History Final Danver

Northern/Southern Civil War Advantages

The North had more industry, railroads, population, and a navy; the South had strong military leadership, defensive geography, and high morale fighting to protect its homeland.

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. President who led the Union through the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and was assassinated in 1865.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

Cornerstone Speech (Alexander Stephens)

1861 speech by Confederate Vice President Stephens declaring that slavery and white supremacy were the foundation of the Confederacy.

Border States

Slave states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware) that stayed in the Union during the Civil War.

US Grant

Union general who accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox and later served as the 18th U.S. President.

Battle of Antietam

Bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War (1862); gave Lincoln the political opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's 1863 executive order declaring enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.

Robert E. Lee

Commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia; surrendered to Grant in April 1865.

Battle of Gettysburg

Turning-point Union victory (July 1863) that ended the Confederacy's last major northern invasion.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment (1865) that abolished slavery throughout the United States.

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment (1868) granting citizenship and equal protection of the laws to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment (1870) prohibiting denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln's and Johnson's lenient plan to restore Southern states quickly with minimal conditions.

Radical Reconstruction

Congressional plan (1867–1877) imposing military rule on the South and requiring civil rights protections before readmission.

Compromise of 1877

Deal that resolved the disputed 1876 election by making Hayes president in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

Industrial Revolution

Period of rapid industrial and technological growth in the U.S. (roughly 1870–1914) transforming the economy from agricultural to manufacturing-based.

Bessemer Process

Method for mass-producing steel cheaply by blasting air through molten iron, enabling the railroad and construction boom.

Corporation

A business organization legally separate from its owners, allowing large-scale capital investment and limited personal liability.

John D. Rockefeller

Oil industry titan who founded Standard Oil and used monopolistic practices to dominate the petroleum market.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who built Carnegie Steel into the world's largest, then donated most of his fortune to public institutions.

JP Morgan

Powerful banker and financier who reorganized railroads and created U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad and shipping tycoon who built a vast rail network connecting the eastern United States.

Gilded Age

Term (coined by Mark Twain) for the late 19th century era of rapid economic growth, extreme inequality, and political corruption.

Manifest Destiny

19th-century belief that American expansion across the continent was inevitable and divinely ordained.

Mexican-American War

1846–1848 conflict resulting in Mexico ceding the Southwest (including California) to the United States.

Monroe Doctrine

1823 U.S. policy warning European powers not to colonize or interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President known for trust-busting, conservation, the Panama Canal, and assertive foreign policy ("Big Stick").

Woodrow Wilson

28th President who led the U.S. into WWI and proposed the Fourteen Points and the League of Nations.

John J. Pershing

Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I.

World War I

Global conflict (1914–1918) between the Allied Powers and Central Powers, triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Triple Alliance

Pre-WWI alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (Italy later switched sides).

Triple Entente

Pre-WWI alliance of France, Russia, and Great Britain.

Central/Allied Powers

Central Powers = Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire; Allied Powers = Britain, France, Russia, later the U.S.

Propaganda

Government-produced material designed to shape public opinion and support for the war effort.

Treaty of Versailles

1919 peace treaty ending WWI that blamed Germany, imposed heavy reparations, and redrew European borders.

Franklin Roosevelt

32nd President

Great Depression

Severe global economic collaps

Dust Bowl

1930s ecological disaster in the Great Plains where severe drought and poor farming practices caused massive dust storms and agricultural failure.

Bonus Army

WWI veterans who marched on Washington in 1932 demanding early payment of promised bonuses; forcibly dispersed by the Army.

FDIC

New Deal agency that insures bank deposits to prevent bank runs.

First Hundred Days

FDR's first 100 days in office (1933) during which Congress passed a wave of New Deal legislation to address the Depression.

New Deal

FDR's set of programs and reforms (1933–1939) aimed at relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression.

Social Security

1935 New Deal program providing retirement income, unemployment insurance, and disability benefits.

Fascism

Authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology emphasizing dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society.

Adolf Hitler

Nazi dictator of Germany (1933–1945) who started WWII in Europe and orchestrated the Holocaust.

Rape of Nanjing

1937 Japanese massacre and mass assault in the Chinese capital Nanjing, killing an estimated 200,000+ civilians.

Lend-Lease Act

1941 U.S. law allowing the government to supply Allied nations with war materials before the U.S. formally entered WWII.

Winston Churchill

British Prime Minister who rallied Allied resistance against Nazi Germany throughout WWII.

Pearl Harbor

Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii (December 7, 1941) that brought the U.S. into WWII.

Invasion of Italy

1943 Allied campaign to invade Italy, knocking it out of the Axis and opening a second front in Europe.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 Allied amphibious invasion of Normandy, France — the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Holocaust

Nazi Germany's systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others during WWII.

Executive Order 9066

FDR's 1942 order authorizing the forced internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki

Japanese cities where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in August 1945, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of WWII.

