Period 1 (1491-1607)

Key Concept 1.1: As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments. 

I. Different native societies adapted to and transformed their environments through innovations in agriculture, resource use, and social structure. 

A. The spread of maize cultivation from present-day Mexico northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond supported economic development, settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversification among societies. 

• Maize refers to corn which was important in the development of these societies and civilizations. 

• Maize spread from Central America through North America.

Impacts: less emphasis on hunting and gathering, an increase in population

• The Natives in the Southwest relied on corn but as it was hot, they developed irrigation systems to enable agriculture. 

• Natives in the Southeast region struggled with deforestation but they grew tobacco and developed complex societies with systems of slavery. 

B. Societies responded to the aridity of the Great Basin and the grasslands of the western Great Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles. 

• The Natives in the Great Plains cycled between hunting and farming for food. However, there was a lack of resources. (hunted bison and sheep)

• They were the most nomadic out of all regions and fought with other tribes for horses as they were great for mobilization. 

C. In the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley, and along the Atlantic seaboard some societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies that favored the development of permanent villages. 

• Natives in the Northeast had temperate climates which helped with growing the 3 Sacred Sister crops: squash, corn, and beans. The Iroquois League was argued by historians to be the first democracy.

Iroquois: adapted to their environment, burned forests for fertile soil and easy hunts

They were a matriarchal society- power was based on female authority, women were instrumental in councils and decision-making. 

D. Societies in the Northwest and present-day California supported themselves by hunting and gathering, and in some areas developed settled communities supported by the vast resources of the ocean. 

• The Northwest used acorns as currency and dominated salmon trades as they were rich in resources. However, resources dictated wealth. 

• Society was based on hunting and gathering, and they were ruled by wealthy families.

Chinooks: advocated warrior traditions, used advanced fighting techniques, developed canoes- a lot of travel

Native American Culture

• Complex and varied societies (hunting, gathering, fishing)

• Organized into warring tribes

• Deep spiritual connection with the environment

  • Did not believe in one’s property of land, in contrast to colonizers

• Well defined gender boundaries, some tribes gave women political and social power (again, in contrast to European beliefs)

Key Concept 1.2: Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 

I. European expansion into the Western Hemisphere generated intense social, religious, political, and economic competition and changes within European societies. 

A. European nations’ efforts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from a search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a desire to spread Christianity. 

- Reasons for European exploration:

- for new resources

- economic and military competition

- spread of christianity (Spain)

- Gold, Glory, Gospel

- The Spanish often tried to convert Natives to Christianity.

The Spanish Mission Statements to help convert

B. The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas, stimulating European population growth, and new sources of mineral wealth, which facilitated the European shift from feudalism to capitalism. 

• The exchange of plants, animals, culture, humans, diseases, etc between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. 

• Americas to Europe and Africa: potatoes, maize, tomatoes

• Europe to the Americas: wheat, rice, horses, chickens, oxen

• Impact: massive population growth, increase in wealth, decrease in feudalism, rise of capitalism

• The Spanish and Portuguese used Africans from West Africa as slaves in the Americas.

• In the Americas: spread of diseases, social classes (Mestizos), horses transformed Native life, and the Encomienda system. 

C. Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for conducting international trade, such as joint-stock companies, helped drive changes to economies in Europe and the Americas. 

• Sextant, could be used to find exact position on Earth for more precise sailing

• Economic improvements

II. The Columbian Exchange and development of the Spanish Empire in the Western Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, economic, and social changes. 

A. Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and furthered by widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations and by the introduction of crops and animals not found in the Americas. 

• Deadly diseases (smallpox and malaria) killed Natives as they were not immune to European diseases.

• Horses transformed Native life as well as various crops.  

B. In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native American labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious metals and other resources. 

• The Encomienda System: an abusive system of feudalism and slavery of the Natives that the Spanish used to support economies of Spanish colonies and Christians used to convert to "develop" them

  • Native American labor was marshaled (arranged or assembled) on plantations for agriculture and precious metals. 

C. European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced slavery to forcibly extract enslaved laborers for the Americas. The Spanish imported enslaved Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining. 

• Slaves were used by the Spanish on plantations and mines.

D. The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated, and carefully defined the status of, the diverse population of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans in their empire. 

• Spanish Caste System incorporated Europeans, Africans, and Natives

  • How much European descent you had in your ancestry. 

III. In their interactions, Europeans and Native Americans asserted divergent worldviews regarding issues such as religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power. 

A. Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans often defined the early years of interaction and trade as each group sought to make sense of the other. Over time, Europeans and Native Americans adopted some useful aspects of each other’s culture. 

• Many Native societies were matrilineal, Natives did not own individual land, Natives believed in animism, 

• Natives adapted technology, Europeans adapted agricultural tactics. 

B. As European encroachments on Native Americans’ lands and demands on their labor increased, native peoples sought to defend and maintain their political sovereignty, economic prosperity, religious beliefs, and concepts of gender relations through diplomatic negotiations and military resistance. 

• Natives sought to preserve political, economic, and religious autonomy (diplomatically or militarily)

C. Extended contact with Native Americans and Africans fostered a debate among European religious and political leaders about how non-Europeans should be treated, as well as evolving religious, cultural, and racial justifications for the subjugation of Africans and Native Americans.

• Europeans saw Natives and Africans as savages

• Juan de Sepulveda advocated harsh treatment of Natives, claimed slavery for Natives was justified under Christianity

• Bartolomé de Las Casas argued that Natives deserved the same treatment as all other men, played an important role in ending the encomienda system, and contributed to the Black Legend. 

• Racism, spread of Christianity, Natives and Africans were seen as barbaric, these were arguments used to subjugate Africans and Natives

D. The goals and interests of European leaders and colonists at times diverged, leading to a growing mistrust on both sides of the Atlantic. Colonists, especially in British North America, expressed dissatisfaction over issues including territorial settlements, frontier defense, self-rule, and trade. 

E. British conflicts with American Indians over land, resources, and political boundaries led to military confrontations, such as Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) in New England. 

F. American Indian resistance to Spanish colonizing efforts in North America, particularly after the Pueblo Revolt, led to Spanish accommodation of some aspects of American Indian culture in the Southwest.

• Pueblo's Revolt: 

Period 2 (1607-1754)

Key Concept 2.1: Europeans developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns, influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American Indians for resources. 

I. Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different economic and imperial goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political development of their colonies as well as their relationships with native populations. 

A. Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop institutions based on subjugating native populations, converting them to Christianity, and incorporating them, along with enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish colonial society. 

• Spanish motives of colonization:

  • Conversion to Christianity

  • To extract wealth from the new land

• They used the encomienda system of slavery/feudalism and forced them as trading partners. 

• The Spanish hierarchy was racially dependent based on how much Spanish descent you had.

B. French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build economic and diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other products for export to Europe. 

• French motives of colonization:

  • To enforce trade alliances

  • For furs and other products for export to Europe

  • Settled in present-day Canada (northeast of U.S.)

• The French and the Dutch came in smaller numbers of men than the Spanish, interracially married with Natives, also attempted to convert Natives to Christianity, but held good relations with the for fur trade. 

• Dutch motives of colonization:

  • To find a path to Asia through North America

  • Maximize profit through the fur trade

  • They built extensive trade routes and encouraged settlement (mainly in present-day New York)

C. English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of male and female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all of whom sought social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved living conditions. These colonists focused on agriculture and settled on land taken from Native Americans, from whom they lived separately. 

• English motives of colonization:

  • for religious freedom of groups (Pilgrims and Puritans)

  • Sought economic prosperity and better living conditions as England was crowded

• Large numbers of migrants to the New Land, BOTH men and women unlike other European countries. 

  • Also welcomed immigrants from other countries as well. 

  • They wished to live separately from Native Americans unlike the French and Dutch.

• Conflicts with Natives: Powhatans, Bacon’s Rebellion- rebellion of former indentured servants who were upset about the lack of protection from Natives in frontier in Jamestown, Pequot War, King Philip’s War- New England

II. In the 17th century, early British colonies developed along the Atlantic coast, with regional differences that reflected various environmental, economic, cultural, and demographic factors. 

A. The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco—a labor-intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans. 

• Chesapeake (Maryland and Virginia and North Carolina): The environment was hot and marshy, so many used this climate for tobacco plantations.

  • Expansion needed for the tobacco industry which created more conflict with the natives. 

  • The people working in tobacco plantations were mostly indentured servants but because of Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), there was shortage of indentured servants so plantation owners switched to African slavery.

• Jamestown (Virginia) was founded by Sir Walter Raliegh. 

  • Their primary goal was for wealth as they looked for gold the Spanish found before them.

  • There was starvation, disease and conflict with the Natives as they were unprepared.

  • What saves Jamestown? TOBACCO (John Rolfe)

  • As tobacco requires large plots of land and labor, the colonists pushed towards Native territory and developed a system of indentured servants.

  • Indentured servants were men on a contract of working for terms until the end where they became a citizen. This made the gap between the rich and the poor even greater. 

    • Headright system: any person who paid for the transportation of indentured servants would receive acres of land for each immigrant

• Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

  • Nathaniel Bacon led frontiersmen (former indentured servants) living in the backcountry who were subjected to raids by Native Americans.

    • They felt unrepresented and rebelled to stand up for themselves. (they felt as though the government favored the elite and ignored the impoverished)

    • Significance: class struggle and fear of organized rebellion by lower class white populations

B. The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce. 

• Pilgrims wanted to separate from the church so they moved to New England colonies.

• Pilgrims are separatist Puritans. 

  • They wanted to separate from the church and moved to New England colonies to practice their own religion.

  • The Mayflower Compact: ideas of self-government and majority rule

  • This was an agreement to form a crude government and submit to a majority rule, an allegiance to the crown democracy. 

• Puritans were religious refugees of protestant reform in England.

• Colonies were based on agriculture: tobacco.

• New England settlement:

  • more middle class, large families, patriarchal

  • The Hierarchy of puritan culture manifested itself in a well-mannered family. 

• Puritans who wanted to purify the Anglican Church set the pace of the development of New England (John Winthrop). The Puritans were religious refugees of the protestant reformation in England. 

• They established small towns with small farms and schools with 50 families.

• Extended families were more common in New England than the South. 

-     There was some agriculture, fishing, commerce, and Boston became a major port city for trade.

• Colder climate and rocky terrain did not allow for large plantations.

- Anne Hutchinson: A Puritan who often discussed religious sermons with members of her community. In doing so, she presented a challenge to the patriarchal authority within the church as she was a woman interpreting the scriptures. 

• City on a Hill: punishments in Massachusetts Bay colonies were meant to publicly shame and make an example out of the punished. 

• The governor, John Winthrop, envisioned the Puritans to spread religious righteousness around the world, acting as a “beacon of hope” to the morally corrupt New England colony.

C. The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance. 

• The Middle Colonies were supported by cereal crops (oats, barely, etc) and their societies were diverse culturally, ethnically, and religiously. 

• They were basically middle on the scale of everything:

  • the size of their land, their climate, variety of classes, etc

• Quakers in Pennsylvania (William Penn) were religiously tolerant.

• Women in Pennsylvania had more rights as Quakers allowed women equal positions in church and were allowed to speak

• They were pacifists (believes that violence is unjustifiable), anti-slavery, and believed that everyone had a light of God with them. 

• Had more immigrants from Germany and other European countries

• Government: representative assembly elected landowners, no taxes supported the church, freedom of worship

• Economy was based on exportation of cereal crops such as wheat (a lot of agriculture)

D. The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy. 

• In South Carolina and Georgia, rice was a major staple crop

  • Long days and long growing seasons

  • Many white laborers refused to work in rice fields so slave labor increased

• West Indies sugar cultivations was a major part of the economy

  • Slave labor was heavily used, even slaves were the majority of the population

  • Led to the development of strict slave codes which gave power to slave owners

E. Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies. 

• Causes of emergence of democratic, self-government in the British colonies

  • Distance from mother country (Britain)

  • Salutary neglect (hands off to the colonies as long as they were providing Britain with money and were following British orders

• New English colonial government included town meetings and elected legislatures

  • Voters were limited to white, land-owning, church members could vote 

• Southern colonial government:

  • Planters dominated assemblies

  • 1st representative government, many members were elite plantation owners

III. Competition over resources between European rivals and American Indians encouraged industry and trade and led to conflict in the Americas. 

A. An Atlantic economy developed in which goods, as well as enslaved Africans and American Indians, were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas through extensive trade networks. European colonial economies focused on acquiring, producing, and exporting commodities that were valued in Europe and gaining new sources of labor. 

• Atlantic economy was the exchange of goods, African Americans, and Native Americans between Europe, Africa, and the Americas

• Europeans colonies focused on producing goods to Europe (Mercantilism)

  • Goods that were valued in Europe were exported from the colonies

  • New sources of labor: Natives to indentured servants to African slaves

B. Continuing trade with Europeans increased the flow of goods in and out of American Indian communities, stimulating cultural and economic changes and spreading epidemic diseases that caused racial demographic shifts. 

