Road to Revolution
This 1754 meeting, featuring Benjamin Franklin’s "Join or Die" cartoon, was an early attempt to coordinate colonial defense.
What is the Albany Congress (or Albany Plan of Union)?
This 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine used plain language to argue that it was "common sense" for the colonies to break away from a corrupt monarchy.
What is Common Sense?
Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government lacked the power to do this, which made it impossible to pay off war debts.
What is the power to tax? (tax authority)
This compromise created a bicameral legislature: a House based on population and a Senate with equal representation.
What is the Great Compromise
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned the nation against these two things.
What are permanent foreign alliances and political parties (factions)?
This British decree followed Pontiac’s Rebellion and prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains.
What is the Proclamation of 1763?
This battle is considered ONE of the turning point of the war because it convinced France to enter into a formal alliance with the Americans.
What is the Battle of Saratoga?
This 1787 law established a process for admitting new states and famously prohibited slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River.
What is the Northwest Ordinance?
This was the compromise used to determine how enslaved people would be counted for both representation and taxation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
This 1794 event saw Western Pennsylvania farmers protest a federal excise tax; Washington’s response proved the new government could enforce its laws.
What is the Whiskey Rebellion?
This Enlightenment philosopher’s ideas of "natural rights" (life, liberty, and property) heavily influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Who is John Locke?
This concept emerged after the war, suggesting women should be educated so they could raise virtuous, republican citizens.
What is Republican Motherhood?
This 1786 uprising of debt-ridden farmers in Massachusetts exposed the weakness of the central government under the Articles.
What is Shays' Rebellion?
This group opposed the new Constitution, fearing it gave too much power to the central government and demanded a Bill of Rights be added.
Who are the Anti-Federalists?
This 1795 treaty with Spain was a diplomatic success, granting Americans the right to navigate the Mississippi River and use the port of New Orleans.
What is Pinckney’s Treaty?
This economic policy, which Britain enforced more strictly after 1763, viewed colonies as a source of raw materials and a market for finished goods. Based on fixed-wealth economic idea.
What is Mercantilism?
While the North began passing gradual emancipation laws after the war, this invention in 1793 led to the "re-entrenchment" of slavery in the South.
What is the Cotton Gin?
To amend (change) the Articles of Confederation, how many of the 13 states had to agree?
What is Unanimous (all 13)?
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote this series of 85 essays to convince New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution
What are the Federalist Papers?
These controversial laws passed under John Adams were designed to silence critics of the Federalist party and limit the influence of immigrants.
What are the Alien and Sedition Acts?
This 1766 act was passed at the same time the Stamp Act was repealed, asserting that Parliament had the right to tax and bind the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."
What is the Declaratory Act?
These were two significant advantages the Colonists had over the British during the war (Name at least two).
Knowledge of the terrain, ideological commitment (heart), resilient military leadership (Washington), or foreign aid (France/Spain)?
Aside from the lack of a tax power, name TWO other structural WEAKNESSES of the Articles.
No executive branch (President), no national court system (Judiciary), or the inability to regulate interstate commerce?
Federalists argued for this type of constitutional interpretation, using the "Necessary and Proper" clause to expand federal power.
What is "Loose Construction" (or Broad Construction)?
Written by Jefferson and Madison, these documents argued that states had the right to "nullify" federal laws they deemed unconstitutional.
What are the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions?