US History: From Imperialism to Reconstruction

Vocabulary flashcards identifying critical historical terms, events, policies, and concepts from early European imperialism through the American Reconstruction era.

Reconquista

The historical military campaigns on the Iberian Peninsula that, alongside the Crusades and the Renaissance, reshaped Western European society and motivated powers like Spain and Portugal to seek Atlantic trade routes.

Protestant Reformation

A major religious movement that transformed European and Atlantic world politics, evolving doctrinally through Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Puritanism.

Dominion of New England

A centralized administrative consolidation of the North American colonies instituted by England during 17th-century constitutional and religious conflicts.

Provincial Rebellions of 1688–1689

Colonial uprisings in North America linked to the constitutional and religious crisis of England's Glorious Revolution.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 17th-century armed conflict in the Chesapeake that disrupted local politics and affected colonial labor systems by highlighting the tension between indentured servitude and African slavery.

King Philip’s War

A late 17th-century armed conflict between English Puritans and Native Americans that left long-standing legacies for New England colonial society.

Salutary Neglect

An era of British colonial governance characterized by relaxed imperial oversight, defining the political and economic relationship between Britain and its North American colonies in the 18th century.

The Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement centered on specific core beliefs and assumptions that deeply influenced political and cultural life in colonial America.

The Great Awakening

An 18th-century religious revival movement that transformed the religious culture of colonial America and helped shape colonial political identities.

Albany Conference of 1754

An intercolonial conference held on the eve of the Seven Years' War to discuss common defense and colonial-imperial relations.

Stamp Act

A direct British tax imposed on the North American colonies in the 1760s that triggered widespread colonial resistance and escalated the collapse of imperial relations.

Boston Tea Party

A high-profile crisis event in the 1770s protesting British policy that acted as a critical catalyst for open military conflict between Britain and the American colonies.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The formal diplomatic treaty concluding the American Revolutionary War in which U.S. negotiators secured highly favorable peace terms from Great Britain.

Northwest Ordinance

A major legislative enactment establishing the process for governing and incorporating western territories into the new American republic.

Articles of Confederation

The initial governing framework of the United States, which faced growing criticism for being inadequate to govern the nation effectively prior to the Philadelphia Convention.

Philadelphia Convention

The 1787 gathering convened by proponents of a stronger national government to replace the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution.

Monroe Doctrine

A diplomatic policy articulated after the War of 1812 to expand and assert the political presence of the United States throughout the Western Hemisphere.

American System

A national economic program championed by Henry Clay aimed at promoting domestic development and integrating the growing American economy.

Panic of 1819

A major economic downturn in the post-War of 1812 era that created substantial pessimism, anxiety, and distrust regarding the expanding market economy.

Second Great Awakening

An early 19th-century evangelical revival movement that inspired widespread social and political reform efforts, including the push toward temperance.

Doctrine of “Separate Spheres”

A 19th-century ideology that established distinct public and domestic domains based on gender, altering American family dynamics during the market and industrial revolutions.

“Era of Good Feelings”

The period roughly spanning 1815 to 1825 characterized on the surface by one-party rule, but increasingly marked by internal factional friction within the Republican Party.

“Slave Power” Critique

A political argument criticizing the disproportionate influence and political leverage wielded by slaveholders within the federal government.

Manifest Destiny

An expansionist ideology in the 1840s asserting an American mission to expand across North America, driving debates over Texas annexation, Oregon, and California.

Compromise of 1850

A series of legislative measures derived from Henry Clay's 'Omnibus' bill aimed at defusing sectional conflict over slavery in the lands acquired from the Mexican Cession.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 statute that reignited sectional tensions over slavery's westward expansion and precipitated violent civil strife in Kansas.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An 1857 Supreme Court ruling led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney that severely escalated the sectional crisis regarding the legal status of African Americans and slavery in western territories.

“Hard War”

A Union military-political strategy conceived and executed by Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman to dismantle Confederate resistance by waging expansive war on resources.

The “Lost Cause”

A Southern post-Civil War ideological narrative emerging after the election of 1868 that sought to reframe and memorialize the Confederate war effort.

Compromise of 1877

A political agreement resolving the disputed 1876 presidential election that ultimately brought an end to the era of Reconstruction in the South.