USSemester1StudyGuide

Agricultural Revolution

A time of significant agricultural development marked by the introduction of new farming techniques and tools, increased crop yields, and land use changes. Significance:It led to increased food production, supporting population growth and urbanization, and laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.

Agrarian Revolution

Using machines to farm, urbanization, and formation of cities. Significance:It transformed rural societies, rode food security, and impacted social structures.

Age of Exploration

A period from the 15th to the 17th century during which European powers explored and mapped the world, discovering new lands and sea routes. Significance:It led to the globalization of trade, the exchange of goods and ideas, and the beginning of colonialism and exploitation. Crusades also caused cultural diffusion, leading to scientific advancements, and making exploration possible.

The Atlantic Slave Trade

The transatlantic trading of African slaves by European traders, primarily to the Americas, from the 16th to the 19th century. Significance:A tragic aspect of history, pivotal in shaping the economic and cultural landscapes of the Americas, and with lasting impacts on African societies.

Joint Stock Companies

Businesses owned by shareholders who invested capital and shared profits and losses. Significance:They facilitated European colonialism and trade expansion, including the East India Company.

Mercantilism

An economic theory that trade creates wealth, which leads to the gathering of precious metals and favorable trade balances. Significance:It was the driving economic theory during the Age of Exploration, influencing colonial policies and international trade.

Jamestown and Plymouth Colonies

Early English settlements in North America; Jamestown (Virginia, 1607) and Plymouth (Massachusetts, 1620). Significance:They were one of the first successful English settlements in North America, playing key roles in the colonization and cultural development of the region.

Religious Persecution

The mistreatment of individuals because of their religious beliefs. Significance:It was a primary reason for many European settlers, including the Pilgrims, to migrate to the New World, who wanted religious freedom.

The Columbian Exchange

The widespread exchange of animals, plants, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and Europe following Columbus's voyages. Significance:It had huge ecological and social impacts on both sides of the Atlantic, changing diets, economies, and environments.

The Mayflower Compact

An agreement signed in 1620 by the passengers of the Mayflower, establishing self-governance for the Plymouth Colony. Significance:It's considered a foundational document of American democracy, emphasizing governance through social contract and majority rule.

The Virginia House of Burgesses

The first legislative assembly in the American colonies, was established in Virginia in 1619. Significance:It was an early form of representative government, laying a foundation for democratic practices in the United States. Modeled after parliament.

Royal Colonies

Colonies directly controlled by a monarch, with governors appointed by the crown. Mostly in the south. Northern are made by individuals through joint stock companies. Significance:They represented the direct exercise of British authority in the New World.

Religious Persecution (in Europe)

The oppression of individuals due to their religious beliefs, widespread in Europe, particularly during the Reformation. Significance:It led to significant migrations, conflicts, and transformations in religious and political landscapes across Europe.

Indentured Servitude

A system where individuals contracted to work for a specific period in exchange for passage to the New World, room, and board. Servants became super expensive and revolted due to unfair payment. Significance:It was a common means of labor, especially in the early American colonies, and this led to the rise of African slavery.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement in the 16th century, initiated by figures like Martin Luther, challenging the Catholic Church's practices and leading to the creation of Protestant churches. Significance:It reshaped European religious and political landscapes, influencing wars, migrations, and cultural changes.

Glorious Revolution

The overthrow of King James II of England in 1688. Significance:It established a constitutional monarchy in England and influenced political thought, particularly ideas of sovereignty and rights.

Enlightenment

An intellectual and philosophical movement in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Significance:It influenced Western society, promoting ideas of democracy, liberty, and separation of church and state.

1st Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s. Significance:ideas of personal religious experience over doctrine, shaping American religious and cultural life, and the American Revolution.

French and Indian War

A conflict between France and Britain (1754–1763) in North America, part of the larger Seven Years' War. Significance:It reshaped North American colonial boundaries and contributed to the growing tensions between Britain and its American colonies.

Proclamation of 1763

A warning from the British crown banning American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. Significance:It was meant to stabilize relations with Native Americans but angered colonists and fueled anti-British sentiment.

Stamp Act

A British law imposing a tax on all paper documents in the American colonies. Significance:It was widely unpopular and helped push the American movement toward independence.

Townshend Act

British laws (1767) imposing duties on tea, glass, lead, paints, and paper imported into the American colonies. Significance:These acts intensified colonial resistance, contributing to the American Revolution.

