| A | B |
|---|
| Mayflower Compact | a form of self-government in which the settlers pledged to mutually govern their colony together |
| Virginia House of Burgesses | a first form of representative government in which Virginians elected their represenatives to make decisions for their colony |
| Triangular trade | trade between the New England colonies, Africa, and the West Indies trading guns, rum, molasses, and slaves |
| Slavery | an institution in which one is forced to work against their will |
| Mercantilism | an economic system in which the mother country requires its colonies to provide them with cheap raw materials; encourage more exports than imports (favorable balance of trade) |
| Salutary Neglect | a time period in which Britain ignored it's English colonies and realized they could be economically independent |
| Albany Plan of Union | an inter-colonial union was proposed; it failed because the colonies did not want to give up any power to a central gov't |
| French & Indian War | a war mainly fought over land in the Ohio River Valley region; the British won |
| Proclamation of 1763 | a British law keeping the colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains to allow the Indians to stay on their land |
| Stamp Act | first direct tax on the colonists taxing all paper products |
| Stamp Act Congress | this successfully repealed the Stamp Act on the basis of "no taxation without representation" |
| Boston Massacre | a group of colonists harassed British soldiers leading to 5 colonists lying dead |
| Declaration of Independence | a list of grievances (reasons) directed to the King of England stating why the colonists were declaring their independence |
| Common Sense | a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine pursuading colonists to demand their independence from Britain |
| European Enlightenment | philosophers such as Locke and Montesquieu heavily influenced American gov't with their ideas of natural rights and equality |
| Natural Rights | John Locke's principles that can be seen in the Declaration of Independence |
| Boston Tea Party | an event organized by the Sons of Liberty in reaction to the tea tax; 150 men dumped lots of British tea into Boston harbor; led to the Intolerable Acts |
| Articles of Confederation | created a weak central gov't giving states too much power |
| U.S. Constitution | created a strong central gov't; referred to as the "Supreme Law of the Land" |
| Shays' Rebellion | this event proved the Articles of Confederation to be insufficient |
| Philadelphia Convention | the United Constitution was drafted |
| bicameral legislature | 2-house legislature |
| Great Compromise | dealt with the issue of representation in Congress |
| 3/5 Compromise | dealt with the issue of slavery |
| Ratification Debates | the Federalists and Anti-federalists debated the need of the U.S. Constitution |
| Federalist Papers | a collection of papers supporting the need of the U.S. Constitution |
| Preamble | the introduction to the Constitution stating that the people are the source of power |
| Federalism | the system of shared powers among the states and federal gov't |
| Checks and Balances | the system keeping one branch of gov't from becoming too powerful |
| Federal Census | the population count taken every 10 years to determine representation in Congress |
| Bill of Rights | amendments 1-10 protecting the rights of citizens |
| Reserved powers | powers of the state gov't |
| Delegated powers | powers of the federal gov't |
| Concurrent powers | powers shared among the state and federal gov't |
| Elastic Clause | Congress is given the power to make all laws "necessary and proper" |
| Judicial Review | the power of the Supreme Court to rule laws unconstitutional established in the court case Marbury v. Madison |
| Precedent | Examples set and traditions followed, for example, the 2-term presidency, the farewell address, the cabinet |
| Unwritten Constitution | the ideas and practices that are just done, but not written in the U.S. Constitution; the most important examples are the President's cabinet, political parties, and judicial review |
| Hamilton's Financial Plan | Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's plan to get the United States out of debt; included assumption, the national bank, an excise tax on liquor, and a protective tariff; the most important part is the creation of the national bank in 1793 in which the Congress used it's power of the Elastic Clause |
| Federalists | pro-strong central gov't, pro-Bank of the United States, Bet on the Brits - Alexander Hamilton |
| Democrat-Republicans | pro-weak central gov't, friends with France, pro-agriculture - Thomas Jefferson |
| Whiskey Rebellion | Pennsylvania farmers unsuccessfully rebelled against the excise tax placed on whiskey; proved the U.S. Constitution works |
| Farewell Address | Washington left the presidency in 1797 emphasizing that the U.S. should "steer clear of permanent foreign alliances", therefore remain neutral or follow an isolationist foreign policy |
| Louisiana Purchase | he Louisiana Territory was purchased from France for $15 million. President Jefferson used his power to make treaties to buy the land, even though it violated his strict constructionist viewpoint of the Constitution. It doubled the size of the U.S. allowing western farmers to grow their markets and trade utilizing the Port of New Orleans. The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled and mapped the land all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which was actually illegal. |
| Social Contract theory | the idea from the Enlightenment that decisions made within a society are done with majority rule |
| Northwest Ordinance | an achievement under the Articles of Confederation creating a system for admitting new states to the union |
| Separation of Powers | the three branches of government - legislative, executive, and judicial dividing the power within the federal government |