• Impacts of trade of Natives:

  • Cultural change: Natives lost land, Europeans sought to assimilate them

  • Economic change: land lost and altered by Europeans

  • Demographic changes: European diseases decreased Native populations

C. Interactions between European rivals and American Indian populations fostered both accommodation and conflict. French, Dutch, British, and Spanish colonies allied with and armed American Indian groups, who frequently sought alliances with Europeans against other American Indian groups. 

• Interactions between Natives and Europeans fostered accommodations and conflict

  • Europeans allied with Native groups against opposing Natives (Pequot War, Metacom’s War)

• While the British were able to offer more goods, the French were more tolerant of Natives and intermarried with the Natives. 

• During the French and Indian War (7 Years War), almost all Natives were allied with the French except for the Iroquois who were allied with the British

D. The goals and interests of European leaders and colonists at times diverged, leading to a growing mistrust on both sides of the Atlantic. Colonists, especially in British North America, expressed dissatisfaction over issues including territorial settlements, frontier defense, self-rule, and trade. 

• The British colonists wanted to expand after the French and Indian War as most British colonists fought in the homefront and they believed they deserved the victory but Britain forbade it. (they wanted to contain them- Proclamation Line of 1763)

• Frontier defense became a major issue (Bacon’s Rebellion) colonists wanted more protection on the frontier against Natives

• Colonists also smuggled goods to avoid British taxes

E. British conflicts with American Indians over land, resources, and political boundaries led to military confrontations, such as Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) in New England. 

• British and Native American conflicts were caused by competition over land, resources, and boundaries which led to military conflicts (Metacom’s War also called King Philip’s War)

  • Metacom’s War: There was a conflict between Natives and British colonists in New England. The Natives were defeated and they were not much of a threat to the New England colonists. 

F. American Indian resistance to Spanish colonizing efforts in North America, particularly after the Pueblo Revolt, led to Spanish accommodation of some aspects of American Indian culture in the Southwest.

• Pueblo Revolt: Pueblo Indians successfully overthrew the Spanish for 12 years and after the Spanish regained control, they became more accommodating to Native Americans culture (particularly religion).

Key Concept 2.2: The British colonies participated in political, social, cultural, and economic exchanges with Great Britain that encouraged both stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to Britain’s control. 

I. Transatlantic commercial, religious, philosophical, and political exchanges led residents of the British colonies to evolve in their political and cultural attitudes as they became increasingly tied to Britain and one another. 

A. The presence of different European religious and ethnic groups contributed to a significant degree of pluralism and intellectual exchange, which were later enhanced by the first Great Awakening and the spread of European Enlightenment ideas. 

- There are diverse religious and ethnic groups (catholics, quakers, puritans) which led to pluralism (multiple groups co-existing), intellectual exchange from different European groups

- Social and cultural: colonists dressed in similar British clothing that were imported goods, read materials from Europe in order to align their culture with the British.

- Economical: colonists feel free as England didn’t do anything about the colonists smuggling goods and disobeying laws (salutary neglect)

- Politically: colonists developed autonomous political communities with laws modeled after England’s laws

- The First Great Awakening: Led to increase in conversion and new branches of Christianity, people being brought back to religion. (tried to get people back from the Enlightenment views)

- “Cod replacing God” rejection of Old Puritan belief of exclusiveness and strict hierarchy

- protesting and rallying for democratic optimism for people to join the church 

- Traveling open masses were held outside by priests such as George Whitefield preaching emotionally with thousands of people. 

- Impacts: decrease in influence of the Old Light (Puritan strict religious views), increase in more emotional connections to religion

- The Enlightenment: A philosophical and intellectual movement in Europe during the 1700s. (questioning of government) John Locke and Montesquieu had a great influence on colonial leaders, especially regarding ideas about government. 

- Enlightenment thinkers valued observation over blind faith and emphasized on progress, rational thought, and science which contradicted some religious 

teachings. 

- John Locke: natural rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (natural rights- unalienable rights given at birth)

- Montesquieu- separation of powers in the government

- Valued education (not religious education): higher literate percentages in England

B. The British colonies experienced a gradual Anglicization over time, developing autonomous political communities based on English models with influence from intercolonial commercial ties, the emergence of a transatlantic print culture, and the spread of Protestant evangelicalism.

• The colonies were used to Salutary Neglect 

- Colonial governments were based on English models

- Culture, ideas, and goods were being spread from Britain via transatlantic print culture - Spread of Protestant Evangelicalism: George Whitefield and others traveled across colonies to spread message of religion- the First Great Awakening

C. The British government increasingly attempted to incorporate its North American colonies into a coherent, hierarchical, and imperial structure in order to pursue mercantilist economic aims, but conflicts with colonists and American Indians led to erratic enforcement of imperial policies. 

• Mercantilism was a form of economic nationalism that sought to increase Britain’s wealth through trade with the colonies. 

• The Triangular Trade (Europe, Americas, and Africa)

- The British sought to increase control of its colonies through its pursuit of mercantilism by:

- The Navigation Acts (1651-1663) limited the colonies’ trade relations to only England. England wanted all the goods first so that they could be taxed. 

- This system only benefited England as the colonies did not get money in return.

- Especially after the Navigation Acts, colonial merchants ignored the policies and smuggled goods while the British rarely punished these violations (aka salutary neglect). 

- colonies avoided the acts by smuggling 

D. Colonists’ resistance to imperial control drew on local experiences of self-government, evolving ideas of liberty, the political thought of the Enlightenment, greater religious independence and diversity, and an ideology critical of perceived corruption in the imperial system. 

• Political: The political system was inherited by the colonists from England but they created their own local governments. As the colonies made their own taxes, they didn’t like it when the British interfered with their government.

  • Colonial self government- colonists (land-owning men) were able to vote for colonial representatives but had no say in Parliament

  • Ideas of liberty- colonists saw themselves as British citizens and wanted the same rights but as they didn’t get the rights they wanted, they perceived corruption in the imperial system

• Social: America was the destination for religious dissenters. The established church of England was weak in the colonies. Both England and the colonies experienced the Great Awakening and shared ideas of the Enlightenment.

  • Religious independence and diversity- 1st Great Awakening challenged traditional authority which led to challenging other authorities in other fields such as government

  • Enlightenment- challenged traditional ideas of government and encouraged limiting the power of the government

• Economic: Mercantilism was used by England to use the colonies as sources for raw goods. However, England prevented the colonies from establishing their own developed industries. 

  • Both the colonies and England were dependent on slave labor to produce cash crops. 

  • Navigation Acts were never really enforced by the British government as colonists smuggled goods. 

II. Like other European empires in the Americas that participated in the Atlantic slave trade, the English colonies developed a system of slavery that reflected the specific economic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of those colonies. 

A. All the British colonies participated to varying degrees in the Atlantic slave trade due to the abundance of land and a growing European demand for colonial goods, as well as a shortage of indentured servants. Small New England farms used relatively few enslaved laborers, all port cities held significant minorities of enslaved people, and the emerging plantation systems of the Chesapeake and the southern Atlantic coast had large numbers of enslaved workers, while the great majority of enslaved Africans were sent to the West Indies.

- There are large amounts of land and high demand in Europe for colonial good - particularly tobacco

- There is a shortage of indentured servants, especially post Bacon’s Rebellion

- In New England, some small farms and some slaves

- Port cities in the north and south had slaves (any areas involved with trade)

- Plantations in the Chesapeake and the South

- Most African slaves were sent to the Caribbean

B. As chattel slavery became the dominant labor system in many southern colonies, new laws created a strict racial system that prohibited interracial relationships and defined the descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity. 

• Emergence of a strict, racial system

• Prohibition of interracial relationships (unlike Spanish colonies)

• Children of mothers were slaves

C. Africans developed both overt and covert means to resist the dehumanizing nature of slavery and maintain their family and gender systems, culture, and religion.

• Rebellion (stono rebellion)

• Resisted covertly, working slowly, broke things on purpose

• Family- surrogate families for slaves that were sold

• Culture- emergence of new music

• Religion- aspects of African religion and Christianity

Period 3 (1754-1800)

Key Concept 3.1: British attempts to assert tighter control over its North American colonies and the colonial resolve to pursue self-government led to a colonial independence movement and the Revolutionary War. 

I. The competition among the British, French, and American Indians for economic and political advantage in North America culminated in the Seven Years’ War (the French and Indian War), in which Britain defeated France and allied American Indians. 

A. Colonial rivalry intensified between Britain and France in the mid-18th century, as the growing population of the British colonies expanded into the interior of North America, threatening French–Indian trade networks and American Indian autonomy. 

- The French and Indian War was unique as the fighting began in North America but spread to the rest of the world. (also, the British provoked trade between the French and Indians because England stood as a common enemy)

- The British wanted to expand due to overpopulation.

- The French wanted to stop the Britain empire expansion and protect their successful fur trade. 

- The Ohio River Valley: The French valued the Ohio River Valley as they had their military and trade along the river.

- When the British used the river for trade with Natives, the French took the action as a threat and a potential weakness of their military.

- In 1755, many British people were killed, wounded, or captured by the French (the British lost control over the river) which started the war. 

- Albany Plan of Union- Join or Die:

- It was created in 1754 to appeal for colonial unity by Ben Franklin as a common defense and protection from potential threats during the French and Indian War. It proposed the creation of a general government for protection and although it was rejected, it stood as an introduction to the unification of colonies. 

-  When Franklin warned General Braddock of England of the strong Indians during the war, Braddock shook it off and proclaimed how they were no match for the British army.

B. Britain achieved a major expansion of its territorial holdings by defeating the French, but at tremendous expense, setting the stage for imperial efforts to raise revenue and consolidate control over the colonies. 

- The British get massive amounts of land as the French are removed from North America. 

- To obtain more money that was lost from the war, the British sought to gain more control over the colonies. 

- Salutary neglect ends: Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Quartering Act (1765), Townshend Act (1767).

- Quartering Act (1765): required the colonists  to provide food and living quarters for British soldiers stationed in the colonies. 

- Stamp Act (1765): a tax on every legal document. In response to this, the colonists boycotted British goods. They also organized the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. 

- Sons and Daughters of Liberty: a grassroots organization that used terror as a tactic to get what they wanted. The mob boycotted and protested the taxes with a large group of supporters. 

- The Stamp Act Congress: They repealed as a response and challenged the monarchy of Britain and parliament rejection of monarchy representation. They expressed their colonial sentiment in a Declaration of Rights and Grievances of the Colonies. Through the declaration, they acknowledged Parliament’s right to regulate colonial trade but questioned their right to enforce taxes when the colonists had no representation in Parliament. 

- Townshend Act (1767): collection of duties from lead, class, tea, which meant an even tighter control over the colonies by the British.

- At first, colonists accepted this act as the taxes were indirect and mostly paid by merchants; however, leaders soon protested taxation without representation was a violation of colonist rights. 

C. After the British victory, imperial officials’ attempts to prevent colonists from moving westward generated colonial opposition, while native groups sought to both continue trading with Europeans and resist the encroachments of colonists on tribal lands. 

- Pontiac’s Rebellion: This war was an armed conflict between the British and the Native Americans after the French and Indian War.  

- The American Indians were angered by the growing refusal to offer gifts as the French had done. In response to the violence, the British sent troops to put down the uprising.

- Pontiac’s Rebellion is an illustration of Pan-Indian resistance to colonization as all the tribes joined together to fight against the British. 

- The Proclamation of 1763: This was a policy that ordered colonists to stop migrating west of the Appalachian Mountains. 

- The British hoped that limiting settlements would prevent future hostility between colonists and American Indians. But the colonists reacted with anger as they felt their efforts in the war validated them to also benefit from the victory and access to new land. 

- The colonists did not follow the policy. 

II. The desire of many colonists to assert ideals of self-government in the face of renewed British imperial efforts led to a colonial independence movement and war with Britain. 

A. The imperial struggles of the mid-18th century, as well as new British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation or consent and to assert imperial authority in the colonies, began to unite the colonists against perceived and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights. 

• Colonists were accepting of taxes as long as they could vote and be a part of the English government. 

B. Colonial leaders based their calls for resistance to Britain on arguments about the rights of British subjects, the rights of the individual, local traditions of self rule, and the ideas of the Enlightenment. 

• Rights of British citizens: rejection of virtual representation (the idea that Parliament acted in best interest of all British subjects.  

• Enlightenment ideas: consent of the governed 

C. The effort for American independence was energized by colonial leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, as well as by popular movements that included the political activism of laborers, artisans, and women. 

• Colonial Leaders: 

  • Paul Revere and John Hancock- protested taxation

  • Ben Franklin- argued America contributed significantly to the French and Indian War through colonial taxes

• Boston Massacre (1770): As the presence of British soldiers grew in response to the disobedience of the acts, tensions between the soldiers and colonists grew. A false alarm called for a shoot out of the unarmed colonists who were previously throwing rocks at the soldiers.

  • Significance: News spread and the violence of the Boston Massacre was inflated which led to even more tensions between the colonies and England. 

D. In the face of economic shortages and the British military occupation of some regions, men and women mobilized in large numbers to provide financial and material support to the Patriot movement. 

• Large numbers of men and women contributed to the war effort through financial and material support.

• Boston Tea Party (1773): In response to the tea tax, colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the trade ships and threw chests of tea overboard.

