Comprehensive AP United States History Study Notes

PERIOD 1 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (C. 1491 - 1607) * Peak of Cahokia: Located near present-day St. Louis, Cahokia was the largest urban center in North America. It was characterized by mound-building and vast trade networks, reflecting high levels of complexity in political organization and economies. * Hernán Cortés: Defeated the Aztec Empire in $1521$ by utilizing superior weaponry and strategic alliances with Indigenous groups. * Complex Irrigation: Native societies in the Southwest, such as the Hohokam, created advanced irrigation systems to enable agriculture in arid environments, demonstrating active transformation of their surroundings. * Spanish Colonial Hierarchy: Established a centralized royal authority via the Council of the Indies and viceroyalties (New Spain, Peru). The social hierarchy was rigid: peninsulares (top), creoles, and mestizos. Systems like encomienda and repartimiento concentrated power and labor among elites. * Resistance and Adaptation: Indigenous groups engaged in warfare and revolts. Some adapted by using horses and firearms or forming alliances. Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish monk, famously criticized the encomienda system and championed Native rights, influencing colonial moral debates. * European Competition: Spain's dominance was challenged by John Cabot ($1497$) for England and Jacques Cartier ($1530s$) for France. The defeat of the Spanish Armada weakened Spain's grip. * Economy and Columbian Exchange: The transfer of crops (maize, potatoes, sugar), animals (horses, cattle), and diseases (smallpox) reshaped global diets and economies. European populations surged while Native populations were devastated. Silver from mines like Potosí fueled global commerce. * Labor Systems: Initial reliance on the encomienda system gave way to the asiento system (enslaved Africans) as Native populations declined due to overwork and disease. * Three Sisters: Corn, beans, and squash were grown together to sustain soil fertility, supporting stable settlements like the Iroquois. * Interactions: Cultural blending led to mestizos and mulattoes. Missions spread Catholicism, often resulting in religious syncretism. Disease impact was catastrophic, killing up to $90\%$ of Native populations in some regions. # PERIOD 2 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1607 - 1754) * Jamestown ($1607$): Founded by the Virginia Company as a joint-stock venture. Survived the "Starving Time" through John Rolfe’s introduction of tobacco cultivation. * Puritans ($1630$): Led by John Winthrop, aiming to establish a "city upon a hill" in Massachusetts with strict religious conformity. * Pueblo Revolt ($1680$): Led by Popé, Pueblo people expelled Spanish settlers from New Mexico for over a decade due to religious and labor oppression. * Bacon's Rebellion ($1676$): Nathaniel Bacon led frontier settlers against Governor Berkeley. The conflict highlighted class tensions and prompted a shift from indentured servitude to enslaved African labor. * Self-Government: Representative institutions emerged, such as the House of Burgesses and New England town meetings, rooted in English traditions but operating with independence. * Imperial Control: Britain used mercantilist policies like the Navigation Acts to control trade. However, "salutary neglect" allowed colonies to develop habits of self-rule. * Regional Economies: New England (shipping/fishing), Middle Colonies ("breadbasket" grain), and Southern Colonies (plantation agriculture: tobacco, rice, indigo). * Labor Transition: Shift from indentured servants to a permanent, race-based system of chattel slavery solidified in colonial laws. * Great Awakening: The First Great Awakening ($1730s - 1740s$) featured emotional preaching by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. It divided colonists into "New Lights" (revivalists) and "Old Lights" (traditionalists). * Key People: John Smith (discipline in Jamestown); Roger Williams (founded Rhode Island for religious freedom); Anne Hutchinson (challenged church authority); William Penn (Quaker tolerance in Pennsylvania); Chief Powhatan (led Chesapeake alliance). # PERIOD 3 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1754 - 1800) * French and Indian War ($1754 - 1763$): Conflict over North American territory ended with British victory but massive debt, leading to increased taxation. * Stamp Act ($1765$): Direct tax on printed materials; sparked "no taxation without representation" and the Stamp Act Congress. * Declaration of Independence ($1776$): Authored by Thomas Jefferson, using Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and the social contract to justify rebellion. * Constitutional Convention ($1787$): Delegates replaced the Articles of Confederation with a strong federal system. Key compromises included the Great Compromise and the $3/5$ Compromise. * Rise of Political Parties: Federalists (Hamilton/strong national government) vs. Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson/states' rights and agrarianism). * Hamilton's Financial Plan: Proposed assumption of state debts, a national bank, and protective tariffs. Used the "necessary and proper" clause for justification. * Foreign Policy: Alliance with France was vital for the victory at Yorktown ($1781$). Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality ($1793$) aimed to avoid European wars. Tensions rose during the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France. * Treaties: Treaty of Paris ($1783$) recognized independence; Jay's Treaty (with Britain); Pinckney's Treaty (Spanish Mississippi access). * Republican Motherhood: Women were tasked with raising virtuous citizens, leading to better education but no political rights. * Northwest Ordinance: Established a process for admitting states and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. * Presidents: George Washington (set precedents like the cabinet and Farewell Address warnings); John Adams (faced the Alien and Sedition Acts). # PERIOD 4 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1800 - 1848) * Revolution of $1800$: The peaceful transfer of power from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans. * Missouri Compromise ($1820$): Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free; banned slavery north of the $36^{\circ}30'$ line. * Seneca Falls Convention ($1848$): Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott; produced the Declaration of Sentiments for women's rights. * Expansion of Democracy: Elimination of property requirements for white men; symbolized by Andrew Jackson’s "common man" presidency ($1828$). * Second Party System: Democrats (Jackson) vs. Whigs (Henry Clay). * Nullification Crisis ($1832 - 1833$): John C. Calhoun argued states could reject federal laws; Jackson asserted federal supremacy with the Force Act. * Market Revolution: Erie Canal ($1825$), steamboats (Robert Fulton), and railroads connected regions. Henry Clay’s American System promoted tariffs and a national bank. * Native Policy: Indian Removal Act ($1830$) led to the Trail of Tears; Jackson ignored Worcester v. Georgia. * Second Great Awakening: Reform movements for abolition (Frederick Douglass), temperance, and education (Horace Mann). * Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau emphasized individualism. * Presidents: Jefferson (Louisiana Purchase $1803$); Madison (War of $1812$); Monroe (Era of Good Feelings and Monroe Doctrine $1823$); Jackson (Bank War and Indian Removal); Van Buren (Panic of $1837$). # PERIOD 5 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1844 - 1877) * Mexican-American War ($1846 - 1848$): Triggered by border disputes and Manifest Destiny. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the U.S. California and the Southwest. * Kansas-Nebraska Act ($1854$): Stephen Douglas used popular sovereignty, sparking "Bleeding Kansas" and the Republican Party's birth. * Dred Scott Decision ($1857$): Ruled African Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories. * Civil War ($1861 - 1865$): Triggered by the secession of Southern states after Lincoln's $1860$ election. Lincoln used wartime measures like suspending habeas corpus. * Reconstruction: The $13th$ (abolition), $14th$ (citizenship), and $15th$ (voting) Amendments. Conflicts between Lincoln's $10\%$ Plan, Radical Republicans (Wade-Davis Bill), and Andrew Johnson’s leniency. * Compromise of $1877$: Hayes became president, and federal troops left the South, ending Reconstruction. * Southern Economy: Shifted to sharecropping/tenant farming, keeping freedpeople in debt. * Key People: James K. Polk (Manifest Destiny); Abraham Lincoln (Emancipation Proclamation/Gettysburg Address); Ulysses S. Grant (fought KKK/Enforcement Acts). # PERIOD 6 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1865 - 1898) * Transcontinental Railroad ($1869$): Built by Chinese and Irish labor; connected national markets and settled the Great Plains. * Chinese Exclusion Act ($1882$): First major law restricting immigration based on race. * Populist