AP U.S. History Finals Spring 2025

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, and ensures "equal protection of the laws" for all citizens.

15th Amendment

gave African American men the right to vote

18th Amendment

Prohibition of alcohol

19th Amendment

Gave women the right to vote

21st Amendment

repealed prohibition

26th Amendment

Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

Spanish-American War

1898 war that began when the United States demanded Cuba's independence from Spain

Philippine War

American military campaign that suppressed the movement for Philippine independence after the Spanish-American War; America's death toll was over 4,000 and the Philippines' was far higher.

World War I

A war between the allies (Russia, France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Montenegro) and the central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) from 1914 to 1918.

World War II

War fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Allies and the Axis, involving most countries in the world. The United States joined the Allies in 1941, helping them to victory.

Korean War

The conflict between Communist North Korea and Non-Communist South Korea. The United Nations (led by the United States) helped South Korea.

Berlin Wall

Barrier set up in 1961 to separate East and West Berlin

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 crisis that arose between the United States and the Soviet Union over a Soviet attempt to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba

Vietnam War

A prolonged war (1954-1975) between the communist armies of North Vietnam who were supported by the Chinese and the non-communist armies of South Vietnam who were supported by the United States.

9/11

Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon; led to a focus on eliminating terrorism.

Lincoln Plan

The _ said that only 10% of a southern state needed to declare loyalty to a union

Johnson Plan

Reconstruction plan that was the 10% plan plus pardons for Confederate officers and repudiated debts. It is passed while Congress is out of session

Radical Reconstruction

Reconstruction strategy that was based on severely punishing South for causing war

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Made it so that meat would be inspected by the government from coral to can. It began a quality rating system as well as increased the sanitation requirements for meat producers.

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

1906 - Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs, it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA.

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)

Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by spelling out specific activities businesses could not do

Square Deal (3 C's)

conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection

Roosevelt Corollary

Addition to the Monroe Doctrine asserting America's right to intervene in Latin American affairs

New Deal

A series of reforms enacted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration between 1933 and 1942 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.

Truman Doctrine (1947)

A policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere.

Fair Deal

President Truman's program to expand New Deal reforms

Marshall Plan (1947)

A plan that the US came up with to revive war-torn economies of Europe. This plan offered $13 billion in aid to western and Southern Europe on condition they wouldn't go communist. Helped contain communism in Europe and helped our economy as Europe bought from US businesses to rebuild.

Medicare and Medicaid

Great Society programs that guaranteed healthcare for specific groups, medicare for 65 and older, and medicaid for poor

Great Society

President Johnson called his version of the Democratic reform program the Great Society. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

ended discrimination in housing

Voting Rights Act of 1965

a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage

War Powers Act of 1973

Gave any president the power to go to war under certain circumstances, but required that he could only do so for 90 days before being required to officially bring the matter before Congress.

Title IX

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Proposed the 27th Amendment, calling for equal rights for both sexes. Defeated in the House in 1972.

Watergate

The events and scandal surrounding a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 and the subsequent cover-up of White House involvement, leading to the eventual resignation of President Nixon under the threat of impeachment.

Camp David Accords (1978)

Peace treaty between Egypt and Israel; hosted by US President Jimmy Carter; caused Egypt to be expelled from the Arab league; created a power vacuum that Saddam hoped to fill; first treaty of its kind between Israel and an Arab state

Iran-Contra Affair (1986)

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.

Trickle Down Economics

economic theory that holds that money lent to banks and businesses will trickle down to consumers

Freedom Bureau

Established to ensure the freedom of former slaves

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

Imperialism

domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region

Monopoly

the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers

Muckrakers

Journalists who attempted to find corruption or wrongdoing in industries and expose it to the public

Political Machines

Corrupt organized groups that controlled political parties in the cities. A boss leads the machine and attempts to grab more votes for his party.

Tammany Hall

a political organization within the Democratic Party in New York city (late 1800's and early 1900's) seeking political control by corruption and bossism

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Harlem Renaissance (1920s)

A literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity in America (JAZZ)

Court Packing

Attempt by Roosevelt to appoint one new Supreme Court justice for every sitting justice over the age of 70 who had been there for at least 10 years. Wanted to prevent justices from dismantling the new deal. Plan died in congress and made opponents of New Deal inflamed.

