AICE US History

All the Key Terms for the AICE US History Textbook. Code: 9489 (2021+ As of now)

Chapter 1: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

1.1 How was the Issue of Slavery Addressed Between 1820 & 1850?

Chapter 1: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

1.1 How was the Issue of Slavery Addressed Between 1820 & 1850?

The Argument of Slavery, Compromise of 1820, Significant Bills, Mexican-American War, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850

Electoral College

This system appoints the president and vice president. The voting tally, or count, in a presidential election in each state, determines how that state's representatives will vote in the electoral college. Because different states send different numbers of representatives and, while some representatives vote for their state's winning candidate others vote proportionally according to the proportions of the votes for different candidates, the vote in the electoral college can be different from the popular vote in the election itself.

Veto

To reject a decision or proposal. A president can use the right to veto to stop a bill passed by Congress from becoming law. However, Congress can overrule this if two-thirds of both Houses wish to.

Supreme Court

The highest court in the USA, which had constitutional right to annul any law passed by either Congress or a state legislature which it felt went against the principles of the US Constitution.

Section

In the context of the United States of the 1850s, the two sections were the geographical North and South; in practice, this meant the free states and the slave states.

The Mason-Dixon Line

A line on a map drawn by two men surveying colonial America in the 1760s. It separated Pennsylvania and Maryland, north and south, and then turned a corner to separate Maryland and Delaware, west and east. The line became the symbolic dividing line between free states and slave states. Dixon is one possible source of 'Dixie, the popular name for the slave-based South. (This is more so a division line, just to divide. Compared to the Missouri Compromise Line which banned Slavery in the North.)

Abolitionist

Someone who argued that slavery should be banned and slaves should be freed, usually for moral or religious reasons. Abolitionism was a rising force in 1850s America.

Secession

Leaving an organization or federation, as when the Southern states left the USA and formed the Confederacy. According to most Northern political thinkers, it was constitutionally illegal.

Territory

The differences between a state and a territory were important to mid-19th-century America. Territories were areas under the rule of Washington DC before they became states. For a territory to become a state it had to go through a minimum of three stages. It needed: a minimum (white) population of usually around 60 000; to devise its own draft constitution in line with the US Constitution; the approval of Congress

Slave Power

The term came into use to describe the political and economic power held by the South, in opposition to the free-labor ideology of the North, during the 1850s. The phrase did not imply any power was possessed by the slaves themselves.

Proviso

A limitation to be imposed on another item.

Gross Domestic Product

The annual value of a country's products and services (not including overseas investments).

States' Rights

This is an important concept in US politics to this day. The argument is that the individual states retain certain political powers that they did not surrender to the federal government when the original 13 British colonies came together to form the USA and that in some circumstances for Washington to issue orders to them is tyranny.

Popular Sovereignty

Broadly, this means that sovereignty (power or authority to govern) resides with the people, rather than with, for example, a monarch or other institution of government. In the USA in this period before the Civil War, it meant specifically the right of the people in a territory to choose their method of government for the state they would become, and even more specifically whether theirs would be a free or a slave state.

Party Convention

A decision-making rally or large matter of the members of a political party, often part of the process of selecting candidates.

Chapter 1: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

1.2 How & Why did sectional divisions widen between 1850 and 1856

Effects of the Compromise of 1850, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Election of 1852, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansa, Bleeding Summer, Transition of Political Parties, Election of 1856

Underground Railroad

Only sometimes underground, and never an actual railroad, this is a term referring to the network of smugglers and safe houses dedicated to removing slaves to Canada or Northern states where they would be free.

Convention

A convention is a special group of voters called for an extraordinary reason. South Carolina called a convention to ensure that its decision to secede would be legitimate in 1860. This is different from a party convention, which is a decision-making rally.

Unorganized Lands

These were areas of the country where no governmental structures had been formally agreed. They were thinly populated.

Confederacy

The states that left the Union bound together and called themselves the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy, or CSA. Their president was Jefferson Davis and their capital was in Montgomery, Alabama, and then Richmond, Virginia.

Chapter 1: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

1.3 Why did the Republicans win the 1860 Presidential Election

Dred Scott case, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, John Brown’s Raid, The Election of 1860.

Inaugural Address

A president's inauguration is the formal ceremony at which they are sworn into office as president. The speech which they make at this time, setting out their plans for the term, is known as the inaugural address. In the 19th century, there were four months between the election and the new president's inauguration.

Freeport Doctrine

The idea that slavery could be (and perhaps should be) banned via a series of local decisions rather than a central federal decision to do so. It was not Stephen Douglas's idea, but he was its most famous promoter. It was named after Freeport, Illinois, a town in which Lincoln and Douglas held one of seven election meetings in 1858.

