United States History Flashcards
1
Q
Eastern Woodlands
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- Indian tribes inhabiting the eastern United States and Canada
- roughly from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River and included the Great Lakes.
- original inhabitants were the first the European colonists met.
2
Q
Great Plains
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- also called Great American Desert
- lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north
- roughly equivalent to one-third of the United States.
- high plateau of semiarid grassland.
- Spanish colonists/Plains Indian
- eastern United States began to supplant the Indians, the latter being relegated to marginal agricultural areas set aside as reservations.
- European immigrants also played an important role in settling the plains
- foreign-born immigrants and their children constituted nearly half the population of the six northern plains states
3
Q
Reasons for Settlement
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- increase their wealth and power so that they could compete
with other European countries like Spain and France.
-increase their trading with other places.
4
Q
American Revolution
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- tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities.
- The French and Indian War, or Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), brought new territories under the power of the crown, but the expensive conflict lead to new and unpopular taxes.
- Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects.
- Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre.
- band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (known as the Intolerable, or Coercive Acts) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts.
- colonial delegates (including George Washington of Virginia, John and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia and John Jay of New York) met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to give voice to their grievances against the British crown.
- April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord, Massachusetts
- On April 19, local militiamen clashed with British soldiers in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, marking the “shot heard round the world” that signified the start of the Revolutionary War.
- Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, delegates–including new additions Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson–voted to form a Continental Army, with Washington as its commander in chief.
- June 17, in the Revolution’s first major battle, colonial forces inflicted heavy casualties on the British regiment of General William Howe at Breed’s Hill in Boston. The engagement, known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, ended in British victory, but lent encouragement to the revolutionary cause.
- the British removal of their troops from Charleston and Savannah in late 1782 finally pointed to the end of the conflict.
- September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States in the Treaty of Paris.
5
Q
Declaration of Independence
A
- first formal statement by a nation’s people asserting their right to choose their own government.
- five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions.
- written largely by Jefferson—in Philadelphia on July 4
6
Q
Government Prior to Constitution
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7
Q
Development of Political Parties
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8
Q
Jacksonian Era
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9
Q
Gilded Age
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10
Q
Progressive Era
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11
Q
New Deal
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12
Q
Mccarthyism
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13
Q
Civil Rights Movement
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14
Q
Student Protest Movements
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15
Q
Watergate
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16
Q
Events Leading to Civil War
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17
Q
Civil War
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18
Q
Reconstruction
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19
Q
Japanese Internment
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