mega super Flashcards
The primary avenue of trade for West Africans before European traders connected them to the Atlantic World. It carried slaves to the New World sugar plantations in the Spanish West Indies, Rum and Molasses to the English Colonies, and commodities sent from England.
Triangular Trade
A grant of Indian labor in Spanish America given in the 16th Century by Spanish kings to prominent men.
Encomiendas
The massive global exchange of living things, including people, animals, plants, and diseases, between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres that began after the voyages of Columbus
Columbian Exchange
Economic philosophy or practice in which England established the colonies to provide raw materials to the Mother country; the colonies receive manufactured goods in return.
Mercantilism
First constitution in the colonies drafted that stated a government’s authority rests upon the consent of the governed and expressed the will of the majority.
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
English laws passed beginning in the 1650s requiring that certain English colonial goods be shipped through English ports on English ships, manned by English sailors in order to benefit English merchants, shippers, and seamen.
Navigation Acts
British colonial policy during the Reign of George I and George II. By relaxing their supervision of internal colonial affairs, royal bureaucrats inadvertently assisted in the rise of self-government in North America
Salutary Neglect
First of the many mini legislatures created by the Colonies that started the tradition of Salutary Neglect and home rule.
Virginia House of Burgesses
Used by Puritan Churches to bolster attendance but also keep political leadership under the control of respectable families. Conversion needed but not “regeneration” to be a member of the congregation.
Halfway Covenant
Disgruntled Virginia (Chesapeake) colonial farmers attempted to overthrow the Governor. Berkeley in 1676 because of economic hardship and perceived failure with Indian raids and lack of women that could be married.
Bacon’s Rebellion
The league of Indian tribes in the Northeast that fought with the English in the French-Indian War and supported the Loyalists in the American Revolution.
Iroquois Confederation
Old: Conservative ministers opposed to the passion displayed by evangelical preachers. New: Evangelical preachers who emphasized the importance of spiritual rebirth. Established Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Rutgers Universities.
Old Lights/New Lights
Banished dissenters who questioned the laws mandated by the church. Including Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson
Puritan Dissenters
During the French and Indian war, Ben Franklin attempted to unify the colonies behind Great Britain in its war against France.
Albany Congress
A line drawn by the British government that forbade colonists from settling the western lands won after the French and Indian War.
Proclamation of 1763
Prior to the American Revolution, the British instituted this act which taxed all transactions involving paper without colonial consent. No other act outraged all 13 colonies than this one.
Stamp Act
1770, street clash between townspeople and Irish soldiers ordered to guard British custom houses. Led to the deaths of 5 colonists
Boston Massacre
Organized by Massachusetts in 1772 its purpose was to keep a close watch on the British and report any violations on individual rights.
Committees of Correspondence
Major religious revival (1740-1750) prior to the American Revolution that furthered individualism, opposed established authority and furthered American nationalism.
Great Awakening
Named after the British political leader who wrongly believed that this external “tax” or “duty” would be accepted by the colonies.
Townshend Acts
Organized by the Sons of Liberty, it involved the willful destruction of crates of British tea. It was a direct response to British taxation policies in the North American colonies. This group eventually forced the British to pass the Coercive Acts in 1775.
Boston Tea Party
A secret organization that was created in the Thirteen Colonies to advance the rights of the European colonists and to fight taxation by the British government.
The Sons of Liberty and Minutemen
American colonists sent this to King George III in hopes of reconciliation. It was rejected when he branded all colonists as rebels. The King sent Hessian and British troops to America.
Olive Branch Petition
This body drafted their Declaration of Rights and Grievances. Brought back the Association and oversaw the relief of Boston and boycott of English goods.
1st Continental Congress
This body formed the Continental Army, sent the Olive Branch Petition to Britain during the blockade of Boston, and eventually drafted the Declaration of Independence
2nd Continental Congress
Important turning point battle of the Revolutionary War. The American victory encouraged France to aid colonial independence from Britain.
Saratoga
The final battle of the revolution; won by George Washington and his French allies who trapped Gen. Cornwallis in Virginia.
Yorktown
First US government which was ineffectual in dealing with the nation’s financial and political problems because it lacked coercive power.
Articles of Confederation
Debt-ridden farmers mounted a protest to foreclosures led by revolutionary war veterans; that demonstrated the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
Shays’ Rebellion
Also known as the Connecticut Compromise, it established a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House Representatives) and equal representation in the upper house [2 Senators each state].
Great Compromise
Jay, Madison, and Hamilton published a series of letters under the pseudonym “Publius” to help grow support for the ratification of the Constitution.
