American History Flashcards
Describe the Federal Reserve System.
The central bank of the United States; incorporates 12 Federal Reserve branch banks and all national banks and state-charted commercial banks and some trust companies. It was was created in 1913 by the Federal Reserve Act.
Describe the Federal Reserve System.
Supervise and regulate banks, Implement monetary policy by open market operations, setting the discount rate, and setting the reserve ratio, Maintain a strong payments system, Control the amount of currency that is made and destroyed on a day to day basis (in conjunction with the Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing). Other tasks include: Economic research, Economic education, Community outreach
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>What are Implied powers, in relation to the U.S. Constitution?
</p>
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>Powers not specifically given to the Federal Government of the United States. Implied powers are derived from an enumerated power and the Necessary-and-proper clause, which can also be recognized as the elastic clause. These powers are not stated specifically but are considered to be “reasonably” implied through the exercise of delegated powers. The implied powers of the Federal government was an idea formed after Thomas Jefferson decided to go ahead with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, although the Constitution did not explicitly give him the power to do so. Later, the implied powers played an important role in the court decision of McCulloch v. Maryland, with the Second Bank of the United States using the idea to argue the constitutionality of Congress’s creating it in 1816.
</p>
What group controlled Mexico when Spanish settlers arrived in the 16th century?
The Aztecs.
What happened at Fort Sumter?
In 1861 Confederates attacked the fort, which led to its surrender and was the opening engagement of the Civil War. It is located in Charleston, South Carolina.
What is a graduated income tax?
An income tax that takes proportionately more from higher wage earners.
What is a holding company?
Business owning a majority of stock in member companies and therefore able to dictate common policy. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of the largest publicly traded holding companies; it owns numerous insurance companies, manufacturing businesses, retailers, and other companies.
What is the definition of Fascism?
Form of government characterized by militarism, extreme nationalism, and a oneparty dictatorship.
What is the elastic clause?
Part of Article I of the Constitution that gives Congress authority to pass laws in addition to those specified.
What is the difference between de facto segregation and de jure segregation?
De facto segregation is segregation of races that actually exists, though not by law. De jure segregation is segregation of races by law.
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>What is the importance of Marbury v. Madison?
</p>
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>(1803) landmark case in United States law wherein the U.S. Supreme Court established judicial review as a legitimate power of the Court on constitutional grounds.
</p>
What is the importance of Marbury v. Madison?
(1803) landmark case in United States law wherein the U.S. Supreme Court established judicial review as a legitimate power of the Court on constitutional grounds.
What is the signifigance of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
In 1854, it established that the people of a territory should decide whether slavery would be allowed there. Opponents saw it as the triumph of the Slave Power and formed the Republican Party to defeat it. The Act was a key step on the way to the American Civil War.
What killed more people: the black plague or colonization of america?
Colonization of America.
What political party did Alexander Hamilton start?
The Federalist party in 1792, which advocated strong national government. It was opposed by Thomas Jefferson & James Madison’s Republican party.
What was Bleeding Kansas?
Sometimes referred to as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a sequence of violent events involving abolitionists (anti-slavery) and pro-slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri between roughly 1854 and 1856. It led up to the civil war.
What was Jamestown?
The first successful English colony, established in 1607 on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. It was headed by John Smith, who befriended Pocahontas. It was all male.
What was the Age of Enlightenment?
It was 18th century european philosophical movement (part of Age of Reason). Leading thinkers believed that the future could be shaped and directed by reason. They believed that society was based on natural laws. Thus, these thinkers challenged the power of absolute monarchs or kings and the idea that a monarch or king ruled by divine right.
What was the Agricultural Revolution?
Period from the early 1700s until the mid-1800s during which machines and improved technology replaced manual labor and traditional methods in farming.
What was the Alien Registration Act?
AKA - Smith Act of 1940 made it a criminal offense for anyone to conspire to overthrow the government. It also required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government. The Act is best known for its use against political organizations and figures, mostly on the left. A series of United States Supreme Court decisions in 1957 threw out numerous convictions under the Smith Act as unconstitutional.
What was the Battle of the Little Bighorn?
