AP US History Periods and Themes Overview

Vocabulary deck covering the major themes, political shifts, and economic developments across the nine periods of AP US History as described in the lecture summary.

Bering Land Bridge

The route across which humans originally traveled to reach America from Asia.

Salutary neglect

The period of relaxed English oversight of American goods and shipping that ended as the English crown sought more control.

Articles of Confederation

The first, weak central governing document of the United States after the Revolution.

Constitution

The document that established a strong central government for the United States, following the Articles of Confederation.

First Party System

The political rivalry between the factions led by Hamilton and Jefferson.

Jacksonian Democracy

A period characterized by the expansion of suffrage to include all white men.

Cotton gin

The invention that facilitated the continued growth of slavery in the South during Period $4$.

Lowell Mills

An early example of factory emergence during the market revolution in Period $4$.

Second Great Awakening

A religious movement that fueled various reform efforts, including abolition, temperance, and woman suffrage.

Manifest Destiny

The belief and movement toward westward expansion that was considered complete by the end of Period $6$.

Compromise of $1850$

An ineffective political attempt to resolve the conflict between the North and South over slavery in new territories.

$14\text{th}$ Amendment

The constitutional amendment that established equal protection under the law.

$15\text{th}$ Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted the right to vote to black men.

Jim Crow

The legal system of segregation that replaced the brief period of citizenship for black men after the end of Reconstruction.

Robber barons

A term for powerful industrialists during the Gilded Age, an era when the USA became the world's leading industrial power.

Social Darwinism

The belief that certain people are inherently superior to others based on the principles of evolution.

New Deal

FDR’s program that introduced a new era of federal government intervention in the economy and life to end the Great Depression.

Great Migration

The massive movement of black Southerners to urban centers in the North.

Containment

The core commitment of US foreign policy during the Cold War intended to stop the spread of communism, leading to the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Vietnam Syndrome

A period of public and political reluctance to engage in foreign interventions following the era of student protests against the US government.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The federal agency established in the $1970\text{s}$ to address serious industrial pollution.

Globalization

An era of connected global markets and people, influenced by the prominence of the Internet and mobile phones.