AP US History vocabulary list: Difference between revisions

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* Panic of 1837
* Panic of 1837
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Second Party System| term for the new political order that arose with Jackson's presidency; the System was marked by higher voter interest and participation and the dominance of the Democratic and Whig parties and their machinery which included partisan newspapers, rallies, and election-day vote drives}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Second Party System| term for the new political order that arose with Jackson's presidency; the System was marked by higher voter interest and participation and the dominance of the Democratic and Whig parties and their machinery which included partisan newspapers, rallies, and election-day vote drives}}</ul></li>
* spoils system
* Tariff of 1833
* Tariff of 1833
* Trail of Tears
* Trail of Tears
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[[File:U.S. Vote for President as Population Share.png|thumb|U.S. presidential election popular vote totals as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Note the surge in 1828 (extension of suffrage to non-property-owning white men), the drop from 1890 to 1910 (when Southern states disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites), and another surge in 1920 (extension of suffrage to women).]]


=== Jacksonian democracy ===
* party machine
* spoils system
* universal (white) male suffrage
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<ul><li>{{#tip-text:self-made man| a term for someone who rises from poverty or the working class to build his own business or profession; the "self-made man" was a democratic ideal of the idea that all men are created equal and can thus be whatever they want to be}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:self-made man| a term for someone who rises from poverty or the working class to build his own business or profession; the "self-made man" was a democratic ideal of the idea that all men are created equal and can thus be whatever they want to be}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Samuel Sellars & Sellers family| Philadelphia industrialists who invented a machine to produce yarn, then created mills and machines to mass produce leather, paper, and wire, and, ultimately, railroad locomotives; the family helped found the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia that published technical papers, provided instructions for teaching math and science, and organized exhibits of industrial products and technologies}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Samuel Sellars & Sellers family| Philadelphia industrialists who invented a machine to produce yarn, then created mills and machines to mass produce leather, paper, and wire, and, ultimately, railroad locomotives; the family helped found the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia that published technical papers, provided instructions for teaching math and science, and organized exhibits of industrial products and technologies}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Samuel Slater| English mechanic who in 1789 immigrated to the United States, bringing with him textile machinery and manufacturing techniques that were adopted by cotton mills in Rhode Island and, alter, elsewhere; Slater's importance, along with Francis Lowell, who also brought British industrial techniques to the US, is that he helped American factories compete with those of the British}}</ul></il>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Samuel Slater| English mechanic who in 1789 immigrated to the United States, bringing with him textile machinery and manufacturing techniques that were adopted by cotton mills in Rhode Island and, alter, elsewhere; Slater's importance, along with Francis Lowell, who also brought British industrial techniques to the US, is that he helped American factories compete with those of the British}}</ul></li>
* stock market
* stock market
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:transportation revolution| before canals, roads and railroads, cities and commerce were dependent on useful natural routes, such as rivers, coastlines and natural paths; canals connected larger waterways; developed roads created more efficient paths across land, and railroads created the ability to move large loads across the land; these developments connected markets, attracted investment and development of land, and fueled the economic, political and demographic growth of the nation}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:transportation revolution| before canals, roads and railroads, cities and commerce were dependent on useful natural routes, such as rivers, coastlines and natural paths; canals connected larger waterways; developed roads created more efficient paths across land, and railroads created the ability to move large loads across the land; these developments connected markets, attracted investment and development of land, and fueled the economic, political and demographic growth of the nation}}</ul></li>
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<ul><li>{{#tip-text:cult of domesticity| a term used by historians to describe changes in the role and ideals of women in families in the 19th century; the "true woman" (historians' term, not from the period) was the center of the family: wife and mother dedicated to family, purity, religious piety, and submission to her husband; note that in this view at the time, women were not to speak publicly about politics much less agitate for the vote (see "separate sphere"; over the 19th century, middle class white women (not farmers) began to have fewer children (indicating advances in medicine and health care), which allowed them more personal time which could be spent on outside activities such as church, charities, clubs, etc.}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:cult of domesticity| a term used by historians to describe changes in the role and ideals of women in families in the 19th century; the "true woman" (historians' term, not from the period) was the center of the family: wife and mother dedicated to family, purity, religious piety, and submission to her husband; note that in this view at the time, women were not to speak publicly about politics much less agitate for the vote (see "separate sphere"; over the 19th century, middle class white women (not farmers) began to have fewer children (indicating advances in medicine and health care), which allowed them more personal time which could be spent on outside activities such as church, charities, clubs, etc.}}</ul></li>
* Declaration of Sentiments
* Declaration of Sentiments
<ul><li>{{#tip-text:Nativism| anti-immigration movement that principally objected to Catholic immigrants; the discrimination was protestant anti-Catholicism as well as over economic competition, they blamed the Catholic immigrants for taking jobs}}</ul></li>
<ul><li>lyceum movement<li>{{#tip-text:Nativism| anti-immigration movement that principally objected to Catholic immigrants; the discrimination was protestant anti-Catholicism as well as over economic competition, they blamed the Catholic immigrants for taking jobs}}</ul>
* Philadelphia Women's Anti-Slavery Convention
* Philadelphia Women's Anti-Slavery Convention
* Seneca Falls Convention
* Seneca Falls Convention

Latest revision as of 00:41, 28 October 2024

US History and AP US History Running Vocabulary List: Terms, Concepts, Names and Events

Additional keywords: AP U.S. History, APUSH, AP us, apush, note: see Talk page for to do list and suggestions

This page may be used as an all-round study guide for the AP US History exam.

Primary goals of this study guide:

  1. Knowledge of periods
  2. Knowledge of terms, people and places
  3. Knowledge of dates
  • See here for map review of US History

For Multiple Choice section (MCQ), students are to:

  • identify document source, date, historical context
  • contextuals document and not confuse it for wrong period or context in wrong possible answer
  • idenify other errors in wrong possible answers

For Free Response sections (FRQ, DBQ), students are to:

  • demonstrate historical factual knowledge
    • provide examples, describe and explain
    • write to an uninformed audience
      • as in math, "show your work" -- i.e., explain everything
  • contextualize through cause and effect
  • compare/contrast to other periods, persons, and events
  • conceptualize facts into large ideas

US History: BIG IDEAS for American self-conception and historical choices[edit | edit source]

Students may address historican themes, events, and periods using the various notions of self-conception of Americans across history. Note that these concepts change over time. A short list of topics/ core ideas includes:

the American Dream

American exceptionalism

Americanism (and What is it to be an American?)

Civil liberties

Civil Rights

"City on a Hill"

Debate

Dissent

Due process

Duty

E pluribus unam

Equality

Expansionism (including westerd expansion, overseas expansion; also economic)

Foreign non-Intervention / Intervention

Freedom/ Freedoms, esp. movement, protest, religion, speech

Freedom of conscience

Idealism

Intellectual property

Innovation

Issues focus

Justice

Limited government

Patriotism

Personal autonomy

Personal / public safety

Politics

Practicality / Self-interest

Push- / pull- factors (migration)

Regionalism

Self-reliance

Self-rule/ self-governance

Technology

War


Implications of a Democracy[edit | edit source]

In 1835, the French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville published the first of two volumes, "Democracy in America". Tocqueville was intrigued by the social, cultural and political implications of a democratic society -- by which he meant, generally,

  • absence of social classes or heirarchies among citizens
  • members of that dominant social class consider themselves one another's equal

Tocqueville's analysis yields enormous insight into the American character of the 1830s as well as today:

  • notion of equality
  • individualism
  • emphasis on local governance
  • civic activity and associations
  • spirit of religion

These characteristics of a democracy can be applied to historical analysis on the AP exam and for understanding US History generally.


