Unit 2: From Making a Revolution to Making a Nation1776 to 1830s (Chapters 5-10)

Click here for what the title shows about the unit.

Study Guide

The Objective Exam will consist primarily of multiple choice questions drawn from the terms below. The total value is 100 points. There are 25 questions each at 4 points. Reminder: Unit 2 consists of Chapters 5-10. The word Chapter refers to numbered parts a) of your textbook and b) to the specific Blackboard learning module for that chapter. Blackboard learning modules have a Table of Contents on the left that let you see all of the resources available so you can click on the one you want. All chapters have links from your instructor and a folder containing specific primaries. Some also include resources such as maps.

 

The 5 Ws rule is a good guide to understanding the items below: you should know Who, What, When, Where, and Why—and sometimes How.  You can look up these individual items in the textbook index at the back of the book or find them covered next to an item listed below. Use the textbook with Instructor’s links that provide visuals, usually in tables, to help you compare information to see similarities and differences.

1.        War issues (Resource: instructor’s links in Chapter 5):

·         War for Independence, Patriot and British weaknesses and strengths

·         Saratoga, what it is and why is it significant including in what nations are fighting the British

·         Yorktown, what it is and why is it significant

·         British strategy of recruiting slaves as soldiers and the results with Southern slaveholders

·         Articles of Confederation, what is it and how it causes problems for the war effort

·         Terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783

2.        Post-war issues (Resource: instructor’s links in Chapter 6):

·         Views of religious freedom and development of state governments and state constitutions

·         Northwest Ordinance, its parts and significance

·         Shays’s Rebellion, its causes and the consequences

3.        Constitution (Resource: instructor’s links in Chapter 6):

·         Constitutional Convention and compromise (large state, small state issues; slavery and taxation and voting; electoral college, and creation of a republic)

·         Women

·         Slaveholder/slave trade protection plus protection from state slave codes

·         Foreign policy and war, who does what

·         Federalists, who they are

·         Federalist Papers, authors and purpose in ratification

·         Anti-Federalists, who they are

·         Bill of Rights, what it is and how it happens

·         District of Columbia (DC), what and why it is

4.        The New Republic (Resource: instructor’s links in Chapter 6)

·         Views of the nation, Hamilton and Jefferson (See primaries in Chapter 6.)

·         Rise of political parties, Federalists and Democratic Republicans (or Republicans—but they are not like modern Republicans—or Jeffersonian Republicans)

·         Party divisions on:
- National bank plus “implied powers”
- Alien and Sedition Act

·         Pinckney’s Treaty

·         Whiskey Rebellion, causes and suppression

·         Westward expansion, political party gaining from

5.        Election of 1800 and the “peaceful revolution”

6.        Jefferson and “republican simplicity”

7.        Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall, 1801-1835 and decisions (Resource: instructor’s links available from Chapters 7-10 for this and issues below.)

8.        Marbury v. Madison and judicial review

9.        Louisiana Purchase, including Napoleon and the French-British war

10.     Ending of the slave trade during Jefferson’s term (See the Constitution.)

11.     War of 1812, war issues (impressment, Native Americans and British)

12.     War of 1812, economic consequences, especially in the North

13.     Hartford Convention, session and consequences on political parties

14.     War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans and Andrew Jackson

15.     Era of Good Feelings and James Monroe

16.     National bank, Panic of 1819, and westerners’ anti-bank view

17.     Monroe Doctrine, its purpose and author

18.     Rise of sectionalism and the Missouri Compromise (See the caution in the instructor’s link and see the primary in Chapter 9.)

19.     Election of 1824, so-called “corrupt bargain” and the decline of economic nationalism and John Quincy Adams

20.     Election of 1828, nominating convention and its victor

21.     Administrations of Andrew Jackson, and the “spoils system,” the veto of the national bank (and subsequent recession), the nullification crisis with South Carolina (and what makes the state volatile), removal of the Native Americans in the South and the Trail of Tears

 

Changes that develop and increase over time:

22.     States decreasing property requirements to vote and increasing the number of white male voters (Begins in Jefferson’s time and escalates in Jackson’s. States vary; in the North some free blacks vote.)

23.     Political parties shifting to volatile nominating conventions, a method first used by the American Party (nativism)

24.     Immigration and rise of nativism as a political party

·         Irish mainly to the Northeast, type of work, their religion

·         Germans mainly to the new Northwest, type of work

25.     Cotton gin, inventor and role in the westward expansion of slavery

26.     Cotton textile mills, Lowell Mills in New England (but British textile mills were the major purchasers of Southern cotton)

27.     New internal improvements in transportation mainly in the North—canals, turnpikes (toll roads), and later railroad (Erie Canal - See primaries in Chapter 8.)

28.     New means of transportation—Conestoga wagons, steamboats, steamships, clipper ships

29.     New agricultural machinery—Deere plow, McCormick reaper

 

The Concept Exam will consist of a variety of types of questions ranging from multiple choice questions to short essay. The total value is 50 points. The Required Concepts folder contains a list of all concepts, including which apply to Unit 1. I will explain in class any concept that will be on the exam. (FYI: I create my tests in sets so they vary for students.)

 

The Written Exam will consist of 1 essay written in class on notebook paper I will provide. You bring your textbook because you must cite the page number for each fact you use. I will grade your answer side by side with the textbook—I will know easily whether you read and wrote with care. The total value is 50 points with 25 points for contents and 25 points for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence. I will state the possible questions during our talks together in class. You will then know all possible questions, but you will not know which one you will be asked on your exam.

 

What the Title Tells You about This Unit

We begin with the hard times after 1776 and the challenges that had to be met to make the American Revolution successful enough for independence from Great Britain. (The name Great Britain was used beginning in the early 1700s for the combination of England, Scotland, and Wales.) Ending the revolution began the struggle to design a nation. We create the Constitution and a republic and by 1800 and the election of Thomas Jefferson we have a “peaceful revolution” that increases the power of ordinary people—or at least the power of ordinary white me—in the republic. We expand to the west, with the largest expansion being the Louisiana Purchase.

 

We use Chapters 7-10 to show the transformation of the new nation with a focus on these areas.

·         What are the new geographic sections of America?

·         What are the general changes, including in technologies of transportation that change geographic relationships?

·         What are significant elections and what are changes in voting

·         What happens with slavery and the new territories? Slavery and voting?

·         What happens with the Native Americans?

·         What and who changes with the Supreme Court?

·         What happens with financial policies since the time of Hamilton to the 1840s?