Study Guide

Colonial Era

 * factors in the European Age of Exploration (15th and 16th centuries)
 * major voyages of exploration and conquest
 * impact of exploration on American landscape and on Native Americans, Columbian exchange
 * differences between Spanish, French, and English colonies
 * Relationship with Native Americans, Encomienda system
 * economic basis of the English colonies
 * differences between New England, the middle colonies, southern colonies
 * role of agriculture, industry, trade
 * triangular trade
 * colonial society - note differences between New England, the middle colonies, and southern colonies
 * labor force - explain the transition from indentured servitude to slavery
 * ethnic diversity - English, Scots-Irish, African, French, etc.
 * status of women
 * relations with Native Americans - note major wars
 * religious characteristics and influence on society
 * Puritans (Congregational church) vs. Anglican Church vs. Quakers
 * which areas were characterized by conformity? Which areas permitted religious diversity and dissent (consider Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams)
 * First Great Awakening - causes, major characteristics, impact, etc.
 * relations with Great Britain
 * mercantilism, salutary neglect, Navigation Acts
 * colonial political institutions: colonial assemblies and their relationship with their governors
 * French and Indian War - consequences

Revolution

 * causes of the Revolution
 * restrictions on trade, taxes, Proclamation (line), infringement of rights, Boston Massacre
 * colonial resistance and early colonial political organizations
 * nonimportation, Stamp Act Congress, Committees of Correspondence, Continental Congresses, etc.)
 * Declaration of Independence
 * Common Sense by Thomas Paine
 * The Revolutinary War
 * Battles
 * Lexington and Concord
 * Bunker Hill
 * Saratoga
 * Yorktown
 * Consequences of the war (increase in equality, economic problems, etc.)

Critical Period (1781-1787)

 * Articles of Confederation
 * major characteristics
 * accomplishments, including the Land Ordinances of 1785 and 1787
 * Problems/weaknesses
 * Shay's Rebellion
 * U.S. Constitution
 * The constitutional conventions
 * Compromises (Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise, Presidency, tariff)
 * debate over ratification: federalists vs. antifederalists
 * Federalist Papers

Federalist Period (1789-1800)

 * The first Congress - what it accomplished
 * Washington's presidency
 * Jay Treaty
 * Pinckney Treaty
 * Neutrality Proclamation
 * Farewell Address
 * Jefferson and Hamilton: different beliefs, goals, ideas, etc.
 * Strict Construction vs. Loose Construction
 * XYZ Affair
 * undeclared war with France (Quasi War)
 * Alien and Sedition Acts
 * Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (1800-1820)

 * Jefferson
 * Election of 1800
 * Jefferson as president
 * attitude toward Federalist programs
 * Louisiana Purchase and reaction to it
 * Aaron Burr Conspiracy
 * John Marshall and the Supreme Court
 * Marbury v. Madison -> judicial review!
 * McCulloch v. Maryland, Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Fletcher v. Peck, Gibbons v. Ogden, Cohens v. Virginia
 * foreign policy: Embargo Act, impressments, Chesapeake Leopard Affair
 * James Madison
 * War of 1812
 * Major causes: relations with France and Britain, embargo, war hawks, XYZ Affair, etc.
 * Hartford Convention, decline of the Federalists
 * Battle of New Orleans
 * Major consequences (rise in nationalism, etc.)
 * James Monroe
 * Monroe Doctrine
 * Era of Good Feelings
 * American system - economic nationalism
 * Missouri Compromise
 * Panic of 1819

Jacksonian Era

 * Election of 1824
 * corrupt bargain
 * John Quincy Adams' record
 * Jacksonian Era
 * New Democracy, mass politics
 * Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Daniel Webster
 * Jackson's Presidency
 * spoils system, rotation in office
 * strong executive - use of veto as instrument of political power
 * 4 major issues
 * Bank of the U.S., Nicholas Biddle
 * Tariffs and Nullification crisis: Tariff of Abominations, South Carolina Exposition and Protest, etc.
 * Internal improvements (roads, etc.)
 * Indian removal: Trail of Tears
 * Whig Party
 * Martin Van Buren

Economic Development (1820s-1840s)

 * economy - early industrialization
 * The American System - economic nationalism
 * Early railroads and canals
 * shift from cottage indusdtry to factory system
 * role of women - cult of domesticity, Lowell Fatory
 * social mobility, extremes of wealth
 * cotton revolution in the South, commercial agriculture
 * westward settlement
 * immigration patterns - Irish, German, Chinese
 * Nativism: Know Nothing Party, "No Irish Need Apply," etc.

Reform Era and Expansion (1830-1860)

 * rise of American literature and art
 * American authors
 * transcendentalists
 * Second Great Awakening (causes, main leaders, consequences)
 * utopian experiments
 * Mormons
 * major reform movements
 * abolition of slavery
 * temperance (alcohol)
 * women's rights
 * treatment of criminals and the insane
 * rise of public educatin
 * territorial expansion
 * President Polk
 * Manifest Destiny
 * Texas independence and the issue of annexation
 * Oregon boundary
 * California
 * Mexican-American War
 * issue of slavery, the Wilmot Proviso

Sectionalism

 * The South
 * cotton revolution in the South, Cotton Kingdom, trade
 * Southern society
 * justifications for slavery
 * The North (overlaps with "economy - early industrialization")
 * industry and labor
 * immigration patterns and nativism
 * urban slums
 * specific laws/events that led to the Civil War
 * Tariff of Abominations, South Carolina Exposition
 * Mexican Cession
 * abolitionists
 * popular sovereignty
 * Compromise of 1850
 * Fugitive Slave Law
 * Uncle Tom's Cabin
 * Kansas-Nebraska Act
 * Lecompton Crisis - Bleeding Kansas
 * End of the Whig Party; Republican Party established
 * Dred Scott Case
 * Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 * John Brown's raid
 * Election of 1860 - Lincoln
 * Secession

The Civil War (1860-1865)

 * advantages, disadvantages of both sides
 * The Union
 * mobilization for war, including draft
 * railraods (transcontinental)
 * financing the war
 * civil liberties and expansion of presidential power
 * Election of 1864
 * The South
 * Confederacy - issues due to states' rights
 * mobilization for war, including draft
 * finance
 * foreign relations - what role did Britain, France, and Russia play?
 * military strategy and major battles (Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Sherman's March)
 * abolition of slavery
 * Confiscation Acts
 * Emancipation Proclamation
 * Freedmen's Bureau
 * 13th Amendment
 * effects of war on society
 * inflation and public debt
 * devastation of the South
 * freedmen - what happened to them?
 * role of women
 * changing labor patterns

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

 * Presidential Reconstruction: Lincoln and Johnson's plans
 * 10% Plan
 * Freedmen's Bureau
 * Black Codes
 * Congressional Reconstruction
 * why did Congress take charge?
 * Civil Rights, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment
 * "military reconstruction"
 * Southern state governments - problems, achievements, weaknesses
 * impeachment of Johnson
 * Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction (Election of 1876, etc.)
 * A "New South"?
 * relations between whites and blacks
 * Jim Crow Laws
 * Ku Klux Klan
 * The "Redeemers"
 * Southern economy - sharecropping, some industry