APUSH regents nmeonomics

Mercantilism

MERChants CANT let colonies compete — England kept all the money for themselves! Colonies existed to make England rich, not to compete with it.

Salutary Neglect

England was basically a LAZY PARENT — let the kids do whatever as long as chores got done (raw materials shipped back to England).

Triangular Trade

Three-sided deal: GOODS go to Africa, ENSLAVED PEOPLE go to Colonies, RAW MATERIALS go to Europe. Triangle = three stops, three horrors.

Mayflower Compact

Pilgrims on a tiny boat said "Let's COMPACT — agree to govern ourselves before we drown arguing." First example of self-government in America.

House of Burgesses

The BURGERS of Virginia voted — burger = common people electing reps to a HOUSE (legislature). First elected legislature in the colonies.

Natural Rights

John LOCKE-ed them in — Life, Liberty, Property are NATURAL like nature, can't be taken away. Government must protect them or it's out!

Social Contract

Rousseau said: government is like a CELL PHONE CONTRACT — you agree to follow rules, they agree to protect you. Break the deal? Cancel it (revolution!).

Consent of the Governed

The people are the BOSS — government only works IF you say "I consent!" Like signing a permission slip. Government gets power FROM the people.

Articles of Confederation

A Really Terrible Idea, Couldn't Levy (taxes), Even Spent (nothing). Weak, broke, and useless! No executive branch, no power to tax = total fail.

Shays' Rebellion

Farmer Shays was so SHAY-ked (shaken) by debt he grabbed his pitchfork and proved the government had no power to stop him. Proved Articles were broken.

Great Compromise

Big states vs. small states — GREAT idea: give BIG states the House (population-based), SMALL states the Senate (2 each). Everybody mad, but everybody wins.

Three-Fifths Compromise

The shameful math: 3 out of 5 enslaved people counted for representation. 3 fingers down, 2 fingers up — a deeply wrong compromise that enabled slavery to persist.

Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

FEDeralists = FED up with weak gov't, want FEDERAL power (Hamilton). ANTI-Feds = afraid of a king, want BILL OF RIGHTS first (Jefferson). Both sides got something.

Checks and Balances

Like a 3-person friend group where each one can veto the others' bad ideas — no one becomes the boss. Executive, Legislative, Judicial all check each other.

Elastic Clause

Congress's ELASTIC WAISTBAND — stretches to fit ANY law they think is "necessary and proper." Very flexible! Hamilton loved it; Jefferson hated it.

Judicial Review

Marbury v. Madison: Judge Marshall said "I get to REVIEW laws like a JUDGE ON A TALENT SHOW — and I can buzz you out (unconstitutional)!" Gave courts huge power.

Loose vs. Strict Constructionist

Hamilton = LOOSE: stretch the Constitution like SILLY PUTTY. Jefferson = STRICT: follow it like IKEA instructions — not one extra step! This debate still exists today.

Manifest Destiny

God's GPS said GO WEST — Manifest = obvious, Destiny = meant to be. Americans thought they had divine permission to take everything to the Pacific Ocean.

Louisiana Purchase

Jefferson DOUBLED the country for $15 million — that's like buying a mansion for the price of a car. Best real estate deal EVER. Gained New Orleans + Mississippi River.

Trail of Tears

Jackson forced Cherokee off their land in winter — it's called Trail of TEARS because it was heartbreaking and deadly. Indian Removal Act = forced relocation west.

Sectionalism

The country was cut into SECTIONS like a pie — North slice vs. South slice — and they HATED each other's toppings (mainly slavery). Led to Civil War.

Dred Scott Decision

DREADFUL Scott decision — Supreme Court said enslaved people aren't citizens and can't sue. So DREAD-ful it basically pushed the country closer to Civil War.

Reconstruction Amendments

1-3-5 = Freedom, Citizenship, Vote: 13th FREES enslaved people, 14th makes them CITIZENS, 15th gives Black men the right to VOTE. Three steps forward.

Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow CROAKED equality — named after a racist caricature, these Southern laws enforced segregation and voting barriers after Reconstruction ended.

Plessy v. Ferguson

PLEASE-y Ferguson — Supreme Court said "separate but equal" is constitutional (1896). But PLEASE, separate was NEVER equal. Upheld segregation until Brown (1954).

Laissez-Faire

French for "let it do" — government covers its eyes: "I don't SEE child labor, I don't SEE unsafe food, LA-ISSEZ FAIRE!" No regulation = robber barons run wild.

Social Darwinism

Rich people ROAR: "We're rich because we're the FITTEST!" (Survival of the richest.) Used to blame poor people for being poor and justify huge inequality.

Monopoly/Trust

Just like the BOARD GAME — one player buys everything and charges whatever they want. No competition = bad for everyone else. Carnegie (steel) and Rockefeller (oil).

Robber Barons

Carnegie, Rockefeller = ROBBERS in BARON suits — stole through unfair business practices but wore fancy clothes while doing it. Controlled entire industries.

Labor Union

Workers UNITE like the Avengers — alone you're powerless, together you can STRIKE and actually scare the boss. AFL, railroad strikes, Haymarket Riot.