  • Coercive/Intolerable Acts (1774) were enforced by Parliament as a punishment for the Boston Tea Party and it stood as an example to the other colonies. The Boston Port Act closed the harbor until the city paid for the lost tea and these acts were called the Intolerable Acts by colonists. 

• The First Continental Congress formed and adopted the Declaration of American Rights which conceded Parliament’s right to regulate commerce and proclaimed the rights of Amerians as English citizens. 

  • Importance: Although this was a unity of the colonies, there were no mentions about complete independence from England. 

E. Despite considerable loyalist opposition, as well as Great Britain’s apparently overwhelming military and financial advantages, the Patriot cause succeeded because of the actions of colonial militias and the Continental Army, George Washington’s military leadership, the colonists’ ideological commitment and resilience, and assistance sent by European allies. 

• Stances on the Revolutionary War:

  • African Americans: Their support depended on how much freedom they were going to get by siding with England or the colonies.

  • Native Americans: May sided with the British to prevent further expansion to the west by the colonies. However, some sided with Americans because of relations. 

  • Women: Some supported husbands and provided resources for the war while some were influenced by their own beliefs (church of England).

  • White Landowning Men: Men who were already collecting taxes were against the war while those who were poorer were opposed as it risked their properties. 

    • Ownership of property was a very important part of colonists’ identities so the Continental Army offered money and land for men to join the army. 

• Revolution vs War for Independence:

  • Revolution: America forming into what it is today with developments and changes in mindset

  • War for Independence: the actual war

• Although the British had a greater military advantage, the Americans had a stronger cause, will, and knowledge of their terrain. 

• Battle of Lexington and Concord (1775): Viewing the colonies in open rebellion as they began organizing their militia, the British seized colonial weapons stock held at Concord. Known as “the shot heard around the world,” this battle destroyed any hope for a peaceful conclusion. 

• Bunker Hill (1775): Because of this battle, the British became more cautious with encounters with the Continental Army and the Continental Congress recommended that all able-bodied men enlist in the militia.

• The Second Continental Congress (1775): They appealed to King George III through the Olive Branch Petition, which proclaimed that the colonies were still loyal but demanded rights. King George III rejected the Olive Branch Petition and declared the colonies in a state of rebellion. 

• The first 3 years (1775-1777) of the war were harsh for Washington’s army as they battled hunger and cold in the winter. 

• The largest contributing factor of the American’s success was their alliance with the French in the Battle of Saratoga. 

• The English surrendered at Yorktown which ended the war and secured American independence with the Treaty of Paris. 

• The Treaty of Paris (1783): 

  • Britain recognized the independence of the colonies

  • The Mississippi River western border

  • Americans have fishing rights of the coast of Canada

  • Loyalists (colonists who were loyal to England during the war) get their confiscated land back

  • Americans will pay debts owed to British merchants

Key Concept 3.2: The American Revolution’s democratic and republican ideals inspired new experiments with different forms of government. 

I. The ideals that inspired the revolutionary cause reflected new beliefs about politics, religion, and society that had been developing over the course of the 18th century. 

A. Enlightenment ideas and philosophy inspired many American political thinkers to emphasize individual talent over hereditary privilege, while religion strengthened Americans’ view of themselves as a people blessed with liberty. 

• Loyalists: Many left America during the revolution and fought alongside Great Britain and later returned after the war and reintegrated into American society. They were often rich white men whose lands were confiscated by revolutionary governments and immediately thrown to market. Some got their property back through the Treaty of Paris (1783). 

  • Why were loyalists against the revolution?

    • Depended on Britain for jobs

    • Worried that conflict would disrupt their lives

• Education: There was an emphasis on the importance of education as colonists believed tyranny was founded by ignorance. 

B. The colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican forms of government based on the natural rights of the people found expression in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence. The ideas in these documents resonated throughout American history, shaping Americans’ understanding of the ideals on which the nation was based.

• Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776):Paine directly attacked the allegiance to the monarchy as some colonists still were loyal or considering independence as only an option. He claimed that King George III was directly responsible for the uprising and as Common Sense reached the masses, it gathered more support for full colonial independence. 

• Declaration of Independence (1776): 

C. During and after the American Revolution, an increased awareness of inequalities in society motivated some individuals and groups to call for the abolition of slavery and greater political democracy in the new state and national governments. 

• Slavery: No institution was more affected by the liberalizing spirit of the Revolution than in slavery. The basis of slavery was questioned as the institution went against the ideals Americans fought for in the revolution against Great Britain. 

• Views on equality: Before the war, power was still closely relative to the ownership of land. People wanted republican equality without any social superiority. 

D. In response to women’s participation in the American Revolution, Enlightenment ideas, and women’s appeals for expanded roles, an ideal of “republican motherhood” gained popularity. It called on women to teach republican values within the family and granted women a new importance in American political culture. 

• Republican Motherhood: This role called for educating women so that in the home, they could teach their children the values of the new republic and their roles as citizens. This gave women a more active role in shaping the new nation’s political life. 

  • They were expected to keep the household pure and away from politics. 

E. The American Revolution and the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence reverberated in France, Haiti, and Latin America, inspiring future independence movements. 

II. After declaring independence, American political leaders created new constitutions and declarations of rights that articulated the role of the state and federal governments while protecting individual liberties and limiting both centralized power and excessive popular influence. 

A. Many new state constitutions placed power in the hands of the legislative branch and maintained property qualifications for voting and citizenship. 

B. The Articles of Confederation unified the newly independent states, creating a central government with limited power. After the Revolution, difficulties over international trade, finances, interstate commerce, foreign relations, and internal unrest led to calls for a stronger central government. 

• The Articles of Confederation (1781) was created, adopted by the Congress, and approved by the states. 

•  The Articles established a weak central government with just one body (Congress) that was very difficult to amend.

• It gave Congress the power to wage war, make treaties, and borrow money. However, Congress did not have the power to regulate commerce or collect taxes as colonists tried to avoid a strong central government. 

• The accomplishments of the Articles of Confederation:

  • Land Ordinance of 1785: Congress established a policy for surveying and selling the western lands. 

  • Northwest Ordinance of 1787: Congress passed a law that set the rules for creating new states in the large territory lying between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River.  The ordinance granted limited self-government, prohibited slavery in the region, and promoted public education. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was the greatest strength of the Articles of the Confederation whilst also illustrating the importance of education. 

• Shays’ Rebellion (1786): Daniel Shays, a Massachusetts farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, led other farmers in an uprising against high state taxes and imprisonment for debt. 

  • Significance: Highlighted the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and urged shocked rich landowners to make changes immediately. 

C. Delegates from the states participated in the Constitutional Convention and through negotiation, collaboration, and compromise proposed a constitution that created a limited but dynamic central government embodying federalism and providing for a separation of powers between its three branches. 

• At the Constitutional Convention:

  • Separation of powers: dividing power among different branches of government

    • Legislative: Congrepresident, carries out laws and federal programs

    • Judicial: Supreme Court, interprets ss makes laws, passes taxes

    • Executive: led by the the law and Constitution

  • Checks and balances: the power of each branch would be limited by the powers of others

    • Virginia Plan: favored larger states

    • New Jersey Plan: favored smaller states

  • The Great Compromise provided a bicameral Congress with the Senate where states would have equal representation (New Jersey Plan) and the House of Representatives where each state would be represented according to the size of its population (Virginia Plan).

  • Federalism: The Constitution divided power between the federal government and state governments. 

D. The Constitutional Convention compromised over the representation of slave states in Congress and the role of the federal government in regulating both slavery and the slave trade, allowing the prohibition of the international slave trade after 1808. 

• Southerners argued that slaves should be counted in the state populations while northerners opposed, arguing that slaves did not have the rights of citizens. 

  • The Three-Fifths Compromise counted each enslaved individual as three-fifths of a person for determining a state’s level of taxation and representation.

• The delegates decided to guarantee that enslaved people could be imported for at least 20 years longer (until 1808). 

• The northern states wanted the central government to regulate interstate commerce and foreign trade while the south was afraid that export taxes would be placed on its agricultural products. 

  • The Commercial Compromise allowed Congress to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, including placing tariffs on foreign imports. 

E. In the debate over ratifying the Constitution, Anti-Federalists opposing ratification battled with Federalists, whose principles were articulated in the Federalist Papers (primarily written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison). Federalists ensured the ratification of the Constitution by promising the addition of a Bill of Rights that enumerated individual rights and explicitly restricted the powers of the federal government. 

• Anti-Federalists objected to the Constitution as it lacked a list of specific rights that the federal government could not violate. They argued that Americans had fought the Revolutionary War to escape a tyrannical government and a strong central government would only turn tyrannical. 

• The Bill of Rights was added. 

III. New forms of national culture and political institutions developed in the United States alongside continued regional variations and differences over economic, political, social, and foreign policy issues. 

A. During the presidential administrations of George Washington and John Adams, political leaders created institutions and precedents that put the principles of the Constitution into practice. 

• President George Washington (1789-1797) was the first and only president to be unanimously (full agreement) elected by the electoral college. 

  • Vice President John Adams

  • He set many precedents including a 2 term presidency, creation of a cabinet, and the title of “Mr. President” which breaks away from monarchy. 

  • Washington attempted to keep the young nation out of European conflicts as their independence was on the line. 

• Whiskey Rebellion (1794): Pennsylvania Farmers viewed taxes as an imposition on their region and burden on an economic necessity. The farmers attacked and feathered tax collectors. Washington led an army to suppress the rebellion.

  • Significance: While the Shays’ Rebellion showed the weakness of the government, the Whiskey Rebellion showed the strength of the government. 

B. Political leaders in the 1790s took a variety of positions on issues such as the relationship between the national government and the states, economic policy, foreign policy, and the balance between liberty and order. This led to the formation of political parties—most significantly the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. 

• Hamilton’s Financial Plan:

  • Hamilton made assumptions that state debt that all together is the whole national debt. He justified this by emphasizing that the states were economically tied together. 

    • He established a line of credit (reliability in trading) and domestic policy of businesses. 

    • Thomas Jefferson objected as he argued that the South already paid their debts. 

  • He also established protective tariffs to protect domestic industries and excise taxes to general internal revenue. 

  • Hamilton supported the creation of a National Bank to regulate the nation’s economy.

    • Those who opposed argued that the creation of a National Bank is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. 

    • But Hamilton justifies by saying that it is necessary (Necessary and Proper Clause). 

C. The expansion of slavery in the deep South and adjacent western lands and rising antislavery sentiment began to create distinctive regional attitudes toward the institution. 

D. Ideas about national identity increasingly found expression in works of art, literature, and architecture.

Key Concept 3.3: Migration within North America and competition over resources, boundaries, and trade intensified conflicts among peoples and nations. 

I. In the decades after American independence, interactions among different groups resulted in competition for resources, shifting alliances, and cultural blending. 

A. Various American Indian groups repeatedly evaluated and adjusted their alliances with Europeans, other tribes, and the United States, seeking to limit migration of white settlers and maintain control of tribal lands and natural resources. British alliances with American Indians contributed to tensions between the United States and Britain. 

B. As increasing numbers of migrants from North America and other parts of the world continued to move westward, frontier cultures that had emerged in the colonial period continued to grow, fueling social, political, and ethnic tensions. 

C. As settlers moved westward during the 1780s, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance for admitting new states; the ordinance promoted public education, the protection of private property, and a ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory. 

• See 3.2 II. B:

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787: Congress passed a law that set the rules for creating new states in the large territory lying between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River.  The ordinance granted limited self-government, prohibited slavery in the region, and promoted public education. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was the greatest strength of the Articles of the Confederation whilst also illustrating the importance of education. 

D. An ambiguous relationship between the federal government and American Indian tribes contributed to problems regarding treaties and American Indian legal claims relating to the seizure of their lands. 

E. The Spanish, supported by the bonded labor of the local American Indians, expanded their mission settlements into California; these provided opportunities for social mobility among soldiers and led to new cultural blending. 

II. The continued presence of European powers in North America challenged the United States to find ways to safeguard its borders, maintain neutral trading rights, and promote its economic interests. 

A. The U.S. government forged diplomatic initiatives aimed at dealing with the continued British and Spanish presence in North America, as U.S. settlers migrated beyond the Appalachians and sought free navigation of the Mississippi River. 

• The Jay Treaty (1794) with Great Britain: President Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to Britain in hopes of resolving two issues. 

  • Britain’s continued occupation of posts on the U.S. western frontier

  • Britain’s offensive practice of searching and seizing American ships and impressing seamen into the British navy

• The Jay Treaty angered American supporters of France but it maintained Washington’s policy of neutrality. 

• The Pinckney Treaty (1795) was made by Spain to consolidate holdings in North America.  They view the Jay Treaty as a sign that the U.S. was drawing close to their enemy, Great Britain.

  • Opened lower Mississippi River and New Orleans to American trade

B. War between France and Britain resulting from the French Revolution presented challenges to the United States over issues of free trade and foreign policy and fostered political disagreement.

• The French Revolution during Washington’s presidency was a war fought between France and the monarchies of Europe. Most Americans supported France’s aspirations to establish a republic but Washington believed that the young nation was not strong enough to engage in a European war. 