Battle of Midway

1942 naval battle in which the U.S. destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, turning the tide of the Pacific War.

Manhattan Project

Secret U.S.-led program that developed the atomic bomb during WWII.

Baby Boom

Dramatic increase in birth rates in the U.S. following WWII (roughly 1946–1964).

Marshall Plan/Berlin Airlift

Marshall Plan = U.S. program to rebuild Western Europe after WWII; Berlin Airlift = 1948–49 U.S. and British operation supplying West Berlin after the Soviet blockade.

Iron Curtain

Winston Churchill's term for the political and ideological barrier dividing Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe from the West during the Cold War.

Korean War

1950–1953 conflict in which U.S.-led UN forces defended South Korea against North Korean and Chinese communist forces; ended in an armistice.

Communism

Political and economic system in which the state owns the means of production and seeks a classless society; ideology of the Soviet Union and Cold War adversaries.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baptist minister and leader of the Civil Rights Movement who advocated nonviolent resistance to racial segregation and discrimination.

Sit-ins / Freedom Rides

Sit-ins = nonviolent protests where activists sat at segregated lunch counters; Freedom Rides = interracial bus trips to challenge segregated interstate travel.

Birmingham Movement

1963 Civil Rights campaign in Birmingham, AL; Police brutality against peaceful protesters shocked the nation and pressured federal action.

March on Washington

August 28, 1963 massive civil rights rally where MLK delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech; drew ~250,000 people.

Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President who signed the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965) and escalated the Vietnam War.

John F. Kennedy

35th President; navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and backed early civil rights efforts; assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

Vietnam War

Cold War conflict (1955–1975) in which the U.S. supported South Vietnam against communist North Vietnam; ended in North Vietnamese victory.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam

Vietcong / Viet Minh

Viet Minh = Ho Chi Minh's independence movement that defeated France; Vietcong = South Vietnamese communist guerrilla force that fought the U.S.

Richard Nixon

37th President who pursued Vietnamization to withdraw U.S. troops and later resigned due to the Watergate scandal.

Ngo Diem

U.S.-backed South Vietnamese president who was unpopular and authoritarian; assassinated in a 1963 coup.

Domino Theory

Cold War belief that if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries would follow like dominoes.

Tet Offensive

1968 massive surprise attack by North Vietnam and Vietcong on South Vietnamese cities; shifted American public opinion against the war.

William Westmoreland

U.S. commander in Vietnam (1964–1968) who oversaw the escalation of the war.

Agent Orange

Toxic herbicide used by the U.S. in Vietnam to destroy jungle cover; caused lasting health and environmental damage.

Napalm

Incendiary gel used in bombs and flamethrowers in Vietnam; caused severe burns and widespread civilian casualties.

Operation Rolling Thunder

1965–1968 sustained U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam aimed at weakening its war effort.

John Kerry

Vietnam veteran and future senator/Secretary of State who testified before Congress against the war as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Election of 1968

Chaotic presidential election amid Vietnam protests, MLK's assassination, and RFK's assassination; Nixon won on a "law and order" platform.

Watergate Scandal

1972–1974 political scandal in which Nixon's administration covered up a break-in at Democratic headquarters; led to Nixon's resignation.

Gerald Ford

38th President who succeeded Nixon after his resignation and controversially pardoned him.

Cambodia

Southeast Asian nation secretly bombed and later invaded by the U.S. in 1969–1970 to disrupt North Vietnamese supply routes.

Immigration Act of 1965

Law that abolished national-origin quotas, opening U.S. immigration to people from Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Latino Immigration

Post-1965 surge in immigration from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, reshaping U.S. demographics and culture.

Asian Immigration

Significant increase in immigration from East and Southeast Asia following the 1965 Immigration Act.

Muslim Immigration

Growing immigration from Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Muslim-majority countries, especially after 1965.

Immigration Act of 1986

Law granting amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. while increasing employer sanctions.

Bill Clinton

42nd President, was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

1993 Clinton-era policy allowing gay and lesbian Americans to serve in the military as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation; repealed in 2011.

Yugoslavia Civil War

Series of ethnic conflicts in the 1990s following the breakup of Yugoslavia; the U.S. and NATO intervened to stop genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Israel/Palestine

Long-running conflict over land and statehood between Israelis and Palestinians, a central issue in Middle East policy.

Internet

Global network of interconnected computers that transformed communication, commerce, and culture from the 1990s onward.

Affirmative Action

Policies giving preferential consideration to underrepresented groups in hiring, education, and contracting to address historical discrimination.

9/11

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in which al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, killing ~3,000 people.

War on Terror

U.S.-led global campaign launched after 9/11 to combat terrorist organizations, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Osama bin Laden

Founder and leader of al-Qaeda who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks; killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011.

George W. Bush

43rd President who led the U.S. response to 9/11, launching the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Ukraine/Russia

Ongoing conflict beginning with Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and escalating with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.