American Slogans or Famous Utterances[edit | edit source]

A day that will live in infamy

A republic, if you can keep it!

The American way

Equal justice under law

Getting the government you deserve

Give me liberty or give me death!

Go west, young man!

I am a Berliner / Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

In God we trust

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happines

Live free or die

Nothing to fear but fear itself

Of the people, by the people, for the people

Outdoing the Joneses

Remember the Alamo!

Taxation without representation

United we stand, divided we fall

We shall overcome

We the people



Historical textual analysis: approaches and strategies[edit | edit source]

When reviewing an historical document, consider:[edit | edit source]

  • date / historical context
  • author
  • publisher
  • audience
  • author point of view & purpose

Review fine print, sources, in cartoons anything written, and apply your PRIOR KNOWLEDGE[edit | edit source]

  • what do you know about the period?
  • what came before it?
  • what followed?
  • what events, periods, persons may be compared or contrasted to it?

Analytical tools[edit | edit source]

HAPPy or HIPP

Historical context (Intended) Audience Purpose Point of View y

OPVL

Origin Perspective Value Limitations

SPRITE

Social Political Religious Intellectual Technological Economics

General terms to know for US History[edit | edit source]

  • abolitionism
  • aristocratic
  • authority
  • blue collar v. white collar
  • cession
  • chain migration
  • class warfare
  • ''de facto'' v. ''de jure''
  • delegate (as noun and verb)
  • democracy
  • direct tax
  • disenfranchised
  • dissent
  • domestic
  • duties
  • Electoral College
  • emancipation
  • embargo
  • equity
  • excise tax
  • federal
  • franchise
  • hegemony/hegomonic
  • imperialism
  • indemnity
  • infringe / infringement
  • intolerance
  • laissez-faire
  • landmark court case
  • legitimacy
  • mercantilism
  • nativism
  • nullify / nullification
  • Old World v. New World
  • political
  • political expediency
  • popular sovereignty
  • precedent
  • power
  • prohibition
  • republic
  • "Republican motherhood"
  • republican principles
  • state
  • states rights
  • segregation
  • socialism
  • sovereignty
  • suffrage
  • tariff
  • temperance movement
  • two-party system
  • unalienable
  • unintended consequence
  • United States
  • western expansion

Wars timeline[edit | edit source]

  • wars are the effect or cause of change
  • knowing wars and their dates and geography provides context and points of comparison

Major Wars[edit | edit source]

  • French-Indian War, 1754-1763
  • American Revolutionary War, 1775-1781
  • War of 1812, 1812-1815
  • Mexican-American War, 1846-1848
  • Civil War, 1861-1865
  • Spanish-American War, 1898
  • Phillipine Insurgency, 1899-1902
  • World War I (U.S.), 1917-1918
  • White Russian War, 1917
  • World War II (U.S.) 1941-1945
  • Korean War, 1950-1953
  • Vietnam War, 1959-1975
  • Vietnam, U.S. ground war: 1965-1972
  • Gulf War, 1990-1991
  • War on Terror, 2001-2021
  • Afghanistan War, 2001-2021
  • Iraq War, 2003-2011
  • Iraqi Insurgency, 2003-2006

Colonial Wars[edit | edit source]

  • Anglow-Powhatan Wars (1610-1646)
  • Beaver Wars, 1609-1701 (French/Dutch)
  • Jamestown Massacre, 1622
  • Pequot War (1634-1638)
  • King Philip's War, 1675-1678 | Metaomb's War
  • King William's War, 1689-1897
  • Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713
  • Yamasee War, 1715-1717
  • Chickasaw Wars, 1721-1763
  • Dummer's War, 1722-25
  • Pontiac's War, 1763-1766
  • Lord Dunmore's War, 1774

American settlers or frontier wars[edit | edit source]

  • Bacon's Rebellion 1676
  • Regulator Insurrection, 1766-1771
  • Whiskey Rebellion, 1791-1794
  • Fries's Rebellion, 1799-1800

US Indian Wars[edit | edit source]

(see above for colonial-era Indian wars)

Slave Revolts[edit | edit source]

  • New York Slave Revolt of 1712
  • Stono Rebellion, 1739
  • Nat Turner's Rebellion, 1826

Minor Wars or US Military actions[edit | edit source]

  • Quasi-War, 1798-1800
  • First Barbary War, 1801-1805
  • Second Barbary War, 1815
  • Panama Revolution, 1903
  • Russian White Revolution, Vladistok, 1918
  • Berlin Airlift, 1946 << date?
  • Greece, 1948
  • Iran, 1950s
  • Grenada, 1980s
  • Panama, 1990 < confirm
  • Syria, 2010-12
  • Libya, 2012

Important non-American Wars[edit | edit source]

  • Thirty Years War, 1618-1648
  • Anglo-Spanish War, 1625-1630
  • English Civil War, 1642-1644
  • Anglo-Dutch War, 1652-1654
  • Anglo-Spanish Wars, 1654-1660, 1665-1667
  • Pueblo Revolt, 1680
  • French Revolution, 1789-1795
  • Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804
  • Napoleonic Wars, 1803-1815
  • Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
  • Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920
  • Russian Revolution, 1917
  • World War I, 1914-1918
  • Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, 1931-32:
  • World War II, 1939-1945
  • Suez Crisis, 1957 <<confirm

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States



Vocabulary, Terms, and Periods[edit | edit source]

Pre-Columbian[edit | edit source]

  • Algonquian
  • Hopewell tradition
  • indigenous
  • Iroquois
  • Iroquois Confederacy
  • Mississippian period/ culture
  • Mound Builders
  • reciprocal relations
  • Woodland Period



Colonial periods[edit | edit source]

Age of Exploration[edit | edit source]

  • caravel
  • Henry Hudson
  • conquistador</ul
    • St. Lawrence River

    Spanish colonialism[edit | edit source]

    • asiento
    • De Las Casas
    • casta (system)
    • encomienda
    • Florida (or Spanish Florida)
    • hacienda
    • Mit'a (Inca)
    • New Laws of 1542
    • Jesuits
    • Pueblo Revolt
    • repartimiento
    • Saint Augustine
    • Sepúlveda
    • Spanish social hierarchies (terms)
    • Treaty of Tordesillas

    Dutch and French colonialism[edit | edit source]

    • Beaver War
    • ''couriers de bois''
    • fur trade
    • New Amsterdam
    • New France

    African slave trade[edit | edit source]

    • Middle Passage
    • Olaudah Equiano
    • seasoning camps
    • triangle trade



Early Colonial period flowcharts[edit | edit source]

English Colonial Migration Push factors[edit | edit source]


English Colonial Migration Pull factors[edit | edit source]


** Note that French push/pull factors were more directly related to trade, economic opportunity and Catholic evangelization

English colonial period[edit | edit source]

Note:

  • Britain held colonial possessions in the Caribbean region, as well as the thirteen colonies and portions of Canada
  • following smaller wars and the worldwide French-Indian War (Seven Years War), Britain sequentially took France's Canadian possessions as well as its landholdings between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
  • Levels of British control of the colonies rose and fell according to domestic British politics and its international priorities.
  • The American Revolution was largely the result of the exercise of direct control of colonial affairs that followed the French-Indian War.

