APUSH 250-700

  1. Gadsden Purchase (1853)

The Gadsden Purchase was the 1853 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Southerners wanted this land in order to build the southern transcontinental railroad, it also showed the American belief in Manifest Destiny. The heated debate over this issue in the Senate demonstrates the prevalence of sectional disagreement.


  1. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Law that allowed for popular sovereignty (people living in an area could decide if slavery would be allowed or not.

Devised by Stephen Douglas) in the Kansas and Nebraska territories.

Kansas would be slave and Nebraska would be free

Overturned the Missouri Compromise

Many in the north were upset that the Missouri Compromise was being overturned

Helped lead to the creation of the Republican Party


  1. Republican Party; position on slavery

- Formed in 1854

- Against the expansion of slavery

- Coalition of former Free-Soilers, Conscience Whigs, and "Barnburner" Democrats

- Strictly a Northern party


  1.  “Bleeding Kansas”

Bleeding Kansas is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraksa Act overturned the Missouri Compromise's use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory and instead, using the principle of popular sovereignty, decreed that the residents would determine whether the area became a free state or a slave state. Proslavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence the decision. Violence soon erupted as both factions fought for control. Abolitionist John Brown led anti-slavery fighters in Kansas before his famed raid on Harpers Ferry.


  1. John Brown;  Pottawatomie Massacre

May 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavers John Brown led a band of abolitionist settlers and killed five settlers of Pottawatomie creek. This was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War, which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas. Bleeding Kansas was due to the Missouri Compromise and Kansas-Nebraska Act.


  1. Sumner-Brooks Incident

• In 1856 Senator Charles Sumner made an abolitionist speech insulting SC Senator Andrew Butler

• Preston Brooks, Butler's nephew and Congressman from SC, heard Sumner's speech and on the Senate floor beat him into a coma with his cane

• The beating helped to escalate tensions between north and south


  1. Dred Scott v. Sandford

Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 1846-1857. In its 1857 decision that stunned the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional.


  1. Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. [2][3] In so doing he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the national government and modernized the economy.


  1. Lincoln-Douglass Debates; “House-Divided” Speech

The main focus of these debates was slavery and its influence on American politics and society—specifically the slave power, popular sovereignty, race equality, emancipation, etc.

House Divided Speech- A speech made by Abraham Lincoln to the Illinois Republican convention in 1858. In the speech, Lincoln noted that conflict between North and South over slavery was intensifying.


  1. Freeport Doctrine

Douglas responded in what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, where slavery could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes) maintaining it. Basically, a territory could exclude slavery simply by not adopting laws that protect it.


  1. John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry – purpose, impact 

Although the raid on Harpers Ferry was denounced by a majority of Northerners, it electrified the South—already fearful of slave rebellions—and convinced slaveholders that abolitionists would stop at nothing to eradicate slavery. It also created a martyr, John Brown, for the antislavery cause.


  1. Election of 1860;  split in parties

How did the Democratic Party split over the issue of popular sovereignty? Northern and Southern Democrats disagreed over what to say about slavery in the party's platform. The Southerners wanted the party to defend slavery in the platform. But Northerners wanted the platform to support popular sovereignty.


  1. secession; Confederate States of America

secession, in U.S. history, the withdrawal of 11 slave states (states in which slaveholding was legal) from the Union during 1860–61 following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. Secession precipitated the American Civil War. Confederate States of America.


  1. Crittenden Compromise

The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution, and thereby make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery. It was introduced by United States Senator John J. Crittenden (Constitutional Unionist of Kentucky) on December 18, 1860.


  1. Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter. Definition: South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, after Union forces attempted to provision the fort. Significance: South ignited the fighting of the Civil War, provoked North to assemble army.

THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865


  1. causes of the Civil War

What were the four main causes of the Civil War? The biggest cause of the Civil War was the humanitarian and economic issue of slavery. However, the four biggest factors of causation were slavery, states vs federal rights, economics, and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.


  1. border states

The border states were slave states that did not secede from the Union when the Confederacy formed in 1860-1861. These states included Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.


  1. First Battle of Bull Run

Bull Run. (Manassas Junction), Battle of (July 1861): First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of a swift victory. Peninsula Campaign. (1862): Union General George B. McClellan's failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital.


  1. Jefferson Davis and Alexander P. Stephens

Jefferson Davis. President of the Confederate States of America; attempted to increase his executive powers during the Civil War. Alexander H. Stephens. Vice President of the Confederate States of America; defended states' rights.


  1. Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee. General of the Confederate troops; Prosperous in many battles; Defeated at Antietam when he retreated across the Potomac; Defeated at Gettysburg by General Meade's troops, leading to surrender to General Ulysses.


  1. Antietam

Antietam. (AL), 1862, the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties. After this "win" for the North, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.


  1. Ulysses S. Grant

became the first president after the Civil War; previously a Union General who defeated General Lee at Appomattox Court House, which ended the Civil War; during presidency several scams passed through Congress; the Panic of 1873 (over speculation) came about in his reign


  1. Lincoln’s use of wartime powers:  habeas corpus, conscription, taxes, military courts

The power that lincoln assumed as a wartime president.

ex. emancipation proclamation

The president went over what he was allowed to do with "habeas corpus". Lincoln was doing away with habeas corpus and that was unconstitutional.


  1. New York City draft riots

Draft Riots. were a series of violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. Copperheads. Democrats who opposed the civil war. Radical Republicans.


  1. greenbacks

Greenbacks. Name given to paper money issued by the government during the Civil War, so called because the back side was printed with green ink. They were not redeemable for gold, but $300 million were issued anyway.

  1. Jim Crow

Jim Crow was a Afican American who made his own laws of the theory of white supremacy and were a reaction to reconstruction.


  1. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Plessy v. Ferguson is the supreme court that upheld the constitutionality of separate, but equal facilities based on race.


  1. disenfranchisement:  poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clause

The Grandfather had many clauses in the south which after reconstruction he allow potentail white voters that have faill literacy test or could not afford poll taxes would still be eligible to vote.


  1. Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was a Afican American Journalist Abolitionist and feminist in the united states in 1980s.


  1. lynching

Lynching Was a social control who terrorize Aficans American and intimidate and killed Afican American by being in white mods.


  1. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute

Booker T. Washington was a normal person and a institute and it was led by Booker in Alabama.


