U.S. History Flashcards
1
Q
ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM
A
In this system, the king of Spain gave grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards in exchange for their loyalty to the crown. These Indians had to farm or work in the mines. Their fruits went to their Spanish masters, who in turn had to “care” for them.
2
Q
ASIENTO SYSTEM
A
After diseases wiped out natives, Spaniards began to import African slaves. This system required the Spanish to pay a tax to their kind on each slave they imported to the Americas.
3
Q
BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS
A
Spanish priest who had owned land and slaves in the West Indies and had fought in wars against the Indians, but eventually became an advocate for better treatment of the Indians.
In the long term, he persuaded the Spanish king to institute the NEW LAW OF 1542. These laws ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM.
4
Q
MESTIZOS
A
Mixed race of spaniard men and indian women
5
Q
POPE’S REBELLION (1680)
A
The Spanish abused the PUEBLO TRIBE of the Southwest and established NEW MEXICO in 1609 in Santa Fe.
They set up Catholic missions and imposed Catholicism on the local Pueblo Indians.
The Pueblos would exact revenge on them in POPÉ’S REBELLION IN 1680 by killing priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers, while ruling for the next fifty years until the Spanish reclaimed it.
6
Q
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
A
French explorer who created an alliance with the local HURON INDIANS and would then assist the Hurons in defeating their IROQUOIS enemies.
7
Q
Iroquois
A
Northeastern Indian tribe who would ally themselves with the British and would fight numerous battles with the French in the OHIO RIVER VALLEY.
8
Q
Jamestown Immigrants
A
Most were single males in their teens or early twenties who came as indentured servants. In exchange for passage across the Atlantic, they agreed to serve a master for a stated number of years. The younger the servant the longer he/she had to serve. In return, the master promised to give the laborers proper care and at the conclusion of their contracts, they provided them with tools and clothes according to the custom of the country. It dramatically skewed the colony’s sex ratio. Often men outnumbered women 6 to 1.
9
Q
JOINT-STOCK COMPANY
A
During Elizabeth’s reign, the major obstacle to colonization of the New World was raising money. No single person could underwrite the cost of an expedition. The solution was a JOINT-STOCK COMPANY, which was a business organization in which a group of people could invest without fear of bankruptcy.
10
Q
VIRGINIA CHARTER (1606)
A
Issued by King James. It authorized the London Company to establish a plantation in Virginia. This territory covered present day North Carolina to the Hudson.
11
Q
Who settled the New England Colonies?
A
New England was settled by disgruntled PURITANS from Europe who did not like the Church of England. The Pilgrim Separatists, who were extreme Puritans, used the Mayflower to land in PLYMOUTH BAY in 1620.
12
Q
THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
A
was chartered in 1629 and settled by about eleven thousand Puritans under the guidance of Governor JOHN WINTHROP.
Winthrop declared that “we shall be as a city upon a hill”, in which the Puritans of the Bay Colony would build a model religious community based on Puritan beliefs and values. These Puritan beliefs were based on the idea that people were predestined for heaven or hell and that only male church members could vote.
Politically, New England valued the democratic town meeting.
13
Q
FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT
A
the first written constitution in American history, written by puritans who settled in Connecticut
14
Q
RHODE ISLAND COLONY
A
RHODE ISLAND was settled by ROGER WILLIAMS, who was banned from the Bay Colony because of his religious views. Williams’ emphasis on religious diversity and toleration would be trademarks for Rhode Island.
15
Q
PENNSYLVANIA COLONY
A
was founded by WILLIAM PENN, a Quaker, in 1681 in what was known as “Penn’s Holy Experiment”. THE QUAKERS were a peaceful religious group of dissenters from England. They believed in taking no oaths, refused military service, and were accepting of Indians.
16
Q
NEW YORK COLONY
A
NEW YORK was initially settled by THE DUTCH in 1623. Earlier, English explorer HENRY HUDSON sailed up the Hudson River and claimed New Amsterdam (New York City) for the Dutch. Ironically, England would take New York from the Dutch without a shot fired in 1664.
17
Q
JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA
A
was the first English settlement in the colonies in 1607. The initial Jamestown settlers and many other Chesapeake residents would die at an early age from disease. Life expectancy was much shorter here than in the clean air of New England. Chesapeake families were not common due to mostly men immigrating in this area to make money.
They struggled with order and famine due to lack or farming, until they discovered tobacco - a profitable export.
18
Q
MARYLAND COLONY
A
founded by LORD BALTIMORE in 1634. His motives for settling Maryland were money and finding a peaceful haven for Catholics who were being persecuted in England. Tensions between Catholics and Protestants in this tobacco colony caused the passage of the ACT OF TOLERATION IN 1649, which promised toleration to all Christians but not other religions.
19
Q
GEORGIA COLONY
A
GEORGIA would be the last colony of the original thirteen colonies. England wanted it to serve as a DEFENSIVE BUFFER AGAINST SPANISH FLORIDA and French Louisiana.
20
Q
MERCANTILISM
A
was an economic theory that was used by most European countries from 1500-1750. Mercantilists believed that money (gold and silver) was power. To get the gold, a country had to export more than it imported. In essence, mercantilist countries try to export as much as possible, while importing as little as possible, thus building up their gold reserves.
21
Q
NAVIGATION LAWS
A
the British policy of forbidding colonial trade with other countries.
22
Q
TRANSATLANTIC TRADE
A
The Americas would send raw materials to Europe and Africa, Europe would supply Africa and America with finished goods, and Africa would capture and transport black slaves to the Americas. The Americans would produce and send lumber, ship parts, iron products, furs, and tobacco to Europe, who in turn would supply the Americas with cloth, iron tools, tea, and furniture. Africa would send black slaves to the Americas.
23
Q
THE BEAVER WARS OF THE 1640’S
A
the Iroquois fight the French and the Hurons over beaver pelts and hunting land rights in the Ohio Valley.
24
Q
BACON’S REBELLION in 1676
A
many poor white farmers staged a violent uprising against the government and wealthy tobacco planters of Virginia. The fear of a large, poor, resentful white population led the wealthy Virginia planters to look for a new labor force in Africa.
25
THE BARBADOS CODE
a major law passed in 1661 in Barbados which meant that black slaves were property and had no basic rights that they would have been entitled to under normal English common law.
26
THE FIRST GREAT AWAKENING MOVEMENT
THE GREAT AWAKENING MOVEMENT of the 1700s rekindled the religious spirit of an America that was growing tired of the strict codes of Calvinist Puritans and becoming less interested in church. Dynamic preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield scared their followers into being better souls. “SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD”, a famous sermon delivered by Edwards, converted sinners into saints as he declared that hell was “paved with the skulls of unbaptized children.”
27
THE FRENCH & INDIAN WAR
| 7 YEARS WAR
By 1754, the OHIO VALLEY became a hotspot for conflict. The British saw this area as their gateway to western expansion, and the French viewed it as their vital link between their possessions in Canada and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Western Pennsylvania would become the sight of the first shots of the FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, a conflict pitting the BRITISH AND THEIR IROQUOIS INDIAN allies against THE FRENCH AND THEIR HURON INDIAN allies. This was part of the larger worldwide war between the British and French known as the Seven Years War. The French and Indian War ended with the signing of the TREATY OF PARIS in February 1763. The British received Canada from France and Florida from Spain, but permitted France to keep its West Indian sugar islands and gave Louisiana to Spain. The arrangement strengthened the American colonies significantly by removing their European rivals to the north and south and opening the Mississippi Valley to westward expansion.
28
TAXES THAT LEAD TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
KING GEORGE III argued that since the French and Indian War benefited the colonists by securing their borders, they should contribute to paying down the war debt. To defend his newly won territory from future attacks, King George III also decided to install permanent BRITISH ARMY UNITS IN THE AMERICAS, which required additional sources of revenue.
In 1765, parliament passed THE STAMP ACT (1765) - a tax on all paper documents - to help pay down the war debt and finance the British army’s presence in the Americas. It was the first internal tax directly levied on American colonists by parliament and was met with strong resistance. The Stamp Act was followed by the unpopular TOWNSHEND ACTS (1767) (taxed all imported goods) and TEA ACT (tax on tea) This infuriated colonists who believed there should be NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
Britain’s increasingly militaristic response to colonial unrest would ultimately lead to the American Revolution.
29
The Boston Massacre (March 1770
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a group of teenagers began taunting a lone British soldier, throwing snowballs and calling him names, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution.
30
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY (December 1773)
In response to the Tea Act of 1773, THE SONS OF LIBERTY, a radical group, decided to confront the British head-on. Thinly disguised as Mohawks, they boarded three ships in Boston harbor and destroyed more than 92,000 pounds of British tea by dumping it into the harbor.
31
THE COERCIVE ACTS
In response to the Boston Tea Party - closed Boston Harbor until restitution was paid for the destroyed tea, replaced the colony’s elected council with one appointed by the British, gave sweeping powers to the British military governor General Thomas Gage, and forbade town meetings without approval.
Another provision protected British colonial officials from being tried in Massachusetts, instead requiring that they be sent to another colony or back to Great Britain for trial.
32
QUARTERING ACT
allowed British military officials to demand accommodations for their troops in unoccupied houses and buildings in towns, rather than having to stay out in the countryside. While it didn’t force the colonists to board troops in their own homes, they had to pay for the expense of housing and feeding the soldiers.
33
PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
o THE ENLIGHTENMENT
o COMMON SENSE (THOMAS PAINE)
o JOHN LOCKE’S SECOND TREATISE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
34
SECOND TREATISE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
JOHN LOCKE: spoke of the inherent rights of LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY and advocated for the consent of the governed and limited government.
35
COMMON SENSE
In 1776, THOMAS PAINE wrote Common Sense, arguing that the large land of America should not be controlled by tiny England. The colonists needed to declare independence. It is common sense that the Americans should have their own country and not be controlled by a king far away. Paine also argued for a republican form of government in which the people ruled and had liberties.
36
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts.
In 1775, the SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS convened after the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) had already begun. In 1776, it took the momentous step of declaring America’s independence from Britain.
37
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence was divided into five sections, including an introduction, a preamble, a body (divided into two sections) and a conclusion.
In general terms, the introduction effectively stated that seeking independence from Britain had become “necessary” for the colonies.
The body of the document outlined a LIST OF GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE BRITISH CROWN
THE PREAMBLE includes its most famous passage: “WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence later on the FOURTH OF JULY.
38
LEXINGTON & CONCORD
British General Thomas Gage led a force of British soldiers from Boston to Lexington, where he planned to capture colonial radical leaders SAM ADAMS and JOHN HANCOCK, and then head to Concord and seize their gunpowder. But American spies got wind of the plan, and with the help of riders such as PAUL REVERE, word spread to be ready for the British.
“MINUTEMEN” militia ultimately pushed the British soldiers back to Boston. The British lost 73 dead, with another 174 wounded and 26 missing in action. The bloody encounter proved to the British that the colonists were fearsome foes who had to be taken seriously. It was the start of America’s war of independence.
39
BATTLE OF SARATOGA
The turning point of the Revolutionary war
Took place at SARATOGA, New York, along the Hudson River in October of 1777. Three British generals were to coordinate and meet near Albany and defeat the Americans, which would then divide America geographically. The Americans defeated the British.
This colonist victory motivated France to form a military alliance with America. Some other European countries formed alliances with France to fight Britain in other parts of the world. Britain now had other war priorities. Along with THE AID OF FRENCH SOLDIERS AND CAPITAL, America was on its way to winning the Revolutionary War.
40
THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN
The final battle of the American Revolution in which the French blockaded the British from receiving needed supplies.
General Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
41
THE TREATY OF PARIS OF 1783
gave America independence from Britain and expanded the geography of America. America would get land westward to the Mississippi River and further to both the North and the South.
42
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS wrote a constitution to create a new national government.
The Continental Congress approved the Articles Of Confederation, which took effect in 1781 during the war.
The national government under the Articles of Confederation consisted of a single legislative body called Congress in which each state received one vote regardless of population size. All congressional decisions required a unanimous vote.
The government under the Articles did not have a judicial system (national courts) or an executive (such as a president). As a result, each state had a significant degree of sovereignty and autonomy. The national government under the Articles remained in effect until 1789.
43
SHAY’S REBELLION
Massachusetts - exposed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation – as rebellion broke out and court houses were destroyed there was no national military to intervene. It helped people realize they needed more protection and order.
44
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
Delegates from eleven of the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation - they decided to create an entirely new document.