Colonial political, economic and social[edit | edit source]

Types of Colonies[edit | edit source]

  • Corporate Charter
  • Proprietary Colony
  • Royal Colony

Colony Characteristics[edit | edit source]

  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • Pennsylvania
  • Virginia

British colonial period terms & events[edit | edit source]

    Appalachian Mountains
  • Bacon’s Rebellion
  • Deism
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • the Great Awakening
  • headright system
  • House of Burgesses
  • indentured servitude
  • Jamestown
  • redemptioner system
  • John Rolfe
  • John Smith
  • Joint Stock Company
  • King Philip’s War, 1675-1678
  • Lord Baltimore
  • "Lost Colony"
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • migration push/ pull factors
  • Native American & English relations
  • Navigation Acts, 1663, 1673, 1696
  • New England town meetings
  • Pequot War, 1636-37
  • Puritan/s
  • Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713|}}
  • salutary neglect
  • slave codes
Map of the Province of Pennsylvania
Map of the Province of Pennsylvania
  • William Penn
  • yeoman



French Indian War (Seven Years War)[edit | edit source]

1754-1763

Origins and indirect causes of the French-Indian War[edit | edit source]

  • Long term causes:
    • French colonial expansion across the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley and along the Mississippi River
    • English colonial expansion in western New York and Pennsylvania
  • Indirect causes:
    • English v. French rivalry over easter and central North American lands and trade routes
    • Treaty of Utrecht, 1713: France ceded Nova Scotia to the British and abandoned its claims to Newfoundland
    • Indian rivalries and warfare, especially between French-aligned Algonquins and British-aligned Iroquois tribes and nations

Direct causes of the French-Indian War =[edit | edit source]

  • the immediate cause of the war was the growing presence of English colonials across the Appalachian Mountains and into the Ohio Valley
    • the French and their Indian allies opposed these settlements
    • 1753-54: Virginia militia expeditions sent to challenge French expansion in the Ohio Valley via building of a series of forts
  • May 1754: fighting breaks out at Ft. Duquesne and Ft. Necessity
    • a site of considerable contention was Fort Duquesne at present-day Pittsburg, as the location was at the confluence of two major rivers leading into the Ohio River
  • sparked by an unsuccessful British and colonial attacks on French forts in Pennsylvania
  • in 1753, George Washington 1753 delivered a message to the French at another Fort in Pennsylvania demanding French evacuation from the region
  • on July 3, 1754, as a colonel in the Virginia Militia, Washington led an attack upon the French Ford Necessity; he lost and had to surrender
  • British regular Army, along with colonial militias (and including Washington), reorganized and attacked another French fort, Fort Duquesne on Sept. 14, 1758, and also lost
    • there were 500 French and Indian soldiers
    • and 400 British regulars and 350 colonial militia
  • the British eventually took Ft. Duquesne in 1758 (renaming it Ft. Pitt), and the focus of the war moved toward Canada and the St. Lawrence River waterways, particularly the French city Quebec.
  • the American-sparked war turned global as Britain and France squared off against one another and their allies in Continental Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, India and China
  • after going well for France and its allies at first, the British scored significant victories starting 1758 and, especially, in 1759 ("Annus Mirabillus") and 1762.
  • depleted financially and in resources, both France and England met at Paris to negotiate an end to the War, resulting in the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which divided up colonial holdings, giving Britain control of North America east of the Mississippi.
  • the French-Indian War and the British government response to its aftermath set the conditions for the American Revolution.




French-Indian War terms[edit | edit source]

French and British positions at the start of the War   British North America and New France and Allies. This Map also shows both the Iroquois and Wabanaki Confederacies, who were both influential in the war on the British and French sides respectively.
  • Albany Conference, 1754
  • Albany Plan
  • Algonquian Indians
  • Annus Mirabilis of 1759
  • Fort Duquesne
  • Iroquois Confederacy
  • Ohio Company of 1748
    • Proclamation of 1763
    • Treaty of Paris of 1763
    • Paxton Boys
    • William Pitt
    • Regulators

    American Revolution[edit | edit source]

    Timeline of the American Revolution
    Year Major Events
    Example Example
    Example Example
    Example Example

    Notes on the American Revolution

    • the "American Revolution" refers generally to the period between the French-Indian War and, either the breakout (1775/76) or end of the Revolutionary War (1781/83)
    • the war itself is called "The Revolutionary War"
      • the logic for the terminology is that the pre-War period was "revolutionary" in the sense that the colonists went from identifying as "Englishmen" (subjects of the King of England) to an independent "American" people;
      • their choices, rebellions, self-identity, philosophy, etc. went through a "revolutionary" change
      • "revolution" is from Latin revolvere for "turn, roll back" and in its political sense means a "great change in affairs" or "overthrow of an established political order"
    • students will be expected to evaluate the origins, causes and consequences of the American Revolution
      • and, less importantly but expected nonetheless, of the events and outcomes of the Revolutionary War

    Influence of Enlightenment thought and thinkers[edit | edit source]

    • Enlightnment
    • John Locke
    • Montesquieu
    • natural rights
    • Social contract


    American Revolution general terms[edit | edit source]

    • ABC Boards
    • Boston Massacre
    • Boston Tea Party
    • Circulatory Letter
    • committees of correspondence
    • Common Law
    • Common Sense
    • Continental Association
    • Continental Congresses
    • Continental Association
    • Declaration of Independence
    • direct representation
    • Enlightenment philosophers
    • First Continental Congress
    • Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
    • Dunmore's War
    • ''Gaspee'' affair
    • Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer
    • Lexington/Concord
    • Loyalist
    • Minutemen
    • Navigation Acts
    • Nonimportation movement
    • Olive Branch Petition
    • Patriot
    • Popular Sovereignty
    • Revolutionary flags
    • social contract theory
    • Sons of Liberty
    • Stamp Act Congress
    • Vice admiralty courts
    • Vice admiralty court
    • virtual representation
    • Writs of Assistance

    British Laws & Regulations[edit | edit source]

    The laws passed by Parliament following the French-Indian War were designed for two primary purposes:

    1. raise revenue from the colonies in order to defer the costs of the Seven Years War
    2. exercise greater control over colonial affairs and governance

    Notably, new taxes and rules marked a shift away from "mercantilism," which was designed to trade relations between the Britain and the colonies would benefit Britain. Instead, these new taxes were intended to maximize revenue, which meant many of them were actually lower than before (under the theory that lower taxes would result in greater compliance and less smuggling and corruption).

    Chronology of Colonial Acts
    Year Act
    1763 Sugar Act
    1764 Currency Act
    1765 Stamp Act
    1765 Quartering Act
    1766 Declaratory Act
    1767 Townshend Acts
    1767 Revenue Act
    1773 Tea Act
    1774 Quebec Act
    1775 Coervice Acts

    ("Intolerable Acts")

    Below are these acts, alphabetically. Students should memorize their dates and chronology (thus the definition list does not immediately show dates) in order to build a strong sense of causality between them and the larger context of the American Revolution as it turned into the Revolutionary War.

