Study Guide: The Road to the Revolutionary War & Beyond
Strategies to study:
 Organize the key terms into Political, Economic, Social

For the essay and short answer questions below, ANALYZE & EVALUATE.
o Analyze – What happened (define the evidence), HOW did it happen
(provide the background/overview/history of the evidence), and here’s the
jackpot, WHY did it happen, (Why is this evidence significant?
o Evaluate – Explain with EVIDENCE whether you Support (agree), modify
(agree and disagree), or refute (disagree) with the statement.
Evidence
Beginning of Revolution: Proclamation of 1763, French & Indian War, Mercantilism,
Great Awakening, Enlightenment, Natural Rights, John Locke, End of Salutary Neglect
Road to Revolution: Sugar Act of 1764, Stamp Act, Stamp Act Congress, Loyalists
(Tory’s) vs. Patriots, Sons of Liberty, English Common Law, Declaratory Act,
Townshend Acts, Non-Importation & Non-Consumption movement, Boston Massacre,
Boston Tea Party, Tea Act, Coercive Acts, Continental Congress, Boycott, Minutemen,
Second Continental Congress Act, Committees of Correspondence, Vice-Admiral
Courts, Quartering Virtual Representation, Popular Sovereignty, Thomas Paine’s
Common Sense, social contract, right to revolt, Declaration of Independence, Battle of
Saratoga, French Alliance, Treaty of Paris,
After Revolution: Articles of Confederation, Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Shays’
Rebellion, Virginia Plan & New Jersey Plan, Great Compromise, US Constitution, Bill of
Rights, Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Federalist No. 10, Jay’s Treaty, Hamilton’s
Financial Plan, Whiskey Rebellion, Bank of the United States, French Revolution,
Jacobins, Alien & Sedition Acts, Treaty of Greenville, Marbury v. Madison
Short Answer Format
1. During the mid-18th century, new pressures began to unite the British colonies,
sparking an independence movement and ultimately a war against England.
a. Briefly explain ONE political or economic pressure faced by the colonies
during this time.
b. Briefly explain ONE action taken by the colonists to address the pressure
explained in Part A.
c. Briefly explain ONE response by the British government to the action
explained in Part B.
2. Use your knowledge of United States history to answer parts A, B, and C.
a. Briefly explain ONE social development in the 13 colonies between 1754
and 1775.
b. Briefly explain ONE economic development in the 13 colonies between
1754 and 1775.
c. Briefly explain the impact of the development explained in Part A or Part B
on the United States between 1776 and 1800.
3. During the 1790s, the new American nation faced a series of challenges.
a. Briefly explain ONE political or economic challenge faced by the U.S.
government during the 1790s.
b. Briefly explain ONE foreign policy challenge faced by the U.S. government
during the 1790s.
c. Briefly explain ONE action taken by the federal government to respond to
the challenge explained in Part A or Part B.
Long Essay Format
1. Some historians have argued that the British victory over the French in North
America inevitably led to the American Revolution a few years later. Support,
modify, or refute this contention using specific evidence.
2. Some historians have argued that the Declaration of Independence and the
American Revolution inspired and accelerated revolutionary movements
elsewhere in the Americas and in Europe. Support, modify, or refute this
contention using specific evidence.
Multiple Choice
This question is based on the following two passages.
“The struggle over the Constitution…can best be understood as a social one. Whatever
the particular constituency of the antagonists may have been, men in 1787–1788 talked
as if they were representing distinct and opposing social elements. Both the proponents
and opponents of the Constitution focused throughout the debates on an essential point
of political sociology that ultimately must be used to distinguish a Federalist from an
Antifederalist. The quarrel was fundamentally one between aristocracy and democracy.”
Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of an American Republic, 1776–1787, 1969
Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1970).
“The supporters of the United States Constitution touted it as, among many other things,
the only solution to a terrible economic slump. Nearly all free Americans believed much
of the responsibility for the recession of the 1780s lay with the thirteen state
legislatures.…The Constitution was also rooted in a struggle between taxpayers and
investors in government bonds.…Debate over state-level fiscal and monetary
policies…divided Americans on the eve of the Constitutional Convention.…The
debate…hinged upon which segment of society should bear the burden of reviving the
economy.”
Woody Holton, “Did Democracy Cause the Recession That Led to the Constitution?”
Journal of American History, Vol. 92, #2 (September 2005).
This question refers to the following quotation.
“These colonies ought to regard the act with abhorrence. For who are a free people?
Not those over whom government is reasonably and equitably exercised but those who
live under a government, so constitutionally checked and controlled, that proper
provision is made against its being otherwise exercised. The late act is founded on the
destruction of constitutional security.… In short, if they have a right to levy a tax of one
penny upon us, they have a right to levy a million upon us. For where does that right
stop?...To use the words of Mr. Locke, ‘What property have we in that, which another
may, by rights take, when he pleases, to himself?’…We are therefore—I speak it with
grief—I speak with indignation—we are slaves.”
John Dickinson, Letter from a Farmer, 1768
John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British
Colonies (New York: The Outlook Company, 1903), 75–78.
This question is based on the excerpt below.
“SECTION 1…If any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent
to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States…, or to
impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any
person holding…office in or under the government of the United States, from
undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty, and if any person or persons, with
intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot,
unlawful assembly, or combination…, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high
misdemeanor, and on conviction...shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five
thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term not less than six months nor
exceeding five years…
SECTION 2…If any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure
to be written, printed, uttered or published…, any false, scandalous and malicious
writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the
Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to
defame the said government…or to bring them...into contempt or disrepute; or to excite
against them...the hatred of the good people of the United States…, or to aid,
encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States…,
then such person, being thereof convicted…shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.”
The Sedition Act, 1798
Excerpted text from congressional bill, July 14, 1798.