45
AIMS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
The framers met in Philadelphia to create a stronger national government that would better protect and enhance liberty by preventing tyranny. Shays’ Rebellion and the states’ inability to cooperate with one another had also demonstrated the weaknesses inherent in the Articles of Confederation, and many worried that Britain would take advantage of American weaknesses. At the same time, however, the framers did not want to abolish the state governments. At this time, most Americans felt more loyalty toward their state governments than to Congress, and strong local government made sense for the operation of a large nation such as the United States.
46
THE VIRGINIA PLAN
(EDMUND RANDOLPH) Favored representation based on population. Delegates from the large states supported this plan because it would give them a great deal of power.
Representatives from small states, however, rejected the plan because they would have fewer seats than the larger states and consequently less power.
47
THE NEW JERSEY PLAN
(WILLIAM PATTERSON) Proposed giving each state equal representation in the legislature. Delegates from smaller states supported the New Jersey Plan because they believed that all states should have equal power, regardless of population.
48
CONNECTICUT (GREAT) COMPROMISE
created a bicameral legislation with a House and Senate. Representatives in the House would be based on population size, and the Senate offers equal representation among the states – 2 senators for every state. The issue of slavery was settled with the 3/5 compromise which stated that 3 out of 5 slaves would be counted towards representation in the House.
49
THE ELECTION OF 1800
The election of 1800 pitted Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson against Federalist John Adams. Adams and Jefferson represented two different visions of what the United States of America should look like. Whereas Adams and his fellow Federalists, including George Washington, envisioned a strong central government and a thriving manufacturing sector centered in the cities, Jefferson and the DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS espoused an agrarian ideal, rooted in the republican virtues of the independent small farmer. The election of 1800 was fiercely contested and facilitated the rise of the two-party system and bitter partisanship.
50
LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The presidency of Jefferson brought new territory through the Louisiana Purchase. Though the Louisiana territory had changed hands between France and Spain a number of times, in 1800 Spain ceded the territory to Napoleon’s France. Napoleon, whose attention was consumed by war in Europe, began to view the territory as a needless burden. In 1803, he volunteered to sell all 828,000 square miles to the United States for the bargain price of $15 million.
51
LEWIS & CLARK
In order to explore and map all of this new territory, Jefferson authorized a WESTWARD EXPEDITION led by US Army volunteers Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. Their expedition lasted from 1803 to 1806 and was aided tremendously by the help of a Shoshone woman, SACAGAWEA, who served as their guide.
52
THE MONROE DOCTRINE (DEC. 1823)
The Monroe Doctrine stated that America would stay out of European wars unless directly impacted, European nations would not make any new colonies or attempt to take back control over former colonies in the Americas, and lastly, America would count any European colonization attempt in the Western Hemisphere to be an “unfriendly act.”
53
1824 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
John Quincy Adams won the 1824 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION in a four-way race against Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson. The election was so close that it was ultimately DECIDED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, which had the authority under the 12th Amendment to the US Constitution to decide the outcome of a presidential race in which no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
54
THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT
After entering the White House Jackson issued THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT of 1830 which authorized the voluntary relocation of Native Americans to the lands west of the Mississippi River but was frequently abused by government officials and resulted in some forced removals. The Indian Removal Act was applied to the "FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES"—Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole—so named by people of the time because they had to some degree assimilated into white European culture and society.
The majority of CHEROKEES refused to leave their lands voluntarily. As a result, the US government forcibly relocated Cherokees to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River via THE TRAIL OF TEARS. Of the 17,000 Cherokees who were forced to move, at least 4,000—and possibly as many as 8,000—perished
55
SPOILS SYSTEM
Started by Andrew Jackson
placing supporters into office, whether or not they had the qualifications for that office. This is named after the phrase “to the victor, belongs the spoils.”
56
THE WHIG PARTY
THE WHIG PARTY developed as opposition to Andrew Jackson’s war on the Bank of the US. As NATIONALISTS, Whigs wanted a stronger federal government rather than state governments, opposite as Jackson. As a result of the development of a new political party, the Whigs and Democratic-Republicans created the Second Party System.
57
TALLMADGE AMENDMENT
prohibited further introduction of slavery and allowed emancipation for all slave children born in Missouri at age 25. The House of Representatives accepted it, but the Senate rejected it. The issue was the balance between the free and slave states. If the Tallmadge Amendment passed, it would tip the balance.
58
Missouri Compromise
In 1820, Missouri applied for statehood, but it wanted to be admitted as a slave state. The TALLMADGE AMENDMENT prohibited further introduction of slavery.
The House of Representatives accepted it, but the Senate rejected it. Henry Clay developed a plan to maintain the balance: the Missouri Compromise which included:
o Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.
o Slavery would be prohibited in the area north of the 36 degree 30 minute line.
59
LOWELL GIRLS
women worked in a textile factory in Lowell, Massachusetts
60
IRISH IMMIGRANTS
Most Irish immigrants moved to America due to POTATO CROP FAILURES in Ireland. They faced strong discrimination due to their Roman Catholic religion and had to compete with African Americans. Since they had limited skills and little money, they had to do domestic work and unskilled laborer jobs. Many joined the Democratic party.
61
HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
the first American school of art, emphasized the power and beauty of nature. It often showed the fear of westward expansion destroying nature.
62
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Prominant in the 1800's
Transcendentalism taught that intuition connected people with God. With emphasis on individualism and self-sufficiency, it rejected Puritan tradition and rationalism of the Unitarian Church. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the founder of transcendentalism, wrote an essay called “Self-Reliance.” His friend, Henry David Thoreau, also wrote a book called Walden: Or Life in the Woods and believed in civil disobedience as well.
63
THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
Charles Grandison Finney, the best known preacher of the Second Great Awakening, taught that sin was voluntary. He believed everyone had the power to become perfect and free of sin. He also saw that women could help convert their husbands and fathers. He sought instantaneous conversions through a variety of new and controversial methods:
o Holding protracted meetings that lasted all night or several days in a row.
o Placing an "anxious bench" in front of the congregation where those in the process of repentance could receive special attention
o Encouraged women to pray publicly for the souls of male relatives.
o Sometimes listeners fell to floor in fits of excitement.
In the South on the western frontier, Baptist and Methodist CIRCUIT PREACHERS, such as Peter Cartwright would travel from one location to another and attract thousands to hear their dramatic preaching at outdoor revivals or CAMP MEETINGS.
64
NAT TURNER’S REBELLION
Nat Turner led the deadliest slave revolt in 1831. He and his allies killed 55 white people within a day, but whites effectively defeated them, even going as far as to kill about 30 people without trials. Although Turner was caught and arrested, the fear in the slaveholders and other southerners grew further, and they sought to find any other plans. This led to torture of the slaves, causing them to tell lies for confessions.
