U.S. History Review: 1800 to the Early Cold War

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical terms from the Revolution of 1800 through the early Cold War containment period.

Revolution of $1800$

The peaceful transfer of power from the Federalist Party to the Democratic-Republican Party following the election of Thomas Jefferson.

Marshall Court (Marbury v. Madison)

The Supreme Court era under John Marshall that established the principle of judicial review, allowing the Court to declare laws unconstitutional.

Louisiana Purchase

The $1803$ land deal where the United States purchased approximately $828,000$ square miles of territory from France.

Embargo Act of $1807$

A law passed by Congress forbidding all exportation of goods from the United States to foreign ports.

War of $1812$

A conflict between the United States and Great Britain over issues including maritime rights, trade restrictions, and impressment.

Era of Good Feelings

A period in political history reflecting a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans after the War of $1812$.

Henry Clay’s American System

An economic plan that proposed high tariffs to protect industry, a national bank to foster commerce, and federal subsidies for internal improvements like roads and canals.

Missouri Compromise ($1820$)

Legislation that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery north of the $36^{\circ}30'$ parallel.

Monroe Doctrine

A foreign policy stating that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression.

Corrupt Bargain

The alleged deal between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to throw the Election of $1824$ in Adams' favor in the House of Representatives.

Jacksonian Democracy

A movement for more democracy in government, championed by Andrew Jackson, which advocated for the "common man" and expanded white male suffrage.

Tariff of Abominations

The Tariff of $1828$, a high protective tariff that was deeply hated by Southerners who felt it discriminated against them.

Nullification Crisis

A sectional crisis during the Jackson presidency where South Carolina declared federal tariffs unconstitutional and void within the state.

Indian Removal Act

An $1830$ law that authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River.

Second Great Awakening

A Protestant religious revival during the early $19th$ century that led to various social reform movements.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women's rights convention in the United States, held in $1848$, where the Declaration of Sentiments was signed.

Transcendentalism

A philosophical movement that emphasized the inherent goodness of people and nature, believing that society and its institutions corrupted the purity of the individual.

Market Revolution

The expansion of the marketplace through the construction of new roads and canals, connecting distant communities for the first time.

Manifest Destiny

The $19th$-century belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Mexican-American War

A conflict from $1846$ to $1848$ following the annexation of Texas, which resulted in the US gaining vast territories in the West.

Wilmot Proviso

An unsuccessful $1846$ proposal in the U.S. Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War.

Compromise of $1850$

A package of five bills that defused a confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War.

Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of $1850$, it required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that citizens of free states had to cooperate.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An $1854$ bill that mandated "popular sovereignty" allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state's borders.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory between $1854$ and $1861$ over the legality of slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

The $1857$ Supreme Court decision that ruled African Americans could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to forbid slavery in U.S. territories.

John Brown’s Raid (Harpers Ferry)

An effort by abolitionist John Brown in $1859$ to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Election of $1860$

The presidential election where Abraham Lincoln won, causing several Southern states to secede from the Union.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January $1$, $1863$, freeing all slaves in Confederate-held territory.

Gettysburg Address

A speech by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Reconstruction (Presidential vs. Radical)

The period of rebuilding the South after the Civil War; Presidential focused on lenient reintegration, while Radical focused on punishing the South and protecting civil rights.

$13th$, $14th$, and $15th$ Amendments

Constitutional amendments that abolished slavery, granted citizenship/equal protection, and provided voting rights regardless of race.

Freedmen’s Bureau

An agency established in $1865$ to help former black slaves and poor whites in the South after the U.S. Civil War.

Sharecropping

A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.

Compromise of $1877$

An informal deal that settled the intensely disputed $1876$ U.S. presidential election and resulted in the end of Reconstruction.

Gilded Age

The period in U.S. history during the late $19th$ century characterized by rapid economic growth but also significant social conflict and corruption.

Laissez-Faire

An economic theory from the $18th$ century that is opposed to any government intervention in business affairs.

