Final Exam Study Guide (WWI to Early 2000s)

A comprehensive vocabulary list covering major historical events, figures, and legislative acts from World War I through the early 2000s.

Franz Ferdinand

The Archduke of Austria-Hungary whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered the start of World War I.

Zimmerman Note

A telegram from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico proposing an alliance against the United States during World War I.

Great Migration

The large-scale movement of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities beginning in the early $20^{th}$ century.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's plan for world peace following World War I, which included the establishment of the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles

The $1919$ peace treaty at the end of World War I which established new nations, borders, and war reparations for Germany.

Black Tuesday

A name given to October $29$, $1929$, when stock prices fell sharply, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.

Buying on Margin

The purchasing of stocks by paying only a small percentage of the price and borrowing the rest.

The New Deal

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's program to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression, focusing on relief, recovery, and reform.

Glass Steagall Banking Reform Act

The $1933$ law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect individuals' bank accounts.

Social Security Act

A $1935$ law intended to provide aid to retirees, the unemployed, people with disabilities, and families with dependent children.

Fascism

A political philosophy that advocates a strong, centralized, nationalistic government headed by a powerful dictator.

Lend-Lease Act

A $1941$ law that allowed the United States to ship arms and other supplies, without immediate payment, to nations fighting the Axis powers.

Executive Order 9066

The presidential order that mandated the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

D-Day

June $6$, $1944$, the day on which the Allies launched an invasion of the European mainland at Normandy during World War II.

Containment

The U.S. foreign policy of the late $1940s$ and early $1950s$ intended to stop the spread of communism.

Truman Doctrine

A U.S. policy, announced by President Harry Truman in $1947$, of providing economic and military aid to free nations threatened by communism.

Joseph McCarthy

The Republican Senator who led the Second Red Scare by making unsupported accusations of communist infiltration in the U.S. government.

Sputnik

The world's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in $1957$, which sparked the Space Race.

Brown v. Board of Education

The $1954$ Supreme Court case that ruled 'separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A law that banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion in public places and most workplaces.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A law that made it easier for African Americans to register to vote by eliminating literacy tests and authorizing federal examiners to monitor polling places.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The $1962$ confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the presence of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Domino Theory

The idea that if one nation falls under communist control, nearby nations will also fall under communist control.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

The $1964$ congressional resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson broad powers to wage war in Vietnam.

Tet Offensive

A massive surprise attack by the Vietcong on South Vietnamese towns and cities in early $1968$.

Vietnamization

President Nixon's strategy for ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, involving a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and their replacement with South Vietnamese forces.

Roe v. Wade

The $1973$ Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Stagflation

An economic condition marked by both inflation and high unemployment, prevalent during the $1970s$.

Watergate

The scandal arising from the Nixon administration's attempt to cover up its involvement in the $1972$ break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

Camp David Accords

Historic agreements between Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Jimmy Carter in $1978$.

Reaganomics

The economic policies of President Ronald Reagan, which focused on budget cuts, tax cuts, and increased defense spending.

Glasnost

The open discussion of social problems that was permitted in the Soviet Union in the $1980s$ by Mikhail Gorbachev.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

A $1993$ treaty that lowered tariffs and brought Mexico into the free-trade zone established by the United States and Canada.