65
MANIFEST DESTINY
In 1845, newspaper editor John O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” to describe the ideology of CONTINENTAL EXPANSIONISM. The ideology of Manifest Destiny justified extreme measures to clear the native population from the land, including forced removal and violent extermination. For proponents of Manifest Destiny, the American Indians were mere impediments to the forward march of racial and technological progress, and they advocated pursuing a policy of INDIAN REMOVAL.
US President JAMES POLK is the leader most associated with the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Polk, a Democrat from Tennessee, led the United States to victory over Mexico in the MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR, which culminated in the transfer of a vast new territory, comprising almost the whole of the modern-day Southwest, from Mexico to the United States.
Polk also negotiated the OREGON TREATY OF 1846 with Britain, which accepted a division of the territory between the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel. The territory acquired by the United States under the provisions of the treaty include the present-day states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.
66
WILMOT PROVISO
was strongly opposed by the slaveholding South, asserted that the Mexican-American War had not been fought for the purpose of expanding slavery, and stipulated that slavery would never exist in the territories acquired from Mexico in the war. Ultimately, Polk’s territorial expansionism, though aimed at national unity, wound up intensifying sectional conflict and further paving the road to civil war.
67
THE MEXICAN–AMERICAN WAR
In the spring of 1846, tensions mounted between the United States and Mexico, and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) started, in part, over a border dispute between the two countries.
Mexico claimed the Nueces River to be Texas’s southern border, but the United States insisted the border lay further south at the Rio Grande River. The Mexican-American War confirmed Texas’s southern border at the Rio Grande, indicating the United States victory. The United States also acquired California, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
68
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
The Compromise of 1850 acted as a temporary truce on the issue of slavery, primarily addressing the status of newly acquired territory after the Mexican-American War. Under the Compromise, California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the slave trade was outlawed in Washington, D.C., a strict new FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT compelled citizens of free states to assist in capturing enslaved people; and the new territories of Utah and New Mexico would permit white residents to decide whether to allow slavery.
69
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized two new territories in the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase, Kansas and Nebraska. The act established that in these territories, the principle of popular sovereignty would apply, meaning that the white residents of each territory would vote on whether to permit slavery when applying for statehood. The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which drew the horizontal line of slavery across the West along the 36° 30' parallel, as both Kansas and Nebraska were north of this line. This reopened the question of slavery’s western expansion.
70
FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Democratic Party along sectional lines and gave rise to the REPUBLICAN PARTY, a new political party that attracted northern Whigs, Democrats who shunned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, members of the Free-Soil Party, and assorted abolitionists.
71
ELECTION OF 1860
As the Election of 1860 approached, it became clear that the country was more deeply divided than ever over the issue of slavery in the territories. The four main candidates in 1860 campaigned on different solutions to that issue and the American vote split. Prominent Democratic senator from Illinois, STEPHEN DOUGLAS, faced a tough reelection battle in 1858 against newcomer and Republican ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. As a moderate who was against the expansion of slavery, he spoke effectively of slavery as a moral issue. He argued that the nation had reached the crisis point in the struggle between slavery and freedom stating “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” “the government cannot endure half slave and half free."
Lincoln won the Election of 1860 without any Southern votes and became the first Republican president.
72
ATTACK THAT STARTED THE CIVIL WAR
Lincoln waited for the South to make the first move, and eventually, in April 1861, the rebels attacked the Federal arsenal at Ft. Sumter in South Carolina, starting the Civil War.
73
ANACONDA PLAN
Restricted the south’s ability to trade or receive resources through its naval blockade of Southern ports and coastline. The idea was to blockade all the ocean ports on the Atlantic and Gulf as well as the ports on the Mississippi, literally constricting the South (like an Anaconda).
74
ANTIETAM (1862)
was/is the bloodiest day in US history and led Lincoln to issue the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, keeping Europe out of the war and changing the Union Army into an army of liberation: it now freed slaves as contraband or property taken from those breaking the law. This also added AFRICAN AMERICAN MANPOWER to the US Army (example: 54th Massachusetts).
75
GETTYSBURG (1863)
The Confederacy was on the defensive after this, especially since Lee lost ⅓ of his army. This also led to the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS and Lincoln’s statement that the US would have a “new birth of freedom” as the war would end slavery. This and Vicksburg were the turning points of the war.
76
VICKSBURG (1863)
occurring at the exact same time as Gettysburg, it allowed the Union to gain CONTROL OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER and split the Confederacy. General Grant was promoted after this too, giving the Union better leadership in higher positions.
77
ATLANTA (1864)
was a well-timed victory that LED TO LINCOLN’S RE-ELECTION IN 1864 and thus allowed the US to finish the war with the eradication of slavery.
78
SHERMAN’S MARCH (1864)
Leading a force of 100,000 men, Sherman set out from Chattanooga, Tennessee on a campaign of deliberate destruction that went clear across the state of Georgia and then swept north into South Carolina. Marching relentlessly though Georgia, his troops destroyed everything in their path, burning cotton fields, barns, and houses; everything the enemy might use to survive. It was total warfare. This was called a SCORCHED-EARTH POLICY.
79
FIRST U.S. WAR TO INSTITUTE A DRAFT
Civil War
80
Amendments added after the civil war
o The 13TH AMENDMENT abolished slavery
o The 14TH AMENDMENT granted African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the laws
o The 15TH AMENDMENT granted African American men voting rights.
81
Lincoln's PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION
(often called the 10% Plan), which provided:
o Full presidential pardons would be granted to most Confederates who (1) took an oath of allegiance to the Union and the US Constitution, and (2) accepted the emancipation of slaves.
o A state government could be reestablished and accepted as legitimate by the US president as soon as at least 10% of the voters in that state took the loyalty oath.
82
Wade-Davis Bill
Congress worried Lincoln's 10% plan wasn't enough and n 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for Reconstruction. It required:
o 50% of the voters of a state to take a loyalty oath
o Permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new state constitution.
83
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
The bureau acted as an early welfare agency, providing FOOD, SHELTER, AND MEDICAL AID for those made destitute by the war – both blacks (freed slaves) and homeless whites. The bureaus greatest success was in education. Under the leadership of General Oliver Howard, it established nearly 3000 schools for freed blacks, including several colleges.