Ticket

A 'ticket' refers to two or more politicians who run for office together. In particular, presidential and vice-presidential candidates run on the same ticket. Since 1804, they have either both won, or both lost.

Chapter 1: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

1.4 Why did the Civil War Begin in April 1861

Reactions to the Election of 1860, Secession, The Battle of Fort Sumter.

Political Processes

The formulation and administration of public policy usually by interaction between social groups and political institutions.

President-Elect

In the period between their election and their inauguration, the incoming president has no formal power. When this period corresponds to a major national emergency, as it did in 1860-61, they are forced to use any informal powers of persuasion to achieve the agenda.

Upper South

The most northerly Southern states, adjacent to the Mason-Dixon line, as opposed to the Lower or Deep South

Chapter 2: Civil War & Reconstruction, 1861-77

2.1 Why did the Civil War last four Years?

Resources Availability, The Leadership, Military Strategies, The Battles, Foreign Influences

Cabinet

The group of senior government ministers, all appointed by the president.

Habeas Corpus

A legal provision that limits the time someone can be held by the authorities without being charged. It is a key judicial defense against arbitrary arrest.

Theatre

A general military term for the different areas in which a war might be fought.

Blockade

 A concentrated effort to cut off trade and supplies from a particular state or, in this case, area, in order to damage its economy and perhaps deplete its resources so much that it is forced into submission.

Scorched Earth

 A military policy of destroying, often by fire, all resources that could be used by an opposing force, including food and shelter, in order to undermine their ability to fight. It can have devastating consequences for the civilian population in the area.

Income Tax

Tax taken as a particular percentage of the income of workers. In the modern world it is the most important source of governmental revenue, but, in the 19th century, it was a controversial addition to the more normal property taxes. In the USA and CSA alike, there were serious legal questions as to whether the central government, rather than the states, could collect it.

Blockade Runner

A fast sea-worthy steamship used to evade the naval blockade undetected, usually by sailing at night. They would bring in vital imports, including munitions. They tended to be privately owned vessels, many built in Britain. If spotted, a blockade runner would attempt to outrun and outmaneuver the blockade patrol ships, often successfully.

Chapter 2: Civil War & Reconstruction, 1861-77

2.2 How Great was the Immediate Impact of the Civil War (1861-65)

Limitations of Civil Liberties, Norths vs. South: General Life, Emancipation Proclamation

Amendment

The US Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It can only be permanently changed by a process known as amendment. In the case of the Reconstruction amendments this required two-thirds of the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate to propose the amendment, and three-quarters of the state legislatures to ratify them.

National Union Party

A party created by non-radical Republicans at their party convention in 1864. They did this in order to ensure that Lincoln could stand for re-election on a moderate conservative platform, and to enable War Democrats, such as Lincoln's vice-presidential candidate Andrew Johnson, to vote for Lincoln without having to vote Republican.

Chapter 2: Civil War & Reconstruction, 1861-77

2.3 What were the Aims & Outcomes of Reconstruction

Three Views on Reconstruction Amendments, Helping ex-slaves.

Reconstruction

The contemporary name, and the one generally used by historians, for the process by which the Southern states were readmitted into the Union and slavery was prohibited, in the aftermath of the US Civil War.

The Freedmen's Bureau

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands was established in March 1865 as part of the Department of War to care for freedmen in the immediate aftermath of their emancipation. Initially established for one year, the bureau's continued operation was then vetoed by Andrew Johnson on the grounds that it was an agency of war and therefore inappropriate for peacetime. With Congressional support, the bureau continued its work until 1869.

Overriding a Veto

This describes the situation when a bill becomes law even when the president has vetoed it because two-thirds of each house of Congress has voted to pass it despite his objections. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 represents the first time that this had happened on an important bill.

Radical Reconstruction

The name given to the form of Reconstruction which broadly aimed to change the South fundamentally after the Civil War, without seeking consensus from former Confederates. It was led mainly by Republican Radicals in Congress, notably Representative Stevens, Senator Sumner, and later Senator Wade, although others, such as Lincoln's treasury secretary and then chief justice Salmon Chase were also Radicals. In the sense of Radical Reconstruction from Congress, the term refers to the actions of the 40th Congress in 1867 and 1868

Chapter 2: Civil War & Reconstruction, 1861-77

2.4 How Successful was Reconstruction?

Changing Positions of Ex-Slaves, South’s reaction, court rulings, Grant’s Reconstruction, Compromise of 1877

Sharecropping

An economic model in which most, if not all, of the rent a tenant farmer pays for land is paid in crops rather than money. In the South, this could also include payments made for seed purchase and tool hire in shops, which the landlord also owned.

Carpetbaggers

Northern Republican politicians who moved South in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, intending to participate in Southern governments. The name refers to the cases they were thought to use to transport their belongings. The term is more generally used for anyone who seeks political office in an area in which they have no connections.

