actual full apush terms

Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965

a law that opened the door for many non-European immigrants to settle in the United States by ending quotas based on nationality.

Ronald Reagan

president, 1981-1989, who led a conservative movement against détente with the Soviet Union and the growth of the federal government; some people credit him with America's victory in the Cold War while others fault his insensitive social agenda and irresponsible fiscal policies

Initially very anti-communist, later on more diplomacy like the INF treaty

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

civil rights law passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.

Barry Goldwater

unsuccessful presidential candidate against Lyndon Johnson in 1964; he called for dismantling the New Deal, escalation of the war in Vietnam, and the status quo on civil rights. Many see him as the grandfather of the conservative movement of the 1980s.

Bill Clinton

President of the United States, 1993-2001. Member of the Democratic Party whose leadership represented a more centrist approach to government which included policies passed with a Republican-controlled Congress. His major achievements included the North American Free Trade Agreement, welfare reform, and a balanced budget. He became only the 2nd president in American history to have been impeached by Congress.

Camp David Accords (1979)

agreement reached between the leaders of Israel and Egypt after protracted negotiations brokered by President Carter; Israel surrendered land seized in earlier wars and Egypt recognized Israel as a nation. Despite high hopes, it did not lead to a permanent peace in the region, however.

Crisis of Confidence (Malaise) Speech

Televised national address by President Carter in which he complained that a weak national spirit struck "at the very heart and soul of our national will." Carter's address made many Americans feel that their president had given up.

Earl Warren

controversial Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-1969); he led the court in far- reaching racial, social, and political rulings; including school desegregation and protecting rights of persons accused of crimes.

George H.W. Bush

President of the United States, 1989-1993. He ran his 1988 campaign building on President's Reagan's legacy with the promise, "Read my lips: no new taxes." Despite a swift and successful military campaign against Saddam Hussein in the Person Gulf War, the 1990s economic recession and his ultimate reversal of that promise cost him his bid for re-election in 1992.

Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson's social and economic program that helped the poor, the aged, and the young. The program of civil rights and a "war on poverty" included the passage of Medicare, Medicaid, Immigration Act of 1965, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981)

incident in which Iranian radicals, with government support, seized 52 Americans from the U.S. embassy and held them for 444 days; ostensibly demanding the return of the deposed Shah to stand trial, the fundamentalist clerics behind the seizure also hoped to punish the United States for other perceived past wrongs.

Iran-Contra Affair (1986-1987)

scandal that erupted after the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran in hopes of freeing American hostages in Lebanon; money from the arms sales was used to aid the Contras (anti-Communist insurgents) in Nicaragua, even though Congress had prohibited this assistance. Talk of Reagan's impeachment ended when presidential aides took the blame for the illegal activity.

September 11, 2001

In a coordinated effort by members of the terrorist group al Qaeda, two highjacked commercial jets struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one crashing minutes after the other. About an hour later, a third plane tore into the Pentagon building, the U.S. military headquarters outside Washington. A fourth highjacked plane crashed near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Stagflation

name given the economic condition throughout most of the 1970s in which prices rose rapidly (inflation) but without economic growth (stagnation). Unemployment rose along with inflation. In large part, these conditions were the economic consequences of rising oil prices.

Sunbelt

Term used to describe the South and Southwest because of their warm climate. This region has experienced a significant population boom since the late 1970s.

Supply-side economics (Reaganomics)

the economic policies of President Ronald Reagan, which were focused on budget cuts and the granting of large tax cuts in order to increase private investment, savings, and jobs and ultimately increase government revenue.

War on Terror

Label for the antiterrorism efforts begun after the September 11 attacks, which included government detention of foreigners suspected of terrorism, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, increased aviation security, and a military campaign in Afghanistan to break up Al Qaeda.

Watergate scandal

name applied to a series of events that began when the Nixon White House tried to place illegal phone taps on Democrats in June 1972; the burglars were caught, and rather than accept the legal and political fallout, Nixon and his aides obstructed the investigation, which cost him his office and sent several of his top aides to prison.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Dominican priest who in the early 1500s criticized the cruelty of Spanish policy toward Indians; denounced Spanish actions for their brutality and insensitivity. His criticism helped end the encomienda system.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer, beginning with Columbus's first voyage, of plants, animals, and diseases between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This included squash, potatoes, and corn (maize) from the New World and cattle, horses, and smallpox from Europe.