The Federalist Papers
Established by Alexander Hamilton to improve the national economy, but it also created a constitutional crisis on interpretation of the U.S. constitution.
National Bank
Sec of Treasury under Washington and perhaps the greatest administrative genius in U.S. history. He was the father of the 1st National Bank, pro industry, nationalist and founder of the Federalist Party.
Alexander Hamilton
1795 Treaty with Spain fearful of Jay Treaty with Great Britain might threaten Spanish holdings in the West. Spain permitted U.S. navigation rights on the Mississippi and conceded U.S. right to lands east of the Mississippi.
Pinckney’s Treaty
The unpopular treaty with Great Britain 1794-95 that was supposed to stop British impressments but did not. The British did withdraw soldiers from the Northwest Territory.
Jay Treaty
Western Pennsylvania Farmers failed uprising against the Washington administration. They took up arms as a result of Hamilton’s excise tax on whiskey in 1794
Whiskey Rebellion
John Adams’ last minute appointment of Federalist Party members to federal courts before Thomas Jefferson took office in 1800.
Midnight Judges
Issued by Jefferson and Madison in response to President Adam’s passage of the Alien & Sedition Acts, the resolution advocated States rights to nullify laws they considered to be unconstitutional.
Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions
Jefferson’s least popular action taken. It did not allow American shipping to carry European goods to the U.S. It furthered American industry and wrecked the shipping business in the Federalist New England area.
Embargo Act 1807
After the election of 1800, Jeffersonians promoted this as the ideal for women to raise their children with the idealism of the American nation.
Republican Motherhood
Meeting of New England Federalists who were opposed to the War of 1812 and wanted to seek a separate peace with Britain even if it meant seceding from the Union.
Hartford Convention
Henry Clay and John C Calhoun were members for their support of the war of 1812 (Now a common term used for pro-war sentiment)
War Hawks
First of the internal improvements provided by congress in 1806 to help the colonization of the west. A toll bill linked to the road was vetoed by Monroe.
Old National Road-(Cumberland Road)
Religious revivals and growth of Baptist and Methodist membership between 1800-1840 that lead to rise of major reform movements and utopian/religious sects like the Shakers & Mormons. Focus was on connecting the frontier families, and on Romanticism and Perfectionism
Second Great Awakening
This was Henry Clay’s three part plan to improve the national economy through a 2nd National Bank, Internal Improvements, and Protective Tariffs.
American System 1819
A Bill passed in 1820 to solve the divisive issue of the expansion of slavery which threatened to upset the political balance in the Senate. This bill set the tone for the congressional actions prior to the Civil War.
Missouri Compromise
Senator from Kentucky called the Great Compromiser because he was credited with the Missouri Compromise and other major political compromises between 1820 and 1850.
Henry Clay
French liberal politician who observed the evolution of American political thought, customs and social interaction in the 1830’s. His book Democracy in America is still considered one the most accurate primary sources on American culture.
Alexis De Tocqueville
Brief period of nationalism and patriotism that followed the American victory over the British in the War of 1812. It was marked by a spirit of cooperation on economic matters, internal improvements and westward expansion
Era of Good Feelings
Announcement made during the Era of Good Feelings because the U.S. feared that the Concert of Europe might intervene in Latin American revolutions-U.S. stood opposed to any further colonization in western hemisphere and would not intervene in European affairs.
Monroe Doctrine
Most important Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who kept the Federalist ideals alive long after the party faded into history.
John Marshall
John Marshall’s landmark supreme court case that established the principle of judicial review.
Marbury v. Madison
Supreme Court case that established the principle of implied powers and upheld the constitutionality of the bank “the power to tax is the power to destroy”.
McCulloch v. Maryland
The alleged deal between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay in the Election of 1824 that stole the election from Andrew Jackson.
Corrupt Bargain
The political party formed as the anti-Jackson party by Henry Clay and supporters of the American System, and southern “States rights” advocates.
Whig Party
Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory) opposition to a National Bank (an idea by Henry Clay) prompted him to remove Federal deposits and place them in State Banks.
Pet Banks
The idealized description political supporters of Jackson used to promote his candidacy for president.
Common Man
1832-33 was over the tariff policy of the Fed. Government, during Jackson’s presidency which prompted South Carolina to threaten the use of Nullification possible secession and Andrew Jackson’s determination to end it with military force.
Nullification Crisis
Act that directed the mandatory relocation of eastern tribes to territory west of the Mississippi River. Jackson insisted that his goal was to save the Indians and their culture. Indians resisted the controversial act, but in the end most were forced to comply.