  1. Atlanta Compromise (1895)

Atlanta made a speech that outline the philosophy that african American should focos on emonomic gains, school and other things.


  1. Three frontiers:  mining, cattle, farming

The mining was all about the gold rush. The cattle was the tail that was use the cowboys to drive up to San Antonino to Abilene. The Farmers use the farmer self-sufficient. To help grow food.

  1. Comstock Lode

Was ore that the United States discovered.


  1. Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Were a set a laws against the Chinese immigration for 10 years and it prevented becoming citizens.


  1. cattle drives

Were the massive numbers in immigration that could be shipped into the east.


  1. homesteaders

Were people who benefited from the homestead while the poor were enable to achieve economic independence.


  1. barbed wire, Joseph Glidden

Were helping farmers to fence in their land when the lumber was scarce.


  1. Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”

Turner wants to expand the westward to allow Americans to cast aside European influence.


  1. reservations

The allotted land with designated boundaries to Native American tribes in the West.


  1. Indian Wars

The Indian Wars were in a conflicts between Native American Indians and white settlers over land and natural resources in the West.


  1. Sand Creek Massacre

 In November 29, 1864, roughly 700 federal troops attacked a village of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho on Sand Creek in Colorado. An unprovoked attack on men, women, and children. 


  1. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse was an Oglala Sioux Indian chief who fought against removal to a reservation in the Black Hills. As for the Sitting Bull it was for the Battle of the Little Bighorn.


  1. George Armstrong Custer and Little Big Horn

It was the battle of the Little Bighorn and George went to the war with 600 more people and it was the worse war that u.s army was defeated,


  1. Wounded Knee

It was massacre in the 1980 that started when the Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of the sitting bull.


  1. assimilationists

The idea that Native Americans should be integrated into American society by becoming educated, adopting American culture, customs, and Christianity


  1. Dawes Severalty Act (1887); Indian policy from 1890 until the New Deal

the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots. Only those Native Americans who accepted the individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens.

  1. A Century of Dishonor – Helen Hunt Jackson

It showed the treatment of Native Americans.


  1. John Muir, John Wesley Powell

John Wesley Powell was a American explorer, geologist, and ethnologist. As for John Muir he was one of the country's most famous naturalist and conservationist.


BIG BUSINESS, INDUSTRIALIZATION, 1865-1900


  1. transcontinental railroad; Union Pacific and Central Pacific

Congress commissioned this railroad to push westward from Omaha, Nebraska and to california. The central pacific started in California, and pushed eastward

APUSH terms 326-350



Federal land grants to railroads- Between 1850 and 1872 extensive cessions of public lands were made to states and to railroad companies to promote railroad construction.


Bessemer Process- first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is the removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron.


Andrew Carnegie - Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history.


vertical integration vs. horizontal integration- expansion strategy that involves the acquisition of another company in the same business line.


United States Steel Co.- commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


John D. Rockefeller - founded the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. American business magnate and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history.


Standard Oil Trust- American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911.


Frederick Winslow Taylor, “Taylorism”-  System of scientific management advocated by Fred W. Taylor. In Taylor's view, the task of factory management was to determine the best way for the worker to do the job, to provide the proper tools and training, and to provide incentives for good performance.


Alexander Graham Bell- Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885.


Thomas Edison- American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.


Stock-watering, pools, rebates, trusts- used in order to increase the weight of cows. Forced a cow to bloat itself with water before it was weighed for sale.


J.P. Morgan- banker who financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. He bought out Carnegie and in 1901 he started the United States Steel Corporation.


Laissez-faire capitalism - economic philosophy of free-market capitalism that opposes government intervention.


Social Darwinism- study and implementation of various pseudoscientific theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics.


Gospel of Wealth- article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.


Russell Conwell, “Acres of Diamonds”- speech saying that anyone can become rich if they work hard enough.


Horatio Alger- American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to middle-class security and comfort through good works.


White collar workers- person who performs professional service, desk, managerial, or administrative work.


Women in workforce - 


Scab, lockout, blacklist, yellow-dog contract; injunction- Tactics used by employers included hiring scabs to replace striking workers, implementing lockouts to prevent workers from entering the workplace, and utilizing blacklists and yellow-dog contracts to deter union activities.


National Labor Union- political-action movement that from 1866 to 1873 sought to improve working conditions


Knights of Labor- American labor federation that was active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s.


American Federation of Labor; goals, tactics- The AFL sought tangible economic gains, such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions, in addition to staying out of politics. The AFL strategy involved using strikes to pressure owners to improve work conditions.


Samuel Gompers- British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924.


Great Railroad Strike of 1877- began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages for the third time in a year. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S.


Peyton 700 

376-400


yellow journalism (Hearst & Pulitzer): style of newspaper, sensational >factual

Spanish-American War; causes: Yellow Journalism, De Lome Letter, Cuba wanted independence, explosion of USS Maine

De Lôme Letter: Basically just Spanish Ambassador dissing Pres. McKinley

Maine Explosion: 1898 explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor, yellow journalism blamed the Spanish and riled people up

Teller Amendment: Allows the US to give military/naval aid to Cuba to gain its independence under the condition that it would not take control of or annex Cuba

Theodore Roosevelt: 26th President, big environmentalist, Republican

Rough Riders: First volunteer cavalry placed in Cuba 

Hawaii, Liliuokalani: Queen who insisted that Natives should control the islands and American planters wanted to annex Hawaii

Treaty of Paris, 1899: end of Spanish American war, grants independence to Cuba, Spain cedes Guam and Puerto Rico, Philippines to US

Philippine Annexation and Rebellion: Philippines wanted independence like Cuba but the US wanted to annex it instead

Anti-Imperialist League: Founded by Mark Twain, opposed forced control, included Carnegie and the AFL

Platt Amendment (1901): treaty between US and Cuba to protect Cuba’s independence; US withdraws troops but also gets very involed in any diplomatic affairs

Open Door Policy: US diplomatic policy in order to get a foot into the East Asian trade market

Boxer Rebellion: People called “boxers” in China wanted to drive out any foreigners

“Speak softly and carry a big stick”: Teddy Roosevelt’s ideal of carrying the unspoken threat of a powerful military

Panama Canal; how the U.S. secured rights to build the canal: expensive project; Columbian government didn’t want them to build it. With the help of the US, Panama Revolted and allowed the US to build it

