AP U.S.

History Exam Study Guide

Colonial America (1492-1754):
First European Contacts with Native Americans:
1. Iroquois Confederacythe most important Native American political alliance; ended
generations of tribal warfare; in the 1700s, lived in permanent settlements
2. Native Americans who interacted with the English increasingly depended on the fur-andhide trade.
3. Comparing Native Americans and English settlers:
Similarities
Differences
1) Village communities
1) Native Americans did not share
2) Strong spirituality
the settlers private-property
3) Split labor by gender
concept.
4) Agricultural economies
2) Native American children were
5) Domesticated vegetables, like corn
often part of their mothers clan.
4. Types of colonies:
- Charter colonycolonists were essentially members of a corporation; based on an
agreed-upon charter, electors among the colonists controlled the government
- Royal colonyhad a governor selected by Englands king who led the colony and
chose lesser officers
- Proprietary coloniesowned by an individual who had direct responsibility to the
king and chose the colonys governor
5. Mercantilism caused wars between England and Holland in the late 1600s.
Florida:
6. Huguenots (French Protestants) left for the New World to freely practice their religion
and formed a colony near St. Augustine. Spain, which oversaw Florida, reacted violently
to this, since the Huguenots were trespassers and viewed as heretics by the Catholic
Church. Spanish troops massacred the French settlers.
Chesapeake Colonies (Virginia and Maryland):
7. Virginia Companya joint-stock company; colonized Jamestown, the 1st charter colony,
in 1607 with no religious motivation
8. Starving Timea period in the 1600s during which many colonists died or considered
returning to England
9. John Rolfea Jamestown colonist; married Pocahontas; created a tobacco-curing
process, ensuring Jamestowns economic success
10. Tobacco made the Chesapeake profitable. By the mid-1700s, it was the Souths most
valuable cash crop.
11. House of BurgessesVirginias representative assembly, created in 1619; Americas 1st
representative assembly; representatives were elected initially by all free men and later
only by men owning at least 50 acres of land; instituted private land ownership and
maintained colonists rights

12. Maryland, the 1st proprietary colony, was created in 1632 by George Calvert (Lord
Baltimore) as a refuge for English Catholics. To protect the Catholic minority, Calverts
son encouraged religious toleration and established a representative assembly.
13. Maryland Act of Toleration (1649)guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians in
Maryland; granted after a Protestant became Marylands governor
14. Headright systema system used by the Virginia Company to attract colonists; promised
colonists 50 acres of land to immigrate to America; gave 50 acres of land to whoever paid
an indentured servants passage to America
15. Before 1675, English indentured servantspoor workers, criminals, and debtors who
earned immigration passage and fees in return for a number of years at harsh, brutal labor
for a planter or companywere the Chesapeakes chief source of agricultural labor,
specifically tobacco production. In the 1600s, they made up 75% of the 13,000 English
immigrants to the Chesapeake.
16. In 1619, African slaves arrived at Jamestown, becoming the first slaves in a British
settlement. In the 1600s last quarter, slave labor spread rapidly, especially in Virginia. By
the early 1700s, slavery was legally established in all 13 colonies.
17. In the Chesapeake in the 1600s, men had a high mortality rate; women were scarce.
Because of this, womens status was higher than in the New England colonies.
18. Bacons Rebellion (1676)a revolt by poor backcountry farmers, former indentured
servants, led by colonial frontier leader Nathaniel Bacon; he was angry with Virginias
Royal governor, William Berkeley, for granting rights to Virginias wealthy (tidewater
gentry) and failing to protect Virginia from Native American attacks; Bacon ordered 2
unauthorized raids on Native American tribes and set fire to Jamestown; British troops
and Berkeleys forces quelled the revolt; caused planters to grow suspicious of indentured
servants and to view slaves as more reliable labor sources
19. First Families of Virginiarich, prominent Virginia families that by 1776 had been in
America for 4-5 generations; included the Lees, Carters, and Fitzhughs
Massachusetts Bay Colony and Puritans:
20. The Puritans came to New England to escape James Is political repression, religious
restrictions, and an economic recession. They were part of the Great English Migration,
which included over 70,000 people; over twice as many Puritans immigrated to the West
Indies as to New England.
21. Massachusetts Bay Companya joint-stock company chartered by the Puritans; led by
John Winthrop
22. Massachusettss government eventually included a governor and representative assembly.
23. Antinomianismthe belief that salvation is attained through faith and divine grace and
not through strict adherence to rules or moral laws
24. Anne Hutchinsonchallenged clerical authority; claimed to have had revelations from
God that superseded the Bible; Massachusetts Bay officials accused her of antinomianism
and banished her to Rhode Island, then called the Aquidneck region, where she founded
Portsmouth; later moved to New York, where Native Americans killed her and all but one
of her children
25. Half-Way Covenantthe practice set by the Puritans to ease church membership
requirements; allowed participation in some church affairs by the grandchildren of

converted Puritans and the baptism of the children of baptized but unconverted Puritans;
marked the Puritans diminished religious zeal
Rhode Island:
26. Roger Williamsa Puritan minister; fled Massachusetts due to his dissenting views;
founded Providence with land bought from Native Americans
27. Rhode Island formed as a combination of Providence, Portsmouth, and other nearby
settlements. It granted religious toleration.
28. Rhode Island, often called Rogues Island, was populated by exiles and troublemakers.
It suffered constant political turmoil.
Plymouth Colony and Pilgrims:
29. William Bradford (1590-1657)the first governor of Plymouth Colony, which was
founded by the Pilgrims, Puritan Separatists
Connecticut:
30. Thomas Hooker led a big group of Puritans who disagreed with Massachusetts
government to settle in the Connecticut River Valley. He founded Connecticut.
31. Fundamental Orders (1639)laws formed by Connecticuts members; established
representative government for those eligible to vote; became the colonys charters basis
when Britain recognized Connecticut as a corporate colony
32. New England Confederationa temporary alliance between the Massachusetts,
Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven Puritan colonies; aimed to unite to support the
church and defend against the Native Americans and Dutch; dissolved in the 1680s
Carolinas:
33. The Carolinas, granted colonial status in 1663, were settled when King Charles II
rewarded noblemen with land after Britains 20-year Puritan revolution. To attract
settlers, the proprietors planned for a hierarchical society. The Carolinas slowly grew as
planters experimented with manufacturing silk and growing rice and indigo. Many people
from Barbados, who employed a very harsh form of slavery, colonized the Carolinas.
34. Rice was South Carolinas most important crop by the mid-1700s.
35. Stono Rebellion (1739)one of Americas earliest slave revolts; slaves living south of
Charleston, South Carolina, tried to flee to Spanish Florida to gain freedom
Pennsylvania and Quakers:
36. William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681. It included religious freedom and a
landowner-elected representative assembly and did not have a state-supported church.
New Hampshire:
37. King Charles II established New Hampshire in 1677 as a Royal colony.
38. It depended economically on Massachusetts (until 1741, Britain appointed one person to
rule both colonies).
39. Weeks before the 2nd Continental Congresss signing of the Declaration of Independence,
New Hampshire drafted a temporary constitution for itself declaring independence from
Britain.