Indian Removal Act 1830 /Trail of Tears
During the age of reform 1825-1859 he was an outspoken reformer who focused on education
Horace Mann
19th century belief that men were superior in worldly pursuits and women were superior in their moral influences
Doctrine of Separate Spheres
1836-1870 these were used by schools to expose children to a common curriculum that preached honesty, industry (hard work), and patriotism.
McGuffy Readers
Southern Whigs who supported slavery. Northern Whigs who opposed slavery
Cotton Whigs/ Conscience Whigs
Socio-religious group of “perfectionists”. Begun in 1848 its members shared property, complex marriage, and raising of the children in communal form to reach a utopian society.
Oneida Community
Political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories.
Free Soil Party 1847/48
Slave who led a bloody revolt in 1831 and who believed he was divinely inspired to kill his master and other slave owners. 60 men, women and children were killed by his followers. Southern States wrote more restrictive slave laws limiting the movement of slaves
Nat Turner
The historical term used to identify slavery prior to the Civil War
Peculiar Institution
An almost religious belief prior to the Mexican American War that the U.S. should possess the North American continent from east to west.
Manifest Destiny
This bill was presented during the Mexican-American War. It stipulated that none of the territory acquired should be opened to slavery.
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
Secretive Nativist political party that opposed Immigration during the 1840’s and early 1850’s. Officially called the American Party.
Know Nothing Party
1st national meeting for women’s suffrage held in 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton issued the “Declaration of Sentiments” calling for the equality of the sexes.
Seneca Falls
A burst of major inventions and economic expansion based on water and steam power and the use of machine technology that transformed the cotton textile industries. Ended the factory system
1st Industrial Revolution
Creator of the American steamboat who started the era of commercial steam navigation.
Robert Fulton
The dramatic increase between 1820-1850 in the exchange of goods and services in market transactions. It reflected the increased output of farms and factories, activities of traders and merchants, and the creation of a transportation network of roads, canals, and railroads.
Market Revolution
He left England with the memorized knowledge on how to build a textile factory and helped modernize the American factory system
Samuel Slater
A transcendentalist who wrote the essay “Civil Disobedience” which outlined his protest to the Mexican American war. This essay later influenced non-violent protests by Gandhi and M.L. King Jr.
Henry David Thoreau
A 19th century intellectual movement that posited the importance of an ideal world of mystical knowledge and harmony beyond the immediate grasp of the senses. Leaders called for the critical examination of society and emphasized individuality, self-reliance, and nonconformity
Transcendentalism
A network of safe houses used by abolitionists to aid the escape of Southern Slaves into the North.
Underground Railroad
An argument used by slavery supporters claiming slavery had benefits for the slaves as well as the United States.
Positive Good
Term used to describe the regions (Northeast, South & West) and differing economic, social and cultural systems and interests prior to the Civil War.
Sectionalism
An escaped slave who became a leading figure in the anti-slavery movement.
Frederick Douglass
Anti-slavery activists who demanded the immediate end of slavery.
Abolitionists
A war fought on the principle of “manifest destiny” and supported by southern planters desiring to expand the cotton culture. Was opposed by the Northeast who thought war was “unrighteous and gave the south more political power.
Mexican-American War
Slogan used by pro-war westerners wanting a war with Great Britain for all of the Oregon territory in the 1840’s.
“54 40 or Fight”
Economic Depression brought about by over speculation in land or railroads on a cycle of 20 to 10 years.
Panics of 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1883, 1893
First national organization to protest the abuse of alcohol. They demanded “total” abstinence and pressured churches to expel members who condoned alcohol.
American Temperance Society
Unitarian Sunday School teacher who during the age of reform worked for better treatment for the mentally insane.
Dorothea Dix
Anti-Slavery (Abolitionist) newspaper founded by New Englander William Lloyd Garrison. Publisher was considered outspoken and controversial because of their unwavering stand on slavery.
Liberator
A procedure in the House of Representatives. From 1836-1844 by which antislavery petitions were automatically tabled when they were received so they could not become subject to debate
Gag Rule
Controversial 5 part Bill which allowed California to enter the union as a free state while agreeing to some southern demands on slavery issues.
Compromise of 1850
The most controversial portion of the compromise of 1850. It allowed southern slave-holders to retrieve escaped slaves in the north.
Fugitive Slave Law
Term used to describe the dominance of the South’s cash crop (Cotton) on politics, agriculture, and society prior to the Civil War in the Antebellum South.
