History Vocabulary Words Flashcards
Power:
Power is the ability to direct or tocontrolsomthing or someone.
Authority:
Authority is power combined with the right to use that power.
Customs
Customs are the laws and princeples of morality.
Lexington/Concord:
The two places where there was a fight between the rebels and the British soldiers, and that’s what started the Revolutionary War.
Boycott:
To refuse to buy.
Boston Massacre:
The clash in 1770 between British troops and a group of Bostonians in which 5 colonists were killed.
King George III:
King George was the king of Great Britain during the American Revolution. He passed many harsh and unfair laws taking away the rights of the colonists that eventually led to the Revolution.
Proclamation of 1763:
The British Decree prohibiting colonial settlement west of the Appalachians.
Jamestown:
First successful colony in the new world, in Jamestown, Virginia.
Stamp Act:
The 1765 British degree taxing all legal papers issued in the colonies.
Declaration of Independence:
The document adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States as a nation independent of Great Britain.
Plymouth Colony:
In 1620 a small group of English settlers landed in Massachusetts they were looking for religious freedom and no taxes.
Roanoke:
Site of first English colony in the Americas, starting in 1585.
Quartering Act:
1765 It required the colonies to quarter (provide housing and supplies for the soldiers).
Boston Tea Party:
The 1773 protest against British trade policies in which patriots boarded vessels of the East India Company and threw the tea into the Boston Harbor.
Manifest Destiny:
The belief that it was the destiny of the United States to expand to its natural borders.
Treaty of Paris:
The treaty ending the revolutionary war. 1783
Bill of Rights:
The first ten amendments to the constitution, guaranteeing the basic rights of American citizens. (i.e freedom of speech)
Parliament:
The assembly of representatives who make laws in England.
Constitution:
A framework of government. Created in 1787 and includes the legislative, Judicial, and Executive Branches. It’s our current framework of government.
3/5 Compromise:
A clause to allow a slave to be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the Congress. It was proposed in July 1787 during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution at the Constitutional Convention. It was put down by the 13th amendment.
Articles of Confederation:
The plan ratified by the states in 1781, that established a national congress with limited power. It was replaced with the Constitution.
Amendments:
Changes or additions to a legal document.
Compromise:
A body of elected officials who meet to debate and pass laws.
Delegates:
People chosen to represent others at a meeting.
Executive:
Related to the branch of government that enforces laws.
Federal:
relating to a forum of government in which states are united under one central power.
Judicial:
Related to the branch of government that contains the court systems.
Legislative:
Related to the branch of government that makes laws.
Preamble:
The introductory part of the Constitution that explains the reasons for the and purposes of the laws.
Revolutionary War:
A war from 1775 to 1783 that gave the 13 American colonies independence from Great Britain.
Amendment 1
Congress cannot make a law that affects the establishment of religion, restricts a person’s right or the press’s right to free speech, or restricts the right of people to gather together in a peaceful manner.
Amendment 2
Citizens have the right to own guns.
Amendment 3
During times of peace soldiers cannot take up residence in someone else’s house without that owner’s permission.
Amendment 4
A person, his house and belongings cannot be searched or taken, and he cannot be given a warrant without good reason.
Amendment 5
You cannot be tried for a serious crime without a Grand Jury deciding there is enough evidence for a trial.
Amendment 6
A person should be given a speedy and public trial by a jury of his peers in the state and district where he committed the crime.
Amendment 7
A person has the right to a jury in a civil case where more than $20 is being disputed.
Amendment 8
Excessive bail and/or fines shall not be ordered, and cruel and unusual punishments can’t be imposed
Amendment 9
You have rights beyond those listed in the Constitution.
Amendment 10
Areas and laws that aren’t governed or prohibited directly by the Constitution may be made by individual states
Constitutional Convention
The meeting of state delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 that resulted in the writing of the Constitution.
New Jersey Plan
A plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a single legislative house with equal representation for each state.
