| 520077916 | Christopher Columbus | An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journeys until the time of his death in 1503. | |
| 520077917 | Ferdinand Magellan | Portuguese seaman, who in the employ of Spain, set out to find passage through or around South America, and consequently led the first voyage around the globe. This expedition lasted from 1519-1522. Magellan was killed in the Philippines (1521). One of his ships returned to Spain (1522), thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the globe. Spain then claimed the Philippines. | |
| 520077918 | Juan Ponce de Leon | Spanish Explorer; in 1513 and in 1521, he explored Florida, thinking it was an island. Looking for gold and the "fountain of youth", he failed in his search for the fountain of youth but established Florida as territory for the Spanish, before being killed by a Native American arrow. | |
| 520077919 | Vasco Nunez de Balboa | Spanish explorer who is best known for being the first to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1513. While attempting to escape debt he joined an expedition lead by Martin Fernandez de Enciso where he took control of the party and led it across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean, which he claimed for the Spanish monarchs. | |
| 520077920 | Spanish conquistadors | Columbus was the first, most were younger sons of Spanish noblemen.
Columbus left Madrid with 3 sailing ships and landed at Hispanolia. Conquistadors conquered New World territories.
100 years: 1492-1592.
New World (central + S. America + Caribbean)
Columbus was searching for a Western route to reach the orient in the east. Followers wanted gold, glory, and soulds. They received landgrants from Pope/crown and believed they were carrying out God's will. | |
| 520077921 | Jamestown | The first successful settlement in the Virginia colony founded in May, 1607. Harsh conditions nearly destroyed the colony but in 1610 supplies arrived with a new wave of settlers. The settlement became part of the Virginia Company of London in 1620. The population remained low due to lack of supplies until agriculture was solidly established. Jamestown grew to be a prosperous shipping port when John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a major export and cash crop. | |
| 520077922 | Virginia Company | Joint-Stock Company in London that received a charter for land in the new world. Charter guarantees new colonists same rights as people back in England. | |
| 520077923 | John Rolfe | He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony. | |
| 520077924 | proprietary colony | A proprietary colony was a colony in which one or more individuals, usually land owners, remaining subject to their parent state's sanctions, retained rights that are today regarded as the privilege of the state, and in all cases eventually became so. One example of this is Lord Baltimore's colony set up (by his son Cecilius Calvert) to be not only a source of profit, but a refuge for Catholics. | |
| 520077925 | Lord Baltimore | Founded the colony of Maryland and offered religious freedom to all Christian colonists. He did so because he knew that members of his own religion (Catholicism) would be a minority in the colony. The final charter for Maryland was confirmed on June 20, 1632. | |
| 520077926 | Puritans and Pilgrims | The Puritans were a party in the Church of England who wished to carry through the Protestant Reformation to its logical conclusion, and establish both a religion and a way of life based on the Bible - as interpreted by themselves.
