2 Week Flashcards
Prior to the Revolutionary War, British policies harmed the economic interests of which two large sectors of colonial society that previously supported British rule?
southern planters and New England merchants
Among the sectors of society that were important in colonial politics prior to the American Revolution, the more radical forces were represented by …
shopkeepers, laborers, and small farmers
Which of the following was NOT one of the sectors of society that was particularly influential in colonial politics?
suffragettes
According to the rationality principle, all political actions have a purpose. When the British government attempted to raise taxes on American colonists, what services were they trying to force the colonists to pay for?
defense of the colonies and its shipping
In the chain of events leading up to the American Revolution, the radical forces were permitted to expand their political influence because the colonial elites were split by …
British tax and trade policies, especially the Tea Act of 1773
Prior to the Revolutionary War, the British government suffered from high debt and a variety of financial problems. How does its solution to raise revenue through increasing taxes on the colonies illustrate the policy principle?
The British were interested in raising revenue to cover the costs of defending the colonies, while Parliament and the colonial government made it possible to tax colonial commerce.
Why did the British government impose taxes such as the Stamp Act specifically on the American colonies instead of in England only?
The British government had spent large sums of money on defending the colonies and sought to recapture that revenue from the colonists.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the revenues that governments relied on came mostly from …
tariffs and duties
After years of relatively little interference in the local affairs of its American colonies, the English government passed a tax on all printed and legal documents, including newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements, notes and bonds, leases, deeds, and licenses. Mass protests declaring “no taxation without representation” erupted throughout the colonies against the …
Stamp Act
The radicals led by Samuel Adams hoped that the Boston Tea Party would goad the British into strong reprisals. Which principle does this strategy illustrate?
rationality principle
To show their displeasure with the Stamp Act of 1765, colonists in Boston …
organized demonstrations, parades, and mass meetings.
The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Sugar Act of 1764 created incentives for which two groups to engage in collective action?
New England merchants and southern planters
On March 5, 1770, nervous British soldiers opened fire on the mob surrounding them, killing five colonists and wounding eight others. News of this event spread quickly throughout the colonies and was used to fan anti-British sentiment by radicals who called the incident the …
Boston Massacre
The British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre were defended by __________, a pillar of Boston society and future president of the United States.
John Adams
Colonial society was made up of conflicting economic and political interests that made British rule possible. The Stamp Act and the Tea Act altered the interests of certain key sectors of colonial society, creating incentives to …
engage in collective action based on common goals.
Dramatic events like the Boston Massacre provide an issue for individuals to organize around when putting together revolutionary activities. This provides a way to overcome the …
collective action problem
Colonists organized and participated in the Boston Tea Party of 1773 as a direct response to …
the British granting the East India Company a monopoly on the export of tea from Britain.
In 1773, the British government granted a monopoly on the export of tea from Britain to the politically powerful East India Company, which sought to bypass the colonial merchants and sell the tea directly to the colonies. The merchants called on their radical adversaries for support, and the most dramatic result was …
the Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was led by …
Samuel Adams
What was the ultimate goal of the radical participants in the Boston Tea Party?
alienate the British government from its colonial supporter
By dumping the East India Company’s tea into Boston Harbor, Samuel Adams and his followers pressured the British into enacting a number of harsh reprisals that …
radicalized Americans to resist British rule.
The Boston Tea Party set into motion a cycle of provocation and retaliation that, in 1774, resulted in the convening of an assembly of delegates from all parts of the colonies called the …
First Continental Congress
The Declaration of Independence was almost entirely written by …
Thomas Jefferson
The Declaration of Independence was remarkable for its assertion that there are certain unalienable rights including …
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
In November of 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the United States’ first written constitution. It was known as the …
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union
The result of the 1777 Continental Congress was a constitution concerned primarily with …
limiting the powers of the central government.
Under the Articles of Confederation, what power was Congress given?
the power to declare war
An extension of the policy principle is that rational actors design institutions that help them bring about the outcomes they desire. How did the Three-Fifths Compromise bias outcomes, compared to the Northerners’ preference on the issue of slavery and representation?
States with relatively more slaves gained representation in Congress and thus were better able to protect the interests of slave owners
The Articles of Confederation provided a set of rules and procedures that provided incentives for states to compete with each other for foreign commerce. This effect of the Articles best reflects which principle of politics?
the institution principle
During the winter of 1786–1787, John Adams of Massachusetts was sent to negotiate a new treaty with the British to cover disputes left over from the war. The British government responded that it would …
negotiate with each of the 13 states separately.
