American History: World War I, the 1920s, and the Great Depression Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering major events, figures, and concepts from the transcript including World War I, the Harlem Renaissance, the 1920s, and the Great Depression.

General Victoriano Huerta

The individual who seized power in Mexico shortly before Woodrow Wilson took office in 1913.

Veracruz

The American Port in Mexico seized by marines in April 1914 after the Mexicans refused to apologize for arresting American sailors.

Pancho Villa

The Mexican guerrilla who attacked American soil, leading Wilson to send troops under John J. Pershing to capture him.

Self-determination

The idea that people who are in a nation deserve their own country, government, and land.

The Black Hand

The group behind the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that wanted war to bring down Austria-Hungary.

Gavrilo Princip

The member of the Black Hand who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.

Selective service

The new system created by Congress when it realized a draft was necessary for World War I.

369th Infantry

The African American unit that won the French decoration known as the Croix de Guerre.

War Industries Board

The special board created to coordinate the production of war materials through cooperation between big business and government.

Food Administration

The government agency responsible for managing food and civilian consumption regulation during WWI.

Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds

Financial instruments through which the government borrowed more than $20$ billion from the American people to fund WWI.

National War Labor Board

Established to pressure industry to grant important concessions to workers during wartime.

Committee on Public Information

The government agency tasked with "selling" the war to the American people.

Sedition Act of 1918

Law that made any public expression of opposition to the war illegal and allowed the prosecution of government critics.

Second Battle of Ypres

The April 1915 battle where the Germans first used poison gas.

Admiral William S. Sims

The officer who proposed gathering merchant ships and troop transports into convoys to prevent American ships from being sunk.

Vladimir Lenin

The leader who seized power in Russia in 1917, pulled Russia out of the war, and focused on establishing a Communist state.

Fourteen Points

President Wilson's post-war plan, which included a fourteenth point intended to prevent future wars by protecting political independence and territory.

Treaty of Versailles

The agreement that stripped Germany of its army, forced it to pay reparations, and required it to acknowledge guilt for the war.

Irreconcilables

Senators who rejected the League of Nations, fearing it would supersede Congress's power to declare war.

Eugenics

A pseudo-science used by nativists that emphasized inherited human inequalities and warned against breeding the "unfit."

1921 Emergency Quota Act

Legislation that allowed only $3$ percent of the total number of people in any ethnic group already in the U.S. (per the 1910 Census) to be admitted annually.

1924 National Origins Act

Legislation that tightened the quota system to $2$ percent of each national group residing in the country in 1890.

Flapper

A figure that personified the changing behavior and "new morality" of women in the 1920s.

Fundamentalists

Americans who focused on defending the Protestant faith against ideas suggesting moral behavior came from source material other than God.

18th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted federal and state governments the power to enforce the prohibition of alcohol.

Bohemian

A term for the artistic and unconventional lifestyle found in neighborhoods like Manhattan's Greenwich Village and Chicago's South Side.

Edward Hopper

A 1920s painter whose work conveyed a modern sense of disenchantment and isolation.

The Great Gatsby

An F. Scott Fitzgerald novel featuring characters chasing futile dreams and expressing the superficiality of modern society.

The Jazz Singer

The first "talking" motion picture, produced in 1927.

Station KDKA

The Pittsburgh radio station that broadcast news of Warren G. Harding's landslide presidential victory in 1920.

Harlem Renaissance

The environment in Harlem, New York, that stimulated African American artistic development, racial pride, and political organization.

Langston Hughes

One of the most prolific, original, and versatile writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Louis Armstrong

The first great cornet and trumpet soloist in jazz music.

Bessie Smith

The artist known as the "Empress of the Blues."

Negro Nationalism

The movement that glorified black culture and tradition.

Marcus Garvey

The leader of the UNIA who advocated for black education, independence from whites, and a return to Africa.

Battle of the Marne

A conflict where German and French forces ended in a three-year stalemate of trench warfare.

Lusitania

A British ship sunk by a German U-boat, an act Americans viewed as terrorism.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The agreement between Russia and Germany that resulted in Russia losing territory like Ukraine, Finland, and Baltic regions.

Olmstead v. United States

Supreme Court case that ruled wiretaps did not violate the Fourth Amendment because there was no physical trespass and telephone lines are not part of a house.

Powell v. Alabama

Supreme Court case that ruled states must provide counsel for defendants in capital cases who cannot afford their own.

Alfred E. Smith

The 1928 Democratic nominee and first Roman Catholic ever nominated for president.

Margin

The practice of buying stocks with a small cash down payment and a loan from a stockbroker.

Bank run

An event where many depositors withdraw money at once, often due to fear that the bank is collapsing.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

A law that raised import taxes to the highest level in American history, ultimately reducing American sales abroad.

Hoovervilles

The name given to shantytowns by homeless people who blamed President Hoover for the Great Depression.

Dust Bowl

The vast region from the Dakotas to Texas where pastures and wheat fields were devastated by poor environmental conditions.

National Credit Corporation (NCC)

The organization set up by Hoover to attempt to ease the national money shortage.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

A federal agency established to stimulate the economy during peacetime, markers of the first such use of federal power.

Emergency Relief and Construction Act

A measure calling for $1.5$ billion for public works and $300$ million in loans to states for direct relief.

Bonus Army

The group of veterans whose efforts ended in July 1932 when the US Army cleared them from their camp.