The Pilgrims were a group of Separatists who, unlike the majority of Puritans, despaired of reforming the Church of England and broke away to create a new institution. The left England for America and landed in the harbor of Cape Cod on November 11, 1620. | |
| 520077927 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | One of the first settlements in New England. Established in 1630 by King Charles, it became a major Puritan colony. It later became the state of Massachusetts, originally where Boston is located. It was a major trading center, and was practically free from England. | |
| 520077928 | New Netherland | New Netherland began as a trading-post colony in 1624, with the foundation of Fort Orange (Albany) up the Hudson. New Netherland was governed much as Virginia had been before 1618, by a governor and a council appointed by the company, without representatives. | |
| 520077929 | New France | French colony in North America, with a capital in Quebec, founded 1608. New France fell to the British in 1763. | |
| 520077930 | New Amsterdam | a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became the city now known as New York City. | |
| 520077931 | mercantilism | European government policies of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries designed to promote overseas trade between a country and its colonies and accumulate precious metals by requiring colonies to trade only with their motherland country. | |
| 520077932 | Acts of Trade and Navigation | 3 acts. 1st closed the colonies to all trade except that from English ships, and required the colonists to export certain goods, such as tobacco, to only English territories.The second act (1663) demanded that everything being shipped from Europe to the colonies had to pass through England so they could tax the goods. The third act, in 1673, was a reaction to the general disregard of the first two laws; it forced duties on the costal trade among the colonies and supplied customs officials to enforce the Navigation Acts. | |
| 520077933 | Peter Stuyvesant | Governor of New Netherland who swore to defend the city and enlarged it at the expense of his neighbors. When an English fleet appeared off New Amsterdam one summer's day in 1664 and ordered the Dutch to surrender, Governor Stuyvesant did, and New Netherland became New York without a single shot fired. | |
| 520077934 | Sir George Carteret | One of the proprietors who was given the southern part of the Duke of York's colony. He and his partner, Lord John Berkeley, named their colony New Jersey. | |
| 520077935 | William Penn | Penn, an English Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1682, after receiving a charter from King Charles II the year before. He launched the colony as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance. | |
| 520077936 | Sir William Berkeley | Appointed by Charles II, Berkeley was the royal governor of Virginia from 1641-1652 and 1660-1677. | |
| 520077937 | Bacon's Rebellion | an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland occurred later that year. The uprising was a protest against the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley. The rebellion ended abruptly when Bacon died of an illness. | |
| 520077938 | French and Indian War | Also known as the Seven Years War, it world war that took place between 1756 and 1763. It was fought by French and English on American soil over control of the Ohio River Valley. The English defeated French in 1763. This war established England as the number one world power and began to gradually change attitudes of the colonists toward England for the worse. | |
| 520077939 | James Oglethrope | A colonist that got a charter from King George II and wanted that colony to be a new place where debtors could have a new fresh start. The colony's name is Georgia. He outlawed slavery, no plantations but small farms, banned rum, and limited the size of granted land. | |
| 520077940 | The Carolinas | By 1730, South Carolina was a planting colony like Virginia, with different staples, and a centralized instead of a dispersed social and political.
In North Carolina was poor, turbulent, and democratic, with relatively few slaves and, unlike South Carolina, few plantations. | |
| 520077941 | Benjamin Franklin | American public official, writer, scientist, and printer. After the success of his Poor Richard's Almanac (1732-1757), he entered politics and played a major part in the American Revolution. Franklin negotiated French support for the colonists, signed the Treaty of Paris (1783), and helped draft the Constitution (1787-1789). His numerous scientific and practical innovations include the lightning rod, bifocal spectacles, and a stove. | |
| 520077942 | John Peter Zenger | Journalist who questioned the policies of the governor of New York in the 1700's. He was jailed; he sued, and this court case was the basis for our freedom of speech and press. He was found not guilty. | |
| 520077943 | Albany Plan | Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Hutchinson submitted the Albany Plan during the French and Indian War on 1754 gathering of colonial delegates in Albany, New York. The plan called for the colonies to unify in the face of French and Native American threats. The delegates approved the plan, but the colonies rejected it for fear of losing too much power. The Crown did not support the plan either, as it was wary of too much cooperation between the colonies. | |
| 520077944 | James Wolfe | James Wolfe was made first brigadier general under General Amherst by William Pitt He was the British general whose success in the Battle of Quebec won Canada for the British Empire. Even though the battle was only fifteen minutes, Wolfe was killed in the line of duty. This was a decisive battle in the French and Indian War. | |