King Cotton
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in response to the Fugitive Slave Law. It is considered to have been one of the most effective Anti-Slavery statements made prior to the Civil War.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The idea that the people who live in the area should decide the rules and laws to govern them. Advocated by Lewis Cass and accepted by Democrats as a way to avoid tensions and political fallouts over the expansion of slavery
Popular Sovereignty
Also known as The Little Giant, a senator and presidential candidate from Illinois who authored the Kansas- Nebraska Act to benefit his political career.
Stephen A Douglas
Stephen Douglas’ attempt to allow popular sovereignty to decide the slavery issue in the territories in exchange for the Trans-Continental Railroad linking California and Illinois.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Conflict over the expansion of slavery into the Kansas Territory during its transition to statehood. Free-Staters battled slavery supporters with violence.
Bleeding Kansas
Fanatic anti-slavery advocate. He was involved in Bleeding Kansas and later became the leader who attempted to start a massive slave uprising by seizing the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859..
John Brown
1857 Supreme Court case that developed the fact that slaves were property not persons entitled to constitutional rights. It was the second Supreme Court decision to declare a law unconstitutional—Missouri Compromise
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Seven debates for the Illinois senate in 1858. This was the last peaceful debate over slavery prior to the Civil War.
Lincoln - Douglas Debates
Bloodiest single day of fighting during the Civil War resulted in a draw and prompted Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
Antietam
Major turning point of the Civil War when Sherman’s Union Army victory insured the re-election of Lincoln
Fall of Atlanta
During the Civil War the Union (Northern) plan devised by General Winfield Scott to blockade the South and restrict its trade to win the war.
Anaconda Plan
Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation that legally abolished slavery in all states that remained out of the Union. While it did not immediately free a single slave, it signaled an end to the institution of slavery.
Emancipation Proclamation
Radical reconstruction plan with the far reaching punitive measures against the southern states and their eventual readmission into the Union.
Wade Davis Bill
The period following the Civil War in which the devastated Southern States were slowly restored economically, politically and socially.
Reconstruction
Vice President who succeeded Lincoln after the assassination. Was very unpopular with Radical Republicans and opposed many Reconstruction Plans. He was the first president to be charged with articles of impeachment.
Andrew Johnson
After the Civil War, local laws passed by Southern “Johnson” governments to force Freedmen to continue working as plantation laborers. They imposed taxes, and laws meant to intimidate freedmen, and restrict blacks’ ability to own property. They condemned the newly freed slaves to conditions not unlike slavery.
Black Codes
An expression used as a vote getting stratagem by the Republicans during the election of 1876 to offset charges of corruption by blaming the Civil War on the Democrats
Waving the bloody shirt
Labor system by which landowners and impoverished southern farm workers, particularly African Americans, divided the proceeds from crops harvested on the landowner’s property. Ended up pushing farmers into a cash-crop production and trapped them into long term debt.
Sharecropping
Resolved the disputed election of 1876 between Sam Tilden and Rutherford B Hayes. Known as the catalyst that ended Reconstruction
Compromise of 1877
Southern political movement that sought and did return “home rule” to the southern states during reconstruction
Redeemers
A 19th century term for political corruption during the Gilded Age, which included bribery scandals, abuses of the spoils system and political cronyism.
Grantism
A doctrine supported by liberals claiming the less government does, the better the economy will be. “Hands Off” “Leave Alone”
Laissez Faire
The belief that those blessed with great wealth earned it through Darwinist competition but they also were obligated to improve society and mankind through philanthropy.
Gospel of Wealth
Laws enforcing segregation or control of Blacks in such a manner as to make them unequal after reconstruction.
Jim Crow Laws
“Detective” agency or private police hired by the Federal Gov’t to spy on the South during the Civil War and used by business owners to intimidate Unions with strong arm tactics.
Pinkerton
Early American labor union that failed to achieve economic and social acceptance because its members were unskilled, expendable and “un-American”. The union was prone to violence, linked to communism, and anarchism.
Knights of Labor
During the Gilded Age it was the notorious Tammany Hall political machine led by “Boss” William M. Tweed. In two years it defrauded the City of $200,000,000 1868-71.
Tweed Ring
Bill that attempted to pacify the plains Indians by giving them land to farm. Many Indians sold their land for alcohol.
Dawes Act
1862 act that gave land to applicants who occupied and improved the property. Led to the rapid development of the American West after the Civil War.
Homestead Act
Railroad line that connected the Central Pacific to the Union Pacific lines enabling goods to move by railway from the eastern US all the way to California
Transcontinental Railroad
This act sought to end the abuses of the spoils system and was passed by Grover Cleveland. It mandated civil service exams for employment in the government.
