APUSH Final Review (Vocab)

Fall of Constantinople

An event that resulted in the decline of land trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Later encouraged seeking new ocean routes for trade.

Sister Crops

Corn, beans, squash, which were grown by permanently settled Native Americans.

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India. He was known for brutally mistreating Tainos in the New World.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Americas and the Old World following Columbus' voyages.

Smallpox

The disease that killed millions of Native Americans as a result of the Columbian Exchange.

Pilgrims

Also known as Separatists; this group of colonists left England as a result of the Protestant Reformation. They believed the Church of England was too corrupt to be saved.

Puritans

A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay; they hoped to create "A City Upon A Hill" under John Winthrop

Mayflower Compact

A legal contract signed by the Pilgrims and the Strangers before landing in Plymouth; they agreed to have fair laws to protect the general good.

Metacom's Rebellion

A major war in the 17th century in New England between the colonists and Native Americans.

Bacon's Rebellion

A rebellion against the Virginia governor that consisted of western farmers, indentured servants, and slaves. It was caused by the increase of Native American raids in the West. As a result, indentured servitude will be replaced by slavery as the major form of colonial labor.

Middle Passage

Indicates the voyage of African slaves in the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; it was part of the Triangle Trade. The international slave trade ended in 1808, as mandated by the Constitution.

Olaudah Equiano

An African slave who wrote about the horrors of the Middle Passage and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Navigation Acts

17th century British mercantilist laws that required colonists to trade exclusively with Britain.

Albany Plan of Union

Benjamin Franklin's proposal that the 13 colonies should form a congress under a president to raise armed forces, regulate trade, and deal jointly with Native Americans. The purpose was to prepare for upcoming European wars.

French and Indian War

North American war between the French and the tribes against the British and the colonists. The war resulted in the Proclamation Line of 1763, revenue taxes on the colonists, and increasing tension between Britain and its colonies.

Stamp Act

A law that taxed printed goods, including: playing cards, documents, newspapers, and all legal documents.

Tea Act

A tax on tea sold by the British East India Company. This tax resulted in the Boston Tea Party,and consequently, the Intolerable Acts.

Common Sense

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that claimed the colonies had a right to be an independent nation. This changed public opinion and allowed for the Declaration of Independence.

Shays' Rebellion

Rebellion led by farmers in western Massachusetts to protest farm foreclosures. It highlighted the need for a stronger federal government.

Northwest Ordinance

Enacted in 1787, it is considered one of the most significant achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established an organized system for federal land sales in the Northwest Territory, which provided revenue despite the lack of taxes.

Articles of Confederation

A deliberately weak set of laws created during the American Revolution. Its weaknesses included: the absence of an executive, difficulty passing laws and taxes, and no court system to settle disputes.

Great Compromise

An agreement at the Constitutional Convention to create a bicameral Congress. By combining the New Jersey plan and the Virginia Plan, Congress would consist of a House of Representatives based on proportional representation and a Senate based on equal representation.

Federalists

Supporters of the US Constitution at the time the states were contemplating its adoption. Major members included: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, who composed persuasive articles to convince the states to ratify the Constitution.

Anti-Federalists

Opponents of the Constitution because they disliked the idea of a strong central government. They demanded a Bill of Rights that would protect individual rights.

Federalist Party

A political party created in the 1790s and influenced by Alexander Hamilton that wanted to strengthen the federal government and promote industry and trade. They supported the Bank of the United States, the Whiskey Tax, and a strong standing army.

Democratic-Republican Party

A political party led by Thomas Jefferson and yeoman farmers. They believed people should have political power, favored strong state governments, emphasized agriculture, strict interpretation of the Constitution, pro-France, and opposed the National Bank.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Signed by President John Adams during the Quasi-War, these laws increased requirements for citizenship and infringed on freedom of speech. The Democratic-Republicans hated these laws.

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Written by Thomas Jefferson to promote states' rights and the idea of nullification as a result of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Corrupt Bargain

An agreement during the 1824 presidential elections. Neither John Quincy Adams or Andrew Jackson had the majority of electoral votes. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, rallied votes for Adams and consequently was named the Secretary of State. Jackson believed this was a planned agreement.

Henry Clay

He was a War Hawk during the War of 1812 who later proposed several compromises, such as the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise Tariff, and the Compromise of 1850. He held positions such as Speaker of the House and Secretary of State.

American System

Supported by Whigs, this promoted an economic system of high protective tariffs to fund internal improvements such as roads and canals.

Spoils System

Andrew Jackson's practice of rewarding his political supporters with government jobs.