| 520077945 | Treaty of Paris | Also known as the Peace of Paris, this treaty signed in 1763 stated that French Canada and the Spanish Floridas were ceded to Great Britain, while France ceded Louisiana and all French claims to Spain. It ended the Seven Years War | |
| 520077946 | George III | King of England during the American Revolution; wished to keep the Americans as a loyal colony; instituted many taxes on the colonists to boost revenue for England | |
| 520077947 | William Pitt | The Prime Minister of England during the French and Indian War. He increased the British troops and military supplies in the colonies, and this is why England won the war. He led and won a war against Quebec and brought the Seven Years War to an end. | |
| 520077948 | Sugar Act | The Revenue Act of 1764 - often known as the Sugar Act - was designed to plug the leaks of the Acts of Trade and Navigation. The act cut the tax on foreign molasses in half, but increased tax on foreign sugar, wine, silk, and linen. Colonists avoided the tax by smuggling and by bribing tax collectors | |
| 520077949 | Stamp Act | The Stamp Act was passed on march 22, 1765, and forced revenue stamps to be affixed on all papers, such as newspapers, notes and bonds, almanacs, and legal documents. | |
| 520077950 | Sons of Liberty | A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. | |
| 520077951 | Townshend Act | Passed by Parliament in 1767, this act imposed import duties on tea, paper, glass, red and white lead, and painter's colors. It provoked the imperial crisis of 1767-1770. In 1770 Parliament repealed all of the duties except the one on tea. | |
| 520077952 | Writs of Assistance | Part of the Townshend Act, the Writs of Assistance stated that search warrants could be issued by the British government. They allowed officials to search houses and ships for smuggled goods, and to enlist colonials to help them search. The writs could be used anywhere, anytime, as often as desired. The officials did not need to prove that there was reasonable cause to believe that the person subject to the search had committed a crime or might have possession of contraband before getting a writ or searching a house. The writs were protested by the colonies. | |
| 520077953 | Boston Massacre | On March 5, 1770, it was the first bloodshed of the American Revolution. British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans. | |
| 520077954 | Samuel Adams | Massachusetts Revolutionary leader and propagandist who organized opposition to British policies after 1764; radical member of Sons of Liberty, worried that violence of group would discredit it; proposed united plea for repeal of Townshend Duties and another pan-colonial congress; circulated his own exaggerated version of events around colonies | |
| 520077955 | Boston Tea Party | A demonstration (1773) by citizens of Boston who (disguised as Indians) raided three British ships in Boston harbor and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. It was organized as a protest as the tax on tea. | |
| 520077956 | Intolerable Acts | In response to Boston Tea Party, 4 acts passed in 1774: Port of Boston closed until the tea had been paid for, reduced power of assemblies in colonies, permitted royal officers to be tried elsewhere, provided for quartering of troop's in barns and empty houses. | |
| 520077957 | Quebec Act | Quickly following the Intolerable Acts, this act extended boundaries of Quebec and granted equal rights to Catholics and recognized legality Catholic Church in the territory. Colonists feared this meant that a pope would soon oversee the colonies. | |
| 520077958 | First Continental Congress | This Congress was assembled in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, on September 5, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. The congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, voted for a boycott of British imports, and sent a petition to King George III, conceding to Parliament the power of regulation of commerce but stringently objecting to its arbitrary taxation and unfair judicial system. | |
| 520077959 | Thomas Gage | Thomas Gage was a British general. Upon hearing that the revolutionary committee was collecting military stores at Concord, he sent a strong detail of his garrison to destroy them. A rude surprise awaited the red-coats, for sounding the alarm "through every Middlesex village and farm," Paul Revere and Will Dawes aroused the whole countryside. | |
| 520077960 | Paul Revere and William Dawes | A rude surprise awaited the red-coats, for sounding the alarm "through every Middlesex village and farm," Paul Revere and Will Dawes aroused the whole countryside. | |
| 520077961 | Lexington and Concord | The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The militia were outnumbered and fell back, and the regulars proceeded on to Concord, where they searched for the supplies. Shots exchanged between Minutemen and the British (including the "shot heart 'round the world" as the british continued to Concord. Americans ambushed the British, killing 300. | |
| 520077962 | John Hancock | President of the Continental Congress, Hancoc was a wealthy Massachusetts merchant in 1776 who was important in persuading the American colonies to declare their independence from England. He was the ring leader in the plot to store gunpowder which resulted in the battles in Lexington and Concord. These battles began the American Revolution. | |