Pendleton Act
Paper money issued during the civil war to help finance the war effort and stabilize the economy
Greenback
A second burst of inventions and economic expansion during the Gilded Age including greater use of steel, steam, electricity, and the internal combustion engine.
2nd Industrial Revolution
Form of monopolistic system used by the “captains of industry” in the U.S from the 1870’s to 1900 to control production and sale. Vertical = mine to market; Horizontal = specialization in one particular aspect of business
Vertical or Horizontal Integration
Political cartoonist whose work exposed the abuses of the Tweed ring, criticized the South’s attempts to impede Reconstruction, and lampooned labor unions. Created the animal symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thomas Nast
A term used to describe the Gilded Age monopolist for their Social Darwinist practices who referred to themselves as “Captains of Industry.”
Robber Barons
The Patrons of Husbandry or farmers organized against railroad abuses. Similar group to the Farmers Alliance.
Grangers
19th century of belief that evolutionary ideas theorized by Charles Darwin could be applied to society.
Social Darwinism
American battleship that blew up in Havana, Cuba, and ultimately started the Spanish – American War of 1898 “To Hell with Spain! Remember the Maine!”
The USS MAINE
Sensational newspaper reporting by William Randolph Hearst and Jay Pulitzer’s news journals that helped instigate a war with Spain.
Yellow Journalism
Spanish Ambassador’s letter that was illegally removed from the U.S. Mail and published by American newspapers. It criticized the President in insulting terms. Used by war hawks as a pretext for war in 1898.
De Lome Letter
Naval historian who influenced American Imperialism and a world-wide naval arms race with his support of large battleships and large navies to protect overseas colonial holdings & trade.
Alfred Thayer Mahan
Secretary of State John Hay’s plan in 1899 to give all countries equal trading rights with China and respect Chinese sovereignty. Derived from his Policy Notes which closed the door to the European/Japanese “spheres of influence”.
Open Door Policy
Term applies to southern and eastern European immigrants that came to American cities in the 1890’s.
New Immigrant
During the Industrial Revolution, Jane Addams founded this settlement house that offered social programs for immigrants.
Hull House
American political movement that began in the Midwest among agrarian interests who believed the money supply was too restrictive (Hard Money) and demanded monetary reform (coinage of Silver). Their support of socialist ideas laid the groundwork for the “progressive” movement.
Populists
The last major battle between the Native Americans and the U.S. Army in 1890. U.S army reacted to the ghost dance religion of the Sioux tribe. Ghost Dance Movement was the Native American traditional religion that resurrected through dance the great bison herds and to call a storm to drive whites back across the Atlantic
Wounded Knee/ Ghost Dance Movement
Passed to appease pro-silver interests of Midwest Farmers, the act created inflation and lowered Gold Reserves thus causing the panic of 1893.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890
The AFL was the first successful trade union that succeeded in bringing acceptance to unions because its members were skilled and were willing to avoid strikes through “collective bargaining”.
American Federation of Labor
These were hundreds of unemployed laborers led by a populist businessman on a march to Washington D.C. to demand a work relief program. They were dispersed when they arrived and the leaders were arrested.
Coxey’s Army
Addendum to the Monroe Doctrine where the U.S. promised to intervene in Latin American affairs if its “police powers” needed to be used.
The nickname of Teddy Roosevelt’s bold foreign policy (gunboat diplomacy) in Latin America
Roosevelt Corollary/ Big Stick Policy
Muckraker Upton Sinclair wrote the novel during the progressive era. It prompted President T. Roosevelt to sign the Meat Inspection Act.
The Jungle
National American Women’s Suffrage Association. It played a pivotal role in the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920 which guaranteed women’s right to vote.
NAWSA
Passed to curb the abuses of big business in 1890, it was instead used to break up labor unions by claiming unions were a “labor trust”.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
A type of economic imperialism in which the Taft administration’s use of monetary power created dependency among Latin Amer. Countries to the U.S.
Dollar Diplomacy
Signed into law by President Wilson it was considered to be the “Magna Carta of Labor”. It outlawed restraining orders (Injunctions). Its primary purpose was to outlaw price discrimination and interlocking directorates.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Slogan for the reform program of Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) in the election of 1913.
New Nationalism
Supreme Court Case that upheld Jim Crow segregation laws as legal so as they were “separate but equal”.
Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896
African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.
Booker T Washington
Progressive author and founder of the NAACP who thought that blacks would be best served by the “talented 10th” and receive government aid to gain equality.
WEB DuBois
(1883) Frederick Taylor’s introduction of this practice helped industrial engineers to produce more efficient factories.
