A set of basic principles and laws that states the powers and duties of the government.
Constitution
An ordinance which included areas that are now in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Northwest Territory
In what year did Spanish officials close the lower Mississippi River to U.S. shipping?
1784
What state legislature printed large amounts of paper money worth very little.
Rhode Island
What was the name of the farmer and Revolutionary War veteran who led hundreds of men to shut down the Supreme Court in Springfield, Massachusetts?
Daniel Shays
A Philosopher that believed a social contract existed between political rulers and the people they ruled.
John Locke
This was organized to create a national government.
The Second Continental Congress
Taxes on imports or exports.
Tariffs
Trade between two or more states.
Interstate commerce
Massachusetts’s tax policy hit who the hardest?
Farmers
This document signed by King John in 1215, made the king subject to the law.
Magna Carta
The Second Continental Congress passed the Articles of Confederation on what date?
November 15, 1777
Some people believed that this country might have continued to negotiate if the United States had possessed a strong military.
Spain
Trade problems among territories, war debts, and a weak economy plagued what?
The states
In what year and month did farmers in three western counties begin a revolt.
August 1786
This individual argued that the only way to achieve liberty was through the separation of governmental powers.
Baron de Montesquieu
Under this, Congress would become the single branch of the national government, but it would have limited powers in order to protect the liberties of the people.
Articles of Confederation
Under this, Congress could not force states to provide soldiers for an army.
Articles of Confederation
Increased prices for goods and services combined with the reduced value of money is known as what?
Inflation
The uprising of farmers to protest high taxes and heavy debt was known as what?
Shays's Rebellion
A philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason to examine old ideas and traditions.
Enlightenment
In what year and month did Maryland finally ratify the Articles of Confederation?
March of 1781
As a result of the trade problems with Britain, American merchants began looking for other markets with who?
China, France, and the Netherlands
Most states had a hard time paying off war debts and struggled to collect overdue taxes due to what event?
The Revolutionary War
Which state refused to print worthless paper money and tried to pay its war debts by collecting taxes on land?
Massachusetts
This document, passed in 1689, declared the supremacy of Parliament, and it kept the king or queen from changing laws without Parliament’s consent.
The English Bill of Rights
Official Approval
Ratification
What Army disbanded soon after the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
The Continental Army
People who lend money
Creditors
What showed the weakness of the Confederation government?
Shays's Rebellion
This document declared that no person could be forced to attend a particular church or be required to pay for a church with tax money.
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
How large did the population have to be for its settlers to form their own constitution and petition to join the Union?
60,000 people
In 1785 the situation with the markets led a British magazine to call the new nation what?
Dis-United States
The loss of trade with Britain combined with inflation created a what?
Depression
Nine out of thirteen states decided to send delegates to the Convention, but some of their delegates were late and missed the meeting. Which states did not respond to the request at all and sent no delegates?
Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, and South Carolina
To keep individual leaders from gaining too much power, the new state constitutions created a system in which all leaders have to obey the laws.
Limited governments
This was set up as a system for surveying and dividing western lands.
Land Ordinance of 1785
After the signing this document, Britain closed many of its ports to American ships.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783
People who owe money
Debtors
The Virginia legislature summoned a national conference in September 1786 to address economic concerns and methods to alter the Articles of Confederation. What city and state hosted the meeting?
Annapolis, Maryland
The right to vote.
Suffrage
Who assured Maryland that western lands would be made into new states, rather than increasing territory for existing states?
Thomas Jefferson
After the closing of what markets seriously affected the U.S. economy?
British West Indies
Some States began printing a lot of paper money, however, the money had little or no real value, because states did not have enough of what?
Gold and Silver
In what year and month were Shays’s forces defeated by state troops?
January 1787
This rule makes even government officials subject to law.
The rule of law
Congress passed this to form a political system for the region.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
What country remained the most important trading partner of the United States?
Britain
A period of low economic activity combined with a rise in unemployment.
Depression
Because of the low attendance at the convention, the attendees, particularly James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, urged all 13 states to send representatives to a Constitutional conference in what city in May 1787?
Philadelphia