AP U.S. History · Summary

Unit 3 summary

1. Britain's 1763 victory brought debt, a vast territory and the Proclamation Line, and Parliament turned to taxing the colonies directly.
2. Colonists argued that only their own assemblies could tax them; boycotts, congresses and crowd action pushed Parliament to repeal taxes, but the Declaratory Act kept its claim to full power.
3. Arguments moved from the rights of Englishmen to rejecting Parliament to rejecting the king, with Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
4. The Patriots won by outlasting Britain, with Saratoga bringing a French alliance and French help sealing Yorktown.
5. The Revolution's effects were uneven: republican motherhood for women, freedom for some enslaved people and gradual emancipation in the North, and growing pressure on Native lands.
6. The Articles left Congress unable to tax or regulate trade; the Constitution fixed that, with compromises over representation and slavery, and the Bill of Rights won over doubters.
7. Fights over Hamilton's plan and foreign policy created the first parties, and the Alien and Sedition Acts drew the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.