AP U.S. History Flash Review Notes

AP U.S. HISTORY Flash review

Introduction

  • AP U.S. History Flash Review includes 600 names, places, events, and definitions for the AP U.S. History exam.
  • Succeeding at the test is great for your future.
    • A good score can improve chances of university acceptance.
    • An excellent score may allow skipping required history courses in college.
  • Studying the key terms is essential for mastering the exam and enjoying success.

About the AP U.S. History Exam

  • The AP U.S. History exam is slightly more than three hours long.
    • 55 minutes for 80 multiple-choice questions.
    • 130 minutes to finish the free-response (essay) section.
    • Each section is worth half of your total score.
  • The multiple-choice section requires applying knowledge and analyzing information.
    • Example: Knowing Woodrow Wilson was president during World War I.
      • Also need a general sense of his beliefs.
      • Policies instituted to lead America.
      • How he believed the peace treaty should be negotiated.
  • Each multiple-choice question has five answer choices.
    • Four types of multiple-choice questions:
      • Determine the cause of a historical event.
      • Interpret a map.
      • Analyze a photo or an illustration (political cartoons).
      • Display a chart or graph and draw a conclusion.
  • The second section is the free-response (essay) section.
    • A little bit more than two hours to answer three essays.
      • Document-Based Question (DBQ).
        • Offers an essay prompt.
        • Asks to consider several primary-source documents.
        • Cite evidence from as many documents as possible.
      • Next two essay sections:
        • Each asks you to answer one of two standard free-response questions.
  • For both the DBQ and the two standard essays:
    • Develop a thesis. Have an argument and defend it with evidence.
      • The argument should not be your personal opinion but an informed thesis based on facts from your historical knowledge.
    • Analyze and interpret—do not summarize.
      • The goal of the essay is to test your ability to recognize concepts and themes in American history, not just your ability to identify facts and summarize events.
    • Address all aspects of the question.
      • The essay prompt may ask you to consider the economic, social, and political implications of the Monroe Doctrine.
  • The AP U.S. History exam is administered by The College Board.
    • Website: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_ushist.html

About this Book

  • The 600 names, events, terms, and concepts chosen for this book reflect the essential information you’ll need to know for your exam.
  • Like the exam, they cover the period from the first European settlements in North America through the present day.
    • Don’t worry about events in today’s news—the exam focuses primarily on events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1800–2000).
    • About 20% of the exam will cover events before 1790.
  • This book is divided into three sections.
    • The first covers events before 1789.
    • The second focuses on 1790 through 1913.
    • The third section covers the rest of the twentieth century.
  • Studying terms in roughly chronological order will help you get a sense of your strengths and also what eras you need to study more.
  • Each page in this book includes three terms that you’ll need to know for the AP U.S. History exam.
  • On the reverse side of each page is that term’s description.
    • If the term is the name of a person, location, law, or government agency, then the description will include important biographical information or the term’s historical significance.
    • For events, you’ll find descriptions that include causes and consequences as well as key dates.
  • The content of this book reflects the relative percentages of the themes covered on the exam:
    • Political and government institutions, political behavior, and public policy: 35%
    • Cultural events and social change: 40%
    • U.S. diplomacy and international relations: 15%
    • Economic history and technological developments: 10%

