APUSH Period 7 Vocab

Boxer Rebellion

A 1900 nationalist uprising in China aimed at ousting "foreign devils" and Christian missionaries; suppressed by an international force.

Imperialism

The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations.

Jingoes

Extreme patriots who advocate for an aggressive, warlike foreign policy (often associated with Theodore Roosevelt).

Open Door

Policy proposed by Sec. of State John Hay (1899) asserting that all nations should have equal access to trade in China.

Puerto Rico

Acquired by the U.S. as a territory after the Spanish-American War via the Treaty of Paris (1898); residents later granted citizenship.

Queen Liliuokalani

The last sovereign monarch of Hawaii who was overthrown by American planters with the help of U.S. Marines in 1893.

Spanish-American War

1898 conflict triggered by the explosion of the USS Maine; resulted in the U.S. gaining Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Teller Amendment

A 1898 proviso stating that the U.S. would not annex Cuba after winning the Spanish-American War (later replaced by the Platt Amendment).

William McKinley

25th President; led the U.S. during the Spanish-American War and favored imperial expansion until his assassination in 1901.

U.S.S. Maine

U.S. battleship that exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898; though likely an accident, it was blamed on Spain and became a "casus belli" for war.

Yellow Journalism

Sensationalist, exaggerated reporting by Hearst and Pulitzer designed to attract readers and incite public emotion for war.

Lincoln Steffens

Muckraker who wrote The Shame of the Cities, exposing corruption in municipal governments and political machines.

Ida Tarbell

Muckraker who wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company, leading to the breakup of Rockefeller's monopoly.

Jacob Riis

Photojournalist and author of How the Other Half Lives, documenting the squalid living conditions in NYC tenements.

Australian Ballot

A government-printed ballot of uniform size and shape to be cast in secret to reduce voting fraud and intimidation.

Direct Primary

An election in which voters choose candidates to run on a party's ticket, rather than party bosses choosing them.

Robert La Follette

Progressive Wisconsin Governor/Senator who pioneered the "Wisconsin Idea" of using academic experts to draft legislation.

17th Amendment

Established the direct election of U.S. Senators by the people rather than state legislatures.

Initiative

Process that permits voters to put legislative measures directly on the ballot via petition.

Referendum

A procedure enabling voters to approve or reject a measure passed by the legislature.

Recall

A procedure whereby voters can remove an elected official from office before their term expires.

City Manager Plan

An approach to municipal reform where elected officials hire a professional expert to run the city's daily operations.

Prohibition

The movement to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol, eventually enacted by the 18th Amendment.

National Child Labor Committee

Reform group that worked to end child labor and set maximum working hours for children.

Florence Kelley

Reformer who fought for the minimum wage, 8-hour workdays, and children's rights; leader of the NCL.

National Consumers League

Group led by Florence Kelley that used consumer pressure (white labels) to improve working conditions for women and children.

Lochner v. New York

1905 Supreme Court case that struck down a law limiting bakers' work hours, citing "liberty of contract."

Muller v. Oregon

1908 case where the Court upheld limits on women's working hours, using "Brandeis Brief" social data to argue women were physically weaker.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

1911 factory fire that killed 146 workers; led to massive reforms in factory safety laws and fire codes.

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt’s domestic program focused on Conservation, Control of Corporations, and Consumer Protection.

Trust-busting

Government activities (using the Sherman Antitrust Act) aimed at breaking up monopolies that restrained trade.

Elkins Act

1903 law that strengthened the ICC by imposing heavy fines on railroads offering or accepting secret rebates.

Hepburn Act

1906 law that gave the ICC the power to set maximum railroad rates and inspect books.

Upton Sinclair

Muckraker whose novel The Jungle was intended to highlight labor abuse but instead horrified the public regarding meat safety.

The Jungle

1906 novel that led directly to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906 law forbidding the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food and drugs.

Meat Inspection Act

1906 law requiring federal inspection of meat and cleanliness standards in meatpacking plants.

Conservation

The sustainable management of natural resources (advocated by TR and Gifford Pinchot) as opposed to total preservation.

Newlands Reclamation Act

1902 law that used funds from public land sales to finance irrigation projects in the West.

Eugene Debs

Socialist party leader and labor organizer who ran for president five times, including from prison.

Bull Moose Party

The Progressive Party formed by TR in 1912 after he failed to win the Republican nomination from Taft.

New Nationalism

TR’s 1912 platform calling for a strong federal government to regulate business and ensure social justice.

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson’s 1912 platform emphasizing the breakup of monopolies to restore economic competition.

William Howard Taft

27th President; a more prolific trust-buster than TR but seen as too conservative by Progressives.

16th Amendment

Granted Congress the power to levy a graduated income tax.

Federal Reserve Act

1913 law creating a central banking system to manage the nation's money supply and interest rates.

Clayton Antitrust Act

1914 law that strengthened the Sherman Act and explicitly exempted labor unions from being treated as monopolies.

Federal Trade Commission

Agency established in 1914 to investigate and stop unfair business practices like false advertising.

Booker T. Washington

Black leader who advocated for vocational education and economic self-improvement before seeking social equality (Atlanta Compromise).