    • Coercive Acts
    • Currency Acts
    • Declaratory Act
    • Intolerable Acts
    • Quartering Act
    • Quebec Act
    • Stamp Act
    • Revenue Act
    • Sugar Act
    • Tea Act
    • Townshend Acts

    Revolutionary Era people[edit | edit source]

    English[edit | edit source]

    British Leaders
    Leader Dates Policy
    Pitt the Elder prosecution of Seven Years War
    Lord Bute 1760-1763 mild reform
    George Grenville strong reform strong reform
    Lord Rockingham 1765-1766 compromise
    William Pitt (the younger) & Charles Townshend 1766-1770 strong reform
    Lord North 1770-1782 coercion
    • reform = adjust policy to exercise British interests over those of colonies
    • compromise = attempting to meet colonial demands while pleasing hard-liners in England
    • coercion = demanded full colonial compliance

    English leaders who played important roles in the American Revolution

    • George Grenville
    • Lord North
    • Charles Townshend

    American Revolutionary Era leaders[edit | edit source]

    • John Adams
    • Samuel Adams
    • John Dickinson
    • Lord Dunmore
    • Benjamin Franklin
    • Thomas Jefferson
    • Thomas Paine
    • George Washington

    American Revolution flowcharts[edit | edit source]

    Origins[edit | edit source]


    British & Colonial responses[edit | edit source]


    Cycle of Escalation[edit | edit source]


    Repeal of Stamp Act to Boston Massacre[edit | edit source]



    Repeal Townsend Acts to Boston Tea Party[edit | edit source]


    Intolerable Acts to Colonial Organization[edit | edit source]


    Revolutionary War battles[edit | edit source]

    names are usually preceded with "Battle of..."

    • Bunker Hill
    • Lexington and Concord
    • Long Island
    • Saratoga
    • Valley Forge
    • Yorktown




    Revolutionary War flowchart[edit | edit source]


    Creation of the United States: Articles of Confederation & U.S. Constitution[edit | edit source]

    • "united States" was first used (or prominently used) in the Declaration of Independence
      • but the term "united" was a modifier, not proper noun.
      • The Second Continental Congress officially adopted the name "united Colonies" (lower case "united") on Sept. 9, 1776,
        • as it was also termed in the Declaration of Independence (" The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America").
      • the Articles of Confederation, first drafted in June, 1776, then when adopted in 1781, stated, "The stile of this confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'" (capitalized "United", and so now a proper noun).
    • on March 4, 1789, when the Constitution was formally adopted , the named the country "United States" and called the Constitution, "this Constitution for the United States of America."

    Articles of Confederation Period[edit | edit source]

    • Articles of Confederation
      • proposed in June, 1776, adopted by the various states starting with Virginia in Dec., 1777, officially adopted with Maryland's ratification on Feb 2, 1781 (Delaware ratified it Feb 1, 1779; all other states ratified it across 1778).
    • Shay’s Rebellion
    • confederation
    • sovereignty
    • supermajority
    • unicameral

    U.S. Constitution[edit | edit source]

    • 3/5ths Compromise
    • amendment process
    • anti-Federalists
    • bicameral
    • Bill of Rights
    • checks and balances
    • Connecticut Compromise
    • Constitution
    • elastic clause
    • electoral college
    • Federalists
    • Federalism
    • Federalist no. 10
    • Federalist no. 51
    • Federalist Papers
    • Federalists
    • George Washington
    • Great Compromise
    • impeachment
    • James Madison
    • New Jersey Plan
    • Northwest Ordinance
    • preamble
    • preamble to the Constitution
    • ratification
    • separation of powers
    • strict vs. loose interpretation
    • unwritten Constitution
    • Virginia Plan



    Early Republic[edit | edit source]

    >> this list to be sorted between periods and themes

    • Northwest Territory

    Early Republic people[edit | edit source]

    • George Washington
    • Alexander Hamilton

    Early Republic and Washington's presidency[edit | edit source]

    • American System
    • Cabinet
    • Citizen Genet affair
    • Democratic-Republican Party
    • Federalist party
    • "foreign entanglements"
    • French Revolution
    • internal improvements
    • Jacobins
    • Jay's Treaty
    • Jeffersonians/ Jeffersonianism
    • National Bank
    • Pinckney's Treaty
    • political parties
    • Proclamation of Neutrality
    • Report on the Public Credit
    • Report on Manufactures
    • Republican motherhood
    • republicanism
    • Treaty of Greenville
    • Whiskey Rebellion
    • Washington's Farewell Address

    Judiciary/ Judicial terms[edit | edit source]

    • 11th Amendment
    • 12th Amendment
    • Bill of Rights
    • judicial review
    • Judiciary Act of 1789

    Early Republic flow charts[edit | edit source]

    Second Continental Congress[edit | edit source]


    Articles of Confederation[edit | edit source]

    For / Against National Bank[edit | edit source]

    Economic Interests v. Policy[edit | edit source]

    • Note:
      • farmers want low interest rates (bank loans) and "soft money" (paper money = inflationary)
      • bankers and manufacturers wand "hard money" (gold/silver & bank instruments based on them = stable and higher return on investment)


    Adams presidency[edit | edit source]

    While Adams was elected Washington's Vice President for both terms, and Adams was elected President in 17986 by

    • Alien & Sedition Acts
    • British-French conflict & Napoleonic Wars
    • impressment
    • Midnight Appointments
    • Principles of '98
    • Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

    Jefferson era[edit | edit source]

    • Aaron Burr
    • Louisiana Purchase
    • Revolution of 1800:

    Marshall Court[edit | edit source]

    • Marbury v. Madison (1804)
    • McColloch v. Maryland (1819)
    • Dartmouth v New Hampshire

    < others

    Madison & Monroe[edit | edit source]

    War of 1812[edit | edit source]

    Following border tensions, frontier disputes over the British arming of native tribes, and outrage at British impressment of American sailors, American militia and naval forces attacked British Canada. The British attached Baltimore and Washington DC, which was burned in retaliation for American burning of the Canadian capital at Ottawa. The war ended a parity with not major advantage to either side. But despite a clear victory, the Americans considered it a great success for having fended off the strongest empire in the world, and the war led to greater American unity and the "Era of Good Feelings."

    • Battle of Tippecanoe
    • Hartford Convention 1814-15
    • impressment
      <il>Treaty of Ghent
    • War Hawks
    • War of 1812
    • Whigs</ul
    • Monroe presidency[edit | edit source]

      • Adams Onis Treaty map (1819)
        Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819
      • Compromise of 1820
      • Era of Good Feelings
      • Missouri Compromise
      • Monroe Doctrine
      </il>
      • Panic of 1819|as the nation grew, banks issued more and more "unsecured" loans (i.e. loans that were not directly backed by bank deposits), which went most dominantly towards land acquisition and farming expansion; following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, agricultural prices dropped as production exceeded demand, and farm commodity prices collapsed (especially cotton and wheat); as a result, farmers could not pay back loans and sold land and lower and lower prices to cover their debts}}

    Era of Good Feelings[edit | edit source]

    • Alexis de Tocqueville
    • Democracy in America
    • 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
    • LaFayette tour

    Economic changes[edit | edit source]

    The Appalachian watershed provided almost unlimited opportunity for building of mills and dams to serve them. In Massachusetts,

