APUSH Turbo Flashcards

Key vocabulary terms and definitions

Pueblo People

Farmers who cultivated crops like beans, squash, and maize in present-day Utah and Colorado, known for their cliff dwellings.

Great Basin and Great Plains People

Nomadic hunter-gatherers who roamed the Great Basin and Great Plains, primarily hunting buffalo and organized into small egalitarian kinship bands.

Pacific Coast People

People along the Pacific Coast who developed permanent settlements due to the abundance of fish, small game, and plant life, participating in regional trade networks.

Iroquois People

People in the Northeast who were farmers living communally in long houses constructed from timber.

Mississippi River Valley People

Farmers in the Mississippi River Valley due to the rich soil in the region, actively participating in trade along the main waterways, with Cahokia being the largest group.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership and free exchange.

Joint Stock Company

A limited liability organization in which a plurality of investors pooled their money to fund a venture, sharing in the profits if successful.

Encomienda System

An economic system whereby Spaniards forced natives to work on their sprawling plantations and extract gold and silver in other locations.

Casta System

A system introduced by the Spanish to dominate Central and South America, categorizing people based on their racial ancestry.

Peninsulares

Spaniards born in Spain.

Cryoyos/Creoles

Spaniards born in the Americas.

Castas

People with mixed ancestry.

Mestizos

Those born of Spanish and Native blood.

Mulattos

Those of Spanish and African blood.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases from the East to the West and from the West to the East.

Navigation Acts

Laws requiring merchants to trade with English colonies on English ships and valuable trade items had to pass through British ports for taxation.

Mercantilism

An economic system where wealth was measured by gold and silver, with a fixed amount in the world, aiming to gain wealth by maintaining a favorable balance of trade.

The Enlightenment

A movement in Europe that emphasized rational thinking over tradition and religious revelation.

Natural Rights

Inborn rights given to people by a creator, not a government.

Checks and Balances

The idea that the best form of government involves dividing power into three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.

Social Contract

The idea that people are in a contract with their government, giving some power to the government in exchange for the protection of their natural rights.

The Great Awakening

A massive religious revival that swept through all the colonies and generated intense Christian enthusiasm.

Impressment

The act of seizing Colonial men and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

Forbade colonists from taking land in the Ohio River Valley, west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Virtual Representation

The concept arguing that members of Parliament represented all British citizens, not just specific localities, and therefore the American colonists were represented.

Natural Rights

Rights endowed to all human beings by God that cannot be taken away by any government.

Social Contract

The idea that the power to govern lies with the people, who willingly give some of that power to a government capable of protecting their natural rights.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that Americans were destined to expand across the entire continent.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed to ban slavery in all land gained from Mexico; passed in the House but failed in the Senate.

Compromise of 1850

Aimed to balance free and slave state interests, including admitting California as a free state, Utah and New Mexico could decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, slave trade banned in Washington D.C., stricter Fugitive Slave Act passed, and Texas paid $10 million to give up some land claims.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowed Kansas and Nebraska to vote on whether they wanted to allow slavery (popular sovereignty); led to Bleeding Kansas.

Abraham Lincoln's Position on Slavery

Against slavery spreading westward but did not plan to abolish it in the South.

Stephen Douglas' Position on Slavery

Believed decisions about slavery should be left to the people (popular sovereignty).

John C. Breckinridge's Position on Slavery

Pro-slavery, wanted it everywhere.

John Bell's Position on Slavery

Focused on upholding the Constitution.

Sharecropping

A system where blacks worked the fields; though technically not slavery, the wages were so low it might as well have been.

Lynchings

Public events where African Americans were hanged or otherwise killed.

Convict Leasing

A system where black men were arrested for made-up crimes and forced into unpaid labor.

Compromise of 1877

A backroom deal where the North removed troops from the South in exchange for electing Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president, marking the end of Reconstruction.

Franchise

The right to vote

Strict Constructionists

Those who want a limited government.

Loose Constructionists

Those in favor of federal law over state law.

Neutralists

People, like the U.S., who do not take sides.

