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Perhaps the most serious crisis faced by the newly formed United States came in 1783, during [BLANK-1], when General Horatio Gates and others met to suggest that the Continental Army attempt a coup d’état (to illegitimately overthrow the government by a military takeover) so that soldiers would receive their full pensions for their service during the American Revolution. George Washington used his popularity and reputation with the army to dissuade them from this action and end the coup attempt. By preventing the coup, Washington not only saved the new nation from likely failure, he established the important and longstanding U.S. trend of military subordination to civilian authority.

[BLANK-1] was an Enlightenment-inspired concept promoted by John Locke that suggested that governments derive political authority from a social contract with the people rather than divine right.

Those Americans of conservative political leanings, allied with the Tory Party, tended to be [BLANK-1] during the American Revolution.

[BLANK-1] was a seriously destabilizing event in Europe during the mid-fourteenth century. While it led to economic and political disarray at the time, it also created the need for a stronger state system. Some countries, like England, France, Portugal, and Spain, responded to the crisis by strengthening their monarchies and increasing their bureaucracies. This had the positive side effect of positioning these states to dominate the Age of Exploration, as they had the finances and administrative capacities to fund voyages of exploration.

[BLANK-1] were predominantly Catholic. They placed a tremendous emphasis on the conversion of Native Americans and often employed forced conversion methods. They established Catholic missions in their colonial lands as a way of more easily spreading Christianity to the indigenous people. They enticed some Native Americans to adopt Christianity and live at the missions by offering gifts and plentiful food; once the neophytes converted, however, they stopped the gift-giving practice and scaled back their rations.

[BLANK-1] refers to the development of public spaces of sociability and discourse in the leadup to the American Revolution. Coffee Houses and other drinking establishments became sites of public discourse, where colonists shared news, held public debates, passed on rumors, and fomented rebellion

Dutch slavery was less comprehensively exploitative than the systems in other North American empires and slavery was never a large enterprise in Dutch lands (though it existed there). Some Dutch slaves that had proven themselves valuable to the colony, most often in defense against Native American attacks, were given [BLANK-1]. They were allowed to work their own land in return for paying a tax to their enslavers; however, the offspring of these slaves were considered bound laborers.

[BLANK-1] occurred in South Carolina in 1739. It marked the largest armed slave uprising in American history; dozens of whites were killed by slaves and as many as fifty slaves were killed during the conflict. The Spanish Empire may have helped instigate the incident by encouraging slaves to escape to Florida.

Key Terms:​The Afflicted Girls​The Battle of Breed and Bunker Hill​The Battle of Saratoga​The Battle of Trenton​The Battles of Lexington and Concord​The Boston Massacre​The Boston Tea Party​British Military Strategy​Charter Colonies​Constitutionalism​The Daughters of Liberty​English Religious Cultures in America​The Franklin Flag​French Religious Cultures in America​The Gadsden Flag​George Washington’s Military Strategy​John Peter Zenger​Jonathan Edwards​Loyalists​Mercy Otis Warren​The Newburgh Conspiracy​Patriots​Proprietary Colonies​Provincial Colonies​The Royal Proclamation of 1763​Sensationalism​The Sons of Liberty​Spanish Religious Cultures in America​Tavern Culture​William Cooper

[BLANK-1] was a printed pattern used to promote the idea of intercolonial unity at the Albany Conference, in 1754. The image featured a rattlesnake that had been chopped into several pieces (representing the British American colonies) and it offered the simple message: “Join, or Die.” The message was intended to encourage British American colonists to form a loose confederation (patterned after the Iroquois Confederacy) for defense against the French and to foster greater intercolonial trade. The message failed to convince American Colonial legislatures, however, as every colony refused to adopt the Albany Plan of forming a loose American confederation. This demonstrates that the American colonies were not interested in forming a “United States” as late as 1754.