First and Second Great Awakenings T h e
Great Awakening occurred in the 1730s and 1740s in response
to inflexible Puritan doctrine. A lay ministry developed which
preached personal salvation by good works in contrast to
predestination as preached by Puritans. Others, led by
Jonathan Edwards, urged believers to develop a personal
relationship with God to gain their personal salvation. Ministers
spread the word through revival meetings. Hundreds
were “saved” and declared their trust in God without needing
the clergy to channel their prayers. The Great Awakening
revitalized American religion by adding emotion.
Missionary work developed in an effort to spread salvation
to Indians and slaves. In the early 1800s, the second Great
Awakening erupted as those favoring the personal and emotional
approach associated with evangelical faiths conflicted
with those seeking more rational beliefs. The second Great
Awakening reinvigorated church membership and furthered
humanitarian efforts including abolitionism, prison reform,
the temperance movement, and women’s suffrage. More
people participated in it than in the first Great Awakening,
meeting outdoors under open tents to hear emotional preachers
who “rode the circuit” promoting personal conversion.
These camp meetings contributed to numerous conversions
and vows to change wayward behavior. Membership in Baptist
and Methodist churches increased most significantly.
Founding Fathers The term “founding fathers” applies
to those individuals who played a major role in declaring
U.S. independence, fighting the Revolutionary War, or
writing and adopting the U.S. Constitution. Founding fathers
include Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and
James Madison.
Free Blacks Although they were free, African Americans
in the North were victims of discrimination. They were
denied the right to vote, to serve on juries, to be educated, to
worship freely, and to have access to public lands. In the
South, most free African Americans were descendants of
slaves freed during and after the American Revolution. Others
purchased their freedom, but all were denied basic rights.
Despite discrimination in both the North and the South, many
free blacks distinguished themselves in various areas of endeavor.
Many of those who gained success risked their lives
and income to combat slavery.
Free Enterprise System A free enterprise system
is an economic system in which individuals depend on supply
and demand and the profit margin to determine the answers
to the four basic economic questions of “what to produce,”
“how to produce,” “how many to produce,” and “for
whom to produce.” Profit is an improved situation, usually
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measured in dollars. The quest for improvement financially
and materially motivates producers and consumers in the free
enterprise system. Government regulation is kept to a minimum.
Competition between companies makes it more difficult
to answer the questions of what and how much to produce
and for whom, but it does make it harder for one company
to monopolize the market.
French and Indian War The French and Indian
War was a struggle between the British and the French in the
colonies of North America. It was part of a worldwide war
known as the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). In the colonies,
the British sought control of territory to the west of the
established colonies, particularly the Ohio River Valley. The
first battle was fought at Fort Necessity in July 1754, a stockade
constructed by George Washington and his troops near
the headwaters of the Ohio River near present day Pittsburgh.
The French held several advantages including control of more
western territory, a single colonial government, a professional
army well provisioned in place in their territory, and an alliance
with the Huron and Algonquin Indians.
The British also had several advantages. More British lived
in the colonies, the British territory had a better strategic
position and was easier to defend, and most of the colonists
were willing to fight to preserve their independence from
France. The British pushed France into Canada and defeated
them at Quebec and Montreal. The Seven Years’ War officially
ended with the Treaty of Paris which gave the British
all lands east of the Mississippi River except New Orleans,
including the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes, and the
Ohio River Valley. Thus the British secured the major water
routes into the interior North American continent.
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut T h e
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was the first written constitution
in the American colonies, prepared as the covenant
for the new Puritan community in Connecticut, established
in the 1630s. It established a precedent for written constitutions
in the colonies. To the Puritans, a covenant was an agreement
with God to build a holy society. Those who moved to
Connecticut from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts carried
with them the tradition of the commonwealth, a community
of people who worked together for the good of the
whole. The Fundamental Orders described a system of government
for the new community, in writing.
Generalizations Generalizations are statements
about relationships between and among concepts. They organize
and summarize information obtained from the analysis
of facts. A generalization is usually a broad assertion that
something is always true. A fact, on the other hand, is a truth
only about a particular incident or case. Here is a generalization:
The nature of democracy in the United States continually
evolves as society grows and changes. Here is a fact
which supports it: Women received the right to vote in 1924.
Geographic Distributions and Patterns G e -
ographers are interested in the location of things on Earth,
that is, where things are located, how they are distributed,
and what relationships exist between things separated by
distance. Sometimes things are distributed randomly across
the surface of Earth. Other times a pattern is apparent in the
distribution. That helps us to understand the forces that affect
distribution. Consider the location of key industries, cities,
types of agriculture—all of these things are distributed
(located) somewhere, and show a pattern. Industries are located
near resources or near markets. Cities are often located
at vital transportation crossroads. The types of crops grown
depend upon physical conditions as well as access to markets
and transportation. Noting distribution and pattern helps
us to understand why things are where they are.
Gettysburg Address During the Civil War, on November
19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln traveled to
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate a national cemetery
at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. Three sentences excerpted
from his short speech capture the spirit of liberty
and morality ideally held by citizens of a democracy. That
ideal was threatened by the Civil War.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. . .
