US History
Terms
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- U.S. Constitution
- the supreme law of the United States. It provides the framework for the organization of the United States Government. The document defines the three main branches of the government: The legislative branch with a bicameral Congress, an executive branch led by the President, and a judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court. Besides providing for the organization of these branches, the Constitution carefully outlines which powers each branch may exercise. It also reserves numerous rights for the individual states, thereby establishing the United States' federal system of government. It is the shortest and oldest written constitution of any major sovereign state.[1]
- Albany Plan of Union
- was proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in 1754. It was an early attempt at forming a union of colonies that would unite English colonists with mainland England to assist in defending the New World during the French and Indian War.
- Virginia Plan
- proposed instead a legislative branch consisting of two chambers (bicameral legislature), each of the states would be represented in proportion to their "Quotas of contribution, or to the number of free inhabitants."[4] States with a large population, like Virginia (which was the most populous state at the time), would thus have more representatives than smaller states. Large states supported this plan, and smaller states, which feared losing substantial power in the national government, generally opposed it
- Constitutional Convention
- meeting of 56 colonists to discuss the formation of the government and the Constitution
- Articles of Confederation
- he Articles were created by the chosen representatives of the states in the Second Continental Congress out of a perceived need to have "a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States. Was the first constitution.
- Quartering Act
- was one of the Coercive Acts that demanded that soldiers live with residents in time of war.
- Thomas Paine
- A patriot and the author of his most popular book Common Sense.
- Sons of Liberty
- was a secret organization of American Patriots which originated in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution.
- Declaration of Independence
- is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were no longer a part of the British Empire.
- Three- Fifths Compromise
- was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives
- Bill of Rights
- first 10 amendments to the constitution
- French and Indian War
- war over land between the French and the Colonists/ English
- Boston Massacre
- refers to an incident involving the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British troops on March 5, 1770, the legal aftermath of which helped spark the rebellion in some of the British colonies in America
- William Pitt
- supporter of the colonies disagreed with parliament to tax the colonies
- Mercantilism
- is the idea that a colony should export more goods than it imports and that a colony should sell at higher prices and buy at lower prices.
- Stamp Act
- is a law enacted by a government that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents.
- Common Sense
- presented the American colonists with an argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided
- Proclamation of 1763
- The Proclamation in essence forbade colonists of the thirteen colonies from settling or buying land west of the Appalachian Mountains.
- Boston Tea Party
- was an act of direct action protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company on ships in Boston Harbor.
- Checks and Balances
- in the government of the United States include various procedural rules that allow one branch to limit another, such as the authority of the president to veto legislation passed by Congress, or the power of Congress to alter the composition and jurisdiction of the federal courts.
- Great Compromise
- was an essential agreement between large and small states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It proposed a bicameral legislature, resulting in the current United States Senate and House of Representatives.
- Navigation Acts
- were a series of laws which restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England (after 1707 Great Britain) and its colonies
- Sugar Act
- of March 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. 13), which imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on molasses from non-British colonies.
- Pontiac's War
- was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British policies in the Great Lakes region after the British victory in the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War (1754-1763). Warriors from numerous tribes joined the uprising in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region
- Shay's Rebellion
- was an armed uprising in Central and Western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebels, led by Daniel Shays and known as Shaysites (Regulators), were mostly poor farmers angered by crushing debt and taxes.
- Anti-federalists
- hese were the members of the democratic- republican party who wanted a different political structure
- Second Continental Congress
- Completed the declaration of independence and the writing of the Articles of Confederation.
- Townshend Acts
- These laws placed a tax on common products imported into the American Colonies, such as lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea, while giving revenues from these taxes to the British governors and other officials that were normally paid by town assemblies
- Tea Act
- It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price.
- George Greenville
- was the first person in the English Parliament to begin to tax the colonist therefore ending salutary neglect.
- Lexington and Concord
- were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.[
- Federalists
- The party was formed by Alexander Hamilton, who, during George Washington's first term, built a network of supporters, largely urban, to support his fiscal policies. These supporters grew into the Federalist Party, which wanted a fiscally sound and strong nationalistic government
- Bunker Hill
- took place on June 17, 1775 on Breed's Hill, as part of the Siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War. Although a loss for the revolutionaries, the British suffered their most casualties in the entire war. This proved the colonists bravery, and showed the British that they would not go down without a fight.
- Coercive Acts
- Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773; the British government hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority
- Salutary Neglect
- was an undocumented, though long standing, British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep the American colonies obedient to Great Britain
- John Locke
- known to be one of the greatest enlightenment philosophers. Had many ideas that appealed to the colonies.
- First Continental Congress
- Accomplishments were that they provided the Continental Association in which they would boycott British goods. The second accomplishment was a call for a second Continental Congress.
- Bacon's Rebellion
- was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; The uprising was a protest against the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley
- New Jersey Plan
- proposed a single-chamber legislature in which each state, regardless of size, would have one vote, as under the Articles of Confederation