Benchmark Study Guide

Important Dates

• 1607• 1776• 1787• 1803• 1861-1865

1607: Jamestown

• First English Settlement in North America

• Led By John Smith

• Troubled by starvation and Native Americans

1776: Declaration of Independence

• July 4th: Written by Thomas Jefferson

• Independence Hall, Philadelphia

1787: Constitution

• Replaced the Articles of Confederation

• Mapped out the American Government.

1803: Louisiana Purchase

• Thomas Jefferson was president.

• He and Robert Livingston negotiated with Napoleon

• USA wanted New Orleans because of it’s access to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.

1861-1865: Civil War

• Fought between the Union and the Confederacy

• Started at Ft Sumter• Ended at Appomattox

Courthouse

VIPs during the American Revolution

• George Washington• Thomas Jefferson• Thomas Paine• Sam Adams• Benjamin Franklin• Patrick Henry• John Jay

George Washington

• Commander of the American Army

• Father of our country

• First US President

Thomas Jefferson

• Wrote the Declaration of Independence

• 3rd President

• Louisianan Purchase

Thomas Paine

• Wrote “Common Sense”, which mocked the monarchy and praised democracy

• Journalist

Sam Adams

• Led the Boston Tea Party

• Opposed taxes from England

Benjamin Franklin

• Famous Writer

• Represented America overseas during the Revolution

• Now every idiot wannabe gangsta rapper knows who he is.

Patrick Henry

• Protested British tyranny• Symbol of American

struggle for liberty• Served in the Virginia House

of Burgesses and the Continental Congress

• Five-term governor of Virginia

• Delivered the famous "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech

John Jay

• First Supreme Court Justice

• Co-Author of “The Federalist Papers”

Historical Documents

• Magna Carta• English Bill of Rights• Declaration of

Independence• Federalist Papers

• Might need to also know “Common Sense”

Magna Carta

• English legal document written in 1215 CE

• Stated that the King was not above the law

• First document to discuss civil rights

• Gave many ideas to the framers of the Constitution

English Bill of Rights

• Passed by Parliament in December 1689

• fundamental instruments of constitutional law.

• Made the crown accountable to Parliament

Declaration of Independence

• Jefferson summarized this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country

• Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people

Federalist Papers

• Written by John Jay, John Hamilton and James Madison

• Essays on why the Constitution was a good thing for the new country

SRPLICF???

• See• Rocky• Pop• Lock• In • Class• Foo

Seven Principles of the Constitution

• See• Rocky• Pop• Lock• In• Class• Foo

• Separation of Powers• Republicanism• Popular Sovereignty• Limited Government• Individual Rights• Checks and Balances• Federalism

Separation of Powers

• Created three branches of the government, each with a unique responsibly

• Legislative (Congress)• Judicial (Supreme

Court)• Executive ( President)

Republicanism

• A republic is a nation governed by elected representatives, rather than by a king. The authority to rule in a republic then lies with the people, not the government.

Popular Sovereignty

• Popular sovereignty refers to a system of government in which the people hold supreme power.

• Government therefore derives its power from the consent of the governed.

Limited Government

• The desire for limited government came about out of a desire to ensure that no other entity would be too powerful and tyrannical in nature.

• No branch has all powers

Individual Rights

• Most of the individual rights are found in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Some of the rights that are guaranteed include freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, and a right to a jury trial

Checks and Balances

• The Constitution created an extended way of making sure that no one branch of the federal government would become too powerful.

• It provided each branch of government with ways to check or limit the other branches. Examples of these checks and balances include the President vetoing legislation, the Judicial Branch declaring a law unconstitutional, and the Legislative Branch impeach and remove a President.

Federalism

• The writers of the U.S. Constitution did not eliminate the states as separate sources of power. Instead, they created a system in which power was shared between the national government and the state governments

19th Century Amendments

• 13th amendment- abolished slavery

• 14th amendment- granted citizenship to African Americans

• 15th amendment- gave African American males the right to vote (suffrage)

Nullification Crisis

• The Nullification Crisis was when South Carolina refused to pay the tariffs that president Andrew Jackson had set up.

Opposed by his own VP, John C Calhoun

States Rights Issues

• Secession was based on the idea of state rights (or "states rights," a variant that came into use after the Civil War). This exalted the powers of the individual states as opposed to those of the Federal government. It generally rested on the theory of state sovereignty-- that in the United States the ultimate source of political authority lay in the separate states.

The Second Industrial Revolution

• Before the Industrial revolution, society was one based largely on agriculture. A majority of people lived and survived on single-family subsistence farms. Most farming was done by hand. New tools and improved production allowed crops to be produced easier and more efficient. The production of goods changed from home or small-scale production to factories where machines were run by steam power and later electricity. Small towns and cities changed from farming communities which were largely rural to large over-crowded, industrial centers which were characterized by overcrowded tenement housing, poor sanitation, high crime, and poor working conditions for the people who worked in factories.

Industrialization

• The Second Industrial Revolution is a result of growth of railroads, labor unions, farm issues, and the rise of big business in America.

• Technological innovation made the production of goods more efficient, the cost of goods cheaper, created greater access to more efficient travel, and the movement of goods and services.

• Technological innovations disrupt the workforce by making some jobs obsolete and disrupt the environment in search of natural resources.

•

Growth of Railroads

• The transcontinental railroad crossed more than 2,300 miles of mostly undeveloped land that the railroads wanted to populate in order to generate additional business..

• They initiated an extensive advertising program in the poorer areas of Europe to bring immigrants to the empty land at very little cost.

• The immigrant movement that resulted generated the largest population boom in American history as millions poured into the country to claim free land along the railroad route, helping to settle the Prairie States and the West in the process.

Labor Unions

• Workers in factories protesting wages, child labor and unfair working hours. They conducted strikes, which shut down industry