefferson argues that it’s too powerful and would abuse farmers

Theme 8: Foreign Policy creates great tensions within the U.S.

Washington on Foreign Policy

• Washington creates the Neutrality Proclamation which makes the U.S. neutral in any conflict between England and France

  • Upsets Democratic-Republicans since they want to aid the French

  • British violates American Neutrality by impressment

  • Jay’s Treaty tried to resolve issues with England from the Revolutionary War

    • Deeply despised by the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans

    • Ironically we’d go to war with Britain in the War of 1812 anyways

• Washington’s Farewell Address highlights 3 main topics

  • Political parties polarize America

  • Foreign policy should be completely neutral

  • Sectionalism polarizes America

The XYZ Affair

• A diplomatic incident between the U.S. and France and led to the undeclared Quasi-War occurring from 1797-1798 under John Adams’s administration

  • 3 French diplomats tried to blackmail American delegates

    • Federalists are outraged and we go into a semi-war

• Federalists create the Alien and Sedition Acts

  • President can just make immigrants go bye-bye and they aren’t considered citizens for some reason

  • People can’t speak out against the Government

    • Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson and Madison) create the Virginia and Kentucky Resolution to argue these acts were unconstitutional for violating free speech and free press