American Basic Terms and Amendments

A collection of vocabulary terms and their definitions relevant to American history and constitutional amendments.

Suffrage

Right to vote.

Laissez-Faire

Hands off government; economic policy; few regulations on business.

Manifest Destiny

US expansion westward; from sea to shining sea.

Assimilation

Process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and culture of the dominant group.

Gilded Age

Period of materialism and political corruption in the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Muckrakers

Journalists that pointed out problems in America during the Gilded Age.

Progressivism

Reform movement of the early 1900s; focusing on social, economic, and political reform.

Urban

Relating to a city.

Rural

Relating to farmland.

Federal Reserve

Central banking system; responsible for monetary policy and regulating supply of money and interest rates.

11th Amendment

Says how someone from one state can sue another state.

12th Amendment

Redefines how the President and Vice-President are chosen by the Electoral College.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the entire United States.

14th Amendment

Guarantees citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, with equal protection of the law.

15th Amendment

Ensured that a person’s race could not be used as criteria for voting.

16th Amendment

Authorizes the United States to collect income taxes.

17th Amendment

Shifted the choosing of Senators from the state legislatures to the people of the states (direct vote).

18th Amendment

Abolished the sale or manufacture of alcohol in the United States (Prohibition).

19th Amendment

Women get the right to vote.

20th Amendment

Set new start dates for the terms of the Congress and the President.