APUSH Period 9 SFI

Reagan Revolution

the policies of the first Reagan Administration which increased defense spending reduced social programs and cut taxes they were based on supply side theory of growing the economy by cutting government interference and taxes

Election of 1980

Ronald Reagan won over Jimmy Carter because of the Iranian hostage crisis and America's stagflation (slow growth, high inflation, & high unemployment)

Supply-side Economics (Reaganomics)

An economic philosophy that holds the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work

Business Deregulation

Reagan's belief that the American government should allow businesses to operate in a free-market system

Sandra Day O'Connor

1st Female Supreme Court Justice; she was appointed by Ronald Reagan

Growth of Upper Incomes

The recovery after the recession in 1982 only widened the income gap between the rich and the poor. While upper income groups enjoyed higher incomes from a deregulated marketplace

Budget Deficits

the amount by which a government's spending in a given fiscal year exceeds its revenue; these skyrocketed during the Reagan Administration due to tax cuts and increased military spending

Milton Friedman

He was a famous American economist; he strongly promoted the idea of free trade and condemned government regulation and socialism; Reagan was a follower of his ideas

Political Action Committees (PACs)

A committee set up by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises and spends campaign money from voluntary donations; allows people to get around individual contribution limits

Christian Fundamentalism

individual who believes in a strict, literal interpretation of the Bible as the foundation of the Christian faith

Moral Majority

A movement begun in the early 1980's among religious conservatives that supported primarily conservative Republicans opposed to abortion

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Popularly known as "Star Wars," President Reagan's SDI proposed the construction of an elaborate computer-controlled, anti-missile defense system capable of destroying enemy missiles in space; critics claimed that SDI could never work

Sandinistas

Left wing anti-American revolutionaries in Nicaragua who launched a civil war in 1979 and took over the government; the US funded rebels to fight against them

Contras

A Nicaraguan rebel group that got financial support from the CIA; This group was formed as a response to the Sandinistas coming to power in Nicaragua

Iran-Contra Affair

This involved high officials in the Reagan administration secretly & illegally selling arms to Iran (in return for the release of Western hostages in the Middle East)

"Evil Empire" speech

delivered by Reagan in 1983

Mikhail Gorbachev

Head of the USSR from 1985 to 1991; his liberalization effort improved relations with the West

Soviet Satellites

Eastern European nations with communist puppet governments; policies were generally controlled by the USSR

"Tear Down This Wall" Speech

Reagan gave this speech telling Gorbachev to dismantle the Berlin Wall and end communism

Tiananmen Square Massacre

(1989) demonstrators peacefully assembled to push for greater democracy in China; when the demonstrators refused to disperse the government sent in troops and tanks

Berlin Wall falls (1989)

East German communists were forced out of power after protesters tore down the Berlin Wall; led to the reunification of Germany in 1990; signalled the coming end to the Cold War

Boris Yeltsin

President of the Russian Republic in 1991. Helped end the USSR and force Gorbachev to resign; President of the Russian Federation from 1991-1999

Yugoslavian Civil War

a series of ethnic conflicts and wars of independence fought from 1991 to 2001 in Yugoslavia; led to the breakup of Yugoslavia

Ethnic cleansing (genocide)

the systematic killing, torturing, or removal of persons with the intention of eliminating a specific racial or ethnic group; this occurred in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s

Bill Clinton

president (1993-2001) advocated economic and healthcare reform; second president to be impeached

"Don't ask

don't tell"

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

An agreement for free trade between the United States and Canada and Mexico (1994)

Brady Bill (1993)

law passed requiring a waiting period on sales of handguns

Newt Gingrich

Gingrich was the Republican speaker in the House. He pushed for more conservative legislation during Clinton's presidency.

Contract with America (1994)

Pledge taken by Republican candidates for Congress who promised to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and to balance the federal budget. Led to a Republican takeover of both houses of Congress in the 1994 elections.

Government Shutdown

the closure of nonessential offices of the government due to lack of approval on the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year

Oklahoma City Bombing (1995)

A bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City by militia-movement extremists; this was in response to the gov't siege of a religious compound in Waco

Waco Siege

The 1993 standoff between members of the Branch Davidian cult and federal law enforcement officers; the standoff ended when FBI & ATF agents tried to bring the siege to an end. Eighty-two people were killed.

Welfare Reform

a movement to change the federal government's social welfare policy by shifting some of the responsibility to the states and limiting & cutting benefits.

Clinton Impeachment

Clinton had lied under oath

European Union (EU)

a free trade zone encompassing 27 European countries; each country can trade with the others with no tariffs

Euro

the basic monetary unit of the European Union (introduced in 1999)

World Trade Organization (WTO)

a permanent global institution to promote international trade and to settle international trade disputes

World Bank

A specialized agency of the United Nations that makes loans to countries for economic development

G-8

Group of 8 industrialized countries: BritainFrance, Russia, Germany, Canada, USA, Japan, Italy; they meet to discuss economic issues, such as tariffs, trade, and banking
(The G-7 is the G-8 minus Russia)

Globalization

the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale; businesses & countries are interconnected worldwide

Effect of Globalization on Jobs

Wealthy countries may lose jobs to other countries as companies move factories to countries where wages are lower; this leads to higher company profits and can lead to lower prices

