Professional Documents
Culture Documents
List and identify 3 specific historical events, actions, people or policies that could be used to
explain or support each Key concept.
Key Concept 1.1: Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America
developed a wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on
interactions with the environment and each other.
1. Maize (corn) was a significant food source in present day Mexico and southwestern America
2. In Northwestern America, natives hunted, fished, and foraged (they were hunter-gatherers)
3. In Northeastern US, there was a mixture of agriculture and hunting (some maize was present)
Key Concept 1.2: European overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series
of interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic.
1. There was a population growth, and an increase in food going to Europe (specifically corn
and potatoes; this will be influential in countries like Ireland)
2. Diseases killed many natives (they were not immune to measles and smallpox); as many as
90% died upon contact.
3. Horses and guns transformed the way of life for Native Americans (specifically in the aspects
of hunting and warfare)
Key Concept 1.3: Contacts among American Indians, Africans, and Europeans challenged the
worldviews of each group.
2) Encomienda System
a) Royal grants of land from Spanish crown to Spaniards
i) Spanish settlers promised to Christianize Natives
3) Many of the Natives were treated harshly (they were essentially enslaved
a) They were forced to do heavy manual labor (building roads and infrastructure in the
Spanish colonies)
Period 2 10% 1607-1754: Europeans and American Indians maneuvered and fought for
dominance, control, and security in North America, and distinctive colonial and native societies
emerged.
Key Concept 2.1: Differences in imperial goals, cultures, and the North American environments
that different empires confronted led Europeans to develop diverse patterns of colonization.
1) Spanish:
a) Sought tight control, and sought to control Natives and gain gold (they came for money)
Key Concept 2.2: European colonization efforts in North America stimulated intercultural
contact and intensified conflict between the various groups of colonizers and native peoples.
2) European Conflicts
a) Colonies focused on goods that were valued in Europe (esp. fur and tobacco)
b) Colonists had different goals than European Leaders did
i) This helped promote mistrust
c) Colonists were upset over
i) Territorial Settlement, and (lack of) frontier defense
Key Concept 2.3: The increasing political, economic, and cultural exchanges within the
Atlantic World had a profound impact on the development of colonial societies in North
America.
3) British-Colonial Relations
a) Similar laws, cultures, institutions, and government developed within the British colonies
b) Britain sought mercantilist policies:
i) Making money for the Mother country
ii) Not always successful
(1) Many colonies resisted by smuggling
(2) Britains policy of salutary neglect (Edmund Burke)- Britain was indifferent for a
very long time (they kept their hands off of the colonies for a very long time as
long as they were making money)
iii) Colonial arguments for resistance:
(1) Self-Governance, there was a lack of representation from the British Parliament
(2) Ideas like liberty from the Enlightenment
(3) Religious independence and diversity (there is less importance of the Anglican
Church in the colonies- this makes the power of the king decrease)
(4) Perceived corruption in the British imperial system
Period 3 12 % 1754-1800: British imperial attempts to reassert control over its colonies and the colonial
reaction to these attempts produced a new American republic, along with struggles over the new nations social,
political, and economic identity.
Key Concept 3.1: Britains victory over France in the imperial struggle for North America led to new conflicts among
the British government, the North American colonists, and American Indians, culminating in the creation of a new
nation, the United States.
1) French and Indian (7 Years War) was caused by English encroachment onto French lands
a) Most natives (except Iroquois split) sided with the French
b) Great Britain wins the war, France is removed from North America
c) Conflicts emerge between American colonists and Natives as colonists seek to expand
i) Pontiacs Rebellion
ii) Proclamation Line of 1763
2) Britain is in debt from the war, ends salutary neglect, takes a more active role in colonial
affairs
a) Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Intolerable Acts, etc.
i) Colonists resist this new control:
(1) Stamp Act Congress, Committees of Correspondence, First Continental
Congress
b) Elites and everyday colonists were united against the British
c) Up until 1776, most colonists did NOT want independence, rather they longed for
salutary neglect
3) Leading up to Revolution/Revolution
a) Common Sense:
i) Thomas Paine, urged America to break away
ii) Helped influence the Declaration of Independence
b) Declaration of Independence:
i) Grievances against KG3, justification for breaking away
ii) Inspired by Common Sense and other Enlightenment ideas natural rights, consent
of the governed, etc.
c) Why did the colonists win the war?
i) Familiarity with the land
ii) Military leadership (Washington)
iii) Strong beliefs (natural rights)
iv) Foreign Aid France after Saratoga
Key Concept 3.2: In the late 18th century, new experiments with democratic ideas and republican forms of
government, as well as other new religious, economic, and cultural ideas, challenged traditional imperial systems
across the Atlantic World.