    • commercial versus sustenance farming|into the 1800s, farming became more connected to markets and thus more specialized; rather than farming to meet a family's needs, which would require both crops and animals, farms increasingly specialized in one or the other, and sold their production in exchange for (via currency) other food and goods; canals, dams, mills, rivers and roads provided access for these farmers to markets for their goods
    • Commonwealth system|favorable laws, loans and public policy withing states towards transportation, industrial enterprises, etc. under the idea that such preferences were "for the common welfare"
    • dams
    • eminent domain
    • Lancaster Turnpike
    • mills|from 1809 to 1817, the number of "spinner mills" (just one type of mill) grew from 8,000 to 330,000; spinner mills created yarn from wool and replaced hand-run spinners
    • Mill Dam Act of 1795|Massachusetts law that granted dam owners rights to build dams that flooded farmland, forcing them to accept "fair compensation" for the lost land, without possibility of stopping the dam itself
    • turnpikes

    Social changes[edit | edit source]

    • aristocracy| built on primogeniture, which passes "titles" -- social, economic and political ranks granted by a king -- to the first born son; the end of primogeniture dissolved the ability to pass on large estates to a single child (75% under the English custom) and spread inherited wealth across all male, and, eventually, female, children
    • companionate marriage: marriage by choice and not family arrangement; marks dramatic change based upon the "democratic" principle of equality and pursuit of happiness; the idea that marriage is a choice also led to a growing acceptance of divorce within legal and social norms (a long process)
    • democratic society| reflects the idea that all men are born equal (originally, white males) and so social choices and reputations are based not upon one's birth but one's personal reputation
    • demographic transition| the early Republic experienced dramatic decreases in the overall birthrate due to westward migration by young men, economic and market growth which reduced the need for large families
    • sentimentalism| movement of early 1800s that emphasized personal happiness over social obligations and roles
    • primogeniture



    Antebellum period[edit | edit source]

    "Antebellum" means "before war", i.e. period before or leading up to the Civil War

    Antebellum people[edit | edit source]

    • John Quincy Adams
    • John Calhoun
    • Henry Clay
    • Andrew Jackson
    • Martin Van Buren
    • Daniel Webster

    Jacksonian period[edit | edit source]

    • Bank War
    • Corrupt Bargain
    • Force Bill
    • Great Triumvirate
    • Jacksonian democracy
    • Indian Removal Act
    • Nullification Crisis
    • Petticoat affair
    • Postal Service
    • Panic of 1837
    • Second Party System
    • Tariff of 1833
    • Trail of Tears
    • Worcester v. Georgia



    U.S. presidential election popular vote totals as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Note the surge in 1828 (extension of suffrage to non-property-owning white men), the drop from 1890 to 1910 (when Southern states disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites), and another surge in 1920 (extension of suffrage to women).

    Jacksonian democracy[edit | edit source]

    • party machine
    • spoils system
    • universal (white) male suffrage



    Antebellum Events, people, politics[edit | edit source]

    • Gadsden Purchase
    • Gold Rush of 1849
    • Know Nothings
    • manifest destiny
    • Mexican American War
    • Republic of Texas
    • sectionalism
    • Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

    Economics[edit | edit source]

    • artisanal republicanism"
    • banks
    • cotton gin| invented by Eli Whitney, the "gin"
    • division of labor
    • Erie Canal
    • hub city
    • journeyman
    • labor theory of value
    • land speculation
    • Francis Cabot Lowell
    • machine tools
    • market revolution |
    • mineral-based economy
    • Cyrus McCormick
    • middling class
    • self-made man
    • Samuel Sellars & Sellers family
    • Samuel Slater
    • stock market
    • transportation revolution
    • unions
    • unskilled worker
    • Waltham-Lowell System
    • Eli Whitney

    Slavery[edit | edit source]

    • abolition/ abolitionism/ abolitionist
    • American Anti-Slavery Society| starting in 1830s, dedicated to ending slavery; the Society held conventions and published literature and pamphlets, which it distributed across the South in the "great postal campaign" of 1835; in 1840 William Lloyd Garrison insisted that the Society embrace the cause of women's rights, which divided the movement}}
    • amalgamation
    • emancipation
    • gag rule
    • Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
    • manumission
    • Nat Turner's Rebellion|1831
    • Uncle Tom’s Cabin
    • Underground Railroad

    Anti-slavery activists/ people[edit | edit source]

    • Frederic Douglas
    • William Lloyd Garrison
    • Grimke sisters
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Theodore Weld



    Social reform[edit | edit source]

    By the 1840s, various reform movements arose, some of which combined or overlapped, such as women's rights and abolitionism (not all abolitionists supported women's rights, or in the same way). Other movements included religious and quasi-religious social movements, as well as artistic and literary movements, that reflected the spirit of reform and social and political transformation. These included the Second Great Awakening, Mormonism and other religious cults, and transcendentalism.

    • Other reform movements included improving education, prisons and treatment of the insane
    • Note that certain Christian ideology deeply influenced these movements, as well as abolition
    • See also section above on Slavery




    • anti-Catholicism
    • cult of domesticity
    • Declaration of Sentiments
    • lyceum movement
    • Nativism
    • Philadelphia Women's Anti-Slavery Convention
    • Seneca Falls Convention
    • separate sphere
    • suffrage
    • Temperance movement
    • Treatise on Domestic Economy, 1841

    Reformers[edit | edit source]

    • Lyman beehcer
    • Charles Finney
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

    Transcendentalism/ Second Great Awakening[edit | edit source]

    • Adventist/ Adventism| religious movement started in the 1830s by a Baptist preacher (William Miller) who claimed that Christ's Second Coming would occur in 1843 or 1844; the movement is reflective of the Second Great Awakening and its democratization of religious belief
    • Hudson Valley artistic movement
    • Naturalism
    • Second Great Awakening| a series of religious movements marked especially by "revivals," or gatherings, and "romanticism," or focus on the emotional over the rational; population growth and the extension of the frontier offered opportunity for the spread of evangelical religious movements, as well as the democratic impulse of reform
    • Henry David Thoreau
    • transcendentalism
    • Walden Pond
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson



    pre-Civil War[edit | edit source]

    The Antebellum period goes all the way to the Civil War, however in the 1850s decade leading up to the Civil War, events accelerated and more direct causes for the War become apparent

    • American Party
    • Bloody Kansas
    • Compromise of 1850
    • Jefferson Davis
    • Dred Scott decision
    • John Brown
    • Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • Lincoln-Douglas Debates
    • popular sovereignty



    Latter 19th Century[edit | edit source]

    Civil War[edit | edit source]

    • 1860 Election
    • Anaconda Plan
    • Antietam
    • Appomattox
    • Confederacy
    • Copperheads
    • Emancipation Proclamation
    • Ft. Sumter
    • Gettysburg
    • Gettysburg Address
    • Robert E. Lee
    • Lincoln’s pre-war stance on slavery
    • Sherman’s March
    • Vicksburg
    • U.S. Grant
    • Union



    Reconstruction[edit | edit source]

    • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
    • black codes
    • "bloody shirt"
    • Compromise of 1877
    • 40 acres and a mule
    • Freedman’s Bureau
    • grandfather clause
    • homestead
    • Jim Crow laws Klu Klux Klan
    • land grant
    • literacy tests
    • Morill Land-Grant Act (1862)
    • Plessy v. Ferguson
    • poll taxes
    • Radical Republicans
    • Reconstruction Act of 1867
    • Reconstruction programs:
      • Lincoln's plan
      • Johnson's program
      • Congressional program

