1607-1820 Flashcards
Earliest Colonies in North America
- Jamestown, Virginia
- Massachusetts Bay
- New Amsterdam
Jamestown, Virginia
- Settled by businessmen from England
- Sought to make money by growing/selling tobacco
- Fertile soil
- Ultimately became powerful colony of tobacco plantations
Massachusetts Bay
- Settled by Puritans from England
- Sought religious freedom
- Built towns with small farms
New Amsterdam
- Settled by Dutch traders, settled on Manhattan island
- Mainly traded furs
- Later taken over by the British & renamed “New York”
Where were these colonies built?
Atlantic Coast, near the water for trade. Bordered on the west by The Appalachian Mountains.
Mercantile Theory
Colonies exist for the economic benefit of the mother country. Useless unless able to help achieve profit.
Mercantilism
Form of economic nationalism, looking to increase the prosperity and power of a nation through restrictive trade practices.
North American colonies were part of the Triangular Trade
Merchants brought raw materials from American colonies to Europe, European goods to Africa, and transported captured Africans to the colonies as slaves.
Salutary Neglect
The British left the Americans alone in their day-to-day lives, as long as
1. raw materials were shipped to England
2. American brought only British-made products
Examples of democracy in American colonies
- Mayflower Compact
- House of Burgesses
- Town Hall meetings
Mayflower Compact
- Agreement made by the first Puritan settlers in Massachusetts
- Stated they would follow the idea of self-government
House of Burgesses
- First elected legislature in Virginia
- First step towards representative government
Representative Government
Government where people could elect their own representatives
French and Indian War
- Ended in 1763
- War where the Americans and British fought against the French and Indians
- Americans and British won
- War had a negative effect (British abandoned salutary neglect & placed lots of new taxes on the Americans to recover money from the war)
What are some of the taxes that the British imposed on the Americans?
- Stamp Act
- Sugar Act
- Tea Act
How did the American colonists reply to these taxes?
Protests
- Stamp Act Congress
- Boycotts
- Boston Tea Party
What is the Second Continental Congress (1775)?
- A meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies
- Took place in Philadelphia
- Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence
- Document that declared the US was independent from Britain
Main points of the DOI
- Every human being has natural rights that can’t be taken away (John Locke)
- Social contract: People owe loyalty only to a gov that acts in their best interests (Jean-Jacque Rousseau)
- Main job is to protect people’s natural rights, and if fail, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” the gov
- The gov gets its power from “the consent of the governed” (power from the people)
Articles of Confederation (1777)
-“First constitution”
- Established the functions of the national gov of the US after declaring independence from Great Britain
Why did the AOC make a weak government?
- No executive branch to enforce laws
- No power to collect taxes
- States held most power
What is the Shays’ Rebellion?
- Violent uprising in Massachusetts (1786-1787)
- Response to economic hardship and raised taxes
- Gov under the AOC failed to defeat this rebellion
Northwest Ordinance
- Accomplishment of AOC
- Law that defined the procedure for adding new states
Constitutional Convention (1787)
- Meeting held to write new doc to build a stronger gov.
- Constitution was signed and effective two years later
- Debated about representation in Congress, power in central gov, enslaved people, etc
Proportionate Representation
Number of representatives would be based on state’s population (favored by large states)
Equal Representation
Each state would have the same number of reps
Great Compromise
- Created bicameral legislature: House of Reps (proportionate rep) and a Senate (equal rep)
Three-Fifths Compromise
Three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state’s total pop for legislative representation and taxation
Federalists
Wanted a strong central gov.
Anti-Federalists
- Opposed ratification of the Constitution
- Demanded a Bill of Rights be added
Bill of Rights
- The 1st ten Amendments
- Written by James Madison
- Protects individuals against gov abuse
Main points of the Constitution
- Limited gov: “gov’t should not hold too much power”
- Separation of powers: three branches (executive, legislative judicial)
- Checks & balances: each branch has the power to limit the power of the others
- Flexibility: Constitution is adaptable to change
- Federalism: power is shared between state govs & fed gov
How is GW’s presidency notable?
- “Foreign policy of the US should be isolationism” (US stays out of Eur affairs)
- Signed a bill to establish a National Bank
Alexander Hamilton
- One of Washington’s closest advisors
- Loose constructionist: believed the Constitution should be more flexible, believed in strong gov)
- Advocated for National Bank
Thomas Jefferson
- One of Washington’s closest advisors
- Strict constructionist: believed the Constitution should be followed strictly, fearing a gov. too strong
First Political Parties
- Created after disagreements between Hamilton and Jefferson
- Fought over the XYZ Affair (incident b/w US and France) & Alien & Sedition Acts (passed by Federalists, restricted immigration)
Unwritten Constitution
Certain things the gov. is going to follow even though they are not written as laws in the Constitution
Judicial Review
- The Supreme Court has the right to declare laws unconstitutional
- Created by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v Madison case
- Increased the power of the Supreme Court and fed gov.
Lobbying
Any group in the US has the right to try & influence members of Congress to vote