How to Use this Book

  • There’s no substitute for reading your textbook.
  • Still, it’s essential to be able to instantly recall basic information about people, events, and ideas from American history.
  • Quizzing yourself with this book won’t help you to learn all there is to know about each term, but you’ll certainly be less likely to come across a term on the exam that is completely unfamiliar.
  • Create a study schedule for yourself.
  • Dedicate 30 minutes each day to reviewing this book, or set a goal by choosing a number of terms to learn each day.
  • Challenge yourself: Add more terms to your daily goal if you’re remembering all the key details.
  • Whenever you come across an especially tricky concept or a name that still seems unfamiliar, go back to your textbook.
  • Don’t get frustrated! You already have the skills to succeed at studying American history.
  • Look at the word history. Notice the word within the word: “story.”
  • Think of the brief story of our country as the plot of your favorite book or TV series.
  • New characters appear. Old characters change, and last season’s subplots fade away.
  • Yet, because the characters shared experiences, passions, and ideas, the story builds on itself.
  • That’s why you can’t stop watching: All the episodes or chapters are connected. And if you look away, you might miss something amazing.
  • American history is closer to you than any novel or TV show because history tells your story.
  • Think of this book as your guide to the characters, settings, and key plot points of the story of our nation.
  • Maybe you skipped a few chapters in your textbook or missed class because of the flu.
  • Now’s your chance to catch up!
  • Once you learn as many of the 600 terms in this book as you can remember, the seemingly long, complicated story of the United States will start to make a lot more sense.
  • These simple facts will help to connect one era to another.
  • And you’ll know more than facts—you’ll be able to interpret events just as the multiple-choice section will ask you to do.
  • And when it’s time to pick up your pen to begin the essay, you’ll be ready. You also have a story to tell.

Part I: 1492–1789

Christopher Columbus

  • An Italian explorer sailing for the Spanish crown.
  • Explorations of the Caribbean made Europeans aware of the Americas.
  • Prompted further exploration and settlement.

Juan Ponce de León

  • A Spanish explorer who explored Florida on two trips to the New World (1513 and 1521).
  • Seeking gold.
  • He established Florida as a Spanish colony.

Aztecs and Incas

  • Powerful civilizations in Central and South America conquered by Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s.

Conquistadors

  • Spanish mercenaries who invaded Central and South America during the 1500s.
  • Conquered the native Inca and Aztec civilizations.

Encomienda

  • A Spanish policy dictating that a Spaniard given land in the New World was responsible for the natives, who essentially became that landowner’s property.

Columbian Exchange

  • Modern term referring to the exchange of plants, animals, and people between the Old and New World as a result of exploration, colonization, and slavery.
    • European explorers brought back new crops and livestock.
    • Tragically brought European diseases to the New World, which decimated Indian populations.

The Iroquois Confederacy

  • A military alliance of Indian tribes in the American northeast.
    • Including Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas founded in the late 1500s.
  • As the French and British squabbled over land and trading rights, the confederacy sided with whichever side offered more advantages.

Magna Carta

  • A medieval English document that limited the power of the monarchy.
  • It was a notable influence on colonial government and American constitutional principles.

Roanoke

  • The colony founded in present-day Virginia in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh.
  • All its citizens mysteriously vanished.

Henry Hudson

  • The British explorer who navigated what is now New York while sailing on behalf of the Dutch in 1609.
  • His goal was to find a passage to East Asia for Dutch merchants, but he instead discovered what became the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

Virginia Company

  • The company established in England in 1607 to establish a permanent colony in America.
  • The result was the founding of Jamestown by Captain John Smith.

John Smith

  • Chosen by the Virginia Company to lead the Jamestown Colony in America in 1607.

Protestant Reformation

  • German monk Martin Luther protested the Catholic Church’s insistence that only obeying Church sacraments and doing good works leads to salvation.
  • Luther proposed that faith alone could redeem believers.
  • His protests planted the seeds of the Protestant Reformation.

Glorious Revolution

  • The revolution in England that saw Queen Mary and William of Orange replace King James II, whose repression of the Puritans inspired their emigration to the Americas.

Pilgrims

  • A group within the Puritan sect who wished to form a new Protestant church (as opposed to reforming the Church of England from within, which nonseparatist Puritans hoped to do).

Puritans

  • An Anglican sect that sought to reform the Church of England by ridding it of the trappings of Catholicism.
  • The Pilgrims were a sect within this group who wished to form a new Protestant church.

Mayflower Compact

  • Written by the Pilgrims on their journey to the New World.
  • This agreement established a secular body to govern their new colony.
  • The compact became the basis for the separation of church and state in the American constitution.

John Winthrop

  • First governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony from 1630–1649.
  • Winthrop opposed democracy in favor of a more authoritarian government run by religious leaders.

New England Confederation

  • A military alliance formed in 1643 between the English colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven in case of Indian attack.

Mercantilism

  • The theory that colonies exist only to supply raw materials to the mother country and to be a market for exported goods.

Plantation System

  • A system of agricultural mass production involving large farms (plantations) and crops like cotton that require processing after harvest.
  • The plantation system in the Americas depended on slave labor for its success.

John Calvin

  • A French-born intellectual who preached a form of Protestantism that espoused the inherent wickedness of human nature.
  • Calvinists believe that only strict leadership keeps people from sin.

John Locke

  • An English philosopher of the Enlightenment era.
  • His writings on religious tolerance and the social contract between state and citizen gave birth to modern liberalism and influenced the American founders.

Adam Smith

  • A Scottish Enlightenment philosopher who promoted laissez-faire economics, free markets, and supply-and-demand in his treatise Wealth of Nations.

Thomas Hobbes

  • A British philosopher who believed that people are motivated primarily by self-interest and fear, and thus they need a strong government to control them—especially a king who could claim divine right to power.

Roger Williams

  • A New England minister who preached that conscience stood above church and state laws.
  • He also spoke against colonists living on territory seized unlawfully from Indians.
  • Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Providence, which would eventually become the colony of Rhode Island.

Act of Toleration

  • This 1649 document permitted the practice of all Christian religions in Maryland, which made the colony a haven for Catholics in the New World.

Royal Charter

  • A British royal act granting permission to establish a colony.
  • Some charters provided for a king’s direct rule of the colony, while others appointed a selected leader or corporation to manage the colony.
  • These royal decrees in the 1660s prevented English colonies from trading with any country other than England.

Salem Witch Trials

  • Trials in 1692–1693 that resulted in the execution of 18 people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
  • An example of religious mass hysteria in the colonies.

Bacon’s Rebellion

  • A rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon in Virginia during 1676 over the abuse of indentured servants.
  • The incident brought to light social divisions in the colony and ultimately increased calls for African slaves.

Triangular Trade

  • A trading scheme largely unauthorized by the British crown by which New England colonists exchanged goods with Caribbean colonists for molasses used to make rum.
  • The rum was then exchanged for African slaves.

Indentured Servants

  • To encourage immigration to the American colonies, the indentured servitude system guaranteed 50 acres of land to anyone willing to pay for an Englishman’s passage from Europe to the colonies.
  • That sponsored Englishman was obliged to serve his sponsor for a period (usually seven years) before gaining the freedom to seek his own land and employment.

Quakers

  • A Protestant sect whose members believed that clergy was unnecessary for worship.
  • The Quakers were banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and found a haven in William Penn’s colony, eventually called Pennsylvania.

Anne Hutchinson

  • Accused of heresy by Puritans for preaching antinomianism and claiming she was divinely inspired.
  • Hutchinson was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638.

Antinomianism

  • The idea that faith alone is necessary for salvation, not obedience to religious law.

Slave Trade

  • The trade of enslaved Africans by the British, Dutch, French, and Portuguese for labor in European colonies in the New World.
  • Over several centuries, more than 12 million people were transported to the Americas as slaves.

Middle Passage

  • The transatlantic journey of slaves from Africa to the New World.
  • Millions died along the way due to horrific slave ship conditions.

Deism

  • A religious philosophy held by several Founding Fathers.
  • It espouses that rational observation (and not organized religion) can determine the existence, nature, and proper worship of God.

The Enlightenment

  • A European philosophical movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized liberal government, ethics, and science, rather than imagination, emotions, or religion.
  • Many Enlightenment thinkers rejected traditional religious beliefs in favor of Deism, which purports that natural laws govern the world instead of God’s intervention.

Molasses Act

  • In an effort to fight the Triangular trade, the British taxed all molasses and sugar imported to the colonies from non-British countries and colonies.
  • Largely ignored or avoided through smuggling, the 1733 tax nonetheless outraged colonists.