Social Darwinism

A theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same laws of natural selection as plants and animals.

Gospel of Wealth

An article written by Andrew Carnegie that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.

Transcontinental Railroad

A train route across the United States, finished in $1869$, that connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Dawes Severalty Act

An $1887$ law providing for the distribution of Indian reservation land among individual Native Americans.

Turner’s Frontier Thesis

The argument by historian Frederick Jackson Turner that American democracy was formed by the American frontier.

Vertical and Horizontal Integration

Business strategies where a company either owns all stages of production (Vertical) or buys out competing companies (Horizontal).

Knights of Labor / AFL

Major labor unions; the Knights favored all workers, while the American Federation of Labor (AFL) focused on skilled workers.

Haymarket Riot

An $1886$ demonstration in Chicago that turned violent after a bomb was thrown at police, damaging the reputation of labor unions.

Pullman Strike

A nationwide railroad strike in the United States in $1894$ that pitted the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company.

Interstate Commerce Act

An $1887$ federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices.

Sherman Antitrust Act

The first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices and prohibited trusts.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A landmark $1896$ U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

New South

A slogan in the history of the American South used to describe the modernization of society and economy as industrialization occurred.

Populist Party (People's Party)

A left-wing agrarian political party in the late $19th$ century that represented farmers and laborers.

Social Gospel

A religious movement in the second half of the $19th$ century that applied Christian ethics to social problems, such as social justice and poverty.

Jane Addams (Hull House)

A prominent reformer who founded Hull House in Chicago, a settlement house providing services to the urban poor and immigrants.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Spanish-American War

An $1898$ conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories.

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the U.S. in $1899$ that stated all nations should have equal access to any of the ports open to trade in China.

Muckrakers

Reform-minded journalists in the Progressive Era who exposed established institutions and leaders as corrupt.

Progressive Era

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

Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

Progressive reforms that allowed citizens to propose laws, vote on laws directly, and remove elected officials from office.

$17th$, $18th$, and $19th$ Amendments

Constitutional amendments providing for the direct election of senators, prohibition of alcohol, and women's suffrage.

Clayton Antitrust Act

A $1914$ law that strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by prohibiting specific business practices and protecting labor unions.

Federal Reserve Act

A $1913$ law that created the central banking system of the United States and granted it the legal authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes.

Great Migration

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

Espionage and Sedition Acts

Laws passed in $1917$ and $1918$ that criminalized interference with the war effort or insults to the U.S. government/military.

Fourteen Points

A statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I, proposed by Woodrow Wilson.

League of Nations

An international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes.

First Red Scare

A period during the early $20th$-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism.

Immigration Act of $1924$ (Quotas)

A United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country using a quota system.

Harlem Renaissance

An intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, during the $1920s$.

Scopes Trial

A high-profile $1925$ legal case in which a high school teacher was accused of violating a Tennessee law by teaching human evolution.

Great Depression

The worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from $1929$ to $1939$.

Dust Bowl

A period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American prairies during the $1930s$.

New Deal (AAA, CCC, SSA, WPA)

FDR's series of programs for relief (WPA, CCC), recovery (AAA), and reform (SSA) to combat the Great Depression.

Court-Packing Plan

A legislative initiative proposed by FDR to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings for New Deal legislation.

Neutrality Acts ($1935$-$1937$)

A series of laws passed to limit U.S. involvement in future wars, based on the belief that the U.S. was drawn into WWI through loans and trade.

Lend-Lease Act

An $1941$ program under which the United States supplied the Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel during World War II.

Pearl Harbor

A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December $7$, $1941$.

Executive Order $9066$ (Japanese Internment)

A presidential executive order signed during WWII that authorized the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps.

Manhattan Project

A research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.

Containment

A Cold War foreign policy strategy of the United States and its allies to prevent the spread of communism.

Truman Doctrine

An American foreign policy with the primary goal of containing Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.