| 520077963 | Second Continental Congress | In 1775, this Congress organized the continental Army, called on the colonies to send troops, selected George Washington to lead the army, and appointed the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. | |
| 520077964 | Battle of Breed's Hill | The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. British garrison in Boston made a frontal assault on a hill in near-by Boston town, which the patriot militia had fortified. They won the hill, but it cost them 1054 killed and wounded out of the 2200 troops engaged. | |
| 520077965 | Thomas Paine and "Common Sense" | An English man who moved to America and wrote a pamphlet that explained why Americans should not be angry at parliament, after all the problem was really in the English constitution, which had apparently caused harm to its own people and could not govern another area. The pamphlet was very popular in the colonies were 100,000 copies were sold in a few months, and helped create support for the idea of American independence | |
| 520077966 | Loyalists | American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence. | |
| 520077967 | Tory | Loyalists/Tories were British North American colonists who remained loyal subjects of the British crown during the American Revolution. | |
| 520077968 | Declaration of Independence | The document approved by representatives of the American colonies in 1776 that stated their grievances against the British monarch and declared their independence. | |
| 520077969 | General George Washington | General Washington was the commander of the Continental army throughout the Revolutionary War and eventually led America to victory. He was appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775. At the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 with French troop and naval support, he was able to entrap the British troops and force surrender. At the end of the war in 1783, he was the most famous man in America. | |
| 520077970 | St. Patrick's Day in Boston 1776 | Around the time of the Moore's Creek battle in February 1776, Washington fought General William Howe for Boston. After seizing Dorchester Heights, Washington drove Howe out of Boston and Howe evacuated his army on St. Patrick's Day, 1776. | |
| 520077971 | Lord Conwallis | Lord Cornwallis, along with Sir Henry Clinton, led an army of British and Irish in an attempt to claim Charleston. The local patriots living there drove out Cornwallis and Clinton, and they then retired. | |
| 520077972 | General Burgoyne | In 1777, in an attempt to take Philadelphia, General Burgoyne planned to march south to Albany, meet General Howe up the Hudson River, and then General Howe would seize Philadelphia. Throughout that summer he began losing battles and eventually surrendered his entire army to General Gates on October 17, 1777. | |
| 520077973 | General Howe | General William Howe fought Washington on July 2, 1776, over New York. Howe promptly won the war, and by September he also occupied Philadelphia. His men prospered there, and he stepped down as commander in 1778. | |
| 520077974 | General Arnold | Along with Richard Montgomery, Benedict Arnold attacked Quebec on December 31, 1775. This attack left Arnold wounded, but the next year he aided Horatio Gates in winning a battle at Freeman's farm on September 19, 1777. | |
| 520077975 | Battle of Saratoga | Turning point of the American Revolution. It was very important because it convinced the French to give the U.S. military support. It lifted American spirits, ended the British threat in New England by taking control of the Hudson River, and, most importantly, showed the French that the Americans had the potential to beat their enemy, Great Britain. | |
| 520077976 | George Rogers Clark | In 1778, Clark took the British post of Kaskaskia in Illinois. Later, on November 10, 1782, Clark defeated the Shawnee near Chillicothe, Ohio, which was the last land battle fought in the Revolutionary War. | |
| 520077977 | John Paul Jones | Benjamin Franklin put John Paul Jones in command of a small fleet of ships. Jones won a battle against the ship The Serapis off Flamborough Head on September 23, 1779. | |
| 520077978 | Treaty of Paris | The Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ended the Revolutionary War. It said that "American never lost a war, or won a peace conference," and the treaty was favorable to the United States. America was also granted fishing privileges in the British North American water. | |
| 520077979 | Advantages and disadvantages for colonists in the Revolutionary War | The advantages for the colonists were that they were fighting for their freedom on their land, which was an incentive to win. The colonials also had George Washington and many experienced commanders from the French and Indian War on their side. They also were eventually able to gain the help of the French, since they had been an enemy of British since the 7 Year War.
The disadvantages for the colonists were that they had a very small army and very limited guns, clothing, and ammunition compared to the British. Most of the men recruited to the military were farmers who had to leave the army in order to go back home and plant crops. | |
| 520077980 | Advantages and disadvantages for the British in the Revolutionary War | The advantages for the colonists were that they were fighting for their freedom on their land, which was an incentive to win. The colonials also had George Washington and many experienced commanders from the French and Indian War on their side. They also were eventually able to gain the help of the French, since they had been an enemy of British since the 7 Year War.
