Unit 3 Vocab Flashcards
British law that decreased the duty on French molasses, making it more attractive for shippers to obey the law, and at the same time raised penalties for smuggling.
Sugar Act
British law imposing a tax on all paper used in the colonies. Widespread resistance to the Stamp Act prevented it from taking effect and led to its repeal in 1766
Stamp Act
The claim made by British politicians that the interests of the American colonists were adequately represented in Parliament by merchants and absentee landlords
Virtual Representation
A British law passed by Parliament that required colonial governments to provide barracks and food for British troops.
Quartering Act
Colonists — primarily middling merchants and artisans — who banded together to protest the Stamp Act and other imperial reforms of the 1760s
Sons of Liberty
September 1774 gathering of colonial delegates in Philadelphia to discuss the crisis precipitated by the Coercive Acts
Continental Congress
A document containing philosophical principles and a list of grievances that declared separation from Britain
Declaration of Independence
The principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate
Popular Sovereignty
A multistage battle in New York ending with the surrender of British general John Burgoyne
Battle of Saratoga
A battle in which French and American troops and a French fleet trapped the British army under the command of General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia
Battle of Yorktown
(1781)
The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War. In the treaty, Great Britain formally recognized American independence and relinquished its claims to lands south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River
Treaty of Paris
The written document defining the structure of the government from 1781 to 1788, under which the Union was a confederation of equal states, with no executive and limited powers, existing mainly to foster a common defense
Articles of Confederation
A 1786–1787 uprising led by dissident farmers in western Massachusetts, many of them Revolutionary War veterans, protesting the taxation policies of the eastern elites who controlled the state’s government
Shay’s Rebellion
Commander of the Continental Army
George Washington
Supporters of the Constitution of 1787, which created a strong central government
Federalists
Opponents of ratification of the Constitution.
They feared that a powerful and distant central government would be out of touch with the needs of citizens. They also complained that it failed to guarantee individual liberties in a bill of rights.
Antifederalists
The first ten amendments to the Constitution, officially ratified by 1791. The amendments safeguarded fundamental personal rights, including freedom of speech and religion, and mandated legal procedures, such as trial by jury
Bill of Rights
A 1794 uprising by farmers in western Pennsylvania in response to enforcement of an unpopular excise tax on whiskey
Whiskey Rebellion
A 1797 incident in which American negotiators in France were rebuffed for refusing to pay a substantial bribe. The incident led the United States into an undeclared war that curtailed American trade with the French West Indies
XYZ Affair
Three laws passed in 1798 that limited individual rights and threatened the fledgling party system
Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition Acts
A Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in finding that parts of the Judiciary Act of 1789 were in conflict with the Constitution
Marbury v. Madison
The 1803 purchase of French territory west of the Mississippi River that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada
Louisiana Purchase
Shawnee war chief who revived the Western Confederacy in 1809 with his brother
Tecumseh
A Supreme Court case that asserted the dominance of national over state statutes
McCulloch v. Maryland