    Post-Reconstruction[edit | edit source]

    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Battle of Wounded Knee
    • Chinese Exclusion Act
    • Dawes Act /assimilation
    • Gentlemen’s Agreement
    • Great Migration
    • Homestead Act of 1862
    • melting pot
    • nativism
    • National Suffrage Movement
    • Sand Creek Massacre
    • Women's Christian Temperance Union

    Economic & Political[edit | edit source]

    • Andrew Carnegie
    • bimetallism
    • economies of scale
    • Coinage Act of 1873
    • "free silver"
    • Grange, the
    • hard money
    • laissez-faire capitalism
    • monopoly
    • Nelson Rockefeller
    • political bosses
    • political machine
    • Populist Party
    • robber barons
    • Sherman Anti-trust Act
    • silver
    • social Darwinism
    • soft money
    • specie
    • Standard Oil
    • transcontinental railroad
    • U.S. Steel



    Imperialism[edit | edit source]

    • Battle of Manila
    • “Big Stick Policy”
    • Cuba
    • de Lôme Letter,
    • imperialism
    • William McKinley
    • Open Door Policy
    • Panama Canal
    • Roosevelt Corollary
    • Spanish-American War
    • yellow journalism
    • USS Maine



    First half 20th Century[edit | edit source]

    Labor[edit | edit source]

    • craft union
    • American Federation of Labor (AFL)
    • Eugene Debs (155-1926)
    • industrial union
    • industrial union
    • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
    • Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)
    • term




    Progressive Era[edit | edit source]

    • "Square Deal”
    • 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Amendments
    • Bull Moose Party
    • Elkins Act (1903)
    • Eugene V. Debs
    • Direct democracy
    • Federal Reserve Act (1913)
    • Gifford Pinchot
    • Hepburn Act
    • initiative
    • Jacob Riis
    • Jane Addams
    • Meat Inspection Act
    • muckrakers
    • New Freedom
    • New Nationalism
    • Newlands Act of 1902
    • Progressive Party
    • Progressives / progressivism
    • Pure Food and Drug Act
    • recall
    • referendum
    • Rule of Reason
    • Settlement houses
    • socialism
    • Square Deal
    • Upton Sinclair
    • Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
    • "Three Cs": Conservation, Corporate law, Consumer protections
    • William Howard Taft



    World War I era[edit | edit source]

    WWI[edit | edit source]

    Notes:

    • Bolsheviks
    • Espionage (1917) and Sedition (1918) Acts
    • "He kept us out of the war" (1916)
    • Jones Act (1916)
    • Liberty Loans
    • Lusitania sinking (1915)
    • Pancho Villa (1914)
    • Russian Revolution
    • Sussex Pledge (1916)
    • U-Boats
    • Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA)
    • War bonds
    • War Industries Board
    • Zimmerman Note



    WWI aftermath[edit | edit source]

    • Collective Security
    • Depression of 1920-1921
    • Fourteen Points
    • League of Nations
    • Senate Foreign Relations Committee
    • Treaty of Versailles

    post-WWI & 1920s[edit | edit source]

    • "America First"
    • Black Tuesday
    • Court-packing scheme
    • deficit spending
    • Dust Bowl
    • Harlem Renaissance
    • Hoover
    • Immigration Act of 1924
    • League of Nations
    • Lusitania/Zimmerman Note
    • National Origins Act
    • New Deal
    • Palmer Raids
    • Proclamation of Neutrality
    • prohibition
    • pump-priming
    • Red Scare
    • Return to ‘normalcy’
    • Roarding Twenties
    • Sacco and Vanzetti
    • Scopes Trial
    • Teapot Dome Scandal
    • Wilsonianism



    1920s[edit | edit source]

    • automobiles
    • consumerism
    • credit
    • Bathtub gin
    • Harlem Renaissance
    • Jazz Age
    • Klu Klux Klan
    • Margin buying
    • radio
    • refrigerators
    • Scopes "Monkey" Trial



    Great Depression & FDR[edit | edit source]

    Stock Market Crash & Hoover Administration[edit | edit source]

    Notes:

    • the value of the New York Stock Exchange was measured in value by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, also known as "the DOW"; it is still used, but among other measures);
      • the market rose from about 150 in January of 1927 to a peak of 381 in August of 1929.
      • it started dropping through September into October, before its precipitous drop to 237 on Oct 29
      • it stabilizied in early 1930, then in May continued a long drop to its low of 41 on July 8, 1932; the DOW did not reach 381 until 1954




    • Black Thursday
    • Black Monday
    • Black Tuesday
    • "buying on margin"
    • Hawley-Smoot Tariff
    • Hoovervilles
    • margin call
      • speculative bubble
    • FDR Administration & Great Depression[edit | edit source]

      • 100 Days
      • 20th Amendment
      • 21st Amendment
      • bank run
      • Brain Trust
      • Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO, started 1938)
      • fireside chats
      • Harry Hopkins
      • NRA
      • "New Deal"
      • Francis Perkins
      • Social Security
      • Supreme Court
      • "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"

      New Deal legislation & Federal Agencies[edit | edit source]

      • Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933



    World War II[edit | edit source]

    pre-WWII[edit | edit source]

    • A Philip Randolph
    • America First Committee
    • appeasement
    • Battle of Britain
    • “cash and carry”
    • election of 1940
    • isolationism
    • Lend-Lease Act
    • Lindburgh
    • Maginot Line
    • Munich Agreement
    • "Peace for our time"
    • Poland invasion
    • Sudetenland
    • U.S. Neutrality Acts
    • "war footing"
    • war preparations



    WWII[edit | edit source]

    • "arsenal of democracy"
    • D-Day
    • Eastern Front
    • Hiroshima, Nagasaki
    • Homefront
    • Island Hopping
    • Japanese Internment Camps
    • Korematsu v. U.S.
    • Manhattan Project
    • mechanized warfare
    • propaganda
    • rationing
    • recycling
    • Rosie the Riviter
    • Truman’s decision
    • "Victory Gardens"
    • war bonds

    Post-War plans/ conferences

    • Potsdam Conference
    • Tehran Conference
    • Yalta Conference

    End of WWII[edit | edit source]

    • 22nd amendment
    • Nuremburg Trials
    • United Nations



    Latter-half 20th Century[edit | edit source]

    Notes:

    • WWII was the last conflict entered by official Declaration of War by Congress
      • all other post-WWII "wars" have been without actual declaration of war
      • the U.S. has entered most of these wars through a combination of Executive Action and Congressional approval, either for a military action or funding thereof
    • a key component of post-WWII US History for students to grapple with is the dramatic change to worldwide involvement and/or adventurism and the various justifications for them
      • students should understand American "hegemony" and reaons for American worlwdide dominance and the extent to which it may be considered economic, political cultural imperialism

    Early Cold War Foreign Affairs[edit | edit source]

    • Berlin crisis / Berlin airlift
    • Bretton Woods Conference
    • capitalism
    • Chiang Kai-shek
    • China, loss of
    • communism
    • containment policy
    • George F. Kennan
    • Greek Civil War
    • ideology/ ideological
    • Iron Curtain / Iron Curtain speech
    • Israel/ Palestine
    • Long Telegram / Article “X”
    • Mao Zedong
    • Marshall Plan
    • NATO
    • NATO/Warsaw Pact
    • NSC-68
    • proxy war
    • SEATO
    • sphere/s of influence
    • Suez Canal Crisis
    • Truman Doctrine
    • Turkey
    • United Nations
    • UK sterling crisis
    • Warsaw Pact

