APUSH Units 1-9

electoral college

A group of electors whose vote isthe formal election of the president and vice president after the general election votes are tallied. States decide how to choose their electors, and most instituted a system requiring their electors to vote in accordance with a state’s popular vote, resulting in a state’s vote winner receiving all of the state’s electoral votes.

Dunmore’s Proclamation

A proclamation issued by the royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, in 1775, which offered freedom to all enslaved Black Americans and indentured servants held by patriots in exchange for joining the British army. Between 800 and 2,000 enslaved people joined Dunmore’s army.

Democratic-Republicans

A political party that emerged out of opposition to Federalist policies in the 1790s. The Democratic-Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson as their presidential candidate in 1796, 1800, and 1804.

Declaratory Act

A 1766 act stating Parliament’s authority to pass any law, including direct taxes, on its North American colonies. The declaration was passed following the repeal of the Stamp Act to demonstrate that the repeal had not lessened the imperial authority of Britain.

Declaration of Independence

A document listing colonial grievances and outlining the philosophical foundations for declaring the independence of the colonies from Great Britain. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, then debated and revised by the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration was made public on July 4, 1776.

Daughters of Liberty

The Daughters of Liberty worked with the Sons of Liberty to assure colonial resistance to British taxation, usually through fund-raising efforts and campaigns to encourage colonists to avoid purchasing goods produced by Great Britain.

Currency Act

A 1764 act of Parliament preventing colonial assemblies from printing paper money. This limited colonial economic growth because the colonies exported lower-cost raw materials and imported higher-cost finished goods, resulting in a shortage of currency.

Constitutional Convention

The meeting in Philadelphia from May to September 1787 at which delegates drafted the Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation.

Continental Congress

An assembly convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to the Intolerable Acts. The delegates launched a boycott against British goods and called for a halt of all colonial exports to Great Britain.

Continental Army

Army created by the Second Continental Congress after the battles of Lexington and Concord began the Revolutionary War in 1775. George Washington was appointed as its commander in chief.

committee of correspondence

Correspondence network designed to rapidly circulate concerns and reports of protest and other political events to leaders and colonial assemblies in the aftermath of the Sugar Act. By 1774, each of the thirteen colonies except Pennsylvania had established an intercolonial committee of correspondence.

Coercive Acts

Acts of Parliament passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. The acts closed the port of Boston until residents paid for the damaged property and moved Massachusetts court cases against royal officials back to England in a bid to weaken colonial authority. Colonists referred to these acts as the Intolerable Acts.

checks and balances

The specific ways a branch of government can limit or modify the behavior of other branches. The system of checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution was designed to keep any one branch from exercising too much power.

Boston Tea Party

A protest against British tax policy organized by the Sons of Liberty on December 16, 1773, consisting of about fifty men disguised as American Indians who boarded British ships and dumped about forty-five tons of monopolized tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor.

Boston Massacre

A clash in Boston in March 1770 between colonial protesters and British soldiers that led to the death of five colonists. The bloody incident was used as evidence of English aggressions and to promote the patriot cause. In contrast, the British referred to the event as a “riot.”

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution explicitly guaranteeing all Americans basic rights. These amendments, promised by Federalists during the ratification debates, helped reassure Americans who feared that the federal government established under the Constitution would infringe on the rights of individuals and states.

Battle of Yorktown

Decisive battle in which French naval forces forced the surrender of British forces on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia. The joint French and American victory led to the withdrawal of the British in the American Revolution.

Battle of Saratoga

Key Revolutionary War battle fought at Saratoga, NewYork, resulting in the surrender of British General John Burgoyne’s forces. The Patriot victory at Saratoga in October 1777 provided hope that the colonists could triumph and increased the chances that the French would formally join the patriot side.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

Battle at which U.S. General Anthony Wayne won a major victory over a multi-tribe coalition of American Indians in the Northwest Territory in 1794.

