APUSH Unit3

French and Indian War - 1754:

  • pop growth in colonies —> wanted to expand into ohio river valley for better accommodation

  • french claimed the valley

  • natam groups led by shawnees and delawares lived there and sided with french (spain also sided with french later on in the war)

  • started bc

    • military blunder by george washington

    • spread to parts of india and af as well

  • british won

  • effects of war:

    • treaty/peace of paris (1763) —> changed map of british north am

      • spain ceded florida to great britain

      • france ceded ohio river valley to british IMPORTANT

      • france gave up territory w of mississippi river to spain

    • GB drew proclamation line of 1763, forbidding british colonists to expand wedteard beyond appalacian mts (did this bc they had no additional money to resolve conflicts btwn natam and colonists) —> colonists pissed

    • british war debt —> taxes

Taxation:

  • george grenville tried to reassert control in colonies:

    • began to enforce existing laws that colonists ignored bc of saluatary neglect

      • Navigation acts: restricted colonial trade to gb alone

    • wartime policies remained after 7 yrs war ended

      • quartering act: required colonists to house and feed members of british military (who were there in response to 7 yrs war and pontiacs rebellion)

    • parliament enacted new taxes:

      • to raise funds to pay down wat debt

      • stamp act: tax on paper items

  • ppl pissed abt being taxed without representation (bc they were used to self governance they believed representation must be local)

  • grenville argued that they did have virtual representation bc members of parliament represented the interests of all english subjects

  • Taxation protests:

    • committees of correspondence

      • across colonies

      • organized and spread information about colonial grievances

      • merchants, traders, and artisans created groups to fight for the repeal of the stamp act

        • sons of liberty

        • daughters of liberty

    • stamp act congress

      • delegates from 9 colonies petitioned parliament to repeal the stamp act bc taxation without representation = tyranny

  • Parliament repeals stamp act in 1766

  • Parliament passes the declaratory act that said that parliament was still in charge and could pass whatever they want

  • Colonial tensions:

    • boston massacre (1770)

    • boston tea party (1773)

  • British response to the above:

    • Coercive acts (1774) (aka intolerable acts)

      • closed the Boston harbor until the tea was payed for

      • introduced a new quartering act (even more soldiers must be accommodated into colonial homes)

Revolutionary Ideals:

  • Enlightenment ideals contributed

    • natural rights: human beings are born to the right of life liberty and property

    • social contract: humans must construct governments of their own will and the purpose of government is to protect their natural rights. if it violates that contract and becomes tyrannical the ppl have a right to overthrow it and make a new one

  • Religious Ideas:

    • Great awakening recently took placed: emphasized individual relation with god —> colonies believed that liberty they had possessed was from god and british were violating that

  • First Continental Congress: tried to centralize resistance to british polices (still wanted to remain british subjects)

  • Second Continental Congress: In response to British aggression in lexington and concord (1775) wanted to negotiate with british

  • Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense that said that british tyranny had reached its peak and the only way for the colonists to preserve their liberty was to declare independence—> convinces ppl to support revolution

  • 1776– thomas jefferson writes decleratioj of independence

American Revolution:

  • Presence of loyalists and ppl who didnt care in colonies

  • british had military superiority

  • Americans win bc:

    • leadership of george washington

      • surpise attack at battle of trenton against hessian troops lrobed that the americans could in fact win

      • he enlisted a prussian officer to train the soldiers in the continental army

    • alliance with france

      • battle of saratoga (1777) = major victory for patriots —> french realized they could actually win and joined the war —> sent aid, troops, ships, and supplies

    • Ideological commitment and resilience

  • battle of yorktown— final victory

  • treaty of paris 1783 —> doubled landowning of the colonies

A New Republic:

  • Each state drafted a new constitution

    • power was concentrated in the legislature (representative body of ppl)

    • limited voting rights to white male property owners

  • Continental Congress drafted the articles of confederation

    • federal government = weak —> state government held most of the power

    • this led to weaknesses:

      • lack of centralized power left america weak in international trade:

        • britain cut off trade btwn us and british west indies

        • spain prohibited am trade  ships from accessing the mississipi river vis louisiana

        • pirates off barbary coast of north af attacked us merchant ships

      • financial problems:

        • fed gov = broke bc they had no authority to tax the states

      • interstate commerce

        • no authority to settle interstate commerce disputes over tariffs on goods placed by states

      • foreign relations:

        • no way to stop britain’s violation of the terms of peace (bc britain kept troops on colonial boarder

      • Shay’s Rebellion

        • unpaid veterans—farmers led by daniel shays in massachusetts fed up with economic suffering attacked court houses and stormed federal arsenal

        • massachusetts militia shut it down quickly

        • exemplified how the federal government were unable to pay their veterans or raise an army to defeat them —> new constitution needed

