United States History Flashcards

Flashcards on the Physical Geography of North America, Native American People, European Exploration and Colonization, Colonial Culture, Road to the Revolution, The War for Independence, Creation of a New Government, Ratification of the United States Constitution, Early Years of the New Nation, The Federalist Era, The Jefferson Administration, The War of 1812, Post War Development, Continued National Development, The Age of Jackson, Civil War Era, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Emergence of the Modern United States, Economic Depression and Social Crisis, Progressive Era Through the New Deal, Wilson Presidency and Prelude to War, World War I, The Roaring Twenties and the Economic Collapse, the Great Depression and the New Deal, The Second World War, Cold War

North America

Northern of the two continents in the Western Hemisphere; considered the new world by Europeans.

Potomac, James, Roanoke, Savannah Mississippi, and Red river

Rivers that irrigate the southeast region of North America.

Appalachian Mountain, Cascade Mountain, Klamath Range, Rocky Mountains, and Sierra Nevada Mountain Range

Mountain ranges located in North America.

Bering Land Bridge

Theory of how people migrated to North America.

Inuit

Northernmost Native American culture, maritime hunters in Arctic regions.

Kwakiutl

Northwest Indians known for salmon fishing and living in permanent villages.

Anasazi

Cliff dwellers who built apartment-like complexes in mountain walls, thrived thanks to water collection, and cultivated maize.

Pueblos

Communities that Anasazi were forced to migrate to alongside the Rio Grande River are called by the Spanish.

Plains Indians

Nomadic hunters and gatherers of the Great Plains who hunted bison and developed sophisticated hunting techniques after the Ice Age.

Mississippian Culture

A culture that emerged in the Mississippi River valley during the tenth century C.E., known as Mound Builders.

Adoption of the bow and arrow, the development of maize, and the use of flint hoes

Developments that facilitated the emergence of Mississippian culture.

Cherokee

Native American tribe forced out of their lands during Andrew Jackson’s presidency, resulting in the Trail of Tears.

Iroquois

A large northeastern Native American culture who lived in matrilineal extended families and were farmers.

Seminoles

Diverse group of linguistic and racially diverse people who arrived in Florida after the Spanish arrived.

Economic interests, scientific curiosity, religious conversion, desire for fame and wealth.

Motivations for Spanish and Portuguese exploration.

Encomienda

System used by the Spanish to exploit indigenous labor for their settlements.

St. Augustine, Florida

First permanent European settlement in the present-day U.S., established in 1565.

Ferdinand Magellan

Explorer sponsored by Spain, discovered the southern route to the Pacific in 1519.

John Cabot

Explorer sent by the English to North America in 1497.

Jamestown, Virginia

First permanent English colony established in 1607.

Giovanni da Verrazano and Jacques Cartier

Explorers sent by the French to seek a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean.

Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario

The Great lakes.

Columbian Exchange

Refers to the transfer of food, plants, animals, and diseases between Europeans and Native Americans.

Virginia Company of London and Virginia Company of Plymouth

Two groups of merchants that received charters from James I.

Plantation or Southern, New England, and Middle

The English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.

"He who works not, eats not"

Principle implemented by John Smith during 1608-1609 helping to stabilize Jamestown colony.

Tobacco

Valuable cash crop discovered by John Rolfe in 1612, vital for Virginia.

Indenture system

System where poor workers could come to America in exchange for a commitment to work for a designated period.

Headright system

System that incentivized the importation of indentured servants by granting land to those who paid their passage.

1662

Year that children born to slave mothers were legalized as slaves for life.

Maryland

Colony established by individual proprietor Lord Baltimore as a refuge for Roman Catholics.

Georgia

Colony granted to philanthropists by the British king to serve as a buffer against Spanish Florida and a colony for debtors.

Massachusetts Bay Company

Company established by Puritans seeking to escape political repression, religious constraints, and economic decline.

"City upon a hill"

Belief and goal of Puritan communities that were characterized by a close relationship between church and state that sought to create a model Christian society.