Battle of Bunker Hill

A 1775 American Revolution battle in which British troops narrowly defeated patriot militias, emboldening patriot forces.

Bank of the United States

A national bank established in 1791. The bank was responsible for holding large portions of federal funds, distributing loans and currency, and funding the national debt.

Articles of Confederation

Plan for national government with limited powers proposed by the Continental Congress of 1777 and ratified in March 1781. The Articles were replaced by the Constitution in 1789.

Antifederalist

An opponent of ratification of the Constitution of 1787. Antifederalists were generally from more rural and less wealthy backgrounds than the Federalists and opposed increasing the powers of the central government.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Two security acts passed in 1798 by the Federalist- controlled Congress. The Alien Act allowed the president, then John Adams, to imprison or deport noncitizens. The Sedition Act outlawed certain public criticisms of the federal government.

Albany Plan of Union

A plan put together in 1754 by Benjamin Franklin to create a more centralized colonial government that would establish policies regarding defense, trade, and territorial expansion, as well as aim to facilitate better relations between colonists and American Indians.

Federalist

A supporter of ratification of the Constitution of 1787, many of whom came from urban and commercial backgrounds. Federalists supported a strong central government with vigorous powers.

The Federalist Papers

A series of eighty-five essays by Federalists Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Published in newspapers throughout the country, the Federalist Papers promoted the ratification of the Constitution.

French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War)

A global conflict from 1754–1763 among European nations, mainly Britain and France, that began in North America over disputed territorial rights to the Ohio River Valley in 1754, with further conflict erupting in Europe in 1756. France ultimately ceded all its North American territories to Britain and Spain, but the enormous cost of the war also severely damaged the British and French economies.

French Revolution

A revolution between 1789 and1799 in which the French people, inspired by the ideals of the American Declaration of Independence, overthrew King Louis XVI (reigned 1774–1792). The uprising disrupted French agriculture among other aspects of life, increasing demand for American wheat, while the efforts of French revolutionaries to institute an egalitarian republic gained support from many Americans. However, in late 1792, as French revolutionary leaders began executing thousands of their opponents in the Reign of Terror and declared war against Prussia, Austria, and finally Great Britain, merchants worried about the impact on trade. In response, President Washington proclaimed U.S. neutrality in April 1793, prohibiting Americans from providing support or war materials to any belligerent nations.

guerilla tactics

Tactics deployed by irregular forces in a conflict, usually dependent on surprise attack, raids on supply lines, assassinations, and attacks on civilian supporters of an enemy.

Indian Trade and Intercourse Act

A 1790 act to regulate and maintain fair trade between American Indian and white settlers. The act was widely ignored, and relations between the two groups continued to worsen.

Intolerable Acts

The name by which the colonial patriots referred to the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act.

Jay Treaty

Controversial 1796 treaty between the United States and Great Britain negotiated by John Jay that required British forces to withdraw from U.S. soil, required American repayment of debts to British firms, limited U.S. trade with the British West Indies, and permitted Britain to continue to stop neutral vessels.

loyalist

A colonial supporter of the British during the American Revolution.

minuteman

A member of a colonial militia group, consisting mainly of farmers, trained for local defense in case of British attack. A “minuteman” supposedly could be ready on a minute’s notice.

naturalization

The process by which a noncitizen becomes a citizen of a nation.

Naturalization Act

An act passed in 1798 by the Federalist-controlled Congress that raised the residency requirement for citizenship from five to fourteen years. It was designed to delay the naturalization of immigrants who largely voted Democratic-Republican. The act included only free white persons, meaning that it excluded indentured servants, American Indians, free Black persons, and enslaved persons from gaining citizenship.

Neutrality Proclamation

A 1793 proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in any conflicts between other nations, including France and Great Britain, despite French aid in the Revolutionary War effort. The proclamation also warned American citizens against favoring either party. Britain largely ignored U.S. neutrality and seized American merchant vessels heading for France.