Sugar Act

  • In 1764, the British issued another tax on sugar products imported to the colonies that they hoped would be easier to enforce than the Molasses Act.
  • Britain’s intensified effort to restrain colonial trade pushed the colonies closer to revolution.

French and Indian War

  • A war fought from 1754 to 1763 between France and England in their American colonies.
  • The British sought to end French presence in the Americas and, through their victory, gained French Canada.
  • By removing the French threat, American colonists had less need for English protection.

Peace of Paris

  • The 1763 treaty that ended the French and Indian War in the Americas and the Seven Years' War in Europe—England gained control of Quebec from France.

Boston Massacre

  • In 1770, British soldiers slaughtered Bostonians who were throwing rocks at a custom house in protest of recent royal acts to control the colonies.

Town Meetings

  • An example of participatory democracy common in the colonies.
  • Citizens and local government would meet yearly to elect officers, determine taxes, and pass laws.

Patrick Henry

  • A notable early voice for independence, this Virginian drew up a list of resolutions in 1765 to resist British oppression.
  • Henry famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Stamp Act

  • A 1765 tax requiring colonists to pay for a stamp on every essential document such as a deed or a mortgage—even playing cards.
  • So severe was the colonists’ objection that they organized the Stamp Act Congress, which instituted a boycott of British goods.
  • Eventually, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

Quartering Act

  • English act of 1765 requiring colonists to provide shelter to English soldiers stationed in the Americas.

Declaratory Act

  • In repealing the Stamp Act in 1766, Britain declared that Parliament had the same authority in the colonies as in England, which insinuated to American colonists that further acts and restrictions were coming.

Townshend Acts

  • To raise revenue and punish the colonists for resisting earlier taxes, the 1767 Townshend Acts taxed several popular imports to the colonies, including tea.
  • The colonists were outraged, yet Britain maintained its right to tax them without their consent.

Coercive Acts

  • In response to colonial protests, England passed these acts to close Boston Harbor and revoke the colonial charter of Massachusetts.
  • Also known as the Intolerable Acts, these decrees inspired the colonists to hold the First Continental Congress.

Internal Versus External Taxation

  • Like the Stamp Act of 1765, an internal tax taxed goods made and sold within the colonies.
  • The colonists preferred external taxation, like the 1764 Sugar Act, which meant merchants were responsible for paying taxes applied to imports.

Great Awakening

  • A religious revival in the colonies during the 1770s that saw a wave of preachers delivering passionate sermons very different than the typically unemotional Calvinist worship.
  • The Great Awakening led to the births of the Baptist and Methodists sects.

Jonathan Edwards

  • A Puritan minister of the First Great Awakening, Edwards led revivals and preached immediate repentance.

Tea Act

  • The 1773 British decree that required the colonies to only buy tea from the East India company, a British monopoly.

Sons of Liberty

  • A group of American patriots including Samuel Adams who organized protests of Parliamentary acts.
  • Their most famous scheme is the Boston Tea Party.

Boston Tea Party

  • When England passed the 1773 Tea Act, protesters in Boston dressed as Indians and stormed a British ship and dumped the tea overboard.

Thomas Paine

  • Author of Common Sense, a pamphlet urging the colonies to seek independence.
  • Paine wrote against the abuses of the British government and was instrumental in turning public opinion in favor of the Revolution.

Marquis de Lafayette

  • A French general who aided the colonies during the American Revolution by training and advising the colonial militia.

John Dickinson

  • One of the celebrated writers of American independence, this Pennsylvania lawyer crafted a declaration of colonial rights and grievances in protest of the Townshend Acts.
  • Nonetheless, he refused to sign the Declaration of Independence, believing that the colonies should first complete the Articles of Confederation.

Gaspee Affair

  • When the British customs ship Gaspee ran aground in 1772, colonists boarded the ship and destroyed it.
  • Britain demanded that the perpetrators be tried not in a colonial court but in England.
  • This shocking demand inspired the colonists to form Committees of Correspondence.

