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AP U.S. History Key Terms

Major people, laws, events and ideas from colonial times to the modern era.

105 cardsGrades 9–12, College#ap#us-history

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105 cards
  • Columbian ExchangeTerm
    Transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Americas and the Old World after 1492
  • Encomienda systemTerm
    Spanish grants of Native labor to colonists
  • Jamestown (1607)Term
    First permanent English colony in North America
  • Headright systemTerm
    Land grants to colonists who paid for passage, used in Virginia
  • House of BurgessesTerm
    Virginia's elected assembly, begun 1619
  • Mayflower Compact (1620)Term
    Agreement by Plymouth settlers to govern by consent
  • PuritansTerm
    Reformers who settled Massachusetts Bay seeking a purified church
  • Roger WilliamsTerm
    Founded Rhode Island on religious tolerance
  • MercantilismTerm
    Economic idea that colonies exist to enrich the mother country
  • Navigation ActsTerm
    English laws controlling colonial trade
  • Middle PassageTerm
    The forced sea voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas
  • Great AwakeningTerm
    18th-century religious revival
  • Salutary neglectTerm
    British policy of lax enforcement of colonial rules
  • Seven Years' WarTerm
    War ending 1763 that expelled France from mainland North America
  • Proclamation of 1763Term
    British ban on colonial settlement west of the Appalachians
  • Stamp Act (1765)Term
    Direct tax on printed items that provoked 'no taxation without representation'
  • Boston Tea Party (1773)Term
    Protest destroying tea in Boston Harbor
  • Intolerable ActsTerm
    Punitive laws after the Tea Party
  • Common SenseTerm
    1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine urging independence
  • Declaration of IndependenceTerm
    1776 statement of colonial rights and separation from Britain
  • Articles of ConfederationTerm
    First US government; weak central power
  • Northwest Ordinance (1787)Term
    Set up governance of western lands and banned slavery there
  • Shays' RebellionTerm
    1786 farmers' uprising that revealed weakness of the Articles
  • Constitutional ConventionTerm
    1787 meeting that wrote the Constitution
  • Great CompromiseTerm
    Two-house Congress: equal Senate, population-based House
  • Three-Fifths CompromiseTerm
    Counted enslaved people as three-fifths for representation
  • FederalistsTerm
    Supporters of ratifying the Constitution
  • Anti-FederalistsTerm
    Opponents who feared strong central power and wanted a bill of rights
  • Federalist PapersTerm
    Essays arguing for ratification
  • Bill of RightsTerm
    The first ten amendments, ratified 1791
  • Hamilton's financial planTerm
    Federal assumption of state debts, a national bank and tariffs
  • Jay's TreatyTerm
    1794 treaty easing tensions with Britain
  • Alien and Sedition ActsTerm
    1798 laws restricting immigrants and criticism of the government
  • Marbury v. MadisonTerm
    1803 case establishing judicial review
  • Louisiana PurchaseTerm
    1803 purchase of territory from France, doubling the nation's size
  • War of 1812Term
    Conflict with Britain that boosted national identity
  • Monroe DoctrineTerm
    1823 warning against European colonization in the Americas
  • Market RevolutionTerm
    Early 1800s changes in transport, manufacturing and trade
  • Erie CanalTerm
    1825 waterway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic
  • Cotton ginTerm
    Invention that made cotton very profitable and entrenched slavery
  • Jacksonian democracyTerm
    Expansion of white male voting and the common man's politics
  • Indian Removal Act (1830)Term
    Law leading to forced relocation of Native nations
  • Trail of TearsTerm
    Forced march of Cherokee and others to Indian Territory
  • Second Great AwakeningTerm
    Religious revival that fueled reform movements
  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848)Term
    First major women's rights convention
  • Manifest DestinyTerm
    Belief that the US was meant to expand across the continent
  • Mexican-American WarTerm
    1846-48 war that gave the US the Southwest and California
