U.S. History Flashcards
ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM
In this system, the king of Spain gave grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards in exchange for their loyalty to the crown. These Indians had to farm or work in the mines. Their fruits went to their Spanish masters, who in turn had to “care” for them.
ASIENTO SYSTEM
After diseases wiped out natives, Spaniards began to import African slaves. This system required the Spanish to pay a tax to their kind on each slave they imported to the Americas.
BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS
Spanish priest who had owned land and slaves in the West Indies and had fought in wars against the Indians, but eventually became an advocate for better treatment of the Indians.
In the long term, he persuaded the Spanish king to institute the NEW LAW OF 1542. These laws ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM.
MESTIZOS
Mixed race of spaniard men and indian women
POPE’S REBELLION (1680)
The Spanish abused the PUEBLO TRIBE of the Southwest and established NEW MEXICO in 1609 in Santa Fe.
They set up Catholic missions and imposed Catholicism on the local Pueblo Indians.
The Pueblos would exact revenge on them in POPÉ’S REBELLION IN 1680 by killing priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers, while ruling for the next fifty years until the Spanish reclaimed it.
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
French explorer who created an alliance with the local HURON INDIANS and would then assist the Hurons in defeating their IROQUOIS enemies.
Iroquois
Northeastern Indian tribe who would ally themselves with the British and would fight numerous battles with the French in the OHIO RIVER VALLEY.
Jamestown Immigrants
Most were single males in their teens or early twenties who came as indentured servants. In exchange for passage across the Atlantic, they agreed to serve a master for a stated number of years. The younger the servant the longer he/she had to serve. In return, the master promised to give the laborers proper care and at the conclusion of their contracts, they provided them with tools and clothes according to the custom of the country. It dramatically skewed the colony’s sex ratio. Often men outnumbered women 6 to 1.
JOINT-STOCK COMPANY
During Elizabeth’s reign, the major obstacle to colonization of the New World was raising money. No single person could underwrite the cost of an expedition. The solution was a JOINT-STOCK COMPANY, which was a business organization in which a group of people could invest without fear of bankruptcy.
VIRGINIA CHARTER (1606)
Issued by King James. It authorized the London Company to establish a plantation in Virginia. This territory covered present day North Carolina to the Hudson.
Who settled the New England Colonies?
New England was settled by disgruntled PURITANS from Europe who did not like the Church of England. The Pilgrim Separatists, who were extreme Puritans, used the Mayflower to land in PLYMOUTH BAY in 1620.
THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
was chartered in 1629 and settled by about eleven thousand Puritans under the guidance of Governor JOHN WINTHROP.
Winthrop declared that “we shall be as a city upon a hill”, in which the Puritans of the Bay Colony would build a model religious community based on Puritan beliefs and values. These Puritan beliefs were based on the idea that people were predestined for heaven or hell and that only male church members could vote.
Politically, New England valued the democratic town meeting.
FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT
the first written constitution in American history, written by puritans who settled in Connecticut
RHODE ISLAND COLONY
RHODE ISLAND was settled by ROGER WILLIAMS, who was banned from the Bay Colony because of his religious views. Williams’ emphasis on religious diversity and toleration would be trademarks for Rhode Island.
PENNSYLVANIA COLONY
was founded by WILLIAM PENN, a Quaker, in 1681 in what was known as “Penn’s Holy Experiment”. THE QUAKERS were a peaceful religious group of dissenters from England. They believed in taking no oaths, refused military service, and were accepting of Indians.
NEW YORK COLONY
NEW YORK was initially settled by THE DUTCH in 1623. Earlier, English explorer HENRY HUDSON sailed up the Hudson River and claimed New Amsterdam (New York City) for the Dutch. Ironically, England would take New York from the Dutch without a shot fired in 1664.
JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA
was the first English settlement in the colonies in 1607. The initial Jamestown settlers and many other Chesapeake residents would die at an early age from disease. Life expectancy was much shorter here than in the clean air of New England. Chesapeake families were not common due to mostly men immigrating in this area to make money.
They struggled with order and famine due to lack or farming, until they discovered tobacco - a profitable export.
MARYLAND COLONY
founded by LORD BALTIMORE in 1634. His motives for settling Maryland were money and finding a peaceful haven for Catholics who were being persecuted in England. Tensions between Catholics and Protestants in this tobacco colony caused the passage of the ACT OF TOLERATION IN 1649, which promised toleration to all Christians but not other religions.