The disadvantages for the colonists were that they had a very small army and very limited guns, clothing, and ammunition compared to the British. Most of the men recruited to the military were farmers who had to leave the army in order to go back home and plant crops. | |
| 520077981 | Battle of Long Island | After General Howe tried to seize New York on July 2, 1776, the battle of Long Island followed on August 27, 1776. General Washington painfully lost the battle because his generals didn't follow his orders and the British greatly outnumbered him. On August 29, 1776, Washington retreated and New York remained a British base for the rest of the war. | |
| 520077982 | Valley Forge | After Washington lost the attack on the British forces at Germantown from October 3-4, 1777, he spent the winter at Valley Forge. | |
| 520077983 | Battle of Yorktown | The Battle of Yorktown, also known as the Surrender of Yorktown, was an attack on General Cornwallis and his army. The Americans and French joined together to form an army more than twice the size of Cornwallis'. After he unsuccessfully attempted to escape from the allied army, Cornwallis surrendered his entire force on October 17, 1781. This battle resulted in the Treaty of Paris. | |
| 520077984 | Colonies advised to form their own governments | In May 10, 1776, Congress advised the colonies to form their own governments. New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Massachusetts had already done so, and within a year almost every colony had its own government. | |
| 520077985 | Separation of church and state | idea that the government and religion should be separate, and not interfere in each other's affairs. In the United States, this idea is based on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that the government cannot make any laws to establish a state religion or prohibit the free exercise of religion. In Maryland, the Anglican Church was separated from the state 1776, but it wasn't until 1786 that the Stature of Religious Liberty was put into action. | |
| 520077986 | Reverend John Carroll | When Americans wanted an Episcopal government, Pope Pius VI consecrated Reverend John Carroll Bishop of Baltimore. His diocese covered the entire country until 1804. | |
| 520077987 | Slavery in the colonies just after the Revolution | There were hardly any slaves in the North after the Revolution, but there were so many in the South that it would have been disastrous to the economic and social system if they were to be freed. Many states encouraged manumission by the slaves' owners, and thousands of slaves obtained freedom this way. | |
| 520077988 | Georgetown College | Many colleges were formed after the Revolution, most of which were Protestant. The first Catholic college was Georgetown, and Bishop John Carroll founded it in 1789. | |
| 520077989 | Noah Webster | In 1783, 25-year-old Noah Webster published a speller that sold over 60 million copies in a century. | |
| 520077990 | Benjamin West | Benjamin West taught painting to John Trumbull, who was the son of the governor of Connecticut. | |
| 520077991 | Articles of Confederation | The Articles of Confederation, written by John Dickinson but later altered by Congress, were put into effect on November 15, 1777. The Articles stated that 9 out of the 13 states had to agree for decisions of important matters, and that Congress had to power to appoint executive departments. | |
| 520077992 | Land Ordinance of 1785 | The Land Ordinance of 1785, along with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, allowed the United States to expand west towards the Pacific. | |
| 520077993 | Northwest Ordinance of 1787 | Federal order that divided the Northwest Territory into smaller territories and created a plan for how the territories could become states. | |
| 520077994 | Right of deposit - New Orleans | The right of deposit was a free trans-shipment at New Orleans was granted to the West. | |
| 520077995 | Daniel Shays | Head of Shay's Rebellion. He and several other angry farmers violently protested against debtor's jail in 1786. They aided in the creation of constitution because land owners now wanted to preserve what was theirs from "mobocracy" | |
| 520077996 | Weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation | Overall, very weak central government and no executive branch. 1. The central government had no power to tax. 2. The central government could not print or coin money. 3. No central court system 4. Passage of any bill required 9 out of 13 states. 5. Each state had one vote. 6. An amendment required unanimous support. 7. Congress had no power to raise an army. | |
| 520077997 | Constitutional Convention | The Constitutional Convention (also called the Federal Convention) started on May 25, 1787. Every state but Rhode Island sent delegates to the convention to represent their state. There were 55 delegates in all and most of them had been to college. Although the purpose of the convention was simply to write new amendments for the Articles of Confederation, a plan for a new government was also discussed. | |