2008 Recession

Caused by over speculation on homes & sub prime mortgages; home sales collapsed; banks began to close due to bad loans; unemployment increased (highest since Great Depression)

Securitization

Pooling loans into standardized securities backed by those loans

Liquidity Crisis

a severe shortage of liquidity throughout a sector of the economy or the entire economy

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

U.S government-created corporations involved in real estate; they secure a large number of home mortgages in the US; the Govt. took over these following 2008 recession in order to stabilize them during the financial crisis

The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)

Gov't program which "bailed out" many financial institutions during the 2008 Financial Crisis; controversial because it saved some institutions whose shady practices led to the crisis; kept the recession from becoming a depression

Poor Regulation of Financial Institutions

One of the causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis; many banks were making bad loans with little or no oversight by gov't agencies

2009 Stimulus Bill

provided $787 billion economic stimulus package designed to create or save millions of jobs; funded construction projects

Dodd-Frank Act

a law enacted in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that strengthened government oversight of financial markets and placed limitations on risky financial strategies such as heavy reliance on leverage

Election of 2008

In this presidential election Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden ran against Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin; the Republican Bush administration was unpopular and the country faced was facing an economic crisis; Obama's message for change and his well-funded grassroots campaign led him to victory

Hillary Clinton 2008

Candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008

Affordable Care Act

law passed in 2010 to expand access to health insurance; widely-known as "Obamacare"

Tea Party Movement

created after Barack Obama's election

Super PACs

a type of independent political action committee which may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations

sequestration order

A governmental order that requires spending levels to be reduced below the levels provided in the budget.

Prosperity of the 1990s

Inflation down, Stocks up, Households worth up, unemployment rate down

Internet Boom

Growth in technology, PC's sold in large numbers with advances, and the entrance of the world wide web; tech stocks began to skyrocket in the 1990s

Immigration Act of 1986

This act attempted to create a fair entry process for immigrants

Graying of America

the aging of the American population

Single-Parent Families

families in which one parent resides with and cares for one or more children; this has become more prevalent in the US since the 1960s

Freedom vs. Security

The balance between individual liberty and societal safety

War on Terror

Initiated by President George W. Bush after the attacks of September 11

Colin Powell

Colin Powell was an American military general and leader during the Persian Gulf War; he later served as Secretary of State at the beginning of the War on Terror

Islamic roots of anti-Americanism

US was faulted by many in the Arab world for siding with Israel in the Israeli-Palestine conflict

Osama bin Laden

Founder of al Qaeda

Al Qaeda

a network of Islamic terrorist organizations led by Osama bin Laden, that carried out the attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, and the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 200

Bombing of US Embassies

In 1998In 1998, terrorists bombed two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. responded by bombing Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and the Sudan

USS Cole

In 2000 two suicide bombers in a small rubber boat nearly sank a billion dollar US warship docked in Yemen, the USS Cole

World Trade Center Bombings

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center carried out on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

September 11, 2001

The date of major terrorist attacks on the United States (NY, PA, and VA)

Taliban

A group of fundamentalist Muslims who took control of Afghanistan's government in 1996; allowed Al Qaeda to operate terrorist training camps in Afghanistan

Afghanistan War (2001-2021)

The United States' war with Afghanistan began after the attacks on 9/11. US intelligence accused Afghanistan of harboring Osama bin Laden

Hamid Karzai

He became the head of the Afghanistan government in Kabul with the U.S. backing. However Afghanistan remained unstable and divided by the Taliban insurgency and tribal conflicts

Homeland Security Department

President George W. Bush created this new department by combining more than 20 federal agencies with 170,000 employees. The agencies included the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and customs and immigration agencies

Axis of Evil

A group of nations accused by the Bush administration of sponsoring terrorism and threatening to develop weapons of mass destruction; Iran

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use; the CIA claimed that Iraq had large amounts of these in 2001...the main reason we invaded Iraq; Iraq no longer had these weapons

Unilateralist Approach

The United States would pursue its own defense policy with little or no cooperation with other nations

Saddam Hussein

Was a dictator in Iraq who tried to take over Iran and Kuwait violently in order to gain the land and the resources. He also refused to let the UN into Iraq in order to check if the country was secretly holding weapons of mass destruction; captured by US forces; later put on trial and executed by the Iraqi Gov't

Sunnis vs. Shiites

Much of the Muslim-on-Muslim violence stems from the division between these two major interpretations of Islam. Each group considers the other to be apostate; this division began when the Prophet Mohammed died and who would replace him as the leader of the Islamic faith

2007 Troop Surge

In early 2007,President George W. Bush sent an additional 30,000 troops in a "surge" to establish order in Iraq; this was a controversial decision, but it worked

Arab Spring

A series of public protests, strikes, and rebellions in the Arab countries, often facilitated by social media, that have called for fundamental government and economic reforms; started in Egypt and Libya

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

terrorist group whose main goal is to create a new state ruled by strict religious law

Invasion of Ukraine (2014)

In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, a Ukrainian territory, leading to Russian annexation of Crimea

Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

Russia Invaded Ukraine to prevent them from joining NATO; this was intended to be a quick military operation

Donald Trump (2017-2021) & (2025-)

controversial president; impeached twice, but not removed from office
Defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, despite losing by more than 3 million popular votes
Lost to Joe Biden in 2020
Defeated Kamala Harris in 2024