Imperial Crisis
This global conflict left Britain deeply in debt and led Parliament to tax the colonies.
What was the Seven Years’ War, or French and Indian War?
This 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine made a forceful case for colonial independence.
What was Common Sense?
This first national framework created a weak central government and preserved extensive state sovereignty.
What were the Articles of Confederation?
These first ten amendments were added to protect individual liberties and answer Anti-Federalist concerns.
What is the Bill of Rights?
This president warned the nation to avoid permanent foreign alliances in his Farewell Address.
Who was George Washington?
This 1763 British policy restricted colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
What was the Proclamation of 1763?
Colonists used these organized refusals to purchase British goods as a form of economic protest.
What were boycotts?
This Massachusetts uprising by indebted farmers exposed weaknesses in the national government.
What was Shays’ Rebellion?
Supporters of ratification who favored a stronger national government were known by this name.
Who were the Federalists?
This uprising by western farmers challenged a federal excise tax and tested the new government’s authority.
What was the Whiskey Rebellion?
This 1765 law placed a direct tax on printed materials and inspired the slogan “no taxation without representation.”
What was the Stamp Act?
In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress sent this final attempt at reconciliation to King George III while also preparing for war.
What was the Olive Branch Petition?
The Constitution strengthened federal power in part by giving Congress authority to levy these directly rather than depend on state contributions.
What are taxes?
This compromise determined the rate of how much a state’s enslaved population would count toward representation and direct taxation.
What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
These laws criminalized some criticism of the federal government and targeted immigrants during the Adams administration.
What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?
Benjamin Franklin argued that Parliament could regulate colonial trade but could not impose this without colonial representation.
What was taxation?
Britain passed these punitive laws in response to the Boston Tea Party, prompting the colonies to convene the First Continental Congress.
What were the Intolerable Acts?
Critics of the Constitution who feared centralized authority were known by this name.
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
This compromise created a bicameral Congress with representation based on population in the House and equal representation for each state in the Senate.
What was the Great Compromise.
This constitutional clause was used by Alexander Hamilton to defend Congress’s implied powers.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
This post-1763 shift replaced Britain’s earlier loose supervision with stronger enforcement, new revenue measures, and tighter imperial control.
What was the end of salutary neglect?
Paine’s rejection of Britain as America’s “parent country” relied on this broader intellectual movement emphasizing reason and natural rights.
What was the Enlightenment?
These late 1780 laws established a process for admitting new states from territory north of the Ohio River and prohibited slavery in that region.
What was the Northwest Ordinances?
The ratification debate centered on balancing federal authority with the fear that concentrated power could become this.
What is tyrannical?
Hamilton’s plan to strengthen national credit included the federal government taking responsibility for these obligations left from the Revolution.
What were the states’ Revolutionary War debts?