APUSH Semester 1 Study Guide
Period 1: 1491-1607
1.1 As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments.
- How did geography influence the development of diverse native societies in North America?
- What were similarities and differences among native North American populations?
1.2 Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
- Why did European nations decide to colonize North America?
- What was the Columbian Exchange, and what impact did it have on Europe and North America?
- What were the similarities and differences between European, African, and native populations?
Period 2: 1607-1754
2.1 Europeans developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns, influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American Indians for resources.
- What were the major goals and actions of the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British?
- What regional differences developed in the British colonies, and why?
- What conflicts emerged as a result of competition among European rivals and Indians?
2.2 The British colonies participated in political, social, cultural, and economic exchanges with Great Britain that encouraged both stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to Britain’s control.
- What influences did the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment have on the colonies?
- What was mercantilism, and what impact did it have on British-colonial relations?
- In what ways did the British try to assert control, and in what ways did the colonies resist?
- How and why did plantation slavery and the Atlantic slave trade develop in the colonies?
Period 3: 1754-1800
3.1 British attempts to assert tighter control over its North American colonies and the colonial resolve to pursue self-government led to a colonial independence movement and the Revolutionary War.
- In what ways was the Seven Years’ War and its aftermath a turning point in the colonies?
- How and why did the British assert greater control, and how and why did the colonies resist?
3.2 The American Revolution’s democratic and republican ideals inspired new experiments with different forms of government.
- What did documents like Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence say about the changing views of politics, religion, and society?
- What was Republican Motherhood, and why was it important to Revolutionary America?
- What were key components of the Articles of Confederation and original state constitutions?
- What did the government established by the Constitution look like, and what did various groups of people think about it?
- What were the major issues debated in the early years of the United States, and how were they resolved?
- How and why did the first two-party system develop?
3.3 Migration within North America and competition over resources, boundaries, and trade intensified conflicts among peoples and nations.
- What was the Northwest Ordinance, and why was it important to the early United States?
- How did U.S.-Indian relations develop in the Revolutionary era?
- How did the French Revolution influence U.S. policy and politics?
Period 4: 1800-1848
4.1 The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them.
- How and why did the second party system develop in the 1820s and 1830s?
- What were the major debates over federalism, and what role did the courts play?
- How did the Second Great Awakening and Romanticism influence ideas of human perfectibility and reform?
- How did slaves and free African Americans work to improve their conditions in society?
- In what ways did the U.S. become more democratic, and in what ways did it fall short? Especially consider women’s rights and Seneca Falls.
4.2 Innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce powerfully accelerated the American economy, precipitating profound changes to U.S. society and to national and regional identities.
- What technological and transportation developments occurred, and how did they change manufacturing and agriculture?
- What was the market revolution, and how did it change American life?
- What was the American System, and what were the debates over it?
- Who were the major immigrant groups, and what impact did they have on the U.S.?
- How did sectionalism develop, and in what ways did it conflict with nationalism?
4.3 The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade and expanding its national borders shaped the nation’s foreign policy and spurred government and private initiatives.
- What was the Monroe Doctrine, and what was its impact on American foreign policy?
- How did expansion affect U.S. policy and Indian relations?
- Why was the War of 1812 considered the second war of independence?
- What effect did expansion have on the institution of slavery?
Period 5: 1844-1877
5.1 The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
- What were the reasons for American settlement of the West?
- What was Manifest Destiny, and what influence did it have on the U.S.?
- What happened in the Texas Annexation, Oregon Territory, and Mexican-American War, and how did the aftermath influence American politics?
- Who were the main immigrant groups, and what was their experience in the U.S.?
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.
- What were the arguments for and against slavery prior to the Civil War?
- How did the Mexican Cession, Texas annexation, and Oregon Territory affect views of expansion and slavery?
- What major events and ideas led to deepened conflicts over slavery?
- How and why did the second party system end and the Republicans rise?
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.
- How did the Union and Confederacy mobilize their economies and deal with their home fronts?
- How did the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address demonstrate Lincoln’s evolution on slavery?
- What advantages and disadvantages did the Union and Confederacy have in the Civil War?
- What were the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and how did they change the U.S.?
- What people, events, and ideas exemplified the era of Reconstruction?
- How did African Americans and women gain rights, and in what ways did they not?
- What were the reasons for the eventual failure of Reconstruction?
Key Terms for Periods 1-5
Columbian Exchange
Pueblo Revolt
Virginia Company
John Smith
Puritans
Pequot War
Mercantilism
Bacon’s Rebellion
Glorious Revolution
Atlantic slave trade
Republicanism
Salutary neglect
Enlightenment
Great Awakening
Albany Plan of Union
Virtual representation
Sons/Daughters of Liberty
Boston Massacre
Lord Dunmore’s proclamation
Common Sense
Declaration of Independence
Treaty of Paris
Loyalists & Patriots
Republican Motherhood
Land Ordinances of 1784-1785
Northwest Ordinance
Federalists & Anti-Federalists
Bill of Rights
Strict & loose constructionists
Whiskey Rebellion
Cult of domesticity
Alien & Sedition Acts
Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions
Embargo Act
Hartford Convention
American System
Nullification Crisis
Nativism
Manifest Destiny
Monroe Doctrine
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Utopian communities
Temperance movement
Abolitionism
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Seneca Falls Convention
Texas revolt
Wilmot Proviso
Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Dred Scott
Bleeding Kansas
Popular sovereignty
Battle of Antietam
Radical Republicans
Emancipation Proclamation
Freedmen’s Bureau
Sharecropping
Black Codes
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Carpetbaggers & scalawags
Redeemers
Bargain of 1877
Marbury v Madison
Worcester v Georgia
Dred Scott v Sanford
McCulloch v Maryland
Ex parte Merryman