| 520077998 | New Jersey Plan | William Paterson presented the New Jersey plan, or small-state plan, at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan. | |
| 520077999 | Virginia Plan | Edmund Randolph, one of the delegates sent to the Constitutional Convention, proposed the Virginia Plan on May 29, 1787. This plan, also known as the large-state plan, enforced an oath of office, a negative on all state laws contravening the Constitution, and power to call forth the forces of the Union to coerce recalcitrant states. This plan failed help maintain a federal state, so the New Jersey plan was introduced. | |
| 520078000 | Article I of the Constitution | Establishes the powers of and limitations on the Congress, consisting of a House of Representatives composed of Representatives, with each state gaining or losing representation in proportion to its population, and a Senate, composed of two Senators from each state. | |
| 520078001 | Article II of the Constitution | Establishes the second of the three branches of the government: the Executive. This article establishes that the President and Vice President could only serve for four years, that presidents are elected by the Electoral College, and that certain minimum requirements were established - such as a 35-year minimum age. | |
| 520078002 | Article III of the Constitution | Article III of the Constitution states that the judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States. This article establishes the Supreme Court, sets terms of judges, and defines what the crime of treason is. | |
| 520078003 | Ratification of the Constitution | Year after the creation of the Constitution in which 9 out of the 13 states needed to agree to the usage of the new Constitution. | |
| 520078004 | Difficulties setting up the new government | When the government was first beginning, there were only a dozen clerks left, no money in the treasury, and America was incredibly in debt. | |
| 520078005 | Washington's cabinet | When George Washington was unwilling to come to a decision without the advice of people he trusted, he issued a cabinet. The officials he chose were known as the President's cabinet, but it wasn't until 1907 that the cabinet was officially recognized. | |
| 520078006 | Bank of the United States | Congress established the Bank of the United States on February 25, 1791. The bank had the power to college taxes, pay salaries, and service debt. | |
| 520078007 | "strict construction" | Theory embraced by Jefferson; believed that the Constitution should be interpreted literally | |
| 520078008 | Birth of political parties | The political parties were first started because of contests in Congress over Hamilton's financial program. Hamilton's followers formed the Federalists, and Madison lead the Republican party. | |
| 520078009 | Citizen Genet | Edmond Genet was a French ambassador sent by Europe to the United States during the French Revolution. In 1973, he was instructed to recruit forces for the conquest of Florida and Louisiana. | |
| 520078010 | Jay's Treaty | Jay's Treaty, signed on November 19, 1974, was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain. This treaty is credited with ending the Revolutionary War and allowed ten years of peace until the beginning of the French Revolution. The House approved of the treaty with a vote of 51-48. | |
| 520078011 | Whiskey Rebellion | In 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest during the presidency of George Washington. This rebellion tested the ability of the Federal Government to enforce federal law. Whiskey served as currency, and one-gallon jugs translated into one quarter in every store on the western slope of the Alleghenies. | |
| 520078012 | Election of 1800 | When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran for president in 1800, they tied for first place with 73 votes each. The next year the House of Representatives had to choose between electing Jefferson or Burr. The House was deadlocked until February 17, 1801. Two weeks before the inauguration the Federalists cast blank ballots and Jefferson was elected. | |
| 520078013 | Bill of Rights | The Bay State Federalists proposed the bill of rights as an accessory to the Constitution. The Federalists agreed to support a bill of rights as a set of amendments, and the Massachusetts convention approved the bill on February 6, 1788. The bill is the first ten amendments and contains a list of individual rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. | |
| 520078014 | Revolution of 1800 | Thomas Jefferson, who was winner of the 1800 election, named the Revolution of 1800. He called this election a revolution because his party, the Republicans, peacefully and orderly received the power with nothing but acceptance by the federalists. Madison succeeded Jefferson who was his secretary, and Monroe succeeded Madison who was his secretary. This revolution proved to other nations that the Republican Party could survive and thrive. | |
| 520078015 | Albert Gallatin | Albert Gallatin was the Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson. Both he and Jefferson urged the national debt of that time to be paid off immediately. | |