  • Proclamation of Neutrality (1793): Proclamation of U.S. neutrality in the conflict. Jefferson resigned from the cabinet in disagreement with Washington’s policy. 

C. George Washington’s Farewell Address encouraged national unity, as he cautioned against political factions and warned about the danger of permanent foreign alliances.

• Washington’s Farewell Address: 

  • Political parties can destroy us (separation of North and South)

  • Spirit of parties (passion and strong interests) are dangerous to the stability of the government

  • Foreign alliances mean the nation is a slave to foreign problems

  • Urged the country to honor payments of all financial obligations (Hamilton’s Financial Plan) 

President John Adams (1797-1801), the Federalist's candidate, ran against Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican's candidate and won by a few votes (Thomas Jefferson became the vice president. 

• The XYZ Affair (1797) was the first major challenge of his presidency. Americans were angered that French warships were seizing U.S. merchant ships. Seeking a peaceful settlement, Adams sent a delegation to Paris to negotiate with the French government. The French ministers, known as X, Y, and Z, requested bribes as the basis for entering into negotiations and the American delegates refused.

  • This angered Americans who now urged for a war with France while President Adams resisted the popular sentiment as the U.S. Army and Navy were not ready for war. 

• The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798): The Federalists who took advantage of the presidency and restricted their political opponents, the Democratic-Republicans. Since most immigrants voted Democratic-Republicans, the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) were passed:

  • authorized the president to deport any immigrants who were considered as dangerous to the nation

  • made it illegal for newspaper editors to criticize the president or Congress

• The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1799): Democratic-Republicans argued that the Alien and Sedition Acts violated the 1st amendment rights. They challenged the act by nullifying laws in their own state legislatures

Period 4 (1800-1848)

Key Concept 4.1: The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them. 

I. The nation’s transition to a more participatory democracy was achieved by expanding suffrage from a system based on property ownership to one based on voting by all adult white men, and it was accompanied by the growth of political parties. 

A. In the early 1800s, national political parties continued to debate issues such as the tariff, powers of the federal government, and relations with European powers. 

• The election of 1800 was considered a revolution as it was a peaceful transition of presidency from Federalists (John Adams) to Democratic-Republicans (Thomas Jefferson). 

• Emergence of political parties included:

• Democrats v Whigs (1830s-1850s)

• Jackson v Clay

• President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) was a Democratic-Republican. 

  • He valued strict constitutionalism and a stronger state government (opposed to a stronger federal government). 

  • He favored small farmers and believed that the prosperity of the U.S. depended on the status of their economy. 

• The War of 1812: This war was fought between Great Britain and the U.S. over the impressment of American sailors by the British Navy. 

  • The war was supported by the Democratic-Republicans and opposed by Federalists as it put their industries in danger. 

  • The U.S. victory increased American patriotism, weakened Native attacks, increased American manufacturing, and decreased members of the Federalist party. 

• The Hartford Convention (1814) was a meeting of Federalists who opposed the War of 1812. They considered proposals to limit the owner of Democratic-Republicans and even considered seceding from the union to repair their damaged economy. 

• The Era of Good Feelings (after the War of 1812) was present after the U.S. victory in the War of 1812 as they declared their independence once again. 

  • This was a period of political unity because of the demise of the Federalist Party and industries grew in the North. 

• President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) Jacksonian Democracy: Before the election, elite fathers (rich industrialists) ruled politics. However, President Jackson was for the common man which embodied post 1820s ideals of the universal white male suffrage (anti-elitists). 

B. Supreme Court decisions established the primacy of the judiciary in determining the meaning of the Constitution and asserted that federal laws took precedence over state laws. 

• Marbury v. Madison (1803) established the principle of judicial review. 

• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) ruled that the bank of the U.S. could not be taxed and the federal government was supreme over the state. 

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) ruled that Congress could regulate interstate commerce (not states). 

• Worcester v. Georgia (1832) ruled that Native Americans could not be forced to move out west. But President Jackson disregarded the ruling and still forced Native Americans to move (Trail of Tears). 

C. By the 1820s and 1830s, new political parties arose—the Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson, and the Whigs, led by Henry Clay—that disagreed about the role and powers of the federal government and issues such as the national bank, tariffs, and federally funded internal improvements. 

D. Regional interests often trumped national concerns as the basis for many political leaders’ positions on slavery and economic policy. 

• Growth of the market economy increased debates over the role of government.

  • Often, people were loyal to their region, not the nation. 

• Nullification Crisis (1833): South Carolina (led by J.C. Calhoun) and other southern states opposed the Tariffs of Abominations (1828 and 1832) as they interfered with the export of their crops. South Carolina nullified the tariff and threatened to secede. 

  • Ordinance of Nullification against the Tariff (1832) significance: Both the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1799) and the South Carolina Exposition were concerned with the concept of states’ rights. 

  • Congress responded with the Force Act in 1833 that allowed Jackson to use military force to collect and enforce tariffs. 

• Debate in Senate over the Nullification (1830):

  • Daniel Webster (North, Massachusetts) argued that the American people created the union (unity of the colonies) to promote the good of the whole nation.

  • Meanwhile, Robert Hayne (South, South Carolina) argued that the states had created the union to promote their own interests and that they should have the power to nullify a law if needed.

  • Webster argued that the federal law expressed the will of the people and it shouldn’t be nullified by a minority of people. Webster wanted to promote national unity over sectionalism which was beginning to become a problem (North v. South, Whigs v. Democrats).

II. While Americans embraced a new national culture, various groups developed distinctive cultures of their own. 

A. The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs, a response to rationalism, and changes to society caused by the market revolution, along with greater social and geographical mobility, contributed to a Second Great Awakening among Protestants that influenced moral and social reforms and inspired utopian and other religious movements. 

• The Second Great Awakening sought to inspire humans to achieve perfection.

  • Charles G. Finney gave massive sermons publicly to convert individuals to bring people back to religion. 

  • Utopian Societies form which are social experiments that hope to achieve perfection in communities (Oneidas, Brooke Farm - these are self-sufficient).

• The Second Great Awakening inspires other reform movements:

  • Temperance Movement

  • Abolition Movement

B. A new national culture emerged that combined American elements, European influences, and regional cultural sensibilities. 

• There was a combination of European and American culture.

  • John James Auduban made significant contributions to the study of birds. 

  • The Hudson River School focused on landscape paintings and believed that nature was a great source of wisdom. They also urged the government to preserve natural landscapes.

C. Liberal social ideas from abroad and Romantic beliefs in human perfectibility influenced literature, art, philosophy, and architecture. 

• The Transcendentalism Movement (1830s) encouraged individuals to have communication with God and nature. 

• Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote "Self-Reliance" which promotes that individuals should follow self interests.

• Henry David Thoreau wrote "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" to emphasize materialistic desires of society and that people should prioritize one's conscience over laws. 

D. Enslaved blacks and free African Americans created communities and strategies to protect their dignity and family structures, and they joined political efforts aimed at changing their status. 

• African Americans developed surrogate families which are adoptive families.

• Slave music was developed to help pass time while working

III. Increasing numbers of Americans, many inspired by new religious and intellectual movements, worked primarily outside of government institutions to advance their ideals. 

A. Americans formed new voluntary organizations that aimed to change individual behaviors and improve society through temperance and other reform efforts. 

• American Temperance Society: tried to eliminate alcohol

• Dorotea Dix: sought to improve treatment for the mentally ill

• Horace Mann: father of education

• Shakers: believed in sexual equality

B. Abolitionist and anti slavery movements gradually achieved emancipation in the North, contributing to the growth of the free African American population, even as many state governments restricted African Americans’ rights. Antislavery efforts in the South were largely limited to unsuccessful rebellions by enslaved persons. 

• Many northern states gradually emancipated slaves but many states made it illegal for slave owners to free their slaves. Every time there was a slave rebellion, it was responded with even stricter slave laws.

  • Antislavery in the South was not very successful. 

  • Turner's Rebellion (1831): In Virginia, the rebellion freed many slaves and killed whites on plantations and hundreds of blacks were killed in retaliation.

C. A women’s rights movement sought to create greater equality and opportunities for women, expressing its ideals at the Seneca Falls Convention.

• Women were often connected to the abolitionist movement as they hoped to achieve greater equality.

  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848): Women's rights convention that created the Declaration of Sentiments to emphasize the hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence. They argued that the unalienable rights mentioned in the declaration also applied to women. 

Key Concept 4.2: Innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce powerfully accelerated the American economy, precipitating profound changes to U.S. society and to national and regional identities. 

I. New transportation systems and technologies dramatically expanded manufacturing and agricultural production. 

A. Entrepreneurs helped to create a market revolution in production and commerce, in which market relationships between producers and consumers came to prevail as the manufacture of goods became more organized. 

• The Market Revolution was in transportation, communication, and the production of goods. The impacts included:

  • Railroads were used to transport goods as well as people throughout the nation. This system connected the North and the South. 

  • Manufactured goods became more organized

  • Lowell factory systems- young single women worked in factories and supported their families

    • Lowell Girls: Young women who came to the North to discover a new life, individualism, and freedom. They were forced to go to church, had dress codes, and this was enforced to persuade the families to send their daughters to work in the factories. 

  • There was an increase in assembly lines where workers could be more easily replaced (deskilling of labor). 

  • This also contributed to the Second Great Awakening because business owners turned to religion to get relief from politics and the economy. 

B. Innovations including textile machinery, steam engines, interchangeable parts, the telegraph, and agricultural inventions increased the efficiency of production methods. 

• Telegraphs, interchangeable parts, telegraphs.

• Agriculture inventions:

  • steel plow, cotton gin

  • The invention of the cotton gin drastically increased the demand for cotton and slaves as well. 

• All together, these inventions increased production efficiency. 

C. Legislation and judicial systems supported the development of roads, canals, and railroads, which extended and enlarged markets and helped foster regional interdependence. Transportation networks linked the North and Midwest more closely than they linked regions in the South. 

• Roads were paid for by the federal government as it involved interstate commerce.

• Canals such as the Erie canal were paid for by New York as it was interstate.

• Railroads were also created for easier transportation from state to state.

• The impact was that the North and the Midwest were more closely connected while the South was so focused on agriculture.

II. The changes caused by the market revolution had significant effects on U.S. society, workers’ lives, and gender and family relations. 

A. Increasing numbers of Americans, especially women and men working in factories, no longer relied on semi subsistence agriculture; instead they supported themselves producing goods for distant markets. 

• There was a shift from subsistence farming which was working to provide food just for yourself. It was now mass production for selling crops rather than just making what was needed. 

• More men and women worked in factories which were built near water as they were a source of power. The factories also expanded their market to foreign nations. 

B. The growth of manufacturing drove a significant increase in prosperity and standards of living for some; this led to the emergence of a larger middle class and a small but wealthy business elite but also to a large and growing population of laboring poor. 

• What were the impacts of the manufacturing and market revolution?

  • A growing middle class

  • widened gap between rich and poor

C. Gender and family roles changed in response to the market revolution, particularly with the growth of definitions of domestic ideals that emphasized the separation of public and private spheres. 

• The Cult of Domesticity promoted separate spheres for men and women distinguished by public and private spheres.

  • Private sphere: middle class women were expected to not work outside the home

III. Economic development shaped settlement and trade patterns, helping to unify the nation while also encouraging the growth of different regions. 

A. Large numbers of international migrants moved to industrializing northern cities, while many Americans moved west of the Appalachians, developing thriving new communities along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 

• A wave of new immigrants from Europe settled in the East and the Midwest which increased interdependence between Northeast and Old Northwest.

  • Germans would settle in the Old Northwest as farmers and the Irish would settle in the East as urban workers because of the potato famine in Europe (1840s-1850s). 

  • New cities emerged along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

• This increase in immigrants raised American concern and anti-immigrant ideals. 

  • Many were anti-catholic as Americans feared that the Pope would be controlling over the U.S. and turn tyrannical. 

  • This led to the Know-Nothing Party which was a nativist group that promoted traditional American values and rejected foreign influences. 

B. Increasing Southern cotton production and the related growth of Northern manufacturing, banking, and shipping industries promoted the development of national and international commercial ties. 

• Emergence of national ties between the North and the South.

  • The cotton production in the South increased as it was shipped to northern factories. 

  • Banks provided funding for these factories and plantations which worked together. 

C. Southern business leaders continued to rely on the production and export of traditional agricultural staples, contributing to the growth of a distinctive Southern regional identity. 

• The South continued to rely on cash crops (cotton, etc) and plantation owners enormous economical and political power. 

  • Many of these elites defended slavery as a positive good. John C. Calhoun argued that slavery gave African Americans opportunities.

D. Plans to further unify the U.S. economy, such as the American System, generated debates over whether such policies would benefit agriculture or industry, potentially favoring different sections of the country.

• The American System (after the War of 1812) by Henry Clay hoped to unify the U.S. economy.

  • Second Bank of U.S.

  • Promoted infrastructure that will be funded by the tariffs

  • Tariffs are taxes enforced on imports however they tended to be favored by the North and Midwest because it benefitted domestic industries.  

    • The tariffs were not favored by the Southerners as the export of their goods fell because foreign nations also placed tariffs on U.S. goods. 