Virginia Plan
A plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a legislature of two houses with proportional representation in each house and executive and judicial branches to be chosen by the legislature.
Federalist
A person who favored the plan of government created by the Constitution.
Anti-Federalist
A person who opposed ratification of the Constitution.
Frontier Line
The land between civilization and wilderness.
Northwest Territory
The land north of the Ohio River & was created into 5 states.
Surveyed
To measure land to determine the exact boundaries of a given area. Used for townships
Northwest Ordinance
The 1787 law that set forth a plan of government for the townships 36 sq miles at one dollar an acre in the Northwest Territory. Created by Thomas Jefferson. The law banned slavery, gave freedom of religion and trial by jury. 60,000 citizens in territory to apply for statehood.
Republicanism
For the country to thrive its citizens need certain virtues. These include a sense of equality, simplicity, and to sacrifice for the public good
Louisiana Purchase
The United States’ purchase from France (Napoleon) in 1803 of land west of the Mississippi. Jefferson purchased all 800,000 square miles for $15 million
Lewis and Clark expeditions
The expeditions from 1804-1806 that explored the Louisiana Territory.
Tributary
A river that flows into a larger river.
Zebulon Pike
An army officer who lead an expedition in 1805 to the Southern half of the Louisiana purchase. He was hired to find the head waters of the Red River, but never found it. He never climbed the famous peak in Colorado that bears his name.
Sacajawea/Shoshoni Indians
She was a teenage Indian who helped navigate Lewis and Clark as they explored the Louisiana Purchase. This nomadic tribe gave horses to the expedition that was invaluable to the success of the journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Missouri River
To start the expedition it was the river which Lewis and Clark and other men traveled up in flat bottomed river boats called pirogues
Stephen Long
1820 also tried to find Red River. Both a scientist and explorer, Long followed the Platte River westward from Missouri. He mapped the Great Plains, climbed Pikes Peak, and then headed south to find Red River. He never found the Red River.
Sacajawea/Shoshoni Indians
She was a teenage Indian who helped navigate Lewis and Clark as they explored the Louisiana Purchase. This nomadic tribe gave horses to the expedition that was invaluable to the success of the journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Missouri River
To start the expedition it was the river which Lewis and Clark and other men traveled up in flat bottomed river boats called pirogues.
Andrew Jackson
Our 7th president elected in 1829. Elected as a man of the frontier. He wrote Indian Removal Act. Nicknamed “Old Hickory.”
Mormonism
A religion founded by Joseph Smith in 1820. After Smith’s death, followers followed Brigham Young to the Rocky Mountains as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The term Mormon comes from the Book of Mormon.
Indian Removal Act
The 1830 law that authorized the president to move Eastern Indians to public lands west of the Mississippi.
Relocate
To move to another location.
Trail of Tears
The forced journey of the Cherokee Indians from their homes in Georgia to the lands in the West in 1838-1839.
South Pass
A low lying area through the Rocky Mountains in that is now Wyoming. Many trails west used this pass to get through the Rocky Mtns. (i.e. Mormon and Oregon Trail)
Oregon Country
The vast region of the Northwest surrounding the Columbia, Snake, and Fraser Rivers claimed by the British.
Emigrant
A person who leaves one place for another.
Oregon Trail
The most famous route to the Pacific Northwest from Independence, Missouri to the Columbia River
James K. Polk
Our 11th president. He told Congress,” Mexico has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil.”
John C. Fremont
3) John C. Fremont – A newcomer to the California region he rebelled against Mexican authority in 1846. His followers made a flag showing a grizzly bear and a single star and declared California the Bear Flag Republic.
Adams-Onis Treaty
Signed in 1819, Spain sold Florida to the United States for $5 million.
Mexican Cession
The land that Mexico Ceded to the US in 1848 under the terms of the treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Gadsen Purchase
The deal from Mexico that got New Mexico and Arizona for $10 million.
California Gold Rush
The mass migration in California following the discovery of gold in 1849.
Forty-Niner
A person who took part in the California Gold Rush.
