Revolution & republic.
From the French and Indian War through the Constitution and Washington’s farewell — half a century in which a loose collection of English colonies tried, failed, and finally managed to invent a federal republic.
The Revolution wasn’t inevitable in 1763 — it became so by 1775 through a chain of fiscal decisions in Parliament (Stamp Act, Townshend, Tea) and a colonial response that mixed Lockean political theory with grassroots Committees of Correspondence. The war (1775–1783) was won less by the Continental Army than by not losing long enough for France to enter and the British to lose interest. The Articles of Confederation showed exactly how a weak central government would fail. The Constitution (1787) created a stronger one — narrowly ratified, immediately amended, and immediately tested by Hamilton’s financial plan, the rise of party politics (Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans), and the foreign policy crises of the 1790s. By 1800, the peaceful transfer of power from Adams to Jefferson was the real proof of concept.
The CED, topic by topic.
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3.1
The Seven Years’ War
France lost; Britain inherited a continent and the debt that sparked the imperial crisis.
WOR · PCE -
3.2
Taxation Without Representation
Stamp Act, Townshend, the Tea Act, and the colonial reading of “consent.”
PCE · NAT -
3.3
Philosophical Foundations of the Revolution
Locke, Montesquieu, the radical Whig tradition, Common Sense.
PCE · NAT -
3.4
The American Revolution
Lexington to Yorktown; Saratoga as the turning point.
PCE · WOR -
3.5
The Influence of Revolutionary Ideals
Republican motherhood, gradual emancipation, Atlantic revolutions inspired.
PCE · NAT · SOC -
3.6
The Articles of Confederation
A government too weak to tax or put down Shays’s Rebellion.
PCE -
3.7
The Constitutional Convention & Ratification Debates
Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, the Great and 3/5 Compromises.
PCE · NAT -
3.8
The Constitution
Separation of powers, federalism, enumerated and implied powers.
PCE -
3.9
Shaping a New Republic
Hamilton’s financial plan, the Bank, the Whiskey Rebellion, parties.
PCE -
3.10
Developing an American Identity
Republican culture distinct from European monarchism — and bounded by race, gender, class.
NAT · SOC -
3.11
Movement in the Early Republic
Push west across the Appalachians; Spanish, French, Indigenous claims complicating things.
MIG · GEO -
3.12
Continuity and Change in Period 3
How “American identity” by 1800 is and isn’t continuous with 1754.
skill -
3.13
Period 3 Review
Synthesis essay practice.
Connect to the bigger picture
Era: The World of Empires
APWH cross-links: 5.2 Nationalism & Revolutions; 5.3 Industrial Revolution begins
Next: Period 4 — Expansion & Reform
