When you have finished studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Define republicanism and explain how the first state constitutions reflected the postwar view of republicanism.
Describe the Articles of Confederation and explain why it proved unsatisfactory.
Explain the ways in which the settlement of the West gave rise to both diplomatic and domestic political conflict, yet produced the Northwest Ordinance, which reconfigured sectional tension.
Explain how American revolutionaries understood "equality" and how this view shaped the scope and limits of social changes during the post revolutionary period.
Describe the framing of the federal Constitution and explain why many Americans were willing to establish a strong national government.
