Unit 4 Study Guide: War of 1812, Market Revolution, and Democracy in America

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, events, concepts, and people from Chapters 7, 8, and 9 of the Unit 4 Study Guide.

Tenskwatawa

A Shawnee religious leader known as the Prophet who advocated for cultural revitalization and resistance against American expansion prior to the War of 1812.

Tecumseh

A Shawnee political and military leader who organized a Native American confederacy to oppose United States territorial expansion in the Ohio Valley and allied with Great Britain during the War of 1812.

Red Sticks

A traditionalist faction of the Creek nation that fought against United States expansion and allied factions during the War of 1812.

Impressments

The British naval practice of forcibly seizing American sailors from merchant vessels to serve in the Royal Navy, serving as a primary cause of the War of 1812.

War Hawks

A group of young Democratic-Republican congressmen, primarily from the South and West, who pressured President James Madison to declare war against Great Britain in 1812.

Andrew Jackson

A military leader who gained national fame at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and later served as the seventh President of the United States.

Hartford Convention

A series of secret meetings held in 1814–1815 by New England Federalists to voice grievances regarding the War of 1812, which led to the political demise of the Federalist Party.

Internal improvements

Federally or state-funded infrastructure projects, such as roads, turnpikes, and canals, intended to support economic growth and national transit.

War of 1812

A military conflict between the United States and Great Britain fought over maritime rights, trade restrictions, impressment, and British support for Native American resistance on the frontier.

American System

An economic plan championed by Henry Clay that integrated protective tariffs, a national bank, and federal funding for internal improvements to develop domestic commerce.

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 foreign policy statement by President James Monroe warning European powers against further colonization or political intervention in the Western Hemisphere.

"Star Spangled Banner"

A patriotic poem written by Francis Scott Key during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, which later became the national anthem.

Industrial Revolution

The historical shift from handcraft production and agrarian work to mechanized manufacturing, factories, and steam-powered production.

Market Revolution

The dramatic economic expansion in early 19th-century America characterized by commercialized agriculture, modern factory systems, and integrated national market networks.

Transportation Revolution

The rapid advancement of transportation networks—including turnpikes, canals, steamboats, and railroads—that reduced travel time and connected regional economies.

Erie Canal

A 363-mile artificial waterway completed in 1825 linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie, opening western agricultural trade to Atlantic markets via New York City.

Steamboat

A steam-powered vessel popularized by Robert Fulton that enabled rapid, two-way navigation along major American rivers.

Railroads

A rapid steam-powered rail transit system developed in the early-to-mid 19th century that expanded trade and reduced the cost of moving goods overland.

Telegraph

A communication apparatus developed by Samuel Morse that transmitted electrical code over wires, enabling virtually instantaneous long-distance messaging.

Textile mills

Early manufacturing plants, notably developed in New England towns like Lowell, that used water and steam machinery to spin and weave cloth using wage labor.

Gradual abolition

State-level legislative processes implemented in Northern states following the American Revolution that phased out slavery over a period of decades rather than ending it immediately.

Cotton gin

A machine patented by Eli Whitney in 1793 that automated the separation of seeds from cotton fiber, driving the expansion of cotton production and slavery in the South.

European immigration

The large-scale arrival of European migrants, primarily from Ireland and Germany, during the 1840s and 1850s, supplying industrial labor and altering demographic patterns.

Nativism

An anti-immigrant political and social movement that favored native-born Americans and sought to curb the political influence and entry of foreign immigrants.

Know-Nothing Party

A secretive nativist political party formed in the 1850s that opposed immigration and Catholic influence in American public life.

Child labor

The practice of employing young children in manufacturing factories, mines, and textile mills for long hours under dangerous working conditions during early industrialization.

Antebellum

The historical period in the United States between the conclusion of the War of 1812 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

Education

The public school movement in the early-to-mid 19th century that promoted tax-funded common schools, standardized curricula, and teacher training.

Andrew Jackson (early life and political career)

The political rise of Andrew Jackson from a frontier lawyer and War of 1812 general to a champion of the "common man" and leader of the Democratic Party.

Missouri Crisis

The 1819–1820 congressional dispute over the balance of slave and free states triggered by Missouri's application for admission to the Union as a slave state.

Tallmadge Amendment

A proposed condition on Missouri statehood introduced in 1819 that aimed to forbid the further introduction of enslaved persons and grant gradual emancipation to enslaved children.

Henry Clay

A Kentucky statesman known as the "Great Compromiser" who negotiated key legislative solutions including the Missouri Compromise and promoted the American System.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 legislative agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude $36^\circ 30'$.

Adams-Onís Treaty

An 1819 treaty between the United States and Spain in which Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. and established a defined boundary between U.S. and Spanish territory.

Election of 1824

A four-way presidential race decided in the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams won the presidency after Henry Clay supported him, prompting accusations of a "corrupt bargain."

Tariffs

Taxes placed on imported foreign goods designed to protect domestic manufacturers, which created sharp sectional tensions between the industrial North and agrarian South.

Nullification Crisis

An early 1830s constitutional standoff sparked by South Carolina's assertion that a state possessed the sovereign power to declare federal protective tariffs null and void within its borders.

John C. Calhoun

A prominent South Carolina politician, theorist, and Vice President who developed the doctrine of state nullification to protect Southern sectional interests and slavery.

Eaton Affair

A social and political dispute within Andrew Jackson's cabinet regarding Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife Peggy, contributing to the dissolution of the cabinet and Jackson's break with Calhoun.

Bank war

President Andrew Jackson's political campaign in the 1830s to dismantle the Second Bank of the United States by vetoing its recharter and removing federal deposits.

Panic of 1837

A severe financial crisis characterized by widespread bank failures, unemployment, and economic contraction triggered by land speculation, state bank failures, and hard-money policies.

Whig Party

A political party organized in the 1830s in opposition to Andrew Jackson and Democratic policies, supporting federal economic intervention, a national bank, and the American System.

William Henry Harrison

A military general who gained fame in the War of 1812 and became the first Whig candidate elected to the presidency in the "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign of 1840.

John Tyler

The Vice President who became President following William Henry Harrison's death in 1841 and clashed with his own Whig Party over constitutional and bank policies.

Freemasonry

A fraternal order that became the target of the Anti-Masonic movement, which attacked the group's perceived political secrecy and elite privilege.

Race and voting rights

The trend in the early 19th century where states expanded voting access for white men by eliminating property requirements while simultaneously disfranchising free Black citizens.