Scientific Management
1911 death of 145 people, mostly young immigrant girl, burned or crushed to death by leaping out of windows etc. Resulted in stronger building codes.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Upheld a law limiting women’s workday to 10 hours based on the need to protect women’s health for motherhood.
Muller v. Oregon
Protective tariff that was passed to ease the Panic of 1893—It had an amendment on it that created a graduated income tax.
Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894
This act created a commission, the ICC, to check and regulate RR abuses- rates, rebates, discrimination, and required annual reports and financial statement.
Interstate Commerce Act 1887
Voluntary rationing of food stuffs during WWI named after Herbert Hoover the head of the Food Administration
Hooverizing
The principle of strong self-reliance in Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier thesis and used as a theme to the Harding election campaign of 1920.
Rugged Individualism
The unlawful leasing of public oil fields to private business during the Harding administration.
Teapot Dome Scandal
The US propaganda office to help convince Americans to support the US entry into WWI. Also known as the Creel Committee and lead by George Creel
Committee on Public Information
Founder of UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) and the Motherland Africa movement in the 1920’s. He was jailed for fraud.
Marcus Garvey
Alienated authors disillusioned with the 1920—conformity and culture including Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.
Lost Generation
African American art, music and literature that flourished in the 1920’s in New York City.
Harlem Renaissance
Migration of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after WWI
Great Migration
WWI Industrial Workers of the World. A “revolutionary” leftist labor union opposed to the U.S. entry into WWI and the use of the Selective Services Act known as the draft.
Wobblies
An organization of states proposed by Woodrow Wilson in 1919 that would provide “collective security” against war. The 14th Point of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The US ultimately did not join the international peacekeeping organization and reverted back to isolationism.
League Of Nations
In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson proposed this plan to the Allied Powers to avoid future wars. It created a no blame resolution to The Great War as compared to the Versailles Treaty which blamed Germany for the war and was responsible for reparations.
Fourteen Points
A term for anticommunist hysteria that swept through the US after WW and the fall of the Russian TzarI. Lead to the Palmer Raids and the suppression of civil liberties.
Red Scare
Illegal, yet popular, bars that sold liquor during Prohibition in the 1920’s. Usually frequented by the young woman of the 1920s who defied convention by wearing short skirts and makeup, dancing to jazz and flaunting a liberal lifestyle.
Speakeasies/ Flappers
The ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol with the 18th Amendment in 1920. Enforced by the Volstead Act which defined what “hard liquor” was. Prohibition repealed in 1933
Prohibition
A high tariff enacted in the 1930s during the Great Depression. A way to generate money for the government during the depression from other countries through trade.
Smoot Hawley Tariff
A series of dust storms from 1930-1941 along with a drought that affected Oklahoma, Texas, NM, Colorado, AK, KS.
Dust Bowl
The first executive driven relief and recovery actions taken by FDR during the Great Depression after his inauguration in 1933. Many of the actions promoted by FDRs Fireside Chats
First 100 Days
Relief, Recovery, and Reform. The purpose of FDR’s New Deal measures to combat the three D’s – Depression, Decline, and Despair.
Three R’s
Government spending during depression periods and high taxes during periods of boom. (Tax and Spend) These principles were supported by FDR’s “Brain Trust”.
Keynesian Economics
Governor of Louisiana during the great depression he criticized FDR for not going far enough. His “share the wealth” program demanded all incomes exceeding $1 million be confiscated.
Huey Long
Legislative programs focusing on REFORM begun by FDR in 1935 when the first attempt to end the depression failed.
Second New Deal
Passed by new Dealers, this granted labor the right to organize, and use collective bargaining. The National Labor Relations Act established a gov’t board to ensure democratic elections in Unions.
Wagner Act (NLR Act)
2nd New Deal reform measures that outlawed child labor, established a minimum wage, and a 40 hour work week.
Fair Labor Standards Act
Part of the New Deal’s foreign policy which aimed at strengthening U.S. ties with Latin America.
Good Neighbor Policy
Prior to Lend-Lease, FDR’s policy of supplying Great Britain and easing U.S non-interventionist fears of war, while violating the neutrality acts.
Cash and Carry Policy
Passed by congress during WWII it provided money for veterans to adjust to post war life.
GI Bill of Rights
The unofficial U.S. foreign policy adopted after WWI and lasted until the U.S. was drawn into WWII.
Isolationism
June 6, 1944 date of the Allied invasion of Normandy during WWII opening up a second front in the battle against Germany.