Key Concept 4.3: The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade and expanding its national borders shaped the nation’s foreign policy and spurred government and private initiatives. 

I. Struggling to create an independent global presence, the United States sought to claim territory throughout the North American continent and promote foreign trade. 

A. Following the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. government sought influence and control over North America and the Western Hemisphere through a variety of means, including exploration, military actions, American Indian removal, and diplomatic efforts such as the Monroe Doctrine. 

• The Louisiana Purchase(1803) was from the French which allowed access to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans without French interference.

  • It increased westward expansion and American influence. 

  • This was an extra constitutional action that was not mentioned in the Constitution which contradicts Jefferson’s beliefs of strict constitutionalism. 

• The American Indian Removal Act (1830) forced Indians to move west past the Mississippi River (Trail of Tears).

• The Monroe Doctrine (1823) by President James Monroe was made to warn European nations to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and halt all efforts to colonize. President Monroe justified this by explaining the different governments of the U.S. and Europe and promised that in return, the U.S. would stay away from European affairs. 

B. Frontier settlers tended to champion expansion efforts, while American Indian resistance led to a sequence of wars and federal efforts to control and relocate American Indian populations. 

• Many Americans living on the frontier favored expansion as there was more land available for farming to grow their plantations. 

II. The United States’ acquisition of lands in the West gave rise to contests over the extension of slavery into new territories. 

A. As overcultivation depleted arable land in the Southeast, slaveholders began relocating their plantations to more fertile lands west of the Appalachians, where the institution of slavery continued to grow. 

• There was a spread of slavery plantations west of the Appalachians mountains.

  • The Deep South (also called the Cotton Belt) had fertile soil for plantations while other slaveholders moved to more fertile land because cotton, like tobacco, exhausted land. 

B. Antislavery efforts increased in the North, while in the South, although the majority of Southerners owned no enslaved persons, most leaders argued that slavery was part of the Southern way of life. 

• Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were closely linked together because their ideals were similar: equality. 

  • William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator (1831), called for an immediate and uncompensated end to slavery. 

• Slavery in the South: Although 3/4s of Southerners did not own slaves, the institution was still very present. Slavery was defended by J.C. Calhoun saying that it was a positive good and George Fitzhugh explaining that slavery was better than factory working conditions. 

C. Congressional attempts at political compromise, such as the Missouri Compromise, only temporarily stemmed growing tensions between opponents and defenders of slavery.

• The Missouri Compromise (Compromise of 1820):

  • Missouri would enter the U.S. from Louisiana territory as a slave state.

  • Maine would enter the U.S. from Massachusetts as a free state.

  • Below Missouri, any state below the 36 60’ line would be considered as a slave state and any state above was considered as a free state. 

• Impact: Sectional tensions still existed as the compromise only stood as a temporary solution between the South and North arguments about slavery. 

• Thomas Jefferson did not like the Missouri Compromise as he believed that it would divide the North and the South. 

Period 5 (1844-1877)

Key Concept 5.1: The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries. 

I. Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion, bolstered by economic and security interests, resulted in the acquisition of new territories, substantial migration westward, and new overseas initiatives. 

A. The desire for access to natural and mineral resources and the hope of many settlers for economic opportunities or religious refuge led to an increased migration to and settlement in the West. 

• Reasons for westward migration:

  • Access to natural and mineral resources through the California Gold Rush (1840s), Comstock Lode (for silver) and settlements built around resources.

  • Economic opportunities included the “safety-valve” theory which was the idea that one could always pack up and move to the west to make money. 

  • Religious refuge: Mormons were led by Brigham Young to move west to Utah because they were persecuted for their belief in their religion. 

B. Advocates of annexing western lands argued that Manifest Destiny and the superiority of American institutions compelled the United States to expand its borders westward to the Pacific Ocean. 

• Manifest Destiny: This belief was supported by Jackson in which Americans justified their westward expansion in North America because God granted them with rights and duty to expand and colonize Natives. 

• Americans also had economic motives (expansion of plantations). 

C. The United States added large territories in the West through victory in the Mexican–American War and diplomatic negotiations, raising questions about the status of slavery, American Indians, and Mexicans in the newly acquired lands.  

• The Annexation of Texas: Mexico's territory included Texas but Americans settled in Texas for cotton plantation lands. Cheap land grants were given by Mexico to bring Americans into Texas in an attempt to decrease Native populations. 

  • However, there were more Americans than Mexicans in Texas at a certain point. Santa Anna tried to control this by outlawing slavery and stopping immigration but it didn't work. Americans, now named Texans, fought for their independence and in 1836, Texas became its own republic. 

  • The U.S. was interested in annexing Texas to expand and grow their economy. 

    • The North was opposed to the annexation of Texas because the added slave state would increase Southern political power. 

    • Because Congress wanted to maintain a balance of slave and free states, Texas was only annexed 9 years after their independence.

  • Texas was annexed in 1845 and Mexico viewed this as an act of war. 

• President James K. Polk (1845-1849) believed in Manifest Destiny and sought to expand the U.S. through diplomacy. 

  • He pushed "54-40 or Fight” which was basically a promotion for expansion. 

  • The Oregon Territory (1846) was compromised with the British which ended the joint occupation. The British controlled the modern part of Canada while the U.S. controlled the land which would be modern Oregon. 

• The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was fought over:

  • The Annexation of Texas (1945)

  • failure of Slidell's Mission (attempt to purchase California and )

  • border disputes of American troops near the Rio Grande River

• Slidell's Mission: President Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico in hopes of gaining California and New Mexico through money. 

  • The Mexican government refused to see Slidell which gave Polk more reasons for war. He sends troops to the border which Mexico sees as an invasion and creates conflict. Polk uses this conflict as a justification for war as he appealed to Congress. 

    • The Whig Party was concerned with this justification and the war as it would extend slavery. 

    • Democrats voted in favor of the war despite opposition by the Northern Democrats.

    • Ulysses S. Grant (president from 1869-1877) emphasized the hypocrisy of the Mexican-American War that clashed with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and morals of the Revolutionary War. (Mexico was in the position of the young U.S. when they were against Great Britain)

• Effects of the Mexican-American War: 

  • Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

  • Mexican Cession

  • Access to abundant natural resources

  • Dislocation of Natives

  • Inflamed debates about slavery in the U.S.

• There were also debates over how Natives and Mexicans would be incorporated into the U.S. socially. Mexicans were given a choice to become U.S. citizens or move to other parts of Mexico. 

• The Gadsden Purchase from Mexico (1853). 

D. Westward migration was boosted during and after the Civil War by the passage of new legislation promoting western transportation and economic development. 

• The Homestead Act (1862) encouraged westward expansion by providing American settlers with acres of cheap land. 

• The government also provided subsidies to railroads. 

E. U.S. interest in expanding trade led to economic, diplomatic, and cultural initiatives to create more ties with Asia. 

• The U.S. begins trading with Asian nations. 

II. In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans continued to debate questions about rights and citizenship for various groups of U.S. inhabitants. 

A. Substantial numbers of international migrants continued to arrive in the United States from Europe and Asia, mainly from Ireland and Germany, often settling in ethnic communities where they could preserve elements of their languages and customs. 

• European immigrants included the Irish who mostly settled in the Northeast (mostly Catholic) and Germans who settled in the frontier in the Midwest as farmers. 

• Asian immigrants included Chinese who settled on the West Coast in the 1850s who worked in gold minds, factories, and farming.

  • Later, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) forbade Chinese immigration.

• Both immigrant groups settled in ethnic communities and preserved their own culture. 

B. A strongly anti-Catholic nativist movement arose that was aimed at limiting new immigrants’ political power and cultural influence. 

• Emergence of nativism which is a hatred or distrust of foreigners. 

• Nativism movements were mainly Anti-Catholic as the Irish were Catholic. 

• Americans wanted to limit the immigrants’ political power because they mostly voted democratic. 

  • The Know-Nothing-Party was anti-immigrant, anti-catholic, and sought to limit the power of immigrants. 

C. U.S. government interaction and conflict with Mexican Americans and American Indians increased in regions newly taken from American Indians and Mexico, altering these groups’ economic self-sufficiency and cultures. 

• Battle of Little BigHorn (1876), also called Custer’s Last Knee, was a battle where Natives attacked and killed Custer and his men.

  • The U.S. sought to assimilate many natives with the expectation that they would adopt American traditional ways.

Key Concept 5.2: Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war. 

I. Ideological and economic differences over slavery produced an array of diverging responses from Americans in the North and the South. 

A. The North’s expanding manufacturing economy relied on free labor in contrast to the Southern economy’s dependence on enslaved labor. Some Northerners did not object to slavery on principle but claimed that slavery would undermine the free-labor market. As a result, a free-soil movement arose that portrayed the expansion of slavery as incompatible with free labor. 

• Two emerging economies:

  • The North relied on manufacturing and the free labor market.

  • The South relied on agriculture and the institution of slavery.

• The Free Soil movement sought to keep slavery from expanding. The Free Soil Party’s slogan was “Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men.”

  • They focused their efforts on restricting the expansion of slavery in the Mexican Cession (land acquired after the Mexican-American War).

  • They also believed that slavery was incompatible with free labor as it took away jobs and economic opportunity from poor white men. 

B. African American and white abolitionists, although a minority in the North, mounted a highly visible campaign against slavery, presenting moral arguments against the institution, assisting escapes, and sometimes expressing a willingness to use violence to achieve their goals. 

• The Abolition Movement was composed of whites and blacks with a small percentage of population in the North. 

  • They used moral arguments that slavery was against American ideals of natural rights and the belief that all men are created equal. 

  • They helped slaves escape to the North through the underground railroads (Harriet Tubman). 

• Literature illustrating the sectional crisis:

  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe emotionally motivated the Northerners to abolish slavery in the North. Her novel emphasizes how cruelly slaves were being treated like animals. The South responded with “Anti-Tom” which was a novel illustrating the positives of slavery. 

  • The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) by Hinton Rowan Helper (a proud Southerner) argued that slavery was the reason why the South was so economically behind the North. 

  • There was a willingness to use violence: John Brown at Harpers Ferry (1859) seized the federal arsenal to gain weapons and distribute it to slaves to form a rebellion. 

    • He was trapped, surrendered, and stated that he was sacrificing himself for the war on slavery.  

    • The South believed that everyone in the North supported Brown’s violent actions to support the ending of slavery. 

    • But in reality, Lincoln and other Republicans in the North did not condone his actions and they believed that he didn’t have the right to touch where slavery already existed. They still maintained their belief that the west of the economic opportunity of white men. 

C. Defenders of slavery based their arguments on racial doctrines, the view that slavery was a positive social good, and the belief that slavery and states’ rights were protected by the Constitution.

• Defenders justified slavery by arguing that African Americans were “savages.”

• John C. Calhoun also argued that slavery was a positive good and that slaves had better lives than factory workers in the North. 

• They believed that slavery was protected by states’ rights.

• The Caning of Charles Sumner (1856): Pro-slavery Democrat Preston Brooks of South Carolina attacked Republican Charles Sumner with a cane. This event in the Senate chambers was evidence that sectional division has turned violent. 

II. Debates over slavery came to dominate political discussion in the 1850s, culminating in the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of Southern states. 

A. The Mexican Cession led to heated controversies over whether to allow slavery in the newly acquired territories. 

• Land acquisition led to debates over slavery. Wilmot Proviso (1848) by David Wilmot (Northern Democrat) proposed to peacefully obtain territory by prohibiting slavery in new territories from the Mexican Cession but this was defeated by Southern Democrats.

• Purpose: If slavery was allowed in the west, no jobs would be left for the poor white man while the west should be an economic opportunity for poor white men. 

• The need for a third party: The Free Soil Party opposed the further extension of slavery and the party nominated Martin Van Burn in the election of 1848. 

• The Whig Party falls apart.

B. The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories, including the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conflict. 

-Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857): 

• slaves were deemed as property which couldn’t be taken away from owners

• Blacks are not citizens of the U.S.

• Ruled that the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional

• Significance: this puts the potential of popular sovereignty as a basis to determine the issue of slavery 

• The Compromise of 1850: 

  • California was admitted to the union as a free state

  • Called for the abolition of slave trade 

  • Amended the Fugitive Slave Act (1850): This act required that slaves return to their slave owners even if they were in free states. This was appeased by the South but the North referenced it as the “bloodhound bill.”

  • All together, these federal actions were controversial as it seemed like the nation was a slave nation and although the South believed in state rights, they were relying on the help of the federal government. 

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed for popular sovereignty to determine whether the state was a slave state or not. 

  • Stephen Douglas proposed the bill to organize Nebraska as a territory to encourage expansion of railroads in the Midwest but he needed to compromise through the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 

  • The act opened the potential of extending slavery by popular sovereignty which kills the second party system. 

  • Bleeding Kansas: Kansas becomes a battleground for pro and anti-slavery settlers. 

  • Sack of Lawrence (1856) was the raid of Kansas by proslavery mobs to eliminate any anti-slavery settlers. To this, John Brown attacked proslavery settlers as a revenge. This violence increased political tension, sectionalism, and showed how dangerous popular sovereignty was.

  • Because of the violence, Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1861. 