Representative assembly, religious freedom, a lack of state-supported church, and significant Quaker practices such as pacifism and the early opposition to slavery

Policies of Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn.

John Locke

English political philosopher of the Enlightenment who sought to identify natural laws in the social and political arenas.

Rights of life, liberty, and property

Locke's natural law.

Benjamin Franklin

American figure who emphasized human reason and its potential while acknowledging the existence of God.

The First Great Awakening.

The first national event impacting all of the colonies.

Sugar Act

Act that imposed tariffs on various imports in 1764.

Stamp Act

Act that taxed printed materials in the colonies passed in 1765.

Coercive Acts

The group of Acts, including the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, a strengthened Quartering Act, and the Quebec Act.

Suffolk Resolves

Document that condemned the Intolerable Acts and called for non-importation and militia preparation.

John Adams

Delegate to the Continental Congresses, defended British soldiers in the Boston Massacre, advocated for independence, and served in diplomatic roles during the Revolutionary War.

George Washington

Virginian who began his military career in the French and Indian War and was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

Thomas Paine

Author of "Common Sense" in 1776, advocating for independence from Great Britain and republicanism.

Skirmishes at Lexington and Concord

Battles that marked the beginning of open warfare, shattering the myth of British invincibility.

Declaration of Independence

Document that formally adopted on July 4, 1776 and incorporated natural rights philosophy influenced by John Locke.

Treaty of Paris

Treaty that recognized the United States as an independent nation in 1783.

Articles of Confederation

Document that emphasized state sovereignty and a weak national government.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A key accomplishment under the Articles of Confederation that established orderly creation of territorial governments and new states, excluded slavery north of the Ohio River, and supported public education.

The Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise

Compromises made during the Constitutional Convention.

Federalists

Group that supported the Constitution.

1791

The year the Bill of Rights was ratified.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Act that established a Supreme Court with six justices and the authority to rule on the constitutional validity of state laws.

Funding the national debt at face value, federal assumption of state debts, and the establishment of a national bank

Hamilton's Proposals.

Federalists: business and financial groups in the Northeast and Southern port cities and Republicans: rural areas in the South and West

Groups that Federalists and Republicans received significant support from.

Whiskey Rebellion

Event that occurred in 1794, western farmers resisted paying the excise tax on whiskey.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Acts that enacted by Federalists to make immigration harder and restrict criticism of the government.

John Marshall

Chief Justice appointed by President Adams, ensuring Federalist influence in the judiciary.

The Louisiana Purchase

Territory that the U.S. bought from Napoleon for $15 million in April 1803.

Federalist party

The party that became a minority and faced internal dissent, culminating in the Hartford Convention that proposed nullification and secession during the War of 1812.

Protective Tariff (1816)

The first protective tariff aimed at reducing the influx of cheap British goods into the U.S.

Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817)

Agreement between the U.S. and Britain to limit armed fleets on the Great Lakes; the first disarmament treaty still in effect.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Presidential doctrine that declared that the Americas were not to be colonized by European powers.

Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

Case that established Supreme Court's authority to rule on the constitutionality of federal laws.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the U.S. was destined to expand to the Pacific, and potentially Canada and Mexico, to share American ideals.

Panic of 1837

Financial challenges faced by Martin Van Buren after the Bank's demise was the.

Democrats opposed large government and supported working classes, small merchants, and farmers and Whigs advocated for government engagement in commercial development and supported northern business interests and large southern planters

People and groups that Democrats and Whigs supported.

The early antislavery movement

Movement that pushed for the colonization of freed slaves in Liberia.

Southern plantation cotton economy relied heavily on slave labor, while the Northern economy focused on industrial manufacturing versus Southern states seeking the right to nullify federal legislation, particularly concerning slavery, while Northern proponents of federal authority resisted this, fearing it would weaken the nation.

Southern economic and political view vs Northern economic and political view.

Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott case, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Events that increased anti-slavery sentiment and activism.

