1607-1820

Question 1

Earliest Colonies in North America

Answer 1

• Jamestown, Virginia
• Massachusetts Bay
• New Amsterdam

Question 2

Jamestown, Virginia

Answer 2

• Settled by businessmen from England
• Sought to make money by growing/selling tobacco
• Fertile soil
• Ultimately became powerful colony of tobacco plantations

Question 3

Massachusetts Bay

Answer 3

• Settled by Puritans from England
• Sought religious freedom
• Built towns with small farms

Question 4

New Amsterdam

Answer 4

• Settled by Dutch traders, settled on Manhattan island
• Mainly traded furs
• Later taken over by the British & renamed “New York”

Question 5

Where were these colonies built?

Answer 5

Atlantic Coast, near the water for trade. Bordered on the west by The Appalachian Mountains.

Question 6

Mercantile Theory

Answer 6

Colonies exist for the economic benefit of the mother country. Useless unless able to help achieve profit.

Question 6

Mercantilism

Answer 6

Form of economic nationalism, looking to increase the prosperity and power of a nation through restrictive trade practices.

Question 7

North American colonies were part of the Triangular Trade

Answer 7

Merchants brought raw materials from American colonies to Europe, European goods to Africa, and transported captured Africans to the colonies as slaves.

Question 7

Salutary Neglect

Answer 7

The British left the Americans alone in their day-to-day lives, as long as
1. raw materials were shipped to England
2. American brought only British-made products

Question 7

Examples of democracy in American colonies

Answer 7

• Mayflower Compact
• House of Burgesses
• Town Hall meetings

Question 8

Mayflower Compact

Answer 8

• Agreement made by the first Puritan settlers in Massachusetts
• Stated they would follow the idea of self-government

Question 9

House of Burgesses

Answer 9

• First elected legislature in Virginia
• First step towards representative government

Question 10

Representative Government

Answer 10

Government where people could elect their own representatives

Question 11

French and Indian War

Answer 11

• Ended in 1763
• War where the Americans and British fought against the French and Indians
• Americans and British won
• War had a negative effect (British abandoned salutary neglect & placed lots of new taxes on the Americans to recover money from the war)

Question 12

What are some of the taxes that the British imposed on the Americans?

Answer 12

• Stamp Act
• Sugar Act
• Tea Act

Question 13

How did the American colonists reply to these taxes?

Answer 13

Protests
- Stamp Act Congress
- Boycotts
- Boston Tea Party

Question 14

What is the Second Continental Congress (1775)?

Answer 14

• A meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies
• Took place in Philadelphia
• Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence

Question 15

Declaration of Independence

Answer 15

• Document that declared the US was independent from Britain

Question 16

Main points of the DOI

Answer 16

• Every human being has natural rights that can’t be taken away (John Locke)
• Social contract: People owe loyalty only to a gov that acts in their best interests (Jean-Jacque Rousseau)
• Main job is to protect people’s natural rights, and if fail, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” the gov
• The gov gets its power from “the consent of the governed” (power from the people)

Question 17

Articles of Confederation (1777)

Answer 17

-“First constitution”
- Established the functions of the national gov of the US after declaring independence from Great Britain

Question 18

Why did the AOC make a weak government?

Answer 18

• No executive branch to enforce laws
• No power to collect taxes
• States held most power

Question 19

What is the Shays’ Rebellion?

Answer 19

• Violent uprising in Massachusetts (1786-1787)
• Response to economic hardship and raised taxes
• Gov under the AOC failed to defeat this rebellion

Question 20

Northwest Ordinance

Answer 20

• Accomplishment of AOC
• Law that defined the procedure for adding new states

Question 21

Constitutional Convention (1787)

Answer 21

• Meeting held to write new doc to build a stronger gov.
• Constitution was signed and effective two years later
• Debated about representation in Congress, power in central gov, enslaved people, etc

Question 22

Proportionate Representation

Answer 22

Number of representatives would be based on state's population (favored by large states)

Question 23

Equal Representation

Answer 23

Each state would have the same number of reps

Question 24

Great Compromise

Answer 24

- Created bicameral legislature: House of Reps (proportionate rep) and a Senate (equal rep)

Question 25

Three-Fifths Compromise

Answer 25

Three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state's total pop for legislative representation and taxation

Question 26

Federalists

Answer 26

Wanted a strong central gov.

Question 27

Anti-Federalists

Answer 27

- Opposed ratification of the Constitution - Demanded a Bill of Rights be added

Question 28

Bill of Rights

Answer 28

- The 1st ten Amendments - Written by James Madison - Protects individuals against gov abuse

Question 29

Main points of the Constitution

Answer 29

- Limited gov: "gov't should not hold too much power" - Separation of powers: three branches (executive, legislative judicial) - Checks & balances: each branch has the power to limit the power of the others - Flexibility: Constitution is adaptable to change - Federalism: power is shared between state govs & fed gov

Question 30

How is GW's presidency notable?

Answer 30

- "Foreign policy of the US should be isolationism" (US stays out of Eur affairs) - Signed a bill to establish a National Bank

Question 31

Alexander Hamilton

Answer 31

- One of Washington's closest advisors - Loose constructionist: believed the Constitution should be more flexible, believed in strong gov) - Advocated for National Bank

Question 32

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 32

- One of Washington's closest advisors - Strict constructionist: believed the Constitution should be followed strictly, fearing a gov. too strong

Question 33

First Political Parties

Answer 33

- Created after disagreements between Hamilton and Jefferson - Fought over the XYZ Affair (incident b/w US and France) & Alien & Sedition Acts (passed by Federalists, restricted immigration)

Question 34

Unwritten Constitution

Answer 34

Certain things the gov. is going to follow even though they are not written as laws in the Constitution

Question 35

Judicial Review

Answer 35

- The Supreme Court has the right to declare laws unconstitutional - Created by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v Madison case - Increased the power of the Supreme Court and fed gov.

Question 36

Lobbying

Answer 36

Any group in the US has the right to try & influence members of Congress to vote