Committees of Correspondence

  • Secret governments organized by American colonies to supersede colonial legislatures and British officials.
  • These committees spread news of colonial resistance and helped communities organize against British loyalists and merchants who complied with oppressive taxation.

First Continental Congress

  • The 1774 convention in Philadelphia where 12 of the 13 colonies met to draft a Declaration of Rights and Grievances to King George III.
  • The colonies at this point still acknowledged the right of the British Parliament to regulate trade in the Americas.

Second Continental Congress

  • The 1775 convention where colonial representatives prepared for the inevitable war with England.
  • The convention elected Virginian George Washington to lead the Continental Army.

Lexington and Concord

  • First battles of the American Revolution.
  • American colonists surprised British soldiers seeking to arrest colonial leaders and capture a weapons cache.

Paul Revere

  • Famous for riding to warn colonial militiamen about the advance of British soldiers toward Lexington and Concord.

Virtual Representation

  • As opposed to actual representation in government by elected officials, virtual representation features unelected representatives such as the colonial agents sent to Parliament.

Olive Branch Petition

  • The last ditch attempt by the Continental Congress to avoid war with England in 1775.
  • The petition affirmed the loyalty of the colonies to the king and requested that he address their complaints.
  • The petition was refused.

Declaration of Independence

  • On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress signed the document that declared the United States an independent nation.
  • Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, it famously claims: “We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Benedict Arnold

  • A general in the Continental army who was caught plotting to surrender to the British in 1778 in exchange for a position in the British military.

Hessians

  • German soldiers hired by the British during the American Revolution.
  • Some loyalists turned against Britain because of the use of foreign mercenaries against English citizens.

Battle of Trenton

  • After several defeats in New York, the colonial army surprised a Hessian brigade in Trenton, New Jersey.
  • General George Washington crossed the Delaware River with his army on Christmas night in 1776 to achieve the surprise attack, a much-needed victory for colonial forces.

Battle of Saratoga

  • This October 1777 victory for the colonial army in upstate New York led to the surrender of the army of British General John Burgoyne.
  • News of the British defeat compelled France to form a military alliance with the colonists.

French Alliance

  • France declared itself an American ally when the Battle of Saratoga offered hope of defeating Britain, their longtime enemy in many European wars.

Battle of Yorktown

  • The decisive battle of the American Revolution.
  • Colonial forces and the French navy surrounded British commander Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781.
  • When Cornwallis surrendered, the war was all but won for the colonial army.

Articles of Confederation

  • This founding document (before the Constitution) delegated powers (taxation, trade, and military) to individual states, but left the federal government to handle foreign policy and currency.
  • This left the federal government weak and ineffectual, which would later be resolved in a stronger federal Constitution.

Northwest Ordinance

  • Included in the Articles of Confederation in 1787, this clause created a framework government for the Northwest territory and outlawed slavery in those future states.

Alexander Hamilton

  • Hamilton served as the first secretary of the treasury.
  • He established the national bank and an economic plan including a tariff, the assumption of state debts, and an excise tax on whiskey (among other goods).
  • He believed industry and manufacturing would strengthen the new nation, as opposed to Jefferson’s agrarian vision.

Shay’s Rebellion

  • A 1786 rebellion in Massachusetts protesting high taxes, debtors’ prisons, and the lack of valuable currency.
  • The uprising was quickly quelled, yet it underscored that the lack of a federal constitution prevented the states from protecting the rights of citizens.

French Revolution

  • Inspired in part by the American Revolution, the French overthrew the monarchy of Louis XVII in 1789.
  • What followed was a bloody purge of the nation’s aristocracy and several failed democratic governments before Napoleon seized power in 1799.

Industrial Revolution

  • Refers to the mechanization of labor and the rise of the factory system.
  • What began in England during the 1750s with advanced textile machines came to American shores soon thereafter, primarily in the Northeast, where there existed many seaports for receiving raw materials and shipping manufactured goods, as well as rivers to power factories.