84
JOHNSON'S RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, became president. He began in 1865, a process called PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION where the South was allowed to reenter the Union with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. They were also allowed to pass Black Codes and discriminate against Freedmen (former slaves). The codes:
o Prohibited blacks from either renting land or borrowing money to buy land
o Placed freedmen into a form of semi bondage by forcing them, as “vagrants” and “apprentices” to sign work contracts
o Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court.
o Most codes made black unemployment a crime, which meant that blacks had to make long-term contracts with white employers or be arrested for vagrancy.
o Others limited the occupations that they could have to include servants or laborers only.
85
SCALAWAGS & CARPETBAGGERS
They called Southern Republicans “scalawags” and Northern newcomers “carpetbaggers”. Both were derogatory terms for the northerners moving to the south to exploit and profit from the South’s misfortunes.
86
SHARECROPPING
Sharecropping became a popular new form of coerced labor in the South. Blacks worked in families on a piece of land for a fixed share of the crop, usually 1/2. This was good for the landowners, because it didn’t require much expenditure in advance of the harvest. The tenant also shared the risk of crop failure or a fall in cotton prices. Croppers had to live on credit until their cotton was sold, and plantation owners used the chance to provision them at high prices.
87
COMPROMISE OF 1877
Reconstruction ended in 1877 with the COMPROMISE OF 1877. This was a deal in which the Northern Republicans got Rutherford B. Hayes elected as president. In exchange, the Southern Democrats got an end to the military occupation of the South (called the Bayonet Rule) since they promised to respect Black rights. Despite the enormous potential of achieving basic racial equality, the Amendments in the Constitution would be mostly useless for African Americans for almost 100 years.
88
THE NEW SOUTH
Proponents of the New South envisioned a post-Reconstruction southern economy modeled on the North’s embrace of the Industrial Revolution. An Atlanta, Georgia newspaper coined the phrase the "New South” in 1874. The writer urged the South to abandon its longstanding agrarian economy for a modern economy grounded in factories, mines, and mills.
89
JIM CROW LAWS
Jim Crow laws were imposed by southern states from 1876 through the first decade of the 20th century. These laws were used to discriminate against black people and prevent them from doing things like having equal access to public infrastructure and voting.
90
BOOMTOWNS
Towns created by the California gold rush
91
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers taking jobs.
Congress passed the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT of 1882, suspending immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years (although it would be extended and not ended until 1943). It was the first major act of Congress to restrict immigration on the basis of race and nationality.
92
HOMESTEAD ACT OF 1862
encouraged farming on the Great Plains by offering 160 acres of public land free to any family that settled on it for a period of 5 years. Many moved west and took advantage of this act.
93
CATTLE RANCHING
After the invention of barbed wire made it easier to ranch cattle, Cattle ranching dominated the open range. The problem was getting beef to eastern markets. Joseph McCoy solved the problem, conceiving the idea of taking the cattle to the railheads in Kansas. He built the first stockyards in the region in Abilene, Kansas, to hold cattle destined for Chicago
94
SAND CREEK MASSACRE
In 1864, the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were tired of fighting with the US so they asked for peace. Because they were certain the war was over, Chief Black Kettle, led his 700 followers to camp on Sand Creek. Early in the morning, a group of Colorado military, attacked the sleeping group. The Colonel Chivington told them to “Kill and scalp all, big and little. Nits make lice.” Black Kettle tried to stop the ambush by raising an American flag and then a white flag, but neither worked. All of them were clubbed, stabbed, and scalped.
95
LITTLE BIGHORN
As a part of the northern Sioux Wars, the army was sent under Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. On June 25, 1876 thinking he had a small band of Indians surrounded on the banks of the Little Bighorn River in Montana, Custer marched toward it. He discovered that he had stumbled into the main Sioux camp with 2500 warriors. By afternoon, it was over and Custer and his men were dead. It became known as “CUSTER’S LAST STAND” and appeared in newspapers everywhere. There was demand for revenge all across the US.
96
WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE
The Army intervened to stop the ghost dancing, which started violence that killed Sitting Bull. Custer’s old regiment caught up with them and took them to the army camp at Wounded Knee Creek in SD. A Native American fired a shot and the army returned with their new machine guns. They shredded tepees and people, killing about 200 men, women and children in the snow. This became known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.
97
DAWES ACT
After a series of violent conflicts in the West, the DAWES SEVERALTY ACT OF 1887 redistributed native lands and confined Native Americans to life on reservations.
98
BLACK VOTER SUPPRESSION
Various political and legal devices were invented to prevent blacks from voting. The most common were LITERACY TESTS, POLL TAXES and political party primaries for whites only (WHITE PRIMARIES). Many southern states adopted grandfather clauses, which allowed a man to vote only if his grandfather had cast ballots in elections before Reconstruction.
99
Henry Bessemer’s process of STEEL PRODUCTION
With this process, steel could be produced more efficiently and for much lower prices than ever before. This process, quite literally, led to national growth. It was used to build railroads in the West and cities in the East.
100
YELLOW-DOG CONTRACTS
workers being told, as a condition for employment, that they must sign an agreement not to join a union.
101
THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR
formed in 1869. They championed for 8-hour work days and the ability to organize, but also aimed for the abolishment of CHILD LABOR and MONOPOLISTIC TRUSTS.
102
HAYMARKET RIOT
The 1886 Haymarket Riot, in which a Chicago labor protest turned violent, was the downfall of the Knights of Labor. Chicago had a small anarchist population at the time and, to this day, nobody knows who threw the bomb that killed eight people. What is clear from the Haymarket Affair is that labor unions suffered from it. The incident led many to view labor unions as radical, anarchist organizations, which was further fueled by the growing Nativist sentiment of the time.
103
HOMESTEAD STRIKE OF 1892
In the HOMESTEAD STRIKE OF 1892, Henry Frick (manager of Carnegie's Homestead Steel mill) incited resistance by reducing workers' wages. The workers went on strike and Frick responded by locking the workers out of the plant. The workers surrounded it and Frick hired a small private army, the PINKERTONS, to drive them off. Workers spotted the Pinkertons and pinned them down with gunfire and forced them to surrender. The Pennsylvania governor ordered the militia to impose peace at Homestead.
104
HULL HOUSE
established by JANE ADDAMS, helped immigrants assimilate by offering English classes and helping with employment.
105
MUCKRAKERS
Rapid growth in population led to serious issues in the way of overcrowding, sanitation, and standards of living. Muckrakers, such as JACOB RIIS (who wrote HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES) and Lewis Hine, tried to bring attention to the plight of the poor and urged Americans to focus on URBAN REFORM.
