Spring Final DCUSH

Dawes General Allotment Act (1887)

An act of Congress that removed tribal ownership of lands and encouraged assimilation with private ownership.

Labor Unions

Formed by workers during the Industrial Revolution and after to fight for better wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions through collective bargaining.

Second Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid industrial growth in the United States and elsewhere in the last decades of the 1800s, based on heavy industries such as steel, oil, electricity, and others.

Laissez-faire

One factor for the growth of American industry in the late 19th century. Lack of government involvement allowed businesses to grow. The government remains "hands off." The three Republican Presidents of the 1920s also relied on laissez-faire principles to encourage economic growth during the Roaring Twenties (though these very same principles will be a cause of the Great Depression).

Populist Party

U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other industries.

Social Darwinism

A theory of "survival of the fittest" for society outlined by William Graham Sumner. If you're rich, you're fit, and you deserve your wealth. If you're poor, you're not fit. Role of Government: Should not intervene to help the poor. Social Darwinist theory is meant to explain and justify wealth inequality.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Prohibited immigration of Chinese workers; limited civil rights of Chinese immigrants; forbade the naturalization (citizenship) of Chinese residents. This act was reflective of nativist (anti-immigrant; pro-White Americans born in the U.S.) sentiment.

Reasons for Imperialism

"Civilizing Missions; resources/raw materials; markets to sell goods; military power/strategy. Examples of New Imperialism for the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Annexation of Hawaii (1898); Spanish-American War (1898); Philippine-American War (1899-1902).

Spanish-American War

In 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain, in which the U.S. supported the Cubans' fight for independence. Ultimately, the U.S. gained Puerto, Guam, and the Philippines when Spain is defeated.

Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

Filipinos resisted American occupation. Emilio Aguinaldo led Filipino rebels in guerrilla warfare against Americans; Americans were ultimately victorious.

Roosevelt Corollary

Roosevelt's 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States has the right to protect its economic interests in South And Central America by using military force.

Progressive Era

Era at the turn of the twentieth century in which groups sought to reform the U.S. economically, socially, and politically through stronger, more active government involvement.

Upton Sinclair

Muckraker whose book "The Jungle" exposed the unsanitary conditions in Chicago's meatpacking industry.

Pure Food and Drug Act

Created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for regulating food and drugs. Inspired by Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."

Great Migration

This is when over 1 million African Americans move to the North for industrial jobs between 1910-1930.

Treaty of Versailles

The treaty signed with Germany, which placed all war guilt on Germany, forced them to pay war reparations, reduced the size of their military, and reduced German colonial holdings. It also created a League of Nations (which the U.S. did not join).

Red Summer

30+ cities experienced race riots in 1919, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of African Americans, including northern cities whose black population had swelled during the Great Migration.

Scopes "Monkey" Trial (1925)

Tennessee school teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution despite a state law banning it. The legal battle was fought by Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, two of the nation's most famous lawyers. The case highlighted the divide between modernism (evolution/science) and fundamentalism (religion/creationism).

New Deal

Government actions enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt's administration aimed at relief, recovery, and reform; goal: ending the Great Depression.

Executive Order 9066

Issued by FDR. The order suspended the civil rights of Japanese Americans and authorized the exclusion of over 110,000 men, women, and children from designated military areas on the western coast.

Japanese-American Internment

The forced imprisonment of Japanese-Americans, initiated by Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, during the World War II, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens and the vast majority of whom would never regain their property.

Women During World War II

Found more jobs in heavy industry, which were traditionally male jobs. They also found more white-collar jobs, and the government helped to build daycare centers for childcare. Women also joined the military and served as volunteers in for the Red Cross and other organizations.

GI Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act)

Provided for college or vocational training for returning WWII veterans as well as loans to buy homes and start businesses.

Containment

Focus of American foreign policy during the Cold War. Goal was to keep communist regimes within existing borders. Don't let communism spread!

Truman Doctrine

This was a promise to provide aid to any country resisting communist rule, beginning with providing $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece to resist communist revolutionaries.

Marshall Plan

Proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Plan was to provide financial and agricultural aid to democratic countries in Europe to prove capitalist superiority.

Korean War

Fought between 1950-53. South Korea and UN/U.S. vs. North Korea and China. The war ended with an armistice and little resolved. The two Koreas remained divided.

Levittown

Famous suburbs, first in Long Island, New York. Quickly built, cheap family homes. Affordable, comfortable, and nearly identical to one another. It was intended to be 100% for white families; Black families were barred from buying homes. Part of the "white flight" to the suburbs.

De Jure Segregation

Segregation by law (Jim Crow Laws).

De Facto Segregation

Segregation by custom ("white flight"/Levittown).

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

A unanimous Supreme Court decision (9-0) that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and declared that segregation in public schools was illegal. It was difficult to implement, as there was much resistance throughout the South.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This banned segregation in public accommodations and outlawed discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Supported and signed by President Lyndon Johnson.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Banned literacy tests and gave the federal government oversight in regions that were known for limiting the right for African Americans to vote.

Lyndon Johnson

He became president after the assassination of President Kennedy. He was an ally of the Civil Rights Movement and his domestic program was called the Great Society, in which he called for a War on Poverty. He also escalated the war in Vietnam and--in a televised address--told the American people he would not seek re-election from the Democratic Party in 1968.

Great Society

These were Johnson's domestic reforms that were aimed at eliminating poverty and racism, creating opportunities for all. Included Medicare (health insurance or the elderly) and Medicaid (health insurance for the poor).

