Period 3 Review: 1754-1800 The road to the Revolution, the American Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and Shaping the New Republic

3.2 The Seven Years’ War and Empire

• Essential Question: What were the major causes and effects of the Seven Years’ War?

• Context: Rivalries among GB, France, Spain; colonial disputes intensified European tensions; victory by GB but rising debt and colonial tensions set stage for the Revolution.

• Empires at War (overview): 17th–18th centuries saw GB, France, Spain contest colonies and trade; included Native American and Indian Ocean players; key wars:

  • King William’s War (1689–1697)

  • Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713)

  • King George’s War (1744–1748)

  • The French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War) ( 1754-1763 ) – North America focus; highlighted dependence on colonial resources and limits of colonial militia.

• Early War in North America:

  • Fort-building in Ohio Valley; Washington’s 1754 surrender at Fort Necessity; Braddock’s defeats (1755).

• British Strategy and Victory:

  • Pitt shifts to Canadian focus; Louisbourg retaken (1758); Wolfe captures Quebec (1759); Montreal falls (1760); Peace of Paris (1763) ends war; GB gains Canada and Florida (from Spain via compensation); France cedes Louisiana to Spain.

• Albany Plan of the Union ( 1754 ):

  • Ben Franklin proposed intercolonial government to recruit troops and collect taxes; not adopted but foreshadowed later revolutionary congresses.

• Immediate Effects: GB dominates North America; Native autonomy challenged; colonial perceptions of Britain shift; early push toward unified colonial action.

3.2 The Albany Plan of the Union and the British Victory (continued)

• Aftermath: War costs drive imperial policy; tension about colonial taxation and defense responsibilities.

• Immediate effects for colonial policy: precedent for centralized colonial action, precursors to later congresses.

3.2 Restructuring of the British Empire and Native Uprisings

• Pontiac’s Rebellion ( 1763 ):

  • Native grievances against British expansion; attacks along the frontier; colonies respond with British troops rather than colonial.

• Proclamation of 1763:

  • Forbids settling west of the Appalachians to stabilize frontier; viewed by colonists as curtailing expansion and liberty; defiance grows with westward movement.

• Long-term result: Increased friction over westward expansion, taxation, and governance.

3.3 Taxation without Representation

• Essential Question: How did British colonial policies regarding North America lead to the Revolutionary War?

• Context: After the 7 Years’ War, GB taxes and enforces trade laws more aggressively in colonies.

3.3 British Actions and Colonial Reactions

• Proclamation of 1763 seen by colonists as an attack on liberties; debates over representation intensify.

• Representation issue: Colonists demand consent to taxation; GB asserts virtual representation.

• New revenues and regulations (early acts):

  • Sugar Act ( 1764 ) – duties on foreign sugar; stricter enforcement; smugglers tried without a jury.

  • Quartering Act ( 1765 ) – colonists provide housing for troops.

  • Stamp Act ( 1765 ) – direct tax on printed materials; first direct tax on individuals.

• Reactions: protests, colonial congresses, and boycotts; slogan: no taxation without representation.

• Declaratory Act ( 1766 ) – Parliament’s authority “in all cases whatsoever.”

3.3 The Stamp Act: Action and Reaction

• Reactions to the Stamp Act:

  • Patrick Henry, James Otis, Stamp Act Congress ( 9 colonies ) – argued against taxation without representation.

  • Sons and Daughters of Liberty – resistance actions; revenue stamp destruction.

  • Economic pressure – boycotts; women produce substitutes; merchants suffer.

• Outcome: Stamp Act repealed; Declaratory Act asserts Parliament’s broad power.

3.3 Second Phase of Crisis ( 1767–1773 )

• Townshend Acts ( 1767 ): taxes on tea, glass, paper; funds crown officials; search warrants (Writ of Assistance).

• Colonial response: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; Massachusetts Circular Letter; increased smuggling; boycotts.

• Repeal of Townshend Acts ( 1770 ); except for tax on tea; Boston Massacre ( 1770 ) intensifies resentment.

• New leadership: Lord Frederick North; repeal finalized after 3-year calm but tensions simmer.

• Committees of Correspondence deepen intercolonial coordination.

3.3 Renewal of Conflict and Colonial Resistance

• 1772 Gaspee incident; 1773 Boston Tea Party as a direct challenge to tea tax and BEIC monopoly.

• Tea Act ( 1773 ) – BEIC tea made cheap; colonists refuse to buy; tea dumped in Boston Harbor.