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Santo Domingo: Extends the Monroe Doctrine to Latin America, takes up role of defending LA from European powers

Gentlemen’s Agreement: Japan outlaws further emigration, US outlaws, discrimination against existing Japanese immigrants

dollar diplomacy: In the Wilson era, refers to US aid to Latin America and the Caribbean in hopes for economic benefit

Mexican Expeditionary Force, John J. Pershing: troops rallied quickly against Pancho Villa


THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1901-1918

Progressivism; characteristics of Progressive leaders: caused by urbanization and industrialization, Progressivism was a collective of reform movements pre-WWII

Muckrakers: radical Progressive journalists 

Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives: photojournal showcasing the impoverished and difficult lives of immigrants in NY tenement houses

Lincoln Steffens – The Shame of the Cities: denounced corruption in urban governments and boss rule

Ida Tarbell – A History of the Standard Oil Company: expose of the oil industry and the Standard Oil Company

401. Spanish-American War; causes: 

The U.S declared war on Spain on April 21, 1898 (first overseas conflict fought by U.S). Two immediate causes: 1) America's support of the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule 2) The mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba (blamed on Spain)


402. De Lôme Letter

A private letter, written in 1898 by the Spanish Minister Enrique Dupuy de Lôme that criticized President McKinley by calling him “a weak bidder for the admiration of the crowd”. Publication of the letter in American Newspapers helped generate public support for a war with Spain over the issue of independence for the Spanish colony of Cuba.


403. Maine Explosion

Soon after de Lôme's letter was published, the American battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, Cuba in which 260 people died. The ship had been ordered to Cuba a month earlier to protect American lives and property in Cuba. Many Americans assumed that the Spanish had sunk the ship, especially when a naval court of inquiry inaccurately reported that an external explosion by a submarine mine had caused the disaster.


404. Teller Amendment

An Amendment to the U.S declaration of war against Spain proposed by Henry M. Teller that proclaimed that the United States would not establish permanent control over Cuba, and that Cuba would remain an independent nation. 


405. Theodore Roosevelt

The Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Cuban revolution, Roosevelt was actually a pretty minor figure in the Navy Department at the time, but was determined to expand his power. Some of his British friends persuaded him that the war in Cuba gave the U.S an opportunity to expand the “American empire”. So, Roosevelt sent the navy's Pacific fleet to the Philippines, with orders to attack as soon as America declared war.


406. Rough Riders

A cavalry unit at the center of fighting in much of Cuba toward the end of the war during. Nominally the troop was led by General Leonard Wood, but the troop’s true fiscal leader was Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who resigned from the Navy Department to get into the war and had struggled to ensure that his regiment made it to the front lines before the war ended. His passion to join the war was likely due to the decision of his late father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., to not fight in the Civil War, which ended up being a source of shame within his family that his son felt he had to “erase”.


407. Hawaii, Liliuokalani

Due to a booming Hawaiian economy at the hands of sugar productions and plantations and a duty free tax on sales in America for American growers, American plantation owners began to take over Hawaii so to speak and tried more and more to gain more control politically, so in response, indigenous Hawaiians helped raise powerful nationalist Queen Liliuokalani to the throne. Though her queenship didn’t last long as by 1890, the U.S had eliminated the position of Hawaiian sugar in international trade. The result devastated the economy, and American planters concluded that the only way for them to recover was to become a part of the U.S to make them exempt from its high tariffs. In 1893, the American growers staged a rebellion and called on the U.S for protection, and after the U.S minister ordered marines from a warship in Honolulu harbor to go aid the rebels, the queen gave up her throne. 


408. Treaty of Paris, 1899

Brought a formal end to the Spanish-American war, and it confirmed the terms of the armistice including with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. U.S negotiators surprised the Spanish by demanding they cede the Philippines to the United States, something the original armistice had not included. Spain objected to the demands at first, but an offer of $20 million for the islands put an end to their resistance, and they accepted all the American terms.


409. Philippine Annexation and Rebellion

Many Americans were against the annexation of the Philippines and thought it to be both unnecessary and unethical. Ultimately the government ruled in favor of annexation though, and the Philippines resisted fiercely and conflict between them and the U.S lasted from 1898 to 1902. The war involved 200,000 American troops and resulted in 4,300 American deaths, nearly ten times the number who had died in combat in the Spanish-American War. The number of Filipino people killed in the conflict is not entirely clear but it is likely that at least 50,000 people died. In the end, America won. 


410. Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist League was established in late 1898 by rich Bostonians, New Yorkers, and others to fight against annexation, gained much support from a large following in the Northeast and waged a vigorous campaign against ratification of the Paris treaty. Motives of members of the league varied, some believed that imperialism was immoral, and went against America's commitment to human freedom. Some feared "polluting" the American population by introducing "inferior" Asian races into it, etc. In the end the Anti-Imperialists lost their political fight, as the U.S government ruled to support the annexation of the Philippines. 


411. Platt Amendment (1901)

The Platt Amendment barred Cuba from making treaties with other nations (effectively giving the U.S control over Cuban foreign policy). It also gave the U.S the right to intervene in Cuba to preserve independence, life, and property indefinitely and required Cuba to permit American naval stations on its territory. The amendment left Cuba with only “puppet” political independence in essence.


412. Open Door Policy

President McKinley issued a statement in September 1898 stating that the United States wanted access to China, but no special advantages there,"Asking only the open door for ourselves, we are ready to accord the open door to others." The very next year, Secretary of State John Hay put those words into policy when he addressed identical messages later known as the "Open Door notes" to England, Germany, Russia, France, Japan, and Italy, asking them each to approve three principles: each nation with any sphere of influence in China is to respect the rights and privileges of other nations in its sphere; Chinese officials are to continue to collect tariff duties in all spheres (because the existing tariff favored the U.S); and nations were not to discriminate against other nations in wagering port duties and railroad rates within their own spheres. 


413. Boxer Rebellion

Once the Open door policy was officially put into place, the Boxers, a secret Chinese martial-arts society with extreme nationalist beliefs and an immortality complex, launched a revolt against all foreigners in China. Now known as the Boxer Rebellion, the cause spread all across eastern China, group members attacking Westerners wherever they could find them, including many Christian missionaries. The height of the revolt was a siege of the entire Western foreign diplomatic corps, which resided in the British embassy in Beijing. The imperial powers of the west (including the U.S) sent an international military force into China to rescue the diplomats. In August 1900, it fought its way into Peking, China and broke the siege, putting an end to the rebellion.


