53 Frequently Tested AP® US History Terms & Concepts Flashcards

AP® US History Terms and Concepts

This document provides a list of 53 frequently tested AP® US History terms and concepts, divided into nine periods.

APUSH Periods and Exam Weighting

Period 1: 1491–1607 (4-6% Exam Weighting)
Period 2: 1607–1754 (4-6% Exam Weighting)
Period 3: 1754–1800 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 4: 1800–1848 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 5: 1844–1877 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 6: 1865–1898 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 7: 1890–1945 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 8: 1945–1980 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
Period 9: 1980–Present (4-6% Exam Weighting)

Period 1: 1491-1607

Encomienda System

Established by the Spanish government in the Americas during the 16th century.
Designed to divide up the American Indian labor force.
A Spanish conquistador (encomendero) was granted the labor of Native Americans in a specific area.
The system provided laborers with protection and education in Catholicism.
Native laborers paid tributes to the encomendero in the form of gold, metals, or agricultural products.
The system was designed to regulate and control Native Americans.

Joint-Stock Companies

Business ventures where individuals could purchase stock in a company.
The amount of stock owned determined influence in the company.
Played a key role in the founding of colonies in North America by English joint-stock companies.
These companies sought to harvest natural resources and bring them back to England.
Example: The Virginia Company, which founded the colony of Virginia.
Simply put, joint-stock companies are businesses owned by shareholders that invested in exploration and colonization.

Pueblo Indians

Native Americans of the present-day southwestern region.
Known for apartment-like structures made of adobe and mud.
Developed a distinct culture, art, and extensive agricultural methodologies.
Led successful revolts against the Spanish.
In 1598, the Spanish, led by Juan de Oñate, invaded the Pueblo region and established a colony in New Mexico, responding to native resistance with cruelty and terror.
The Pueblo Revolt occurred in 1680.

Asiento System

A Spanish slavery system that laid the foundation for slavery in the Americas.
African slaves were carried to the Americas, and a tax was paid to the Spanish crown for each slave imported.
Served as a foundational practice of commerce for slavery in the US.
A forerunner of the Triangular Trade System.
Resulted in hundreds of thousands of slaves being brought to the New World.

Roanoke

In 1586, English settlers, led by Walter Raleigh, attempted to establish a colony on Roanoke Island (off the coast of North Carolina).
When the governor, John White, returned from a supply trip to England, the colony was deserted.
The word “CROATOAN” was carved into a tree.
Represents the difficulties and fears surrounding English colonization of the Americas.

Period 2: 1607-1754

House of Burgesses

The first form of legislative power in the colonies.
Formed in 1642 by the Virginia Company to manage and administer aid to the colonists.
Led by burgesses, who were elected officials from within the colony.
Foreshadowed powers and contracts outlined in the Constitution.
Laid the blueprint for America’s self-determined spirit.
A forerunner of American government.

Mercantilism

Dominant economic theory in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century.
Argued that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, encouraged by government protectionism.
Key requirements included establishing colonies quickly and efficiently.
Colonies were to ship and sell products only in the home country.
The home nation’s exports must be greater than its imports.
The framework of the English, Spanish, and French colonies when expanding into the New World.

Cash Crops

Crops grown for cash instead of subsistence.
Examples: Sugar, cotton, tobacco.
After European arrival cash crops became primary crops.
Often harvested through forced labor or coercion systems, with devastating effects on the environment.
Significant because they helped drive colonial expansion.

Triangular Trade

Trade route from Africa to the New World and back to Europe.
Ships picked up slaves and goods in Africa to be sold in the New World.
Slaves worked on plantations, growing cash crops.
Ships then picked up cash crops to sell back in Europe, forming a triangle.
Established a system of slavery in the New World.
Enriched Europe and depopulated Africa.

Order of Colonization

The colonies were settled in the following order (from oldest to youngest):
- Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Each colony was founded for different reasons, cultivated different cash crops, and faced different challenges.
Knowing the chronology helps in managing the general AP® US History timeline and understanding each colony as a distinct entity, laying the foundation for the notion of state’s rights.

Period 3: 1754-1800

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution.
Guarantees things like freedom of speech and religion.
A response to fears about the power of the federal government.
Authored by James Madison.
Represents the fluid nature of the Constitution, demonstrated via how it was interpreted during many historic Supreme Court cases.
Understanding the BoR will help you unpack seminal court cases.