Muckraker

Journalists who RAKED through the MUD of society — dug up gross truths about food, child labor, and corruption. Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens.

Upton Sinclair

He wrote The JUNGLE about meatpacking — so gross the SINCLAIR-ly revolted public demanded the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

Jane Addams

JANE opened her home (Hull House) to immigrants — ADD-AMS means she ADDED help to urban poor. First settlement house. Basically the original social worker.

19th Amendment

19 = Women's suffrage — NINE-TEEN sounds like NINE-Queen: queens (women) finally got the vote in 1920 after decades of protest by Susan B. Anthony and others.

Roosevelt Corollary

Teddy said "Speak softly but carry a BIG STICK" — COROLLARY = add-on to Monroe Doctrine. US = Western Hemisphere's policeman. Justified intervention in Latin America.

Yellow Journalism

YELLOW = cowardly, fake reporting — sensational, exaggerated headlines scared people into supporting the Spanish-American War. "REMEMBER THE MAINE!" was a classic example.

Zimmermann Note

Germany sent Mexico a NOTE: "Hey, attack the US and we'll give you Texas back!" ZIMMERMANN = "zim, what a dumb plan." Helped drag the US into WWI.

Clear and Present Danger

Schenck case: yelling FIRE in a crowded theater — CLEAR (obvious) + PRESENT (right now) + DANGER = free speech can be limited. Espionage Act was constitutional during WWI.

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem was BORN AGAIN (Renaissance) with jazz, art, poetry — Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston made Black culture ROAR in the 1920s.

Prohibition

PRO-HIBIT booze = PROFESSIONALLY FORBID alcohol (18th Amendment). Result: gangsters, speakeasies, Al Capone got RICH. Totally backfired. Repealed by 21st Amendment.

Scopes Trial

A SCOPE-d out teacher was put on trial for teaching EVOLUTION — old religion vs. new science, Darwin vs. the Bible in a Tennessee courtroom. Symbol of 1920s cultural clash.

Overproduction

Factories OVER-cooked — made TOO MUCH stuff nobody could afford to buy anymore. Like baking 1,000 cakes and nobody comes to the party. Major cause of Great Depression.

Hooverville

Hoover did nothing → homeless people built shacks and sarcastically named them HOOVERVILLES. Cardboard cities = Hoover's failure to respond to the Depression.

Dust Bowl

Great Plains turned into a giant DUST BOWL — bad farming practices + severe drought = massive dirt storms. Farmers fled to California. Oklahoma hit hardest.

New Deal

FDR dealt America a NEW HAND of cards — relief (direct money/jobs), recovery (economic programs), reform (banking fixes like FDIC). Reshaped role of federal government.

Lend-Lease Act

US LENDS weapons, allies LEASE them — like loaning your lawnmower: "Just give it back when you're done defeating Hitler." Helped Britain before US officially entered WWII.

Internment Camps

Japanese Americans were imprisoned in camps during WWII — KOREMATSU case said it was legal (it was racist and wrong). US apologized and paid reparations in 1988.

Manhattan Project

MAN built the BOMB in secret — not in Manhattan, but code-named that. Einstein + top scientists = first atomic bomb, tested 1945, dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Containment

CONTAIN communism like a CONTAINER — don't let it SPREAD out of the box. Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, Korea, Vietnam all tried to keep the communist lid on.

McCarthyism

Senator McCarthy POINTED FINGERS screaming "COMMUNIST!" at everyone — a witch hunt. Are you now or have you ever been…? Violated civil liberties; eventually collapsed.

Domino Theory

If one country goes communist, ALL its neighbors fall like DOMINOES — US used this to justify sending 500,000+ troops to the Vietnam War.

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown BURNED "separate but equal" to the ground — overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, made school segregation illegal in 1954. MLK era begins.

Civil Disobedience

CIVILLY DISOBEY — break unjust laws PEACEFULLY like MLK. Sit-ins at lunch counters, bus boycotts, freedom rides. Disobedient but dignified. No violence.

Great Society

LBJ's GREAT shopping cart of programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, voting rights — war on poverty = GREAT SOCIETY. Biggest expansion of federal programs since New Deal.

War Powers Act

After Vietnam, Congress said: "Mr. President, you have 60 DAYS to fight before you need OUR permission." WAR POWERS = our powers too. Limits presidential war authority.

Détente

Day-TONT = DE-TENSION — Nixon chilled out the Cold War, visited China (first president to do so), signed SALT treaty limiting nukes. Like releasing pressure from a balloon.

Watergate

Nixon's men broke into WATERGATE hotel to spy on Democrats — GATE = the door to scandal. Every political scandal since = ___gate. Nixon resigned rather than be impeached.

Supply-Side Economics

Reagan said: give rich people tax cuts and money TRICKLES DOWN like a fountain. Critics said it just made the fountain owners richer. Also called "Reaganomics."

NAFTA

North America Free Trade Agreement — US + Mexico + Canada trade freely. NAFTA sounds like NAP-TA, like a comfortable, cozy trade arrangement between neighbors.