Expansion

🔵 History & Media Literacy Terms

Audience (review)
The specific group of people a text, speech, or media message is meant for, which affects how the message is written or presented.

Point of View (review)
The perspective from which a story or information is told, shaped by the author’s background, beliefs, and experiences.

Purpose (review)
The reason something is created—such as to inform, persuade, entertain, or influence opinions or actions.

Bias (review)
A preference or prejudice that causes information to be presented in a one-sided or unfair way.

Misinformation
False or inaccurate information that is shared without the intent to deceive.

Disinformation
False information that is deliberately created and spread to mislead people.

Malinformation
True information that is shared with the intent to cause harm, often taken out of context.

Historical Context 🟢
The political, social, economic, and cultural conditions that existed at the time an event occurred and help explain why it happened.

🔴 Post-War Westward Expansion

Manifest Destiny
The belief that the United States was meant to expand westward across North America, often used to justify taking land from Native Americans and other nations.

Homestead Act
A law that gave free land to settlers who agreed to live on and farm it, encouraging westward settlement.

Transcontinental Railroad
A railroad that connected the eastern and western United States, making travel, trade, and settlement faster and easier.

Reservation
Land set aside by the U.S. government where Native Americans were forced to live, often away from their ancestral lands.

Plains Indian War
A series of conflicts between Native American tribes of the Great Plains and the U.S. government over land and control.

Native American Boarding Schools
Schools designed to assimilate Native American children by forcing them to abandon their culture, language, and traditions.

Ethnocentrism
The belief that one’s own culture or way of life is superior to others.

🟡 Imperialism

Imperialism
A policy in which a stronger nation extends its power by controlling weaker territories politically, economically, or militarily.

Annexation
The act of officially adding a territory to a country.

The Annexation of Hawaii (causes)
American economic interests, the desire for military bases, and the overthrow of Hawaii’s queen by U.S. settlers led to Hawaii being annexed.

The Annexation of Hawaii (effects)
Hawaii lost its independence, Native Hawaiians lost political power, and the U.S. gained a strategic location in the Pacific.

The Anti-Imperialist League
A group that opposed U.S. imperialism, arguing that it went against American values of freedom and self-government.

Yellow Journalism
Sensationalized and exaggerated news reporting used to attract readers and influence public opinion.

The Spanish-American War (causes)
U.S. support for Cuban independence, yellow journalism, and the sinking of the USS Maine increased tensions with Spain.

The Spanish-American War (effects)
The U.S. gained territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and became a global power.

🟢 Imperialism & Social Studies Terms

Monroe Doctrine
A U.S. policy stating that European nations should not interfere in the Americas.

Roosevelt Corollary
An extension of the Monroe Doctrine claiming the U.S. had the right to intervene in Latin American countries to maintain order.

The Panama Canal
A man-made waterway built by the U.S. to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, improving trade and military movement.

Social Darwinism
The belief that stronger nations or groups naturally dominate weaker ones, used to justify imperialism and inequality.

The White Man’s Burden
The belief that Europeans and Americans had a duty to civilize non-Western societies, often used to justify imperialism.