Nullification Crisis

A sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson as a result of the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. John C. Calhoun and South Carolina threatened to void federal laws.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th century belief that AMericans had the right to expand across the continent to spread Protestant Christianity and Jacksonian Democracy.

Whig Party

An American political party formed in the 1830s to oppose President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats; members stood for protective tariffs, national banking, common schools, and internal improvements.

Democrat Party

Jackson's political party or "common man;" supported a weaker federal government, Manifest Destiny, and the Destruction of the Bank of the United States.

James K. Polk

A President who campaigned for Manifest Destiny; he promised "54'40 or Fight" for Oregon and he also supported the Mexican American War.

Bank of the United States

A national bank proposed by Alexander Hamilton to provide loans and print money. Andrew Jackson killed the organization to advance the causes of the "common man."

Underground Railroad

A secret network of paths and safe houses for runaway slaves to the North. Harriet Tubman was a conductor who helped slaves use these routes to escape the Fugitive Slave Act and escape to Canada.

Frederick Douglass

A former slave who became a famous abolitionist; he wrote his autobiography to share the horrors of slavery from a first-hand account.

Harriet Tubman

A runaway slave who helped hundreds escape slavery through the Underground Railroad.

William Lloyd Garrison

A white abolitionist who believed in free labor instead of slave labor. He wrote The Liberator, formed the American Anti-Slavery Society, and burned a copy of the Constitution and Fugitive Slave Act.

John Brown

A white abolitionist who led a raid on Harper's ferry to arm slaves. He believed violence was necessary to end slavery.

Grimke Sisters

Two white abolitionists who became women's rights activists; wrote the Letters on Equality of the Sexes.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

A white abolitionist woman who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a publication that changed Northern opinion on slavery.

Seneca Falls Convention

A national women's rights meeting in New York to call for women's suffrage, prohibition of alcohol, and divorce rights. It resulted in the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.

Compromise of 1850

A proposal by Henry Clay to manage the land gained from the Mexican-American War. (1) California was added as a free state, (2) New Mexico and Utah remained territories, (3) slave trade abolished in Washington D.C., and (4) Fugitive Slave Act.

Dred Scott case

Supreme Court Case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property and affirmed that slaves do not become free if they travel to free territories or states. This case also deemed that Congress cannot regulate slavery in territories, effectively overturning the Missouri Compromise.

Crittenden Compromise

An attempt to prevent Civil War after Lincoln's election by proposing a Constitutional amendment to extend the Missouri Compromise line to California permanently.

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Antietam to free slaves in rebelling states.

Peace Democrats

Northerners who did not support the war after the Emancipation Proclamation; also known as Copperheads.

New York Draft Riots

Reaction to Lincoln's involuntary enlistment of soldiers; Northerners were unwilling to join a military to fight a war to free the slaves. Many who participated targeted free blacks in New York.

Battle of Antietam

First Union victory in the Civil War led by General George B. McClellan; significant because it kept Britain and France neutral and it allowed for the Emancipation Proclamation.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's speech to honor fallen soldiers after a Civil War battle; it motivated soldiers to continue fighting in the war.

Battle of Atlanta

Sherman's victory over the Confederates that guaranteed Lincoln's reelection in 1864 and resulted in his famous "March to the Sea."

Moderate Republicans

Believed that abolition of slavery was sufficient.

Radical Republicans

Wanted to guarantee full rights of citizenship to African Americans after the Civil War; responsible for Congressional Reconstruction.

13th Amendment

Abolition of slavery.

14th Amendment

Declares that all persons born in the US are citizens with equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

Universal male suffrage.

Sharecropping

A post-Civil War labor system in which former slaves grew and harvested cotton and split the profits with their landowners. This system kept the former slaves in perpetual debt due to the loans required for living expenses and caring for cotton crop.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret and violent organization of former Confederates that terrorized African Americans, scalawags, carpetbaggers, and Republicans.

KKK Acts and Enforcement Acts

Federal laws that prohibited the use of of force, intimidation, violence, or bribery to prevent African Americans from voting; enforced by President Grant during Radical Reconstruction.

Homestead Act

Provided 160 acres tracts of land in the Great Plains for Americans to settle.

Dawes Act

Divided reservation land into individual 160 acre plots of private property for Native American families to promote assimilation and farming.C

Carlisle Indian School

A government-funded boarding school in Pennsylvania for Native American youth to promote assimilation, western culture, and western religions.

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single company acquires the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution.

Horizontal Integration

Type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company; purchased all of his competitors.

Andrew Carnegie

An industrialist who dominated the steel industry by vertically integrating and owning all steps of production.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad tycoon who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of street rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical.

J.P. Morgan

A banker who created the US Steel Corporation.