| 520078016 | Trouble off the coast of Tripoli | In May of 1801, the Bashaw of Tripoli declared war on the United States. Three years later, Commodore Edward Preble came to Tripoli in command of the U.S.S. Constitution, which delivered a series of bombardments. The Bashaw captured Captain Brainbridge and his crew, and Lieutenant Stephen Decatur stopped the Bashaw from stealing Brainbridge's fleet. Decatur later entered the harbor of Tripoli at night, boarded a ship named the Philadelphia, set fire to her, and safely fled. | |
| 520078017 | Louisiana Purchase | Louisiana had been controlled by Spain from 1699 to 1763, and in 1763 it was given to France. Later in 1803, Jefferson told Fames Monroe (envoy extraordinary of France) and the resident minister, Robert Livingston, to offer anything up to $10 million for New Orleans and the Floridas. On April 11, 1803 Livingston approached the minister of foreign affairs to ask for New Orleans, the minister asked, "What will you give for the whole of Louisiana?" Louisiana was purchased on April 30 for twelve million dollars. | |
| 520078018 | Lewis and Clark | Before the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson ordered his secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, and Lieutenant William Clark, to lead an exploration. Their first order from Jefferson was to "find water communication across this continent." The expedition reached St. Louis, Missouri, on September 23, 1806. Although they discovered that there was no water route through the Rockies, they made friends with the Indians. | |
| 520078019 | Aaron Burr vs Alexander Hamilton | Aaron Burr was vice president for Thomas Jefferson in 1800, but Jefferson dropped him from the ticket in the 1804 election. Burr had broken from both the Republicans and Federalists, and Hamilton defeated him in the run for governorship in New York. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel and on July 11, 1804, they dueled on the Hudson River and Burr mortally wounded Hamilton. | |
| 520078020 | Marbury vs Madison | President John Adams appointed William Marbury justice of the peace for the District of Colombia. Madison was the Secretary of State and refused to deliver his commission to Marbury. Marbury petitioned to the Supreme Court to force Madison into giving him his commission under the Judiciary Act of 1789. In February 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall stated that Madison wasn't allowed to withhold his commission of an appointed official. | |
| 520078021 | Chief Justice John Marshall | Federalist whose decisions on the U.S. Supreme Court promoted federal power over state power and established judiciary as a branch of government equal to legislative and executive; established judicial review, which allows Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional. He played a significant role in formation of the legal system. | |
| 520078022 | Embargo Act | Under the Embargo Act of 1807, American vessels and other vessels weren't allowed to sail foreign, and all exports from the United States were prohibited. The Embargo Act hurt the entire United States. Many small ship owners were ruined, and cotton prices in the South halved. | |
| 520078023 | Chesapeake vs. Leopard | On June 22, 1807, the Chesapeake, commanded by Commodore Barron, met the H.M.S Leopard outside of the Capes. The Leopard attacked and boarded the Chesapeake, and after a short battle, Barron surrendered his vessel to the British. | |
| 520078024 | War Hawks | The group of men that included Henry Clay, Richard M. Johnson, Felix Grundy, John Sevier, Peter B. Porter, and John C. Calhoun was dubbed "war hawks" by John Randolph. These men combined with other new members of Congress to elect Henry Clay in the 1810-1811 elections. The war hawks wanted to conquer Canada and to open more forestland for settlement. | |
| 520078025 | William Henry Harrison | William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana, successfully took 48 million acres from the Indians following the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. In 1811, Harrison led a group of 1000 men to try to intimidate the Indians into making peace with the US. This peacemaking expedition soon turned into a battle that became known as The Battle of Tippecanoe, and it ended when Harrison drove the Indians into a swamp and destroyed their village. Winning the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1840 helped make him a hero and eventually helped to elect him President in 1840. | |
| 520078026 | Tecumseh | In 1808, Tecumseh, along with his twin brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), tried to save the Indians from the Americans; mainly, to stop the Americans from alienating their land and to weld all tribes on US soil into a confederacy. They set up camp where the Tippecanoe River empties in Indiana. They were both part of The Battle of Tippecanoe. | |
