AP US History Ultimate Study Guide

Christopher Columbus

Arrived in the New World in 1492, marking the beginning of the Contact Period between Europe and the Americas.

Contact Period

The era during which Europe began sustained contact with the Americas following Columbus's arrival.

Bering Land Bridge

The land bridge that connected Eurasia and North America, allowing the first people to inhabit the Americas.

Pre-Columbian Era

Refers to the period before Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World.

Culture Clash

The conflicts and misunderstandings between European settlers and Native Americans due to differing cultures, religions, and technologies.

Norse

The first Europeans known to have reached North America around the year 1000.

Mesoamerica

Region extending from central Mexico to northern Central America where major indigenous cultures developed.

Columbian Exchange

The period of rapid exchange of plants, animals, foods, diseases, and technology between the Old and New Worlds.

Mercantilism

An economic theory emphasizing trade and commerce as a source of wealth for European nations.

Encomienda System

A Spanish colonial system granting colonists authority over a specified number of Natives for labor in exchange for protection.

Indentured Servitude

A labor system where individuals agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 1676 uprising in Virginia by frontier farmers against colonial government; highlighted class resentment.

Colony

A territory settled and controlled by a foreign power.

Conquistadors

Spanish explorers who led conquest and colonization in the Americas.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607.

House of Burgesses

The first representative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619.

The Great Puritan Migration

The movement of Puritans to New England in the 1620s, seeking religious freedom.

Separatists

Puritans who sought to break away from the Church of England; settled in Plymouth.

Mayflower Compact

A legal agreement where Pilgrims agreed to self-govern at their new settlement.

Midnight Appointments

Judicial appointments made by President Adams in the final hours of his presidency.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's 1863 declaration freeing slaves in Confederate-held territory.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

A Supreme Court case ruling that enslaved people could not sue for their freedom because they were not citizens.

Nullification

The idea that states can invalidate federal laws they deem unconstitutional.

The Gadsden Purchase

The 1853 purchase of land from Mexico to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad.

Forty-Ninth Parallel

The designated northern border of the Oregon Territory established in the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

Free-Soil Party

An anti-slavery political party formed in the 1840s to oppose the expansion of slavery into the territories.

The Compromise of 1850

A series of legislative measures aimed to ease tensions between slave and free states.

Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of 1850 allowing slave catchers to return runaway slaves to their owners.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent conflicts in Kansas during the 1850s over the issue of slavery.

The Liberal Republicans

A faction of the Republican party that emerged in the 1870s, advocating for civil service and opposition to corruption.

The Reconstruction Era

The period following the Civil War focused on rebuilding the South and integrating freed slaves into society.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party that pushed for immediate emancipation and full citizenship for African Americans.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist group founded post-Civil War to maintain white dominance through intimidation.

The Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments aimed at providing rights for freed slaves.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Law that granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States, except Native Americans.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where freedmen worked land owned by whites in exchange for a share of the crops.

The Johnson Impeachment

Andrew Johnson's impeachment in 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act.

The Freedman’s Bureau

A federal agency created to assist freed slaves with education, health care, and employment.

The Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment providing equal protection under the law.

The Fifteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment granting African American men the right to vote.

William Lloyd Garrison

An abolitionist leader who published The Liberator, advocating for immediate emancipation of slaves.

The Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement in the early 19th century that encouraged social reform.

The temperance movement

A social movement aimed at curbing alcohol consumption and promoting sobriety.

Mormonism

A religious movement founded by Joseph Smith that emphasized community and migration to Utah.

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery and promote equal rights for African Americans.

Manifest Destiny

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

The Oregon Trail

A 2,170-mile historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 law creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska with popular sovereignty to decide on slavery.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

A slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831, leading to stricter slave laws.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by President Lincoln, declaring all enslaved people in Confederate territories to be free.

The War of 1812

A conflict between the United States and Great Britain, primarily over trade and impressment issues.

The Treaty of Ghent

Peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain.

The Wilmot Proviso

An unsuccessful proposal to ban slavery in territory gained from the Mexican War.

The Stono Rebellion

The largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, occurring in South Carolina in 1739.

The Freedmen's Bureau

Established to aid freed slaves during the Reconstruction era.

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln’s proposal for re-integrating Southern states, requiring only 10% of voters to accept allegiance.

The Black Codes

Laws enacted in the South to restrict the rights of freedmen.

The Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist organization formed after the Civil War that aimed to subjugate African Americans.

The Gadsden Purchase

The 1854 purchase of land from Mexico to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad.

The Mexican-American War

A war fought from 1846 to 1848 that resulted in the U.S. acquisition of vast territories from Mexico.

The Gold Rush

A mass migration to California following the discovery of gold in 1848.

The Panic of 1837

A financial crisis in the U.S. that triggered an economic depression.

The Compromise of 1850

A package of five separate bills passed by the U.S. Congress in September 1850.

The Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were not citizens and could not sue.

John Brown's Raid

An attempted slave uprising led by abolitionist John Brown in 1859.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858 focused on slavery.

The election of 1860

A pivotal presidential election that led to the secession of Southern states.

The Reconstruction Act of 1867

Laws that laid out the process for readmitting Southern states into the Union.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830

A law that forced Native Americans to abandon their lands and move west.

The Tenure of Office Act

A federal law intended to restrict the power of the president to remove certain office-holders without the approval of the Senate.

The KKK Act

Laws enacted to combat the Ku Klux Klan's violence against African Americans.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and provided for a large territorial cession to the U.S.

The Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the American colonies during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Temperance Movements

Social movements aimed at reducing or prohibiting alcohol consumption.

Compromise of 1877

An informal settlement that resolved the contentious 1876 presidential election.

The Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment

The amendment that granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the U.S.

The Fifteenth Amendment

The amendment that prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race.