414. “Speak softly and carry a big stick”

President Thedore Roosevelt’s foreign policy of carefully mediated and calculated negotiation ("speaking softly") supported by the “unspoken” threat of a swift and powerful military ("big stick") response if things were to go south.

 

415. Panama Canal; how the U.S. secured rights to build the canal

The most celebrated accomplishment of Teddy Roosevelt's presidency was the construction of the Panama Canal, effectively linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans together. At first, Roosevelt and many other canal advocates were in favor of a route across Nicaragua, allowing for a sea-level canal with no locks. They soon grew interested in the narrow Isthmus of Panama in Colombia though, the site of an earlier, failed effort by a French company to construct a canal. Although the Panama route was not at sea level and would thus require a bit more construction), it was shorter than the one in Nicaragua. And construction was already close to 40% complete. So, when the French dropped the price to buy the partially constructed canal, the U.S chose Panama. Roosevelt then sent John Hay, his secretary of state, to negotiate an agreement with Colombian diplomats in Washington to allow construction on the canal to begin without delay. Under heavy American pressure, the Colombian chargé d'affaires, Tomas Herrén, signed an agreement giving the United States perpetual rights to a six-mile-wide "canal zone" across Colombia.The very upset Colombian senate however refused to ratify the decision. Colombia then sent a new representative to Washington with instructions to demand a higher payment from the Americans plus a share of the payment to the French, which of course made Teddy Roosevelt furious and he began to look for ways to go around the Colombian government and begin construction. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the chief engineer of the French canal project, was in support of Teddy, and in November 1903, he helped organize and finance a revolution in Panama. In this revolt, President TeddyRoosevelt sent troops from the USS Nashville in Panama to "maintain order”, and their presence prevented Colombian forces from suppressing the rebellion, three days later Teddy Roosevelt recognized Panama as an independent nation. And the new Panamanian government soon agreed to the terms the Colombian senate had rejected. Work on the canal proceeded quickly, and the canal opened in 1914.


416. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Santo Domingo

In 1904, President Teddy Roosevelt announced what later came to be known as the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, and stated that the U.S, had the right not only to oppose European intervention in the Western Hemisphere but also to intervene in the domestic affairs of its neighbors if those neighbors proved unable to maintain order and national sovereignty on their own. The motivation for the Roosevelt Corollary, and the first opportunity for using it, was a crisis of sorts in the Dominican Republic. A revolution had taken over the nation’s corrupt and bankrupt government in 1903, but the new regime proved to be no better at “making good” on the country's $22 million in debts to various European nations. So, in response, Teddy Roosevelt established American control of Dominican customs and distributed 45 percent of the revenues to the Dominicans and the rest to foreign creditors. This arrangement lasted, in one way or another, for more than thirty years afterwards.


417. Gentlemen’s Agreement

The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907-08 was an informal agreement between the U.S and Japan to ease growing tensions between the two countries, particularly in regards to immigration. The agreement called for the U.S’s President Theodore Roosevelt to force San Francisco to repeal its Japanese-American school segregation order in exchange for Japan agreeing to deny emigration passports to Japanese laborers, while still allowing wives, children and parents of current immigrants to enter the United States.


418. dollar diplomacy

President William Howard Taft, the successor of President Teddy Roosevelt, worked to advance the nation's economic interests overseas, but showed little interest in Roosevelt's larger vision of world stability. Taft's secretary of state, corporate attorney Philander C. Knox worked meticulously to extend American investments into less developed regions. Critics called his policies "Dollar Diplomacy”. THis “Dollar Diplomacy” was particularly evident in the Caribbean, when a revolution broke out in Nicaragua in 1909, the government quickly sided with the revolutionists (who had been inspired to revolt by an American mining company) and sent troops into the country to seize the customs houses. As soon as peace was restored, Knox encouraged American bankers to offer mass loans to the new government, effectively increasing Washington's financial leverage over the country. When the new pro-American government faced an insurrection less than two years later, Taft again landed troops in Nicaragua, this time to protect the existing regime, and these troops remained there for more than a decade.




419. Mexican Expeditionary Force, John J. Pershin

During the Mexican Revolution, President Wilson had a clash with Mexican troops in Veracruz, the Americans killed many Mexican soldiers and suffered 19 casualties of their own. So, now on the brink of war, Wilson began to look for a way out. His show of force, however, helped strengthen the position of the Carranza faction, which captured Mexico City in August and forced Huerta to flee the country. So, it seemed, the crisis might be over.But Wilson reacted angrily when Carranza refused to accept American guidelines for the creation of a new government, and he briefly considered throwing his support to still another aspirant to leadership: Carranza's erstwhile lieutenant Pancho Villa, who was now leading a rebel army of his own. When Villa's military position deteriorated, however, Wilson abandoned him and finally, in October 1915, Wilson granted preliminary recognition to the Carranza government. By now, though, he had created yet another crisis. Villa, angry at what he considered an American betrayal, retaliated in January 1916 by shooting sixteen American mining engineers in northern Mexico. Two months later, he led his soldiers (or "bandits," as the U.S called them) across the border into Columbus, New Mexico, where they killed 17 more Americans In response, with the permission of the Carranza government, Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to lead an American expeditionary force across the Mexican border in pursuit of Villa. The American troops never found Villa, but they did engage in two ugly fights with Carranza's army, in which 40 Mexican soldiers and 12 American soldiers died. Once more, the U.S and Mexico stood at the brink of war. But at the last minute, Wilson retreated, he quietly withdrew American troops from Mexico, and in March 1917, he at last granted formal recognition to the Carranza regime. By now, however, Wilson's attention was turning elsewhere-to the far greater international crisis concerning virtually the entireEuropean continent and ultimately much of the world.


420. Progressivism; characteristics of Progressive leaders

Progressivism really became both popular and prevalent with the 1916 Presidential Campaign and race. Wilsons more conservative side was for the most part pro-war and being the best. And the opposing liberal and progressive side was very much anti war and supported coexistence by far more humanitarian means. 