New Jersey Plan

A proposal at the Constitutional Convention endorsed by small states for a one-house legislature with each state having an equal vote.

Northwest Ordinances of 1785 and 1787

The 1785 act of the confederation congress provided for the survey, sale, and eventual division into states of the Northwest Territory and set aside land for public schools. A 1787 act then clarified the process by which settled territories could become states and banned slavery across the Northwest Territory.

patriots

American colonists who favored the movement for independence during the 1770s.

Peace of Paris

A 1763 peace treaty ending the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War). Under its terms, France gave up all of its North American territorial rights and Britain gained control of present-day Canada and of North America east of the Mississippi River. Spain gained all of French-controlled Louisiana, including the Port of New Orleans.

Pinckney Treaty

A treaty between Spain and the United States ratified in 1796 that defined the boundary between U.S. and Spanish territory in the South and opened the Mississippi River and New Orleans to U.S. shipping. It allowed the free movement of goods from the far interior to the Atlantic via the Mississippi.

Proclamation Line of 1763

Act of Parliament following the end of the French and Indian War that restricted colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, generating widespread resentment in the colonies.

Quartering Act

A 1765 act requiring colonial governments to provide food and housing for British troops in the colonies. Many colonists resented subsidizing the presence of British troops and eventually viewed those troops as occupiers rather than protectors.

Québec Act

A 1774 act of Parliament extending the boundary of Québec to areas of the Ohio River valley that American colonists wanted to settle, thus revoking the Proclamation of 1763 and placing rule between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers under the control of a royal governor. This act also set up a colonial government without a local representative assembly in Québec and legalized Catholicism in the territory.

republican motherhood

A concept proposed by some American political leaders in the 1790s, which supported women’s education so that they could in turn instruct their sons in principles of republican government.

salutary (benign) neglect

British colonial policy from around 1700 to 1760 that relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs as long as the North American colonies produced sufficient raw materials and revenue.

Second Continental Congress

An assembly of colonial representatives that served as a national government beginning in May 1775 and lasting the duration of the American Revolution. Despite limited formal powers, the Second Continental Congress coordinated the war effort, printed currency, and conducted negotiations with outside powers.

separation of powers

A system of government advocated by Baron de Montesquieu dividing powers across multiple branches of government. In the U.S. Constitution, federal powers are distributed among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Shays’s Rebellion

A rebellion in 1786–1787 by western Massachusetts farmers, many of whom were war veterans, caused mainly by economic hardships and taxation policies they saw as benefitting an eastern elite in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The rebellion encouraged political leaders to consider strengthening the Articles of Confederation.

Sons of Liberty

A loosely organized society throughout the colonies whose goal was to assure colonial support for resistance to British taxation. The Sons of Liberty often used intimidation tactics against merchants and businesses as well as the crown’s representatives.

speculator

An investor who buys large quantities of a commodity at a low price in hopes that prices will rise and produce a profit when sold. Speculation in a product tends to drive up its price.

Stamp Act

A 1765 act of Parliament that imposed a duty on all transactions involving paper items such as newspapers and wills. The Stamp Act prompted widespread, coordinated protests by colonists who insisted it was a direct attempt to raise revenue, and that only their representatives had the right to tax them. It was repealed in 1766.

Stamp Act Congress

An assembly of twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies that met in New York in 1765 to petition Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act and coordinate colonial resistance.

Statute of Religious Freedom

A 1786 law passed by the Virginia Assembly that ensured the separation of church and state and largely guaranteed freedom of religion. Enactment of the statute established a legal precedent followed by other states and was later included in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.

Sugar Act

A 1764 act of Parliament designed to increase revenue and encourage the importation of molasses from the British West Indies by cracking down on the smuggling of French molasses into the colonies even as the tax on it was cut in half.