Boston Massacre

A scuffle between colonists and British soldiers in 1770.
Propaganda surrounding the event whipped the colonies into a frenzy.
Great Britain sent troops to Boston to protect officials administering legislation upheld by Parliament.
A crowd led by Crispus Attucks began to harass British soldiers, who fired upon the crowd.
Seen as a turning point where colonial sentiment turned from support of the British crown toward independence.

Boston Tea Party

A protest against Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, which gave the East India Company a monopoly in selling tea in the colonies.
The Sons of Liberty saw this as an intentional act to weaken the local, colonial economy and merchant class.
Men of Boston disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded East India Company ships, tossing the tea shipment overboard.
Seen in questions surrounding the causes of the Revolutionary War, the philosophy of liberty, and nonviolent resistance.

Checks and Balances

A political framework that separates power into a three-way system, preventing one portion of government from gaining dominance over the other two.
The United States government is divided into the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches.
Each branch has a specific scope of power that the other branches do not.
Each branch of government is given powers that allow it to keep its counterparts in check.
Prevents a seizure of absolute power by a single man or body politic.

The Constitution

One of the most important documents in United States (and really, global) history.
Established the three-branch system that the United States government has come to depend on.
Instituted a Congress comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Granted military power to the President of the United States.
Offered the right of the Supreme Court to interpret law as it applies for every citizen of the United States.

Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson and approved by the Continental Congress in 1776.
Embraced the official formation of a new nation.
Outlined reasons for breaking from the British throne.
Claimed that all men were created equal and guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Outlined crimes committed by the British throne and denounced Parliament for its treatment of the colonies.
Bound the American colonies on the path of self-governance and sovereignty.

Sons of Liberty

A group of colonists unhappy with the practices of the British Crown.
Formed to defend the colonists from further injustices at the hands of Great Britain and to combat any further taxation they deemed unfair.
Notable members included Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere.
Represent one of the most pivotal groups in carrying out the Revolution.

Period 4: 1800-1848

Embargo Act

Put into law by Thomas Jefferson in 1807.
Prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports.
Intended to protect American ships from impressment of foreign forces.
Decimated the economies of port cities.
Led to an 8 percent decrease in gross national product in 1807.
American exports declined by 75%, and imports declined by 50%.

War of 1812

America re-entered war with Britain.
Stemmed from frustration surrounding the British seizure of American ships, impressment of American sailors, and the British’s aid to Native Americans attacking Americans on the frontier.
American forces were able to thwart the British army and navy and secure victory.
Led to a surge in American national pride and self-determination.
Called a “second war of independence.”

Hartford Convention

Meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut.
The Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and the political problems arising from the federal government’s increasing demonstration of power and authority.
Discussed removing the three-fifths compromise and the possibility of a two-thirds majority in Congress for new states, declarations of war, and restricting trade.
Andrew Jackson’s victory in the presidential election squashed their hopes and essentially eradicated them as a substantial political force.

Tariff of Abominations

The Tariff of 1828.
Passed by Andrew Jackson to protect the American economy from cheap English goods that were flooding in.
Mainly protected the North because it created goods that competed with English manufactures.
The South was mostly agrarian at the time and enjoyed the cheap trade it had sustained with the British, but the Tariff of Abominations drove up the prices and forced the South to trade with the more expensive North.
Revealed a clear disunity between the North and the South that was beginning to take shape.

Cult of Domesticity

A social ideology that characterized women as subservient to men.
Emphasized an ideal woman who was tender and self-sacrificing, a caregiver who provided a nest for her children and a peaceful refuge for her husband.
Influenced the ratification of many social customs that restricted women to merely caring for the house.
Created a field for middle-class women to work as domestic servants.

Monroe Doctrine

U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere.
Enacted by President James Monroe in December 1823.
Warned European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs.
Pledged that the United States would not intervene in the internal affairs of European nations.
Established the groundwork for U.S. expansionism and interventionism in the decades to come.

Marbury v. Madison

The first time the U.S. Supreme Court declared an act of Congress unconstitutional.
Established the doctrine of judicial review.
President John Adams named William Marbury as one of forty-two justices of the peace.
Secretary of State John Marshall failed to deliver four of the commissions, including Marbury’s.
Thomas Jefferson ordered that the four remaining commissions be forgotten.
Marbury sued the new secretary of state, James Madison, in order to obtain his commission.

Period 5: 1844-1877

Emancipation Proclamation

Decreed by Abraham Lincoln, president of the Union.
Freed all slaves in the states that were rebelling during the Civil War.
The purpose was to render the eradication of slavery the unambiguous and clear goal of the Civil War and the Union Army.
Established true freedom for all its citizens.