Boom Town
Town that grows rapidly in population as a result of sudden prosperity. (i.e. San Francisco)
Cede
To give up.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The treaty that ended the Mexican/American war and made the Rio Grande boundary to Texas.
Chapultepec
A Mexican military academy in Mexico City that was defended by young Mexicans in the Mexican-American war. Captured by US forces 1847. Last battle in the Mexican American War.
Abolitionist
A person who worked in the movement to do away with slavery. Feelings started in the First Great Awakening in the north.
Salem Witch Trials
Trials in 1692 in the COLONY of Salem, Massachusetts that led to 20 peoples’ death after young girls charged people with practicing witchcraft.
First Great Awakening
Religious movement in the 13 colonies around 1740. Descibed the agonies of Hell & urged people to go to church and repent their sins. Start of anti-slavery in the north.
Conestoga Wagon
A horse pulled covered wagon with wide wheels, curved wagon bed, and an arched canvas top.
Mill
A machine that processes materials such as grain. Used water power and were in the north.
Cotton Gin
A machine designed to separate seeds from cotton fiber created by Eli Whitney. The machine increased the demand for slaves in the south.
Soil Exhaustion
The overuse of fertile soil. Plantations went west as cotton used up the nutrients of the soil
Sectionalism
Loyalty to local interests. One of the issues that divided people was the issue of slavery.
Missouri Compromise/Compromise of 1820
Act in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and forbidding slavery north of the 36 30’ line.
Popular Sovereignty
The pre civil war policy of allowing the voters in a territory to decide whether or not to allow slavery
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The 1854 law creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowing settlers there to decide whether to permit slavery. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. Both pro and anti slavery forces used violence to control people’s votes.
Second Great Awakening
A revival of religious faith in the 1800’s. A reaction to FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. Created lots of social organizations. They reformed, jails, education, and the # of work hours per day.
Three – Fifths Compromise
Created with the Constitution in 1778 to count FIVE slaves as THREE people for the census in the House of Reps. (CONGRESS) = House of Reps and Senate to create laws in the U.S.
Middle Passage
The journey lasting 3 months of slave ships crossing the Atlantic from Africa.
Slave Codes
Laws controlling treatment of slaves. Specific rules on what slaves could and couldn’t do on the plantation.
Compromise 1850
This compromise scraped the 36-30 line and made Calif. a free state. The south would make the Fugitive Slave Law to help catch and return slaves as part of the agreement.
The Battle of Goliad
More than 300 of Fannin’s men were gunned down after the Alamo by Santa Anna.
Tejano
A Mexican living in Texas in the 1800’s. Believed in a de- centralized government. They were angry at Santa Anna making the government centralized.
Battle of the Alamo
1836 an attack with a mission (a church) in San Antonio by Mexican forces during the Texas revolution. Started over a cannon.
Battle of San Jacinto
1836 battle in which Texan force under Santa Anna were defeated by, Sam Houston and lost independence to Texas.
Annex
Add to existing country or area.
Mexican War
The 1846- 1848 war. Known as Polk’s War. It completed Manifest Destiny.
Bear Flag Revolt
The 1846 uprising in which Americans(led by John C. Fremont) living in California rebelled against Mexican rule and formed an independent republic.
Rendezvous
A meeting or get together agreed on in advance with mountain men in the early 1800’s to support the fur trade.
Oregon Treaty
Polk used the slogan “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” to seal this agreement making the 49th parallel dividing British North America and the United States in 1846.
Border State
Around the Civil war, a state between the North and the South (i.e. Missouri, Kentucky,)
Confederate States of America
A nation formed by eleven southern states in 1861. South Carolina was the first to leave Union. This was to be the name of the new country. A new county based on slavery.
Richmond, Virginia
Capital of the Confederate States of America. The capital was moved to Montgomery, Alabama during the last year of the war
Antiseptic
A germ killing drug. Germs first discovered during the war.
Anesthetic
A pain killer.