Key Concept 3.3: Migration within North America, cooperative interaction, and competition for resources raised
questions about boundaries and policies, intensified conflicts among peoples and nations, and led to contests over
the creation of a multiethnic, multiracial national identity.
Period 4 10% 1800-1848:The new republic struggled to define and extend democratic ideals in the face of
rapid economic, territorial, and demographic changes.
Key Concept 4.1: The United States developed the worlds first modern mass democracy and celebrated a new
national culture, while Americans sought to define the nations democratic ideals and to reform its institutions to
match them.
1) The Supreme Court increased the power of the federal government over states
a) McCulloch v. Maryland, Worcester v. Georgia
Key Concept 4.2: Developments in technology, agriculture, and commerce precipitated profound changes in U.S.
settlement patterns, regional identities, gender and family relations, political power, and distribution of consumer
goods.
2) Impacts of cotton:
a) Used in textile production in the Northeast
b) Depleted land, need for expansion
Key Concept 4.3: U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade, expanding its national borders, and isolating itself from
European conflicts shaped the nations foreign policy and spurred government and private initiatives.
3) Monroe Doctrine - 1823 - Message to Europe to stay out of the Western Hemisphere, US
will stay out of European affairs
Period 5 13% 1844-1877:As the nation expanded and its population grew, regional tensions, especially over
slavery, led to a civil warthe course and aftermath of which transformed American society.
Key Concept 5.1: The United States became more connected with the world as it pursued an expansionist foreign
policy in the Western Hemisphere and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
1) Manifest Destiny:
a) Based on racial and cultural superiority
b) Main focus of political debates
2) Old Immigrants:
a) Lived in ethnic communities
i) Irish in cities, Germans on the frontier
b) Came to America pre-Civil War
c) Faced nativism -> anti-Catholic and sought to limit their power and influence
i) Know-Nothing Party
Key Concept 5.2: Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other
economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war.
1) North - free labor manufacturing, South dependent on agriculture and slavery, with a slow
population growth
a) As a result, the North has more power in the House
2) Abolitionists:
a) Small number in the North, although had a visible campaign
b) Used fierce arguments (William Lloyd Garrison)
c) Helped slaves escape (Underground RR)
d) Used violence (John Brown)
Key Concept 5.3: The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested Reconstruction of the South settled the issues
of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and
citizenship rights.
3) 3. Constitutional amendments
a) 14th amendment - provided citizenship and equal protection of the laws
b) 15th amendment - suffrage for men
c) However, African American rights were limited through:
i) Segregation - Jim Crow laws
ii) Violence - KKK, White League
iii) Supreme Court Decisions (Plessy v. Ferguson, Civil Rights Cases)
iv) Local Political Tactics - poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clause
Period 6 13% 1865-1898:The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly
industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental,
and cultural changes.
Key Concept 6.1: The rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization,
sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over
U.S. national identity.
1) Expansion of the workforce -> more farmers moving to cities for jobs
a) Led to lower wages and an increase in child labor
3) Characteristics of cities:
a) Divided ethnically, racially, and economically
b) Provided jobs in factories to large numbers of women, immigrants, and African
Americans
Key Concept 6.2: The emergence of an industrial culture in the United States led to both greater opportunities for,
and restrictions on, immigrants, minorities, and women.
1) Women and African Americans sought to challenge their place economically, politically,
and socially
a) Booker T. Washington - encouraged vocational training
b) Ida B. Wells - outspoken critic of lynching in the South
c) Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Advocated womens suffrage
3) Violence and conflict often occurred between settlers, Natives, and Mexican Americans as a
result of expansion
a) Government response to Native resistance?
i) Military force - Chief Joseph, Custers Last Stand, Wounded Knee (1890)
ii) Placing Natives onto small reservations
iii) Changing Native identities through assimilation (Dawes Act)
Key Concept 6.3: The Gilded Age witnesses new cultural and intellectual movements in tandem with political
debates over economic and social policies.
3) Social Gospel:
a) Protestant Church Movement to improve cities and lives of the poor