Confederacy formed in February 1861, with Alabama as its initial capital that seceded in December 20, 1860

Confederate States of America.

Urged Southern states to reconsider secession, asserting that the Union was perpetual and pledged to maintain federal forts, specifically Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter

President Lincoln's response to Southern secession.

Union had Superior wealth and industrial resources, greater manpower, significant immigrant support, and better railroad infrastructure and Confederacy had size, motivation to defend their home territory, and ability to fight defensively

Advantages the Union and Confederacy had.

The Union's offensive after 1863 that had wins at Vicksburg and Gettysburg

Event after which Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Selection of local rulers in the South and their roles, The balance of governmental control between the President and Congress, Freedom and rights of former slaves, and Whether to reconstruct the old system or build something new to prevent future issues

Concerns that Reconstruction commenced before the Civil War ended.

Lincoln's lenient approach versus the Radical Republicans' desire for revenge

Two main approaches that emerged during reconstruction.

Wade-Davis Bill

Legislation proposed by the Radical Republicans to require a majority oath and ensuring African-American voting rights before readmission to Congress.

The Thirteenth Amendment

Amendment passed during Reconstruction that abolished slavery.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and extended the Freedmen’s Bureau and Johnson’s dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton

Enactments that led to President Johnson's impeachment.

The Fifteenth Amendment

Amendment that granted voting rights to all black males.

Supporters and opponents of Reconstruction, with "scalawags" (cooperating Southerners) and "carpetbaggers" (Northerners)

Groups who were strong divisions in Reconstruction.

Posse Comitatus Act

Act that limited federal intervention in local matters.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws implemented by Southern states to further enforce racial discrimination.

Key factors: capital accumulation, natural resources (iron, oil, coal), abundant labor from immigration, rail transport, communication, and technical innovations (modern steel industry, electrical energy)

Factor that helped the U.S. transition from the fourth-largest manufacturing nation to the world's leader from 1877 to 1882.

Settlement houses and improved health and education services for immigrants

Advocates of the "social gospel," like Jane Addams and Washington Gladden, promoted.

John D. Rockefeller (oil), J. P. Morgan (banking), Gustavus Swift (meat processing), Andrew Carnegie (steel), E. H. Harriman (railroads)

Notable industrial leaders from 1882-1887.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Act that established a commission to regulate fair railway rates, prohibit rebates, and address discriminatory practices.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Act that aimed at curbing monopolies but was interpreted broadly, affecting labor unions and farmers as well.

Coinage of silver to gold at a 16 to 1 ratio, federal loans to farmers, graduated income tax, postal savings banks, public ownership of railroads and telecommunication systems, prohibition of alien land ownership and immigration restrictions, eight-hour workday, direct election of senators and a single six-year presidential term, Right of initiative and referendum, Use of the secret ballot

Demands that the Populist Party had.

Federal deficit growth, withdrawal of British investments, gold outflow, and declining business confidence

Factors that caused Economic Depression in 1893.

Muckrakers

Journalists who championed reforms.

Panama Canal

Roosevelt facilitated the Panama's independence from Colombia due to.

New Freedom and The New Nationalism philosophies

The merging of.

Progressive (Bull Moose) Party

Roosevelt's party led after losing the Republican nomination, advocating for "The New Nationalism".

New Freedom

Wilson's domestic policy that emphasized breaking up large corporations and advocating lower tariffs, a graduated income tax, and direct election of senators.

Lower tariff reform (Underwood-Simmons Act, 1913), Sixteenth Amendment: graduated income tax (1913), Seventeenth Amendment: direct election of senators (1913), Establishment of the Federal Reserve banking system (1913), Creation of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate unfair business practices (1914), Clayton Antitrust Act to improve the Sherman Act and protect labor unions (1914)

Progressive Achievements Before World War I.

A more moral foreign policy, denouncing imperialism and dollar diplomacy

Wilson's goal with foreign policy.

American Neutrality Declared during WWI

Event that caused America trade with Allies to rise.