AP US Unit 2 Study Guide

Salutary Neglect

- Salutary neglect was an undocumented, long-standing British policy of avoiding strict

enforcement of parliamentary laws, meant to keep the American colonies obedient to
Great Britain.
- Lasted until 1763

Mercantilism

- Export as many goods as possible and import very little/ important lots of wealth and
export little wealth
- Make a favorable balance of trade
- Great Britain used the colony to set of a mercantilism economy the colonies were used as
a market for their manufactured goods and also a place to take natural resources from /
colonies were forced to only trade with Great Britain because of the navigation acts.
- Richard Hakluyt
o An Oxford clergyman and outstanding English propagandists for colonization
o He argued that the colonies would open up more markets for English goods
o He also argued that England could send its poor there instead of having them beg
and steal in England they could be useful in the colonies.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

- Created the Northwest Colony ( the great lakes area)

- Set up by the continental congress
- Originally was going sell the best land to the company then sell it to the common man but
was canceled after public outcry
- Would allow for the creation of three to five territories.
- Specified rules for statehood (60,000)
- Prohibited slavery in the territory

Limitations of the Articles of Confederation

- States have all of the power

- Weak decentralized federal government
- Each colony could not extradite criminals between colonies
- No federal army which allowed for rebellions
- Could not tax the people of the colonies
- States were a part of the republic but acted as their own colony
 - Could not have a successful foreign policy or domestic policy

What was important about the battle of Saratoga?

- Was the first major battle won by the Patriots

- Convinced the French that the Patriots were capable of winning major battles
o Allowed for the convincing of French Aid for the war effort.

Where was the Loyalist support the highest?

- In the south the support was the highest, were the Anglican Church was the strongest.

Shay’s rebellion

- An armed rebellion of farmers in Massachusetts agree over being over taxed

- Led by Daniel Shay
- Advanced on Springfield because of the lack of federal army to stop them
- Shoed flaws in the Articles of Confederation
o Showed the need for a stronger federal government
o Showed need for a federal army to protect from foreign and domestic threats

Why did Americans favor republican government?

- They could govern themselves

- No king in power
- Heredity played no part in the government

Loyalist after the war

- Tried to assimilate with the Patriots

- Some moved to Canada to escape persecution
- Anglicans were the most persecuted

Great awakening

- The Great awakening started in the 1730’s and reached its climax in the 1740’s
- It appealed to woman and men who stood to inherit little land because the main tenet was
that you could break away from the past and start anew
- You could start anew in religion and your life in general
- This movement was led by John and Charles Wesel, and the famous open-aired preacher
named George Whitefield
 - A major impact of the great awakening was the division in existing congregations ( New
Lights/ Old lights )

Olive Branch Petition

- Claimed allegiance to the King and Great Britain after some rebellions
- Congress was scared of a war with a supper power like Great Britain
- Left the colonist with a choice of “unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated
ministers or resistance by force”
- This shows uncertainty because they also pass the “Declaration of the Causes and
Necessity of Taking up Arms”

Tea act of 1773

- Gave a monopoly to the east India Tea Company

- Put colonial businesses out of businesses.
- Led to the Boston Tea Party
- Started an upheaval of revolutionary spirit in New England.

What was the major feature of the Declaration of Independence?

- Right of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness

- All men are created equal ( if you are white and own property and male)
- Formal declaration of our separation from Great Britain.

Committee of Correspondents

- The committees of correspondence were bodies organized by the local governments of

the Thirteen Colonies before the American Revolution for the purposes of coordinating
written communication outside of the colonies.
- The committees of correspondence rallied opposition on common causes and established
plans for collective action
- Samuel Adams was a major member with his representation of the Boston Massacre
o They exaggerated events such s the Boston massacre to gain pro revolutionary
spirit
Bacon’s Rebellion
- Caused by autocratic rule of Berkeley, with Bacon being denied in the Green Springs
Group
o Green Springs Group was a exclusive group of Governor Berkeley
- Attacked Jamestown twice
o First took over city but pardoned the Governor
o Second attack he burned down the city
- Bacons was motivated by his political goal of having more power and also his wanting
for the people near the Appellation Mountains to have better representation and more
power.

