AP US History vocabulary list

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Revision as of 15:12, 1 May 2024 by Bromley (talk | contribs) (→‎Colonial Periods: adding slave trade and breaks between groups)

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

File to do:

  • add dates and definitions to terms
  • use <ul><li>{{#tip-text:term|explanation}}</ul></li>
  • create Wars timeline

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

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

Colonial Periods[edit | edit source]

Pre-Columbian[edit | edit source]

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


Age of Exploration[edit | edit source]

  • Caravel
  • Henry Hudson
  • conquistador
  • St. Lawrence waterways

Spanish colonialism[edit | edit source]

  • asiento
  • De Las Casas
  • Encomienda
  • New Laws of 1542
  • Pueblo Revolt
  • repartimiento
  • Sepúlveda
  • Spanish social heirarchies (terms)

Dutch and French colonialism[edit | edit source]

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

African Slave trade[edit | edit source]

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


English Colonial[edit | edit source]

  • Appalachian Mountains
  • Bacon’s Rebellion
  • John Cabot
  • headright system
  • House of Burgesses
  • indentured servitude
  • Jamestown- general characteristics
  • John Rolfe
  • John Smith
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • King Philip’s War
  • Massachusetts Bay – general characteristics
  • mercantilism
  • miration push/ pull factors
  • Native American-European interactions, including disease, treatment of
  • Navigation Acts
  • New England town meetings
  • Pequot War
  • Puritan
  • Queen Anne's War
  • Roanoke
  • salutary neglect
  • St. Augustine
  • the Great Awakening
  • Tidewater region
  • William Penn


American Revolution[edit | edit source]

  • ABC Boards
  • Admiralty Court
  • Albany Conference
  • Boston Massacre
  • Boston Tea Party
  • Common Sense
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Enlightenment philosophers
  • First Continental Congress
  • Fort Duquesne
  • Gadsden flag
  • French and Indian War
  • John Locke
  • Lexington/Concord
  • Loyalist
  • Montesquieu
  • natural rights
  • Navigation Acts
  • Patrior
  • Proclamation of 1763
  • Saratoga
  • social contract theory
  • Sons of Liberty
  • Stamp Act
  • Stamp Act Congress
  • Sugar Act
  • Thomas Paine
  • Townsend Acts
  • Treaty of Paris of 1783
  • Valley Forge
  • Yorktown
  • Continental Congress/es


Early Republic[edit | edit source]

Articles of Confederation Period[edit | edit source]

  • Articles of Confederation
  • 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]

  • 12th Amendment
  • American System
  • Cabinet
  • Democratic-Republicans
  • election of 1800
  • Era of Good Feelings
  • Federalists
  • George Washington
  • Hamilton
  • impressment
  • Jefferson
  • John Marshall
  • Louisiana Purchase
  • Marbury v. Madison
  • McColluch v. Maryland
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Mossouri Compromise
  • National Bank
  • nullification
  • political parties
  • Republican motherhood
  • Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
  • War of 1812
  • Whiskey Rebellion

Antebellum period[edit | edit source]

Jacksonian period[edit | edit source]

  • John Quincy Adams
  • Bank War
  • Corrupt Bargain
  • Force Bill
  • Henry Clay
  • Jacksonian democracy
  • Indian Removal Act
  • Nullification Crisis
  • Petticoat affair
  • Postal Service
  • Panic of 1837
  • Second Party System
  • spoils system
  • Tariff of 1833
  • Trail of Tears
  • Daniel Webster
  • Worcester v. Georgia

Antebellum[edit | edit source]

Social reform[edit | edit source]

  • cult of domesticity
  • Declaration of Sentiments
  • emancipation
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Second Great Awakening
  • Seneca Falls Convention
  • suffrage
  • transcendentalism
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Antebellum[edit | edit source]

  • Compromise of 1850
  • Dred Scott decision
  • Gadsden Purchase
  • Gold Rush of 1849
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • manifest destiny
  • Mexican American War
  • popular sovereignty
  • sectionalism
  • Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Latter 19th Century[edit | edit source]

Civil War[edit | edit source]

  • 1860 Election
  • Anaconda Plan
  • Appomattox
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • Ft. Sumter
  • Gettysburg
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Lincoln’s pre-war stance on slavery
  • Sherman’s March
  • U.S. Grant

Reconstruction[edit | edit source]

  • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
  • black codes
  • Compromise of 1877
  • 40 acres and a mule
  • Freedman’s Bureau
  • grandfather clause
  • homestead
  • Jim Crow laws
  • 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]

Economic & Political[edit | edit source]

  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Battle of Wounded Knee
  • bimetallism
  • Chinese Exclusion Act
  • Dawes Act /assimilation
  • Gentlemen’s Agreement
  • Great Migration
  • Homestead Act of 1862
  • laissez-faire capitalism
  • melting pot
  • monopoly
  • nativism
  • Nelson Rockefeller
  • political bosses
  • political machine
  • Populist Party
  • robber barons
  • Sand Creek Massacre
  • Sherman Anti-trust Act
  • social Darwinism
  • 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]

  • American Federation of Labor (AFL)
  • Samuel Gompers

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]

  • Bolsheviks
  • Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917)
  • "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
  • War bonds
  • War Industries Board
  • Zimmerman Note

Post-WWI[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[edit | edit source]

  • Black Monday
  • Black Thursday
  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff
  • Hoovervilles


FDR & New Deal[edit | edit source]

  • Social Security
  • Supreme Court

Roosevelt Administrations[edit | edit source]

  • Brain Trust
  • Harry Hopkins
  • Francis Perkins

Pre-WWII[edit | edit source]

  • isolationism
  • "war footing"

Pre-WWII appeasement/ preparation[edit | edit source]

  • A Philip Randolph
  • America First Committee
  • “cash and carry”/Lend-Lease Act
  • isolationisms
  • Lindburgh
  • Maginot Line
  • Munich Agreement
  • "Peace for our time"
  • Sudetenland

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
  • Nuremburg Trials
  • Poland invasion
  • Potsdam Conference
  • propaganda
  • rationing
  • recycling
  • Rosie the Rivitor
  • Sudatenland invasion
  • Tehran Conference
  • Truman’s decision
  • U.S. Neutrality Acts
  • United Nations
  • "Victory Gardens"
  • war bonds
  • Yalta Conference

Latter half 20th Century[edit | edit source]

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
  • 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]

  • 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"
  • 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
  • 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]

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident
  • Tet Offensive
  • Walter Cronkite
  • U.S. Public support of the War
  • 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]

  • 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
  • Kent State
  • Jackson State

post-Nixon[edit | edit source]

  • Fall of Saigon
  • Cambodian genocide

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

  • baby boom
  • "Fair Deal" (1945-49)
  • suburbia
  • 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

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

  • Silent Spring
  • Michael Harrington
  • Roe v. Wade
  • women’s liberation movement (NOW)
  • Cesar Chavez
  • Grapes Boycott
  • Chicano Movement
  • American Indian Movement (AIM)
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
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