Fugitive Slave Act

A component of the Compromise of 1850.
Passed on September 18, 1850.
Required that fugitive (runaway) slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state.
Made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
Compelled citizens to form militias and policing groups to round up and capture fugitive slaves, and the act forced African-American citizens into further paranoia and discrimination.

The Missouri Compromise

Passed in 1820.
Preserved the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states.
Admitted Maine into the US as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.
Prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the $36° 30´$ latitude line (with the exception of Missouri).
Led to countless friction between free and slave states, accelerated the issue of state’s rights, and further pit the nation against itself.
Later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Passed in 1854.
Gave what’s called popular sovereignty to states.
Settlers of a territory or state were able to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders.
Overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers.
The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas.

The Surrender at Appomattox Court House

The last battle of the Civil War, fought on April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox, Virginia.
Sealed the Union’s victory.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendering to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
The terms of the surrender were quite fair to the South.
Paved the path for an era of reconstruction (and Southern bitterness) that was to come.

Period 6: 1865-1898

Gilded Age

The period of time between 1870 and 1900 in the United States.
Period got its name from Mark Twain and his novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America.
Economic growth became rapid and robust.
Wages rose explosively as a result of heavy industrialization and modernization thanks to technological advancements and strong economic policies.
Attracted immigrants from all over Europe, leading to a massive boom in immigration.
African Americans, women, and immigrants were systematically disenfranchised and excluded from this era of privilege.

Laissez-Faire Economics

Emphasized a free market that would produce the best and most efficient solutions to economic and social problems on its own, without much government intervention.
Allowed businesses to do what they wanted without much regulation.
Drew heavily from principles of limited government intervention and the ideas of Social Darwinism.
Began to sew deep misalignments in wealth and equality.

JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie

The triumvirate of 19th-century American wealth and business.
JP Morgan: influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized companies.
John D Rockefeller: established the Standard Oil Company.
Andrew Carnegie: led the expansion of the American steel industry during the late 19th century.
Accelerated the notion of American individualism, and the rags-to-riches, land-of-opportunity narrative surrounding America.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy employed by John D. Rockefeller and other business tycoons.
An act of joining or consolidating with one’s competitors to create a monopoly.
Rockefeller monopolized certain markets and reap huge financial gains.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy.
A single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution.
One company produces the raw materials, packages them, and distributes them.
Led to an immense amount of wealth for certain business tycoons, and further increased the power of monopolies.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890

Enacted in 1890.
The first federal action designed to thwart monopolies, which had, by then, grown too powerful and too influential.
Outlawed both formal cartels and attempts to monopolize any part of commerce in the United States.
Designed to bust, well, trusts.
A trust was an arrangement where stockholders in different companies transferred their shares to a single set of trustees.
Proved integral to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, as he would cite in his sweeping trust-busting reform.

The New South

Attempted to modernize the South’s economy and to diversify southern agriculture by adding new industries and trading methods.
Encouraged northern investment and greenlighted the construction of new railroads to tie the south into national and international markets.
Still wrestled with the questions of tradition, legacy, and race for years to come.

Period 7: 1890-1945

Roosevelt Corollary

An addendum to the Monroe Doctrine.
Forbade any attempt by a European power to further colonize North or South America.
Made the outright declaration that if a European power tried to intervene in the affairs of North or South America, then the United States would exercise military forces to keep Europe out.
Played a key role in developing the aggressive foreign policy America would adopt in the 20th (and really, the 21st) century.

“Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Stick.”

An adage made famous by Theodore Roosevelt.
Accurately summarizes Roosevelt’s approach to foreign policy during his presidency.
Refers to how Roosevelt dealt with encounters between Europe and the fledgling nations that had begun to sprout in South America from former colonies.
Refers to the newly formed and mighty United States Navy, a sort of boast of military power.
A prime example: when the navy’s Great White Fleet, composed of 16 brand new battleships, sailed around the world to demonstrate the power of the United States.

Transcontinental Railroad

The physical manifestation of the American dream of Manifest Destiny.
Built in the mid-19th century.
Stretched from San Francisco and Iowa to the Atlantic Ocean.
Played a substantial role developing the rapid modernization and urbanization of the United States during the early-20th century.
Trade was facilitated because merchants no longer had to transport goods via ship but instead could rely on the railroad to move product.

Wilson’s 14 Points

President Wilson outlined the exact goals of the United States for entering World War I.
Described a variety of peace negotiations to end the war.
Described the type of world he hoped to build, a world of free trade between all nations, open navigation of the seas, and the formation of the precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations.
Helped set the wheels of globalization, and particularly America’s role in shaping globalization.