D-Day
Signed by FDR authorizing the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and hold them in relocation camps for the remainder of the war.
Japanese Internment/
Executive Order 9066
The most expensive and important U.S. research project during WWII, it developed the A-bomb.
Manhattan Project
Truman’s domestic program to head off a post war depression and address important social issues facing the nation.
Fair Deal
The surge in the American birthrate between 1945-1965 which peaked in 1957 with 4.3 million births.
Baby Boom
The economic aid provided to European Nations shortly after WWII to help stop the spread and CONTAIN Communism and rebuild the war torn economies of Western Europe
Marshall Plan
The U.S. foreign policy adopted by the Truman Administration in which the U.S. would limit communism to those countries where it already existed.
Containment
The doctrine, enunciated by Harry Truman in 1947, that the United States would provide economic aid to countries that said they were threatened by communist expansion.
Truman Doctrine
Aggressive action taken by the Soviets to drive western powers out of Berlin which was in the Soviet controlled sector of Germany. Truman ordered an Airlift to break the blockade.
Berlin Blockade 1948
Led by Strom Thurmond southern Democrats who opposed Truman’s desegregation of the U.S. army and his policy toward race-relations.
Dixiecrats
North Atlantic Treaty Organization- a mutual defense pact formed in 1949 by the U.S and major western European countries.
NATO
First artificial satellite launched into space by the USSR in 1957. Began the space race between the U.S. and Russia plus a great deal of hysteria and fear of nuclear war
Sputnik
Southern Christian Leadership Conference was the Civil Rights organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956
SCLC
John Foster Dulles advice and policy during the Eisenhower years to use the threat of nuclear war to prevent war and the spread of Communism. Later called MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction).
Massive Retaliation
First two American citizens executed during peacetime for giving atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets. Like the Alger Hiss Case—controversial case involving another American turncoat who perjured himself before a congressional investigation fueled anti-communist hysteria known as McCarthyism
The Rosenbergs
Late 1940’s early 1950’s Red scare investigation called the House of Un-American Activities Committee
HUAC
A product of the Cold War, it was a war between North Korea, with the support of China and the Soviet Union and South Korea, with the support of the United Nations, with the principal support from the United States. The war began in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. It became the first test of the Truman Doctrine and the UN intervention when communist aggression threatened the Far East.
Korean War
A phrase used by Eisenhower to refer to the relationship between the military and business in the U.S.
Military Industrial Complex
Supreme Court ruling that overturned “separate but equal” for education. Ruled that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal and thus violated the 14th amendment.
Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, KS)
The domestic and foreign policy of President Kennedy
New Frontier
Political power politics practiced by Kennedy and Khrushchev in the early 1960’s. Berlin Crisis of 1961 (Wall) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). Using the threat of war.
Brinkmanship
Unsuccessful attempt by Cuban refugees backed by the U.S. (Kennedy) to overthrow Castro in Cuba.
Bay Of Pigs
Closest USSR and USA ever came to starting WWIII. Kennedy objected to the Soviet medium range missiles – he blockaded Cuba and threatened invasion.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Made discrimination for employment, education, and public accommodations illegal. In response to the civil rights movement, the strongest measure since Reconstruction and included a ban on sex discrimination in employment.
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Militant organization dedicated to protect African Americans from police violence. Founded in Oakland, CA by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton had a radical agenda and the belief in armed self-defense and armed clashes with the police.
Black Panther Party
UFW founded in 1962 by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta that sought to empower Mexican American migrant workers who faced discrimination and exploitative working conditions.
United Farm Workers
After the attack on US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, this resolution gave LBJ the authority to use combat troops in Vietnam.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Lyndon Johnson’s program of bringing economic, social and political progress to the U.S. from 1965-1969 – So-called “war on poverty”.
Great Society
The Cold War belief that if one nation comes under communist control its neighboring nations would also fall to communism.
Domino Theory
Part of the complexity of the Vietnam war when Gen. Westmoreland’s assessment of the war turned out to be wrong. The media believed he was deliberately misleading them.
Credibility Gap
1968 offensive action by North Vietnamese Army and the National Liberation Front that was a military failure but a propaganda victory.
Tet Offensive
In the Vietnam War, the supply route was used by the communist forces of Vietnam to ferry war supplies through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Part of the Nixon Doctrine and began the Johnson Administration. It was the policy of turning the war in Vietnam to the ARVN (Army of the Republic of [South] Vietnam).