New York, New Jersey, and Delaware:

40. Dutch West India Companythe joint-stock company that ran the Fort Orange and New
Amsterdam colonies, which later became New York; had a profitable fur trade with the
Iroquois
41. Patroon systemthe Dutch West India Companys colonization system; big estates were
given to wealthy men who transported at least 50 families to New Netherland to tend
land; few took this opportunity
42. Delawares first settlement was established by Dutch patroons and destroyed by Native
American attacks.
43. During the 1630s, the Dutch West India Company and Dutchmen, including Peter Minuit,
began to trade and settle in Delaware.
44. From 1664-1674, Delaware switched between Dutch and English ownership, ending with
English ownership.
Georgia:
45. James Oglethorpe, an English philanthropist and soldier, chartered Georgia.
46. Settlers included people (like British prisoners) financed by the colonys board of trustees
and people who paid their own way to earn the best land grants. Elaborate regulations
resulted in relatively little settlement.
47. The colony was a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.
Colonial Society on the Eve of the Revolution:
48. Though Northern merchants and Southern planters amassed great wealth, colonial society
did not have a hereditary aristocracy.
49. First Great Awakeninga wave of religious revivals across the American colonies in the
1730s-1740s; involved New Light ministers, including George Whitefield and Jonathan
Edwards; did the following:
- Advocated an emotional approach to religion and equality between God and the Bible
- Weakened established churches authority
- Promoted growth of New Light higher-learning institutions like Princeton, Brown,
and Rutgers
- Sparked renewed missionary spirit, leading to many African slaves conversion
- Split the Presbyterian and Congregational churches; as a result, the colonies had no
single dominant denomination
- Increased church congregations numbers of itinerant ministers and women; women
were soon the majority in many churches
- Laid the foundation for a written contract, which would be important for the future
U.S. Constitution
50. During the colonial period, married women lost control of their property and had no legal
identity apart from their husbands. However, single women and widows could own
property. Women could not vote, hold political office, be jurors, or be clergy. Female
indentured servants had to stay single until their indenture period ended.
51. Republicanismthe idea that government should be based on the peoples consent;
inspired 1700s American revolutionaries; included several key principles:
1) Representation should be apportioned by population.

2) A republic is preferable to a monarchy because it creates a small, limited

government responsible to the people.
3) Widespread property ownership is republican governments safeguard.
4) Standing armies are dangerous and should be avoided.
5) Agrarian life is desirable and virtuous.
52. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)Americas first notable poet and first published woman
53. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)the first published African-American poet; created the
genre of African-American literature

Revolutionary Era (1754-1789):

Road to Revolution:
1. Navigation Acts (1651)listed enumerated goods, or colonial goods that could only be
sold to England, including sugar, cotton, and tobacco; aimed to subordinate the colonial
economy; boosted the prosperity of New Englanders, who engaged in large-scale
shipbuilding, and hurt the Chesapeakes residents by decreasing tobaccos price
2. Wool Act (1699)stated that all colonial wool could only be sold to Britain; restricted
Irelands wool manufacturing, causing many Irish to immigrate to America; meant to
protect Britains wool exports at Irelands and the colonies expense
3. French and Indian War (1748-1763)a rivalry between France, Britain, and various
Native American tribes over land in the Ohio region; continued in Europe and America
until Britain won control of Canada
4. Albany Plan (1754)Benjamin Franklins plan, proposed at a New York meeting of
delegates from 7 colonies; involved inter-colonial defense and government; rejected by
colonial legislatures because it demanded too great a surrender of power
5. Due to the French and Indian War, France relinquished its North American empire. Spain
took the Louisiana Territory. Britain now dominated parts of Canada and all lands east of
the Mississippi and began imposing revenue taxes on the colonies. This ended salutary
neglect, in which the British Parliament had mostly ignored the colonies.
6. George GrenvilleBritish Prime Minister; aimed to solve Britains huge national debt
incurred in recent wars; created a series of acts that raised taxes on American goods,
including the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and Quartering Act
7. Proclamation of 1763a response to Pontiacs Rebellion, a Native American uprising
against the British; forbade British colonists to cross the Appalachian Mountains crest;
aimed to avoid conflict between colonies and trans-Appalachian Native Americans;
angered colonists who believed that Britains victory in the French and Indian War should
allow them to settle in the Ohio Valley
8. Paxton BoysScots-Irish frontiersmen from along the Susquehanna River in central
Pennsylvania; in 1763, formed a vigilante group to retaliate against local Native
Americans for the French and Indian War and Pontiacs Rebellion; murdered 20
Susquehannock in the Conestoga Massacre
9. Sugar Act (1764)taxed wine, cloth, coffee, and silk imports; strictly enforced, unlike
the Molasses Act of 1733
10. Stamp Act (1765)an internal tax solely intended to raise revenue to support British
soldiers protecting the colonies; required Americans to use stamped paper for legal

