Maize is corn, and it was a staple crop for Native American societies, especially in present-day Mexico and the American Southwest.
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Encomienda
The Encomienda system was a Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of particular groups of subject people.
Joint-Stock Company
A Joint-Stock Company is a business entity where different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders. This was used to finance colonial expeditions.
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619.
Mercantilism
Mercantilism was an economic theory that advocated government regulation of international trade to increase national wealth and power. Colonies existed to benefit the mother country.
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (1675-1678) was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Native American allies.
Pueblo Revolt
The Pueblo Revolt (1680) was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico.
Chattel Slavery
Chattel Slavery is a system in which enslaved people are treated as personal property (chattel) of an owner and can be bought, sold, and traded.
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion (1676) was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its American Colonies between the 1730s and 1740s.
French & Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War.
Pontiac's Rebellion
Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-1766) was a war launched by a loose confederation of elements of Native American tribes primarily from the Great Lakes region, the Illinois Country, and Ohio Country who were dissatisfied with British postwar policies.
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act (1765) was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies of British America. It required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.
Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century.
Common Sense
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer subject to British rule.
Republican Motherhood
Republican Motherhood is the idea that women should be educated to raise their children to be good citizens of the new republic.
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States of America, ratified in 1781. It established a weak central government with limited powers.
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance (1787) established a system for governing the Northwest Territory and admitting new states into the Union. It also prohibited slavery in the territory.
Shays' Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion (1786–1787) was an armed uprising in Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, protesting economic and civil rights injustices.
The Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay to persuade the voters of New York to adopt the Constitution.
Constitution
The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States, establishing a framework for the organization of the U.S. Federal government and delineating its powers and responsibilities.
Great Compromise
The Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution.
Federalism
Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units.
Separation of Powers
Separation of Powers is a doctrine ensuring that no single branch of government accumulates excessive power. It divides governmental power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing civil rights and liberties to individuals.
Washington's Farewell Address
Washington's Farewell Address was a letter written by President George Washington to "friends and fellow-citizens" near the end of his second term of presidency. In it, he advised American citizens to view themselves as a cohesive unit, avoid political parties, and steer clear of permanent alliances with foreign nations.
Bank of the United States
The Bank of the United States refers to two different banks. The First Bank of the United States (1791-1811) and the Second Bank of the United States (1816-1836), were both national banks chartered by the U.S. Congress to provide financial stability and promote economic development.
Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans
The Federalists and Democratic-Republicans were the first two political parties in the United States. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, favored a strong central government, while the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, advocated for states' rights and limited government.
Alien & Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a series of four laws passed by the U.S. Congress in 1798 that restricted the activities of foreign residents in the country and limited freedom of speech and of the press.
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France, doubling the size of the country.
1807 Embargo Act
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22, 1807. It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports.
Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison (1803) was a landmark Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review, the power of the Court to declare a law unconstitutional.
Era of Good Feelings
The Era of Good Feelings (1815-1825) was a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of 1812.
American System
The American System was an economic plan championed by Henry Clay that included a national bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements.
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise (1820) was a federal law that admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while also establishing a line (36°30' latitude) north of which slavery would be prohibited.
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine (1823) was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas, stating that any intervention by external powers in the political affairs of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the U.S.
Market Revolution
The Market Revolution was a transformation in the American economy during the first half of the 19th century, characterized by increased industrialization, transportation improvements, and the development of a market-based economy.
Jacksonian Democracy
Jacksonian Democracy refers to the political movement during the Second Party System toward greater democracy for the common man symbolized by American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters.
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of Native American tribes, particularly the Cherokee, from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to areas west of the Mississippi River.
Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis (1832-1833) was a political confrontation between President Andrew Jackson and South Carolina, led by John C. Calhoun, over the state's attempt to nullify federal tariffs.
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States.
Utopian Communities
Utopian Communities were small societies dedicated to perfectionism and communal living.
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention (1848) was the first women's rights convention in the United States, held in Seneca Falls, New York. It launched the women's suffrage movement.
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831) was a slave rebellion in Virginia led by Nat Turner, resulting in the deaths of dozens of slaveholders and their families.
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the U.S. throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession (1848) refers to lands ceded or sold to the U.S. by Mexico following the Mexican-American War.
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War.
Nativism
Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) was a law that allowed the citizens of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to allow slavery in their territories (popular sovereignty).
Republican Party
The Republican Party is a political party that emerged in the 1850s as an antislavery party and quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.
Election of 1860
The Election of 1860 was the United States presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten Confederate states still in rebellion.
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act (1862) was a law that provided 160 acres of public land in the West to any adult citizen who agreed to live on and cultivate the land for five years.
Reconstruction Amendments
The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. They abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law, and prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was a U.S. federal government agency established in 1865 to aid freed slaves during the Reconstruction era.
Plains Wars
The Plains Wars were a series of conflicts between Native American tribes and the United States Army in the Great Plains region of the United States during the 19th century.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal."
Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Gilded Age
The Gilded Age was a period of immense economic growth and wealth concentration in the United States during the late 19th century.
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) was a United States federal law that prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers.
"Cross of Gold" Speech
The "Cross of Gold" speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention, advocating for bimetallism (the use of both gold and silver as currency).
Muckrakers
Muckrakers were journalists who exposed corruption and social problems in American society during the Progressive Era.
NAACP
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is a civil rights organization founded in 1909 to fight for the rights of African Americans.
Square Deal
The Square Deal was President Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program, which aimed to protect consumers, control corporations, and conserve natural resources.
Clayton Antitrust Act
The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) was a law that strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by prohibiting certain business practices that stifled competition.
NAWSA
NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) was an organization formed in 1890 to advocate for women's suffrage in the United States.
Espionage & Sedition Acts
The Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918) were laws that restricted freedom of speech and the press during World War I.
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an international organization established after World War I to promote peace and cooperation among nations.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty that ended World War I between Germany and the Allied Powers.
Great Migration
The Great Migration was the movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West during the 20th century.
Immigration Quotas (1921)
The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, restricted immigration into the United States.
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s.
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe economic depression that affected the entire world during the 1930s.
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs and projects undertaken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.
Double V Campaign
The Double V Campaign was a slogan and drive to promote the fight for democracy abroad and within the United States for African Americans during World War II.
Japanese Internment
Japanese Internment refers to the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, from the mid-1940s until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Containment
Containment was a United States foreign policy doctrine adopted during the Cold War, aiming to prevent the spread of communism.
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift (1948-1949) was a military operation in which the United States and its allies airlifted supplies to West Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded the city.
Cuban-Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet missile deployment in Cuba.
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.
Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for blacks to gain equal rights under the law in the United States.
OPEC Oil Embargo
The OPEC Oil Embargo (1973-1974) was a decision by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations to embargo oil shipments to the United States and other countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1955 to 1975.
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, aiming to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.
Silent Spring
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson, published in 1962, documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique is a book by Betty Friedan which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. It was published in 1963.
Reaganomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, characterized by tax cuts, deregulation, and reduced government spending.
NAFTA
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.
Globalization
Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of countries through trade, investment, migration, and cultural exchange.
Immigration & Nationality Act
The Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with U.S. residents.
Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898.
Roosevelt Corollary
The Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in 1904 after the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03. The corollary states that the United States could intervene in the affairs of Latin American countries if they were unable to manage their affairs.
Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.