US History Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes to help review for the exam.

Primary Sources

First-hand accounts or experienced events of original information.

Secondary Sources

Things that analyze documents or primary sources.

Sourcing

Determining who wrote the document, the author's perspective, why/when/where it was written, and its reliability.

Contextualization

Connecting the document with where it was created and the circumstances in which it was created.

Corroboration

Building a strong agreement on what took place in the past.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War, specifically 1863-1877, focused on rebuilding the South and reintegrating Confederate states into the Union.

Thaddeus Stevens

A white Republican who advocated for punishing the South and preventing the expansion of slavery westward.

Andrew Johnson

A white male Democrat from Tennessee.

John Gast's American Progress Picture

A depiction of westward expansion showing white Americans progressing westward with divine approval, often at the expense of Native Americans.

Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862

Act that set aside land for states to establish schools, known as "land-grant schools," offering free education.

Homestead Act

Act that gave people land (160 acres) in 1862 if they improved it within 5 years through farming, housing, etc.

Pacific Railway Act

Act that initiated the building of standardized transportation, including transcontinental railroads, to move products and civilize the West.

Exodusters

Ex-slaves who applied for homesteads.

Dakota Nation Conflict (1862)

Conflict between the Dakota Nation and whites in Minnesota and the Dakota territories due to increasing white settlement and broken treaties.

Horatio Alger

Writer of popular fiction during the late 1800s, depicting stories of individuals rising from poverty to middle-class respectability, embodying the "American dream."

Industrial Revolution

A period of significant economic growth in the US, driven by the extraction of natural resources, technological innovations, and a large workforce.

Laissez-faire

A philosophy that argued that the government should impose no restraints on business.

The Matzeliger Lasting Machine

A machine that could attach the sole to the shoe, this drove unskilled labor.

Corporations

Businesses owned by people who buy shares of stock in the company.

Vertical Integration

Controlling all aspects of manufacturing from mining and smelting to the selling of raw materials.

Horizontal Integration

A business organization where one company buys many other companies' products, the same product, to eliminate competition and achieve greater efficiency.

Robber Barons

Wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie (steel) and John D. Rockefeller (oil) who were perceived to have grown rich through devious business practices and worker exploitation.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

An act passed by the government to change the economy and prevent monopolies (trust busting).

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A series of strikes due to wage cuts, which spread from Baltimore to St. Louis, shutting down railroad traffic and resulting in significant property damage.

Charles Darwin

British naturalist whose idea of the survival of the fittest became popular among wealthy business owners.

Knights of Labor

A labor organization that sought higher wages, shorter working hours, and safer working conditions.

American Federation of Labor

A conservative labor option to the Knights, which wanted the same but without the strike.

American Railway Union (ARU)

Led by Eugene Debs, this union launched a sympathy strike in 1894 by refusing to handle Pullman cars, leading to federal intervention and Debs' imprisonment.

Coxey's Army

A protest march from Ohio to Washington, DC in 1894, organized by Jacob Coxey to publicize demands for federal relief during the Panic of 1893.

Pullman Strike

A bitter strike that began at the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894, which spread nationwide, paralyzing the railroad system and leading to federal intervention.

The Social Gospel

A movement based on biblical teachings that drove people to better the world.

Open Door Policy (1899)

Policy promulgated by John Hay, stating that all Western powers should have equal access to the Chinese market.

Boxer Rebellion

A Chinese rebellion opposing foreign businesses and missionaries operating in China.

Guano Island Act of 1856

Act that encouraged Americans to venture out to the seas and claim islands with guano deposits for farming.

Treaty of Paris (December 1898)

Treaty that ended the Spanish-American War, granting the US control over Spain's former holdings of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

The Maine

A US battleship that exploded in Havana harbor in 1898, leading to increased tensions and the Spanish-American War.

American Anti-Imperialist League

Founded in 1889, this league opposed the US becoming a colonizer.

Dollar Diplomacy

Used during the Roosevelt administration to assert power in South and Central America.

Monroe Doctrine

Stated that the US would treat any military intervention in Latin America by a European power as a threat to American security.

Gunboat Diplomacy

Use of naval and marine forces to protect American interests and dictate policies in Latin American nations.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Act that made Chinese immigrants the first illegal immigrants in the US.

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that helped instigate the war between Spain and Cuba.

The Platt Amendment

Amendment that gave the US influence to Check in with the US to do anything in Cuba.

The FDA

The Government agency created after books like “The Jungle,” which showed the harsh conditions of the meat processing industry.

Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

An addition to the Monroe Doctrine that stated the US had the right to intervene in Latin American countries that demonstrated administrative and fiscal deficiencies

Allied powers

Initially composed of Britain, France, Belgium, and Russia, and would eventually be composed of 18

Lusitania

The sinking of this ship was a turning point in the neutrality debate

Zimmermann Telegram

Telegram that caused Woodrow Wilson to to create a new international order: “The world must be made safe for democracy..

League of Nations

A council of nations created by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson when the US wanted to be a part but Willson suffered a massive stroke.

Washington Conference

A meeting that limited naval arms and the focus was to make a more efficient production strategy.

Welfare Capitalism

The act of Providing benefits to workers to keep them happy (vacation, medical, stock ownership).

The Lost Generation

Freud's theory about breaking out of a repressive culture and clashing views of society and way of life.

The 18th Amendment

The only bill that revokes a right.

The First Red Scare (1919-1920)

Driven by the justice department's fear of communism, this movement aimed to eliminate immigrants considered a threat to national security, particularly anarchists and agitators.

The Harlem Renaissance

A period of artistic and intellectual flourishing among African Americans, resulting in a new black middle class and increased cultural expression, including music performed in speakeasies.

Warren G. Harding

The 29th president, who made statements that America needed restoration and a revival after World War 1.

Calvin Coolidge

Became president after Harding died. President during the 1920's; he lowered taxes and raised tariff rates (heavy on business).

the New Women

A new type of woman that focused more on equal rights than anything else during the 1920's, and had interests such as equal rights and prohibition.

Culture of Consumption

The push to devise marketing strategies to make shopping fun and joyful within America, and introduced ideas such as buying on credit.

Culture of Escape

A new lifestyle for Americans where electricity and gas created a new way for Americans to escape the world in which they lived.

The Flapper

Represented a woman with bobbed hair, short skirts, makeup, cigarettes, and a carefree spirit.

Black Tuesday

Stock value went down by 11 billion in 1929, beginning the Great Depression (1929-1939)

President Hoover

A millionaire, and he believed that the government was not responsible for changing the economy.

World War II

A step in the modern era, when new weapons were available, and many countries fought for independence from their colonizers.

War Production Board

Drops in droughts, and the gov pushes war-related production into existence.

Neutrality Act and Crash and Carry Policy

Act and policy preventing the US from entering the conflicts with Germany and the jews and others around the world

The Manhattan Project

is the code name given to the development of the atomic bomb.

Buffer States

The buffer between the soviet union and Western Europe

Policy of Containment

Policy followed by the United States to prevent communism from spreading

Berlin airlift

airlift which divided the divided up zones after the war

NATO

Was that an attack against one NATO partner constituted an attack against all NATO partners

Sunbelt

the Southwest and the South, an area where the grew rapidly after WWII as a center of defense industries and non-unionized labor a pleasant natural environment attracted new residents

Civil Rights Act of 1964

legislation that banned segregation in business and places open to the public (such as restaurants and public schools) and prohibited racial and gender discrimination in employment

Watergate

june 17, 1971. a botched Republican-engineered break-in of the democratic national committee headquarters in Washington, DC that eventually forced Nixon to resign in 1974

Reagan Revolution

regan economic data.