Scalawag

A derogatory term for Southerners who supported Reconstruction. Often, former opponents of slavery, secession, and the war, they joined the Republican Party in order to serve in Southern governments after the war. However, as Southerners, some were not allowed to serve in any official capacity at first.

Force Act

A piece of legislation designed to help Congress and the president to enforce another act, typically part of a constitutional amendment. The Force Act of 1870, for example, (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act) was designed to enforce the 15th Amendment's section about suffrage. There were successful Force Acts in 1870 and 1871, and an unsuccessful Force Bill in 1874-75.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats who worked to overthrow Radical Republican governments in the South. This was mainly during Grant's second presidential term. Redeemers aligned politically with 'Bourbon' Democrats, a more conservative and pro-business wing of the party.

Chapter 3: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

3.1 Why was the late 19th Century an Age of Rapid industrialization?

Technological Advancements, Availability of Natural Resources, Growth of Transportation Network, Investment Capital, Large Labor Force, and Supportive Government Policies.

Federal

A federal system of government divides power between different parts of government. Under the US Constitution quite limited powers were given to the national, or federal, government in Washington DC, and most powers, such as economic regulation, were left to the individual states.

State Legislature

Every state in the USA has its own legislative body, democratically elected, which has the power to pass laws on every subject except those which are specifically given to Congress by the Constitution

Tariffs

Taxes imposed on goods imported from other countries. If, for example, Britain made cheaper railway lines than was possible in the USA, the US government could impose a tax on imported British rails to ensure that it was cheaper to buy American rails. Tariffs were also a major source of the federal government's income.

Real Wages

Income expressed in terms of purchasing power, as opposed to the actual income earned. If prices go up by 5%, in a year, and your income only goes up by 1%, your real wages have declined.

The Homestead Act

This opened up millions of acres in the western United States to settlement. Any US citizen who paid a small fee would receive 160 acres of land in the West. Over 1.6 million did.

Patent

The right given by the law for an inventor to be the only person allowed to make, and profit from, an invention, usually for a fixed period of years.

Labor Union

An organization of employed people, who earn their living in the same type of work as one another, such as coal miners. The union campaigns for higher wages and better working conditions for its members, and defends them against unfair dismissal or mistreatment by their employer. It might also pursue a political agenda. These organizations were also known as trade unions.

Holding Company

A company that does not make anything or provide a service. All it does is own assets, such as shares, in other companies.

Monopoly

A commercial situation in which one individual or company owns the whole supply of a particular commodity or service.

Dividend

When an individual invests in a company, known as buying a share, they expect to get a financial return on that investment. Companies pay this out every year in what is called an annual dividend. So, if a dividend is 10%, and you have invested $100 in a company, you will get $10.

Sherman Antitrust Act

This was designed to restrict the concentration of economic power in too few hands, which could interfere with trade or reduce economic competition. Some states had already passed such measures, but without coverage of all states, they were ineffective.

Corporation

A legally recognized firm. It is quite separate from its owners. It is owned by its shareholders who share in the profits and losses the corporation makes.

Trust

A simple, but legal, device to avoid some state laws that prevent companies established in one state from owning property in another state or shares in other companies’ trusts were vital for the creation of monopolies,

Robber Barons

A phrase used first of all at this time by journalists, and later by historians. It was originally used in the Middle Ages to describe how a noble and his followers were able to force money from local people and travelers in a system that varied between taxation and a protection racket.

Chapter 3: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

3.2 How Great were the Consequences of Rapid Economic Growth in the late 19th Century

The Growth and Abuse of Political Power, The Concentration of Wealth and Power by the Robber Barons, Impact of Economic Recession on Industrial Workers, and Impact of Urbanisation on Living Conditions, Housing, Health, and Safety.

Dumbbell Tenement Buildings

Accommodation blocks, five to seven stories high, built with two air shafts on the inside, and designed to house as many people as possible in as little space as possible. They always lacked light, ventilation, and proper sanitation.

Chapter 3: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

3.3 What were the Main Aims & Policies of the Progressive Movement & How Popular Were They?

Limits on Party Machines and Bosses, Regulation of Private Corporations, Female Emancipation, Temperance & Prohibition, Welfare Reforms, Federal Government Reforms, African American Rights, and Equal Opportunity.

Primary Election

A system to enable all local party members to vote for party candidates. In the two major political parties, Democrats and Republicans, candidates for election to any office had nearly always been chosen by leading figures in the party itself. Ordinary party members, or those who might vote for the party, had no chance to choose candidates. The primary election made the process much more democratic.

Food Adulteration

The addition of cheap and lesser quality ingredients to foodstuffs, such as flour or rice, to increase their bulk and boost sales profits. Around the turn of the 20th century in the USA, this unscrupulous practice resulted in frequent outbreaks of food poisoning.

