us history regent

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 the colonies to want to rebel against the British

Proclamation Line of 1763

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

John Locke

Enlightenment Thinker, influenced Jefferson and Declaration of Independence. Believed that people had natural rights to liberty, life and property

Declaration of Independence

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

British Taxes

Caused colonists to want to rebel (sugar, tea, stamp etc).

Virtual Representation

British claimed colonists didn't need representatives in Parliament, they had "virtual representation," or that they spoke for the interests of all British subjects

Articles of Confederation

1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses-no executive, no judicial, no power to tax, no power to regulate trade)

Northwest Ordinance

Articles of Confederation law that set up a government for the Northwest Territory and a plan for admitting new states to the Union

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

Virginia Plan

The idea that representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress should be based on population, benefitted big states

New Jersey Plan

The idea that each state was represented equally in the legislature, benefitted small states.

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

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Document that supported States Rights

Louisiana Purchase

1803 purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. Made by Jefferson, this doubled the size of the US.

Marbury V. Madison

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

1848. Awarded as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo after the Mexican American War. U.S. paid $15 million for 525,000 square miles.

**New territory means more problems over slavery**

Missouri Compromise

"Compromise of 1820" over the issue of slavery in Missouri. Decided Missouri should enter as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state and all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states.

Compromise of 1850

Decision over California applying to be a state, North-South agreement that added California as a free state, created a new fugitive slave law.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through 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 (aka Dred Scott Decision)

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 Republican

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

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

Andrew Johnson

Became President when Lincoln was assassinated. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote.

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."

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction in exchange for Rutherford B Hayes being made president

Grandfather Clause

Law that excused a voter from a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1, 1867

Transcontinental Railroad

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

gilded age

period in the late 1800s/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.

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.

Nativism

Anti-immigrant sentiment (KKK)

Progressive Era

Late 19th and Early 20th Century, t response to the abuses of big business - "progress" in society.

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.

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

John Peter Zenger

Trial - think Freedom of the press

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

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign Policy idea by Taft to make countries dependant on the U.S. by heavily investing in their economies

Monroe Doterm-108ctrine

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.

Reasons for US entry in WWI

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

Lusitania

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(WW), British passenger boat sunk by a German submarine that claimed 1,000 lives. One of main reasons US decided to join the war

Schenk vs. US

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.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian radicals who became symbols of the Red Scare of the 1920s; arrested (1920), tried and executed (1927) for a robbery/murder, they were believed by many to have been innocent but convicted because of their immigrant status and radical political beliefs.

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)

Roaring 20s

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