Red Scare

fear that communists were working to destroy the American way of life

Second Red Scare

caused by rise of "Red China" and the Shocks of 1949; Origins from formation of HUAC who made accusations about "subversives" (traitors/Communists) in government. Included FELP, blacklist, Alger Hiss Case, Rosenberg Case, and Joe McCarthy (rise of McCarthyism); deportations; escalated by Korean War

House Committee on Un-American Activities

A congressional committee created to search out disloyal Americans & Communists.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

A 1949 defense alliance initiated by the US, Canada, and 10 Western European nations

Warsaw Pact

treaty signed in 1945 that formed an alliance of the Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain; USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania

Freedom Riders

Activists from the North who road buses through the South to push for desegregation

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

group formed by student activists; used the sit-in as an effective method of protest

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Korematsu v. United States

1944 Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court upheld the order providing for the relocation of Japanese Americans. It was not until 1988 that Congress formally apologized and agreed to pay $20,000 to each survivor.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Overrules Plessy v. Ferguson (no stare decisis). Racial segregation violates 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause ("separate is inherently unequal")

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Evidence illegally gathered by the police may not be used in a criminal trial

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Ordered states to provide lawyers for those unable to afford them in criminal proceedings. Warren Court's judicial activism in criminal rights.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

5th Amendment self-incrimination clause requires government agents to warn suspects of their right to remain silent and/or contact an attorney before questioning them when they are in custody. Statements made without Miranda Warning are inadmissible in court (like the exclusionary rule for evidence)

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Public school students may wear armbands to class protesting against America's war in Vietnam when such display does not disrupt classes

New Jersey v. TLO

Supreme court case in which it was decided that a student may be searched if there is "reasonable ground" for doing so.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

The court legalized abortion by ruling that state laws could not restrict it during the first three months of pregnancy. Based on 4th Amendment rights of a person to be secure in their persons.

Jacob Riis

Early 1900's muckraker who exposed social and political evils in the U.S. with his novel "How The Other Half Lives"; exposed the poor conditions of the poor tenements in NYC and Hell's Kitchen

Ida Tarbell

A leading muckraker and magazine editor, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work A History of Standard Oil.

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

William Jennings Bryan

United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)

Eugene V. Debs

Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.

Robert M. La Follette

Governor of Wisconsin who promoted the principle of government by experts, advocated progressivism, and established a Legislative Reference Bureau to provide research, advice, and help in the drafting of legislation.

John Muir

He created the Sierra Club (protect the environment)

nature

Margaret Sanger

American leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900's. As a nurse in the poor sections of New York City, she had seen the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancy. Founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.

Jane Addams

the founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes

Alice Paul

Head of the National Woman's party that campaigned for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. She opposed legislation protecting women workers because such laws implied women's inferiority. Most condemned her way of thinking.

Boss Tweed

William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. Example: Responsible for the construction of the NY court house; actual construction cost $3million. Project cost tax payers $13million.

Duke Ellington

Born in Chicago middle class. moved to Harlem in 1923 and began playing at the cotton club. Composer, pianist and band leader. Most influential figures in jazz.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.

William McKinley

25th president responsible for Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, and the Annexation of Hawaii, imperialism. Is assassinated by an anarchist

Theodore Roosevelt

1858-1919. 26th President. Increased size of Navy, "Great White Fleet". Added Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine. "Big Stick" policy. Received Nobel Peace Prize for mediation of end of Russo-Japanese war. Later arbitrated split of Morocco between Germany and France.

Herbert Hoover

Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 promising the American people prosperity and attempted to first deal with the Depression by trying to restore public faith in the community.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the United States during most of the Depression and most of World War II.

Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)

33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, succeeding upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt after serving as vice president. He implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

leader of the Allied forces in Europe during WW2--leader of troops in Africa and commander in DDay invasion-elected president-president during integration of Little Rock Central High School

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

35th President of the United States. Was in office during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall.

Lyndon B. Johnson

signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law and the voting rights act of 1965. he had a war on poverty in his agenda. in an attempt to win, he set a few goals, including the great society, the economic opportunity act, and other programs that provided food stamps and welfare to needy famillies. he also created a department of housing and urban development. his most important legislation was probably medicare and medicaid.

Richard Nixon

1968 and 1972; Republican; Vietnam: advocated "Vietnamization" (replace US troops with Vietnamese), but also bombed Cambodia/Laos, created a "credibility gap," Paris Peace Accords ended direct US involvement; economy-took US off gold standard (currency valued by strength of economy); created the Environmental Protection Agency, was president during first moon landing; SALT I and new policy of detente between US and Soviet Union; Watergate scandal: became first and only president to resign

Gerald Ford

1974-1977, Republican, first non elected president and VP, he pardoned Nixon

Jimmy Carter

(1977-1981), Created the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He was criticized for his return of the Panama Canal Zone, and because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he enacted an embargo on grain shipments to USSR and boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and his last year in office was marked by the takeover of the American embassy in Iran, fuel shortages, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, which caused him to lose to Ronald Regan in the next election.

Ronald Reagan

1981-1989,"Great Communicator" Republican, conservative economic policies, replaced liberal Democrats in upper house with consevative Democrats or "boll weevils" , at reelection time, jesse jackson first black presdiential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro as VP running mate (first woman)

George H.W. Bush

president during the Gulf War, ability to quickly bring the war to a conclusion while suffering relatively few casualties resulted in the second-highest approval rating of any president, 89%

Bill Clinton

42nd President advocated economic and healthcare reform; second president to be impeached

George W. Bush

43rd president of the US who began a campaign toward energy self-sufficiency and against terrorism in 2001