Summary Reviewer: AP US History (5 Steps to a 5, 2023)

Columbian Exchange

exchange of crops, animals, diseases, and ideas between Europe and colonies of the Western Hemisphere that developed in the aftermath of the voyages of Columbus.

Mercantilism

An economic system practiced by European powers in the late seventeenth century stating that economic self-sufficiency was crucial; as a result, colonial empires were important for raw materials.

Navigation Acts (1660)

Acts passed by the British Parliament increasing the dependence of the colonies on the English for trade; these acts caused great resentment in the American colonies but were not strictly enforced.

Triangular trade system

Complex trading system that developed in this era between Europe, Africa, and the colonies; Europeans purchased slaves in Africa and sold them to the colonies, raw materials from the colonies went to Europe, while European finished products were sold in the colonies.

Middle Passage

Voyage taken by African slaves on horribly overcrowded ships from Africa to the Americas.

Salem Witch Trials (1692)

Trials in Salem, Massachusetts, after which 19 people were executed as witches; historians note the class nature of these trials.

Salutary neglect

Early eighteenth-century British policy relaxing the strict enforcement of trade policies in the American colonies.

French and Indian War (1756–1763)

The Seven Years’ War. A conflict between the British and the French also involved Native Americans and colonial forces.

Stamp Act (1765)

Imposed by the British, this act dictated that all legal documents in the colonies had to be issued on officially stamped paper.

Townshend Acts (1767)

British legislation that forced colonies to pay duties on most goods coming from England. These duties were fiercely resisted and finally repealed in 1770.

Boston Massacre (1770)

Conflict between British soldiers and Boston civilians on March 5, 1770. Five colonists were killed and six wounded.

Sons of Liberty; Radical group that organized resistance against British policies in Boston. This was the group that organized the Boston Tea Party.

Committees of Correspondence

Created first in Massachusetts. These groups circulated grievances against the British to towns within their colonies.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

In response to British taxes on tea, Boston radicals disguised as Native Americans threw 350 chests of tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. The important symbolic act of resistance to British economic control of the colonies.

First Continental Congress (1774)

A meeting in Philadelphia at which colonists vowed to resist further efforts to tax them without their consent.

Second Continental Congress (May 1775)

Meeting that authorized the creation of a Continental army. Many delegates still hoped that conflict could be avoided with the British.

Common Sense (1776)

Pamphlet written by Thomas Paine attacking the system of government by monarchy. This document was very influential throughout the colonies.

Battle of Yorktown (1781)

The defeat of the British in Virginia, ending their hopes of winning the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

By this treaty, Great Britain recognized American independence and gave Americans territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781)

Document establishing the first government of the United States.

Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781)

The states retained much power and little power was given to the federal government.

Northwest Ordinances (1784, 1785, 1787)

Bills authorizing the sale of lands in the Northwest Territory to raise money for the federal government.

Northwest Ordinances (1784, 1785, 1787)

Bills also laid out procedures for these territories to eventually attain statehood.

Virginia Plan

During debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing a bicameral legislature with representatives determined by proportional representation.

New Jersey Plan

During debate over the Constitution, the plan proposing one legislative body for the country, with each state having one vote.

Great Compromise

Connecticut plan stated that one house of Congress would be based on population while in the other house all states would have equal representation.

Electoral College

Procedure for electing the president and vice-president of the United States as outlined in the Constitution; electors from each state, and not the popular vote, ultimately elect the president.

Three-Fifths Compromise

As the Constitution was being created, the plan stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a free person when determining a state’s population for tax purposes and electing members of the House of Representatives.

Federalists

Party in the first years of the republic that favored a larger national government; was supported by commercial interests. Federalists were opposed by Jeffersonians, who wanted a smaller national government.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Proposed by President John Adams, gave the president power to expel “dangerous” aliens and outlawed “scandalous” publications against the government.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Critical Supreme Court decision established the principle of judicial review, stating that the Supreme Court has the right to review all federal laws and decisions and declare whether or not they are constitutional.

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

Massive land purchase from Emperor Napoleon of France that virtually doubled the size of the United States.

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804)

Expedition that discovered much about the western part of the North American continent and the economic possibilities there.

War of 1812

War between the British and the Americans over the British seizure of American ships, connections between the British and Native American tribes, and other tensions.