documents, newspapers, playing cards, and more; repealed after a colonial boycott of
British exports
11. Stamp Act Congress (1765)a New York meeting of delegates from 7 colonies to
discuss defense plans; adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which stated
that freeborn Englishmen could not be taxed without their consent
12. Declaratory Act (1766)allowed Britain to tax and make laws for Americans in all
cases; followed the Stamp Acts repeal; colonists ignored the acts wording
13. Townshend Acts (1767)created by British Prime Minister Charles Townshend,
Grenvilles replacement; taxed items imported into the colonies, like paper, lead, glass,
and tea; replaced the Stamp Acts direct taxes; led to boycotts by Boston merchants
14. Boston Massacre (1770)the British tried to enforce the Townshend Acts; British
soldiers killed 5 Bostonians, the first of which was Crispus Attucks, a former slave; John
Adams legally defended the soldiers; the British soldiers acted mostly in self-defense, but
anti-Royal leaders used the massacre to spur colonial revolt
15. Gaspee Affair (1772)the Gaspee, a British customs ship that had been enforcing
unpopular trade regulations, ran aground in shallow water while chasing the packet boat
Hannah; a group of colonists attacked, looted, and torched the ship
16. Boston Tea Party (1773)colonists dressed as Native Americans destroyed tea on British
ships to protest Britains allowing the British East India Company to ship tea directly to
America and sell it at a bargain, undercutting local merchants
17. Intolerable/Coercive Actsthe colonists name for a series of British acts responding to
the Boston Tea Party; shut Bostons port to all trade until citizens paid for all lost tea,
increased Massachusetts Royal governors power at the legislatures expense, and
allowed Royal officials accused of crimes in Massachusetts to be tried elsewhere
18. Writs of assistance (1750s-1770s)court orders allowing customs officials to conduct
nonspecific searches of homes, warehouses, and shops to stop colonial smuggling; James
Otis, a prosecutor in a failed Massachusetts legal case, argued that these searches defied
natural law
19. Virtual representationa 1770s English principle that Parliament represented all of
Britain and the British Empire, even though each Parliament member was only elected by
a small number of constituents; a response to the colonial no taxation without
representation claim
20. Samuel Adamsa revolutionary leader; led the Massachusetts Sons of Liberty along
with Paul Revere; attended the 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses and signed the
Declaration of Independence
21. 1st Continental Congress (1774)a Philadelphia colonial delegates meeting to denounce
the Intolerable Acts and petition Parliament; a few radical members discussed breaking
from England; created Continental Association and forbade British goods importation
and use; agreed to convene a 2nd Continental Congress in May 1775
22. Enlightenmenta 1700s philosophy stressing that reason could be used to improve the
human condition; based on natural rights; American Enlightenment thinkers included
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin
Revolutionary War (1776-1781):
23. Battles of Concord and Lexington (1775)British General Gage suspected that Concord
housed a stockpile of colonial weaponry; Paul Revere and William Dawes detected

British troops movement toward Concord, warned militia, and gathered Minutemen at
Lexington; at Lexington, Militia and Royal infantry fought; colonial troops withdrew
24. 2nd Continental Congress (1775)a Philadelphia colonial representative meeting
presided over by John Hancock; adopted the Olive Branch Petition, a letter to King
George III appealing one final time to resolve all disputes, which the king refused to
receive; sent George Washington to command an army around Boston; opened American
ports, defying the Navigation Acts; wrote the Declaration of Independence (1776)
25. Battle of Bunker Hill (1775)colonists defended Bunker Hill, an American post
overlooking Boston; twice turned back a British frontal assault and held off the British
until the colonists ran out of ammunition and were overrun; however, Americas strong
defense boosted morale
26. Common Sense/Crisis Papers (1776)a political pamphlet by Thomas Paine; strongly
urged independence from Britain; denounced monarchy (described King George as a
pharaoh) and defended republicanism; used Biblical analogies; quelled many colonists
loyalty to Britain and the monarchy
27. Lees Resolutionspresented by Virginias Richard Henry Lee to 2nd Continental
Congress; accepted July 2, 1776; stated, These United Colonies are, and of right ought
to be, free and independent States
28. The Battle of Saratoga (1777), in which British General John Burgoyne surrendered to
colonial troops, persuaded France to declare war on Britain and openly aid the American
cause. French leaders were not motivated by republicanism; they aimed to weaken the
British Empire.
29. The French-American Alliance influenced the British to offer generous peace terms in the
Treaty of Paris.
30. Treaty of Paris (1783)ended the war; set the U.S.s borders; the U.S. stretched west to
the Mississippi, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Spanish Florida; the U.S. agreed
that Loyalists would not be further persecuted; strengthened by Jay Treaty (1794)
From the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution:
31. Critical period (1783-1789)a phrase coined by historian John Fiske in 1888; the period
when the U.S.s success as a nation was precarious
32. The Articles of Confederations weaknesses included a lack of authority to tax, raise
troops, regulate commerce, or directly exercise authority over the states.
33. Land Ordinance (1785)set a system for surveying, planning, and selling townships in
the western frontier and funding public education; 6-by-6-mile townships were split into
36 1-square-mile sections, which could be further subdivided for resale by settlers and
land speculators; area in each township was set aside for public schools
34. Shays Rebellion (1786)a revolt led by Massachusetts farmers who were losing their
farms because they could not pay debts in hard currency; did not aim to overthrow
Massachusetts government; instead, sought an end to farm foreclosures and
imprisonment for debt, relief from oppressively high taxes, and increased paper-money
circulation
35. Northwest Ordinance (1787)provided for the orderly creation of territorial
governments and new states (Ohio was the first Northwest Territory state); banned
slavery north of the Ohio River; endorsed public education
36. These provisions were not in the Constitution, as submitted to the states in 1787:

- 2-term presidential limit

- Universal manhood suffrage
- Presidential cabinet
- Direct elections for senators
- Political parties
- Guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press (added in the Bill of Rights)
- Right to a speedy and public trial (added in the Bill of Rights)
37. The Federalist/Federalist Papers (1787)written by Alexander Hamilton and James
Madison to support the Constitutions ratification
38. Anti-Federalists:
- Drew support mainly from rural areas
- Argued that the President would have too much power
- Feared that Congress would levy heavy taxes
- Feared that the government would raise a standing army
- Believed that the new national government would overwhelm the states
- Argued that individual rights should be protected

The New Nation (1789-1824):

Alexander Hamiltons Economic Policies:
1. Hamilton aimed to promote economic growth, strengthen the U.S.s finances, and give
financial interests like Eastern merchants a stake in the new government.
2. He proposed to:
- Establish a national bank
- Adopt a protective tariff to raise revenue
- Fund the national debt
- Assume state debts incurred during the Revolutionary war
- Tax distilled liquor to raise revenue
- Increase domestic manufacturing
- Subsidize domestic manufacturers (Congress rejected this.)
Presidents George Washington (1789-1797) and John Adams (1797-1801):
3. Barbary piratesuntil the Declaration of Independence, American ships were protected
from North African pirates by British treaties with the North African countries; in 1784,
Morocco seized a U.S. ship, leading to the U.S. Navys creation in 1794; the U.S. secured
peace treaties but had to pay steep ransom and tribute to the Barbary countries; these
made up 20% of the U.S. governments expenditures in 1800
4. Whiskey Rebellion/Insurrection (1791-1794)farmers who used leftover grain and corn
whiskey as currency were forced to pay a new tax; in western Pennsylvania, farmers
violently protested to bar federal officials from collecting the tax; in 1794, a U.S. marshal
arrived to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the tax; over 500 armed men attacked
a tax inspectors home; Washington sent peace commissioners to negotiate with the rebels
and asked governors to send troops to enforce the tax; the rebels went home before the
army arrived; about 20 men were arrested, but all were later acquitted or pardoned
5. Citizen Genet Affair (1793-1794)Edmond-Charles Genet, French ambassador to the
U.S. during the French Revolution, was dispatched to the U.S. to garner support for