Great Depression

The worst economic crisis of the 1930s.
Lasted until WWII.
Stemmed from four factors: Financial instability and credit cycles, Monetary contraction,the gold standard, and bank runs, Debt deflation, Maldistribution of wealth.

Manhattan Project

The scientific project undertaken by the United States to create the first atomic weapon.
Led by the premiere physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The bulk of the engineering and design took place at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The end result of the project was the creation of two atomic bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively leading to the end of the war in the Pacific Theater.
The development of the atomic bomb would create a new world marked by paranoia and apocalyptic dread.

Potsdam Conference

Allied leaders met in Potsdam and determined Germany’s fate.
Created a Council of Foreign Ministers and developed a central Allied Control Council for administration of post-war Germany.
Arrived at various agreements on the German economy, punishment for war criminals, land boundaries and reparations.
Issued a declaration demanding “unconditional surrender” from Japan.

Period 8: 1945-1980

Scopes Monkey Trial

The first instance of religion versus science in the United States public education system.
A substitute biology teacher unwittingly taught evolution in a Tennessee high school.
The Butler Act had made it illegal to teach any form of evolution in a Tennessee school that received money from the state.
Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes, and against him stood William Jennings Bryan.
Concluded with the defeat of Scopes, who was found guilty and fined $100$ , but it also pointed toward a long-lasting battle between science and religion in American society.

Bay of Pigs

During the Cold War, Cuba was at a crossroads in their own development as a nation.
Led by Fidel Castro.
Apprehensive about Castro’s left-wing sympathies President Eisenhower ordered an invasion of the island, but the final stamp of approval was given by President Kennedy.
Failed and the United States faced embarrassment on the international stage, forced to grant Cuba’s new political system legitimacy.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Marked the height of tension during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Cuba began aid from the Soviet Union.
The USSR armed the island-nation with nuclear missiles pointed towards the United States, leading in a 13-day standoff between the US and Cuba/the USSR
Ended with a series of tactful negotiations between Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy.
It is one of the most tense moments in world history, as it brought the world close to nuclear annihilation.

Red Scare

Refers to the period of time between 1947 and the early 1950’s.
The American national consciousness became inundated with fear regarding all things communist.
The main figure at the heart of the Red Scare was Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Marked a period of fear-mongering and repression against those who professed even the slightest sympathy for Communists.

The Kent State Massacre

On May 4, 1970, 4 students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University were shot and killed by the National Guard.
Marked a period of deep polarization in American history.
Revealed a deep cultural and generational division within American society, a division that began to form during the 1950s and early 1960s as a marketable mass culture including sitcoms, rock n’ roll, hippie culture, and more began to take shape.
The youth of America had grown tired of America’s aggressive foreign policy and stubborn intolerance, and they began to grow restless.

Period 9: 1980-Present

Détente

During the 1960s through the 1980s, the United States attempted to strategically unravel the Soviet Union while simultaneously easing tensions between the two superpowers.
The first step of ending the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Brought about by events such as the Strategic Arms Limitation talks and the signing of the Helsinki Accords.
Marked the first instance during the Cold War that both superpowers realized that the continued escalation might lead to a potentially devastating nuclear war and the destruction of both nations.

Domino Theory

Dominated United States legislation and the national consciousness from the 1950’s to the 1980’s.
Centered around the belief that if one country fell to Communism, then surrounding nations would follow suit, leading to a gradual development of communism.
Dominated American foreign policy through the duration of the Cold War and its interventionist procedures that led to the Korean and Vietnam War.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

After more than 40 years of Cold War, the USSR finally agreed to call it quits, and decided to tear down the Berlin Wall at the urging of United States President Ronald Reagan.
Began dismantling the Wall on November 9, 1989.
Marks a significant moment of reconciliation in not only American but global history.

Attacks of September 11, 2001

19 members of the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and an attempted attack on the White House in the United States.
Almost 3,000 people were killed during the attacks.
Initiated major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism which ultimately defined the presidency of George W. Bush.
The Patriot Act of 2001 granted broad police authority to the federal, state, and local government to interdict, prosecute, and convict suspected terrorists.

Affordable Care Act

Passed in 2010.
Demanded households with incomes above $250,000$ to pay higher taxes as a means to bring about health care reform.
Decreed that medicare will operate with the notion of “payment bundling”
Commonly called “Obamacare”
Designed to grant healthcare to a wider range of people.