Super Mega Flashcards
Détente
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.
Counter Culture
1960’s-1970’s anti-establishment youth movement that opposed the Vietnam War, believed in the use of mind expanding drugs and extreme liberalism.
Silent Majority
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”
Domino Theory
The Cold War belief that if one nation comes under communist control its neighboring nations would also fall to communism.
Great Society
Lyndon Johnson’s program of bringing economic, social and political progress to the U.S. from 1965-1969 – So-called “war on poverty”.
Brinkmanship
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.
New Frontier
The domestic and foreign policy of President Kennedy
Military Industrial Complex
A phrase used by Eisenhower to refer to the relationship between the military and business in the U.S.
Korean War
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.
Massive Retaliation
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).
Containment
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.
Baby Boom
The surge in the American birthrate between 1945-1965 which peaked in 1957 with 4.3 million births.
Fair Deal
Truman’s domestic program to head off a post war depression and address important social issues facing the nation.
Isolationism
The unofficial U.S. foreign policy adopted after WWI and lasted until the U.S. was drawn into WWII.
Second New Deal
Legislative programs focusing on REFORM begun by FDR in 1935 when the first attempt to end the depression failed.
Keynesian Economics
Government spending during depression periods and high taxes during periods of boom. (Tax and Spend) These principles were supported by FDR’s “Brain Trust”.
Prohibition
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
Red Scare
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.
League Of Nations
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.
Great Migration
Migration of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after WWI
Harlem Renaissance
African American art, music and literature that flourished in the 1920’s in New York City.
Lost Generation
Alienated authors disillusioned with the 1920—conformity and culture including Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.
Rugged Individualism
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.
Hooverizing
Voluntary rationing of food stuffs during WWI named after Herbert Hoover the head of the Food Administration
Scientific Management
(1883) Frederick Taylor’s introduction of this practice helped industrial engineers to produce more efficient factories.
New Nationalism
Slogan for the reform program of Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) in the election of 1913.
Dollar Diplomacy
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.
Roosevelt Corollary/ Big Stick Policy
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
New Immigrant
Term applies to southern and eastern European immigrants that came to American cities in the 1890’s.
Open Door Policy
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”.
Social Darwinism
19th century of belief that evolutionary ideas theorized by Charles Darwin could be applied to society.
2nd Industrial Revolution
A second burst of inventions and economic expansion during the Gilded Age including greater use of steel, steam, electricity, and the internal combustion engine.
Transcontinental Railroad
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
Gospel of Wealth
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.
Laissez Faire
A doctrine supported by liberals claiming the less government does, the better the economy will be. “Hands Off” “Leave Alone”
Sharecropping
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.
Black Codes
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.
Reconstruction
The period following the Civil War in which the devastated Southern States were slowly restored economically, politically and socially.
Emancipation Proclamation
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.
Popular Sovereignty
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
Mexican-American War
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.
Abolitionists
Anti-slavery activists who demanded the immediate end of slavery.
Sectionalism
Term used to describe the regions (Northeast, South & West) and differing economic, social and cultural systems and interests prior to the Civil War.
Transcendentalism
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
Market Revolution
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.
1st Industrial Revolution
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
Manifest Destiny
An almost religious belief prior to the Mexican American War that the U.S. should possess the North American continent from east to west.
Peculiar Institution
The historical term used to identify slavery prior to the Civil War
Doctrine of Separate Spheres
19th century belief that men were superior in worldly pursuits and women were superior in their moral influences
Era of Good Feelings
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
Second Great Awakening
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
Republican Motherhood
After the election of 1800, Jeffersonians promoted this as the ideal for women to raise their children with the idealism of the American nation.
Great Compromise
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].
Articles of Confederation
First US government which was ineffectual in dealing with the nation’s financial and political problems because it lacked coercive power.
2nd 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
1st Continental Congress
This body drafted their Declaration of Rights and Grievances. Brought back the Association and oversaw the relief of Boston and boycott of English goods.
Boston Tea Party
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.
Great Awakening
Major religious revival (1740-1750) prior to the American Revolution that furthered individualism, opposed established authority and furthered American nationalism.
Boston Massacre
1770, street clash between townspeople and Irish soldiers ordered to guard British custom houses. Led to the deaths of 5 colonists
Salutary Neglect
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
Mercantilism
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.
Columbian Exchange
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
Encomiendas
A grant of Indian labor in Spanish America given in the 16th Century by Spanish kings to prominent men.
Triangular Trade
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.
