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Summary Ged US History exam notes
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Taken all the information provided from the Princeton Review Ged Test Prep, 2023 and summarised it.
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➢ United States History○ Colonial America 1607-1732
■ In the early 1600s, America traces the founding of the United States to 13
original colonies, which were settled along the eastern coast primarily by
groups of people from England.
Colonies were business ventures aimed at maximising profits for the
home country through trade, a system known as mercantilism. Many
settlers arrived as indentured servants, working to pay off their passage.
Britain also relied on the transatlantic slave trade to supply labour in the
North American colonies. The original 13 colonies can be divided into
three regions.
■ The New England colonies—Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and New Hampshire—were founded by settlers seeking religious
freedom. Due to a cold climate and rocky soil, they struggled to farm and
relied on fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. Boston became an economic
centre in the region.
■ The Middle Colonies—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware—had a milder climate, allowing them to grow wheat and other
grains. They also had industries like paper, textiles, and iron production.
With settlers from Dutch, German, French, and Irish backgrounds.
■ The Southern colonies—Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina,
and Georgia—had plantation-based economies due to their rich soil.
They grew cash crops like cotton, rice, and tobacco and relied on slave
labour to boost profits.
■ As British rule spread across the 13 colonies, they developed their ways
of defining and sustaining themselves.
○ American Revolution 1776-1789
■ During this, the colonies united to fight for independence, protesting "no
taxation without representation" because they were taxed by Britain
without any say in its government. The extreme taxes and protests
stemmed from the aftermath of the French and Indian War (1754–1763),
where Britain, as a result of defeating France and gaining new territories,
imposed heavy taxes on its colonies to cover war expenses. This led to
colonial resentment and protests against British authority.
■ After the costly French and Indian War, Britain imposed new taxes on the
colonies, like the Stamp Act of 1765, to help pay for the war, which
angered the colonists. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party occurred when
colonists dumped British tea into the harbour in protest. In response,
Britain passed the Coercive (or Intolerable) Acts, closing Boston Harbor,
limiting town meetings, and placing British soldiers in colonists' homes,
which further inflamed colonial resentment.
■ The Revolutionary War began in 1775 after clashes with British troops.
In 1776, the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of
Independence, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, with contributions
, from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. The colonists won the war with
French assistance, forcing Britain to surrender in 1781 and signing a
peace treaty in 1783.
■ After the war, the new U.S. government was defined in the U.S.
Constitution, ratified between 1787 and 1789. George Washington
became the first president, and by 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first 10
amendments, was added to protect individual freedoms.
○ Westward Expansion 1789-1865
■ In the 1800s, the U.S. expanded westward, starting with the 1803
Louisiana Purchase under President Thomas Jefferson, doubling the
nation's size. The War of 1812 secured U.S. boundaries and cleared the
way for western settlement. Westward Expansion, driven by the idea of
"manifest destiny," promised opportunity and freedom through land
ownership. However, this expansion displaced millions of Native
Americans with long-established lifestyles at the cost of forcing native
populations from their lands.
■ Westward Expansion involved several key routes. The Lewis and Clark
expedition (1803–1806), guided by Sacagawea, explored the Louisiana
Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon Trail, a 2,000-mile
wagon route, was used by pioneers heading to Oregon in the mid-1800s,
while the Pony Express briefly carried mail across the country. Around
300,000 people migrated to California during the Gold Rush
(1848–1855). However, the expansion also deepened tensions
between states over slavery, as each new territory had to decide
whether to join the Union as a free or slave state, disrupting the
balance between North and South.
■ Meanwhile, The Industrial Revolution accelerated movement and
growth in the U.S., boosting manufacturing and creating new jobs. New
transportation systems like the Transcontinental Railroad, connected
major cities such as New York and San Francisco. By 1860, the U.S.
population had grown to 31 million across 33 states.
○ Civil war 1860-1865
■ By the mid-1800s, the U.S. was deeply divided over slavery, with
Southerners fearing its abolition and Northerners opposing its expansion
into new territories. Several key events escalated tensions: in 1852,
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin exposed the brutality of
slavery to a global audience. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed
residents to vote on whether they would be free or slave states, leading to
violent conflict between pro-slavery and abolitionist forces in "Bleeding
Kansas" (1854–1861). In 1857, the Supreme Court's Dred Scott
decision ruled that Black people had no rights as citizens.
■ In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an antislavery candidate, won the presidential
election. In response, Southern states began seceding from the Union to
protect their economic system and property rights, forming the
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