Encomienda system

Early Spanish colonial system where officials provided protection to Indian populations in return for their labor and production; really a form of slavery that lasted until the mid 1500s; stopped because of exploitation and inefficiency.

Hernándo Cortés

Conquered Aztecs in Mexico. He captured the capital of Tenochititlán, with its leader Montezuma in 1521; pillaged and destroyed the Aztec civilization.

Pueblo Revolt

Indian uprising in New Mexico in 1680 against Spain and the Catholic Church. Rebels killed 400 colonists, destroyed mission around Santa Fe; held off the Spanish for 14 years.

Richard Hakluyt

British writer who, in the 1580s, encouraged England to explore and settle in North America. His writings prompted England to embark on its North American empire.

Act Concerning Religion (Maryland Toleration Act)

An act passed in Maryland in 1649 that granted freedom of worship to all Christians; although it was enacted to protect the Catholic minority in Maryland, it was a benchmark of religious freedom in all the colonies. It did not extend to non-Christians, however.

Anne Hutchinson

Charismatic colonist in Massachusetts Bay who questioned whether one could achieve salvation solely by good works; she led the Antinomian controversy by challenging the clergy and the laws of the colony. She was banished from Massachusetts in 1638 and was killed by Indians in 1643.

Anglican Church

Church of England started by King Henry VIII in 1533; the monarch was head of the church, which was strongest in North America in the Southern Colonies. By 1776, it was the second-largest church in America behind the Congregationalists.

Bacon's Rebellion

Attacks by frontiersmen led by Nathaniel Bacon against the Native Americans in the Virginia backcountry; when the governor opposed Bacon's action, Bacon attacked Jamestown, burned it, and briefly deposed the governor before the rebellion fizzled. This revolt is often viewed as the first strike against insensitive British policy, as a clash between East and West, and as evidence of the dangers of the indentured-servant system.

Congregationalist (Puritans)

Believed the Anglican Church retained too many Catholic ideas and sought to purify the Church of England; the Puritans believed in predestination (man saved or damned at birth) and also held that God was watchful and granted salvation only to those who adhered to His goodness as interpreted by the church. The Puritans were strong in New England and very intolerant of other religious groups.

First Great Awakening

Religious revival in the colonies in 1730s and 1740s; George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards preached a message of atonement for sins by admitting them to God. The movement attempted to combat the growing secularism and rationalism of mid-eighteenth century America.

Halfway Covenant

Puritan response to the dilemma of what to do with the children born to nonchurch members as fewer and fewer Puritans sought full membership (visible sainthood) in the church; leaders allowed such children to be baptized, but they could not take communion, nor could nonchurch males vote in government/church affairs.

Headright system

Means of attracting settlers to colonial America; the system gave land to a family head and to anyone he sponsored coming to the colony, including indentured servants. The amount of land varied from fifty to two-hundred acres per person.

House of Burgesses

First popularly-elected legislative assembly in America; it met in Jamestown in 1619.

Indentured servants

Mainstay of the labor needs in many colonies, especially in the Chesapeake regions in the seventeenth century; indentured servants were "rented slaves" who served four to seven years and then were freed to make their way in the world. Most of the servants were from the ranks of the poor, political dissenters, and criminals in England.

Jonathan Edwards

Congregational minister of the 1740s who was a leading voice of the Great Awakening; his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God attacked ideas of easy salvation and reminded the colonists of the absolute sovereignty of God.

John Smith

Saved Jamestown through firm leadership in 1607 and 1608; he imposed work and order in the settlement and later published several books promoting colonization of North America.

John Winthrop

Leader of the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s; he called for Puritans to create "a city upon a hill" and guided the colony through many crises, including the banishments of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.

Mayflower Compact

Written agreement in 1620 to create a body politic among the male settlers in Plymouth; it was the forerunner to charters and constitutions that were eventually adopted in all the colonies.

Mercantilism

Economic doctrine that called for the mother country to dominate and regulate its colonies, the system fixed trade patterns, maintained high tariffs, and discouraged manufacturing in the colonies.