C. The Second Party System ended when the issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism weakened loyalties to the two major parties and fostered the emergence of sectional parties, most notably the Republican Party in the North. 

• There was a formation of the Republican Party (1854). 

  • The party was purely sectional in Northern support and it unified against the extension of slavery. Northern Whigs, former Free Soilers, Northern Democrats, and the Know-Nothing members also joined the party. 

  • Critical Realignment: the issue of slavery divided the Democratic Party. 

  • Northern Democrats split from their former Southern counterparts because of different beliefs of slavery. 

  • It was the 3rd Two Party System in U.S. politics. 

    • Federalists, Anti-Federalists

    • Whigs, Democrats

    • Democrats and Republican 

D. Abraham Lincoln’s victory on the Republicans’ free-soil platform in the presidential election of 1860 was accomplished without any Southern electoral votes. After a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil War. 

• Lincoln did not want to end slavery but wanted it to keep it from spreading. 

• The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the immediate cause of the Civil War. 

  • South Carolina seceded after the election.

Key Concept 5.3: The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights. 

I. The North’s greater manpower and industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln and others, and the decision to emancipate enslaved persons eventually led to the Union military victory over the Confederacy in the devastating Civil War. 

A. Both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their economies and societies to wage the war even while facing considerable home front opposition. 

• Both sides issued drafts for the war and were faced with opposition.

  • North: Rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight. Many rich men were able to avoid the draft by hiring someone else to fight in the war. 

  • South: Many farmers refused to fight as they didn’t want to leave their plantations or allow their slaves to fight. 

B. Lincoln and most Union supporters began the Civil War to preserve the Union, but Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed the purpose of the war and helped prevent the Confederacy from gaining full diplomatic support from European powers. Many African Americans fled southern plantations and enlisted in the Union Army, helping to undermine the Confederacy. 

• Lincoln’s war goal was to preserve the union.

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed all slaves in the area of rebellion. 

  • This helped change the purpose of the war but also kept European powers siding with the South as many European nations already banned slavery. 

  • Many African Americans also enlisted in the Union Army to escape.

  • This proclamation changed the purpose of the war. 

C. Lincoln sought to reunify the country and used speeches such as the Gettysburg Address to portray the struggle against slavery as the fulfillment of America’s founding democratic ideals. 

• The Gettysburg Address (1863) referenced a new birth of freedom that sought to ensure all men are truly equal. 

D. Although the Confederacy showed military initiative and daring early in the war, the Union ultimately succeeded due to improvements in leadership and strategy, key victories, greater resources, and the wartime destruction of the South’s infrastructure. 

• The Union won the Civil War:

  • Improvements in leadership and strategy: Anaconda Plan was a blockade of the South to strangle the Southern economy

  • Key victories which helped keep Europe out of the war

  • Greater resources: larger populations and factories

II. Reconstruction and the Civil War ended slavery, altered relationships between the states and the federal government, and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities. 

A. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights. 

• Reconstruction Amendments:

  • 13th abolished slavery

  • 14th equal protection under the law 

  • 15th universal adult male suffrage

B. The women’s rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. 

• Splits the women’s rights movement.

• Frederick Douglass and others favored black suffrage prior to women’s suffrage because African Americans deserved to vote first as they suffered for longer. 

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony feared that women’s suffrage would not be granted any time soon.

C. Efforts by radical and moderate Republicans to change the balance of power between Congress and the presidency and to reorder race relations in the defeated South yielded some short-term successes. Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to formerly enslaved persons, but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North’s waning resolve. 

• Effects of Republican Congress

  • They changed the balance of power between the Presidency and Congress.

    • Decreased the power of the president and increased power of Congress.

  • Increase political opportunities for Black Americans. 

• Reconstruction failed:

  • Determined Southern resistance: redeemer Democratic governments ousted Republican governments through violence and intimidation.

    • The KKK terrorized blacks and Republicans

  • The North’s waning (decreased) resolve:

    • The Panic of 1873 was an economic crash that tainted the Republican Party as many called for a smaller government. 

D. Southern plantation owners continued to own the majority of the region’s land even after Reconstruction. Formerly enslaved persons sought land ownership but generally fell short of self-sufficiency, as an exploitative and soil-intensive sharecropping system limited blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in the South. 

• Plantation owners owned a majority of the land and former slaves had difficulty acquiring land because of high interest rates and the system of sharecropping. 

  • Sharecropping: Freedmen worked on farms and exchanged labor for using land and housing. This led to a cycle of debt for sharecroppers. 

  • Economic opportunities were still limited for emancipated blacks after the war. 

E. Segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics progressively stripped away African American rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments eventually became the basis for court decisions upholding civil rights in the 20th century.

• Segregation restricted the 14th and 15th amendments. 

  • Jim Crow laws were upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which ruled that blacks were separate but equal. 

• Violence: KKK and the White League intimidated African Americans from voting.

• Local political tactics: poll taxes, literacy tests, and the grandfather clauses (excluded whites from the taxes and tests)

• In the long run, these amendments were used to promote civil rights in the 1950s even though during Reconstruction, they seemed useless. 

Period 6 (1865-1898)

Key Concept 6.1: Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States. 

I. Large-scale industrial production—accompanied by massive technological change, expanding international communication networks, and pro-growth government policies—generated rapid economic development and business consolidation. 

A. Following the Civil War, government subsidies for transportation and communication systems helped open new markets in North America.

• Government provided money and land for the construction of railroads.

  • Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 gave money to men willing to work in the construction of railroads. 

• Telegraph lines were often linked with railroads

• Impacts: growth of farms, cities, and industries depending on each other

B. Businesses made use of technological innovations, greater access to natural resources, redesigned financial and management structures, advances in marketing, and a growing labor force to dramatically increase the production of goods. 

• Causes of increases in the production of goods:

• Technological advances included:

  • Taylorism by Frederick Taylor focused on improving efficiency through timed tasks and specific tasks for workers. 

  • This also led to a deskilling of labor in the workforce.

• Greater access to natural resources

• Redesigned financial and management structures

  • Monopolistic businesses sought to have sole control over industries.

• Market advances included mail order catalogs which appealed to middle class families. 

• There was a growth in the labor force because of the large supply of workers. 

C. As the price of many goods decreased, workers’ real wages increased, providing new access to a variety of goods and services; many Americans’ standards of living improved, while the gap between rich and poor grew. 

• Impacts of the industrial revolution:

  • Prices of goods decreased and workers’ wages increased

  • New goods and services emerged: other household items

  • Due to this, Americans’ standards of living improved

  • A gap between the rich and the poor

D. Many business leaders sought increased profits by consolidating corporations into large trusts and holding companies, which further concentrated wealth. 

• Businesses used trusts which are associated with monopolies to gain economic control.

• Holding companies- one company that owns stick in several other companies

• Vertical integration: Single ownership of different stages in a supply chain (Andrew Carnerige- steel) 

• Horizontal integration: Driving out competitors and often taking over another company that operates at the same level of the value chain. (John D. Rockefeller- Standard Oil)

E. Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America. 

• Annexation of Hawaii: for sugar

• Philippines were gained in 1898 through the Spanish American War

  • In 1899, the Open Door Policy allowed the U.S. to trade freely with China

• Latin America: The Big Brother Policy which opened up markets to the U.S.

II. A variety of perspectives on the economy and labor developed during a time of financial panics and downturns. 

A. Some argued that laissez-faire policies and competition promoted economic growth in the long run, and they opposed government intervention during economic downturns. 

• Laissez-faire refers to the government choosing not to intervene in the economy.

  • Businesses favored this

B. The industrial workforce expanded and became more diverse through internal and international migration; child labor also increased. 

• Internal migration included farmers that moved to cities to work in factories. 

• International migration refers to the “new” immigration from Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and China. 

• Child labor increased because many families relied on children for extra wages. 

  • Large supply of workers led to lower wages. 

C. Labor and management battled over wages and working conditions, with workers organizing local and national unions and/or directly confronting business leaders. 

• Local and national unions emerged to confront businesses about wages and working conditions.

  • The Knights of Labor included support from skilled and unskilled workers, women, and African Americans. Their downfall was the Haymarket Square Riot.

  • The Haymarket Square Riot (1886) started out as a peaceful rally of anarchists when it turned violent as a bomb was thrown and killed police.

    • Anti-labor movements used this incident to crush labor unions such as the Knights of Labor even though they were not involved. 

    • The American Federation of Labor was made up of skilled male workers only and focused on “bread and butter issues” which refers to simple desires.

D. Despite the industrialization of some segments of the Southern economy—a change promoted by Southern leaders who called for a “New South”—agriculture based on sharecropping and tenant farming continued to be the primary economic activity in the South. 

• Leaders called for a “New South” which called for increased industrialization in the South with textile factories. 

• Sharecropping and tenant farming remained throughout the South. Many African Americans were sharecroppers. 

III. New systems of production and transportation enabled consolidation within agriculture, which, along with periods of instability, spurred a variety of responses from farmers.

A. Improvements in mechanization helped agricultural production increase substantially and contributed to declines in food prices. 

• There was an increase in agricultural production with mechanized farming that allowed for less reliance on animals. 

• The increased production of goods led to a decrease in food prices.

B. Many farmers responded to the increasing consolidation in agricultural markets and their dependence on the evolving railroad system by creating local and regional cooperative organizations. 

• Farmers responded to the consolidation of businesses and railroads by creating local and regional cooperative organizations.

  • The Grange (1860s) brought farmers together to share techniques and hoped to elect state legislators that are favorable to their programs. 

  • The Southern Farmers Alliance was a local organization that established stores and banks but excluded blacks.

  • The Colored Farmers’ Alliance was mostly supported in Southern states. 

C. Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People’s (Populist) Party, which called for a stronger governmental role in regulating the American economic system.

• The Populist Party grew because of:

  • Growth of corporate power

  • Railroads because high rates hurt farmers

  • Economic instability: panics of 1873 and 1893 hurt farmers

• Goals:

  • They called for a stronger government role in the economy through the graduated income tax to tax rich industrialists, inflation of currency to help farmers, and free silver (not using just gold).

• Political reforms:

  • They wanted a direct election of senators, government ownership of railroads and telegraph lines. 

Key Concept 6.2: The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change. 

I. International and internal migration increased urban populations and fostered the growth of a new urban culture. 

A. As cities became areas of economic growth featuring new factories and businesses, they attracted immigrants from Asia and from southern and eastern Europe, as well as African American migrants within and out of the South. Many migrants moved to escape poverty, religious persecution, and limited opportunities for social mobility in their home countries or regions. 

• International migrations: Asia- chinese settled on the West coast as railroad workers

• Southern and Eastern Europe for economic opportunities.

• Internal migration:

  • African Americans within the South and out of the South to escape sharecropping and slavery. 

B. Urban neighborhoods based on particular ethnicities, races, and classes provided new cultural opportunities for city dwellers. 

• These racial urban neighborhoods provided new cultural opportunities and a feeling of home for immigrants. 

C. Increasing public debates over assimilation and Americanization accompanied the growth of international migration. Many immigrants negotiated compromises between the cultures they brought and the culture they found in the United States. 

• There was a rise of nativism in response to the increase of immigrants.

• Immigrants often compromise between their own cultures and the U.S. cultures.

  • 2nd generation immigrants were more likely to assimilate than 1st generations

D. In an urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed, political machines thrived, in part by providing immigrants and the poor with social services. 

• Political machines seeked votes and provided jobs and services to immigrants. 

E. Corporations’ need for managers and for male and female clerical workers as well as increased access to educational institutions, fostered the growth of a distinctive middle class. A growing amount of leisure time also helped expand consumer culture. 

• There was an emergence of a distinctive middle class that was caused by increased education opportunities and consumer culture. 

II. Larger numbers of migrants moved to the West in search of land and economic opportunity, frequently provoking competition and violent conflict. 

A. The building of transcontinental railroads, the discovery of mineral resources, and government policies promoted economic growth and created new communities and centers of commercial activity. 

• The transcontinental railroad was built by the Irish and the Chinese and it promoted westward growth. 

• The discovered mineral resources led to towns that were built around mines (Comstock Lode). 

B. In hopes of achieving ideals of self-sufficiency and independence, migrants moved to both rural and boomtown areas of the West for opportunities, such as building the railroads, mining, farming, and ranching. 

• Migrants seeked independence and self sufficiency in the West through farming, mining, and other jobs. 

C. As migrant populations increased in number and the American bison population was decimated, competition for land and resources in the West among white settlers, American Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an increase in violent conflict. 

• Battle of Little BigHorn (1876), also called Custer’s Last Knee, was a battle where Natives attacked and killed Custer and his men.

  • The U.S. sought to assimilate many natives with the expectation that they would adopt American traditional ways.

D. The U.S. government violated treaties with American Indians and responded to resistance with military force, eventually confining American Indians to reservations and denying tribal sovereignty. 

• The U.S. would violate treaties and often use military forces.

  • Wounded Knee Massacre 1890 was the murder of Natives.

• Natives were moved to reservations where they lost their sovereignty. 

E. Many American Indians preserved their cultures and tribal identities despite government policies promoting assimilation, and they attempted to develop self-sustaining economic practices. 