GEORGIA COLONY
GEORGIA would be the last colony of the original thirteen colonies. England wanted it to serve as a DEFENSIVE BUFFER AGAINST SPANISH FLORIDA and French Louisiana.
MERCANTILISM
was an economic theory that was used by most European countries from 1500-1750. Mercantilists believed that money (gold and silver) was power. To get the gold, a country had to export more than it imported. In essence, mercantilist countries try to export as much as possible, while importing as little as possible, thus building up their gold reserves.
NAVIGATION LAWS
the British policy of forbidding colonial trade with other countries.
TRANSATLANTIC TRADE
The Americas would send raw materials to Europe and Africa, Europe would supply Africa and America with finished goods, and Africa would capture and transport black slaves to the Americas. The Americans would produce and send lumber, ship parts, iron products, furs, and tobacco to Europe, who in turn would supply the Americas with cloth, iron tools, tea, and furniture. Africa would send black slaves to the Americas.
THE BEAVER WARS OF THE 1640’S
the Iroquois fight the French and the Hurons over beaver pelts and hunting land rights in the Ohio Valley.
BACON’S REBELLION in 1676
many poor white farmers staged a violent uprising against the government and wealthy tobacco planters of Virginia. The fear of a large, poor, resentful white population led the wealthy Virginia planters to look for a new labor force in Africa.
THE BARBADOS CODE
a major law passed in 1661 in Barbados which meant that black slaves were property and had no basic rights that they would have been entitled to under normal English common law.
THE FIRST GREAT AWAKENING MOVEMENT
THE GREAT AWAKENING MOVEMENT of the 1700s rekindled the religious spirit of an America that was growing tired of the strict codes of Calvinist Puritans and becoming less interested in church. Dynamic preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield scared their followers into being better souls. “SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD”, a famous sermon delivered by Edwards, converted sinners into saints as he declared that hell was “paved with the skulls of unbaptized children.”
THE FRENCH & INDIAN WAR
7 YEARS WAR
By 1754, the OHIO VALLEY became a hotspot for conflict. The British saw this area as their gateway to western expansion, and the French viewed it as their vital link between their possessions in Canada and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Western Pennsylvania would become the sight of the first shots of the FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, a conflict pitting the BRITISH AND THEIR IROQUOIS INDIAN allies against THE FRENCH AND THEIR HURON INDIAN allies. This was part of the larger worldwide war between the British and French known as the Seven Years War. The French and Indian War ended with the signing of the TREATY OF PARIS in February 1763. The British received Canada from France and Florida from Spain, but permitted France to keep its West Indian sugar islands and gave Louisiana to Spain. The arrangement strengthened the American colonies significantly by removing their European rivals to the north and south and opening the Mississippi Valley to westward expansion.
TAXES THAT LEAD TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
KING GEORGE III argued that since the French and Indian War benefited the colonists by securing their borders, they should contribute to paying down the war debt. To defend his newly won territory from future attacks, King George III also decided to install permanent BRITISH ARMY UNITS IN THE AMERICAS, which required additional sources of revenue.
In 1765, parliament passed THE STAMP ACT (1765) - a tax on all paper documents - to help pay down the war debt and finance the British army’s presence in the Americas. It was the first internal tax directly levied on American colonists by parliament and was met with strong resistance. The Stamp Act was followed by the unpopular TOWNSHEND ACTS (1767) (taxed all imported goods) and TEA ACT (tax on tea) This infuriated colonists who believed there should be NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
Britain’s increasingly militaristic response to colonial unrest would ultimately lead to the American Revolution.
The Boston Massacre (March 1770
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a group of teenagers began taunting a lone British soldier, throwing snowballs and calling him names, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY (December 1773)
In response to the Tea Act of 1773, THE SONS OF LIBERTY, a radical group, decided to confront the British head-on. Thinly disguised as Mohawks, they boarded three ships in Boston harbor and destroyed more than 92,000 pounds of British tea by dumping it into the harbor.
THE COERCIVE ACTS
In response to the Boston Tea Party - closed Boston Harbor until restitution was paid for the destroyed tea, replaced the colony’s elected council with one appointed by the British, gave sweeping powers to the British military governor General Thomas Gage, and forbade town meetings without approval.