Berlin Wall

Soviets began construction on this in 1961. The Soviet goal was to cutoff West Berlin to stop East Berliners, especially skilled workers, from fleeing to the West. It symbolized the divide between the Democratic West and Communist East.

Cuban Missile Crisis

This occurred in October of 1962 after Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba. It brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. It ended when the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba after Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba in addition to removing missiles from Turkey.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)

Congress passed this on August 7, 1964 in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It gave President Johnson the authority to "take all necessary measures" in Vietnam. Wide-ranging war powers.

Vietnam War

Conflict pitting North Vietnam and South Vietnamese communist guerrillas (Viet Cong) against the South Vietnamese and the United States. Part of the Cold War. Goal of the U.S.: contain communism. Result: U.S. withdrawal in 1973; North Vietnamese conquer the South, unifying Vietnam under a single Communist government. Antiwar movements emerged in the U.S. against U.S. involvement.

Pentagon Papers

Leaked by Daniel Ellsberg and published in the New York Times and Washington Post in 1971, these detailed U.S. involvement for over twenty years, revealing the American people had been lied to about the war. Widened the "credibility gap."

Credibility Gap

The gap between the positive statements by the Johnson administration about the Vietnam War and the truth. The "credibility gap" between the government and the American people will widen with the Watergate Scandal, economic crises in the 1970s, assassinations, the Iran-Contra Affair, and the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal, etc.

Realpolitik

"Real politics" in German. Embraced by Nixon and Kissinger. Focused on practical politics, not abstract ideologies. Result could be to establish relations with countries the U.S. opposes ideologically (i.e., China and the Soviet Union).

Watergate Scandal

A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington was carried out under the direction of White House employees. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment.

Detente

Policy of easing Cold War tensions, begun by Richard Nixon. Examples include SALT, the Helsinki Accords, etc.

Stagflation

Stagnation+ inflation, which means economy with rising unemployment, but price of goods still increasing. Result of the growing federal budget deficits (Vietnam War costly) and foreign competition.

Gerald Ford

Becomes President when Nixon resigns. He pardons Nixon of all crimes related to Watergate. Although he successfully continued detente with the Soviet Union, he struggled with domestic policies, especially stagflation.

Jimmy Carter

One-time governor of Georgia and a peanut farmer by trade, taps into the rising Christian fundamentalist base and wins the election of 1976.

Oil/Energy Crisis

Part of the economic problems under Nixon, Ford, and Carter, with especially extreme crises in 1973 (Arab oil embargo) and 1979 (Iranian Revolution).

Camp David Accords

This focused on resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Success: Egypt becomes the first Arab country to recognize Israel and Israel removes troops from the Sinai Peninsula, part of Egypt.

Iran Hostage Crisis

This was a period where 66 (ultimately 52) Americans were held hostage in Iran for 444 days between 1979-1981. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981--Reagan's inauguration day.

Ronald Reagan

Conservative Republican elected president in 1980 who instituted conservative policies, including supply-side economics, cutting funding for social programs, and engaging in a military buildup.

Reaganomics/Supply-Side Economics

This economic policy included reducing government spending, reducing government regulation, reducing inflation, and reducing taxes. Aimed to reduce taxes so that the wealthy can invest more and thus create jobs. "Trickle Down" economics.

Perestroika and Glasnost

"Restructuring" and "Openness" reform policies of Mikhail Gorbachev, which allowed some free-market capitalism, democracy, and freedom of speech in the Soviet Union.

George H.W. Bush

He was elected president in 1988 after serving as Vice President under Reagan for 8 years. He will oversee the fall of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf War.

The Persian Gulf War

This war began after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990. President Bush responded by going to the United Nations and building a coalition force to stop Iraqi aggression. Iraq wanted Kuwait's oil, and Bush feared Iraqi control of that oil.

Operation Desert Storm

This was launched in January, 1991 as part of the Gulf War. It was a successful operation which removed Iraqi forces from Kuwait in February.

Saddam Hussein

Leader of Iraq. He fought a war with Iran from 1980-1988 and invaded Kuwait in 1990, sparking the Persian Gulf War. He remained in power after the war until he was overthrown during the Iraq War in 2003.

Bill Clinton

He was elected president in 1992 and re-elected in 1996. He was a moderate, "New Democrat" from Arkansas who would oversee a booming economy (fueled by a number of factors, including a technological revolution of computers) in the 1990s, but would become only the second president to be impeached (though not removed from office).

al-Qaeda

This organization committed an number of terrorist acts in the 1990s against the U.S.. Their complaints included U.S. support of Israel and the presence of U.S. troops in the Middle East. Bombings included:

-1993 World Trade Center Bombing

-1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Tanzania and Kenya

-2000 USS Cole bombing

-9/11

War in Afghanistan

U.S. invaded in 2001. Goals was to overthrow the Taliban government, who harbored al-Qaeda terrorists; find and kill Osama bin Laden. Result was Taliban was quickly overthrown. Bin Laden escaped. U.S. withdrew in 2021. Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.

War in Iraq

U.S. invaded in 2003. Goal was to overthrow Saddam Hussein, who the Bush administration said had "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Result was Hussein overthrown, tried, and executed in 2006. Established a democracy in Iraq. U.S returned in 2014 to fight ISIS.

All of these are "BIG" topics in American history.

-Black Americans and Civil Rights from Jim Crow Era to Civil Right Movement

-The Cold War from the 1940s through 1991

-American Wars from the age of New Imperialism through the War on Terror

-The Credibility Gap from Vietnam through the 2000s

-U.S. actions/relationship with the Middle East from the 1970s through the 2000s
-Economic conditions in the United States throughout the 20th century