Coercive Acts
- Aka the Intolerable acts
- a series of five laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies
in North America.
- The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies that later became the
United States, and were important developments in the growth of the American
Revolution.
- Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December
1773; the British Parliament hoped these punitive measures would, by making an
example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary
authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act.
- The Quartering Act acts
o Were forced to house soldiers
- Quebec acts
o Made Canada one of the colonies
o Made colonists worried about having the Anglican Church becoming too
powerful
- Boston Port Act
 o Closed the port of Boston until the East India Company was paid back for its
losses.
o Punished all of Boston instead of Punishing just the ones involved in the tea party
- Mass. Gov Act
o Altered Mass. Gov to bring it under British and had to appointed by the king or
Governor
- The Administration of Justice Act
o Let them extradite royal officials to be tried in Great Britain
o Basically so they could get away with anything that they wanted to

The declaratory Acts

- Repelled the stamp act

- Parliament had authority of the Colonies at any time they sought needed

South Carolina Regulators

- Farmer that rebelled over High taxes

- Armed resistance of tax collectors
- Over 2000 people involved 18 died and six were hanged for treason
- Against colonial taxes not English taxes

Proclamation of 1763

-  Organized Great Britain's new North American empire and it stabilize relations
with Native Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the
western frontier.
o Acquired this land after the French and Indian war with the signing of the Treaty
of Paris
- Colonists could not settle past Appellation Mountains
- This act infuriated colonists

Virtual and Actual Representation

- The American colonies were represented under virtual representation, they had no real
say in the English parliament
- The American Colonies wanted to have actual representation in the English Parliament

Results of the French and Indian war

 - Britain Received
o Some of the West Indies and most of their colonies in India from France
o Transferred Canada and all other French territory east of the Mississippi River
 Except New Orleans
- Spain received
o New Orleans and the French claims west of the Mississippi River
- France lost almost all of their land in the Americas and all of their land in mainland North
America

Conciliatory Proposition

- An attempt by the Great Brittan to reach a peaceful settlement with the Thirteen Colonies
immediately prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War
- It said instead of being taxed directly by parliaments they would themselves by
parliaments demand
- This however was, to little to late because it didn’t reach the colonies until after the
opening shots were fired.

Effects of stamp act

• The stamp act forced colonist to buy stamps for all pieces of paper and legal documents.

• Unlike the sugar act of before, the stamp act affected everyone. (The sugar act only
affected merchants in New England)

• The stamp act also affected pretty influential people such as lawyers (wills and legal
documents) Newspapers (buy stamps for newspaper) and Politian’s.

• This united the colonies against England’s Prime Minister Greenville.

How did we fight the stamp act?

• The Virginia bourgeois were the first to point out the flaws of stamp act/ main leader was
Patrick Henry.

• Henry came up with the Virginia resolves which stated things such as the colonists could
not be taxed unless represented.

• The stamp act of congress met in October of 1765 in New York. There were 9 delegates
from 9 different colonies.

• The stamp act of congress declared that they were subordinate to Parliament but, they
should not be taxed but by their own colony parliaments because they had representation.
• The Sons of liberty terrorized stamp agents and burned stamps this literally ceased the
selling of stamps.

• The most important way we fought back though was by boycotting English goods and in
the end is the reason why England backed down on the stamp act

Why did the articles of confederation fail?

• The articles failed because it did not have the power to levy taxes, draft troops, or
regulate trade.

• However it did give more power than what the continental congress had because they
could conduct foreign affairs and war. They could also issue money.

• There was no executive branch!!!!! So they couldn’t get hardly anything done.

• Most of all it failed because it had to be ratified by all thirteen states and there is now
way that every state was going to ratify an effective national government that would limit their
own powers. (Confederation was from 1781-1789)

What were the navigation acts?

• They forced the colonies trade with England.

• These acts formed legal basis of England’s mercantile system in America for a century.

• This meant the economy of the colonies for an entire century was solely based on the
trade with England.

The Albany Congress

• This was a congress in Albany New York that was set up to discuss a treaty with the
Iroquois Confederation.

• This is also where Ben Franklin proposed his idea of “one general government” where
each colony would retain its own congress.

• This general government would be in charge of Indian relations and they would have like
governor and a legislative branch.

- “ one government” was not accepted when taken back to the colonies

What were the effects of the French and Indian War?

• The main effect was that it cost England a lot of money.

• The English believed that the colonists should have to help to pay for it because the
English army was over there saving there ass from the French and the Indians.

• Because of this Britain started taxing the colonies using the stamp acts and the sugar acts
and etc.

• It also for a period of time put the fear of the French in the colonies

• The acts that were caused by the French and Indian war were what caused the
revolutionary war.

Why were the battles of Lexington and Concord important?

• They were important because they were our first victories.

• This showed that we could win a battle against the great England. This really got the
revolutionary spirited pumped up.

• It showed that in the beginning that Britain was willing to take massive losses to protect
their investment in America.

• You can really see this through the battle at Bunker Hill because British took heavy
losses in order to win a simple battle.