AMH 2020 - Key Terms

Ten Percent Plan: President Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction plan requiring $10\%$ of voters in a seceded state to take an oath of loyalty to the Union before re-establishing a state government.
Freedmen's Bureau: Established in 1865 to assist newly freed African Americans and poor whites in the South by providing food, housing, medical aid, and establishing schools.
Black Codes: Laws passed by Southern states immediately after the Civil War to restrict the freedom of African Americans and force them into labor contracts.
Sharecropping: A system of agriculture where landowners allow tenants to use land in exchange for a share of the crops produced, often trapping tenant farmers in a cycle of debt.
Union Leagues: Pro-Union organizations in the South that mobilized Black voters and promoted civil rights during Reconstruction.

Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent.
Comstock Lode: A major silver ore discovery in Nevada in 1859 that sparked a mining rush and accelerated Western economic development.
Social Darwinism: The application of biological concepts of natural selection to sociology and economics, used to justify wealth inequality and corporate dominance.
Monopoly: Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, eliminating competition.
Horizontal Integration: A corporate strategy of acquiring or merging with competitors in the same industry to consolidate market control.
Vertical Integration: A strategy where a company controls all phases of the production process, from raw materials to final distribution.
Trust: An administrative arrangement where multiple companies transfer stock to a board of trustees to manage operations as a single entity, reducing competition.
Scientific Management: Also known as Taylorism, a system aimed at improving economic efficiency and labor productivity through standardized, timed tasks.

Great Migration: The movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to urban centers in the North and West beginning around World War I.
Tenement House: Overcrowded, low-rent apartment buildings in major cities, infamous for poor sanitation, safety, and living conditions.
Machine Politics: Unofficial political entities organized to gain and keep power through patronage, social services, and political favors.
Tammany Hall: The powerful Democratic political machine in New York City, famously led by William "Boss" Tweed in the 19th century.
Gilded Age: A period from the 1870s to 1900 characterized by rapid industrial growth alongside significant political corruption and social inequality.
Populist Party: Formed in 1892, a political party representing farmers and agrarian interests that advocated for free silver, railroad regulation, and democratic reform.
Coxey's Army: A protest march of unemployed workers led by Jacob Coxey in 1894, demanding public works jobs from the federal government.

Progressive Party: A political party formed in 1912 by Theodore Roosevelt ("Bull Moose Party") advocating for social reform, political transparency, and corporate regulation.
Direct Primary: A reform enabling voters to directly choose political candidates for general elections rather than party bosses.
Recall: A democratic procedure allowing voters to remove an elected official from office prior to the end of their term.
Referendum: A legislative reform allowing citizens to vote directly on proposed laws or constitutional amendments.
Initiative: A process enabling citizens to bypass state legislatures by placing proposed statutes or amendments directly on the ballot.
The Wisconsin Idea: A series of Progressive reforms championed by Governor Robert La Follette, integrating expert academic research into state governance.

Anti-Imperialist League: An organization formed in 1898 to oppose U.S. annexation of foreign territories, such as the Philippines.
Dollar Diplomacy: President William Howard Taft's foreign policy focused on expanding American commercial interest and investment abroad to extend U.S. influence.
Roosevelt Corollary: An addition to the Monroe Doctrine asserting the U.S. right to act as an international police power in Latin America.
"Big Stick" Policy: Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy philosophy of negotiating peacefully while threatening the use of military force ("Speak softly and carry a big stick").
Spheres of Influence: Regions in China where foreign powers held exclusive trade rights and economic control in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Fourteen Points / Wilson's 14 Theses: President Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI vision for world peace, emphasizing national self-determination, free trade, and open diplomacy.
League of Nations: An international diplomatic organization established after WWI to resolve disputes peacefully, though the U.S. Senate refused to join.
Zimmerman Telegram: An intercepted secret telegram from Germany proposing a military alliance with Mexico against the U.S., accelerating American entry into WWI.

Lost Generation: A group of American writers and intellectuals disillusioned by the brutality and materialism of post-WWI society.
Teapot Dome Scandal: A major bribery scandal during President Warren G. Harding's administration involving naval oil reserves leased to private oil companies.
American Individualism: Herbert Hoover's philosophy advocating self-reliance, voluntary cooperation, and limited federal intervention in the economy.
Clark Memorandum: A 1928 State Department paper repudiating the Roosevelt Corollary, stating the Monroe Doctrine did not justify U.S. military intervention in Latin America.

Dust Bowl: A severe environmental catastrophe during the 1930s caused by drought and soil erosion, devastating agriculture across the Great Plains.
Brain Trusts: A group of academic advisors assembled by Franklin D. Roosevelt to help formulate New Deal economic recovery policies.
The New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's comprehensive program of domestic relief, recovery, and reform designed to combat the Great Depression.

Appeasement: The diplomatic policy of making concessions to aggressive powers in an attempt to avoid military conflict.
Big Three: The primary Allied leaders during World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), Winston Churchill (UK), and Joseph Stalin (USSR).
Fascism: An authoritarian, right-wing political ideology characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and extreme nationalism.
Manhattan Project: The secret U.S. government research project that successfully developed the first atomic weapons during World War II.