APUSH Final Study Terms

Flashcards of key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes.

Columbian Exchange

Period of rapid exchange of plants, animals, food, and communicable diseases between the Old World and the New World.

Joint Stock Companies

Corporate businesses with shareholders whose mission was to settle and develop lands in North America.

British East India Company

A famous Joint Stock Company that settled and developed lands in North America

Dutch East India Company

A famous Joint Stock Company that settled and developed lands in North America

Virginia Company

A famous Joint Stock Company that settled and developed lands in North America, settling in Jamestown.

Chesapeake Bay Settlement Motive

Due to the large rise in England’s population, thousands of English migrants arrived to work in tobacco fields.

Massachusetts Bay Settlement Motive

Puritans who settled in the area wanted to set up a society that would align with what they believed to be God’s wishes.

French Settlements

Focused on exploring potential trade routes and establishing relationships with indigenous people for the fur trades.

Spanish Settlements

Led to significant demographic changes that included the decline of indigenous populations due to disease, exploitation, and forced labor.

Middle Colonies

Had the most religious diversity due to not having religious persecution.

John Smith

Established a “military dictatorship” in Jamestown when he saw that people were more focused on riches rather than working.

The Starving Time

Time in Jamestown where people were starving when John Smith went back to Europe to get supplies.

John Rolfe

Introduced a different strain of tobacco which came from the Caribbean islands, changing Jamestown’s prosperity in the long-term.

John Winthrop

First governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who wanted the city to be on a hill so they could be closer to God and their religion.

Separatists

Wanted to separate themselves from the Church of England (Pilgrims).

Puritans/Congregationalists

Wanted to purify their religion (Wanted to be the dominant religion).

Mayflower Compact

A document that forced people to sign which created a civil body politics where the Pilgrims were the ones making the law.

Middle Passage

Shipping route that brought enslaved people to the Americas.

Triangular Trade

A three-way system of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas which involved the trading of slaves and goods.

Locke

Believed that a government’s power comes from the consent of the people.

Montesquieu

Advocated for separation of powers (Powers divided among the three branches and checks and balances for those branches).

Rousseau

Advocated for direct democracy (Public election of the President and the Congress).

Voltaire

Advocated for free speech and religious toleration.

Beccaria

Believed that the accused have rights and against torture.

Great Awakening

A period of religious revival in the 1730s and 1740s.

George Whitefield

Englishment Preacher during the Great Awakening.

Jonathan Edwards

American preacher during the Great Awakening (

Albany Plan

Proposed an intercolonial government and a system for collecting taxes for the colonies’ defense.

French and Indian War

The French had built a series of forts that the English felt were trapping them in the Ohio River Valley.

Treaty of Paris of 1763

Ended the French and Indian War where the English colonies gained about 3x as much land as before.

Proclamation Line of 1763

Attempted to protect the Indian rights to western lands (Angered white colonists).

Lexington and Concord

Known as the shot heard around the world, which started the Revolution.

Saratoga

Fought in New York and led to the French alliance.

Yorktown

Was a symbolic end to the American Revolution where Major British General, Cornwallis, was surrounded by the French navy and George Washington’s troops, leading to his surrender.

Declaration of Independence

Expressed the colonies’ grievances against the crown and articulated the principle of individual liberty and government’s responsibility to serve the people.

The Great Compromise

Solved the dispute of representation between large and small states over how they were to be represented in the new national legislature through bicameral legislature.

Federalist Papers

Papers anonymously authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay argued in favor of the Constitution.

Hamilton’s Funding Act of 1790

Assumption of state debts, created a unified national debt system, bonds, and a public credit system.

XYZ Affair

The diplomatic incident in 1798 in which Americans were outraged by the demand of the French for a bribe as a condition for negotiating with American diplomats.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Resolutions written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that criticised the Alien and Sedition Acts and asserted the rights of states to declare federal law null and void within a state.

The Election of 1800

Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied with 73 votes during the election.

Revolution of 1800

The election of 1800 resulted in the 12th amendment that outlined the procedure of how Presidents and Vice-Presidents are elected.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the time of the Marbury v. Madison case.

Louisiana Purchase

First major accomplishment of Jefferson’s first term where Jefferson resolved the issue by claiming his presidential power to negotiate treaties with foreign nations to purchase land.

Jefferson Embargo

Shut down all of American import and export businesses with the rest of the world in hopes of Britain and France being pressured to respect American neutrality.

Macon’s Bill #2

Reopened trade with both France and England and If either country interfered with American trade, the other would be cut off.

War of 1812 Causes

Impressment where Great Britain sopped American merchant ships to take back British soldiers who began sailing for America.

Treaty of Ghent

Ended the War of 1812.

Battle of New Orleans

Biggest and most important battle in which the British lost a significant amount of troops compared to the Americans.