421. Muckrakers

Authors and Journalists of the earth 20th century who strive to expose political and economic corruption and promote reform. These exposures by muckrakers also effectively led to the creation and implementation of federal laws such as the Pure Drug & Food Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act 


422. Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant and New York newspaper reporter and photographer, shocked many middle-class Americans with his sensationalized descriptions and pictures of tenement life in his 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives. Slum dwellings, he said, were almost universally sunless, practically airless, and "poisoned" by "summer stenches." "The hall is dark and you might stumble over the children pitching pennies back there." But the solution many reformers (including Riis) favored, and that governments sometimes adopted, was to get rid of slum dwellings without building any new or better housing to replace them in many cases.


423. Lincoln Steffens – The Shame of the Cities

The most influential muckraker is argued to be Lincoln Steffens, a reporter for McClure's magazine and the author of a famous book based on his articles, The Shame of the Cities (1904). His portraits of "machine government" and "boss rule"; his exposure of "boodlers" in cities as diverse as St. Louis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, and his tone of studied moral outrage-all helped arouse sentiment for urban political reform. The alternative to leaving government in the hands of corrupt party leaders, argued the muckrakers, was for the people themselves to take a greater interest and role  in public life.


424. Ida Tarbell – A History of the Standard Oil Company

One of the most notable muckrakers was journalist Ida Tarbell's enormous study of the Standard Oil trust (published first as magazines and then as a two-volume book in 1904). By the turn of the century, many muckrakers were turning their attention to government, particularly to the urban political machines.Essentially the first of its kind to call out the government and private companies in such a way. 


425. (Australian) secret ballot

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, most states adopted the secret ballot. Prior to that, the political parties themselves had printed ballots (or "tickets"), with the names of the party's candidates, and no others. They distributed the tickets to their supporters, who then simply went to the polls to deposit them in the ballot box. The old system had made it possible for bosses to monitor the voting behavior of their citizens and it also made it difficult for voters to "split" their tickets so to speak in order to vote for candidates of different parties for different offices. The new secret ballot which was printed by the government and distributed at the polls to be filled out and deposited in secret helped to “chip away” at the power that the parties had over voters.



direct primary:

voting processes by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate in an upcoming election


  1. Robert LaFollette, The Wisconsin Idea

a series of political reforms of the late 19th century and early 20th century whose strongest advocate was Robert M. La Follette, Sr., Wisconsin's governor


  1. 17th Amendment – Direct election of senators

Senators are elected directly by the voting public during elections 


  1. Initiative, referendum, recall

three powers reserved to enable the voters, by petition, to propose or repeal legislation or to remove an elected official from office.


  1. social welfare

the many programs that are designed to help people in need of goods and services that they are unable to provide for themselves


  1. municipal reform

state and local projects that used public markets to combat the urban "evils" of high food costs, lack of fresh food, traffic congestion, and unsanitary conditions.


  1. Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program reflected his three major goals: conservation of natural resources, corporate law, and consumer protection. It was meant to keep the wealthy and powerful from taking advantage of small business owners and the poor.


  1. Anthracite coal strike (1902) 

a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners were struck for higher wages, shorter workdays, and the recognition of their union. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to major American cities.


  1. Northern Securities case

Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197, was a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1903. The Court ruled 5-4 against the stockholders of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies, which had essentially formed a monopoly and to dissolve the Northern Securities Company


  1. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

The Jungle is a novel by American muckraker author Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century.


  1. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)  

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, also known as Dr. Wiley's Law, was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws that was enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration


  1. Meat Inspection Act (1906)

The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 is an American law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions.


  1. Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsylvania


  1. William Howard Taft

The 27th President of the United States, Taft was considered an ineffective president. However, he was able to improve the economy and build roads and schools.


  1. Pinchot-Ballinger affair

a dispute between President William Howard Taft (who supported Richard Ballinger) and ex-president Theodore Roosevelt (who supported Gifford Pinchot). Pinchot and his allies accused Ballinger of criminal behavior to help an old client of his and thus promote big business.


  1. preservationism v. conservationism

Conservation is generally associated with the protection of natural resources, while preservation is associated with the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes


  1. Federal income tax – 16th Amendment

The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and regard to any census or enumeration.


  1. Socialist Party, Eugene Debs

Eugene Victor Debs was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.


  1. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is a revolutionary syndicalist labor union founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1905. The goal of the IWW was to join all working-class people together into “one big union” organized by industry rather than by trade.


  1. Bull Moose Party

The Progressive Party was a third party in the United States formed in 1912 by former president Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé turned rival, incumbent president William Howard Taft.


  1. New Nationalism v. New Freedom

Wilson's New Freedom emphasized small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets; while Roosevelt's New Nationalism favored continued consolidation of the trusts and labor unions, supplemented by the growth of federal regulatory agencies.


  1. Underwood Tariff (1913)

Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act, U.S. legislation enacted in October 1913 that lowered average tariff rates from about 40 percent to about 27 percent and reintroduced a federal income tax.


  1. Federal Reserve Act (1914)

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act is legislation in the United States that created the Federal Reserve System. 1 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act to establish economic stability in the U.S. by introducing a central bank to oversee monetary policy.


  1. Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)

The Clayton Act, in conjunction with other antitrust laws, is responsible for making sure that companies behave themselves and that there is fair competition in the marketplace, which, according to economic theory, should lead to lower prices, better quality, greater innovation, and wider choice.


  1. Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division




Henry Cabot Lodge: He was against the proposal of the league and nations and made sure that the USA never joined the league of nations. He was also a member of the Immigration Restriction League

  1. Red Scare: An increase of popularity of  Communism that the US government was against 

  2. Palmer Raids: Intended to uncover caches of weapons and explosives but they found 3 pistols. Most people who were arrested were released but 500 non-American citizens were deported

  3. Red Summer (race riots, Chicago) Riots against racial abuse. The Chicago riot took place after white people killed a black teen and started a riot where there was a lot of violence. 38 people died

  1. Warren G. Harding: 29th president of the USA and was caught up in the Teapot Dome scandal. Besides that he really didn’t do anything in office. He served from 1921-1923. (He died of a heart attack in 1923.)

  2. Teapot Dome Scandal: Rich Naval oil reserves were at Teapot Dome. Harding transferred the land from the Naval department to the Interior Department whom Albert B. Fall controlled (He was engaged in fraud and corruption.) Then Fall secretly leased the lands to two wealthy businessmen. He was convicted of bribery and was sentenced to 1 year in prison.