• Dawes Act (1887): This act sent Native children to boarding schools and only spoke English.

• As an attempt to preserve autonomy, Natives envisioned the return of buffalo and elimination of white through the Ghost Dance. 

Key Concept 6.3: The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies. 

I. New cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social order of the Gilded Age. 

A. Social commentators advocated theories later described as Social Darwinism to justify the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure as both appropriate and inevitable.

• Robber Baron: vilified successful industrialists who were often considered ruthless or unethical. Ex: Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller.

• The idea of Social Darwinism was used to justify the success of top businessmen and wealth disparity as inevitable. The survival of the fittest: the rich worked harder for their wealth and the poor just had to work harder.

B. Some business leaders argued that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help the less fortunate and improve society, as articulated in the idea known as the Gospel of Wealth, and they made philanthropic contributions that enhanced educational opportunities and urban environments. 

• Carnegie’s “The Gospel Of Wealth” argues that extremely wealthy Americans like himself had a responsibility to spend their money in order to benefit the greater good. In other words, the richest Americans should actively engage in philanthropy which is the donation to schools or charity instead of directly to the poor in order to close the widening gap between rich and poor.

C. A number of artists and critics, including agrarians, utopians, socialists, and advocates of the Social Gospel, championed alternative visions for the economy and U.S. society. 

• The Agrarians sought more government involvement in the economy (similar to the Populists) and advocated government ownership of railroads. 

• Utopian societies- Oneida Community practiced communal ownership and free love. 

• The Social Gospel was a Protestant Church movement to improve society. 

II. Dramatic social changes in the period inspired political debates over citizenship, corruption, and the proper relationship between business and government.

A. The major political parties appealed to lingering divisions from the Civil War and contended over tariffs and currency issues, even as reformers argued that economic greed and self-interest had corrupted all levels of government. 

• “Solid South” voted Democratic

• North- voted mostly Republican

• Differences between two parties:

  • Tariffs: Republicans wanted to raise tariffs while Democrats wanted to lower them. 

• In the local levels, political machines corrupt politics while in the federal level, patronage and election of senators by state legislatures corrupt politics as they would elect senators who are favorable to big businesses. 

B. Many women sought greater equality with men, often joining voluntary organizations, going to college, promoting social and political reform, and, like Jane Addams, working in settlement houses to help immigrants adapt to U.S. language and customs. 

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union (ban of alcohol)

• The National American Woman Suffrage Association helped to pass the 19th amendment.

• Many women attended colleges.

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leading suffragist who advocated of interracial marriage. 

• Women also worked in settlement houses to help immigrants adapt or assimilate to American societies. 

C. The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial segregation helped to mark the end of most of the political gains African Americans made during Reconstruction. Facing increased violence, discrimination, and scientific theories of race, African American reformers continued to fight for political and social equality.

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): This upheld racial segregation through justifications of separate but equal. Most gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction were severely limited due to poll taxes and literacy tests. 

• African American reformers:

  • Ida B. Wells was a journalist that was an outspoken critic of lynching. She advocated for federal anti-lynching laws.

  • Booker T. Washington advocated vocational training for African Americans.

Period 7 (1898-1945)

Key Concept 7.1: Growth expanded opportunity, while economic instability led to new efforts to reform U.S. society and its economic system.

1.  The United States continued its transition from rural, agricultural economy to an urban, industrial economy led by large companies. 

   1. New technologies and manufacturing techniques helped focus the U.S. economy on the production of consumer goods, contributing to improved standards of living, greater personal mobility, and better communication systems.

Assembly Line:  By Henry Ford which was a repetitive factory where products were mass produced, advertised, and sold cheaply. 

Focus of production of consumer goods (consumerism): radios, phones, refrigerators, cars

Result: Increased standards of living, greater personal mobility, more vacations, rising car service businesses, improved communications. 

- There was an emphasis on consumers, especially women, who were in charge of taking care of the home, thus making home appliance purchases. They were also advertised for beauty products to make their husbands happy. 

- Installment plans and credit were purchasing systems for big purchases. 

Groups left out in economic prosperity: 

- the working class (internal and international migrants), there was an unequal distribution of wealth

- labor movements revert as membership declines

- farmers struggled, without war, price and demand decreased

2. By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived in urban centers, which offered new economic opportunities for women, international migrants, and internal migrants. 

Women began working outside their homes, stepping out of the private sphere concept. They worked in factories and earned their own wages. 

International migrants (from Southern and Eastern Europe) also worked in factories in rather poor conditions.

Internal migrants (farmers and African Americans from the South - Great Migration) seeked jobs in cities. 

For the first time, more people were living in the urban cities than rural areas. (according to 1920 Census)

3. Episodes of credit and market instability in the early 20th century, in particular the Great Depression, led to calls for a stronger regulatory system. 

Government intervention was needed after WWI (also during the Great Depression) to regulate the suffering economy. 

Ex: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created by FDR to insure bank deposits (if the bank went bankrupt, no money would be lost) This drastically decreased the number of bank failures.

The New Deal was a series of programs and regulations enacted by FDR to guard against an economic disaster like the Great Depression. 

This established the federal responsibility for the welfare of the U.S. economy and the American people.

Key Concept 7.2: Innovations in communications and technology contributed to the growth of mass culture, while significant changes occurred in internal and international migration patterns.

1.  Popular culture grew in influence in U.S. society, even as debates increased over the effects of culture on public values, morals, and American national identity. 

   1. New forms of mass media, such as radio and cinema, contributed to the spread of national culture as well as greater awareness of regional cultures.

The radio became the largest source of entertainment and it spread advertisements and news faster. 

Cinema was cheap and accessible. 

The Culture of Escape:

- Many entertainments rose in popularity through movies, sports broadcasts through radios, and pop culture. 

2. Migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature that expressed ethnic and regional identities, such as the Harlem Renaissance movement.

The Harlem Renaissance was the celebration of African American culture through writing, music, and art. 

- This was the Golden Age of African American literature, music, and art. Also the age of jazz which was spread throughout the country through radios. 

- The neighborhood of Harlen in New York was dedicated to improving and celebrating African American lives which flourished with Black owned businesses. 

- Writers and poets wrote about celebration and also hardships they faced through racial violence targeted towards them. 

3. Official restrictions on freedom of speech grew during World War I, as increased anxiety about radicalism led to a Red Scare and attacks on labor activism and immigrant culture.

- Espionage Act: made it illegal to obtain information of national defense with the intention of harming the U.S.

- Schenck v. U.S. (1919): Schenk criticized and spoke against the draft but was arrested. He was taken to court where the Supreme Court upheld the Espionage Act. They supported this action by stating that his speech created a clear and present danger. 

- Sedition Act: punished those that criticized the government.

- The Red Scare: fears of radicalism, communism, and anarchism where unions and immigrants are attacked.

- Caused by the Bolshevik Revolution and Labor Unrest.

- Bolshevik Revolution: The Russian Revolution created fears of communism and anarchism in the U.S. and this contributed to the nativism of immigrants.

- Many thought unions where laborers striked were dangerous and blamed immigrants for introducing communism into the U.S. 

- Legislation limited immigration through the Immigration Act of 1924 because of this fear.

4. In the 1920s, cultural and political controversies emerged as Americans debated gender roles, modernism, science, religion, and issues related to race and immigration.

Women:

- Flappers were women who drank, danced, smoked, and wore shorter dresses. They challenged gender norms which were traditional or conservative. 

- Margaret Sanger advocated for birth control which was supported by many women. This brought a new concept of love and intimacy in marriages. 

Modernism: 

- The assembly line made workers replaceable and cheap. 

- Technology affected the women’s role in the home by making it more efficient and emphasizing their role. 

- Fundamentalism v Modernism = 

Religion (bible teachings) v Science (pro-evolution)

Science v Religion (culture clash)

- Scopes Trial: interpretation of bible vs evolution

Scopes taught evolution as a sub which violated the Butler Act.

Butler Act: banned the teaching of the theory of evolution

Scopes’ defense attorney was Clarence Darrow (modernist) and the prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan (traditionalist). 

The Supreme Court upheld the Butler Act but it wasn’t repealed up until 1967. 

Race:

The Red Summer of 1919: race riots in northern cities (Chicago) 

It targeted immigrants from Asia and Eastern and Southern Europe. 

Immigration: Rise of nativism in the 1920s with the KKK group now expanding its target to immigrants, African Americans, and Catholics.

- The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists convicted of murder.

- Significance: revealed that the judiciary process in the 1920s was xenophobic (against people from other countries)

2.  Economic pressures, global events, and political developments caused sharp variations in the numbers, sources, and experiences of both international and internal migrants

   1. Immigration from Europe reached its peak in the years before World War I. During and after World War I, nativist campaigns against some ethnic groups led to the passage of quotas that restricted immigration, particularly from southern and eastern Europe, and increased barriers to Asian immigration.

Nativism increased in the 1920s: restrictive immigration quotas

 - The Emergency Quota put limits on the number of immigrants based on race who could enter the U.S. yearly through a national census from years ago. (imposed drastic measures on limiting immigrants)

- The National Origins Act was an addition to the Emergency Quota Act which limited the number of immigrants even more. 

The Palmer Raids:

- Attorney General Palmer ordered mass arrests of suspected anarchists, labor agitators, and socialists. Many suspects were deported. This was in context of the Red Scare (fears that immigrants bring communism, anarchism, and radicalism into the U.S.) 

Anti-German/Immigrant Sentiment:

- The rise of alcohol was blamed on German immigrants and this helped pass the 18th amendment (outlawed the production, advertisement, and sale of alcohol). This is supporting traditionalist views.

2. The increased demand for war production and labor during World War I and World War II and the economic difficulties of the 1930s led many Americans to migrate to urban centers in search of economic opportunities.

World wars gave economic opportunities in cities for war production and labor.

The War Industries Board (1917) was established to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. It ensured that the U.S. could produce everything they needed for the war. 

3. In a Great Migration during and after World War I, African Americans escaping segregation, racial violence, and limited economic opportunity in the south moved to the North and West, where they found new opportunities but still encountered discrimination. 

- The Great Migration: many African Americas moved from the South to the North and West to find job opportunities and to get away from segregation. 

Jobs: jobs in the North in various fields were left vacant after the men went to war. They were taken over by women and African Americans.

Segregation: the South had Jim Crow laws and the sharecropping system which limited the African Americans politically and economically.  They also faced extreme racial violence in the South with the KKK and lynchings. They still faced segregations in the North as well. 

- Many African Americans served in the war. When they returned, while they expected more respect in regards to their war efforts, white supremacists racially targeted African American soldiers (ones wearing uniforms). 

Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1914):

- He pressed for pride in Blackness (race and culture) from kings in Africa. 

- He rejected white assimilation into society and encouraged separationism of African Americans. He also advocated for economic independence and the "return to Africa". 

Tulsa Massacre:

-  The riot of black residents that believed lynching of a man that made a simple mistake of stepping on someones shoe was racist and completely against civil liberties.

- Dick Rowland was the black teeneger in this situation and Sarah Page, a white woman, yelled in fear. 

- This massacre led to many deaths and destruction of Black Wall Street.

4. Migration to the United States from Mexico and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere increased, in spite of contradictory government policies toward Mexican immigration.

Mexicans faced contradictory government policies. 

- Many were deported because there weren’t many jobs for them in the cities and returning soldiers were also seeking jobs.

Key Concept 7.3: Participation in a series of global conflicts propelled the United States into a position of international power while renewing domestic debates over the nation’s proper role in the world.

I. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, new U.S. territorial ambitions and acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific accompanied heightened public debates over America’s role in the world. 

A. Imperialists cited economic opportunities, racial theories, competition with European empires, and the perception in the 1890s that the western frontier was “closed” to argue that Americans were destined to expand their culture and institutions to peoples around the globe. 

B. Anti-imperialists cited principles of self-determination and invoked both racial theories and the U.S. foreign policy tradition of isolationism to argue that the United States should not extend its territory overseas. 

C. The American victory in the Spanish–American War led to the U.S. acquisition of island territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific, an increase in involvement in Asia, and the suppression of a nationalist movement in the Philippines.

II. World War I and its aftermath intensified ongoing debates about the nation’s role in the world and how best to achieve national security and pursue American interest.

1. After initial neutrality in World War I, the nation entered the conflict, departing from the U.S. foreign policy tradition of noninvolvement in European affairs, in response to Woodrow Wilson’s call for the defense of humanitarian and democratic principles.

Context of World War I:

The war began on July 28th, 1914, and was caused by MAIN.

M- Militarism 

A- Alliances

I- Imperialism

N- Nationalism

- Initially, President Woodrow Wilson wanted NEUTRALITY with the freedom to trade with all the nations. 

- The U.S. already had a tradition of non-involvement with European affairs: 

Washington’s Farewell Address: foreign involvement will threaten the U.S. stability.

Monroe Doctrine: no European colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

- But now, Wilson advocated for U.S. involvement in the war as it was their duty to make the world safe for democracy. (American Policy)

He used Progressive Era ideals, (efficiency, morality, social welfare). 

2. Although the American Expeditionary Forces played a relatively limited role in combat, the U.S.’s entry helped to tip the balance of the conflict in favor of the allies.