    Atomic age[edit | edit source]

    • atmospheric testing
    • atomic testing
    • bombers
    • A-bomb
    • Chinese bomb (Taiwan incident)
    • German scientists
    • H-bomb
    • brinkmanship
    • ICBM
    • Nike missile system
    • MAD/ mutually-assured destruction
    • anti-ballistic missile
    • nuclear shield

    Korean War[edit | edit source]

    • Truman v. Gen. MacArthur
    • Chinese Revolution



    Cold War diplomacy[edit | edit source]

    • East, the
    • hegemony / hegemonic power
    • nation-building
    • Palestine partition
    • Security Council
    • Third World
    • unaligned nations
    • United Nations
    • West, The

    Eisenhower period[edit | edit source]

    • CIA
    • containment
    • containment in Asia
    • containment in Europe
    • containment in Latin America
    • containment in the Middle East
    • Cuba
    • Domino Theory
    • Dwight Eisenhower
    • Eisenhower Doctrine
    • HUAC Committee
    • Joseph McCarthy
    • Marshall Plan
    • McCarthyism
    • "military industrial complex" (1958/9?)
    • Suez crisis



    Domestic US Cold War[edit | edit source]

    • Executive Order 9835
    • Second Red Scare
    • McCarthyism
    • HUAC
    • Hollywood 10
    • McCarren Act
    • Rosenbergs
    • Alger Hiss
    • Space Race

    Kennedy[edit | edit source]

    • Bay of Pigs Invasion
    • Berlin Wall
    • CIA activity under Kennedy
    • Cuban Missile Crisis
    • Domino Theory
    • Bay of Pigs
    • Hot-Line
    • Robert F. Kennedy
    • Limited Test Ban Treaty
    • quarantine v. blockade
    • Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
    • Peace Corps



    Vietnam War[edit | edit source]

    • French involvement, 1954-1955
    • US involvement, 1959-1973

    Eisenhower period of Vietnam War[edit | edit source]

    • Dien Bien Phu

    Kennedy period of Vietnam War[edit | edit source]

    • JFK
    • Robert McNamara
    • "Whiz Kids"
    • “flexible response”
    • advisors
    • Camelot
    • assassination

    Johnson period of Vietnam War[edit | edit source]

    • bombing campaigns
    • escalation
    • Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
    • Tet Offensive (1968)
    • Walter Cronkite
    • U.S. public opinion
    • Vietnamization
    • War Powers Acts
    • Gulf of Tonkin
    • Attrition
    • Hearts and Minds
    • Rolling Thunder
    • My Lai Massacre
    • Escalation

    Nixon period of Vietnam War[edit | edit source]

    • China
    • Operation Linebacker II
    • Christmas bombings
    • "silent majority”
    • Paris Peace Accords
    • Bombing of Laos and Cambodia
    • Paris Peace Accords
    • opening of China
    • Kissinger
    • Pentagon Papers
    • White House protests

    Vietnam War protest movements[edit | edit source]

    • draft, the
    • hippies
    • protests
    • Kent State
    • Jackson State

    post-Nixon[edit | edit source]

    • Fall of Saigon
    • Cambodian genocide
    • Pol Pot



    post-WWII Domestic U.S[edit | edit source]

    1950s culture[edit | edit source]

    • baby boom
    • "Fair Deal" (1945-49)
    • suburbia
    • rock'n'roll
    • conformity
    • Interstate Highway Act

    Civil Rights[edit | edit source]

    • “Little Rock Nine”
    • Brown v. Board of Education
    • civil disobedience
    • Civil Rights Act of 1964
    • Executive Order 9981
    • Jackie Robinson
    • Malcolm X
    • March on Washington
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • Montgomery bus boycott
    • nonviolence
    • Voting Rights Act of 1965
    • George Wallace

    Other Civil Rights and Political Movements[edit | edit source]

    • American Indian Movement (AIM)
    • Cesar Chavez
    • Chicano Movement
    • environmentalism
    • Grapes Boycott
    • Michael Harrington
    • "Incorporation" Cases
    • Roe v. Wade
    • Silent Spring
    • women’s liberation movement (NOW)
    • Wounded Knee Incident

    Johnson[edit | edit source]

    • Great Society
    • War on Poverty

    1970s: Nixon, Ford & Carter[edit | edit source]

    • Watergate
    • pardoning of Nixon
    • stagflation
    • Afghanistan
    • Olympic boycott
    • Iranian hostage crisis
    • OPEC
    • oil embargo
    • Camp David Accords

    Reagan era[edit | edit source]

    • Iran-Contra Affair
    • John Stockton
    • Reykjavík Summit
    • Berlin speech
    • Landslide
    • Star Wars
    • "Reagan Revolution”
    • Reaganomics
    • Supply-side economics

    End of the Cold War[edit | edit source]

    • George HW Bush
    • Military spending cuts
    • Gulf War
    • Bill Clinton
    • Peace Dividend
    • NAFTA
    • "end of history"
    • service sector economy
    • New Immigration
    • Haiti
    • Yugoslavia and Bosnia
    • Rwanda



    21st Century[edit | edit source]

    War on Terror[edit | edit source]

    • September 11th
    • Al Queda
    • Afghanistan War
    • Iraq
    • Patriot Act

    Obama Administration[edit | edit source]

    • Great Recession
    • ISIS
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Obama Care
    • DREAM Act


    Third Party movements[edit | edit source]

    • notes
      • third parties represent political movements that the major parties do not accommodate
        • or a split within them
      • elections through to the 1830s had multiple candidates from the same party, so were not technically "third parties)
        • or they were divided geographically and/or over a particular issue or political position
    Party Election % of Popular Vote Notes
    Anti-Masonic Party 1832 7.8%
    • opposed "Freemasonry" (elitist secret society that was opposed by mainstream religous groups);
    • the movement started wit hthe "Morgan affair", when a former Mason show spoke out against the society was murdered
    • Freemasons were accused of secretly controlling the government
    Liberty Party 1844 2.3%
    • abolitionist, anti-slavery party
    Free Soil 1848 10.1%
    • opposed expansion of slavery into new territories
    • former president Martin Van Buren was candidate in 1848
    • formed after the Mexican-American War over concerns about the expansion of slavery
    • the Free Soil party was mostly former Whigs who joined the Republican Party when they merged in 1854
    1852 4.9%
    Know Nothing (American Party) 1856 21.6%
    • anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic
    • largely made up of Whigs after the collapse of that party
    • the party also appealed to reformers, standing for rights of women, regulation of industry and labor, prefiguring the progressive movement
    • former president Millard Filmore was candidate
    Four-way split 1860
    • Republican (Abraham Lincolon): 39.8%
    • Southern Democrat (John Breckinridge): 18.1%
    • Constitutional Union (John Bell): 12.6%
    • Democratic (Stephen Douglas): 29.5%
    Liberal Republican 1872 43.8%
    • candidate Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune
    • opposed President Grant as corrupt and his Reconstruction policies as too harsh (wanted removal of US Army from the South)
    • opposed the high tariff and promoted civil service reform
    • the Democratic party had no national organization, so Greeley hoped to attrack their vote, but failed
    Greenback Party 1876 0.99%
    • soft money platform, originally associated with the Grange (agricultural organization, cooperative)
    • anti-monopoly, anti-railroads
    1880 3.35%
    Prohibition Party 1884 1.5%
    • single issue: temperance
    • persisted longer than most third-party movements and influenced larger politics, with ultimate victory in the 18th amendment
    1888 2.2%
    1896 .094%
    1900 1.51%
    1904 1.92%
    1912 1.38%
    1916 1.19%
    Populist Party 1892 8.5%
    • agrarian, anit-business/railroad movement
    • pro-soft money
    Socialist Party 1904 2.98%
    • Eugene Debs was the candidate in 1904, 1908, 1912 & 1920 elections
    1908 2.83%
    1912 6%
    1916 3.19%
    1920 3.41%
    1932 2.23%
    Progressive Party 1912 27%
    • Teddy Roosevelt's party after split with Republican Party following its convention in 1912
    • Roosevelt took more votes than the Republican incumbant Taft (23.2%)
    • with the Republican vote split, Wilson won with 41.8% of the popular voate
    Progressive 1924 16.6%
    • a diferent orgniazaiton form the Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party, which he abandoned after 1912 (he was nominated in 1916 but refused)
    • former Republican Robert La Follette, a progressive how refused to back Roosevelt, reformed the party in 1924
    Dixiecrat