Separation of Powers

  • The system of checks and balances by which the Constitution divides the government into separate and independent branches.
  • Each has distinct powers and responsibilities so that none has more influence than the others.
  • The three branches are the judicial, executive, and legislative branches.

Judicial Branch

  • The judiciary, specifically the Supreme Court, is the final authority on interpreting the Constitution, as well as the constitutionality of state laws.
  • Supreme Court justices are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Legislative Branch

  • The bicameral (two-chambered) American legislature is the Congress, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
  • Each state elects two senators and also House representatives according to districts based on population.
  • All congressmen and congresswomen are elected by popular vote.

Executive Branch

  • The president of the United States is the nation’s chief executive.
  • The president is elected every four years by the electoral college, a delegate system based on population.

Electoral College

  • For fear that an uneducated mob would elect an unfit American president in a direct election, the electoral college was created as a body of delegates who cast votes on behalf of citizens.

Federalists

  • Those during the debate over the American Constitution who favored a strong federal government.
  • Federalists often had strong ties to the Northeast and international trade.

Anti-Federalists

  • Those during the debate over the American Constitution who favored states’ rights.
  • Anti-Federalists were in general from the agrarian South or western homesteads.

Mobocracy

  • During the Constitutional Convention, delegates feared that the uneducated would elect an unsuitable president in a direct election.
  • The Electoral College was born from this fear of rule by the mob.

Loose Interpretation of the Constitution

  • Loose interpretation refers to the theory that the government may do what the Constitution does not specifically forbid.
  • President Jefferson justified the Louisiana Purchase by this logic, as the Constitution doesn’t permit or prevent the president to purchase territory.

Strict Interpretation of the Constitution

  • Strict interpretation contends that the government may only do what the Constitution specifically allows.

Three-Fifths Compromise

  • Delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed to allow the Southern slave trade to continue for at least 20 years after ratification and that slaves would count as three-fifths of one person in determining a state’s population.

The Federalist Papers

  • A series of essays published by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison that urged ratification of the federal Constitution.

First Amendment

  • Prohibits the establishment of a state religion and guarantees freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and freedom of the press.

Second Amendment

  • Established the right of the American people to keep and bear arms.

Part II: 1790–1913

George Washington

  • Military leader of the American Revolution and the first American president (1789–1797).
  • Washington led the foundation of a stable American government by presiding over the drafting of the Constitution.
  • He also kept the young nation out of a war with England by avoiding foreign alliances.

Washington’s Farewell Address

  • Printed in newspapers in 1796.
  • The first outgoing president warned America to avoid foreign alliances (perhaps referring to Jefferson’s desire to ally with France) and to refrain from forming political parties.

John Adams

  • Second president of the United States (1797–1801).
  • Coauthor of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Negotiated peace with England after the American Revolution.
  • A Federalist who faced fierce opposition from political opponents during his presidency but kept America at peace despite foreign threats.

Quasi-War

  • An undeclared 1798–1800 naval war between the United States and France when the Adams administration refused to repay war debts to the new French republic and instead sought trade agreements with England.

Democratic-Republicans

  • Political party founded in 1791 by Jefferson and James Madison to oppose the Federalists and Alexander Hamilton’s economic policies.
  • The Democratic-Republicans favored states’ rights and grew powerful in the South among yeoman farmers and plantation owners.

Natural Rights Versus Legal Rights

  • The founders of the United States drew an important distinction between natural rights, inalienable rights granted to all men, and legal rights, laws passed by governments or monarchs that could change.

Thomas Jefferson

  • Third president (1801–1809).
  • Author of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Doubled the size of the nation with the Louisiana Purchase.
  • Pursued aggressive economic policies against England.
  • A Virginia plantation owner with hundreds of slaves who privately struggled with the moral and political implications of slavery.