Navigation Acts

Series of English laws to enforce the mercantile system, the laws established control over colonial trade, excluded all but British ships in commerce, and enumerated goods that had to be shipped to England or to other English colonies. The acts also restricted colonial manufacturing.

Roger Williams

Puritan who challenged the church to separate itself from the government and to give greater recognition of the rights of Native Americans; he was banished in 1635 and founded Rhode Island. (Critics called it Rogue Island.)

Salem witchhunt

Period of hysteria in 1692, when a group of teenaged girls accused neighbors of bewitching them; in ten months, nineteen people were executed and hundreds imprisoned. The hysteria subsided when the girls accused the more prominent individuals in the colony, including the governor's wife.

Salutary neglect

Policy that British followed from 1607 to 1763, by which they interfered very little with the colonies; through this lack of control, the colonies thrived and prospered. It was an attempt to end this policy that helped create the friction that led to the American Revolution.

Society of Friends (Quakers)

Church founded by George Fox which believed in "The Inner Light" - a direct, individualistic experience with God; the church was strongly opposed to the Anglican Church in England and the Congregationalist Church in America. In 1681, William Penn established Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers persecuted in England and in the colonies.

Stono Rebellion

Slave rebellion in South Carolina in September 1739; twenty to eighty slaves burned seven plantations, killed twenty whites, and tried to escape to Florida. The rebellion was crushed. All the slaves were killed and decapitated, and their heads were put on display as a deterrent to future uprisings.

Theocracy

Government organized and administered by the church; in Massachusetts Bay colony, only church members could vote in town meetings. The government levied taxes on both church members and nonmembers and required attendance for all at religious services.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania; he intended it be a Quaker haven, but all religions were tolerated. The colony had very good relations with Native Americans at first.

New England Colonies

Northernmost British colonies inclusive of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded primarily as a refuge for Pilgrims and Puritans seeking religious freedom for themselves.

Middle Colonies

British colonies between the New England and Chesapeake Colonies inclusive of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The Middle Colonies were primarily characterized by their religious and social diversity.

Chesapeake Colonies

British colonies inclusive of Virginia and Maryland. Further south, these colonies were characterized by an economic dependence on cash crops like tobacco.

Southern Colonies

Inclusive of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina in particular became increasingly reliant on slavery because of an economy dependent on labor-intensive crops like rice and indigo.

Metacom's (King Phillip's) War (1675-1676)

Conflict between New England colonists and Native American groups. The alliance of Native Americans was organized in resistance to restrictive Puritan laws that deprived them of their land and livelihood.

Chattel Slavery

Characterized by the dehumanizing treatment of people as personal property and commodities to be bought and sold.

Protestant Evangelicalism

Trans-denominational movement within Protestant Christianity that that stressed the preaching of the gospel, personal conversion experiences, the Bible as the sole basis for faith, and active spreading of the faith.

Battle of Saratoga

A turning point of the Revolution in October 1777, when an army of 6,000 British soldiers surrendered in New York; the battle resulted from a British attempt to divide the colonies through the Hudson River Valley. The American victory convinced the French to ally with the colonies and assured the ultimate success of independence.

Battle of Yorktown

A siege that ended in October 1781 when Washington trapped 8,000 British soldiers on a peninsula in Virginia after a British campaign in the southern colonies; this defeat caused the British to cease large-scale fighting in America and to start negotiations, which eventually led to the colonies' independence.

Ben Franklin

America's leading diplomat of the time who served as a statesman and advisor throughout the Revolutionary era. He was active in all the pre-revolutionary congresses and helped to secure the French alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the Revolution in 1783.

Boston Massacre

Confrontation between British soldiers and Boston citizens in March 1770. The troops shot and killed five colonials. American radicals used the event to roil relations between England and the colonies over the next five years.

Coercive Acts (1774)

British actions to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party; they included closing the port of Boston, revoking Massachusetts's charter, trying all British colonial officials accused of misdeeds outside the colony, and housing British troops in private dwellings. In the colonies, these laws were known as the Intolerable Acts, and they brought on the First Continental Congress in 1774.

Declaratory Act (1766)

Passed as the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act; a face-saving action, it asserted Parliament's sovereignty over colonial taxation and legislative policies.

George III

King of England during the American Revolution. Until 1776, the colonists believed he supported their attempt to keep their rights. In reality, he was a strong advocate for harsh policies toward them.

