US History Review

Mayflower Compact

A document written by the Pilgrims setting guidelines for self-government

Virginia House of Burgesses

First representative government in the colonies, self-government

Mercantilism

Economic system where the mother country benefits - raw materials sent from the colonies, colonists buy finished products from the mother country.

Common Sense

1776: a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that claimed the colonies had a right to be an independent nation

French and Indian War

Caused England to raise taxes on the American colonies, leading to protests

Proclamation Line of 1763

British say colonists can't settle past Appalachian Mountains, don't want conflict with Native Americans.

Declaration of Independence

1776 statement, issued by the Second Continental Congress, explaining why the colonies wanted independence from Britain.

British Taxes

Colonists thought they were unfair because they lacked representation in Parliament,
"No taxation without representation."

Articles of Confederation

First government of the United States that failed because it lacked the power to collect taxes

U.S. Constitution

A document written by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that established a national government in the United States.

Bicameral Legislature

a lawmaking body with 2 houses - the Senate and the House of Representatives

Great Compromise

Created the House (population) and Senate (equal) while resolving the dispute between the large and small states. Bicameral legislature

3/5 Compromise

each slave would count for 3/5 of a person for taxation and representation purposes

Anti-Federalists

People who opposed the constitution

Federalists

Supporters of the Constitution during ratification.

Bill of Rights

a statement of fundamental rights and privileges (first ten amendments to the United States Constitution)

Strict vs. Loose interpretation

Strict interpretation: go exactly by what the constitution says- Thomas Jefferson
Loose: have more liberal views-Alexander Hamilton

Federalism

A system in which power is divided between the national and state governments

Elastic Clause

Part of the Constitution which allows Congress to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" to carry out the powers of the Constitution.

Separation of Powers

Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law, the executive applying and enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law

George Washington's Farewell address

He advised the nation: 1. to stay away from permanent alliances with foreign nations 2. stay away from political parties

Louisiana Purchase

Made by Jefferson in 1803 that doubled the size of the US and gave it total control of the Mississippi River

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Established judicial review

Andrew Jackson

President of the United States, first "regular guy" to be elected.

Indian Removal Act

AKA "Trail of Tears" congressional act that authorized the removal of Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River

Nullification Crisis

South Carolina tried to assert control over government, President Jackson stopped it. States rights issue

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

Mexican Cession

Land taken by the US after the Mexican American War

Mexican-American War

President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas.

Missouri Compromise

An agreement between slave and free states resulting in Missouri becoming a slave state, Maine a free state and the rest of the Louisiana Purchase divided at the 36th Parallel

Compromise of 1850

An agreement between slave and free states resulting in California becoming a free state but the creation of the Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowing new states to decide slavery by popular sovereignty

Popular Sovereignty

The right of the people to decide if there would be slavery in their state or not.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole such as the North and South before and during the Civil War.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Popular book before the Civil War that made people aware of how harsh treatment was for slaves

John Brown

Abolitionist (wanted to get rid of slavery) who tried to incite slaves in Virginia to rebel against their masters. Failed, was executed.

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Supreme Court case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property - made South happy, made abolitionists work harder

Secession

A state withdraws from the Union. South Carolina was the first to secede

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States during the Civil War, his election in 1860 made the South want to secede.

Emancipation Proclamation

Order issued by President Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves in states rebelling against the Union, took effect January 1, 1863

Reconstruction

Period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union

Radical Republicans

Political group who wanted equality and to punish the former Confederacy after the Civil War

13th amendment

Abolished Slavery

14th amendment

Declared that all persons born in the US were citizenship and entitled to due process.

15th Amendment

Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color , or precious condition of servitude

Black Codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Freedmen's Bureau

1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacy organization that intimidated blacks out of their newly found liberties

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a portion of the crops. Trapped a lot of former slaves in debt.

Poll Tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote, directed at African Americans.

Literacy Test

A test administered as a precondition for voting, often used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Plessy V Ferguson

Supreme Court case (1896) Legalized segregation under the Constitution with the concept of "separate but equal."

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1868, connected east and west coasts of America allowing for faster trade and travel

Gilded Age

A period in the late 1800s and early 1900s where businesses boomed but there was a big gap between the wealthy and the poor

Vertical Integration

the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies.

Horizontal Integration

is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. Leads to a monopoly

Robber Barons

a derogatory metaphor of social criticism originally applied to certain late 19th-century American businessmen who used unscrupulous methods to get rich.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel robber barron, wrote about the rich's responsibility to help the poorer people

Monopoly

the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

Trust

another term for a monopoly

Social Darwinism

"Survival of the fittest"

Laissez-faire capitalism

Hands off approach to the economy. No government regulations

The Jungle

This 1906 work by Upton Sinclair pointed out the abuses of the meat packing industry. The book led to the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.

Jacob Riis

Early 1900's muckraker who exposed social and political evils in the U.S. with his novel "How The Other Half Lives"; exposed the poor conditions of the poor tenements in NYC and Hell's Kitchen

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago.

Ida Tarbell

Leading muckraking journalist whose articles documented the Standard Oil Company's abuse of power

Tenement

A building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety

Nativism

Anti-immigrant sentiment (KKK)

Progressive Era

Late 19th and Early 20th Century, t response to the abuses of the Industrial Age - wanted to create "progress" in society through science and government administration

Muckraker

one who inquires into and publishes scandal and allegations of corruption among political and business leaders

Isolationism

process in which America remained isolated from foreign affairs

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that exaggerated the truth ("Remember the Maine!" started the Spanish American War)

Neutrality

the state of not supporting or helping either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartiality.

Lusitania

A British passenger ship that was sunk by a German U-Boat on May 7, 1915. 128 Americans died

Zimmerman Telegram

Message from Germany to Mexico asking for their support in attacking America in WWI and in return they would get their land back. Got America into WWI

Treaty of Versailles

Ended WWI, established the League of Nations

League of Nations

An international organization established after World War I under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Didn't stop WWII from happening

Labor Unions

An organization formed by workers to strive for better wages and working conditions

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

an 1890 law that banned the formation of trusts and monopolies in the United States

Monroe Doctrine

an American foreign policy opposing interference in the Western hemisphere from outside powers

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

Open Door Policy

A policy of the United States that stated China should be open to all nations that wish to trade with them. This policy did not include the consent of the Chinese, and was another form of imperialism.

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 law that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers

Reasons for US entry in WWI

Unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking of the Lusitania, Zimmermann Telegram, Russian Revolution

Schenk v. United States (1919)

The defendant did not have a First Amendment right to free speech against the draft during World War I.

19th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920) extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections.

Assembly Line

In a factory, an arrangement where a product is moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in the making of the product.

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Prohibition

A law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages (18th Amendment)

Speakeasy

A place where alcoholic drinks were sold and consumed illegally during prohibition

Bootlegger

someone who makes or sells illegal liquor

Roaring Twenties

Nickname for the 1920s because of a boom in business, flappers, jazz etc.

The Great Depression

a time period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment

Dust Bowl

A drought in the 1930s that turned the Great Planes very dry and caused people from Oklahoma to migrate to California

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

man who ran for president in 1932. He promises a New Deal to get people out of Hoovervilles and back on the road to prosperity.

The New Deal

A series of reforms enacted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration between 1933 and 1942 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.

Social Security Act.

A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty

"Packing the Court"

In response to the Supreme Court declaring President Franklin Roosevelt's legislation unconstitutional, Roosevelt tried to add more members to the Supreme Court to support his interests. Not allowed - upsets checks and balances