American System

Plan proposed by Senator Henry Clay and others to make America economically independent by increasing industrial production in the United States and by the creation of a Second National Bank.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Political solution devised to keep the number of slave states and free states equal; Missouri entered the Union as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Proclamation that countries of the Western Hemisphere “are not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”

Removal Act of 1830

Congressional act that authorized the removal of all Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to the west. The Trail of Tears and other forced migrations caused the deaths of thousands.

The Liberator

Sbolitionist newspaper begun by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831.

Spoils system

System used heavily during the presidency of Andrew Jackson whereby political supporters of the winning candidate are given jobs in the government.

Nullification

In reaction to tariff legislation passed in 1828, the South Carolina legislature explored the possibility of nullification, by which individual states could rule on the constitutionality of federal laws.

Whig Party

Political party that emerged in the 1830s in opposition to the Democratic Party.

Manifest Destiny

Concept popularized in the 1840s that the US's God-given mission was to expand westward.

Mexican-American War

A war between Mexico and the United States over Texas gave the US the northern part of Texas and New Mexico and California.

Compromise of 1850

This measure allowed California to join the Union as a free state but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, temporarily easing North-South tensions.

Fugitive Slave Act

Commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he/she was not.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Compromise that allowed Kansas and Nebraska settlers to vote on joining the Union as free or slave states.

Dred Scott case

Critical Supreme Court ruling that slaves were property and could not sue in court.

First Battle of Bull Run (1861)

Early Civil War engagement ending in defeat for the Union army; this battle convinced many in the North that victory over the Confederacy would not be as easy as they first thought it would be.

Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863, proclamation that freed slaves in Southern territories was controlled by the Union army.

Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

Bloodiest overall battle of the Civil War; many historians claim that the Southern defeat in this battle was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

Appomattox

Virginia courthouse where General Robert E. Lee surrendered Confederate forces on April 9, 1865

Reconstruction Era (1865–1877)

Period after the Civil War during which Northern political leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to rejoin the Union; Southern resentment of this era lasted well into the twentieth century

Radical Republicans

Congressional group that wished to punish the South for its secession from the Union; pushed for measures that gave economic and political rights to newly freed blacks in the South and that made it difficult for former Confederate states to rejoin the Union.

Reconstruction Act (1867)

Act placing Southern states under military rule and barring former supporters of the Confederacy from voting.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction Era; traditional elements of Southern society were deeply resentful of profits made by carpetbaggers during this period.

Scalawags

A term of derision used in the South during the Reconstruction Era for white Southern Republicans.

Ku Klux Klan

Group was founded in Tennessee in 1866; its oftentimes violent actions during the Reconstruction Era represented the resentments felt by many Southern whites toward the changing political, social, and economic conditions of the Reconstruction Era.

Compromise of 1877

The political compromise ending the disputed presidential election of 1876. By the terms of this compromise Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, thus giving him the presidency; in return, all federal troops were removed from the South.

Homestead Act (1862)

A bill that did much to encourage settlers to move west; 160 acres of land were given to any settler who was an American citizen or who had applied for citizenship, who was committed to farming the land for six months of the year, and who could pay the $10 registration fee for the land.

Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)

A battle that was the last large-scale attempt by Native Americans to resist American settlement in the Great Plains region

Dawes Act (1887)

An act designed to break up Native American tribes by offering individual Native Americans land to be used for either farming or grazing.

Farmers’ Alliances

An organization that united farmers at the statewide and regional levels; policy goals of this organization included more readily available farm credits and federal regulation of the railroads.

Populist party

Formed in 1892 by members of the Farmers’ Alliances, this party was designed to appeal to workers in all parts of the country.

Turner Thesis (1893)

A thesis by Frederick Jackson Turner suggesting that the innovations practiced by western settlers gradually became ingrained into the fabric of American society

Taylorism

Following management practices of the industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor, the belief that factories should be managed in a scientific manner, utilizing techniques that would increase the efficiency of the individual workers and the factory process as a whole.

Horizontal integration

Strategy of gaining as much control over a single industry as possible, often by creating trusts and holding companies; this strategy was utilized by John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

Vertical integration

Strategy of gaining as much control over a single industry as possible by controlling the production, marketing, and distribution of the finished product. Andrew Carnegie and United States Steel are the best examples from the era of this approach.

“Gospel of Wealth”

Philosophy of Andrew Carnegie who believed that wealthy industrialists had an obligation to help local communities and philanthropic organizations.