Tea Act

An act of Parliament in 1773 that aimed to reduce the financial debts of Britain and the British East India Company by providing the company with a tea monopoly in the British American colonies leading to widespread colonial protests.

three-fifths compromise

The compromise between northern and southern delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to count enslaved persons as three-fifths of a free person in deciding the proportion of representation in the House of Representatives and taxation by the federal government. It had the long-term effect of granting slaveholding states a larger amount of voting power.

Townshend Acts

A series of acts of Parliament in 1767 that instituted an import tax on a broad range of items including glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. The taxes prompted a boycott of British goods, because of a lack of colonial representation in the Parliament and the desire of the colonists to avoid increased taxes and led to increased violence between British soldiers and colonists.

Treaty of Greenville

A 1795 treaty signed following the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The treaty ended the Northwest Indian War and ceded vast tracts of lands claimed by American Indians in the Northwest Territory to the United States.

Treaty (Peace) of Paris

The 1783 treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, recognized American independence, and established U.S. territory as the lands between the Mississippi River in the west, Florida in the South, and Canada to the north.

Valley Forge

The site of the winter 1778 encampment of the Continental army, at which the Continental army overcame numerous challenges.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Resolutions passed by legislatures in Virginia and Kentucky in protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The resolutions claimed the acts passed by the Federalists were unconstitutional and politically motivated, thus “void and of no force” in their states.

Virginia Plan

A plan put forth at the beginning of the Constitutional Convention that proposed a strong central government and a system of representation based on population.

Virginia Resolves

A series of statements by the Virginia legislature dedicated to resistance to British taxation without representation in Parliament or colonial control over taxation.

virtual representation

The British claim that every member of Parliament represented the interests of all British subjects, so that colonists did not need the right to vote for members of Parliament.

Whiskey Rebellion

An uprising beginning in 1791 by western Pennsylvania farmers who led protests against the excise tax on whiskey. The federal government used military force to crush the rebellion, demonstrating the increased federal powers under the new Constitution in contrast to the confederation congress’s inability to respond to Shays’s Rebellion in 1786.

XYZ Affair

A 1798 incident in which French agents demanded bribes before meeting with American diplomatic representatives.

affirmative action

Policies that first emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960s meant to overcome historical patterns of discrimination against Blacks, women, and other minorities in education and employment. Affirmative action guidelines controversially established limited preferences in hiring and college admissions to favor groups that had been historically discriminated against.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

An American Indian group, formed in 1968, that promoted “red power,” the preservation of tribal cultural traditions, poverty relief, and improved living conditions on reservations and condemned the continued mistreatment of American Indians.

baby boom

A term that refers to the sharp U.S. population increase between 1946 and 1964 resulting from the end of World War II, postwar economic prosperity, improvements in health care, and a trend toward marriage at a younger age.

Bandung Conference

A conference of twenty-nine Asian and African nations held in Indonesia in 1955, which declared their neutrality in the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and condemned colonialism.

Bay of Pigs invasion

An unsuccessful attempt under the Kennedy administration to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro by sending 1,400 armed Cuban exiles to invade the island in 1961. Castro’s troops contained the poorly trained invaders, and the failed invasion proved to be an international embarrassment for the United States.

Beats

A small group of young poets, writers, intellectuals, musicians, and artists who challenged mainstream American politics and culture in the 1950s.

Berlin Airlift

The large-scale transport of food and supplies to West Berlin by the U.S. and British governments during the Soviet blockade of Berlin from 1948 to 1949. The Berlin Airlift was responsible for breaking the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.

Berlin Wall

A wall built by the Soviet Union in 1961 to keep East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin. The Berlin Wall quickly became a Cold War symbol of the “iron curtain” that Winston Churchill described in a 1946 address in Missouri. The destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 symbolized the end of the Cold War.