  • Missouri Compromise (1820)Term
    Admitted Missouri as slave, Maine as free; set a line at 36 30
  • Compromise of 1850Term
    Package including California as free state and a stronger fugitive slave law
  • Kansas-Nebraska ActTerm
    1854 law letting settlers decide on slavery, reigniting conflict
  • Dred Scott decision (1857)Term
    Ruling that Black people could not be citizens
  • Emancipation ProclamationTerm
    1863 order freeing enslaved people in Confederate-held areas
  • GettysburgTerm
    1863 battle that turned the war toward the Union
  • ReconstructionTerm
    Post-Civil War effort to rebuild the South and define freedom
  • 13th AmendmentTerm
    Abolished slavery
  • 14th AmendmentTerm
    Defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection
  • 15th AmendmentTerm
    Barred denying the vote because of race
  • Freedmen's BureauTerm
    Agency aiding formerly enslaved people
  • Black CodesTerm
    Southern laws restricting freed people's rights
  • SharecroppingTerm
    Farming a landowner's land for a share of the crop
  • Compromise of 1877Term
    Ended Reconstruction as federal troops left the South
  • Jim Crow lawsTerm
    Southern laws enforcing racial segregation
  • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)Term
    Upheld 'separate but equal'
  • Homestead Act (1862)Term
    Gave settlers western land for farming
  • Transcontinental RailroadTerm
    Completed 1869, linking East and West
  • Gilded AgeTerm
    Late 1800s era of rapid growth and visible inequality
  • Robber baronsTerm
    Critics' name for ruthless industrial magnates
  • Sherman Antitrust ActTerm
    1890 law against monopolies
  • Populist PartyTerm
    1890s farmers' party seeking reforms
  • Dawes Act (1887)Term
    Broke up tribal lands into individual plots
  • Progressive EraTerm
    Reform period around 1900-1920
  • MuckrakersTerm
    Journalists exposing corruption and abuses
  • The JungleTerm
    Upton Sinclair's novel that prompted food safety laws
  • Spanish-American War (1898)Term
    Brought the US overseas territories like the Philippines and Puerto Rico
  • Open Door policyTerm
    US stance favoring equal trade access in China
  • World War ITerm
    1914-18 conflict the US joined in 1917
  • Treaty of VersaillesTerm
    1919 peace treaty that the US Senate did not ratify
  • 19th AmendmentTerm
    1920 ratification giving women the vote
  • Great MigrationTerm
    Movement of Black Americans from the South to northern cities
  • Harlem RenaissanceTerm
    1920s flowering of Black art and literature
  • Scopes Trial (1925)Term
    Trial over teaching evolution in Tennessee
  • Stock market crash of 1929Term
    Start of the Great Depression
  • New DealTerm
    Franklin Roosevelt's relief, recovery and reform programs
  • Social Security Act (1935)Term
    Created old-age pensions and unemployment insurance
  • Dust BowlTerm
    1930s Plains drought and erosion that drove farm migration
  • Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)Term
    Attack that brought the US into World War II
  • Japanese American internmentTerm
    Wartime confinement of people of Japanese ancestry
  • Manhattan ProjectTerm
    Secret program to build atomic weapons
  • GI BillTerm
    Postwar benefits for veterans including education and housing
  • ContainmentTerm
    Cold War policy of stopping the spread of communism
  • Truman DoctrineTerm
    1947 pledge to aid nations resisting communism
  • Marshall PlanTerm
    US aid to rebuild Western Europe
  • NATOTerm
    1949 Western military alliance
  • Korean WarTerm
    1950-53 conflict ending in stalemate
  • McCarthyismTerm
    Accusations of communism without solid proof in the 1950s
  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)Term
    Ruled school segregation unconstitutional
  • Montgomery Bus BoycottTerm
    1955-56 protest launching the modern civil rights movement
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964Term
    Outlawed discrimination in public places and employment
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965Term
    Stopped discriminatory voting practices
  • Great SocietyTerm
    Lyndon Johnson's domestic program including Medicare

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