    Progressive

    1948 2.4%

    2.4%

    • independent movements that were splinter factions from FDR's Democratic coalition that fell apart under Truman
      • Dixiecrats were souther segregationists
      • Progressives were FDR Democrats led by his former Vice President Henry Wallace
    American Independent 1968 13.5%
    • led by southern Democrat George Wallace, populist, segregationist governore of Alabama who opposed Johnson's support of the Civil Rights movement
    John Anderson (Independent candidate) 1980 6.6%
    • Republican John Anderson split from the Republican Party and ran as a "moderate" alternative to Reagan
    Ross Pero (Independent candidate/ Reform Party) 1992 18.9%
    • populist businessman Ross Perot opposed Bush and Clinton and gained widespread support
    • in 1996, Perot ran on the Reform Party ticket, which he formed after 1992
    1996 8.4%
    Green Party 2000 2.74%
    • Envronmentalist and consumer activist Ralph Nader ran on the Green Party ticket and likely threw the close 2000 election to Bush, as he drew support from the Democratic left
    Libertarian 2016 3.28%
    • Libertarian party candidate Gary Johnson gained national support for his opposition to Obama's regulatory state and in opposition to Donald Trump's candidacy as a Republican
    Robert F. Kennedy (independent candidate) 2024 ?
    • son of former Senator and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
    • running as a third-party alternative to Biden and Trump
    • critical of the COVID response and medical regime

    Economic crises[edit | edit source]

    Mississippi Company 1720 French company had Royal grant for trading rights to French colonies in Americas
    • to cover French government debt over Louis XIV's wars, the government allowed the compan to issue paper money backed by national debt
    • speculation in shares of the company led to more paper money issued, which was then put back into company shares, which led to the second largest bubble in economic history ($6.5 trillion peak value in current dollars, behind only the Dutch East India Company bubble)
    Panic of 1792 1792 Short-lived panic caused by sudden credit expansion following the formation of the Bank of the United States, which led to land speculation
    • a group of bankers tried to drive up pricies of securities (stocks, contracts) but failed to meet their loans, causing a bank run
    • Alexander Hamilton stabilized the market with stock purchases by the government
    Land bubble 1796 1996 Land speculation bubble that collapsed following specie payments suspension by the Bank of England, caused by a rush of bank withdrawals in England out of fear of a war with France
    • the imnpact and connection of London banks to the American economy worried
    Panic of 1819 1819-1821 Financial crisis sparked by land speculation bubble, excess paper money, and issuance of bank notes unbacked by gold by the Second Bank of the United States
    • after annulment of the First National Bank in 1811, states granted charters to banks, many of which were speculative and underfinanced
    • the Second Bank of the United States, established in 1816, reacted to the crisis by first expanding than drastically retracting credit, which exacerbated the crisis
    • as Europe recovered from the Napoleonic Wars, its agricultural product increased and led to price drops, which hurt American producers, who, in turn, were unable to pay back loans
    • the Panic came amidst implementation of the "American System" of canal and road building and tariffs, which were blamed for the downturn
    Panic of 1837 1837-1843 Major depression in which prices, profits, wages, and financial activity was severely curtailed
    • led to mass unemployment
    • impacted westward expansion and led t collapse in agricultural prices, especially cotton
    • started with bank runs in New York when investors demanded their deposits from banks who could not back then in gold or silver
    • was the worst financial crisis up until the Great Depression
    • the panic followed a speculative boom that was fueled by land sales, cotton exports, and extensive inflows of silver from the US, Mexico and China
    • President Jackson's dismantling of the Second Bank of the United States led to a disorderly unwinding of its assets and operations;
      • however, the Bank itself contributed to the speculative bubble through issuance of paper money and loose oversight
    • the Jackson administration's "Specie Circular of 1836," which was intended to halt speculation in land sales, dried up credit and helped spark the Panic
    Panic of 1857 1857-1859 National financial crisis sparked by British change in requirements for gold and silver reserves for paper money
    • the influx of gold from the California Gold Rush greatly expanded the money supply but was also inflationary and led to excessive speculation
    • in the US, a finanical panic followed the collapse of a major investment company (Ohio Life Insurance and Trust)
    • speculation in railroads had exploded, and many were fraudulent, and after the Ohio Life company failed, prices collapsed
    • grain prices also experienced a bubble in the mid 1850s, which led to farmland speculation, both of which also collapsed in the Panic
    Crédit Mobilier scandal 1864-1867 A railoard company created by the Union Pacific Railroad to build the eastern portion of the transcontinental railroad inflated its costs by $44 million dollars and paid bribes to politicians for laws and regulatory ruilings in its favor
    • the scandal was broken by a newspaper during the 1874 presidential campaign and led to a political crisis for certain members of Congress and the Republican Party in general
    • which along with other
    Panic of 1873 1873-1877
    • bank runs in New York
    • financial crisis due to inflation and speculative investments especially in railroads
    • huge discoveries of silver in the west led to decline in the value of silver and the "demonitization of silver" in 1873 (Coinage Act of 1873), which lowered silver prices and thus impacted anyone invested in silver and silver mining
      • it led to a reduction in the money supply and higher interest rates, which hurt debtors, especially farmers
    • impacted Europe
    • started the "Long Depression," 1873-1879
    Panic of 1893 1893-1897 Econoic depression that was sparked by the failure of an Argentine bank, Baring Brothers, which collapsed over crops price collapse,
    • which led to a run on American gold reserves by European investors who were facing losses there and in South Africa and Australia
    • a railroad company collepse just before Grover Cleveland's 2nd inauguration led him to ask Congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which had forced the Government to purchase Silver in order to prop up its value, which was depleting the Government's gold reserves
    • bank and railroad failures followed, with subsequent securities (stocks) and commodities price drops
    • in 1895 the Government issued "Treasury bonds" which were purchased, by arrangement, by banks, especially the Morgan Bank of New York, but which helped stabilize Government gold reserves and general economic confidence

    Resources[edit | edit source]

    Suffrage, voting, democracy[edit | edit source]