. . . . It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.
Gibbons v. Ogden In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824),
Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that the Constitution gave control of interstate commerce to
the U.S. Congress, not the individual states through which a
route passed. The ruling responded to an effort by the state
of New York to accept a monopoly to operate steam boat
traffic between New York and New Jersey.
Individual Rights Many opposed the Constitution
in 1787 because they believed it did not offer adequate protection
of individual rights. The Bill of Rights, ratified in
1791, were created to correct this. The individual rights protected
in the Bill of Rights include economic rights related
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to property, political rights related to freedom of speech and
press, and personal rights related to bearing arms and maintaining
private residences.
The structure of the U.S. Constitution allows for adaptation
based on changing public opinion and the need to protect
individual rights. For instance, debates over the institution
of slavery raised concerns about property and property protection
afforded by the U.S. Constitution. In the decision
Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves
were property and that the Missouri Compromise, which
prohibited slavery in certain parts of the United States, was
unconstitutional in that it deprived people of property, their
slaves. As public opinion changed, voters amended the Constitution
to free slaves, to protect their rights, and to extend
their right to vote.
Industrial Revolution New sources of power
including the steam engine freed manufacturers to experiment
with new ways to make products. Steam power was
more reliable than water power and allowed expansion of
machine production. A period of rapid industrial growth resulted,
starting in Britain in the 1700s and then spreading
around the world as more countries adopted mass production.
Handmade goods were quickly replaced by less expensive
machine-made goods. The production of cloth by machines
revolutionized the textile industry. It also changed the
nature of supply because more goods were produced faster
and cheaper, the nature of demand because the product was
more affordable, and the nature of work. Factory laborers
replaced craftsmen and home production. The expansion of
mechanized production in the United States began after the
Civil War and peaked in the 1920s just before the Great Depression.
This is considered a second Industrial Revolution.
The demand for raw materials and labor to maintain production
led to exploitation of the natural environment and of
workers.
Judicial Review The three branches of government
— legislative, executive and judicial —were established
to balance power, but the U.S. Constitution is the supreme
law. The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting and
applying laws and ensuring that they are constitutional. In
the early 1800s the Supreme Court established the principle
of judicial review. Acting within the powers of Article III,
the judicial branch strengthened federal authority over state
and private authority when the issue threatened rights established
in the Constitution. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled
in Marbury v. Madison (1803) that a law passed by Congress
in 1789 was unconstitutional. Marshall stressed that
“the Constitution is superior to any ordinary act of legislature.
. . and must govern.”
Limited Government In a limited government
everyone, including all authority figures, must obey the laws.
Constitutions, statements of rights, or other laws define the
limits of those in power so they cannot take advantage of
their elected, appointed, or inherited positions. In an unlimited
government, control is placed solely with the ruler and
his/her appointees, and there are no limits imposed on his/
her authority.
Magna Carta The Magna Carta is the cornerstone
of English justice and law. King John, who ruled between
1199 and 1216 AD, angered the English nobility and
commoners alike by his lack of military prowess and his
heavy taxation to pay a large national debt. Members of the
nobility, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Pembroke
forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. It
declared that the king and government were bound by the
same law as other citizens of England. It contained the antecedents
of the ideas of due process of law and the right to a
fair and speedy trial that are included in the protection offered
by the U.S. Bill of Rights. The English viewed it as a
guarantee of law and justice.
Manifest Destiny “Manifest destiny” was a popular
expression in the 1840s. Many believed that the United
States was destined to secure territory from “sea to sea,” from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This rationale drove the
acquisition of territory in the 1840s as President James K.
Polk attempted to declare the parallel of 5440' as the northern
boundary of the United States. Britain initially refused,
but the nations compromised in 1846 and the United States
acquired the Oregon territory. The United States also secured
a vast territory in the southwest following the Mexican
War in 1848. Mexico ceded all claims north of the Rio
Grande which included present-day states of California,
Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico,
and Wyoming.
Marbury v. Madison Marbury v. Madison was the first
judgment by the Supreme Court which supported the federal
system of government. In 1803, Chief Justice John
Marshall, a Federalist, upheld and strengthened the authority
of the federal judiciary. He established the principle of
judicial review, the power of the judiciary to determine that
a law can be declared unconstitutional.
Mayflower Compact The Mayflower Compact
was drafted in 1620 prior to settlement by the Pilgrims
at Plymouth Bay in Massachusetts. It declared that the 41
males who signed it agreed to accept majority rule and participate
in a government in the best interest of all members
of the colony. While not a constitution, the agreement set the
precedent for later documents outlining commonwealth rule.
Settlers quickly established town meetings as a forum to
develop their own laws, a positive step toward self-rule.
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McCulloch v. Maryland In 1819, Chief Justice
John Marshall continued to define the limits of the U. S.
Constitution and of the authority of the federal and state governments.
Maryland was opposed to the establishment of a
national bank and challenged the authority of the federal government
to establish one. The Supreme Court ruled that the
power of the federal government was supreme over that of
the states and that the states could not interfere. This decision
supported the concept that the Constitution was the supreme
law of the land.
