AP Review- French & Indian War through American
Revolution- (Chps 5-9)
Colonial Society on eve of Revolution
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First Great Awakening
– Wave of religious revivals began
in NE in 1730s
– Swept to all colonies by 1740s
– New Light ministers:
• Emotional approach
• Renewed missionary
spirit=more converted slaves
• Divisions in congregtional &
presbyterian
churches=diversity
• Increase in women in
congregations
– vs. Old Light ministers
HINT- don’t let 1st Great Awakening slip
off your APUSH radar- has appeared on
5 of 6 AP released exams- pay special
attention to consequences of 1st Great
Awakening
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Key features:
Wealth-Northern merchants &
Southern planters
# of non-English settlers continues
to increase-Scots-Irish & Germans
move into west as Natives
defeated
13 colonies religiously diverse, no
single dominant Protestant
denomination
Slavery accepted as labor system
& legally established in all
colonies
Colonial cities=mercantile
centers/ports with close economic
& cultural ties w/ England
Colonial Society
• Women
• Married=No property rights, no
separate legal identity
• Single & widows=right to own
property
• Anne Bradstreet=1st notable
poet & 1st woman published in
America
Phillis Wheatley=1st published
African American poet
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Republican Govt
Republicanism
Based on the consent of the
governed
Inspired 18th century American
revolutionaries
Sovereignty comes from the
people-representation should be
based on population
Republic=small, limited govt
Standing armies are dangerous
Agrarian life is desired
EVENTS LEADING TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1750-1776)
-Salutary Neglect
-Albany Plan of Union- In 1754,
representatives from seven
colonies met in Albany
-Ben Franklin
-Unite or Die!
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THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR (17541763)/French & Indian War
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Colonists were expanding westward –
French wanted to protect fur trade
French build forts to stop them
Young George sent to stop them-yeah
right…
War over=England top in North America,
French out
Colonists sense of independence, unity
Served w/ British officers & not
impressed
PROCLAMATION OF 1763- do not cross
the Appalachian Mts!
Cant protect you from Indians/Pontiacunless you want to pay= TAXES
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British Reactions/ Key Acts
Sugar Act
Quartering Act
Stamp Act 1765: “Stamp Act Resolves” Patrick Henry
– Primary purpose=raise revenue to support British troops stationed in
America
– Key issues:
• Does Parliament have the right to tax the colonies?
• Can Parliament reflect colonial interests?
• “No taxation without representation”- James Otis
• Parliament claims “virtual representation”
• Importance:
-Colonists willing to use violence against British policy
-British maintain colonies have no right to independence
-Patriots claim entitled to all rights and privileges of British subjects
-Repealed but…
Townshend Act- too bad colonists, we own you & can make any law against
you
Tea Act- Tea Party
Response= Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts- 1774
Pay for the tea
Port of Boston closed
no meetings legislative or otherwise allowed in Massachusetts
Colonial brain power
• Common sense- 1776
• Thomas Paine
• If your government does not
give you your basic rights, get
a new one
• 100,000 copies/ 3 mos (same
as 13 million CDs today)
• Propaganda to encourage
revolt
• Enlightenment
• 18th century philosophy
stresses reason can be used
to improve the human
condition
• People like TJ & Ben liked
this…
• Natural rights
• Deism
• God created a universe
governed by natural lawdiscovered by human reason
Declaration of Independence
• After failed attempts to deal with George III &
small fighting
– Stamp Act, Olive Branch, Boston Massacre,
Lexington, Concord, etc.
• Thomas Jefferson wrote most
• 1776
• Philosophy of natural rights- taken from John
Locke
• George III accused of being a tyrant
• War is on now
Revolutionary War 1776-1781
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Why did colonists (Patriots mainly from NE & VA) support?
– Patriots= 40% of population
– Believed George was a tyrant
– Believed Parliament wanted to control internal affairs of colonies w/o
their consent
– Convinced British ministers & govt. officials had corrupting influence on
colonists
– Wanted greater political participation in policies affecting colonists
– Resented quartering of British troops
– Wanted to preserve local control & life w/o British interference
– Consider: A Radical Rebellion?
– Washington- struggle to have troops-short numbers, short supplies
(95% decline in trade between 1775-1777), big losses in battles, hard
winter, eventually help from African Americans (5,000)
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Why did Tories (Loyalists) not support?
– 60,000 Tories fought alongside British, many left US
– “Mother” England=family
– Native Americans- more support to British who promised to limit
settlement to West
Alliance with France
• Battle of Saratoga= turning point because it convinced
the French government to declare war on Great Britain &
openly aid America
• HINT- AP tests rarely ask specific battle questions, but
Saratoga is an exception- expected to know
consequences of the battle, not necessarily the tactics &
commanders
• French military & financial aid played a key role in
helping America win
• Not because they loved our republican ideals, but
because they wanted to weaken the British Empire
• Franco- American alliance influences British to offer
generous peace terms in the Treaty of Paris
End of the War & peace
Yorktown- 1781- last major battle
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VA. Chesapeake Bay
British General Cornwallis surrounded- no escape on land or
to sea
Treaty of Paris 1783 (where else?) 
