IB History of the Americas : Unit 1 Study Guide
Creating a National Government, 1763 – 1824
The central question of history: What happened and why does it matter?
Three guiding questions for this unit:
1. What were the goals and guiding principles of the Founders?
2. How did they attempt to create a government that reflected those goals and principles?
3. In what ways did the process of implementing the Constitution begin to divide Americans?
History of the Americas Topics
1. Independence movements
• United States Declaration of Independence; processes leading to the declaration; influence of ideas; nature of the declaration
2. Nation-building and challenges
• United States: Articles of Confederation; the Constitution of 1787: philosophical underpinnings; major compromises and changes in the US political system
Economic concepts:
Nature of money
Taxation
• tariff
• excise
Supply and demand
Political concepts:
“American” values:
• equality
• rights
• liberty
• opportunity
• democracy
• justice
Separation of powers
Checks and balances
Judicial review
Identifications and Terms
Locke/natural rights
Rousseau/ Social Contract
Montesquieu/ Three Branches
Declaration of Independence
State Constitution Features
Articles of Confederation
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Nationalists
Newburgh Conspiracy
Shays’ Rebellion
Constitutional Convention
-causes
-deliberations
James Madison
VA and NJ Plans
Great (CT) Compromise
Three-Fifths Compromise
Ending of Slave Trade
Alexander Hamilton
Ratification dispute
Federalists
Antifederalists
The Federalist (Papers)
Bill of Rights
The Constitution
Preamble
Powers
Checks and Balances
“Necessary and Proper” Clause
“Interstate Commerce” Clause
Alexander Hamilton
Thomas Jefferson
Agrarianism v. Industrialism
Whiskey Rebellion
Farewell Address
Alien and Sedition Acts
KY & VA Resolutions
Judiciary Act of 1801
John Marshall
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Samuel Chase
Dartmouth College v.
Woodward (1819)
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Important Questions
1. Describe one of the five ideals found in the Declaration of Independence. How did the founders
attempt to design a government that could achieve that ideal? What impeded progress toward that
ideal and why?
2. Some Federalists used the term “mobocracy” to describe their fear of granting voting rights to the
“common” man. Describe what the framers of the Constitution called “minority rights” and how they
tried to protect those rights.
3. Compare and/or contrast the positions of two of the historians Johnson, Jennings and Zinn on the
nature of the American Revolution.
4. Describe how one of the following stretched the extent of the power of the federal government: the
interstate commerce clause, the necessary and proper clause, the Marbury v. Madison decision or the
McCulloch v. Maryland decision.