US History Definitions
Terms
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- Hunters-Gatherers
- People who stalked game and gathered edible plants
- Beringia
- wide land bridge between Siberia and Alaska
- Paleo-Indians
- first Americans between 12000-60000 years ago
- Qur'an
- holy book of Islam
- Crusades
- wars between 1096-1200s
- Renaissance-
- period of learning and creativity in Europe in 1400s
- Johannes Gutenberg
- Inventor of first printing press
- African diaspora
- forcible resettlement of million of Africans to Americas
- Christopher Columbus
- a mariner from Genoa, Italy who found the Americas
- Reconquista
- reconquest of Spain from Muslims
- encomienda
- the right have Indians work for Spanish person
- Batolome de Las Casas
- demanded end to ecomienda
- Treaty of Tordesillas
- Treaty dividing world with a line.. west of line belonged to Spain and east of line belonged to Portugal
- Ferdinand Magellan
- Found new route to Asia from Spain around the tip of South America
- cicumnavigate
- sail completely around the world
- Hernan Cortes
- conquered Aztec Empire in Mexico
- Franciso Pizzaro
- conquered the Inca Empire in 1530s
- Juan Ponce de Leon
- Searched for the Fountain of Youth and was first European explorer in Florida
- Prostetant Reformation
- religious upheaval in England that established new churches as an alternative to Catholicism
- Spanish Armada
- Spanish fleet that tried to conquer England during reign of Queen Elizabeth and was defeated
- joint-stock companies
- two groups joined-Plymouth Company and the London Company in an attempt to mine gold and increase colonization
- Puritans
- Protestants who opposed the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England
- Mayflower Compact
- document establishing a self-governing colony based on majority rule of male church members
- Great Migration
- Thousands of Puritans left England for America
- commonwealth
- Society where everyone was guided by English law and the Bible in the first colonies
- Freeman
- adult male church member who owned property
- indentured servants
- bound for a period of years in service to the person who paid passage for them to America
- Olaudah Equiano
- 12 yr. old slave who was kidnapped and sold into slavery and described his ordeal in his autobiography. called this period the Middle Passage
- Middle Passage
- the voyage across the Atlantic by slaves
- abolition
- antislavery movement
- Iroquois League
- confederation of tribes of Indians in New York and Pennsylvania in the 15th century
- Proclamation of 1763
- stopped settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains
- Townshend Acts
- laws from England that raised taxes on common items in the Americas
- Cripus Attucks
- a sailor and escaped slave who died because of the Boston Massacre
- Boston Massacre
- Angry confrontation between British troops and colonists
- Boston Tea Party
- colonists dumped 90000 pounds of tea in Boston Harbor rather than pay taxes on it to England
- Intolerable Acts
- Four laws from Parliament in Britain to punish Massachusetts for Tea Party and to show British control over colonists
- Battle of Bunker Hill
- one of first battles in Revolutionary War where the Americans overcame the British
- Thomas Paine
- writer who encouraged war against England for freedom of America
- Declaration of Independence
- 1776 document declaring independence from England
- Treaty of Paris
- 1783 granted United States independence from Britain
- Shay's Rebellion
- Rebellion of land owners against high taxes by Confederate government led by Daniel Shay in 1787
- Constitutional Convention
- meetings in Philadelphia, PA to draft a plan for national government
- James Madison
- Wrote the Viginia Plan-plan to take power away from states and toward a central government
- Virginia Plan
- Shifted political power from states and toward central government
- Federalism
- division of powers between strong central government and state government
- delegated powers
- federal government powers to make money, regulate trade with foreign countries and among states, to raisean army
- reserved powers
- state powers to establish local government, oversee schools, conduct elections, regulate business and set marriage laws
- concurrent powers
- powers shared by state and federal government
- supremacy clause
- Federal constitution and federal laws override state constitutions and laws
- impeachment
- House of Representatives may remove the president if he is thought to be guilty of treason, bribery or other high crimes
- separation of powers
- keeps any part of federal government from being too powerful. Divided into three parts where each branch oversees the others
- elastic clause
- power to make laws necessary and proper to carry out the powers given the government
- Bill of Rights
- First 10 amendments providing for the rights of individuals
- Judiciary Act
- act giving government right to create a federal court and create State department, Treasury department and War department
- strict construction and loose construction
-
strict construction-believed government could only do what the Constitution specifically said
loose construction-believed government could do anything that the Constitution did not forbid - sectionalism
- loyalty to a particular part of the ocuntry
- Alien and Sedition Acts
- Acts in 1798 that gave presidents power to expel or imprison aliens and US citizens who were dangerous to peace and safety of the USA
- Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
- Republicans who opposed the Sedition Acts and argued the acts
- Marbury v Madison
- Basis for judicial review based on Supreme Court case
- Judicial Review
- Supreme Court could declare an act of Congress unconstitutional