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Britain would recognize the U.S. as an independent nation
Treaty sets new boundaries- west to Mississippi, north to
Great Lakes & south to Spanish FL
Fishing rights off coast of Canada
Americans to pay debts owed to British merchants & Loyalists
America’s wont persecute Loyalists
Past AP FRQs from this period
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1974 To what extent did economic issues provoke the American Revolution?
1975 “The Declaration of Independence has been variously interpreted as a bid for French support, an
attempt to swing uncommitted Americans to the Revolutionary cause, a statement of universal principles,
and an affirmation of the traditional rights of Englishmen.” To what extent , if any, are these
interpretations in conflict?
1978 “Although the thirteen American colonies were founded at different times by people with different
motives and with different forms of colonial charters and political organization, by the Revolution the
thirteen colonies had become remarkably similar.” Assess the validity of this statement.
1982 “The American Revolution should really be called ‘The British Revolution,’ because marked
changes in British colonial policy were more responsible for the final political division than were American
actions.”
Assess the validity of this statement for the period 1763-1776.
1986 “Despite the view of some historians that the conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen North
American colonies was economic in origin, in fact the American Revolution had its roots in politics and
other areas of American life.” Assess the validity of this statement.
1987 “ Britain’s wars for empire, far more than its mercantilist policies, dictated the economic fortunes of
Britain’s North American colonies in the eighteenth century.” Assess the validity of this statement.
1988 “This history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all
having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.” Evaluate this
accusation made against George III in the Declaration of Independence.
1989 “In the two decades before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a profound shift
occurred in the way many Americans thought and felt about the British government and their colonial
governments.” Assess the validity of this statement in view of the political and constitutional debates of
these decades.
1992 Evaluate the relative importance of the following as factors prompting Americans to rebel in 1776:
parliamentary taxation
restriction of civil liberties
British military measures
the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas
1994 Evaluate the relative importance of domestic and foreign affairs in shaping the politics of the 1790s.
1997 Analyze the extent to which the American Revolution represented a radical alteration in American
political ideas and institutions. Confine your answer to the period 1775 to 1800.
2004 Analyze the impact of the American Revolution on both slavery and the status of women in the from
1775-1800.
Past DBQs from this period
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Colonial and Revolutionary America
1993 Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled
largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two
distinct societies. Why did this difference in development occur?
2004 In what ways did the French and Indian War (1754-63) alter the
political, economic and ideological relations between Britain and its
American colonies. Use the documents and your knowledge of the period
1740-1766 in constructing your answer.
1999 To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identity
and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution? Use the documents
and your knowledge of the period 1750-1776 to answer the question.
1976 Was American society, as evidenced by Wethersfield, Connecticut,
becoming more "democratic" in the period from 1750's to the 1780's?
Discuss with reference to property distribution, social structure, politics, and
religion.
2005 To what extent did the American Revolution fundamentally change
American society? In your answer be sure to address the political, social
and economic effects of the Revolution in the period from 1775 to 1800.
Reminders
• PERSIA
• Outside info is huge!
• DBQ
Outside info
In the docs
Multiple Choice Practice
1. The French and Indian War was a pivotal point
in America’s relationship to Great Britain
because it led to Great Britain to
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(A) encourage colonial manufactures
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(B) impose revenue taxes on the colonies
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(C) restrict emigration from England
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(D) ignore the colonies
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(E) grant increased colonial selfgovernment
Answer
• B
2. The Proclamation of 1763
(A) exacted burdensome taxes from the
colonists to finance Britain’s war debts.
(B) granted some frontier territory to Native
Americans.
(C) prohibited colonists from settling beyond
the Appalachians.
(D) established royal governors in the
colonies.
(E) made Florida a British territory.
Answer
• C
3. Americans responded to Britain’s many new
taxes in the 1760s with the line, “No taxation
without representation.” What did this mean
exactly?
(A) That Americans wanted to have
representatives in Parliament before they would
accept tax legislation passed there
(B) That only colonial legislatures could tax the
colonies
(C) That the colonists would accept virtual
representation in fiscal matters
(D) That Parliament put the needs of citizens in
England above those of its colonists
(E) That the king was the ultimate representative,
and therefore exclusively held the power to tax
Answer
• B
4. The Stamp Act crisis was important in the
coming of the American Revolution for all of the
following reasons EXCEPT:
(A) The colonists demonstrated their willingness
to use violence rather than legal means to
frustrate British policy.
(B) The crisis coincided with a British decision to
garrison regular troops in American cities.
(C) American patriots realized that British
inflexibility made revolution virtually inevitable.
(D) The British maintained that the colonies had
no right to independence from parliamentary
authority.
(E) Patriot leaders claimed that the act denied
them their British birthrights.
Answer
• C
5. The battle of Saratoga proved vitally
important to the American cause because
(A) it encouraged France to provide muchneeded military aid.
(B) the impressive British General Burgoyne
perished in combat.
(C) Britain surrendered, and the Revolution
was won.
(D) it boosted the morale of the Patriots.
(E) it brought France, Spain, and Germany into
the conflict on the side of the Americans.
Answer
• A
6. France’s support for the United States
during the American Revolutionary War was
motivated primarily by
(A) enthusiasm for the revolutionary
principles espoused by the American
(B) a desire to weaken its rival, Great Britain
(C) a desire to regain Canada and the
Floridas
(D) pressures from its ally, Spain
(E) the hope of converting the United States
into a French dependency
Answer
• B