  3. Calvin Coolidge: The 30th president of the USA. He as well did not do anything notable during his presidency.

  4. Herbert Hoover: 31st president of the USA. He served during the great depression. He tried using voluntarism to help fight the depression but it wasn’t successful. He also passed the Agricultural Marketing Act. In the election of 1932 FDR beat Hoover. 

  5. economic policies of the federal government in the 20s (Andrew Mellon): He reduced taxes for the wealthy, wanted to balance the economy after WWI, reduce debt of the USA, and have protective tariffs against competition for US goods

  6. business prosperity: The time period between 1921(war recession) and the economic disaster of 1929

  7. open shop: Workers who are hired regardless of them being or not being in a Labour union

  8. welfare capitalism: Term used to describe a company's policy to refuse negotiations with unions. Demonstrated Laissez-faire economics

  9. results of Ford’s assembly line: It takes 2 hours to build a car and leads to mass production and better working conditions for workers

  10. Consumerism:  autos, radio, movies, advertising: Social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in bigger amounts

  11. radio, KDKA: The first commercial radio station in the USA

  12. Charles Lindbergh: US aviator who made the first, solo, non-stop transatlantic flight in 1927

  13. Margaret Sanger and birth control: A nurse in New York who pushed for legalisation of birth control in early 1900’s

  14. Lost Generation – characteristics, important writers: group of writers (Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald) who criticised the materialism, consumerism, and the conformity of the roaring twenties.

  15. Harlem Renaissance, important writers: Outbreak of creativity amongst the African American communities in the field of Arts. Langhston Hughes was an important writer.

  16. Jazz; Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington: A type of music that was extremely popular especially in the African American community. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were some of the most influential jazz musicians of the 1920’s

  17. Flappers: young women who wore short skirts, had short hair, and wore heavy makeup. They symbolised the new “liberated” woman 

  18. modernism vs. fundamentalism: Fundamentalism: The Bible was literal. Modernists: There was room for interpretation in the Bible or even scientific truth. This was shown in the Scopes trial.

  19. Scopes Trial: highly publicised trial where John Thomas Scopes taught evolution in a Tennessee high school which broke a law.

  20. Prohibition and Volstead Act (1919): Law passed by congress in 1919 where they enforced the 18th amendment which outlawed the consumption and sale of alcoholic beverages

  21. organised crime: Gangs. Especially the mafia. A business supplying illegal goods (alcohol) and/or services.

501. Al Capone

Chicago gangster during the Prohibition era that profited from illegal alcohol.

502. National Origins Act

1924 law that “reduced overall immigration to the United States and established quotas on immigration from Western and Southern European countries, as well as Asian countries and Russia”

503. KKK and Birth of a Nation

The Klu Klux Klan was a violent extremist group that was racist and nativist. Birth of a Nation was the first movie with a plot and was wildly racist.

504. Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Two Italian immigrants and anarchists who were controversially convicted of murder.

505. Black Tuesday

The day the stock market crashed and the first visible sign of the Depression.

506. Underlying causes of Great Depression

Domestically, economy wasn’t very diverse, not much domestic market because of maldistribution of wealth, and structure of the credit system. Internationally, effects of WWI meant there was a lack of European markets and an unsustainable system of debt between countries.

507. Buying on margin, stock speculation

“Buying on margin occurs when an investor buys an asset by borrowing the balance from a bank or broker” and stock speculation is “the anticipation of future price movement based on a belief the market has inaccurately priced the stock”

508. Herbert Hoover

First Depression president who failed to help anything and was therefore wildly unpopular.

509. Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930)

Signed by Hoover, worsened the Depression

510. Hoover’s responses to the Great Depression

Tried to restore public confidence in the economy, public works programs and taxes, Smoot Hawley Tariff, voluntary cooperation between corporations and workers. Stuck to his principles despite no evidence they were working.

511. Reconstruction Finance Corporation 

“provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations, and other businesses”

512. Bonus Army (1932) – objective, results

WWI vets who gathered in DC to demand early bonuses, and did not succeed

513. FDR

Franklin Roosevelt, Democrat, New Del program to revive economy from Depression

514. Hundred Days; concerns addressed

In the first 100 days of his presidency, FDR passed 77 laws to try to save the economy

515. Three R’s (relief, recovery, reform)

The focuses of FDR’s New Deal program. Relief for poor and unemployed, recovery of economy, reform so it doesn't happen again

516. Bank Holiday

FDR temporarily shut down all banks to prevent their collapse and give the government time to respond.

517. Glass-Steagall Act, FDIC

Separated commercial and investment banks, created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks

518. Repeal of Prohibition, 21st Amendment

First amendment that repealed previous legislation

519. Fireside chats

FDR radio talks to talk about his programs and helped garner support

520. Public Works Administration

New Deal agency for public works like electrification and highways

521. Civilian Conservation Corps

Work relief for unemployed men

522. Tennessee Valley Authority

Largest public power company, helped wit electrification and irrigation in Tennessee Valley

523. National Recovery Administration

Establish fair trade practices and things like minimum wage

524. Agricultural Adjustment Act

boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land

525. Schechter v. United States (sick chicken case)

The Supreme Court case that invalidated as unconstitutional a provision of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) that authorized the President to approve “codes of fair competition” for the poultry industry and other industries.

526: Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created for the better means of the market and investors. To make investors feel more secure by giving them accurate information about the market.


527: Second New Deal 

The Second New Deal was set in place after President Roosevelt got criticism that his New Deal wasn’t making enough of a difference. It was meant to have legislation like the Social Security Act, the Wealth Tax Act, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, that are set to tax the wealthy, large business profits, inheritances, etc. Ultimately the goal was to redistribute wealth and better the lives of the lower income, elderly, farmers, and labor unions. 


528: Works Progress Administration, Harry Hopkins

The Works Progress Administration was made by Pres. Roosevelt on May 6, 1935 as a part of the New Deal to help the U.S. economy recover from the Great Depression. During this time unemployment was at 20%, the WPA would provide support and give jobs. By 1938 over 3.3 million people were employed at WPA.


Harry Hopkins was a part of the New Deal as a Democratic administrator that also worked closely with Pres. Roosevelt as an emissary and an adviser. As head of WPA he was in charge of relief programs and helped employ millions of Americans. 


529: Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) (1935)

It was a bill made into a law by Pres. Roosevelt on July 5, 1935. The National Labor Relations Board had established it and it allowed for employees to create or join unions as well as bargain with employers. This bill benefited most workers but domestic and agricultural.