106
JACOB RIIS
wrote HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES, a photo essay of the poor and tenement conditions
107
SOCIAL GOSPEL
The Social Gospel movement advocated that Christians work to improve the plight of the urban poor. As a result of this movement, charitable groups such as the Salvation Army and YMCA were created. Many artists and authors also began to use their platform to call for reform.
108
PRO-IMPERIALISTS
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Those Americans who favored expansion and imperialism (the control over another group of people, usually without their consent) relied on the following arguments.
o ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
o SOCIAL DARWINISM
o COMPETITION WITH EUROPEANS
o FRONTIER
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109
ANTI-IMPERIALISTS
The anti-imperialists like Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain fought back, forming groups like the ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE and arguing that ruling over other nations and people who didn’t want the US over them was hypocritical: the US had been a colony once itself. By the 1890s, the language of “SELF DETERMINATION” had long been a part of US political conversations, showing the importance of voting and the consent of the governed.
110
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Because the US saw Latin America and the Caribbean as its zone of authority, the US was growing increasingly uneasy about the CUBAN REBELLION against the Spanish. Cuba was close to Florida and a frequent target of covetous businessmen who envied its agricultural production of sugar and other tropical crops.
To keep an eye on the Spanish, President William McKinley sent the battleship USS MAINE to Havana harbor (Cuba’s capital city). While it was docked there, it blew up during the night. Although investigations decades later suggest it was likely an accident, the US blamed Spain, aided by war fever whipped up by Yellow Journalism.
Following the sinking of the Maine, McKinley issued an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it agree to a ceasefire in Cuba. Spain agreed to this demand, but US newspapers and a majority in Congress kept clamoring for war. McKinley yielded to public pressure and sent a war message to Congress.
111
YELLOW JOURNALISM
the use of exaggerated or falsified news stories aimed at increasing circulation of newspapers. The US war cry was “Remember the Maine; to hell with Spain!”
112
DELOME LETTER
On Feb 9, 1898, the New York Journal published a letter stolen from Enrique Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish Ambassador in Washington. In the letter (private correspondence to a friend) he called McKinley weak and a would-be politician. Many Americans were angered.
113
TELLER AMENDMENT
Part of the resolution declaring war on spain -- the Teller Amendment declared that the US had no intention of taking political control of Cuba and that, once peace was restored to the island, the Cuban people would control their own government.
114
SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK
Teddy Roosevelt's policy
| He advocated for Imperialism
115
DOLLAR DIPLOMACY
Taft's focus on trade and investment rather than the military and war
116
WILSON'S MORAL DIPLOMACY
President Wilson's approach to foreign affairs based on morals
117
Roosevelt's Square Deal
included three parts:
o Consumer Protection
o Business and Labor Regulation (including trust busting)
o Conservation
118
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON v W.E.B. DUBOIS
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON famously stated in his Atlanta Compromise speech that African Americans should work first for economic success and wait for social equality. W.E.B. DUBOIS, by contrast insisted upon social equality and called for a Talented Tenth of the African American community to rise up and show White people what African Americans were capable of accomplishing.
119
CAUSES OF WWI
o Militarism - countries building up militaries in an arms race
o Alliances - each country had friends, so any conflict could easily spread
o Nationalism - each country thought they were the best and others were evil
o Imperialism - European countries competed for territory & resources
o Assassination - a Serbian nationalist killed Austria-Hungary’s archduke Franz Ferdinand, which sparked the war because of underlying tensions
120
NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT
Prior to WWI increased the regular army to a force of nearly 175,000. Congress then approved the construction of more than 50 warships in just one year.
121
WILSON'S 14 POINTS
o Open diplomacy without secret treaties
o Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace
o Equal trade conditions
o Decrease armaments among all nations
o Adjust colonial claims
o Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to define its own independence
o Belgium to be evacuated and restored
o Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories
o Readjust Italian borders
o Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-determination
o Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
o Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in the Dardanelles
o Creation of an independent Polish state
o Creation of the League of Nations
122
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
o Germany had to accept the sole blame for the war.
o Germany was forced to pay billions of dollars in reparations (financial damages) to the Allies. This ended up breaking the back of the German economy.
o Germany had to give up most of its army.
o Germany lost all of its colonial territory as well as some of its territory in Europe. In addition, the League of Nations was established.
123
ESPIONAGE AND SEDITION ACTS
o Espionage Act of 1917 imposed sentences of up to 20 years for persons found guilty of aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment of soldiers or encouraging disloyalty.
o Sedition Act, imposing harsh penalties on anyone use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government, flag or armed forces uniforms.
124
WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD
set production priorities and established centralize control over raw materials and prices.
125
FOOD ADMINISTRATION DURING WWI
encouraged American households to eat less meat and bread so that more food could be shipped abroad for the French and British troop. The conservation drive paid off, in two years, U.S. overseas shipment of food tripled.
126
U.S. HOMEFRONT WORK FORCE DURING WWI
Since some of the workers were drafted and the plants needed to expand, these factories turned to new sources of labor, namely women and African Americans.
127
GREAT MIGRATION
African Americans, partly fleeing racial terrorism down South and partly seeking new job opportunities, moved to northern cities in large numbers during WWI in a process known as the GREAT MIGRATION. In the North, African Americans found more jobs and less formal, Jim Crow segregation, but they still suffered discrimination.
128
Birth of a Nation (1915)
a racist film that argued the KKK were the heroes of Reconstruction, saving white women from predatory Blacks
129
FIRST RED SCARE / PALMER RAIDS
The First Red Scare began in June 1919 when an anarchist sent bombs through the mail to various government leaders, including to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s house. Palmer then began the infamous PALMER RAIDS with the help of the newly created FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover. They investigated, arrested, and deported those of communist, socialist, or anarchist sentiments, including famous labor activists like Emma Goldman. This was a sad denial of constitutional rights and civil liberties, but because of the spread of communism in Russia and the fear of spreading social unrest at home, Palmer and many Americans thought it was necessary.
130
SACCO & VANZETTI
Another famous example of this nativist hysteria was the trial of SACCO & VANZETTI, Italian anarchists who were convicted during a highly problematic trial of murder during a robbery and then killed via the electric chair. Many people all over the world at the time protested their executions and saw the case as an example of xenophobia and nativism gone too far.