Boston Massacre

A confrontation in 1770 where British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. Significance:It was a pivotal event leading up to the American Revolution, used by patriots as a symbol of British tyranny.

Gaspee Affair

The 1772 burning of the British customs ship Gaspee by American colonists in Rhode Island. Significance:An early act of rebellion, it escalated tensions between the colonies and Great Britain.

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, where they dumped tea into the harbor in response to the Tea Act. Significance:A key event leading to the American Revolution, it demonstrated colonial resistance to British taxation without representation.

Coercive/Intolerable Acts

A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. Significance:They were meant to punish Massachusetts colonists but instead united the colonies against Britain, leading to the First Continental Congress.

Lexington and Concord

The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. Significance:This marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the British and the American colonies.

The Battle of Yorktown

The decisive battle in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War, where General Cornwallis's surrender effectively ended major operations. Significance:It paved the way for the end of the war and the recognition of American independence.

Declaration of Independence

A document adopted on July 4, 1776, declaring the thirteen American colonies independent from British rule.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the United States, ratified in 1781.

3/5ths Compromise

A compromise reached during the 1787 Constitutional Convention where only three-fifths of the slave population was counted for representation and taxation.

Great Compromise (VA and NJ Plans)

A constitutional compromise that created a bicameral legislature, combining aspects of Virginia (representation by population) and New Jersey (equal representation) Plans.

Revolution of 1800

The U.S. presidential election of 1800, where Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams.

Judicial Review

The power of courts to declare laws unconstitutional.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 rebellion in Virginia, led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley.

Shays Rebellion

An armed uprising in Massachusetts (1786-1787), led by Daniel Shays, protesting perceived economic and civil rights injustices.

Whiskey Rebellion

A 1794 uprising in the western United States against a federal whiskey tax.

Triangular Trade

A trade pattern involving the transatlantic slave trade, where ships moved between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 acquisition by the United States of French territory in North America, doubling the size of the U.S.

Monroe Doctrine

A U.S. foreign policy statement in 1823 declaring opposition to European colonialism in the Americas.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the balance of power between slave and free states.

Spoils System (Jacksonian America)

A practice of awarding public offices to political supporters, widely used during Andrew Jackson's presidency.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

A law passed under President Andrew Jackson, leading to the forced relocation of Native American tribes from the Southeast to the west of the Mississippi.

Second Great Awakening

A Protestant religious revival in the early 19th century United States.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the U.S. across the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Republic of Texas

An independent country in North America that existed from 1836 to 1845, after gaining independence from Mexico.

Battle of the Alamo

A big event during the Texas Revolution in 1836, where a small group of Texan defenders fought against a much larger Mexican army.

Goliad Massacre

The 1836 execution by the Mexican Army of over 300 Texan prisoners of war.

Battle of San Jacinto

The decisive battle of the Texas Revolution in 1836, leading to the capture of Mexican General Santa Anna and securing Texan independence.

Mexican-American War

A conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, largely over the annexation of Texas.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, with Mexico ceding large areas of land to the U.S.

Wilmot Proviso

An 1846 proposal to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.

Popular Sovereignty

The concept that the settlers of a federal territory should decide the status of slavery within their borders.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws aimed at resolving the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War.

Fugitive Slave Law

Part of the Compromise of 1850, this law required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were found in a free state.

Underground Railroad

A network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to free states and Canada.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe depicting the harsh life for African Americans under slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, leaving the decision about slavery to popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent confrontations in Kansas between 1854 and 1859, stemming from the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Dred Scott Decision

An 1857 Supreme Court ruling that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during their campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Secession

The action of withdrawing from membership of a federation or body, especially a political state.

The Confederacy

A coalition of 11 southern states that seceded from the United States from 1860 to 1865, forming the Confederate States of America.

The Northern Blockade

The Union's naval blockade of Confederate ports during the Civil War.

Battle of Fort Sumter

The first battle of the American Civil War, in April 1861, where Confederate forces fired on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Battle of Antietam

A Civil War battle in Maryland in 1862, known as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history.

Battle of Gettysburg

A pivotal Civil War battle in 1863 in Pennsylvania, resulted in a major Union victory.

The Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declaring the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory.

The Gettysburg Address

A speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War (1865–1877) during which the Southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

A U.S. federal government agency established in 1865 to aid freed slaves during the Reconstruction era.

The Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, 15th)

Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The KKK

A white supremacist hate group formed in 1866, which used terror and violence against African Americans and their allies.