(1876): Also called Custer’s Last Stand, it was the most famous incident of the Indian Wars. Cheyenne and Sioux indians killed Custer and all of his men.
What was the Berlin Airlift?
Airlift by U.S. in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of West Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin.
What was the Boston Massacre?
March 5, 1770, a brawl between American colonists and British soldiers where the colonists hit the British soldiers with snowballs and the British soldiers shot into the crowd killing 5 of the colonists.
What was the Declaration of Independance?
The document recording the announcement of the second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, asserting the independence of the colonies from Great Britain.
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>What was the Emancipation Proclimation?
</p>
<p class=”large” style=”text-align:center”;>Declaration issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in those territories still rebelling against the Union.
</p>
What was the Embargo Act of 1807?
It prohibited all international exports from American ports. It represented President Thomas Jefferson’s response to the United Kingdom’s Orders in Council (1807) and France’s Continental System, which were severely hurting America’s merchant marines. Although it was designed to force the British and French to change their commercial systems, neither country did, and the Act was repealed in 1808. The Act failed to prevent the War of 1812.
What was the Era of Good Feelings?
Period from 1815–1821 that followed the War of 1812 where the last Federalist candidate was defeated and the issues of slavery were emerging as a result of the Missouri Compromise. James Monroe defeated the last Federalist candidate in 1816, and won unopposed in 1820.
What was the espionage act of 1917?
Passed by Congress in 1917 after the United States entered World War I; set a $10,000 fine and 20 years’ imprisonment for interfering with the recruiting of troops or the disclosure of information dealing with national defense.
What was the French and Indian War?
The war that raged in North America through the late 1750’s and early 1760’s was but one part of the larger struggle between England and France for dominance in world trade and naval power. The British victory in that struggle, known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War , ended the long struggle among the three principal powers in northeastern North America: The English, the French, and the Iroquois Confederacy, it confirmed England’s commercial supremacy and cemented its control of the settled regions of North America.
What was the Fugitive Slave Law?
In 1850, the law stated that in the future any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1000, people suspected of being a runaway slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than his or her sworn testimony of ownership, and any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months’ imprisonment and a $1000 fine.
What was the Gilded Age?
The Gilded Age (c.1876–1914) was a period of intense economic development and wealth transfer in the United States. Following the generation of the American Civil War and Reconstruction of the South, this period corresponded with the Second Industrial Revolution and the greatest economic, territorial, industrial, and population expansion in American history. The explosion of commerce and heavy industry, supported by mercantilist economic policies and federal railway subsidies, the innovation of new techniques in steel production and the use of electric power, and the continued development of the American West catalyzed dramatic social changes, created a number of immensely wealthy businessmen, the “Robber Barons”, and also galvanized the American Labor Movement.
What was the Good Neighbor Policy?
The “Good Neighbor” policy was the policy of the United States Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in relation to Latin America during 1933-45, when the active U.S. intervention of previous decades was moderated in pursuit of hemispheric solidarity against external threats.
What was the Great Compromise of 1787?
Created a bicameral legislature in the Constitution; it established that representation in one house was to be proportional to population in one house and equal among states in the other.
What was the Haymarket Riot?
Began in 1886 with a riot at the McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago where unionized workers were striking for shorter work days and then a few days later moved to Haymarket Square where a protest meeting was called to denounce the events of the previous day; resulted in several deaths.
What was the importance of Dred Scott v. Sanford?
In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that even free Africans could not sue in a federal court, since they were not citizens of the United States and that slaves brought into free territory remained slaves because they were a form of property.
What was the Indian Removal Act?
(1830): A law passed by Congress in order to facilitate the relocation of American Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands further west. It authorized President Andrew Jackson to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes living within the boundaries of existing U.S. states. Resulted in the forcable movement of tens of thousands of native americans. The most well known was the Trail of Tears (1838), when 4,000 cherokees were killed during their forced relocation.
What was the Magna Carta?
Great Charter forced upon King John of England by his barons in 1215; established that the power of the monarchy was not absolute and guaranteed trial by jury and due process of law to the nobility. It was the first step in a long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law.