George Washington

Commander of the colonial army; while not a military genius, his integrity and judgment kept the army together. Ultimately, he was indispensable to the colonial cause.

John Dickinson

Conservative leader who wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; he advocated for colonial rights but urged conciliation with England and opposed the Declaration of Independence. Later, he helped write the Articles of Confederation.

John Jay

Lead diplomat in negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783); he secretly dealt with the British representatives at Paris and gained all of America's goals for independence despite the deviousness and meddling of France and Spain.

John Locke

English philosopher who wrote that governments have a duty to protect people's life, liberty, and property; many colonial leaders read his ideas and incorporated them into their political rhetoric and thinking.

Loyalists (Tories)

Colonists who remained loyal to England; they often were older, better educated people who were members of the Anglican Church. The British hoped to use them as a pacification force but failed to organize them properly.

Patrick Henry

An early advocate of independence who was a strong opponent of the Stamp Act and great defender of individual rights; in 1775, he declared: "Give me liberty, or give me death."

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763)

Indian uprising in the Ohio Valley region that killed 2,000 settlers; as a result, the British sought peace with the Indians by prohibiting colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains (the Proclamation of 1763). The Americans saw this ban as an unlawful restriction of their rights and generally ignored it.

Samuel Adams

Agitator and leader of the Sons of Liberty, who supported independence as soon as the British veered from salutary neglect; he was the primary leader of the Boston Tea Party and later a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Seven Years War

Fought between England and France, 1756-1763; known as the French and Indian War in the colonies, it started in 1754, over control of the Ohio River Valley and resulted in France's withdrawal from North America. It was the impetus for Parliament's taxing policy that led to the American Revolution.

Sons of Liberty

Street gangs that formed during the Stamp Act crisis to enforce the boycotts and prevent the distribution and sale of the tax stamps; they were the vanguard of the Revolution as they intimidated British officials with violence.

Stamp Act (1765)

A tax on more than fifty items such as pamphlets, newspapers, playing cards, and dice; it set off a strong protest among the colonists, who claimed it was an internal tax designed only to raise revenue and therefore unlawful for Parliament to levy.

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

Met in New York City to protest the Stamp Act; nine of the thirteen colonies petitioned the king and organized a boycott that eventually helped to force the repeal of the tax. This meeting and action was a major step to colonial unity and resistance of British authority.

Sugar Act (1764)

Designed to raise revenue by stiffening the Molasses Act (1733), establishing new customs regulations, and trying smugglers in British vice-admiralty courts; this was the first attempt to tax the colonies in order to raise revenue rather than regulate trade. It actually lowered the tax on imported sugar in hopes of discouraging smugglers and thereby increasing collection of the tax.

Thomas Jefferson

Lead author of the Declaration of Independence; in it, he explained the colonists' philosophy of government and the reasons for independence. He wrote that governments that did not protect unalienable rights should be changed.

Thomas Paine

Writer of Common Sense, an electrifying pamphlet of January 1776 calling for a break with England; written with great passion and force, it swept the colonies and provided a clear rationale for colonial independence.

Townshend Acts (1767)

Levied taxes on imported items such as paper, glass, and tea; these taxes were designed to address colonial resistance to "internal taxation" like the Stamp Act, which had no connection to trade and was intended only to raise revenue. However, the colonials viewed the Townshend Acts as revenue-raising measures and refused to pay these taxes as well.

Virtual Representation

Idea offered by Britain to colonists' demands for representation in Parliament and to establish lawful authority to tax them; the explanation was that Parliament was a collective representation of all Englishmen regardless of where they lived. According to this argument, a group's interest was represented in London by virtue of it being English. Colonial leaders rejected this position.

Alexander Hamilton

Strong nationalist, first secretary of the treasury; he supported a strong central government and was founder of the Federalist Party.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Series of acts designed to suppress perceived French agents working against American neutrality; the acts gave the president power to deport "dangerous" aliens, lengthen the residency requirement for citizenship, and restrict freedoms of speech and press.

Annapolis Convention

Meeting held at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786 to' discuss interstate commerce; only five states sent delegates, but Alexander Hamilton used the forum to issue a call for the states to meet the next spring to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Annapolis Convention was a stepping-stone to creation of the Constitution.

