AP United States History Review Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering significant events, laws, and concepts from the AP U.S. History curriculum spanning Period 1 through Period 9.

Mayas

A civilization that built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatán Peninsula between $300$ and $800$ AD.

Encomienda System

A labor system in which the Spanish crown granted control over native populations to Spanish colonists, who exploited them for labor in agriculture and mining.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A $1494$ agreement between Spain and Portugal that moved the Papal Line of Demarcation, giving Portugal Brazil and Spain the rest of the Americas.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World following Columbus's voyages.

Iroquois Confederation

A powerful political union of tribes including the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and later the Tuscaroras.

Mercantilism

An economic system adhered to by European nations that promoted exports over imports and used colonies to supply raw materials and act as markets for finished goods.

Bacon's Rebellion

A $1676$ uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon in Virginia that highlighted class disparities and contributed to a shift from indentured servitude toward slavery.

Great Awakening

A religious movement in the mid-$18$th century characterized by intense fervor and evangelical zeal that made religion more personal and emotional.

Proclamation of 1763

A British decree that banned colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent further conflicts with Native Americans.

Common Sense

A pamphlet published by Thomas Paine in January $1776$ that argued it was irrational for a vast continent to be ruled by a small distant island and a corrupt monarch.

Great Compromise

A plan proposed by Roger Sherman that established a bicameral Congress with equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives.

Marbury v. Madison

An $1803$ Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review, granting the Court authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.

Missouri Compromise

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

Monroe Doctrine

An $1823$ declaration stating that the American continents are no longer open for colonization by European powers and that the U.S. would oppose European interference in Western Hemisphere republics.

Manifest Destiny

A term coined in $1845$ by John L. O'Sullivan expressing the belief that the United States had a divine mission to expand across North America.

Wilmot Proviso

An $1846$ legislative proposal that aimed to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico; it passed the House but was blocked in the Senate.

Compromise of 1850

A set of laws including the admission of California as a free state, the establishment of popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico, and a stringent new Fugitive Slave Law.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An $1852$ novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that portrayed the harsh conditions of slavery and bolstered the abolitionist movement.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An $1857$ Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

Signed on January $1$, $1863$, this executive order declared freedom for enslaved people within Confederate-held territories.

13th Amendment

Ratified in December $1865$, this constitutional amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States.

14th Amendment

Ratified in $1868$, it granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and required states to provide equal protection of the laws.

15th Amendment

Ratified in $1870$, it prohibited states from denying a citizen's right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Homestead Act

An $1862$ law that encouraged settlement on the Great Plains by offering $160\,\text{acres}$ of public land free to any family that settled on it for five years.

Plessy v. Ferguson

An $1896$ Supreme Court decision that upheld the doctrine of 'separate but equal,' legally endorsing racial segregation.

Social Darwinism

An economic philosophy that applied natural selection to the marketplace, arguing that only the fittest businesses and individuals would prosper.

Platt Amendment

A $1901$ addition to Cuba's constitution that made Cuba a U.S. protectorate and granted the U.S. a naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

New Deal

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of relief for the unemployed, recovery for the economy, and reform of financial institutions during the Great Depression.

Korematsu v. United States

A $1944$ Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II based on national security concerns.

Containment

A Cold War foreign policy adopted in $1947$ aimed at preventing the Soviet Union from expanding its influence and spreading communism.

Truman Doctrine

A $1947$ policy requested by President Truman to provide $400\,\text{million}$ in aid to Greece and Turkey to resist totalitarian regimes.

Reaganomics

The supply-side economic policy of Ronald Reagan emphasizing tax cuts and reduced government spending to stimulate private investment.