Frances wars with Spain and Britain; he arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, and was
enthusiastically received; haughty, he recruited American privateers and militias to aid
French causes, hurting U.S. neutrality in France and Spains war, which Washington had
declared in his Neutrality Proclamation (1793); Washington refused Genets request to
suspend U.S. neutrality; in 1794, the Jacobins seized power in France and sent an arrest
notice to Genet, who knew that in France he would be sent to the guillotine; he received
asylum in the U.S.
6. Pinckneys Treaty (1796)fostered U.S.-Spanish friendship; set the U.S.s borders with
Spanish territory; gave the U.S. Mississippi River navigation rights; negotiated by U.S.
diplomat Thomas Pinckney; ended the first phase of U.S.-Spanish arguments over West
Floridas borders
7. XYZ Affair (1797-1798)U.S.-French conflicts threatened war; U.S. dipomats Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry went to France to negotiate;
French Foreign Minister Talleyrands secret agents, called X, Y, and Z in public
documents, approached the diplomats to demand bribes and a loan; offended, Pinckney
and Marshall left France; Gerry stayed for several months; his negotiations with
Talleyrand eventually eased the resulting Quasi-War
8. Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)4 acts passed by Federalists in Congress; signed by
Adams; increased U.S. citizenships residency requirement from 5 to 14 years; allowed
the president to jail or deport dangerous aliens; restricted speech critical of the federal
government; apparently meant to protect natural security but in reality aimed to reduce
the number of voters disagreeing with the Federalists, as most immigrants, like the Irish
and French, backed the Democratic-Republicans; Sedition and Alien Friends Acts expired
in 1800 and 1801; Naturalization Act was repealed by the Naturalization Law (1802);
Alien Enemies Act remains in effect
9. Quasi-War/Undeclared War with France (1798-1800)an undeclared naval war fought
by the U.S. and Britain against France and Spain
10. Gabriel Prossera literate enslaved blacksmith; in 1800, planned a slave revolt in
Richmond, Virginia; details about the revolt were leaked beforehand; Prosser and 25
other slaves were jailed and hanged; in response, Virginia and other states passed
restrictions on slaves and free blacks
President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809):
11. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans victory ended the Federalist Decade.
12. According to Jeffersonian democracy, the federal government must not violate states
rights (as stated in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions), the federal governments
scope should be reduced, and the president should practice republican simplicity.
13. Louisiana Purchase (1803)the U.S.s largest territorial gain; originated with Jeffersons
desires to acquire the New Orleans port to give an outlet for Western crops and to
perpetuate an agricultural society by making abundant lands available to future
generations; Napoleon was spurred to sell the Louisiana Territory by the French armys
failure to suppress the Haitian slave revolt
Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1835):
14. Hylton v. U.S. (1796)the Supreme Court upheld a Congressional acts constitutionality
for the first time

15. Marshall opposed states rights; he believed that a strong central government best served
the U.S. and promoted economic nationalism and business enterprise. Under his
leadership, the Supreme Court upheld federal over state legislations supremacy.
16. Judicial reviewthe Supreme Courts ability to strike down an Congressional act by
declaring it unconstitutional; established in Marbury v. Madison (1803)
17. Martin v. Hunters Lessee (1816)the Supreme Court asserted its right to review state
courts decisions
18. Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)New Hampshire legislature tried to revoke
Dartmouths charter to change it from a private to a public college; the Court ruled that a
colonial charter still constituted a contract and could not be arbitrarily changed without
both parties consent; this reaffirmed contracts sanctity and limited state governments
power to control corporations and contracts
19. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)the Court struck down a Maryland law taxing the
National Banks Baltimore branch; the Court stated that this violated Congresss implied
powers to operate a national bank
20. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)Ogden had received a monopoly, granted by New York
through Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston, to operate a steamboat between New York
and New Jersey; Gibbons had received the same rights through Congress; the Court
concluded that the state monopoly was void because only Congress may regulate
interstate commerce
War of 1812:
21. Tecumseha Native American chief encouraged by British forces to fight against
pressured removal from Western territories
22. In 1811, William Henry Harrison destroyed the united Native American Confederacy at
Tippecanoe.
23. War causes:
- British impressment of American seamen
- British interference with U.S. commerce
- American frontiersmens desire for more free land; the West was held by Native
Americans and the British, who aided the Native Americans
- Frances conflict with Britain; the U.S. sided with France
- War Hawk Congressional leaders, like Henry Clay and John Calhoun, pressure for
intervention and desire to annex Canada and Florida
- Tensions with Britain that did not cool despite the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts
24. War events:
- Early U.S. sea victories; then overcome by British
- The U.S.s Admiral Perry took Lake Erie with the navy
- This allowed Harrison to invade Canada and defeat British and Native American
forces there
- U.S. troops burned Toronto; in response, in 1814, a British armada sailed up the
Chesapeake Bay, burned the White House, and proceeded to Baltimore, where the
U.S.s Fort McHenry held firm through bombardment; this inspired Francis Scott
Keys Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem
- Andrew Jackson led the U.S.s Southwest charge

