Pre-Columbian
Justified by the Spanish crown as a means of Christianizing Indigenous peoples, this labor regime effectively granted colonists the right to extract tribute and forced work—laying the foundation for widespread exploitation and demographic collapse in the early Americas.
What is the encomienda system?
The 1692 witch trials took place in the settlement of Salem in this colony
What is Massachusetts Bay?
The British ships Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver were ransacked, losing 342 barrels of a namesake substance, in this 1773 event
What is the Boston Tea Party?
This 1794 uprising in western Pennsylvania protested a federal tax and showed that the new Constitution gave Washington the power to enforce laws.
What is the Whiskey Rebellion?
Issued by Washington in 1793, this statement declared the U.S. would avoid taking sides in the war between France and Britain.
What is the Proclamation of Neutrality?
This armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, particularly the federal government’s inability to raise troops or taxes.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
This group of Native Americans was known for being matrilineal, incredibly powerful, and lived near the Great Lakes and in modern-day northern New York state. Their confederacy had six tribes.
Who are the Iroquois Confederacy?
Created to attract settlers despite a chronic labor shortage, this policy granted 50 acres per person transported to Virginia or Maryland—accelerating elite land consolidation and deepening social stratification in the Chesapeake.
What is the headright system?
This leader of the Albany Congress revered the Iroquois and was present at both Continental Congresses; he was also a prolific inventor and credited with the lightning rod and his own brand of stove!
Who is Benjamin Franklin?
Jefferson and Madison secretly authored these resolutions, claiming states could nullify unconstitutional federal laws like the Alien & Sedition Acts.
What are the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions?
This attempted negotiation under Adams involved three French agents demanding a bribe, leading to public outrage in the U.S.
What is the XYZ Affair?
This compromise blended proportional and equal representation by creating a bicameral legislature, resolving a major dispute between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention.
What is the Great Compromise?
Native American groups in North America tended to to be vastly different in terms of their cultures, languages, and customs. However, they also tended to share at least (2) of the following similarities.
What is religious "animism" (respect for and worship of nature)?
What is adaptation to their local geography for their economic or agricultural needs?
What are various forms of resistance to European colonization?
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards was an incendiary sermon from this movement of the early 18th century
What is the (First) Great Awakening?
In this 1770 confrontation, tensions over the Quartering Act and British enforcement of customs duties erupted into violence—an event later dramatized by patriots to fuel anti-British sentiment.
What is the Boston Massacre?
This deal, acquired during Jefferson’s presidency, doubled the size of the United States, even though Jefferson had concerns about its constitutionality.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
This treaty with Britain (1794) sought to resolve lingering issues after the Revolution but angered Democratic-Republicans who viewed it as pro-British.
What is Jay’s Treaty?
This constitutional principle divides power between national and state governments, allowing shared authority while preventing the concentration of political power in a single level of government.
What is federalism?
Diseases wiped about approximately 90% of the New World population after the Columbian Exchange. This one was likely the most dangerous of them all.
What is smallpox?
A 1676 rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon started in the backcountry and marched east to Jamestown, culminating in the burning of this organization's meeting house
What is the House of Burgesses?
The reason for the eventual passage the Third Amendment, this practice was one of the four parts of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
What is the "quartering" of soldiers in private homes?
This economic crisis was caused by overspeculation and poor lending practices, becoming the first major financial depression in U.S. history.
What is the Panic of 1819?
This 1819 agreement with Spain secured Florida for the U.S. and settled the western boundary of the Louisiana Territory.
What is the Adams–Onís (Transcontinental) Treaty?
In this Federalist Paper, James Madison argued that a large republic could best control the dangers of faction by making it difficult for any single group to dominate politics.
What is Federalist No. 10?
This 1680 uprising, organized by a Native religious leader, temporarily expelled the Spanish from New Mexico and stands as one of the most successful Indigenous revolts against European colonization—forcing Spain to later adopt a somewhat more accommodating rule.
What is the Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion)?
Drafted in 1620 to legitimize a government outside the bounds of the Virginia Company’s charter, this agreement established a self-governing political body based on majority rule and is often cited as a foundational step in America’s constitutional tradition.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
The Second Continental Congress was capable of some duds; primarily written by John Dickinson, this 1775 document reaffirmed loyalty to the British monarch and attempted to make peace after Lexington & Concord.
What is the Olive Branch Petition?
This Supreme Court case (1819) strengthened federal power by ruling that states could not tax the national bank, upholding the doctrine of implied powers.
What is McCulloch v. Maryland?
Announced in 1823, this policy warned European powers not to interfere in the Western Hemisphere and became a cornerstone of U.S. foreign relations.
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
Despite lacking the power to tax, regulate interstate commerce, or enforce laws, the Confederation Congress achieved lasting success through this policy framework, which organized western territories, protected private property, promoted public education, banned slavery north of the Ohio River, and set a clear path to statehood.
What are the Land Ordinances (Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance of 1787)?