APUSH - Unit 5

Mexican-American War

A conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, resulting in significant territorial gains for the U.S.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, granting the U.S. California and New Mexico in exchange for $15 million.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws intended to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

A novel published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe that depicted the harsh realities of slavery, influencing public opinion.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent political confrontations in 1856 over whether Kansas would be a free or slave state.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

The 1857 Supreme Court case that ruled Scott was still a slave and declared Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by President Lincoln in 1863 freeing slaves in Confederate-held territory.

Thirteenth Amendment

The Constitutional amendment ratified in 1865 that abolished slavery in the United States.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War during which the U.S. faced the challenges of integrating formerly enslaved people into society.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States following Reconstruction.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system in which a tenant farmer is provided with credit for seed and tools and pays rent by giving a portion of the crop to the landowner.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine that the expansion of the U.S. throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Forty-Niners

The nickname given to the influx of people who migrated to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush.

Anaconda Plan

The Union's strategic plan in the Civil War aimed at blockading Southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River.

Black Codes

Laws passed in the South after the Civil War to restrict the rights of freed African Americans.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that the authority of a state and its government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners, even if found in free states.

Nativism

A political policy favoring the interests of established inhabitants over those of immigrants.

Oregon Trail

A historic east-to-west wagon route used by thousands traveling to Oregon in the mid-1800s.

Civil War

A conflict from 1861 to 1865 in which the Northern states fought to preserve the Union and the Southern states fought to maintain their independence.