Knights of Labor

Established in the 1880s, this was the major union of that decade. It was made up of unions of many industries and accepted unskilled workers.

American Federation of Labor

National labor union formed by Samuel Gompers in 1886; original goal was to organize skilled workers by craft.

Industrial Workers of the World

More radical than the American Federation of Labor, this union was formed in 1905 and attempted to unionize unskilled workers not recruited by the AFL. Members of this union were called “Wobblies.”

Gilded Age

Depiction of late nineteenth-century America that emphasizes a surface of great prosperity hiding problems of social inequality and cultural shallowness.

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

Federal act that established a civil service system at the federal level. For the first time, not all government jobs would be political appointments.

Tammany Hall

Political machine that ran New York City Democratic and city politics became a model for other urban political machines in the late 1800s.

Open Door policy

Policy supported by the United States beginning in 1899 that stated that all major powers, including the United States, should have an equal right to trade with China.

Social Darwinism

Philosophy that emerged from the writings of Charles Darwin on the “survival of the fittest”; this was used to justify the vast differences between the rich and the poor in the late nineteenth century as well as American and European imperialistic ventures.

Spanish-American War

War that began in 1898 against the Spanish over treatment of Cubans by Spanish troops that controlled the island. As a result of this war, the United States annexed the Philippines, making America a major power in the Pacific.

Yellow journalism

method of journalism that utilized sensationalized accounts of the news to sell newspapers. This approach helped to whip up nationalistic impulses that led to the Spanish-American War.

U.S.S. Maine

U.S. naval ship that sank in Havana harbor in February 1898 following an explosion. The incident was used to increase calls for war against Spain. It was never definitively determined why or how the ship was sunk.

Panama Canal

Canal across the Panama isthmus that was begun in 1904 and completed in 1914; its opening enabled America to expand its economic and military influence.

Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

Policy that warned Europeans against intervening in the affairs of Latin America and that claimed the right of the United States to intervene in the affairs of Latin American nations if “chronic wrongdoing” was taking place.

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign policy supported by President William Howard Taft and others that favored increased American investment in the world as a way of increasing American influence.

Social Gospel movement

Movement originating in the Protestant church that aimed to help the urban poor; many Progressives were influenced by this movement.

Muckrakers

Writers who exposed unethical practices in both government and business during this era; newspaper editors discovered that these types of stories increased circulation.

Seventeenth Amendment (1913)

U.S. Constitutional amendment that allowed voters instead of state legislatures to elect U.S. senators; this amendment had been championed by Progressives.

Initiative process

This Progressive-supported process allowed any citizen to propose a law. If enough supporters’ signatures could be procured, the proposed law would appear on the next ballot.

Referendum process

This process allowed citizens (instead of legislatures) to vote on proposed laws.

Recall process

This process allowed voters to remove an elected official from office before his or her term expired.

Direct primary

This process allowed party members to vote for prospective candidates; previously most had been chosen by party conventions.

Hull House

Settlement house in Chicago founded by Jane Addams; it became a model for settlement houses around the country.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Created in 1890 by a merger of two women’s suffrage organizations and led in its early years by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony was instrumental in demanding women’s right to vote.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)

Fire in New York City that killed 146 female factory workers. It was later found that the workers had been locked in the factory; as a result, many factory reforms were enacted.

The Jungle

Novel written by Upton Sinclair that highlighted numerous problems of the meatpacking industry and inspired the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

American Expeditionary Force

American military force that served in France in 1917 and 1918 under the command of General John J. Pershing. Both women and blacks served in the American army during the war, although black units were segregated and usually had white officers.

War Industries Board

Board that regulated American industry during World War I; it attempted to stimulate war production by allocating raw materials to factories that aided the war effort.

Committee on Public Information

Agency created during the war whose mission was to spread pro-Allied propaganda through the press and through newsreels; newspapers were asked to print only articles that were helpful to the war effort.

Fourteen Points

Plan for the postwar world that Woodrow Wilson brought to the Paris Peace Conference; Wilson’s plan proposed open peace treaties, freedom of the seas, arms reductions, and a League of Nations. Britain and France were openly suspicious of these plans, but they supported the creation of a League of Nations.

League of Nations

World body proposed by Woodrow Wilson as part of his 14-point peace plan.