Doctrine of Nullification

The idea that states had the power to determine the constitutionality of federal laws and could nullify laws they found unconstitutional.

Force Bill

Gave Jackson the authority to use federal troops to enforce federal law in South Carolina.

Romanticism

Emphasized human passion and mystery, and transcendentalism emphasized the transcendent power and beauty of nature.

Temperance Movement

Aimed for complete abstinence from alcohol and established over 5,000 chapters across the country.

Homestead Act

Offered 160 acres of relatively cheap land to settlers who moved West.

Pacific Railroad Act

Established the route for the Transcontinental Railroad.

Department of the Interior

Responsible for the management and conservation of federal lands and natural resources.

U.S. Fish Commission

Created to preserve fisheries.

Horizontal Integration

Controlling all competition in a particular industry by consolidating competitors to monopolize a market.

Vertical Integration

Controlling all aspects of production from raw materials to the finished product.

Social Darwinism

The belief that the rich are rich because they are hardworking, and the poor are poor because they are lazy or inferior.

Tariff

Tax on imported goods.

The Grange Movement

Initially focused on social and educational activities, the Grange later lobbied state legislators for reforms.

Granger Laws

Passed during the Grange movement, these laws aimed to protect farmers against abuses by the railroad industry.

Wabash Case

The Supreme Court ruled that states could not regulate interstate commerce.

Interstate Commerce Act

Act regulated trade between different states.

Sherman Antitrust Act

This act outlawed trusts and monopolies that fixed prices and restrained trade.

Immigration Act of 1924

Established a quota of 2% based on the 1890 census, supported by the KKK and nativist groups.

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie's belief that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help those less fortunate.

Settlement House Movement

Aimed to relieve urban poverty and provide assistance to immigrants.

Booker T. Washington

Advocated that African-Americans should acquire vocational skills and believed vocational skills would lead to self-respect and economic security

Open Door Policy in China

Initiated under President McKinley and followed by subsequent presidents.

Philippine-American War

A brutal guerrilla war between the US and the Philippines, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, resulting in the defeat of the Filipino independence movement.

Initial Neutrality

Wilson attempts to keep the US out of World War I

To establish world peace.

Wilson's 14 Points at Versailles

Progressive Movement

Advocated for government intervention in the economy and society.

Muckrakers

People like Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell exposed problems to the American public.

Federal Reserve Bank System

President Woodrow Wilson created this Federal Reserve Bank to control the money supply, establishing the first national banking system since Andrew Jackson's defeat of the Second Bank of the US.

Espionage and Sedition Acts

Limited freedom of speech, targeting anti-war sentiments.

Red Scare and Palmer Raids

Mass arrests of socialists, anarchists, union organizers, and suspected radicals.

The New Deal

Focus: Economic upheavals and issues with laissez-faire capitalism.

FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)

Insured bank deposits.

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)

Regulated the stock market.

AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)

Sought to stop overproduction by paying farmers subsidies not to produce crops.

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

Paid the unemployed for public works projects (bridges, roads, etc.).

Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act

Protected workers' rights to form and join unions.

Social Security System

Established a safety net for the elderly, disabled, and women with dependent children.

Bracero Program

Program allowed Mexican immigrants to work in the agricultural sector due to labor needs.

Impact of WWII on US economy

Shift to war production ended the Great Depression.

The Cold War

An ideological, political, and military struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasting from approximately 1946 to 1991.

Containment Policy

The U.S. pursued a policy of containment, articulated by George Kennan, to prevent the spread of Communism.

Nixon Doctrine

Under President Nixon, the U.S. shifted to a policy where countries like Vietnam had to do their own fighting, with the U.S. providing money and military equipment but not soldiers

New Look Policy

Shift had been made to increase emphasis weapons to the idea of 'more bang for your buck', a defense of Dwight Eisenhower's nuclear build-up.

Flexible Response Policy

Kennedy altered military spending to have a variety of options available, as nuclear weapons were not suitable for all situations.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955

The civil rights movement led Rosa Parks actions.