530: Social Security Act (1935)

“The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement.” 


“The Social Security Act established two types of provisions for old-age security: (1) Federal aid to the States to enable them to provide cash pensions to their needy aged, and (2) a system of Federal old-age benefits for retired workers.”


531: Fr. Charles Coughlin, Francis Townshend

  1. baby boom

  • a temporary marked increase in the birth rate, especially the one following World War II.

  1. reasons for growth of suburbia

  • One of the causes was the availability of land in the suburbs. The land was less expensive to buy in suburban areas than in urban areas. A third factor leading to suburban growth was people's fear of increasing crime in the cities.

  1. sunbelt

  •  The sunbelt states included from Florida to California, they had warmer climates, lower taxes, and economic opportunities prompted families uprooted by the war to move to these areas.

  1. 22nd Amendment (two-term limit for pres)

  • Limited the presidnets to two terms in office

  1. Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

  • The Taft-Hartley Act prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns.

  1. Dixiecrats in 1948;  Strom Thurmond

  • Dixiecrats was a party that was formed in 1948 by diehard Southern democrats. The Dixiecrats were opposed to President Truman being nominated again as a Democratic candidate. These Dixiecrats were committed to the state's rights and the maintenance of segregation and opposed the federal intervention into race.

  1. Fair Deal

  • The Fair Deal was an extensive list of proposals for social reform legislation suggested by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in his State of the Union address to Congress

  1. Cold War

  • After World War II, the long period of intense rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States.

  1. Iron Curtain, communist satellites

  • These were nations that were aligned with (but also under the influence and pressure of) the Soviet Union.

  1. containment policy; George Kennan

  • American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War.

  1. Truman Doctrine

  • It was a policy which stated that the US would give aid to any country threatened by communism.

  1. Marshall Plan

  • American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.

  1. Berlin Airlift

  • A 327-day operation in which the U.S. and British planes flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city in 1948.

  1. East Germany, West Germany

  • East Germany was the Soviet sector of Germany that adopted a communist government, and West Germany was The sector of Germany run by the American, British and French, which had a Capitalist Government.

  1. NATO; Warsaw Pact

  • The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance between Communist countries in East Europe to counter the threat of Capitalism in Europe.

  1. NSC-68, Arms race

  • It was a continuing commitment to maintaining a large army, navy, and air force, and the development of ever-more-deadly nuclear weapons.

  1. “loss” of China

  • Chiang Kai-shek seized power as a dictator. Warlords overthrew president Sun Yat-sen. China's presidents did not have enough power.

  1. Korean War;  UN police action

A conflict between North Korea and South Korea, lasting from 1950-1953, in which the United States along with other UN countries, fought on the side of the South Koreans while China fought on the side of the North Koreans.

  1. HUAC

  • The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was an investigating committee that investigated what it considered un-American propaganda. Specifically communist influence inside and outside the US gov after WWII.

  1. Alger Hiss

  • Alger Hiss- a diplomat who had served in Roosevelt's administration, attended the Yalta conference, and helped organize the United Nations- was accused of being a Communist spy and later convicted of perjury

  1. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case

  • the hunt for spies led the FBI to arrest Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a NY couple who were members of the Communist Party. The government charged them with spying for the Soviets. The Rosenbergs denied the charges but were condemned to death for espionage. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953.

  1. Joseph McCarthy; McCarthyism

  •  A campaign or practice that endorses the use of unfair allegations and investigations.

THE EISENHOWER YEARS, 1952-1960

  1. Dwight D. Eisenhower; “Modern Republicanism”

  • it combined acceptance of the basic features of the New Deal with a conservative economic policy, particularly controlling government.

  1. Federal Highway Act (1956)

  • authorized the building of highways throughout the nation, which would be the biggest public works project in the nation's history

  1. John Foster Dulles, brinkmanship

  • He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against Communism worldwide.


massive retaliation: Massive retaliation, also known as a massive response or massive deterrence, is a military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack.


  1. Dien Bien Phu; Geneva Accords:The Geneva Accords of 1954 concluded the First Indochina War. Its main effect was to split Vietnam into a communist North and capitalist South, although the original plan was to create a unified, independent Vietnam. The provisional boundary between North and South was drawn at the Seventeenth Parallel.


  1. Ho Chi Minh: Hồ Chí Minh, colloquially known as Uncle Ho or just Uncle, and by other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary, nationalist, and politician.


  1. domino theory: The domino theory is a geopolitical theory which posits that increases or decreases in democracy in one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a domino effect. 


  1. Hungarian Revolt (1956):The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union.


  1. Sputnik Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 


  1. NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.


  1. Open-skies crisis, U2 incident:On May 1, 1960, the pilot of an American U-2 spyplane was shot down while flying though Soviet airspace.


  1. Fidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008,

  3. military-industrial complex (Eisenhower’s farewell address)The military–industrial complex refers to the 

relationship between the government, the military, and the businesses that make things for the military. For example, businesses can give money to politicians in elections.


  1. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS (1954), Earl Warren: State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.


  1. Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

  2. Little Rock crisis When Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School to keep the nine students from entering the school, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to insure the safety of the "Little Rock Nine" and that the rulings of the Supreme Court were upheld.


  1. Civil Rights Act of 1957, Civil Rights Commission This legislation established a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate civil rights violations and also established a Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice. T 

  2. beatniks Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. 


  1. Michael Harrington, The Other America: it was a book that showed the poverty of millions of americans. Hence the name other America.


  1. David Riesman” Mr Riesman was a Harvard graduate who had a degree in biochemistry as well as a degree in Law. He was most famous for “The lonely crowd” which was a study on the American Character/the upper and middle classes of america.


  1. John Kenneth Galbraith: He was an economist who sold books on the topic of economics. 


PROMISES AND TURMOIL:  THE 1960S

  1. Election of 1960 (Kennedy vs. Nixon) In a closely contested election, Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. This was the first election in which 50 states participated, marking the first participation of Alaska and Hawaii, and the last in which the District of Columbia did not.

  2. New FrontierKennedy's New Frontier was a program of economic and social reform. The overall goal of JFK's New Frontier was to get Americans to understand that in order to get through future obstacles and perils, sacrifices had to be made.

  3. Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance.

  4. Bay of PigsThe Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front, consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, clandestinely financed and directed by the U.S. government.