Party: Formed by farmers in $1892$; Omaha Platform called for free silver and government railroad ownership. * Election of $1896$: William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" vs. McKinley's gold standard. * Big Business: Andrew Carnegie (steel/vertical integration) and John D. Rockefeller (oil/horizontal integration/trusts). * Labor Conflict: Haymarket Affair and Pullman Strike. Unions included Knights of Labor and AFL (skilled labor). * Native Americans: Dawes Severalty Act ($1887$) aimed at assimilation; Wounded Knee Massacre ($1890$) ended large-scale resistance. * Urbanization: Jane Addams (Hull House); Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer) justified inequality. * Civil Rights: Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$) upheld "separate but equal." Booker T. Washington (economic self-help) vs. W.E.B. Du Bois (immediate equality/Talented Tenth). * Presidents: Hayes (ended Reconstruction); Garfield (assassinated/reform); Arthur (Pendleton Civil Service Act); Cleveland (laissez-faire); Harrison (tariffs/Sherman Antitrust); McKinley (imperialism). # PERIOD 7 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1890 - 1945) * Spanish-American War ($1898$): Triggered by yellow journalism and USS Maine; U.S. gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. * Progressive Era: Theodore Roosevelt (Square Deal/trust-busting) and Woodrow Wilson (Federal Reserve). Reforms: Meat Inspection Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, $19th$ Amendment. * World War I: U.S. entered in $1917$ (Zimmerman Telegram/Submarine warfare). Wilson's Fourteen Points/League of Nations. * Roaring Twenties: Mass production (assembly line/Henry Ford), consumer culture, Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes), flappers. Anti-immigrant sentiment led to restrictions. * Stock Market Crash ($1929$): Led to the Great Depression. Hoover's limited response vs. FDR's New Deal (Social Security, FDIC, SEC). * World War II ($1941 - 1945$): Total mobilization after Pearl Harbor. Japanese American internment (Executive Order $9066$). Atomic bombs ended the war and made the U.S. a superpower. * Presidents: TR (Big Stick/Panama Canal); Taft (Dollar Diplomacy); Wilson (WWI); Harding/Coolidge (Laissez-faire); Hoover (Depression); FDR (New Deal/WWII/$4$ terms). # PERIOD 8 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1945 - 1980) * Containment: Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan aimed to stop communism. Leads to Korean War ($1950 - 1953$) and Vietnam War. * Great Society: LBJ's programs for poverty/inequality (Medicare, Medicaid, Civil Rights Act $1964$, Voting Rights Act $1965$). * Civil Rights Movement: MLK (nonviolence) vs. Black Panthers (militancy). Brown v. Board ($1954$) ended segregation in schools. * Cold War Crises: Cuban Missile Crisis ($1962$); Berlin Wall; Second Red Scare (McCarthyism). * Vietnam War: Escalation after Gulf of Tonkin ($1964$). Anti-war protests followed Tet Offensive ($1968$). * Détente: Nixon’s policy to reduce tensions (SALT I/China visit $1972$). * Watergate Scandal ($1972 - 1974$): Nixon’s resignation due to abuse of power. * Economy: Postwar prosperity (GI Bill/Suburbia); $1970s$ Stagflation and OPEC oil shocks. * Society: Counterculture (Woodstock $1969$); Baby Boom; Sunbelt growth. * Presidents: Truman (containment); Eisenhower (Brinkmanship/Highway Act); JFK (Space Race); LBJ (Great Society); Nixon (Détente/Watergate); Ford (pardon of Nixon); Carter (Camp David Accords/Hostage Crisis). # PERIOD 9 "NEED-TO KNOWS" (1980 - PRESENT) * Reagan Revolution ($1980$): Shift toward supply-side economics ("Reaganomics"), tax cuts, and deregulation. * Cold War Ends ($1991$): Collapse of the USSR; Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost/perestroika); fall of the Berlin Wall ($1989$). * Tech Boom: Microsoft, Apple, and internet growth in the $1990s$; NAFTA ($1994$) expanded free trade. * September 11, $2001$: al-Qaeda attacks lead to War on Terror, USA Patriot Act, and Dept. of Homeland Security. * George W. Bush: "Axis of Evil" (Iran, Iraq, North Korea); invasion of Iraq ($2003$). * Financial Crisis ($2008$): Housing market collapse leads to Great Recession and bailouts (TARP). * Social/Demographic Change: Increased immigration from Latin America and Asia; expansion of rights (Obergefell v. Hodges/same-sex marriage). * Presidents: Reagan (Conservative resurgence); G.H.W. Bush (Persian Gulf War); Clinton (Surpluses/Impeachment); G.W. Bush (9/11/Great Recession); Obama (Affordable Care Act $2010$).