US History Vocabulary Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from US History periods 1-8 based on lecture notes.

Encomienda system

Spanish labor system that exploited indigenous people.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americans, West Africa, and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Joint Stock Companies

A business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders.

Indentured Servants

Individuals who agreed to work for a period of time in exchange for passage to America.

Puritans

English Protestants who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices.

Metacom's War (King Philip's War)

Armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675-1678.

Pueblo Revolt

Also known as Popé's Rebellion—was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico.

Great Awakening

Series of religious revivals among Protestants in the American colonies, especially during the 1730s

Enlightenment

An influential intellectual and cultural movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that introduced a new way of thinking based on reason and scientific inquiry.

Anglicization

The process of becoming more English; in colonial times, the desire to emulate English society, culture, and politics.

Patriot

American colonists who fought for independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War.

American Revolution

War fought between Great Britain and its thirteen American colonies from 1775 to 1783, resulting in American independence.

Articles of Confederation

The first government established by the newly independent American colonies; it existed from 1781 to 1789.

Constitution

A document outlining the fundamental principles and laws of a nation.

Louisiana Purchase

The acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803.

Monroe Doctrine

U.S. policy opposing European colonialism in the Americas, articulated in 1823.

Missouri Compromise

An agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Mexican War

Armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848.

Abolitionists

Advocates for the end of African slavery and the enslavement of African people.

States' Rights

The political belief that individual states have autonomy and power relative to the federal government.

Civil War

A war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865 between the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South).

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War on January 1, 1863, declaring the freedom of slaves in specified areas of the Confederacy.

Reconstruction

The period after the American Civil War from 1865 to 1877, when the United States attempted to rebuild and politically and economically transform the former Confederate states.

Progressive Era

A period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s.

Prohibition

The period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol were illegal in the United States.

Women's Suffrage

The right for women to vote and to stand for electoral office.

Isolationism

A policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of foreign countries.

Spanish American War

Armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898.

World War I

A global war originating in Europe that lasted from 1914 to 1918.

Great Migration

The movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West.

Harlem Renaissance

A cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920s.

Great Depression

A severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.

New Deal

A series of programs and projects undertaken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939 and during the Great Depression to provide relief, recovery, and reform.

World War II

A global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, involving the vast majority of the world's countries—forming the Allies and the Axis powers.

Pearl Harbor

Surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 08:00 a.m., on Sunday, December 7, 1941.

Japanese American Internment

The forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country.

Cold War

A period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Communism

A political and economic ideology that positions itself in opposition to liberal democracy and capitalism, advocating instead for a classless system in which the means of production are owned communally and private property is nonexistent or severely curtailed.

Civil Rights Movement

A struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States.

Great Society

A set of domestic programs launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.

Vietnam War

A conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1955 to 1975.

Watergate Scandal

A major political scandal in the United States involving the abuse of power and bribery and obstruction of justice by President Richard Nixon and his administration from 1972 to 1974.

Reagan Revolution

A period during the 1980s marked by conservative policy changes, particularly in economics, under President Ronald Reagan.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

War on Terror

An international military campaign launched by the United States government after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Affordable Care Act

A comprehensive health care reform law enacted in March 2010 (sometimes known as Obamacare).