Fugitive Slave Law

  • A 1793 law providing for the return of escaped slaves to their owners, the law was strengthened in 1850 to account for the abolitionist movement and the success of the Underground Railroad.

Whiskey Rebellion

  • A 1794 farmers’ rebellion in Pennsylvania against an excise tax on whiskey.
  • When rioters killed federal officers attempting to arrest them, the colonial army intervened.
  • The rebellion demonstrated that the Constitution allowed for a swifter and more authoritative military response than Shay’s Rebellion.

Jay Treaty

  • Treaty ratified in 1793 that avoided conflict between England and the United States.
  • Removed British troops from the Americas and established trading rights for the United States with England and her colonies.

XYZ Affair

  • When Franco-American relations soured in 1800, President Adams sent envoys to France who were secretly told they could only meet with the French foreign minister if they paid a bribe.
  • Adams was outraged and publicized the bribe request.

Bank of the United States

  • Alexander Hamilton created the first national bank in 1791, and its charter was renewed in 1816.
  • Believing that a national bank favored wealthy interests, President Jackson vetoed the act to renew the bank’s charter in 1836, which would compel the government to store money in state banks.

Burr Conspiracy

  • After killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, former vice president Aaron Burr joined a mercenary gang in the Louisiana territory.
  • He was captured and accused of seeking Mexican aid for a secession movement in the territories.
  • The Supreme Court acquitted Burr of accusations of treason.

Midnight Judges

  • On his last night in office in 1801, President John Adams stayed up until midnight appointing Federalist judges to federal court posts so that his party might maintain influence in the new Democratic-Republican government led by Thomas Jefferson.

Alien and Sedition Acts

  • Passed by Congress and President Adams in 1798, these laws lengthened the waiting period for citizenship, empowered the government to arrest dangerous foreigners, and made it illegal to publish defamatory statements about the government.
  • A response to the XYZ Affair, these laws were largely ineffectual and unenforced.

Second Great Awakening

  • Starting around 1801, this religious revival led by Baptist and Methodist sects preached tolerance of new Protestant faiths and drew more participation from women, blacks, and Indians.

Louisiana Purchase

  • President Jefferson purchased the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains from French emperor Napoleon in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, provided valuable shipping lanes, and gave the growing nation room to expand.

Lewis and Clark

  • Two explorers who embarked on the first major exploration of the American west in 1804–1806.
  • Traveling from the Missouri River to the Pacific, they mapped the region and collected valuable information about resources they discovered in the new Louisiana Purchase.

Marbury v. Madison

  • An 1803 Supreme Court case that helped to define the constitutional boundary between the judicial and executive branches of government.
  • The case increased the power of the courts by establishing that the judiciary interprets what the Constitution allows, which is called judicial review.

John Marshall

  • Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835.
  • Marshall was hugely influential in establishing the Supreme Court as a branch of government equal to the legislature and the executive branch.
  • Marshall’s opinions are the foundation for much American constitutional law and established judicial review, which allows the Court to decide the constitutionality of laws.

Elastic Clause

  • The Constitution states that Congress has the ability “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.”
  • This so-called “elastic clause” gives unspecified or implied powers to Congress, which has been the source of much debate over the extent of the legislature’s authority.

Tripolitan War

  • A small naval war launched against Tripoli and Algeria in 1801 to stop pirate attacks on American ships.
  • Neither the United States nor its opponents were truly victorious, and the United States continued to pay the tribute demanded by the North African states to protect American ships.

Robert Fulton

  • Fulton constructed the first steamboat in the United States in 1807 and also designed the first practical submarine.

First Party System

  • Describes the first American political party structure from 1792 to 1824, when the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans vied for power.
  • Federalists controlled government until 1800, but Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans held sway after his election.

James Madison

  • Fourth president (1809–1817).
  • A Federalist Papers writer.
  • Principal author of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
  • Led the United States into the War of 1812.

Tecumseh

  • A Shawnee chief who united the Northwestern Indian tribes against invading settlers.
  • Tecumseh was defeated by an American army led by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in