Exam Review Notes

Declaration of Independence

  • Declaration of Independence can be used to discuss rights and equality.
  • Gordon Reed's interpretation: Gives the feeling of right.
  • Abolitionist movement is growing, questioning the status quo.
  • Changes in state constitutions: Lowered property qualifications for rights, but property ownership was still required.

Political Rights and Suffrage

  • Focus on political rights and suffrage (voting).
  • Event supporting political rights: Destruction of the South during the Civil War (Sherman's March).
  • Growth of the women's rights movement in the mid-1800s.
  • Seneca Falls Convention: Women demanding equal rights and the right to vote.
  • Reform movements: Women are involved.
  • Nineteenth Amendment (1920): Women's suffrage.

Religion and European Migration

  • Puritans settling in Massachusetts seeking religious freedom.
  • Spanish priests converting indigenous populations.
  • French priests (Jesuits) converting indigenous populations.
  • Similarity: Christian influence in colony development.
  • Difference: Puritans were religiously strict and intolerant, while Quakers were more open and tolerant.
  • Britain allowed Puritans to leave, while France and Spain resisted non-Catholics in their colonies.

Economic Developments and Migration (1890-1945)

  • World War I and World War II influenced migration.
  • The Great Migration: Black people moving from the South to the North and West for jobs, escaping Jim Crow segregation.
    • Push factor: Jim Crow segregation.
    • Pull factor: Economic opportunities.
    • Discrimination still existed in the North.
  • Fifteenth Amendment: Right to vote, circumvented by poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests.
  • Industrial Revolution: Economic shifts.
  • Harlem Renaissance: Cultural movement.

Post-World War II Economic Developments

  • Similarity: Suburbanization.
  • Black Americans moving from rural to urban areas for jobs.
  • Difference: Sunbelt (South and West) population increased due to air conditioning and jobs, while some Northern areas decreased.
  • Globalization: Manufacturing jobs leaving the North.

DBQ Analysis: Definition of Citizenship

  • Focus: Fourteenth Amendment (citizenship to anyone born in the United States).
  • Controversy: Children born in the US to undocumented immigrants.
  • Amendments can be overturned by other amendments (e.g., Prohibition).
  • Documents emphasize rights for those born in the US versus those born outside.
  • Initial focus on cultural assimilation, later shifting to legal definitions (Fourteenth Amendment).

LAQ Analysis: Colonial Society and Revolutionary Movements (1700-1776)

  • Enlightenment: Ideas of natural rights and self-government challenged British rule.
  • First Great Awakening: Challenged the established church.
  • King George's War: Impressment of colonial sailors, seen as a violation of natural rights.

Federal Government and Political Parties (1800-1854)

  • Expansion of the United States and debates over slavery.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act: Popular sovereignty and the formation of the Republican Party.
  • Democrats: More pro-slavery.
  • Free Soil Party/Republican Party: Halting the spread of slavery.
  • Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson): Limited government.
  • Federalists/Whigs: Strong central government.
  • National Bank: Hamilton vs. Jefferson debate.

Key Historical Periods

  • Period 3: Creation of the Constitution.
  • Period 4: Expansion, Market Revolution, Reform.
  • Period 5: Civil War and Reconstruction.
  • Period 6: Industrialization and Immigration.
  • Period 7: Progressivism and Imperialism.

French and Indian War

  • French encroachment on the Ohio River Valley.
  • George Washington starts the war.
  • Albany Plan of Union: Benjamin Franklin's proposal for colonial unity (rejected).
  • Treaty of Paris: Britain gains French territory.
  • Pontiac's War: Indigenous resistance.
  • Proclamation of 1763: Restricted colonial expansion.
  • Enforcement of Navigation Acts: End of salutary neglect.

Taxation Without Representation

  • Navigation Act, Quartering Act, Stamp Act.
  • Virtual representation: Parliament's justification for colonial taxation.
  • Stamp Act Congress: Colonial protests.
  • Declaratory Act: Parliament's assertion of authority.
  • Townshend Acts: Taxes on goods.
  • Boston Massacre: Conflict between colonists and British soldiers.
  • Tea Act and Boston Tea Party.
  • Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts): Military rule in Boston.

Road to Revolution:

  • Division among colonists: Loyalists, patriots, and neutral.
  • Common Sense: Thomas Paine's pamphlet advocating independence.
  • Declaration of Independence: List of grievances and declaration of independence.

Enlightenment Ideas:

  • Locke: Natural rights.
  • Rousseau: Social contract theory.
  • Montesquieu: Separation of powers.

The War:

  • British advantages: Trained army, navy, and loyalist support.
  • American strategy: Attrition and alliances.
  • Battle of Saratoga: French support.
  • Battle of Yorktown: British surrender.
  • Treaty of Paris: Recognition of US sovereignty.

Revolutionary Ideals:

  • Abolition of slavery in some Northern states.
  • Expansion of suffrage (limited to white males with property).
  • Republican motherhood: Women's role in educating children to be citizens.
  • Inspiration for other revolutions (France, Haiti, Latin America).

Articles of Confederation:

  • Weaknesses: Only a legislature, no taxation power, no army, difficult to amend.
  • Success: Northwest Ordinance (abolished slavery in Northwest, created rules how to make states).
  • Shays' Rebellion: Farmers' rebellion against foreclosures, highlighting the need for a stronger federal government.

Constitutional Convention:

  • Great Compromise: Bicameral legislature (Senate and House of Representatives).
  • Three-Fifths Compromise: Enslaved people counted as three-fifths for representation.
  • Electoral College: President elected by electoral votes.

Ratification Debate:

  • Federalists: Supported a strong federal government.
  • Anti-Federalists: Supported strong state governments and a bill of rights.
  • Federalist Papers: Essays advocating for the Constitution.

Checks and Balances:

  • Legislative branch: Passes laws.
  • Executive branch: Enforces laws, can veto legislation.
  • Judicial branch: Interprets laws, determines constitutionality. Can declare president or congress action unconstitutional.