Vietnamization
A break in by Nixon staff members into the Democratic National Convention Headquarters housed in the hotel. It resulted in cover-ups, obstruction and the eventual resignation of Nixon
Watergate
The mainstream of middle American society that supported the U.S. domestic policy and foreign policy in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and opposed the loud student/anti-war types and protestors in general with slogans such as “America Love it or Leave it”
Silent Majority
Daniel Elsberg released top secret documents revealing U.S. dealings in Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War that reinvigorated the waning anti-war movement.
Pentagon Papers
1960’s-1970’s anti-establishment youth movement that opposed the Vietnam War, believed in the use of mind expanding drugs and extreme liberalism.
Counter Culture
Students for a Democratic Society was a radical anti-war organization during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s responsible for leading Anti-War protests and campus violence.
SDS
SDS leader Tom Hayden manifesto that rejected the establishment and what he claimed was a system of power rooted in possession, privilege, racism, or circumstance.
Port Huron Statement 1962
4 students killed on campus during SDS led anti-establishment/anti-war protests in the 1970s
Kent State
Committee to Re-Elect the President. They were the overzealous supporters of Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign.
CREEP
Environmental Protection Agency—Established in the Nixon administration in 1970 to monitor and reduce pollution.
EPA
Book written by Rachel Carson that helped launch the Environmentalist movement in the 1960’s.
Silent Spring
A law passed by congress in 1972 that broadened the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include educational institutions, prohibiting colleges and universities that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex. Also required comparable funding for sports programs.
Title IX
The easing of conflict between the US and the USSR during the Nixon administration which was achieved by focusing on issues of common concerns, such as arms control and trade.
Détente
Nixon administration’s visits to Communist China to penetrate the Bamboo Curtain
Ping Pong Diplomacy
“Partial” Meltdown of Power Plant in 1979 resulted in negative public perceptions and policy regarding nuclear power.
Three Mile Island
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty – 1972 Nixon/Brezhnev agreement to bilateral nuclear reduction. As part of the easing of tensions (détente) in the 1970s.
SALT
A peace deal brokered by President Carter that involved Israel and Egypt in 1978
Camp David Accords
The “Vietnam” of the Soviet Union. Reagan supported anti-communist “freedom fighters” with American weapons until the USSR withdrew in defeat.
Afghanistan
Was an anemic economy with double digit inflation, and high interest rates in the Ford and Carter years.
Stagflation
Occurred when an Islamic fundamentalist revolution broke out in the late 1970’s in Iran, and the U.S. embassy was captured in Tehran. It helped destroy the chances for Carter’s reelection.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
A movement begun in the early 1980’s among religious conservatives that supported primarily conservative Republicans opposed to abortion, communism and liberalism.
Moral Majority
Conservative movement that was not content with Jimmy Carter’s direction of liberalism, and the moral decline in America.
New Right
Equal Rights Amendment. Feminist sponsored legislation to further women’s rights in the late 1970s that failed to pass with the necessary votes in the Senate in the early 1980s.
ERA
This involved a secret arms-for-hostages-deal between the US. (Reagan Administration) and Iran to fund money for Contra Rebels (anti-communists) in Central America.
Iran-Contra Scandal
Supply side economics used by the Reagan administration. It concluded that tax cuts and de-regulation on top producers would spur economic growth. The opponents derided it as “trickle down” and voodoo economics.
Reaganomics
Fastest growing section of the nation since 1970’s –fueled by retiring baby boomers, defense contracts in the 1980s, illegal immigration—seeking warmer climates and less crime.
Sunbelt
The Strategic Defense Initiative was a missile defense program Reagan proposed to protect the USA from enemy nuclear missiles. Derided as STAR WARS by his political opponents who believed it rekindled an all-out arms race.
SDI
Term used to describe young upwardly mobile professionals (baby boomers) in the 1980s who conformed to the so-called decade of greed.
Yuppies
Nicknames of the first Gulf War fought in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Nintendo War/CNN War
North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the US, and Mexico signed into law by President Clinton.
NAFTA
Weapons of Mass Destruction. Justification for U.S led overthrow of Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein. Intelligence agencies claim that Iraq’s refusal of allowing UN weapons inspectors and his previous use of weapons of mass destruction convinced Congress to approve military action. However none were found.
WMD’s
Controversial 2000 election decision to count and recount votes between Al Gore and G. W. Bush. Both sides claimed they were following the law or the will of the people. The Supreme Court stepped in to resolve the issue.
Florida 2000
Worst US terror attack that resulted in the destruction of the World Trade Center in NYC and began the War on Terror.
9/11
Passed by congress as a result of the 9/11/2001 terror strike that strengthened government surveillance and created new agencies to police terror threats.
Patriot Act