  5. Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1961 to 1989.

  6. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba and the USA was very scared about that and the U.S sent missiles to Turkey and Italy. The confrontation lasted 13 days in which both parties surrendered peacefully.

  7. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, treaty signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom that banned all tests of nuclear weapons except those conducted underground.

  1. Assassination of Kennedy (1963); Warren Commission -  Investigated assassination of Kennedy


  1. Lyndon Johnson; Great Society - Bringing aid to underprivileged Americans, regulating natural resources, and protecting American consumers


  1. War on Poverty -  Social welfare legislation introduced by Lyndon B. Johnson intended to help end poverty in the United States.


  1. Medicare - Health insurance program for people age 65 or older


  1. Medicaid - Health insurance for people with limited income and resources.


  1. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) - Designed to strengthen and improve educational quality and educational opportunities for all students


  1. Immigration Act of 1965 - Aimed to eliminate race discrimination in immigration by abolishing quotas and allowing immigration for “those who can contribute most to this country”


  1. SCLC, SNCC, nonviolent protest - Organized sit-ins, boycotts, and other nonviolent direct action protests against segregation and other forms of racial discrimination


  1. Greensboro sit-ins - Young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service


  1. March on Washington, 1963, “I have a dream…” - Public speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr that called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States


  1. Civil Rights Act of 1964 -  Prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin


  1. Freedom Summer, 1964 - Strived to increase voter registration among African Americans in Mississippi


  1. 24th Amendment - Forbade the federal and state governments from imposing taxes on voters during federal elections.


  1. Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Provided  direct federal intervention to enable African Americans to register and vote, and banned tactics designed to keep them from voting


  1. Malcolm X - Advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community


  1. Stokely Carmichael (SNCC), Black Power! - Challenged the philosophy of nonviolence and interracial alliances that had come to define the modern civil rights movement, calling instead for “Black Power.”


  1. Black Panthers - Organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality


  1. Watts Riots, 1965 - Series of riots that broke out in LA regarding Marquette Frye, who was arrested for suspicion of drunk driving


  1. “long hot summers” - Riots that broke out stemming from the frustrations of poverty and unemployment. 


  1.  Kerner Commission - Established by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes and events of “Long Hot Summers”


  1. Warren Court:  Rights Revolution, Miranda v. Arizona - Ruled that law enforcement in the United States must warn a person of their constitutional rights before interrogating them, or else the person's statements cannot be used as evidence at their trial.


  1. New Left - Liberal, radical, Marxist political movements that took place during the 1960s, primarily among college students


  1. Students for a Democratic Society - Student organization known for its activism against the Vietnam War


  1. Port Huron Statement - Call to participatory democracy where everyone was engaged in issues that affected all people - in civil rights, political accountability, labor rights, and nuclear disarmament


  1. Berkeley Free Speech Movement - An organized student protest to abolish all restrictions on students' free-speech rights throughout the UC system


  1. Counterculture - Rejection of mainstream values and a rebellion against the traditional social, political, and cultural norms of the time


  1. Woodstock (and Altamont) - Music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969


  1. Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique - Book that described assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children

  1. United States v. Nixon.-Supreme Court ordered then President Richard Nixon tape recordings from the Watergate Scandal to a federal district court.

  2. War Powers Act, 1973-Limits the President’s power and was used as a check and balance for the Executive Branch.

  3. Middle East War, 1973-Otherwise known as the Yom Kippor War, mainly between Israel and Egypt.  Both USA and Russia gave support to the side they wanted to win.   

  4. OPEC oil embargo-Oil exporting countries put an oil embargo on any country that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippor War.

  5. Roe v. Wade-Made abortion generally legal in the United States

  6. Jimmy Carter; characteristics of the economy during his term-Carters economic policies caused the economy to grow.  Unemployment fell, and many new jobs were created.

  7. Panama Canal Treaty (1978)-Allowed the United States to have joint control of the Panama Canal while it was under construction.  

  8. Camp David Accords; Anwar Sadat-Camp David Accords were the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt, and Anwar Sadat was the president of Egypt at the time.  

  9. Iran Hostage Crisis; Ayatollah Khomeini-53 American diplomats were held hostage by Iran and Jimmy Carter failed to negotiate for their release.  It would be the downfall of his presidency.  Ayatollah Khomeini was the Supremem Leader of Iran. 

  10. Mexican Americans, Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers-Advocated for equal rights as workers and started the United Farm Workers movement that brought change to the industry. 

  11. American Indian Movement (AIM)-Native American organization focused on equal rights and which congregated in major urban areas. 

  12. Indian Self-Determination Act (1975)-Indian tribes were given sovereignty (to some extent) and independence from the Federal government.

  13. Gay-rights movement;  Stonewall Inn raid 1969; 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell”-All worked for equality for Gay and LGBTQ+ people in the USA.  Stonewall Inn raid was a raid on a known Gay bar.  It sparked the Gay rights movement.

  14. Nuclear accidents:  Three Mile Island (‘79), Chernobyl (’86)-Resulted in regulation on the Nuclear Industry, and poisoned the area around the accidents.  

  15. Clean Air Act (1970)-Supreme Court ruling that counted Greenhouse Gases as pollutants. It limits harmful pollutants and creates and cap and trade program.  

  16. Clean Water Act (1972)-Gives Americans right to clean water and regulates the industry.

  17. EPA-Environmental Protection Agency created under Richard Nixon

  18. Ronald Reagan; “Reaganomics” and its results-Cut taxes for the rich and believed in Trickle Down Economics.  Resulted in a further income gap between the rich and poor. 

  19. Iran-contra scandal-Reagan was funnelling money from weapon sales to Iran in order to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.  

  20. Sandinistas and contras-Sandinistas wanted to rise up against the Pro-American government in Nicaragua and the Contras fought against them. 

  21. Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars")-Reagan’s plan to build lazers in space to blow Russian missles out of the sky.

  22. Berlin Wall's fall-Berlin’s wall which had separated the city finally came down under Mikhal Gorbechov.  

  23. Gulf War; Operation Desert Storm-USA and other countries sent troops into Kuwait to liberate it.  

  24. Whitewater; Monica Lewinsky-Scandal against Bill Clinton in which Monica Lewinsky testified that she had a sexual affair with the then President.  

  25. welfare reform-Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc. meant to benefit the American people.