In the Battle of New Orleans, fought after the Treaty of Ghent (which ended the war)
was signed, Jackson decisively defeated Britain
25. War consequences:
- Federal Partys demise
- Intensified U.S. nationalism
- High foreign demand for U.S. cotton, grain, and tobacco
- Industrialization; a move away from agrarianism
- An 1819 depression due to an influx of British goods; in response, to slow inflation,
the Bank of the U.S. tightened credit, causing a business slump
- Jacksons career advancement
26. Hartford Convention a series of Hartford, Connecticut, meetings from December
1814January 1815; New England Federalists discussed grievances about the ongoing
War of 1812 and the federal governments increased power
27. Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817)British-U.S. agreement to stop maintaining armed fleets
on the Great Lakes; influenced by the Treaty of Ghent; the first British-U.S.
disarmament agreement; led to future positive U.S.-Canada relations
President James Monroe (1817-1825):
28. Internal improvementsthe development of a national transportation system
29. Clays American Systema set of proposals designed by Clay to unify the U.S. and
strengthen its economy via a national bank, internal improvements like canals and new
roads, and tariffs (to protect domestic industries and fund internal improvements)
30. Due to its dependence on agriculture, the South benefited least from internal
improvements.
31. The Federalist Partys demise left the Democratic-Republicans in control of Congress and
presidency. The resulting illusion of a national political consensus was shattered by
contentious issues like protective tariffs, federal aid for internal improvements, and
slaverys expansion.
32. Convention of 1818set the U.S.-Canada border at the 49th parallel; gave the U.S. and
Canada joint occupancy of the Oregon Territory; allowed American fisherman to fish in
Newfoundland and Labradors waters
33. Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)set the U.S.-Mexico border, which had created conflict
under Spanish control; Spain sold its remaining Florida territory to the U.S. and drew
Mexicos border to the Pacific; Spain kept California, Texas, and the New Mexico region;
the U.S. assumed $5 million in debts owed by Spain to U.S. merchants
34. Missouri Compromise (1820)settled the 1800s first major slavery debate; proposed by
Clay; Missouri entered the Union as a slave state, while Maine entered as a free state,
keeping the Senates free/slave state balance; banned slavery above the 3630 line in the
remaining Louisiana Purchase territory
35. Tallmadge Amendment (1820)John Tallmadges original amendment to the Missouri
Compromise; banned slavery in Missouri and freed slaves already there when they
reached a certain age; caused the Senate to block the Missouri Compromise; did not
become law; was replaced with the clause banning slavery in the Louisiana Purchase
territory above the 3630 line
36. Denmark Veseya slave who won enough money in a lottery to buy his freedom; gained
wealth and influence in South Carolina; accused of using church gatherings to plan a

violent slave revolt; in 1822, was hanged along with 34 other slaves; some historians
doubt his conspiracy was real
37. Monroe Doctrine (1823)stated that the Western Hemispheres political system is
different and separate from Europes; warned European nations, like France, Spain, and
Russia, against further colonial ventures in the Americas; pledged that the U.S. would not
interfere in European countries internal affairs; successful due to British naval power

Age of Jackson (1824-1840):

President John Quincy Adams (1825-1829):
1. The Corrupt Bargain of 1824 followed the 1824 presidential election, which had 4
candidates: Clay (Speaker of the House), John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State),
Jackson (War of 1812 hero), and William Crawford (Secretary of the Treasury). Jackson
won the popular vote but not an electoral majority, so the election went to the House of
Representatives. In the House vote, Clay supported Adams; in exchange for the
presidency, Adams appointed Clay Secretary of State. Jackson made accusations of a
corrupt bargain that were deemed untrue.
2. Adamss supporters were National Republicans; Jacksons supporters were DemocraticRepublicans.
3. Adams led an active federal government in internal improvements and Native American
affairs, but his policies were unpopular amid rising sectional and states rights conflicts.
4. After his presidency, Adams served in the House, where he debated against slavery and
Jacksons policy of removing Native American tribes.
Key Tenets of Jacksonian Democracy:
5. Jacksonian democracya set of political beliefs associated with Jackson and his
followers; included the party system, respect for the common mans abilities and
common sense, white male suffrage expansion, patronage/Spoils System, opposition to
privileged Eastern elites, and a strong president who liberally used the veto
6. During the Federalist Era, caucuses of party leaders had maintained discipline and chosen
candidates. During the Jackson administration, national nominating conventions filled
with emotional appeals replaced legislative caucuses.
7. By 1828, most states had eliminated property qualifications for voting, expanding white
male suffrage.
8. Patronage/Spoils SystemJacksons method of rotating in office government officials;
meant to democratize government and cause reform by allowing common folk to run the
government; replaced officials with those most loyal to the new administration, not
necessarily those most qualified; over several presidencies span, led to corruption and
inefficiency; ended in 1883 by the Pendleton Act
9. Alexis de Tocquevillea French civil servant; traveled to the U.S. in the early 1830s;
wrote Democracy in America, assessing the U.S.s democratic process and attempt to
blend liberty and equality; gave an outsiders objective view of the Age of Jackson
Tariff of Abominations and Nullification Crisis:
10. Tariff of Abominations (1828)among the first tariffs, along with tariffs passed from
1816-1828, intended primarily to protect the U.S. economy

11. Doctrine of nullificationdeveloped by Calhoun, Adamss (and then Jacksons) vice

president, in response to the Tariff of Abominations; drew heavily on the Kentucky and
Virginia Resolutions states rights arguments; in the South Carolina Exposition and
Protest, Calhoun argued that a state can nullify any federal law that it deems
unconstitutional
12. The Webster-Hayne Debate (1830), between Senators Daniel Webster (Massachusetts)
and Robert Hayne (South Carolina), focused on sectionalism, nullification, and the
question of whether the Union was derived from the states agreement (compact theory)
or from the people. Webster forcefully rejected nullification. He concluded, Liberty and
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
13. Tariff of 1832a tariff favoring Northern over Southern interests; in response, Calhoun
led a South Carolina state convention calling for the Order of Nullification
14. Order of Nullificationdeclared tariff laws void and that South Carolina would resist by
force any attempt to collect the tariffs
15. In response to the Order of Nullification, Jackson, though himself a states rights
supporter, defended the Union. He asked Congress to issue the Force Bill, authorizing
him to collect tariffs by force, along with a compromise bill so that the federal
government would not lose its image of control and South Carolina would back down
from nullification. Clay presented this Compromise Tariff of 1833. South Carolina
withdrew the Order, but federal/state government tensions grew.
16. Jacksons opposition to nullification enhanced his reputation as a strong president.
Bank War:
17. Jackson vigorously opposed the bill to re-charter the Second Bank of the U.S. (BUS). He
believed that the BUS was a bastion of special privileges, beneficial to hard-money
advocates and thus inimical to the interests of the working-class and rural people who had
elected him.
18. Jackson supported federal deposits removal from the BUS. His attack on the BUS caused
credit and speculation expansion. The number of state banks, each issuing its own paper
currency, increased.
19. Clay wanted the BUS to be an issue in the 1832 presidential election against Jackson. He
worked with Nicholas Biddle, the BUSs chairman, to re-charter the Bank for years
earlier than it was due. Jackson vetoed this, increasing his popularity.
20. Jacksons war on the BUS catalyzed the emergence of a 2-party system.
21. Whig Partya party formed in the 1840s from the old Federalist and National
Republican Parties and others opposing Jackson; included Calhoun, Clay, and Webster;
encouraged commercial/industrial development, banks, and corporations; cautiously
approached westward expansion; supported mostly by Northern businessmen and
manufacturers and large Southern planters
22. Panic of 1837recession caused by relaxed credit policies, inflation, and Jacksons
drastic movement of federal deposits to state and local banks; lasted into the 1840s
23. Specie Circular (1837)Jacksons demand that land must be paid for in hard money, not
paper or credit
24. Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)Chief Justice Roger Taneys Supreme
Court ruled that a state could cancel grant money if it ceased to be in the communitys