Why did the U.S. join the war? (3 main reasons)

- The British blockade was intended to cut off trade sources of Germany from the U.S.

Result: Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare. (sinking trade ships with Americans on them: the sinking of Lusitania) 

- The Zimmerman Note where Germany urged Mexico to attack the U.S. to regain their land that was lost in the Mexican-American War. 

- The Russian Revolution made Russia withdraw from the war and the U.S. needed to fill Russia’s spot in the Allied countries to balance the two fighting sides. (Allies and Central Powers). 

U.S. Entry to WWI: 

Military: The U.S. was not prepared for war.

- The Selective Service Act (1917) used conscriptions (drafts) to raise troops. 

- Ethnically diverse troops: Black Americans faced racism and segregation during WWI as soldiers

- The American Expeditionary Forces were sent to Europe to help fight WWI.

Economy: The federal government increased its unprecedented powers to centralize and coordinate the economy to center around mobilization for the war. 

- They regulated wages to minimize strikers and people who striked during the war were viewed as a disgrace. (so labor unions diminished)

- Old businesses produced more war necessities and new businesses grew to supply the war. (ex: wood industries, food administration, fuel administration)

- Liberty Loan Drives were used to raise war bonds for the total war effort. 

Others:

- Patriotic language was used to advertise the war. Ex: foods were renamed "liberty steaks".

- The movement against "hyphens": No longer German-American, just American - opposition would make you a traitor.

- This was all fueled by propaganda. 

Opposition to U.S. Entry to WWI:

- Progressive Republicans: blames manufacturers who profit off the war.

- Senator Norris (Republican): an isolationist, against the U.S. entry to WWI because it seemed useless and dangerous for U.S. economic stability. 

- Many Americans opposed the war (especially socialists, internationalists, and women suffrage workers) 

Support for U.S. Entry to WWI: 

- George Creel was the head of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI or Creel Committee), a propaganda organization created by President Woodrow Wilson. 

- Wilson created the 4-minute men who gave speeches in public places to increase support for the war. 

- They used posters, newspapers, movies, and toys to portray the Germans as demons that had to be destroyed by the power of the U.S. military. 

- This new concept of propaganda was needed for the nation's total war effort, however, information that was spread could be false and biased. This method of persuasion was also adopted by the Nazis in vilifying Jewish people during the Holocaust. 

U.S. Entry to WWI: 

Military: The U.S. was not prepared for war.

- The Selective Service Act (1917) used conscriptions (drafts) to raise troops. 

- Ethnically diverse troops: Black Americans faced racism and segregation during WWI as soldiers

Economy: The federal government increased its unprecedented powers to centralize and coordinate the economy to center around mobilization for the war. 

- They regulated wages to minimize strikers and people who striked during the war were viewed as a disgrace. (so labor unions diminished)

- Old businesses produced more war necessities and new businesses grew to supply the navy. (ex: wood industries, food administration, fuel administration)

3. Despite Wilson’s deep involvement in postwar negotiations, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations.

Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points

- Purpose was to prevent another war and avoid the causes of WWI. 

- No secret alliances

- Freedom of the seas (freedom to trade with all nations)

- Eliminate economic barriers (tariffs)

- Reduce imperialism and promote self-determination of young nations to determine their own form of government

- League of Nations which fostered great debate in the U.S. government

The Treaty of Versailles

- Germany was blamed for the entire war, forced to pay reparations, and their military was reduced. 

- The Senate rejected the treaty:

- They feared that the power of the Congress to declare war would be taken away. This decision follows Washington Farewell Address where he promotes noninvolvement in foreign (mainly European) affairs to protect the nation. 

Paris Peace Conference (1919)

- International meeting between nations in WWI to establish terms of peace. 

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge believed that membership in the League of Legends would entangle the U.S. in foreign affairs and prevent the country from acting independently. 

4. In the years following World War I, the United States pursued a unilateral foreign policy that used international investment, peace treaties, and select military intervention to promote a vision of international order, even while maintaining U.S. isolationism. 

Unilateral foreign policy: The Congress wanted to regulate foreign affairs by themselves. (without the consulting/cooperation/opinions of other nations)

International investment: (Dawes Plan 1924) The U.S. government loaned money to Germany which then was used to repay reparation to Britain and France which then gets loans repaid back to the U.S. government. 

• This plan was used to guarantee that overseas trade faced no obstacles. 

• It helped their (all 4 nations) economy recover from the war as there was a steady money flow AS LONG AS the U.S. provided loans to Germany. 

Kellogg Briand Pact (1928): This pact was an effort of peace after WWI which denounced war as an "instrument of national policy". 

- Overall, it was ineffective because it permitted defensive wars and no means for enforcement were available. 

- The U.S. abandoned the League of Nations and turned to Kelloggs Pact which was fairly similar to the League of Nations. 

- There was opposition to this pact as many noted that the U.S. still needed to prepare for war and have an army despite this peace treaty. 

Warren G Harding (Return to normalcy and back to the Gilded Age) 

Period 8 (1945-1980)

Key Concept 8.1: The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable postwar world by asserting and working to maintain a position of global leadership, with far-reaching domestic and international consequences. 

I. United States policymakers engaged in a cold war with the authoritarian Soviet Union, seeking to limit the growth of Communist military power and ideological influence, create a free-market global economy, and build an international security system. 

A. As postwar tensions dissolved the wartime alliance between Western democracies and the Soviet Union, the United States developed a foreign policy based on collective security, international aid, and economic institutions that bolstered non-Communist nations. 

B. Concerned by expansionist Communist ideology and Soviet repression, the United States sought to contain communism through a variety of measures, including major military engagements in Korea and Vietnam. 

C. The Cold War fluctuated between periods of direct and indirect military confrontation and periods of mutual coexistence (or détente). 

D. Postwar decolonization and the emergence of powerful nationalist movements in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East led both sides in the Cold War to seek allies among new nations, many of which remained non aligned. 

E. Cold War competition extended to Latin America, where the United States supported non-Communist regimes that had varying levels of commitment to democracy. 

II. Cold War policies led to public debates over the power of the federal government and acceptable means for pursuing international and domestic goals while protecting civil liberties. 

A. Americans debated policies and methods designed to expose suspected communists within the United States even as both parties supported the broader strategy of containing communism. 

B. Although anticommunist foreign policy faced little domestic opposition in previous years, the Vietnam War inspired sizable and passionate antiwar protests that became more numerous as the war escalated and sometimes led to violence. 

C. Americans debated the merits of a large nuclear arsenal, the military-industrial complex, and the appropriate power of the executive branch in conducting foreign and military policy. 

D. Ideological, military, and economic concerns shaped U.S. involvement in the Middle East, with several oil crises in the region eventually sparking attempts at creating a national energy policy. 

Key Concept 8.2: New movements for civil rights and liberal efforts to expand the role of government generated a range of political and cultural responses. 

I. Seeking to fulfill Reconstruction-era promises, civil rights activists and political leaders achieved some legal and political successes in ending segregation, although progress toward racial equality was slow. 

A. During and after World War II, civil rights activists and leaders, most notably Martin Luther King Jr., combatted racial discrimination utilizing a variety of strategies, including legal challenges, direct action, and nonviolent protest tactics. 

B. The three branches of the federal government used measures including desegregation of the armed services, Brown v. Board of Education, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to promote greater racial equality. 

C. Continuing resistance slowed efforts at desegregation, sparking social and political unrest across the nation. Debates among civil rights activists over the efficacy of nonviolence increased after 1965.

II. Responding to social conditions and the African American civil rights movement, a variety of movements emerged that focused on issues of identity, social justice, and the environment. 

A. Feminist and gay and lesbian activists mobilized behind claims for legal, economic, and social equality. 

B. Latino, American Indian, and Asian American movements continued to demand social and economic equality and a redress of past injustices. 

C. Despite an overall affluence in postwar America, advocates raised concerns about the prevalence and persistence of poverty as a national problem. 

D. Environmental problems and accidents led to a growing environmental movement that aimed to use legislative and public efforts to combat pollution and protect natural resources. The federal government established new environmental programs and regulations.

III. Liberalism influenced postwar politics and court decisions, but it came under increasing attack from the left as well as from a resurgent conservative movement. 

A. Liberalism, based on anticommunism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of government power to achieve social goals at home, reached a high point of political influence by the mid-1960s. 

B. Liberal ideas found expression in Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which attempted to use federal legislation and programs to end racial discrimination, eliminate poverty, and address other social issues. A series of Supreme Court decisions expanded civil rights and individual liberties. 

C. In the 1960s, conservatives challenged liberal laws and court decisions and perceived moral and cultural decline, seeking to limit the role of the federal government and enact more assertive foreign policies. 

D. Some groups on the left also rejected liberal policies, arguing that political leaders did too little to transform the racial and economic status quo at home and pursued immoral policies abroad. 

E. Public confidence and trust in the government's ability to solve social and economic problems declined in the 1970s in the wake of economic challenges, political scandals, and foreign policy crises. 

F. The 1970s saw growing clashes between conservatives and liberals over social and cultural issues, the power of the federal government, race, and movements for greater individual rights. 

Key Concept 8.3: Postwar economic and demographic changes had far-reaching consequences for American society, politics, and culture. 

I. Rapid economic and social changes in American society fostered a sense of optimism in the postwar years. 

A. A burgeoning private sector, federal spending, the baby boom, and technological developments helped spur economic growth. 

B. As higher education opportunities and new technologies rapidly expanded, increasing social mobility encouraged the migration of the middle class to the suburbs and of many Americans to the South and West. The Sun Belt region emerged as a significant political and economic force. 

C. Immigrants from around the world sought access to the political, social, and economic opportunities in the United States, especially after the passage of new immigration laws in 1965.

II. New demographic and social developments, along with anxieties over the Cold War, changed U.S. culture and led to significant political and moral debates that sharply divided the nation. 

A. Mass culture became increasingly homogeneous in the postwar years, inspiring challenges to conformity by artists, intellectuals, and rebellious youth.

B. Feminists and young people who participated in the counterculture of the 1960s rejected many of the social, economic, and political values of their parents’ generation, introduced greater informality into U.S. culture, and advocated changes in sexual norms. 

C. The rapid and substantial growth of evangelical Christian churches and organizations was accompanied by greater political and social activism on the part of religious conservatives.

Period 9 (1980-Present)

Key Concept 9.1: A newly ascendant conservative movement achieved several political and policy goals during the 1980s and continued to strongly influence public discourse in the following decades. 

I. Conservative beliefs regarding the need for traditional social values and a reduced role for government advanced in U.S. politics after 1980. 

A. Ronald Reagan’s victory in the presidential election of 1980 represented an important milestone, allowing conservatives to enact significant tax cuts and continue the deregulation of many industries. 

B. Conservatives argued that liberal programs were counterproductive in fighting poverty and stimulating economic growth. Some of their efforts to reduce the size and scope of government met with inertia and liberal opposition, as many programs remained popular with voters. 

C. Policy debates continued over free-trade agreements, the scope of the government social safety net, and calls to reform the U.S. financial system. 

Key Concept 9.2: Moving into the 21st century, the nation experienced significant technological, economic, and demographic changes. 

I. New developments in science and technology enhanced the economy and transformed society, while manufacturing decreased. 

A. Economic productivity increased as improvements in digital communications enabled increased American participation in worldwide economic opportunities. 

B. Technological innovations in computing, digital mobile technology, and the Internet transformed daily life, increased access to information, and led to new social behaviors and networks. 

C. Employment increased in service sectors and decreased in manufacturing, and union membership declined. 

D. Real wages stagnated for the working and middle class amid growing economic inequality. 

II. The U.S. population continued to undergo demographic shifts that had significant cultural and political consequences. 

A. After 1980, the political, economic, and cultural influence of the American South and West continued to increase as population shifted to those areas. 

B. International migration from Latin America and Asia increased dramatically. The new immigrants affected U.S. culture in many ways and supplied the economy with an important labor force. 

C. Intense political and cultural debates continued over issues such as immigration policy, diversity, gender roles, and family structures. 

Key Concept 9.3: The end of the Cold War and new challenges to U.S. leadership forced the nation to redefine its foreign policy and role in the world. 

I. The Reagan administration promoted an interventionist foreign policy that continued in later administrations, even after the end of the Cold War. 

A. Reagan asserted U.S. opposition to communism through speeches, diplomatic efforts, limited military interventions, and a buildup of nuclear and conventional weapons.

B. Increased U.S. military spending, Reagan’s diplomatic initiatives, and political changes and economic problems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were all important in ending the Cold War. 

C. The end of the Cold War led to new diplomatic relationships but also new U.S. military and peacekeeping interventions, as well as continued debates over the appropriate use of American power in the world. 

II. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. foreign policy efforts focused on fighting terrorism around the world. 

A. In the wake of attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States launched military efforts against terrorism and lengthy, controversial conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

B. The war on terrorism sought to improve security within the United States but also raised questions about the protection of civil liberties and human rights. 

C. Conflicts in the Middle East and concerns about climate change led to debates over U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of economic consumption on the environment. 

D. Despite economic and foreign policy challenges, the United States continued as the world’s leading superpower in the 21st century.