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Salutary Neglect
Britain's unofficial policy, initiated by prime minister Robert Walpole , to relax the enforcement of strict regulations, particularly trade laws, imposed on the American colonies.
significance: The purpose was to maximize economic output amongst the colonists while maintain some form of control. -
Seven Years' War
A global conflict which pitted a coalition of Great Britain and its allies against a coalition of France and its allies. The war escalated from the French and Indian war.
significance: provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution. -
Pontiacs Rebellion
An Ottawa leader who led a loose confederation of Native Americans from numerous tribes to fight for their land against the presence of British troops at the conclusion of the French and Indian War.
significance: made the British seek more peaceful relations with Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. They issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling in the region, as a way to avoid further conflict. -
Peace of Paris 1763
Ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there.
significance: ended the war -
Stamp of Congress
Moderate representatives of nine colonies to frame resolutions of “rights and grievances” and to petition the king and Parliament for repeal of the objectionable measures.
significance: the first unified meeting of the American colonies to respond to British colonial policies. -
Intolerable Acts
Punitive laws passed by the British Parliament after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods.
significance: They were an important factor contributing to the American Revolution. Colonists felt that this legislation violated their rights as Englishmen and their Natural Rights as human beings. -
Prohibitory Act
British legislation that cut off all trade between the American colonies and England, and removed the colonies from the King's protection.
significance: prohibited loyalists from fleeing colonies and closed all trade. -
Minutemen
Civilian colonists who independently organized to form militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War.
significance: provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats. The minutemen were among the first to fight in the American Revolution. -
Lexington and Concord
The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. British troops had moved from Boston toward Lexington and Concord to seize the colonists' military supplies and arrest revolutionaries but the Americans won the battle.
significance: signaled the start of the American Revolutionary war. The British set out from Boston to capture rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington and to destroy the Americans store of weapons and ammunition in Concord. -
Olive Branch Petition
Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775 and signed on July 8 in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America.
significance: a final attempt by the colonists to avoid going to war with Britain during the American Revolution. It was a document in which the colonists pledged their loyalty to the crown and asserted their rights as British citizens. -
Declaration of Independence
The pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House
significance: It was an official act taken by all 13 American colonies in declaring independence from British rule. -
Battle of Saratoga
The climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War.
significance: The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolutionary War. -
Articles of Confederation
an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. The purpose was to plan the structure of the new government and to create a confederation-some kind of government.
significance: it provided enough of a structure for the nation to survive during those eight years, while the American people learned about the requirements to run an effective national government. -
Battle of Yorktown
a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops and French Army troops over a British army commanded by British peer and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.
significance: Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington as French and American forces trapped the British at Yorktown. The British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Shay's Rebellion
an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in opposition to a debt crisis among the citizenry and the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades
significance: informed the debate over the framing of a new U.S. Constitution, providing fuel to Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists who advocated for a strong federal government and diminished states' rights. -
3/5s Compromise
counted 3 out of every 5 slaves as people for this purpose. Its effect was to give the Southern states a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than if slaves had been ignored, but fewer than if slaves and free people had been counted equally.
significance: allowed Southern states to count a portion of its enslaved population for purposes of taxation and representation. The compromise gave the South more power than it would have had if enslaved people had not been counted. -
Bill of Rights
The first 10 amendments- freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. Right to keep and bear arms in order to maintain a well regulated militia, right to due process of law, freedom from self-incrimination, double jeopardy.
significance: These amendments guarantee essential rights and civil liberties as well as reserving rights to the people and the states. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Revolt against the US government provoked by a tax on whisky, and was the first serious challenge to federal authority. Collection of the tax met violent resistance, but when President Washington called out the militia, the rebellion collapsed.
significance: Washington showed that the federal government had the strength to enforce its law -
Alien and Sedition Acts
Laws passed by the Federalist Congress and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote.
significance: tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech critical of the Government. -
Revolution of 1800
Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party. The election was a realigning election that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican rule.
significance: The first time that power in America passed from one party to another. He promised to govern as he felt the Founders intended, based on decentralized government and trust in the people to make the right decisions for themselves.