interests; showed that a contract could be broken to benefit general welfare; reversed
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Jackson and Forced Removal of Native Americans:
25. Worcester v. Georgia (1832)the Supreme Court upheld the Cherokees rights to their
tribal lands and their status as a sovereign political entity
26. By this point, the Cherokees had mostly met the U.S. governments demands to
Westernize.
27. Jackson, who disliked Native Americans, refused to recognize the Courts decision.
28. Jacksons past signing of the Indian Removal Act (1830), which gave federal
enforcement to move tribes west of the Mississippi, caused the Cherokees removal in
1838 from their homeland in Georgia to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma along the Trail
of Tears. (Other tribes had been forced along the trail since 1831.) Around 4,000
Cherokees of the tribedied on the trail from hunger, disease, and exhaustion.
Presidents Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) and John Tyler (1841-1845):
29. Martin Van Buren8th president; a New York Democrat; Jacksons vice president after
Calhoun quit; as president, established the Independent Treasury system, which lasted
until 1921 and maintained government funds independently of the national banks; Panic
of 1837 hampered his efforts to copy Jacksons policies; lost reelection to Harrison, a
Whig
30. John Tyler10th president; Whig but ex-Democrat; Harrisons vice president; became
president following Harrisons death; a Southerner, strict constitutionalist, and states
rights supporter; rejected the programs of the Whigs who had elected Harrison, causing
them to oppose him; settled the Webster-Ashburton Treaty; in 1845, helped Texas achieve
statehood
31. Amistad (1841)the Supreme Court freed Africans who had been enslaved in violation
of Spanish law and revolted while being transported in a Spanish ship in Cuba
32. Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842)a British-U.S. treaty settling Maines border and
Great Lakes border disputes; followed Canadian loyalists burning of an U.S. ship and
British ships stopping U.S. ships to suppress U.S. slave smuggling; created more BritishU.S. cooperation in curbing the slave trade
33. Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)the Supreme Court invalidated Pennsylvanias personal
liberty law, which forbade fugitive slaves removal from Pennsylvania, but declared that
state authorities were not obligated to aid runaway slaves return to their owners
Antebellum South Planters and Slaves (1816-1860):
34. Cotton was the U.S.s biggest export and the Souths most valuable cash crop due to
several factors:
- Invention of the cotton gin, which separated seeds from the fibers, making it possible
and profitable to harvest short-staple cotton
- Opening of rich new farmland in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and other
Deep South states; by 1850, slaverys geographic center had moved southwest
- Rise of Englands textile manufacturing, which created huge demand for cotton
35. Southern social classes:

1) Yeomenlargest group; worked land independently, sometimes along with

slaves, to produce their own foods, like corn
2) Plantersowned big farms and many slaves; controlled the Souths politics and
economy
3) Poor whiteslived in squalor, often worse than slaves
4) Slavesworked land
of Southern whites did not own any slaves.
36. Types of slave labor:
1) On big farms, white overseers directed black drivers, who supervised groups in
the fields as they performed gang labor.
2) On smaller farms, slaves were assigned specific tasks, then given the rest of the
day to themselves.
3) House servants did no physical labor but had direct responsibility to the master
and less privacy.
4) In Southern cities, slaves worked in factories or construction. Some bought their
freedom with savings or disappeared into society; this decreased as sectional
troubles rose.
37. The cost of slave labor rose sharply from 1800-1860.
38. The drastic increase in the Souths slave force was due to the natural population increase
of U.S.-born slaves.
39. Slave Codes (1650s-1860s)banned slaves from owning weapons, becoming educated,
meeting with other blacks without permission, and testifying against whites in court;
allowed slave owners to impose harsh physical punishment and to control their slaves in
any fashion they sought, without court intervention
40. Slave revolts were infrequent. Most slaves resisted their masters by feigning illness and
working as slowly as possible.
41. During the antebellum period, despite discrimination, free blacks acquired some property.
42. Nat Turnera slave who led in 1831 revolt in Southampton, Virginia; a preacher
influential among local slaves; believed it was his destiny to lead slaves to freedom; led
around 60 slaves to kill his owners family and 55 other nearby whites; Turner, some of
his conspirators, and several free blacks were executed; led to stricter slave laws and an
end to abolitionist organizations in the South
43. Slave owners view of slavery:
- Shifted from the idea of slavery as a necessarily evil (1790) to being positive
(1840 onward)
- Justified slavery with scientific arguments, biblical texts, and historical examples
- George Fitzhugh, a Virginia lawyer, defended slavery by condemning Northern
wage slavery; he used the idea of black inferiority to suggest that whites were
protecting slaves from a world of fierce competition in which they would not survive
Transportation Revolution:
44. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, sparked a canal-building spate lasting until 1850. The
Erie Canal boosted political ties and commerce between New York City and the growing
Great Lakes cities.
45. Steamboats, first built by Robert Fulton, grew widely used in the 1820s-1830s. Along
with clipper ships, they drastically increased river traffic and lowered river transits cost.

46. The first U.S. railroad appeared in 1828. 30 years later, the U.S. had built 30,000 miles of
track.
47. Railroads and canals opened the West to settlement and trade and gave Midwestern
farmers easy access to Eastern urban markets.
U.S. Industry and Agriculture:
48. Samuel SlaterBritish industrialist; Father of the American Industrial Revolution;
brought British textile technology to the U.S.; established textile mills and towns in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island
49. U.S. technology exceeded Europe in rubber, coal power, mass production, and the
telegraph.
50. John Deere pioneered the steel-plow industry. Cyrus McCormack invented the
mechanical reaper.
51. Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that labor
unions were legal as long as they were organized for a legal goal and used legal methods;
prior to this, labor unions legality was uncertain

Social and Cultural Movements in Antebellum America:

Womens Role in Antebellum America:
1. Cult of domesticitythe idealization of womens roles as wives and mothers; supported
by Catherine Beecher
2. Republican motherhoodthe idea that women were responsible for raising their children
to be virtuous citizens of the new U.S. and should therefore be educated
3. Lowell/Waltham Systemduring the 1800s first half, textile mills in Lowell,
Massachusetts, relied heavily on women and childrens labor; young girls were hired
from the nearby countryside and housed in Lowell dorms for a short period; factory
owners called these mills factories in the garden to set them apart from English towns
dirty, corrupt mills; the rotating workforce favored owners, as no unions could be formed;
other towns mill owners copied this system
4. During the 1820s-1830s, most Massachusetts textile-mill workers were young, single
women. Irish immigrants began to replace New England farm girls in the textile mills.
5. The womens rights movement was led by middle-class women, promoted a broad
platform of legal and educational rights, and had close ties with the anti-slavery and
temperance movements.
6. Womens rights supporters held conventions in the Northeast and Midwest but not the
South.
7. Seneca Falls Convention (1848)organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia
Mott; issued the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which opened with the
statement We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created
equal; called for womens suffrage, married womens right to retain property, greater
divorce and child custody rights, and equal educational opportunities; did not call for
more liberal abortion laws or equal pay for work
8. Ohios Oberlin College was the first coed college.
Abolition:

9. Second Great Awakening/Protestant Revivalism (1800-1830)a nationwide wave of

religious enthusiasm; led by itinerant preachers like Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher;
stressed personal salvation, strong nationalism, and social reform; led to U.S. religious
diversity and some anti-Catholic sentiment; blacks participated greatly; middle-class
women played a major role by making Americans aware of slaverys moral issues
10. Burnt-over districtthe region of central and western New York where Charles Finney
achieved his greatest success; called burnt-over because of its many fervent prayer
meetings
11. American Colonization Societyan organization that worked to return freed slaves to
Africas west coast; led by middle-class men and women
12. William Lloyd Garrisonthe radical abolitionist newspaper The Liberators editor; in
1831 in The Liberators first issue, called for immediate, uncompensated slave
emancipation; one of the American Anti-Slavery Societys founders; his support of
womens rights split the Anti-Slavery Society into rival factions; after the Civil War,
supported free trade, womens suffrage, and fair treatment of Native Americans
13. Frederick Douglass was not only an abolitionist; he also championed womens and
Native Americans rights.
14. Sarah Moore Grimkone of the first women to promote both abolition and womens
rights
15. Liberty Partya party opposing slaverys expansion; later combined with the larger Free
Soil party
16. Free Soil Partya party created in 1847 by antislavery former Democrats, Whigs, and
Liberty Party members; opposed slaverys expansion; promoted national improvement
programs and small tariffs to raise revenue; in 1848, Free Soil presidential candidate Van
Buren lost to Zachary Taylor
17. The Impending Crisis of the Southa book by Hinton Helper; condemned slavery as
inefficient and a barrier to whites economic advancement; deliberately avoided
humanitarian arguments; instead, appealed to the poor majority of Southern whites selfinterest
Temperance:
17. Maine law (1851)a Maine law banning alcohols sale apart from for medicinal and
manufacturing purposes; inspired other Maine laws
18. Neal DowFather of Prohibition; Portland, Maine, mayor; sponsored the Maine law
Transcendentalism and Utopian Communities:
18. Romanticisman 1800s movement rooted in turn-of-the-century Europe; stressed the
innate goodness of man, nature, and traditional values; favored emotion over reality; a
reaction against the Enlightenments excesses; led to a push for social reform
19. Perfectionismthe idea that humans can use conscious acts to create communities based
on cooperation and mutual respect; exemplified in utopian communities
20. Utopian communities, like Brook Farm, New Harmony, and Oneida, strove to escape
American lifes competitiveness and regulate moral behavior. They experimented with
socialism and sexual and racial equality.
Cultural Advances:

21. In the first half of the 1800s, the Irish were the largest immigrant group; many fled the
potato famines devastating effects. Most settled in big Eastern Seaboard cities. Many
worked on canal and railroad construction projects. Germans were the second-largest
group; many fled political turmoil.
22. New York Citys Five Points neighborhood included blacks and Irish, Italian, and Jewish
immigrants, encapsulating the U.S.s melting-pot phenomenon.
23. McGuffey Readers/Eclectic Readersthe 1800s best-known, most widely used
schoolbooks; included stories, poems, essays, and speeches on patriotism and moral
values
24. Newspapers flourished during the 1800s first half.
25. Educational reformers worked to create more teacher-training schools, use state and local
taxes to finance public education, and pass laws mandating school.
26. Horace Mannfather of the American public school; Massachusetts Board of
Educations first secretary; made available high-quality, no-cost, nondenominational
public schooling
27. Dorothea Dixan advocate for the treatment of mentally ill people; worked to change
Northeastern jails housing criminals and the mentally ill in the same facilities; her 1842
memorandum to the Massachusetts state legislature led to the establishment of state
hospitals for the insane
28. Washington Irvingin his time, the U.S.s best-known native-born writer; one of the first
U.S. writers to gain fame in Europe; his satire was considered some of the U.S.s first
great comic literature; his writings American settings reflected increasing U.S.
nationalism; his stories included Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both
in 1820
29. Hudson River School (1825-1875)the U.S.s first art school; led by Thomas Cole;
included Thomas Doughty, George Inness, S.F.B. Morse, and John James Audubon;
painted landscapes, like Niagara Falls, the Catskills, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Hudson River Valley, stressing the U.S.s natural beauty; influenced by Europes
Romantic movement
30. John James Audubona Hudson River School artist; showed the emotion of nature,
especially animals and birds; in 1886, a nature organization took his name
31. James Fenimore Coopera New Jersey novelist; influenced by the U.S.s frontier and
landscapes; highlighted the noble savage concept; wrote The Last of the Mohicans
(1826), The Water-Witch (1830), and The American Democrat (1838)
32. Frederick Olmsteadan American landscape architect, conservationist, social critic, and
public administrator; designed Central Park, Brooklyns Prospect Park, and several
universities, including Stanford University and the University of Chicago; gave medical
aid to the Union during the Civil War

Gathering Storm (1840-1860):

Presidents James Polk (1845-1849), Zachary Taylor (1849-1850), Millard Fillmore (18501853), Franklin Pierce (1853-1857), and James Buchanan (1857-1861):
1. James Polk11th president; a dark-horse Democratic candidate; introduced a new
independent treasury system; lowered the tariff with the Walker Tariff; settled Oregons

2.
3.

4.
5.

6.