Settlement Houses

Usually large buildings in poor areas of a city where middle-class volunteers lived alongside working-class people. They aimed to help with a range of social services such as childcare, education, nutrition advice; anything to improve the living conditions of those living in slums.

Boycott

Refusing to buy or use the goods or services of a company and persuading others to do the same.

Dry state

A state in which alcohol was banned. (A 'wet' state was one where it was still legal.)

Muckrakers

The name given to journalists such as Ida Tarbell who exposed bad living and working conditions in US cities and factories, and who also drew attention to the evils of 'bossism' and the robber barons.

Chapter 3: The Origins of the Civil War, 1820-61

3.4 How Successful Was The Progressive Movement up to 1920?

It was very Successful! Several Amendments were Added, New Powers of Regulation, Laws for Child Labour & Working Hours, Women Won Voting Rights, and more! (Find other stuff in the study guide)

State of the Union Address

At the start of each annual session of Congress, the president is required to give a speech in which he outlines his policies and recommends measures and issues on which he feels Congress should act on.

Secretary

Every department in the federal government is headed by its secretary. The president nominates each secretary, but the Senate has to approve each nomination.

Chapter 4: The Great Crash, the Depression & the New Deal Policies, 1920 - 41

4.1 What were the Causes of the Great Crash?

Welfare State

A national system which is committed by law to provide financial support to any citizen during periods of poverty, such as when they fall ill, grow old, become unemployed or when their income falls below an agreed level.

GNP

Gross National Product, which is the total value of all goods and services produced by a country in one year.

National Debt

The amount that the federal government owes the US public and other government agencies.

Federal Reserve Bank

Created in 1913 to manage the currency, supervise banking, act as a lender of last resort in a crisis and to control interest rates for lenders.

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was both a time and a place. In the 1930s, dry weather in the Southern US led to severe drought. Combined with the effects of mechanized farming practices. This left topsoil vulnerable to being blown away from large areas of farmland. Soil erosion and the consequent piling up of soil 'dust' affected a vast area that comprised parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas. Huge numbers of agricultural workers migrated to towns and out to California in search of work.

Reparations

Payments which the victorious French and British insisted that the Germans pay them as compensation for the damage done in the First World War.

Market Forces

Where prices and wages are left to producers and employers to decide, according to supply and demand, and there is no interference by government.

Dow Jones Index

Created in 1896, this records and publishes share prices and activity on the New York stock exchange.

Gold Standard

An international monetary system which provides a standard economic unit based on a fixed weight of gold. It placed a value on a currency and was also used to compare one currency with another for exchange rates.

Chapter 4: The Great Crash, the Depression & the New Deal Policies, 1920 - 41

4.2 What were the Causes and Impacts of the Depression?

Deflation

A fall in retail prices. Like inflation, when prices rise, this can have very serious economic consequences.

Mortgage

A very large loan made by a bank or other institutions to an individual so they can buy land or a house. Interest is paid on the loan by the borrower, who pays back the loan over an agreed period of time.

New Deal

A series of schemes, public works projects, financial reforms and regulations introduced by President Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression.

Founding Fathers

The men who wrote the Constitution at the end of the 18th century.

Pump Priming

A process of providing a stimulus to the economy. It includes lowering taxes, increasing government spending, reducing interest rates or printing more money. Any of these can put money into people's pockets and can increase spending and thus economic activity. However, they can also cause inflation, making them controversial steps.

War Bonus

A cash payment as a reward for their service to the country. The veterans had been promised that they would receive the bonuses in 1945, but they wanted the cash paid in 1932.

Chapter 4: The Great Crash, the Depression & the New Deal Policies, 1920 - 41

4.3 How effective were Roosevelt's strategies for dealing with the domestic problems facing the USA in the 1930s?

(check book)

Fireside Chats

During the 1930s, Roosevelt gave regular national radio broadcasts in the evening to try to restore confidence in the government and to persuade people to support his policies. They were listened to by millions of US citizens.

Chapter 4: The Great Crash, the Depression & the New Deal Policies, 1920 - 41

4.4 Why was there opposition to the New Deal policies and what impact did it have?

The left saw it as too cautious, while the right saw it as too radical. The New Deal was a large, shapeless, and protean entity in which different groups could criticize different aspects. The New Deal could be seen as too ideological, too much based on the [successful] examples of Germany, Italy, and the USSR, giving too much power to the federal government and thus anti-American. The 'Roosevelt recession' of 1937-38 seemed to show the New Deal was not dealing with the economic woes of the USA, leading to Republican gains in the House and Senate in the mid-term elections of 1938. (Check Book)

Demagogue

A leader whose power depends on their ability to stir up the emotions of crowds, usually at large public meetings or through their use of the media. They appeal to prejudices and not to reason.