U.S. History Final Study Guide: Reform and Expansion

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering major reform movements, westward expansion events, and Civil War key points from the history final study guide.

Reform movement

A time during the $1800s$ when people tried to improve society by working on issues like slavery, women’s rights, education, and prison conditions.

Westward expansion

The movement of Americans settling westward, which brought new land and opportunities but caused conflict with Native Americans and Mexico.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the U.S. was meant to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Civil War

A conflict fought between the North and South over slavery and states’ rights from $1861$ to $1865$.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War focused on rebuilding the South and helping formerly enslaved people gain rights.

13th Amendment

An amendment passed in $1865$ that abolished slavery.

14th Amendment

An amendment passed in $1868$ that gave citizenship and equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

An amendment passed in $1870$ that gave African American men the right to vote.

Abraham Lincoln

The leader whose main goal in the Civil War was to preserve the Union and keep the country together.

Gettysburg

A major Civil War battle fought in Pennsylvania in $1863$ that stopped the Confederate invasion and is considered the war's turning point.

Oregon Trail

A route families used to move west by wagon seeking land and opportunity, despite dangerous conditions.

Brigham Young

The leader who led Mormon people west to Utah seeking religious freedom and safety from persecution.

President James Polk

A president who supported Manifest Destiny, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican-American War.

Annexation of Texas

The process by which Texas became part of the U.S. in $1845$, leading to conflict with Mexico.

California Gold Rush

An event beginning in $1848$ that caused massive population and economic growth as thousands moved west to find gold.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The $1848$ treaty ending the Mexican-American War where Mexico gave the U.S. land for $15$ million.

Mexican-American War

A war from $1846$ to $1848$ caused by Texas annexation and border disputes, resulting in large territorial gains for the U.S.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement that encouraged personal faith and inspired social reform like abolition and women’s rights.

Henry David Thoreau

A transcendentalist writer of "Civil Disobedience" who believed people should follow their conscience and value nature.

William Lloyd Garrison

A strong abolitionist who published "The Liberator" newspaper and demanded immediate emancipation of enslaved people.

Frederick Douglass

An escaped slave who became a famous abolitionist speaker and writer to expose the cruelty of slavery.

Harriet Tubman

A symbol of bravery who guided enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad and helped the Union during the Civil War.

Compromise of 1850

An agreement where California entered as a free state while the Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened to reduce sectional conflict.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women’s rights meeting in $1848$ that marked the beginning of organized women's suffrage.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An $1854$ act that allowed settlers to decide on slavery by popular sovereignty, overturning the Missouri Compromise.

Horace Mann

The father of public education who believed education should be free and available to all children.

Declaration of Sentiments

A document written at Seneca Falls demanding equal rights for women, modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Gadsden Purchase

The $1853$ purchase of land from Mexico used to complete the southern border for a planned railroad.

Transcendentalists

Thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau who believed people and nature were naturally good and valued self-reliance.

Prison Reform

A movement that argued incarcerated people should be rehabilitated rather than punished harshly.

Bleeding Kansas

A period of violent fighting between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the Kansas Territory.

Northern Advantages

Strengths held by the North during the Civil War, including more factories, railroads, and a larger population.

Republican Party

A political party formed in the $1850s$ to oppose the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Harper’s Ferry

The site where John Brown led a raid in $1859$ hoping to start a slave rebellion, increasing regional tensions.

Emancipation Proclamation

An $1863$ order by Lincoln that declared enslaved people in Confederate states free and encouraged them to join the Union army.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

A Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in territories.

Secession

The withdrawal of Southern states from the Union, starting with South Carolina in December $1860$.

Fort Sumter

The location where Confederate forces attacked the Union in April $1861$, officially starting the Civil War.