| 520078027 | "Free Trade and Sailor's Rights" | The war of 1812 was fought between the British and the Americans and was for "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." There were four reasons why the United States declared war in 1812- impressment of seamen, repeated violations of American territorial waters by the Royal Navy, declaring an enemy coast blocked when it was not blockaded in fact, and the orders in council against neutral trade. Even though President Madison recommended with Britain, a large majority of congressmen were against it. The war was fought at sea, where ships of both sides attacked each other while the British blockaded the Atlantic coast of the US. Both land and sea battles were also fought on the American-Canadian frontier, which was from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. In addition, the South and Gulf coast were areas of fighting and saw many major land battles, such as when the Americans defeated the Indians. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve, 1814. | |
| 520078028 | General Isaac Brock | On July 12, 1812, elderly Revolutionary War veteran Governor William Hull invaded Canada. General Isaac Brock, the British commander of Upper Canada, gathered his troops and they all went to Hull and demanded he surrender. Hull surrendered his army on August 16, 1812. | |
| 520078029 | Constitution vs. Guerriere | In August 1812, Captain Isaac Hull (nephew of William Hull) commanded the ship the U.S.S. Constitution and destroyed the H.M.S Guerriere in just two and a half hours. | |
| 520078030 | Old Ironside | The U.S.S Constitution, nicknamed Old Ironside, is a wooden, 3-masted, 44-gun frigate. Named by George Washington after the Constitution, this ship launched at Boston in 1797, and is the oldest ship of the American Navy that is still in commission. | |
| 520078031 | Burning of Washington | On August 24, 1814, General Robert Ross advanced to Washington after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg. His officers deliberately set fire to many public buildings, including the White House and the U. S. Capitol. | |
| 520078032 | Battle of New Orleans | The Battle of New Orleans was the final major battle of the War of 1812. This battle began on January 8, 1815. Commanded by General Andrew Jackson, American forces defeated a British Army whose intent was to seize New Orleans and most of the land acquired by the US with the Louisiana Purchase. The battle continued until late in February when word that peace was reached between the US and the British finally reached the armies in Louisiana. | |
| 520078033 | General Andrew Jackson | General Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767 in North Carolina. Not only did he defend New Orleans from a British invasion, but destroyed a large chunk of the British army in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. | |
| 520078034 | Hartford Convention | The Hartford Convention began in secret on December 15, 1814 and ended one year later. During this event, the New England Federalists met to discuss the War of 1812 as well as problems that were happening because of the increasing strength of the Republican Party in New England. | |
| 520078035 | Treaty of Ghent | The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814 in Ghent (which is Belgium today). This treaty ended the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States. Both sides agreed to disagree on everything important except for the restoring of pre-war boundaries and hostilities. The treaty released all prisoners and returned all captured ships and lands. Both the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to work towards ending slave trades. | |
| 520078036 | Henry Clay | Henry Clay was born on April 12, 1777 and represented Kentucky in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Clay approved of the war with Britain and played a major role in leading the nation to the War of 1812. Clay led the "war hawks" and the group voted to elect him in the 1810-1811 elections. | |
| 520078037 | John C. Calhoun | Along with Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun was a "war hawk." Calhoun was born March 18, 1782 in South Carolina and was Secretary of War under President James Monroe. | |
| 520078038 | Daniel Webster | Daniel Webster was born January 18, 1782 and was a senator from Massachusetts. He was a Whig and tried unsuccessfully to become President of the United States three different times. | |
| 520078039 | Internal improvements | Internal improvements refer to the public works at federal expense, mainly for transportation such as roads and harbors. | |
| 520078040 | Missouri Compromise | The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820. This agreement was between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery states and prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory except within Missouri. | |
| 520078041 | Election of 1824 | John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and William Crawford all ran for President in the 1824 election. None of the candidates had a majority of the electoral votes, so the House of Representatives chose Adams as President. | |
| 520078042 | John Quincy Adams | John Quincy Adams was born July 11, 1767 and was the sixth president of the United States. The son of former President John Adams, John Quincy Adams has been the only president elected by the House. | |