Mercantilism Mercantilism is an economic
theory which states that a nation’s wealth is based on the
amount of gold and silver bullion in its treasury. The theory
drove economic exchange throughout Europe between the
16th and 18th centuries. Nations accumulated wealth in several
ways. Explorers sought gold and silver deposits which
they could mine.
Trade offered another method to accumulate the bullion (gold
or silver formed into bars, ingots, or plates). Generating revenue
through trade depended on maintaining a favorable
balance, that is, exporting more than a nation imported. In a
mercantilist system, government played a central role in regulating
trade by imposing restrictions on trade. As the production
of goods for exchange increased, governments took
a more active role in industrial development. New crafts and
trades provided work for the idle and lined the pockets of
mercantilists who made money by importing raw products
and exporting finished goods at significantly higher costs.
Those who sought to participate in trade and industry needed
government ing to succeed, especially in the oceanic trade.
The East India Company was founded in 1600 by the English
government and merchants intent on trading with the
East.
The American colonies contributed to the English, French,
and Spanish mercantilist systems by providing raw products
and markets for manufactured goods. The Spanish sought to
control the gold and silver supplies held by Native American
civilizations in Mexico and Peru; the fur trade in North
America resulted in significant revenue for French mercantilists;
and settlement benefited English manufacturers who
sold finished products to colonists. Buying from a colony
enabled the mother country to keep bullion within the empire.
Mercantilism was attacked by Adam Smith and others who
supported laissez faire (“let them do as they see fit”) exchange.
This new economic theory opposed regulation by
the “visible hand” of government and instead viewed commerce
as driven by the invisible hand of personal initiative.
Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a
statement of foreign policy which proclaimed that Europe
should not interfere in affairs within the United States or in
the development of other countries in the Western Hemisphere,
and that the United States would not interfere in European
affairs. These ideas, formulated by Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams and President James Monroe, were presented
in 1823 in response to problems facing the nation:
Russian claims to the northwest coast and threats to the independence
of Spanish-American republics in Latin America.
The doctrine reflected growing American nationalism and
increased emphasis on internal improvements which reduced
the interest in participating in international affairs. President
James K. Polk revived the doctrine in 1845, and it continued
as an important part of national ideology into the 20th
century.
Naturalized Citizen A naturalized citizen is a person
of foreign birth who is granted full citizenship.
Northwest Ordinance Enacted in 1787, the
Northwest Ordinance is considered one of the most significant
achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established
a system for setting up governments in the western
territories so they could eventually join the Union on an equal
footing with the original 13 states. This ordinance referred
to the Northwest Territory, an area bounded by the Ohio River,
the Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes and included
present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and
parts of Minnesota. When the territory opened, a governor
and three judges were appointed by Congress. After 5,000
adult males moved to the area, they could elect an assembly
and send a nonvoting delegate to Congress, although the governor
retained veto power over the assembly. When 60,000
persons moved into one of the political subdivisions, that
area could draft a constitution, submit it to Congress for approval,
and become a state. Its constitution had to provide
for a representative government, and it had to prohibit slavery.
Nullification Crisis In 1828, Congress approved a
high tariff to protect U.S. interests from competition from
foreign trade. This angered southerners who dealt directly
with merchants in Britain. The planters favored freedom of
trade and believed in the authority of their states over the
federal government. In 1832 Congress passed a lower but
still protective tariff. Angered South Carolinians, led by
Senator John C. Calhoun, declared the federal tariff null and
void within its borders. Delegates to a special convention
urged the state legislature to take military action and to secede
from the union if the federal government demanded the
customs duties. To prevent a civil war, Henry Clay, senator
from Kentucky, proposed the compromise Tariff of 1833
which gradually reduced the protective tariff over ten years.
Southerners accepted the measure but northerners countered
with the Force Bill which authorized the president to use the
army and navy to collect the duties. The nullifiers repealed
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the ordinance of nullification but accomplished their goal of
reducing the tariff.
Philadelphia Convention of 1787 The Philadelphia
Convention of 1787 met “for the sole and express purpose
of revising the Articles of Confederation.” Fifty-five
delegates representing all states except Rhode Island worked
to reorganize the government in the new republic. The Convention
met in secret in the Pennsylvania State House, now
Independence Hall, from May 25 through September 17. One
of their first decisions was to scrap the Articles of Confederation
and create a new plan of government. Of the 55
delegates, 39 signed the document they created, the U.S.
Constitution.
Physical and Human Characteristics
Physical characteristics of places include landforms and soils,
bodies and sources of water, vegetation, climate and weather
patterns, and animal life. Human characteristics of places
include the language, religion, political systems, economic
systems, population distribution, ethnicity, age, and standards
of living.
Physical and Human Characteristics of Places
Physical characteristics of places describe natural phenomena
such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and topography
(landforms). Human characteristics of places include items
such as language, religion, ethnicity, architecture, forms of
recreation, daily schedule, food, how people earn a living,
how they govern themselves, family structure, and standard
of living.
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