Anti-Federalists

Persons who opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; in general, they feared the concentration of power the Constitution would place in the national government.

Democratic Republican Party

Political party led by Thomas Jefferson; it feared centralized political power, supported states' rights, opposed Hamilton's financial plan, and supported ties to France. It was heavily influenced by agrarian interests in the southern states.

Farewell Address

Presidential message in which Washington warned the nation to avoid both entangling foreign alliances and domestic "factions" (political parties); the ideas of the address became the basis of isolationist arguments for the next 150 years.

Federalist Papers

Eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay and published in newspapers to convince New York to ratify the Constitution; taken together, they are seen as a treatise on the foundations of the Constitution.

Federalist Party

Political party led by Alexander Hamilton; it favored a strong central government, commercial interests, Hamilton's financial plan, and close ties to England. Its membership was strongest among the merchant class and property owners.

Federalists

Persons who favored ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; they are not to be confused with the later Federalist Party.

Great Compromise

Broke the impasse at the Constitutional Convention over congressional representation. Congress would consist of two houses-seats in the lower assigned according to each state's population and states having equal representation in the upper chamber.

James Madison

Strong nationalist who organized the Annapolis Convention, authored the Virginia Plan for the Constitution, and drafted the constitutional amendments that became the Bill of Rights; he was also a founding member of the Democratic Republican Party.

Jay's Treaty (1794)

Agreement that provided England would evacuate a series of forts in U.S. territory along the Great Lakes; in return, the United States agreed to pay pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to Britain. The British also partially opened the West Indies to American shipping. The treaty was barely ratified in the face of strong Republican opposition.

Loose constructionist

Person who believes that the "elastic clause" of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 18) gives the central government wide latitude of action; loose constructionists hold that even powers not explicitly set forth in the Constitution may be exercised if it is "necessary and proper" to carry out powers that are specifically stated.

New Jersey Plan

Offered by William Paterson to counter the Virginia Plan; it favored a one-house of Congress with equal representation for each state. It maintained much of the Articles of Confederation but strengthened the government's power to tax and regulate commerce.

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

The major success of Congress under the Articles of Confederation that organized the Northwest Territory for future statehood; the law provided territorial status for a region when its population reached 5,000. At 60,000, the territory could petition for statehood with the same rights as existing states. It set into law the procedure for expanding the nation that eventually led to the admission of many other new states. Also, by outlawing slavery in the Northwest Territory, it represented the first action by the national government against that institution.

Pinckney's Treaty (1795)

Agreement with Spain that opened the Mississippi River to American navigation and granted Americans the right of deposit in New Orleans; Spain agreed to the treaty because it feared that Jay's Treaty included an Anglo-American alliance.

Shays's Rebellion

An uprising in western Massachusetts between August 1786 and February 1787 that closed the courts and threatened revolution in the state; the central government's inability to suppress the revolt reinforced the belief that the Articles of Confederation needed to be strengthened or abandoned.

Strict constructionist

Person who interprets the Constitution very narrowly; a strict constructionist believes that a power not explicitly stated in the Constitution could not be exercised by government. Historically, strict constructionists have hoped to restrict authority of the central government and preserve states' rights.

Thomas Jefferson

First secretary of state, who led opposition to the Hamilton/Washington plan to centralize power at the expense of the states; after founding the Democratic Republican Party to oppose these plans, Jefferson was elected vice president in 1796 and president in 1800.

Three-Fifths Compromise

Agreement at the Constitutional Convention that broke the impasse over taxation and representation in the House of Representatives; the delegates agreed to count slaves as three-fifths of a person for both. This formula had been used in 1783 to make financial assessments among the states under the Articles.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Reaction against the Sedition Act; written by Madison for Virginia and Jefferson for Kentucky, they stated that when the national government exceeded its powers under the Constitution, the states had the right to nullify the law. Essentially, the resolutions held that the Constitution was a compact among the states and they were its final arbiter.

Virginia Plan

Edmund Randolph's and James Madison's proposal for a new government that would give Congress increased taxing and legislative power; it called for two houses of Congress—an elected lower house and an upper house appointed by the lower house. Because seats in Congress would be apportioned according to the states' populations, this plan was favored by the large states.