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Key APUSH Review Lecture Highlights

May 9, 2025

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APUSH Review Night Lecture Notes

Introduction

  • Context: Last-minute revision session, covering APUSH Units 1-5.
  • Duration: Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes.
  • Milestone: Celebrating 1 million subscribers on the channel.
  • Livestream Notes: Session will be posted for later review. Super chat shoutouts available until 9 PM ET.

Unit 1: 1491-1607

Overview

  • Focus on Native American societies, European contact, and resulting transformations.
  • Timeframe: 1491 (pre-European contact) to 1607 (founding of Jamestown).

Big Ideas

  1. Diversity of Native Populations:
    • Various societies shaped by environment.
    • Examples: Chumash (coastal), Ute (Great Basin), Cahokia (Mississippi Valley), Iroquois (Northeast).
  2. European Exploration:
    • Motivated by political unification, trade routes, and spreading Christianity.
    • Key players: Portugal (trade empire), Spain (westward exploration).
  3. Columbian Exchange:
    • Transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between Old and New Worlds.
    • Impact: Expanded diets, increased lifespans, massive population shifts due to disease.
  4. Spanish Impact in Americas:
    • Encomienda system and rise of African slavery.
    • Casta system reorganizing society by race.
  5. Changing Understandings:
    • Varying views on land use, religion, and more between Europeans and Native Americans.
    • Key figures: Juan de Sepulveda, Bartolome de las Casas.

Unit 2: 1607-1754

Overview

  • Focus on European colonization and interaction with Native Americans.
  • Timeframe: Founding of Jamestown to the start of the French and Indian War.

Big Ideas

  1. Colonization Goals:
    • Spanish: Wealth extraction and Christianity.
    • French/Dutch: Trade partnerships, especially in fur.
    • British: Social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom.
  2. British Colonies' Differences:
    • Chesapeake: Jamestown, wealth extraction (tobacco), mainly male settlers.
    • New England: Religious families, economic prosperity.
    • West Indies/Southern Colonies: Cash crops and African labor.
    • Middle Colonies: Trade hubs, diverse populations.
  3. Transatlantic Trade:
    • Triangular trade and mercantilism.
    • Navigation Acts enforcing trade through English channels.
  4. Conflicts with Native Americans:
    • Metacom's War and Pueblo Revolt.
    • Tensions due to land encroachment and cultural differences.
  5. Role of Enslaved Labor:
    • Increasing reliance on enslaved Africans.
    • Resistance through covert and overt means, e.g., Stono Rebellion.
  6. Colonial Society Influences:
    • Enlightenment ideas and Great Awakening shaping society.
    • First Great Awakening as a unifying national movement.
  7. Mistrust in British Policies:
    • Anglicization versus developing autonomous identities.
    • British impressment as a violation of colonial rights.

Unit 3: 1754-1800

Overview

  • Increasing tensions leading to American independence and early government formations.
  • Timeframe: French and Indian War to the election of Thomas Jefferson.

Big Ideas

  1. French and Indian War Impacts:
    • Increased land but heavier taxation for colonies.
    • Resulted in Proclamation Line of 1763, causing colonial frustration.
  2. Taxation and Representation:
    • Colonial anger over taxation without representation.
    • Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Boston Massacre, and Tea Party as catalysts.
  3. Enlightenment Influences:
    • Natural rights and social contract in Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and the Declaration of Independence.
  4. Patriot Success in Revolutionary War:
    • Leadership of George Washington and French alliance.
    • Key battles: Saratoga (turning point), Yorktown (end).
  5. Articles of Confederation:
    • Weak central government, exposed by Shays' Rebellion.
    • Successes: Northwest Ordinance.
  6. Constitutional Convention:
    • Debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists.
    • Great Compromise and Three-Fifths Compromise.
  7. Constitution Features:
    • Federalism and separation of powers.
    • 10th Amendment and checks and balances.
  8. American Revolution's Societal Impact:
    • Emancipation debates and Republican Motherhood.
    • Inspired French and Haitian Revolutions.
  9. Federal Government Precedents:
    • Washington and Adams setting foreign and domestic policy precedents.
    • Alien and Sedition Acts and Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
  10. Cultural Identity Formation:
  • Artistic expressions and Enlightenment ideas shaping identity.

Unit 4: 1800-1848

Overview

  • Political, territorial, and social changes in early 19th century America.
  • Timeframe: Election of Thomas Jefferson to the Mexican-American War or Seneca Falls Convention.

Big Ideas

  1. Territorial Expansion and Party Debates:
    • Party ideologies: Strict vs. loose constructionists.
    • Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark expedition.
    • Judicial review established by Marbury v. Madison.
  2. Regional and Federal Conflicts:
    • War of 1812 and Hartford Convention.
    • Henry Clay's American System and Missouri Compromise.
  3. US Foreign Policy:
    • Monroe Doctrine asserting Western Hemisphere dominance.
  4. Market Revolution:
    • Technological advancements: Cotton gin, steam engine.
    • Regional interdependence and rise of the middle class.
  5. Democratic Expansions:
    • Universal white male suffrage and party realignments.
    • Election of 1824 splitting Democratic-Republicans.
  6. Andrew Jackson's Presidency:
    • Federal power in addressing national bank, tariffs, and Indian Removal Act.
  7. American Identity through Arts and Religion:
    • Transcendentalism, Hudson River School, and Second Great Awakening.
  8. Social Reforms:
    • Temperance and abolitionist movements gaining traction.
    • Women's movement and the Seneca Falls Convention.
  9. Southern Society and Slavery:
    • Yeoman farmers, cotton economy, and westward expansion.

Unit 5: 1844-1877

Overview

  • Manifest Destiny, Civil War causes and consequences, and Reconstruction.
  • Timeframe: Election of James K. Polk to the end of Reconstruction.

Big Ideas

  1. Manifest Destiny:
    • Expansion driven by economic opportunities and belief in superiority.
    • Legislation like Preemption Acts and California Gold Rush fueling migration.
  2. Mexican-American War:
    • Annexation of Texas leading to war and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
  3. Slavery Debate Intensifies:
    • Wilmot Proviso and Compromise of 1850.
    • Popular sovereignty versus free soil movement.
  4. Immigration and Nativism:
    • Irish and German immigration wave.
    • Nativist movements and the Know-Nothing Party emergence.
  5. Regional Tensions Over Slavery:
    • Conflicting labor ideologies and abolitionist movement.
    • Free soil movement resisting slavery expansion.
  6. Failed Compromises on Slavery:
    • Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott decision.
    • Rise of sectional political parties.
  7. Election of 1860 and Secession:
    • Lincoln's win without Southern electoral votes.
    • Secession leading to Civil War.
  8. Civil War Dynamics:
    • North's strategic advantages and key battles.
    • Lincoln's leadership, Emancipation Proclamation, and Gettysburg Address.
  9. Reconstruction Era:
    • 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
    • Federal occupation and debates on treating Southern states.
  10. Reconstruction's Failure:
  • Southern resistance and Black Codes.
    • Compromise of 1877 ending federal enforcement of civil rights.

These notes capture the key points from the APUSH review lecture, focusing on important events, policies, and themes relevant to the exam.

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