Era of Good Feelings

A sense of national unity and pride among Americans following the War of 1812 with only one political party.

Panic of 1819

Nearly ended the Era of Good Feelings.

The Missouri Compromise

A series of agreements proposed by Henry Clay in which Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.

Marbury v. Madison

Established the principle of judicial review.

Corrupt Bargain

After the election of 1820, Adams appointed Clay as his Secretary of State, leading to allegations of a corrupt bargain between the two.

Andrew Jackson

Dismissed numerous government officials and replaced them with political supporters which led to criticism and the rise of the spoils system.

Nullification Crisis

South Carolina declared the tariffs of 1828 null and void and threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to enforce the tariffs.

Worcester v. Georgia

Chief Justice John Marshall delivered the Supreme Court decisions which stated that the Cherokee were a political entity with their own sovereignty and that Georgia’s laws were unconstitutional.

Nicholas Biddle

President of the Second National Bank and became a central figure in the nation’s financial landscape.

King Cotton

Became a prominent saying from 1800 to 1850 after the invention of the cotton gin made cotton production profitable.

The Task System

A common practice on plantations where enslaved people were assigned specific tasks to complete each day.

The Gang System

Enslaved individuals were grouped together and supervised by a driver and were expected to work from dawn to dusk with little to no breaks.

Southern Defense of Slavery

Relied on arguments such as economic, social, and religious justifications.

Antebellum Social Issues

Included slavery, women’s rights, social reform movements, immigration, urbanization, westward expansion, religion, and individualism.

Land Acquisitions of James K. Polk

Included annexation of Texas, Oregon Territory, and Mexican Cession.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state, stronger fugitive slave law was enacted, created the territories of Utah and New Mexico, and abolished slave trade in D.C.

Bleeding Kansas

Conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery people which led to violence in the Kansas and Nebraska territories.

Scott v. Stanford

The court ruled that enslaved people were property and not citizens, and that Congress couldn’t regulate slavery in the territories.

Secession Crisis

When Southern states seceded from the Union, which led to the American Civil War.

Anaconda Plan

Aimed at strangling the Confederacy economically and militarily.

Emancipation Proclamation

Declared all enslaved people in Confederate states to be free forever (did not apply to the border states).

Lincoln and Reconstruction

Focused on rebuilding the south and integrating freed African Americans into society.

Reconstruction Amendments

13th (abolished slavery), 14th (citizenship), and 15th (voting rights).

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction and led to the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively abandoning Black civil rights.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel Industry leader who used vertical integration.

John D. Rockefeller

Oil Industry leader who used horizontal integration.

J.P. Morgan

Banking, Railroads, and Electricity leader.

Vertical Integration

A company controls multiple stages of production or distribution within the same industry.

Horizontal Integration

A company acquires or merges with competitors that operate at the same level in the production or supply chain.

Trusts

Groups of companies that agree to act as one, controlling prices and output which ultimately forms monopolies.

Predatory Pricing

Temporarily lowering prices below cost to drive competitors out of business.

Taylorism

Scientific management of the workplace.

American Federation of Labor

Only allowed skilled workers.

Knights of Labor

Allowed anyone in including unskilled workers.

Homestead Strike

A violent battle erupted between Pinkerton agents and striking workers where workers resisted and there were gunfights where both sides suffered casualties.

Pullman Strike

The Pullman Company cut wages during the economic depression, but did not reduce rents or prices in its company-owned town, leading to workers to the American Railway Union for support.

Tenements

Overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary conditions in the Gilded Age cities.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Immigrants often settled in ethnic enclaves or areas for community support and a cultural familiarity in Gilded Age cities.

Pendleton Act

Set up our civil service system.

Interstate Commerce Act

Regulated the railroad industry.

Dawes Severalty Act

Tried to carve up reservations into individual lots and give them their own land.

Termination Policy

Aimed at ending the special relationship between Native American tribes and the federal government.

Crime of 1873

Farmers and debtors wanted bimetallism (coinage of both silver and gold) to increase the money supply and cause inflation.

Coxey’s Army

Led a march from Ohio to Washington for public service jobs during the Depression of 1893.

Sherman Antitrust Act

Weak piece of legislation trying to break up trusts.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

Germany used unrestricted submarine warfare to attempt to stop supplies from reaching the allies.

Zimmerman Telegram

Secret message sent by Germany to Mexico so that Mexico could join the war and fight the U.S., and Germany promised they would help get their lost land back.

Wilson’s 14 Points

Woodrow Wilson’s plan to create peace and prevent future world wars from happening.

Buying Stocks “on margin”

Borrowing money to buy stocks.

The New Deal

Set of programs and reforms created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help the U.S. recover from the Depression.

The N.I.R.A.

National Industrial Recovery Act, passed as part of the New Deal, which let businesses set rules for wages, hours, and prices to stop unfair competition.