Great League of Peace: A political confederation of five (later six) Iroquois tribes, which sought to coordinate collective action. Each tribe maintained its own political system and religious beliefs.

^{Virginia Company: The collective name for two joint stock companies (one of London, the other of Plymouth) that had identical charters but different (if overlapping) territorial claims. Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline.}

The war of 1812 began with president James Madison declaring war due to increasing advocacy from the “War Hawks” a political group hell-bent on starting a war. The final straw that led to the war was an economic blockade of US-France trade enforced by the unmatched British navy. The economic denouement included a reopening of US-French trade, but more importantly it gave the US more incentive to become less economically dependent on Europe.

The free trading of America had been challenged by The British, but this had only brought America to invest in its internal infrastructure and economy. When the war concluded America was only more well equipped to begin trading with the war, but it first needed a way to bring the resources to its factories from the newly, acquired Louisiana territory.

It provided Americans with the manufactured tools and weapons from Europe to conquer and settle North America, along with supplying Americans with the slave labor from Africa it needed to grow cash crops like tobacco.

The Patroon system granted vast tracts of land to whomever, most likely investors, that could settle 50 colonists within 4 years. This would be done at the investor’s expense. This system eventually lead to increased settlement and most notable the New Netherland Colony.

With the rapid expansion of European markets, money, and colonists this system began to funnel them into America. This gave rise to an increase in population, but also competition for land and imperialistic power. This led to the eventual harsh taxation of the American colonists.

The Intolerable Acts were a series of acts enforced upon Massachusetts colony as retribution for the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port act had significant economic damage to the northeast due to the closing of the Boston port. This starved the people of Boston, and drove unemployment up. Ultimately, it showed how fragile the new northeast economy was and how dependent it was on the Atlantic trade.

The colonists, now under increased pressure from their mother country, needed to find a way to strengthen their internal economy and be less reliant on the much more powerful European nations that ruled them, at this time, and the sea.

President John Adam’s signed an agreement with France following growing tensions from the XYZ affair. The XYZ affair came from the refusal of 3 diplomats to pay a bribe to speak with the French foreign minister. This treaty, also known as the treaty of Mortefontaine, ended the Treaties of Alliance and Commerce between France and the US following the Revolutionary War. This had given the United States the right to free trade.

The funding from the BUS, made it easier for Americans to transition into the global market that was now available after the treaty.

This free, global trade would be challenged by the most powerful navy at the time after its tensions with France rose. They could not let a new, and economically-driven, nation supply their enemy.

The Bank of the United States, under strong leadership from Alexander Hamilton and fierce opposition from Thomas Jefferson, acted as the fiscal agent for the new and improved federal government. The bank enforced the taxes, provided loans to the federal government and private citizens, secured government funds, and payed the governments bills. The newest, and largest financial institution of the time with a charter of $10 million dollars gave economic prosper and control to the newly forming nation.

The new bank solidified the federal government’s power over its economy for the next 20 years until it needed to be rechartered.

It then gave the United States government more purchasing power and credibility when it came to international affairs. The bank also gave funding and opportunity to those who sought to venture into global or domestic markets.