Key U.S. History Events and Movements: 1492-20th Century

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies - Enslaved Africans would have to be in cramped spaces

Bacon's Rebellion

A rebellion lead by Nathaniel Bacon with backcountry farmers to attack Native Americans in an attemp to gain more land

The Great Awakening

People started questioning authority because the Great Awakening focused on individualism and more emotional connections with God

Enlightenment

a movement that emphasized science and reason as guides to help see the world more clearly. Enlightenment thinkers include John Lock (life, liberty, and prosperty), Voltaire, Monteisque.

The First PArty System

Began in 1792. The federalist party and its opposing republican party competed for control of the presidency. Republican party was made because people saw the federalists as gaining too much power.

Market Revolution

Drastic changes in transportation (canals, RRs), communication (telegraph), and the production of goods (more in factories as opposed to houses)

Indian Removal Act

law passed in 1830 that forced many Native American nations to move west of the Mississippi River-inhumane

Nullification Crisis

Argument between South Carolina and the federal government regarding the role of national government

Manifest Destiny

The belief of expanding the U.S. was a God given duty. Kicked out Native Americans

Oregon Fever

Enthusiasm for emigration to the Oregon Country in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Know-Nothing Party

Group of prejudice people who formed a political party during the time when the KKK grew. Anti-Catholics and anti-foreign. They were also known as the American Party.

Mexican American War

(1846-1848) The war between the United States and Mexico in which the United States acquired one half of the Mexican territory. Manifest Destiny pushed these ideas. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed where Mexico gave up more land to America.

Second Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans.

Transcendentalism

A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter, intuition is valuable, that each soul is part of the Great Spirit, and each person is part of a reality where only the invisible is truly real. Promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.

The Second Party System

The second party structure in the nation's history that emerged when Andrew Jackson first ran for the presidency in 1824. The system was built from the bottom up as political participation became a mass phenomenon. Democrats: for the common man, limited federal government. Whigs: Buisness+ industries, strong federal government

Expansion of Slavery

A major debate between the North and South. South wanted to expand slavery into the new land in the west. North does not want slavery to expand. Disagreement increases sectional tension and helps start the Civil War.

Abolition Movement

the campaign against slavery and the slave trade

Civil War and Reconstruction

time period of war between the North and South; Reconstruction is the period after the Civil War when southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union. South fought to destroy reconstruction.

Reconstruction Amendments

13th Amendment (1865): Abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment (1868): Granted citizenship to all born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment (1870): Gave African American men the right to vote, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Sharecropping + Economic Struggles

Freed African Americans and poor farmers would be owned by someone in exchange for crops. Sharecropping and tenant farming became common, keeping many in a cycle of poverty and dependence.

End of Reconstruction

Election of 1876 brought the Radical Republicans a loss of power and Northerners were tired of Reconstruction and wanted to forget the Civil War.

The Lost Cause Myth

Idealized version of Southern culture; black slaves were happy to be slaves, they were never mistreated. Blacks wanting rights was offensive, outrageous, and a challenge to white supremacy.

Immigration and Nativism

With the increase of immigrants from Ireland and Germany to the US, Americans started to have negative views of them and started to discriminate against them.

Social Reform Movements

seek to change some specific dimension of society, usually involving legislative policy modification or appeals to the courts. Slavery, womens rights, temperance (reduce alcohol), Educations.

populism and progressive reforms

Populism: government regulation of railroads, free coinage of silver, and support for farmers' rights.

Progressive: Movement aimed at addressing problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, and corruption.

Industrialization and Labor Movements

People wanted short working hours, safe working condition, and high pay.

Progressive Era Reforms

A period of political change and reform during the early decades of the 20th century. Some Progressives hoped to reform politics by limiting the power of corporations and political parties.