• Intolerable/Coercive Acts ( 1774 ) – punitive measures:

  • Port Act (Boston port closed)

  • Massachusetts Government Act (local governance tightened under royal authority)

  • Administration of Justice Act (royal officials tried in GB)

  • Expanded Quartering Act

  • Quebec Act ( 1774 ) – RCism official religion; expanded Canadian territory; concerns about representative government.

• Demand for Independence grows; support from various colonies; opposition exists in some quarters but momentum builds.

3.4 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution

• Essential Question: How and why did colonial attitudes about government and the individual change?

• Context: Enlightenment influence, John Locke, deism, rationalism, social contract theories.

• Key ideas:

  • Deism: God sets laws but rarely intervenes; conflicts with traditional Christianity.

  • Rationalism: Reason-based understanding of human behavior.

  • Social Contract: Government derives authority from the people; consent required; government exists to protect rights; revolt if violated.

  • Thomas Paine’s Argument for Independence: Common-sense language, critique of monarchy, urged independence.

3.5 The American Revolution

• Essential Question: How did various factors contribute to the American victory?

• Context: End of Salutary Neglect and Intolerable Acts push toward independence.

3.5 The First Continental Congress and Early War

• 1774: Delegates (except GA) draft Suffolk Resolves; boycott; Continental Association; Declaration and Resolves.

• 1775: Lexington and Concord; Battle of Bunker Hill; early colonial mobilization; tension escalates toward independence.

• 1775–1776: Second Continental Congress; Washington appointed commander; Olive Branch Petition; King rejects; Prohibitory Act 1775.

• Declaration of Independence ( July 4, 1776 ): asserts natural rights; grievances against George III; reasons for independence.

• War dynamics: Patriots mainly in NE and VA; Loyalists concentrated in NY, PA, the South; diverse attachments and divided loyalties.

• Alliance with France ( starting 1777 ) after Saratoga becomes turning point; foreign aid, troops, and naval support.

• 1781 Yorktown; French cooperation; culmination of British evacuation pressure; Treaty of Paris ( 1783 ) recognizes independence; western boundary at the Mississippi; debts and Loyalist property issues to be resolved.

3.6 The Influence of Revolutionary Ideas

• Essential Question: How did the Revolution affect society and its global impact?

• Women: Daughters of Liberty; wartime roles; Republican Motherhood; increased political awareness without suffrage.

• Slavery and enslaved Africans: Slavery contradictions; gradual abolition debates; slave trade outlawed by Constitution; Cotton gin ( 1793 ) accelerates expansion and labor demand; internal slave trade grows; Fugitive Slave concerns.

• Native Americans: Largely allied with Britain; territorial losses increase pressure on tribes; westward expansion accelerates.

• Global impact: Revolutionary ideas influence the French Revolution ( 1789-1799 ), Haitian and Latin American movements; concepts of self-government and rights spread.

3.7 The Articles of Confederation

• Essential Question: How did different forms of government develop during the revolutionary period?

• Context: 13 states distrust centralized power; created a weak central government: the Articles of Confederation (AOC).

• Structure: unicameral Congress; 1 vote per state; 9/13 to pass laws; 13/13 to amend; no judicial or executive branch.

• Powers: wage war, treaties, borrow money.

• Limitations: regulate commerce, levy taxes, enforce laws; no strong central authority.

• State constitutions: rights, separation of powers; white male property owners suffrage and officeholding limits.

• Accomplishments: Land Ordinance of 1785; Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (no slavery in Northwest); encouraged westward expansion.

• Weaknesses: debt repayment problems; foreign policy weaknesses; inability to enforce treaties; Shays’ Rebellion demonstrates federal weakness.

3.8 The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification

• Essential Question: What were the differing ideological positions on the structure of the federal government?

• Context: AOC weaknesses promote a new convention; Philadelphia meeting (1787); prominent figures: Washington, Madison, Franklin; debates at Annapolis contributed to calling the convention.

• Key issues and compromises:

  • Trade: Northern vs Southern concerns; Commercial Compromise – Congress can regulate interstate/foreign trade; can tax imports, not exports.

  • Presidency: Four-year term; two-term tradition; Electoral College; strong but limited executive powers; veto power; judicial review later via Supreme Court constellations.

  • Representation: Virginia Plan (population-based), New Jersey Plan (equal representation); Great (Connecticut) Compromise – bicameral legislature; House (population) and Senate (equal representation).