Another provision protected British colonial officials from being tried in Massachusetts, instead requiring that they be sent to another colony or back to Great Britain for trial.
QUARTERING ACT
allowed British military officials to demand accommodations for their troops in unoccupied houses and buildings in towns, rather than having to stay out in the countryside. While it didn’t force the colonists to board troops in their own homes, they had to pay for the expense of housing and feeding the soldiers.
PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
o THE ENLIGHTENMENT
o COMMON SENSE (THOMAS PAINE)
o JOHN LOCKE’S SECOND TREATISE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
SECOND TREATISE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
JOHN LOCKE: spoke of the inherent rights of LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY and advocated for the consent of the governed and limited government.
COMMON SENSE
In 1776, THOMAS PAINE wrote Common Sense, arguing that the large land of America should not be controlled by tiny England. The colonists needed to declare independence. It is common sense that the Americans should have their own country and not be controlled by a king far away. Paine also argued for a republican form of government in which the people ruled and had liberties.
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts.
In 1775, the SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS convened after the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) had already begun. In 1776, it took the momentous step of declaring America’s independence from Britain.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence was divided into five sections, including an introduction, a preamble, a body (divided into two sections) and a conclusion.
In general terms, the introduction effectively stated that seeking independence from Britain had become “necessary” for the colonies.
The body of the document outlined a LIST OF GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE BRITISH CROWN
THE PREAMBLE includes its most famous passage: “WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence later on the FOURTH OF JULY.
LEXINGTON & CONCORD
British General Thomas Gage led a force of British soldiers from Boston to Lexington, where he planned to capture colonial radical leaders SAM ADAMS and JOHN HANCOCK, and then head to Concord and seize their gunpowder. But American spies got wind of the plan, and with the help of riders such as PAUL REVERE, word spread to be ready for the British.
“MINUTEMEN” militia ultimately pushed the British soldiers back to Boston. The British lost 73 dead, with another 174 wounded and 26 missing in action. The bloody encounter proved to the British that the colonists were fearsome foes who had to be taken seriously. It was the start of America’s war of independence.
BATTLE OF SARATOGA
The turning point of the Revolutionary war
Took place at SARATOGA, New York, along the Hudson River in October of 1777. Three British generals were to coordinate and meet near Albany and defeat the Americans, which would then divide America geographically. The Americans defeated the British.
This colonist victory motivated France to form a military alliance with America. Some other European countries formed alliances with France to fight Britain in other parts of the world. Britain now had other war priorities. Along with THE AID OF FRENCH SOLDIERS AND CAPITAL, America was on its way to winning the Revolutionary War.
THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN
The final battle of the American Revolution in which the French blockaded the British from receiving needed supplies.
General Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
THE TREATY OF PARIS OF 1783
gave America independence from Britain and expanded the geography of America. America would get land westward to the Mississippi River and further to both the North and the South.
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS wrote a constitution to create a new national government.
The Continental Congress approved the Articles Of Confederation, which took effect in 1781 during the war.
The national government under the Articles of Confederation consisted of a single legislative body called Congress in which each state received one vote regardless of population size. All congressional decisions required a unanimous vote.
The government under the Articles did not have a judicial system (national courts) or an executive (such as a president). As a result, each state had a significant degree of sovereignty and autonomy. The national government under the Articles remained in effect until 1789.
SHAY’S REBELLION
Massachusetts - exposed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation – as rebellion broke out and court houses were destroyed there was no national military to intervene. It helped people realize they needed more protection and order.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
Delegates from eleven of the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation - they decided to create an entirely new document.
AIMS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
The framers met in Philadelphia to create a stronger national government that would better protect and enhance liberty by preventing tyranny. Shays’ Rebellion and the states’ inability to cooperate with one another had also demonstrated the weaknesses inherent in the Articles of Confederation, and many worried that Britain would take advantage of American weaknesses. At the same time, however, the framers did not want to abolish the state governments. At this time, most Americans felt more loyalty toward their state governments than to Congress, and strong local government made sense for the operation of a large nation such as the United States.
THE VIRGINIA PLAN
(EDMUND RANDOLPH) Favored representation based on population. Delegates from the large states supported this plan because it would give them a great deal of power.
