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Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796

The early Republic 1783–1796: the Confederation, the Constitution and Washington’s presidency

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the Articles of Confederation, the republic’s economic and foreign problems, Shays’ rebellion, the Philadelphia Convention and its compromises, the Constitution and ratification, Washington’s government and the Bill of Rights.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

How did relations with France develop after the war?

Key term

What divided Federalists from Anti-Federalists?

Numbers

How did ratification proceed?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Describe the Articles of Confederation.

    Model answer

    Drafted in 1777 and finally ratified in 1781, they created a league of friendship among the states in which a single-chamber Congress, where each state had one vote, handled war, treaties and Native affairs while the states kept their sovereignty.

  2. 2

    Outline the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

    Model answer

    Congress could not levy taxes or regulate trade and had to request money from the states, there was no president and no national courts, nine states out of thirteen were needed for important measures, and any amendment required all thirteen to agree.

  3. 3

    What did the Confederation Congress nevertheless achieve?

    Model answer

    It carried the war to a successful conclusion and negotiated the peace, and it organised the western lands by the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which provided for survey and sale, for new states to enter the union as equals and for slavery to be excluded from the territory.

  4. 4

    What economic problems faced the new republic?

    Model answer

    There were large state and national war debts, Continental paper money had become worthless, the postwar collapse of trade brought depression and scarce coin, and the states levied tariffs against one another while Congress had no revenue of its own.

  5. 5

    What difficulties remained with Britain after 1783?

    Model answer

    British garrisons stayed in the forts of the north-west, British markets in the West Indies were closed to American ships, and each side accused the other of breaking the treaty over pre-war debts and the treatment of loyalists.

  6. 6

    Why did relations with Spain cause a sectional quarrel?

    Model answer

    Spain closed the lower Mississippi to American commerce in 1784, and when Jay negotiated with Gardoqui in 1786 for trading rights in return for giving up navigation of the river for a period, westerners and southerners saw it as the north selling their interests, and the treaty was abandoned.

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Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AA republic replaced the sultanate.
BThe caliphate was abolished in 1924.
CThe Latin alphabet was adopted.

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Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Simony means the buying and selling of Church office.
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Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

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