W.E.B. Du Bois

Black leader who demanded immediate political and social equality; co-founder of the NAACP.

NAACP

Civil rights organization founded in 1909 to fight prejudice and Jim Crow through legal action and litigation.

Carrie Chapman Catt

President of NAWSA who developed the "Winning Plan" to achieve suffrage state-by-state and federally.

NAWSA

National American Woman Suffrage Association; the largest organization fighting for the right to vote.

Alice Paul

Radical suffragist who broke from NAWSA to form the NWP; used hunger strikes and picketing to demand a federal amendment.

National Woman’s Party

A militant suffrage group that pressured the government during WWI, leading to the 19th Amendment.

19th Amendment

Ratified in 1920, it guaranteed women the right to vote.

League of Women Voters

Nonpartisan group formed to educate women on political issues after they won the vote.

Margaret Sanger

Nurse and activist who pioneered the birth control movement and founded what became Planned Parenthood.

Allies

The WWI alliance of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and eventually the United States.

Central Powers

The WWI alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.

Dollar Diplomacy

Taft’s policy of using American economic investment (loans) to bolster foreign policy goals, especially in Latin America and East Asia.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson’s vision for a post-WWI world, including self-determination, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations.

Great Migration

The mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities starting in the WWI era for factory jobs.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Republican Senator who led the "Reservationists" in opposing the Treaty of Versailles, fearing the League of Nations would limit U.S. sovereignty.

John J. Pershing

Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in Europe during WWI.

League of Nations

International organization proposed by Wilson to resolve disputes and prevent future wars; the U.S. Senate famously rejected joining.

Lusitania

British passenger ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1915; the death of 128 Americans turned public opinion against Germany.

Marcus Garvey

Leader of the UNIA who advocated for "Black Nationalism," racial pride, and the "Back to Africa" movement.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian immigrants and anarchists executed in 1927 for robbery/murder; widely seen as a result of nativist "Red Scare" hysteria.

Palmer Raids

1919–1920 raids by the DOJ to arrest and deport suspected radicals/communists during the first Red Scare.

Panama Canal

Massive engineering project completed in 1914; revolutionized global trade and U.S. naval mobility.

Pancho Villa

Mexican revolutionary who raided New Mexico in 1916, leading to a U.S. military expedition into Mexico.

Red Scare

Period of intense anti-communist and anti-immigrant hysteria following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Roosevelt Corollary

TR’s addition to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting the U.S. right to intervene in Latin American affairs as an "international police power."

Selective Service Act

1917 law authorizing the federal government to raise an army for WWI through a mandatory draft.

Trench Warfare

A form of combat where opposing troops fight from fixed systems of excavations; led to a bloody stalemate on the Western Front.

War Industries Board

Agency established during WWI to coordinate military purchasing and prioritize industrial production for the war.

Zimmermann Telegram

Intercepted German message proposing an alliance with Mexico against the U.S. if it entered WWI; triggered U.S. entry into the war.

A. Philip Randolph

Founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a major civil rights leader who pushed for labor equality.

American Plan

Term used by businesses in the 1920s to describe their campaign for the "open shop" (non-union) workplace.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

The first successful Black-led labor union, founded to protect railroad porters from exploitation.

Calvin Coolidge

30th President; known for his pro-business "Laissez-faire" philosophy ("The business of America is business").

Dawes Plan

1924 plan to reschedule German reparations and facilitate U.S. loans to Germany to stabilize the European economy.

Flappers

Young women of the 1920s who challenged traditional gender roles through their dress (short hair/skirts) and social independence.

Harlem Renaissance

An explosion of African American intellectual, literary, and artistic life centered in Harlem, NYC.

Herbert Hoover

31st President; initially favored "rugged individualism" but was blamed for the Great Depression.

Issei

First-generation Japanese immigrants who moved to the United States.

Ku Klux Klan

Re-emerged in the 1920s as a nativist, "pro-100% American" group targeting Blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.

Langston Hughes

A leading poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated the Black experience and common culture.

Lost Generation

Group of writers (Hemingway, Fitzgerald) who felt disillusioned with post-WWI American materialism and conformity.

National Origins Act (1924)

Law that severely restricted immigration using a quota system designed to favor Northern Europeans over Southern/Eastern Europeans.

Nisei

Second-generation, American-born children of Japanese immigrants (U.S. citizens).

Parity

A formula for setting price supports for farmers to ensure they earned the same purchasing power as they had pre-WWI.

Scopes Trial

1925 trial over the teaching of evolution in schools; highlighted the clash between modernism and religious fundamentalism.

Teapot Dome

Corruption scandal involving the secret leasing of federal oil reserves to private companies during the Harding administration.

The Jazz Singer

The first "talkie" (movie with synchronized sound), released in 1927, marking the end of the silent film era.

Warren G. Harding

29th President; campaigned on a "Return to Normalcy" but his administration was marred by scandals (Ohio Gang).

Welfare Capitalism

Paternalistic management where companies provided benefits (healthcare, social clubs) to discourage unionization.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929; the day the stock market crashed, signaling the start of the Great Depression.

Buying on Margin

Purchasing stocks with a small down payment (usually 10%) and borrowing the rest from a broker.