- Twelfth Amendment
- 1804 requires electors to vote for presidential and vice presidential candidates on separate ballots
- Sacagawea
- Shoshone Indian woman who was a guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark's expedition out west
- Embargo Act
- 1807 act that stopped shipments of food and other American products to all foreign ports to prevent war
- Battle of Tippecanoe
- Battle that ended Tecumseh's dream of united Native American nation when they were defeated by whites
- Battle of New Orleans
- British-American battle of 1815 after the signing of the peace treaty. Americans won
- Treaty of Trent
- 1814-signing of treaty giving Americans control over Northwest Territory
- nationalism
- national pride and loyalty
- Tariff Act of 1816
- Placed 25% tax on most imported factory goods
- Monroe Doctrine
- US declared any European attempt to revive old colonies or establish new ones a threat to US safety and peace
- American system
-
program of federal economic development with 3 points
recreation of national bank
protective tariff to encourage US manufacturing
national transportation system - market revolution
- creation of national markets to increase profits
- Missouri Compromise
- Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non slave state to keep balanced Congress
- doctrine of nullification
- President Calhoun stated states had the right to nullify or refuse to obey act of Congress they considered unconstitutional
- Indian Removal Act
- provided for relocation (by force if needed) of Indians living east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory west of Mississippi
- Osceola
- Leader of Seminole Indians in 1840 who urged a revolt against moving to Indian Territory
- Second Seminole War
- Resistance in Florida to moving to Indian Territory. Most costly Indian War (1835-1842)
- nativism
- favoring of native born Americans over foreign born
- yeoman farmers
- small white farmers who grew their own food and raised some crops for cash in the south.
- cotton gin
- Eli Whitney invention to pick cotton
- overseers
- planation workers who managed slaves
- Underground Railroad
- network of white and black abolitionists who helped slaves escape to freedom in the North and Canada
- Harriet Tubman
- An escaped slave who helped others escape using the Underground Railroad
- Second Great Awakening
- A wave of revival that renewed the faith and religion of people in 1790s
- utopias
- communities that experimented with new ways of organizing family life, work and property ownership
- temperance movement
- group trying to persuade others to limit alcohol use
- Horace Mann
- Secretary of Education who set up the program of free public education
- Frederick Douglass
- was runaway slave who spoke and wrote about he things that were wrong with the slave system
- Seneca Falls Convention
- marked the beginning of women's movement for rights
- suffrage
- the right to vote
- Texas Revolution
- Rebellion in 1822 against Mexican control of Texas
- James K. Polk
- President who supported Texas joining the United States
- Mexican War
- War with Mexico to gain Texas as part of the USA
- Oregon Trail
- Trail used by thousands of settlers from Missouri to Oregon
- Mariposa War
- War by Indians against miners and settlers pushing them off their land
- Dred Scott
- Slave living in free state sued for his freedom in the Supreme Court and lost.
- Gettysburg Address
- Dedication of cemetery by Lincoln also a statement of democratic ideals
- Elizabeth Blackwell
- America's first licensed female doctor
- Clara Barton
- A nurse who worked serving the Union Army
- conscription
- drafting men into the army
- Coppperheads
- Democrats in North who opposed the war
- Emancipation Proclamation
- declared that all slaves in areas rebelling against the US would be free on January 1, 1863
- Martin Delaney
- first black promoted to major
- war of attrition
- North would fight until South ran out of men, supplies and will to fight
- total war
- strike at enemy's economic resources, so North destroyed everything in the South
- Thirteenth Amendment
- Passed in 1865 to abolish slavery
- black codes
- laws limiting former slaves freedom
- Thaddeus Stevens
- Radical from Pennsylvania who believed that land reform could change southern society
- Civil Rights Act 1866
- declared everyone born in US full citizens with full civil rights
- Fourteenth Amendment
- 1866 extended citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the US including African Americans
- Fifteenth Amendment
- 1869-no vote shall be denied or changed based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude
- Reconstruction Acts 1867
- divided former Confederacy into 5 military districts to be overseen by Union troops
- Compromise of 1877
- Democrats agreed to accept Hayes as President and Republicans agreed not use use the military to enforce Reconstruction legislation
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Fought for women's rights
- Civil Rights Bill of 1875
- Prohibited discrimination by hotels and other businesses serving the public
- sharecropping
- worked a piece of land belonging to a plant for a share of the crop, a cabin, seed, tools, and a mule
- poll taxes
- fixed taxes imposed on every voter
- literacy tests
- intended to limit the vote to those who could read
- Jim Crow laws
- laws designed to keep races separate. Segregation
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Supreme Court ruled (1896) that separate, but equal did NOT violate the 14th Amendment
- Booker T. Washington
- former slave who founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881
- Ida Wells Barnett
- teacher and journalist who protested discrimination and segregated schools