CHAPTER 5 – The American Revolution

1. THE STATES UNITED

a. Defining American War Aims

b. The Decision for Independence

c. Responses to Independence

d. Mobilizing for War

2. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

a. The First Phase: New England

b. The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region

c. The Iroquois and the British

d. Securing Aid from Abroad

e. The Final Phase: The South

f. Winning the Peace

3. WAR AND SOCIETY

a. Loyalists and Minorities

b. The War and Slavery

c. Native Americans and the Revolution

d. Women’s Rights and Women’s Roles

e. The War Economy

4. THE CREATION OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

a. The Assumptions of Republicanism

b. The First State Constitutions

c. Revising State Constitutions

d. Toleration and Slavery

5. THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

a. The Confederation

b. Diplomatic Failures

c. The Confederation and the Northwest

d. Indians and the Western Lands

e. Debts, Taxes, and Daniel Shays

Learning Objectives

• Identify the major debates in the Second Continental Congress and their outcomes.
• Assess the impact of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense on the colonial view of the war with Britain.
• Explain the reasons for American success in the War for Independence.
• Identify the new American ideological ideals and compare these with the realities of American society.
• Assess the impact of the Revolution on republicanism, religion, and slavery.
• Explain the purpose of the Articles of Confederation.

Essential Terms

The Following terms appear in the College Board's AP US History Curriculum Framework and, thus, may be used in questions on the AP exam. Students should become familiar with these terms and be able to define them in the context of the American Revolution and its aftermath.

• Seven Years' War
• Independence movement
• Colonial elites
• Grassroots movements
• Rights of British subjects
• Rights of the individual
• Ideas of the Enlightenment
• Loyalist opposition
• Patriot cause
• Support from European allies
• Republican self-government
• Declaration of Independence
• State constitutions
• Republican fears of centralized power and excessive popular influence
• Abolition of slavery
• Political democracy
• Constitutional framers
• American Revolution
• Northwest Ordinance of 1787

FOCAL TERMS - The following terms are helpful in addressing the Key Concepts and Themes of the course.

• American Patriots
• Benedict Arnold
• Common Sense
• Daniel Shays
• George Washington
• John Burgoyne
• John Locke
• Joseph and Mary Brant
• Treaty of Paris, 1783
• Statute of Religious Liberty
• Land Ordinance of 1784, 1785
• Chief Little Turtle
• Battle of Fallen Timbers
• Lord Cornwallis
• Shays's Rebellion
• Olive Branch Petition
• Marquis de Lafayette
• French Alliance
• Loyalists (Tories)
• Saratoga
• Second Continental Congress
• Thomas Jefferson
• Thomas Paine
• William Howe
• Yorktown

The Patriot (2000)

1776 (1972)