Representatives from small states, however, rejected the plan because they would have fewer seats than the larger states and consequently less power.
THE NEW JERSEY PLAN
(WILLIAM PATTERSON) Proposed giving each state equal representation in the legislature. Delegates from smaller states supported the New Jersey Plan because they believed that all states should have equal power, regardless of population.
CONNECTICUT (GREAT) COMPROMISE
created a bicameral legislation with a House and Senate. Representatives in the House would be based on population size, and the Senate offers equal representation among the states – 2 senators for every state. The issue of slavery was settled with the 3/5 compromise which stated that 3 out of 5 slaves would be counted towards representation in the House.
THE ELECTION OF 1800
The election of 1800 pitted Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson against Federalist John Adams. Adams and Jefferson represented two different visions of what the United States of America should look like. Whereas Adams and his fellow Federalists, including George Washington, envisioned a strong central government and a thriving manufacturing sector centered in the cities, Jefferson and the DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS espoused an agrarian ideal, rooted in the republican virtues of the independent small farmer. The election of 1800 was fiercely contested and facilitated the rise of the two-party system and bitter partisanship.
LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The presidency of Jefferson brought new territory through the Louisiana Purchase. Though the Louisiana territory had changed hands between France and Spain a number of times, in 1800 Spain ceded the territory to Napoleon’s France. Napoleon, whose attention was consumed by war in Europe, began to view the territory as a needless burden. In 1803, he volunteered to sell all 828,000 square miles to the United States for the bargain price of $15 million.
LEWIS & CLARK
In order to explore and map all of this new territory, Jefferson authorized a WESTWARD EXPEDITION led by US Army volunteers Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. Their expedition lasted from 1803 to 1806 and was aided tremendously by the help of a Shoshone woman, SACAGAWEA, who served as their guide.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE (DEC. 1823)
The Monroe Doctrine stated that America would stay out of European wars unless directly impacted, European nations would not make any new colonies or attempt to take back control over former colonies in the Americas, and lastly, America would count any European colonization attempt in the Western Hemisphere to be an “unfriendly act.”
1824 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
John Quincy Adams won the 1824 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION in a four-way race against Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson. The election was so close that it was ultimately DECIDED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, which had the authority under the 12th Amendment to the US Constitution to decide the outcome of a presidential race in which no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT
After entering the White House Jackson issued THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT of 1830 which authorized the voluntary relocation of Native Americans to the lands west of the Mississippi River but was frequently abused by government officials and resulted in some forced removals. The Indian Removal Act was applied to the “FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES”—Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole—so named by people of the time because they had to some degree assimilated into white European culture and society.
The majority of CHEROKEES refused to leave their lands voluntarily. As a result, the US government forcibly relocated Cherokees to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River via THE TRAIL OF TEARS. Of the 17,000 Cherokees who were forced to move, at least 4,000—and possibly as many as 8,000—perished
SPOILS SYSTEM
Started by Andrew Jackson
placing supporters into office, whether or not they had the qualifications for that office. This is named after the phrase “to the victor, belongs the spoils.”
THE WHIG PARTY
THE WHIG PARTY developed as opposition to Andrew Jackson’s war on the Bank of the US. As NATIONALISTS, Whigs wanted a stronger federal government rather than state governments, opposite as Jackson. As a result of the development of a new political party, the Whigs and Democratic-Republicans created the Second Party System.
TALLMADGE AMENDMENT
prohibited further introduction of slavery and allowed emancipation for all slave children born in Missouri at age 25. The House of Representatives accepted it, but the Senate rejected it. The issue was the balance between the free and slave states. If the Tallmadge Amendment passed, it would tip the balance.
Missouri Compromise
In 1820, Missouri applied for statehood, but it wanted to be admitted as a slave state. The TALLMADGE AMENDMENT prohibited further introduction of slavery.
The House of Representatives accepted it, but the Senate rejected it. Henry Clay developed a plan to maintain the balance: the Missouri Compromise which included:
o Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.
o Slavery would be prohibited in the area north of the 36 degree 30 minute line.
LOWELL GIRLS
women worked in a textile factory in Lowell, Massachusetts
IRISH IMMIGRANTS
Most Irish immigrants moved to America due to POTATO CROP FAILURES in Ireland. They faced strong discrimination due to their Roman Catholic religion and had to compete with African Americans. Since they had limited skills and little money, they had to do domestic work and unskilled laborer jobs. Many joined the Democratic party.
HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
the first American school of art, emphasized the power and beauty of nature. It often showed the fear of westward expansion destroying nature.
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Prominant in the 1800’s
Transcendentalism taught that intuition connected people with God. With emphasis on individualism and self-sufficiency, it rejected Puritan tradition and rationalism of the Unitarian Church. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the founder of transcendentalism, wrote an essay called “Self-Reliance.” His friend, Henry David Thoreau, also wrote a book called Walden: Or Life in the Woods and believed in civil disobedience as well.
THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
Charles Grandison Finney, the best known preacher of the Second Great Awakening, taught that sin was voluntary. He believed everyone had the power to become perfect and free of sin. He also saw that women could help convert their husbands and fathers. He sought instantaneous conversions through a variety of new and controversial methods:
o Holding protracted meetings that lasted all night or several days in a row.
o Placing an “anxious bench” in front of the congregation where those in the process of repentance could receive special attention
o Encouraged women to pray publicly for the souls of male relatives.
o Sometimes listeners fell to floor in fits of excitement.
In the South on the western frontier, Baptist and Methodist CIRCUIT PREACHERS, such as Peter Cartwright would travel from one location to another and attract thousands to hear their dramatic preaching at outdoor revivals or CAMP MEETINGS.
NAT TURNER’S REBELLION
Nat Turner led the deadliest slave revolt in 1831. He and his allies killed 55 white people within a day, but whites effectively defeated them, even going as far as to kill about 30 people without trials. Although Turner was caught and arrested, the fear in the slaveholders and other southerners grew further, and they sought to find any other plans. This led to torture of the slaves, causing them to tell lies for confessions.
MANIFEST DESTINY
In 1845, newspaper editor John O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” to describe the ideology of CONTINENTAL EXPANSIONISM. The ideology of Manifest Destiny justified extreme measures to clear the native population from the land, including forced removal and violent extermination. For proponents of Manifest Destiny, the American Indians were mere impediments to the forward march of racial and technological progress, and they advocated pursuing a policy of INDIAN REMOVAL.
US President JAMES POLK is the leader most associated with the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Polk, a Democrat from Tennessee, led the United States to victory over Mexico in the MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR, which culminated in the transfer of a vast new territory, comprising almost the whole of the modern-day Southwest, from Mexico to the United States.
Polk also negotiated the OREGON TREATY OF 1846 with Britain, which accepted a division of the territory between the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel. The territory acquired by the United States under the provisions of the treaty include the present-day states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.
WILMOT PROVISO
was strongly opposed by the slaveholding South, asserted that the Mexican-American War had not been fought for the purpose of expanding slavery, and stipulated that slavery would never exist in the territories acquired from Mexico in the war. Ultimately, Polk’s territorial expansionism, though aimed at national unity, wound up intensifying sectional conflict and further paving the road to civil war.
THE MEXICAN–AMERICAN WAR
In the spring of 1846, tensions mounted between the United States and Mexico, and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) started, in part, over a border dispute between the two countries.
Mexico claimed the Nueces River to be Texas’s southern border, but the United States insisted the border lay further south at the Rio Grande River. The Mexican-American War confirmed Texas’s southern border at the Rio Grande, indicating the United States victory. The United States also acquired California, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
The Compromise of 1850 acted as a temporary truce on the issue of slavery, primarily addressing the status of newly acquired territory after the Mexican-American War. Under the Compromise, California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the slave trade was outlawed in Washington, D.C., a strict new FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT compelled citizens of free states to assist in capturing enslaved people; and the new territories of Utah and New Mexico would permit white residents to decide whether to allow slavery.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized two new territories in the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase, Kansas and Nebraska. The act established that in these territories, the principle of popular sovereignty would apply, meaning that the white residents of each territory would vote on whether to permit slavery when applying for statehood. The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which drew the horizontal line of slavery across the West along the 36° 30’ parallel, as both Kansas and Nebraska were north of this line. This reopened the question of slavery’s western expansion.
FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Democratic Party along sectional lines and gave rise to the REPUBLICAN PARTY, a new political party that attracted northern Whigs, Democrats who shunned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, members of the Free-Soil Party, and assorted abolitionists.