131
EMERGENCY QUOTA ACT (1922)
for the first time in US history, established numerical limits on U.S. immigration.
132
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
On the musical front, jazz and the blues spread from New Orleans and became popular throughout the country during the 1920s with performers such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
One of the most famous examples was the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of art, music, and literature in the African American community based in Harlem, New York, which itself was a product of the Great Migration.
Working with themes of African heritage and resiliency against racial oppression, the Harlem Renaissance produced amazing new poetry (Langston Hughes), novels (Zora Neal Hurston), dance, (Josephine Baker), and drama (Paul Robeson).
133
FLAPPER
1920's woman who wore short hair, short skirts, and challenged societal norms about dance, sex, and smoking.
134
SCOPES TRIAL
In one of the most famous events of the 1920s, the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee was seen as a showdown between science (defended by Clarence Darrow) and religion (defended by William Jennings Bryan) over the issue of TEACHING EVOLUTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
135
THE LOST GENERATION.
writers in Paris searching for meaning in a modern world
136
PROHIBITION
In 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. THE VOLSTEAD ACT, which implemented prohibition, banned most commercial production and distribution of beverages containing more than one half of 1 percent of alcohol by volume.
Rural areas became totally dry and there was a sharp drop in drinking among the lower classes in the cities who could not afford the cost of the bootleg liquor. Among the middle class and wealthy, drinking became fashionable. Bootleggers supplied whiskey, which was quickly replaced with lighter spirits such as beer and wine.
Rival groups of gangsters including a Chicago gang headed by Al Capone fought for control of the lucrative bootlegging trade. Organized crime became big business. The millions made from the sale of illegal booze allowed the gangs to expand other illegal activities: prostitution, gambling and narcotics.
137
THE 21st AMENDMENT
1933 - repealed the 18th amendment and millions celebrated the new year by toasting the end of Prohibition.
138
PRESIDENCY OF CALVIN COOLIDGE
Coolidge believed that it was his job to preside benignly and not govern the nation. He was nicknamed “Silent Cal”. Coolidge believed in limited government that stood aside while business conducted its own affairs.
139
THE NEW DEAL
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), the 32nd president of the United States, sought to fight the worst parts of the Great Depression through his legislative agenda, nicknamed the New Deal. This changed the role of the federal government in new ways (mostly by expanding it) and changed the alignment of political parties (this is one of two major time periods when the Democrats and Republicans began to morph into the parties we recognize today).
140
EMERGENCY BANKING RELIEF ACT
where the banks would close for a banking holiday and then the federal government would allow those it had inspected and found to be safe to reopen. This helped to restore public confidence in the banks and reversed the runs on the bank once they reopened.
141
FDR's NEW DEAL 3 R'd
RELIEF (stop people from starving right now
RECOVERY (help the economy get back on track and people employed again)
REFORM (change the economic system to ensure this never happened again).
142
HUEY LONG
For some liberals, the New Deal didn’t go far enough or addressed the problems of the rich businessmen more than poor people, minorities, or women. People like Huey Long and his Share Our Wealth Society called for a 100% tax rate for all incomes over a million dollars and the redistribution of those funds to poor people.
143
FATHER CHARLES COUGHLIN
In a nationwide radio show, he appealed to the discontent. He called the New Deal the Pagan Deal. When his show became increasingly Fascist and anti-Semitic, his superiors in the Catholic Church ordered him to stop his broadcasts.
144
KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT (1928)
was a promise by countries never to resort to war, but since it had no enforcement provisions, it was largely useless.
145
The Neutrality Acts
passed in the 1930s made it difficult for the US to trade with nations involved in the war to avoid similar economic entanglements to WWI.
146
DOUBLE V CAMPAIGN
african american soldiers sought victory over fascism abroad and over racism at home.
147
A. Philip Randolph
a prominent Black leader, used the threat of a march on Washington during the war to get FDR to pass EXECUTIVE ORDER 8802 prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industries.
148
ZOOT SUIT RIOTS
ZOOT SUIT RIOTS in LA occurred when white servicemen roamed Mexican-American neighborhoods attacking Latin people
149
The BRACERO PROGRAM
recruited Mexican laborers to work in US agriculture and fill in for missing White workers.
150
NAVAJO CODE TALKERS
examples of the U.S. using Native Americans speakers as communication experts to avoid decoding by the enemy
151
INTERNMENT CAMPS
authorized by FDR in EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066: war paranoia on the West coast combined with longtime discrimination against Asians resulted in over 110,000 Japanese Americans being detained in prison camps for the duration of the war.
152
YALTA CONFERENCE
The Big Three met again in February 1945 at the Yalta Conference. After victory in Europe was achieved, they agreed that:
i. Germany would be divided into occupation zones
ii. There would be free elections in the liberated countries of Eastern Europe (Even though Soviet troops controlled this territory)
iii. The soviets would enter the war against Japan, which they did just as Japan surrendered.
iv. A new world peace organization (the future United Nations) would be formed at a conference in San Francisco.
153
POTSDAM CONFERENCE
In late July, after Germany’s surrender, only Stalin remained as one of the original Big Three. Truman was the US president and Clement Attlee had just been elected the new British prime minister. The three leaders met in Potsdam and agreed:
i. To demand Japan surrender unconditionally
ii. To hold war-crime trials of Nazi leaders
154
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
President Truman's request for economic and military aid to assist the “free people” of Greece and Turkey against “totalitarian” regimes
155
NATO
The US, 10 European nations, and Canada signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on April 4, 1949. There were two main features of NATO:
o The US committed itself to the defense of Europe in the key clause which stated: “an armed attack against one or more shall be considered an attack against them all”. The US was extending the atomic shield over Europe.
156
HISS CASE
Whittaker Chambers, a confessed Communist, became a star for HUAC in 1948. His testimony along with the investigative work of a young member of Congress from California named Richard Nixon, led to Alger Hiss, a prominent official in the State Department who had assisted FDR at Yalta. Hiss denied that he was a Communist. In 1950 he was convicted of perjury and sent to prison. Many Americans wondered if the highest levels of government were infiltrated by Soviet spies.
157
ROSENBERG CASE
Americans were convinced that spies had helped the Soviets steal the technology about atomic bomb from the US. A British scientist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, admitted giving A-bomb secrets to Russia. A few months later, Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were charged with conspiracy to transmit atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. A jury found them guilty and a judge sentenced them to death. They were electrocuted on June 19, 1953.