Black Panther Party

A radical Black power group founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 to promote Black empowerment and armed self-resistance in Black communities. The group’s influence waned by the early 1970s largely due to repression by law enforcement.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

A landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that overturned the “separate but equal” principle established by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Although the Brown ruling banned school segregation, few schools in the South were racially desegregated for more than a decade.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

Established in 1824, the BIA is responsible for management of American Indian lands and implementation of federal policy toward American Indian nations.

Camp David accords

An agreement between Israel and Egypt facilitated by President Carter in 1978.T he accords led to a peace treaty and normalization of relations between the two nations.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The intelligence organization established by the 1947 National Security Act. The CIA is part of the executive branch and is responsible for gathering information and conducting espionage in foreign nations. It was originally created to counter Soviet spying operations.

Christian Right

A coalition of evangelical Christians and Catholics that supported traditional values, laissez-faire economics, and an anticommunist foreign policy. The Christian Right, also known as the religious right, joined forces with political conservatives to form a powerful conservative voting bloc in the Republican Party.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A landmark act signed into law in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment and increased federal enforcement of school desegregation and voting access.

Cold War

The political, economic, and military conflict, short of direct war, between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991.

Commission on the Status of Women

A commission appointed by President Kennedy in 1961. Its 1963 report, American Women, highlighted employment discrimination against women and recommended legislation requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.

containment

The U.S. strategy to prevent the spread of communism and Soviet influence around the world. First outlined by U.S. diplomat George Kennan in 1946, containment became a key element of U.S. Cold War policy.

counterculture

Young cultural rebels of the 1960s and 1970s who rejected conventional cultural and social norms. The movement began in San Francisco and was known for anti- establishment rock music, protests against the Vietnam War, drug use, and the practice of “free love.”

deindustrialization

The decline of manufacturingin a specific town, region, or nation. Along with increased foreign competition and a rise of overseas outsourcing, deindustrialization led to a significant decline in union membership, as populations shifted across the country away from urban centers in search of new economic opportunity in the South and West.

Dennis v. United States

The 1951 Supreme Court decision upholding the conviction of communist leaders on the grounds they posed a “clear and present danger,” despite the absence of any evidence of an immediate uprising or plot.

détente

The easing of tensions during the mid-1970s between the Soviet Union and China and the United States. Détente resulted in the first arms-limitation treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1972.

Dixiecrats

The nickname of Southern Democrats who created a segregationist political party in 1948, the States’ Rights Democratic Party, as a response to federal extensions of civil rights. Dixiecrats advocated a state’s right to legislate segregation. They ran Strom Thurmond in an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1948 against Truman.

domino theory

The prevalent belief during the Cold War, maintaining that if one country fell under the influence of communism, other surrounding countries would soon similarly fall under the influence of communism, like a row of falling dominoes.

Eisenhower Doctrine

An Eisenhower administration policy that promised economic and/or military assistance to a Middle Eastern country threatened by communist aggression. The strategy was meant to bolster containment and protect U.S. oil interests and pro-American governments.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

A federal agency established by President Nixon in 1971 to regulate activities that resulted in pollution or other environmental degradation.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

A proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee equal rights for men and women. The amendment was not ratified because fewer than three-quarters of the states ratified it by the 1982 deadline.

escalation

A policy of the Johnson administration of continuously increasing the numbers of ground troops in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968 in hopes of securing victory in the war.

Federal Employee Loyalty Program

A program established by President Truman in 1947, via executive order, to investigate federal employees suspected of disloyalty, communist ties, suspicious personal behaviors, and homosexuality. Hundreds of employees were terminated from their positions as a result of the investigations.

Free Speech Movement (FSM)

The 1964–1965 college student-led movement using sit-in and rallies to protest policies of the University of California at Berkeley that restricted students’ ability to protest for civil rights. The successful FSM protests inspired greater student activism on college campuses.

Freedom Rides

Integrated bus rides through the South in 1961 to test southern compliance with Supreme Court rulings on segregation. After Freedom Riders were attacked in Montgomery, Alabama, the Kennedy administration sent federal marshals to protect the riders.