APUSH 1600s-1860s Overview

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### Early Colonization (1607-1754) - **Motives:** God, Gold, Glory; Mercantilism (economic theory where colonies serve mother country) - **Key Colonies:** - **Jamestown (1607):** First permanent English settlement, tobacco (John Rolfe), Headright System. - **Plymouth (1620):** Separatists/Pilgrims, Mayflower Compact (self-government). - **Massachusetts Bay (1630):** Puritans, "City Upon a Hill" (John Winthrop), strict religious society. - **Pennsylvania (1681):** William Penn, Quakers, religious tolerance, fair dealings with Natives. - **Regional Differences:** - **New England:** Religious dissent (Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson), small farms, trade, fishing, shipbuilding. - **Middle Colonies:** "Breadbasket Colonies," diverse population, religious tolerance, trade. - **Southern Colonies:** Plantation economy (tobacco, rice, indigo), cash crops, slave labor, hierarchical society. - **Native American Relations:** Often conflict (Pequot War, King Philip's War), disease, land encroachment. - **Labor Systems:** Indentured servitude (early), then African chattel slavery (Bacon's Rebellion, 1676, accelerated shift). - **Salutary Neglect:** British policy of loose enforcement of trade laws, allowing colonies greater autonomy, leading to self-government traditions. - **Great Awakening (1730s-1740s):** Religious revival, challenged established authority, fostered inter-colonial unity. ### French & Indian War (1754-1763) - **Causes:** Imperial rivalry (Britain vs. France), land claims in Ohio River Valley. - **Outcome:** British victory, France expelled from North America. - **Impacts:** - **British Debt:** Led to attempts to tax colonies. - **End of Salutary Neglect:** Britain imposed stricter controls. - **Colonial Unity:** Shared experience, resentment of British regulars. - **Native American Discontent:** Pontiac's Rebellion (1763), Proclamation of 1763 (angered colonists). ### Road to Revolution (1763-1775) - **British Policies & Colonial Reactions:** - **Sugar Act (1764):** First direct tax, "no taxation without representation." - **Stamp Act (1765):** Tax on printed materials, widespread protest, Stamp Act Congress, boycotts. - **Townshend Acts (1767):** Taxes on imports, led to Boston Massacre (1770). - **Tea Act (1773):** Monopoly for British East India Company, Boston Tea Party. - **Intolerable Acts (1774):** Punitive measures after Tea Party, closed Boston port, quartering of troops. - **Colonial Responses:** Boycotts, Sons of Liberty, Committees of Correspondence, First Continental Congress (1774). - **Enlightenment Influence:** John Locke (natural rights, consent of the governed), Montesquieu (separation of powers), Rousseau (social contract). - **Common Sense (1776):** Thomas Paine, argued for independence, widely influential. ### American Revolution (1775-1783) - **Key Events:** Lexington & Concord (1775), Declaration of Independence (1776), Saratoga (1777 - French alliance), Valley Forge (winter encampment), Yorktown (1781 - British surrender). - **Leadership:** George Washington (Continental Army commander), Patriots vs. Loyalists. - **Foreign Aid:** France (crucial naval and financial support). - **Treaty of Paris (1783):** US independence, western boundary at Mississippi River. ### Articles of Confederation (1781-1789) - **First US government:** Weak central government, strong state power. - **Weaknesses:** - No power to tax (reliance on states). - No national currency. - No executive or judicial branches. - Difficult to amend (unanimous consent). - Interstate disputes. - **Accomplishments:** - **Northwest Ordinance of 1787:** Established orderly process for admitting new states, banned slavery in Northwest Territory. - **Shays' Rebellion (1786-1787):** Farmers' uprising in Massachusetts, exposed weaknesses of Articles, spurred calls for stronger national government. ### Constitution & Early Republic (1787-1800) - **Constitutional Convention (1787):** Philadelphia, drafted new Constitution. - **Key Compromises:** - **Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise):** Bicameral legislature (House based on population, Senate equal representation). - **Three-Fifths Compromise:** Slaves counted as 3/5 of a person for representation and taxation. - **Commerce Compromise:** Congress could regulate interstate and foreign trade, but not tax exports or interfere with slave trade for 20 years. - **Principles:** Federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, popular sovereignty, republicanism. - **Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists:** Debate over ratification. - **Federalist Papers:** Arguments for Constitution (Hamilton, Madison, Jay). - **Bill of Rights (1791):** Added to protect individual liberties, secured ratification. - **Washington's Presidency (1789-1797):** - **Precedents:** Two-term limit, cabinet system. - **Hamilton's Financial Plan:** National Bank, assumption of state debts, tariffs. - **Whiskey Rebellion (1794):** Federal government asserted authority to enforce laws. - **Neutrality Proclamation (1793):** US neutral in French Revolutionary Wars. - **Farewell Address:** Warned against political factions and foreign entanglements. - **Rise of Political Parties:** Federalists (Hamilton, strong central government, industry) vs. Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson, agrarian, states' rights). - **Alien and Sedition Acts (1798):** Federalist attempt to suppress dissent, violated First Amendment, led to Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (nullification theory). ### Jeffersonian Democracy (1800-1824) - **"Revolution of 1800":** Peaceful transfer of power from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans. - **Louisiana Purchase (1803):** Doubled size of US, controversial use of presidential power. - **Marbury v. Madison (1803):** Established judicial review. - **Embargo Act of 1807:** Attempt to avoid war with Britain/France by cutting off trade, hurt US economy. - **War of 1812 (1812-1815):** - **Causes:** British impressment, arming Native Americans, "War Hawks" (Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun). - **Outcome:** Stalemate, Treaty of Ghent. - **Impacts:** Increased nationalism, end of Federalist Party (Hartford Convention), industrial growth, respect for US. - **"Era of Good Feelings" (1815-1825):** Period of one-party rule (Democratic-Republicans), but underlying sectional tensions. - **Monroe Doctrine (1823):** US asserted dominance in Western Hemisphere, warned European powers against colonization. - **Missouri Compromise (1820):** Admitted Missouri as slave state, Maine as free state, slavery prohibited north of 36°30' parallel in Louisiana Purchase territory; temporary solution to slavery expansion. ### Jacksonian Era (1824-1840) - **"Corrupt Bargain" (1824):** Led to Andrew Jackson's presidency in 1828. - **"Common Man" Democracy:** Expanded suffrage (white male), increased voter participation. - **Spoils System:** Rewarding political supporters with government jobs. - **Tariff of Abominations (1828):** High protective tariff, angered Southern states. - **Nullification Crisis (1832-1833):** South Carolina (John C. Calhoun) attempted to nullify federal tariff, Jackson threatened force, compromise reached. - **Bank War:** Jackson vetoed recharter of Second Bank of the US, "pet banks," led to economic instability. - **Indian Removal Act (1830):** Forced relocation of Native Americans (Cherokee, Choctaw, etc.) west of Mississippi River. - **Worcester v. Georgia (1832):** Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cherokee, Jackson ignored ruling. - **Trail of Tears:** Forced march, thousands died. - **Whig Party:** Formed in opposition to Jackson (Henry Clay, Daniel Webster). ### Market Revolution (1800s-1860s) - **Economic Transformation:** Shift from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture and industrial production. - **Innovations:** - **Transportation:** Canals (Erie Canal), steamboats (Robert Fulton), railroads. - **Communication:** Telegraph (Samuel Morse). - **Textile Industry:** Samuel Slater (factory system), Lowell System (women workers). - **Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney):** Increased demand for cotton and slave labor. - **Impacts:** - **Urbanization:** Growth of cities, immigration (Irish, German). - **Emergence of Middle Class:** Separate spheres for men and women. - **Increased Sectionalism:** North (industrial), South (agrarian, slave-based), West (agriculture). ### Reform Movements (1820s-1850s) - **Second Great Awakening:** Religious revival, emphasized individual responsibility, inspired social reform. - **Abolitionism:** - **Leaders:** William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator), Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman. - **Strategies:** Moral suasion, Underground Railroad, political action. - **Women's Rights:** - **Seneca Falls Convention (1848):** Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Declaration of Sentiments. - **Goals:** Suffrage, property rights, educational opportunities. - **Temperance:** Movement to limit or ban alcohol consumption. - **Education:** Horace Mann, public school movement. - **Utopian Communities:** Brook Farm, Oneida. ### Manifest Destiny & Expansion (1840s-1850s) - **Belief:** God-given right to expand US territory from Atlantic to Pacific. - **Key Acquisitions:** - **Texas Annexation (1845):** Independent republic admitted as slave state, sparked border disputes. - **Oregon Treaty (1846):** Divided Oregon Territory with Britain (49th parallel). - **Mexican-American War (1846-1848):** - **Causes:** Border dispute, US desire for California/New Mexico. - **Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo:** US gained Mexican Cession (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming). - **Impacts:** - **Increased Sectional Tensions:** Debate over slavery in new territories. - **Compromise of 1850:** California admitted as free state, popular sovereignty in Utah/New Mexico, stricter Fugitive Slave Law, abolition of slave trade in D.C. ### Road to Civil War (1850s) - **Fugitive Slave Act (1850):** Angered Northerners, increased abolitionist sentiment. - **Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852):** Harriet Beecher Stowe, powerful anti-slavery novel, increased Northern opposition to slavery. - **Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854):** Stephen Douglas, popular sovereignty to decide slavery in Kansas/Nebraska, repealed Missouri Compromise. - **"Bleeding Kansas":** Violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. - **Republican Party (1854):** Formed in opposition to expansion of slavery. - **Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857):** Supreme Court ruled: - Slaves were not citizens. - Congress could not prohibit slavery in territories (Missouri Compromise unconstitutional). - Increased sectional divide. - **Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858):** Highlighted differing views on slavery, raised Lincoln's national profile. - **John Brown's Raid (1859):** Attempt to seize federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to arm slaves, seen as martyr in North, terrorist in South. - **Election of 1860:** Abraham Lincoln (Republican) elected without Southern electoral votes. - **Secession:** Southern states began to secede from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America.