  • Northwest ordinance of 1787

    • regulated the vast and unsettled western territory gained in treaty of paris

    • reserved land for schools

    • banned slavery in the territory

    • dictated how places in western territory joined the union

    • remained even after articles of confederation was scrapped

  • Constitutional Convention:

    • phili

    • originally to revise the articles or confederation—shifted into constructing a new one

    • “how do we strengthen the federal government without giving it too much power that it becomes tyrannical?” answered this question through…

      • the separation of powers:

        • 3 equal branches that would hold different aspects of governing power that would check and balance each other

        • legislative branch:

          • creates laws

          • carried out by congress

        • executive branch:

          • enforced laws

          • carried out by president

        • judicial branch

          • interprets the constitutionality of laws

          • carried out by supreme court

      • federalism = system of government in which power is shared btwn federal and state govs

  • Constitutional Compromises:

    • Virginia plan argued that representation should be based on population (favored interest of large states)

    • New Jersey plan argued for equal representation (1 rep per state) (favored interest of small states)

    • This led to the Great Compromise:

      • Established a bicameral legislature

        • house of representatives = population based

        • Senate = equal representation

    • Slavery:

      • how to account for enslaved ppl for representation?

        • Northern delegates argued that it shouldn’t count at all and southern delegates said it should

        • Led to the Three-Fifths Compromise

          • said that 3/5 of the enslaved population of a state would count toward representation

      • Importation of enslaved people

        • decided that congress couldnt touch slave trade for 20 years after constitution was ratified

        • after that international slave trade would he abolished in 1808

    • lowk nobody was fully happy with the new constitution

    • constitution had to be ratified by 9 out of the 13 states for it to replace the articles

      • federalists:

        • led by alexander hamilton

        • argued for the ratification of the constitution

        • argued that the federal government needed to be strengthened if the country was to survive and thrive economically and politically through the federalist papers

      • Anti-Federalists

        • argued against ratification bc they wanted powerful states and a weak central government

        • strengthening the federal government would lead right back to problems they had with britain

        • US was so large and diverse so a central government couldnt possibly represent all interests equally

  • Constitution becomes law of the land in 1788

  • Federalist promised anti-federalists to include a bill of rights soon after the ratification of the constitution (which they did)

  • executive branch—1st president = george washington

    • he set the formation of executive departments

      • Department or state—Jefferson

      • Department of War—Henry Knox

      • Department of Treasury—Hamilton

      • Department of Justice—Edmund Randolph

    • he set the precedent of 2 four year terms in office (at the time there were no constitutional limits)—> 22nd amendment formally restricts presidency to two terms

    • washington’s farewell address:

      • warned of the effects of political partiesn

      • warned against foreign alliances that would drag the US into foreign wars

  • Judiciary act (1789) = created a multi-level federal court system

    • 13 district courts

    • 3 courts of appeals

    • supreme court with 6 justices

  • two political parties

    • federalists— led by hamilton

      • supported policies that strengthened the federal government

    • democratic republicans—led by jefferson

      • supported policies that strengthened state government

    • these political parties form bc…

      • economic policy:

        • hamilton proposed the creation of a national bank that would help establish US credit and create the conditions for national economic flourishing—> gives power to federal government

        • democratic republicans hated this bc the constitution had no provision for the federal government to create a national bank

        • also saw this as a federal power grab against the interests of common farmers

        • HAMILTON WINS

      • balance of liberty and public order:

        • federal response to Whisky Rebellion (1791): COMPARE TO SHAY’S REBELLION

          • hamilton urged congress to pass a tax on whiskey in order to raise federal revenue —> strain on western farmers—> democratic republicans thought this was a way of protecting industry at the expense of the poor farmer—> rebellion—> constitution enabled the federal government to respond with force to suppress the rebellion, demonstrating that the federal government was more capable of keeping order and enraged democratic republicans bc they thought force against a legitimate rebellion = tryannyy

      • foreign policy:

        • french revolution (1789):

          • democratic republicans said that they needed to return the favor and aid french

          • federalists said to stay out of the expanding conflict and protect trade (conflict expanding to britain, prussia and austria)

        • washington issued statement of neutrality

      • national and state relationship

        • alien and sedition acts passed during adams administration

        • virginia and kentucky resolutions saying it was unconstitutional and considered null and void by the states

  • Citizen Genet—French dimplomat Edmund Genet arrived in US to rally American support for French war against the British, recruiting American privateers to attack British ships, violating neutrality. washington demanded his recall

  • Jay’s Treaty = Great Britain agrees to withdraw its forces from western boarder lands in the US

  • Pickney Treaty = Formally recognized the borders btwn US and Spanish territory. opened port of new orleans and mississippi river to US merchants —> ended opposition to US westward expansion in the south and reduced conflict btwn the two states