158
LEVITTOWN
Suburbs
William J. Levitt led the development of postwar suburbia with his building and promotion of LEVITTOWN, a project of 17,000 mass-produced, low-priced family homes on Long Island, New York.
159
EMMETT TILL
In the summer of 1955, Emmett Till left his home in Chicago to visit his uncle and cousin in Mississippi. Till and a group of teenagers entered Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to buy refreshments. Till purchased bubble gum, and in later accounts he was accused of either whistling at, flirting with or touching the hand of the store's white female clerk—and wife of the owner—Carolyn Bryant. In the middle of the night, Till was kidnapped and murdered. They beat the teenager brutally, dragged him to the bank of the river, shot him in the head, tied him with barbed wire to a large metal fan and shoved his mutilated body into the water. Three days later, his corpse was pulled out of the river. Till's body was shipped to Chicago, where his mother opted to have an open-casket funeral with Till's body on display for five days. Thousands of people came to the Roberts Temple Church of God to see the evidence of this brutal hate crime.
160
SOUTHERN MANIFESTO
a document denouncing the Brown v. Board of education ruling and promising to use all legal means to maintain “separate but equal” as the status quo and condemning the Supreme Court for a ”clear abuse of judicial power.”
161
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (SCLC)
In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. formed the SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (SCLC), which organized ministers and churches in the South to get behind the civil rights struggle.
162
NATIONAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION ACT
In response to USSR beating the U.S. in the space race, authorized giving hundreds of millions in federal money to schools for math, science, and foreign language education
Congress also created the NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) to direct the US efforts to build missiles and explore outer space.
163
VIETNAM DIVIDED
By the terms of the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17TH PARALLEL until a general election could be held. The new nation remained divided, as two hostile governments took power on either side of the line. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh established a Communist dictatorship. In South Vietnam, a government emerged under NGO DINH DIEM, whose support came largely from anti-communist, Catholic, and urban Vietnamese, many of whom had fled from Communist rule in the North.
164
TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION
Lyndon Baines Johnson inherited an American commitment to support an independent South Vietnam. He felt he had little choice but to continue Kennedy’s policy. On August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the MADDOX, AN AMERICAN DESTROYER engaged in electronic intelligence gathers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese naval bases. The next day, LBJ asked Congress to pass a resolution authorizing him to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the U.S. and to prevent further aggression.” Congress voted its approval for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which basically gave the present, as commander in chief, a blank check to take “ALL NECESSARY MEASURES” to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam.
165
TET OFFENSIVE
On the occasion of their LUNAR NEW YEAR (Tet) in January 1968, the Vietcong launched an all-out surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and American base in South Vietnam. The US military counterattacked and inflicted heavy losses on the Vietcong and recovered the lost territory. The American military victory proved irrelevant to how the war was interpreted at home.
166
NIXON AND VIETNAMIZATION
When Richard Nixon took office, more than a half-million US troops were in Vietnam. His objective was to find a way to REDUCE US INVOLVEMENT while at the same time avoiding the appearance of conceding defeat. He said the US was accepting nothing less than “PEACE WITH HONOR”.
167
VIETNAM PEACE TALKS
When the two sides could not reach a deal to end the war, Nixon ordered a MASSIVE BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM (the heaviest air attacks of the long war) to force a settlement. After several weeks of B-52 bomber attacks, the North Vietnamese agreed to an armistice, in which the US would withdraw the last of its troops and get back over 500 prisoners of war. THE PARIS ACCORDS OF 1973 also promised a cease-fire and free elections.
168
PROGRAMS INTRODUCED BY LBJ
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Medicare and Medicaid
Elementary & Secondary Education Act
Food Stamp Act
National Foundation of the Arts & Humanities
Higher Education Act
Child Nutrition Act
```
169
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
o Made racial discrimination illegal in hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation.
o Forbade discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender.
o Created the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission to monitor and enforce protections against job discrimination.
o Provided for withholding federal grants from state and local governments and other institutions that practiced racial discrimination.
o Strengthened voting rights legislation.
o Authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to initiate lawsuits to desegregated public schools and facilities.
170
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It banned literacy tests in states and counties which less than half the population had voted in 1964 and provided federal registrars in these areas to assure African American voting rights.
171
NEW FEDERALISM
Under the label of “new federalism,” Nixon shifted responsibility for many social programs from Washington to state and local authorities. He developed the concept of revenue sharing, by which federal funds (via grants) were dispersed to state, country, and city agencies to meet local needs in the form of block grants. These governments could use the money as they saw fit.
172
glasnost
Gorbachev was intent on improving relations with the US as a part of his new policy glasnost (political openness to end political repression and move toward greater political freedom for Soviet citizens
173
perestroika
Gorbachev's Soviet Union policy restructuring the soviet economy by introducing some free-market practices
174
PERSIAN GULF WAR
Iraq, in 1990, invaded Kuwait taking control of the oil reserves.
Bush quickly concluded that Saddam Hussein’s aggression must be reversed. He started by persuading Saudi Arabia to accept a huge American troop buildup, dubbed Desert Shield. This American presence would prevent Saddam from advancing beyond Kuwait into Saudi Arabia and would allow the US to launch a ground attack against Iraqi forces if and when the president determined it was determined such an attack was necessary.
Operations Desert Shield evolved into what would be called Operation Desert Storm, as the sanctions failed to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait, and skeptics in Congress came around. Bush secured UN support for military action and then persuaded Congress to approve the use of force to liberate Kuwait. On January 17, 1991 the president unleashed a devastating aerial assault on Iraq. After 5 weeks of this, Bush gave the orders for the ground assault. In a controversial decision, President Bush halted the advance and agreed to an armistice with Iraq. Critics claimed that with just a few more days of fighting, they could have ended Saddam’s cruel regime. Operation Desert Storm took Bush’s approval ratings to above 90%, higher than both Eisenhower and Kennedy. The US had deployed as many troops as they had in Vietnam but had lost just 146 lives. The price of oil fell. However, Saddam Hussein continued to rule in Iraq.
175
Balkan Wars
Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had ended Kosovo’s autonomy within Yugoslavia and imposed Serbian rule even though 90% of the population was Albanian. The Kosovars launched a guerilla war against the Serbian police and Milosevic responded with a campaign of repression. When diplomatic efforts failed, Clinton and the heads of NATO governments ordered an aerial assault in 1999. Milosevic stepped up the ethnic cleansing in response. Milosevic finally agreed to halt attempts to purge Kosovo of its Albanian inhabitants.