  • Slavery: 3/5 Compromise for representation and taxation; slave trade allowed for at least 20 years.

• Ratification process: Federalists vs Anti-Federalists; Federalist Papers (Hamilton, Madison, Jay) advocated for the Constitution; Anti-Federalists pressed for a Bill of Rights.

• Ratification outcome: By 1790, all 13 states ratified; Federalists secured broad support with promise of a Bill of Rights as protection.

3.9 The Constitution

• Essential Question: What were the continuities and changes in government with ratification?

• Key principles: Federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances; creation of a stronger central government while preserving states’ powers; Bill of Rights added to protect individual liberties.

• Federalism: power divided between federal and state governments; national defense, foreign policy, interstate commerce under federal purview; state regulation of local matters.

• Separation of Powers: Legislative, Executive, Judicial branches with checks and balances.

• Bill of Rights ( 1791 ) – first ten amendments safeguarding civil liberties and limiting federal power; later extended protections at state level.

3.10 Shaping a New Republic

• Essential Question: How and why did competition intensify conflict among peoples and nations from 1754–1800? How did political ideas, institutions, and party systems develop?

• Washington’s Presidency ( 1789-1797 ):

  • Unanimous election; establishment of executive departments (State Jefferson, Treasury Hamilton, War Knox, Attorney General Randolph) and the cabinet; Senate approval required for appointments.

  • Judicial framework: Judiciary Act of 1789 created Supreme Court (1 Chief Justice + 5 associates) and 13 district courts + 3 circuit courts.

• Hamilton’s Financial Program:

  • Assumption of state debts; tariffs to foster industry; national bank to stabilize currency; federal financial power expansion.

  • Jefferson opposes a national bank as unconstitutional; compromise with Hamilton (capital move to DC) secures support.

• Foreign and Domestic Policy:

  • Proclamation of Neutrality ( 1793 ) amid French Revolution; Jay Treaty ( 1794 ) with Britain; Pinckney Treaty ( 1795 ) with Spain.

  • Native Americans: Northwest Confederacy defeats; Battle of Fallen Timbers ( 1794 ); Treaty of Greenville ( 1795 ).

  • Whiskey Rebellion ( 1794 ) – fed authority demonstrated; reinforces authority of national government.

  • Public land policy: Lands west of the Appalachians organized; Public Land Act ( 1796 ).

• Political Parties and Washington’s Farewell:

  • Emergence of Federalists and Democratic-Republicans; warnings against entangling alliances, factionalism, and entangling European politics.

  • Two-term tradition established; Farewell Address cautions against political parties and foreign alliances.

• John Adams’ Presidency:

  • XYZ Affair and growing Franco-American tensions; Alien and Sedition Acts debated as responses to foreign influence; later repealed and linked to the rise of Judicial Review (McCulloch era; actual landmark is Marbury v. Madison in 1803).

3.11 Developing an American Identity

• Essential Question: What were continuities and changes in American culture (1754–1800)?

• Core ideas: Founding fathers’ influence; evolving national identity; regional variations begin to shape behavior and culture.

• Social changes:

  • End of aristocratic titles; separation of church and state; redistribution of Loyalist estates; regional identities form (South, New England, etc.).

• Political changes:

  • Rise of political parties; debates over federal vs state power; influence on policy and elections.

• Cultural changes:

  • Growth of newspapers, American novels, art, architecture (DC planning), and national identity symbols; development of American English and national culture.

3.12 Movement and Change in the Early Republic

• Essential Question: How did migration, settlement, and slavery shape regional attitudes from 1754–1800?

• Westward movement:

  • Northwest Ordinance spurred expansion; Indian Intercourse Act ( 1790 ) sought federal control over native lands and trade.

  • Battle of Fallen Timbers and Treaty of Greenville ( 1795 ) facilitated settlement; expansion into Ohio and beyond.

• Population changes:

  • Immigration fluctuates with European upheavals; enslaved Africans continue to arrive until 1808; natural increase; westward migration.

• Slavery and abolition:

  • Cotton gin ( 1793 ) boosts cotton production and slave labor demand; internal slave trade expands; abolitionist sentiments grow among Quakers and others; debate over freeing enslaved people and relocation to Africa.

• Native peoples and treaties:

  • Conflict with settlers continues; federal policies often favored settlers; Native nations negotiate and resist encroachment.

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