7.

northern border at the 49th parallel rather than 54-40, as he had pledged in his campaign;
acquired California; led the U.S. into the Mexican War
Zachary Taylor12th president; a famous Mexican War general; Whig; opposed slaverys
expansion; encouraged territories to organize and seek entry directly as states to avoid the
issue of slavery; died suddenly in 1850
Millard Fillmore13th president; Whig; Taylors vice president; became president after
Taylor died; as a congressman, opposed both slaverys expansion and abolitionism,
repelling supporters; supported the Compromise of 1850; in 1852, was not nominated; in
1856, was nominated by both the Whigs and Know-Nothings
Know-Nothing Partyan 1840s-1850s party of nativists, anti-immigrant and antiCatholic people
Franklin Pierce14th president; Democrat; from New Hampshire; supported Manifest
Destiny; signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act; sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan to
open Japan to diplomacy and commerce (Treaty of Kanagawa); opened Canada to greater
trade; his diplomats failed to buy Cuba from Spain, leading to the Ostend Manifesto
Ostend Manifesto (1854)drafted by Buchanan, John Mason, and Pierre Soule after
Soule failed to buy Cuba from Spain; suggested that the U.S. should take Cuba from
Spain by force if Spain refused to sell it; a plot to extend slavery; supported by the South,
who had feared Cuba would become a free black republic
James Buchanan15th president; Democrat; backed the Lecompton Constitution to
appease the South; when Lincoln was president-elect, denied states legal right to secede
but believed the federal government could not legally prevent secession; just before
leaving office, appointed Northerners to federal posts and reinforced Fort Sumter

Manifest Destiny:
8. Although he favored territorial expansion, Jackson opposed Texass entry into the Union.
He feared that debate over Texass entry would ignite debate over slavery. Texas was an
independent republic from 1822-1845, because Americans were divided over the issue of
admitting another slave state into the Union.
9. Stephen Austin worked to make Texas a Mexican state and later independent of Mexico.
10. Battle of the Alamo (1836)during Texass revolution against Mexico, the Mexican
Army attacked Fort Alamo and killed 187 Texas garrison members; Mexican leader
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna won; Remember the Alamo was the garrisons battle cry
11. Sam Houstona Texas independence leader; defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of Jacinto
and claimed independence; requested Presidents Jackson and Van Buren to recognize
Texas as a state; this was denied out of fear that a new slave state would be formed
12. Gag Rule (1836-1844)forbade discussion of slavery in the House; stemmed from
Southern members fear of slave emancipation; increased discussion by Southern
conventions of ways to escape Northern control
13. During the 1840 presidential campaign, the slogan 54-40 or fight referred to Polks
pledge to take all the Oregon land under dispute between the U.S. and Britain.
14. Oregon Treaty/Treaty of Washington (1846)a U.S.-British compromise; set Oregons
northern border at the 49th parallel, extending the U.S.-Canada border already in place
Mexican War (1844-1846):
15. War causes:

The new Mexican republic did not address U.S. citizens claims of property losses
and personal injuries resulting from conflicts during the Mexican revolution
- Increased U.S. interest in Mexican-held Western territory
- The U.S.s aid to Texas revolutionaries against the Mexican government
- When Congress annexed Texas, Polk sent John Slidell to negotiate a settlement for
Texas, California, and western Mexican territory; the Mexican government rejected
Slidell
16. War events:
- John Fremont won land and sea attacks in California
- Taylor defeated large forces in Mexico
- Mexicans refused to negotiate, so Polk ordered Winfield Scotts forces to Mexico
City
17. Polk justified the war by claiming that Mexican troops had illegally crossed into U.S.
territory, where they had attacked and killed U.S. soldiers.
18. Whigs like Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau opposed the war.
19. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)ended the war; the U.S. gained California and
New Mexico (including present-day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and
Wyoming) and recognition of the Rio Grande as Texass southern border
20. Wilmot Proviso (1846)banned slavery in lands acquired from the Mexican War; never
became law (passed twice in the House but was rejected by the Senate), but legislatures
of all but one free state eventually endorsed it
Compromise of 1850/Omnibus Bill:
21. Nashville Convention (1850)a Nashville, Tennessee, meeting of delegates from 9 slave
states to consider a possible course of action if Congress banned slavery in new
territories; paved the way for the Compromise of 1850
22. Stephen Douglasan Illinois senator; dubbed the Little Giant; an expansionist;
supported the Mexican War
23. Douglas, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun played key roles in negotiating the Compromise of
1850, which:
- Admitted California as a free state
- Abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
- Protected slavery in Washington, D.C.
- Passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
- Set up territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah, with the territories status as
free or slave to be decided by popular sovereignty
- Gave federal payment ($10 million) to Texas for lost New Mexico territory
24. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850part of the Compromise; restated some guidelines from the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which Northern states had ignored; federal commissioners
would pursue fugitive slaves in any state and be paid $10 per slave; Northern blacks
caught by slave-catchers were denied due process; some Northern states passed personalliberty laws contradicting the Act
25. Abelman v. Booth (1859)the Wisconsin Supreme Court freed an abolitionist convicted
of violating the Fugitive Slave Act; the Supreme Court denied state courts right to
interfere in federal cases

Popular Sovereignty and Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854):

26. Popular sovereigntythe principle that a territorys settlers have the sole right to decide
whether or not slavery will be permitted there; put forth by General Lewis Cass;
promoted by Douglas
27. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)introduced by Douglas and South Carolina Senator
Andrew Butler; allowed a transcontinental railroad to be built west from Chicago; split
the Territory of Nebraska into 2 territories, Kansas and Nebraska; stated that popular
sovereignty would decide these territories status as free or slave; in effect, repealed the
Missouri Compromise, thus heightening sectional tensions, and permitted slaverys
expansion beyond the South
28. The Kansas-Nebraska Act split the Democratic Party into North and South factions. Also,
the Whig Party dissolved; its members either joined the Know-Nothings or the newly
created Republican Party.
29. Republican Partya party whose unifying principle was that slavery should be banned
from all territories and stopped from spreading any further to established states
30. Nebraska became a free territory. In Kansas, a bloody contest for control took place
(Bleeding Kansas), marking popular sovereigntys first great test.
31. Sumner-Brooks Affair (1856)in speeches to Congress, Massachusetts Senator Charles
Sumner attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas, and Butler; Butlers nephew, South
Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, later attacked Sumner and beat him with a cane;
Sumner became a martyr in the North; Brooks became a hero in the South
32. Lecompton Constitution (1857)document submitted by pro-slavery leaders in territorial
Kansas to give Kansas slave status; caused free-soilers to boycott the Lecompton
constitutional convention; Buchanan supported it as a basis for Kansass statehood, but
Congress voted against it, causing Kansas to remain a territory
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857):
33. Dred Scott, a slave, was taken by his master from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a
free state. After Scott had been returned to Missouri, he sued for his and his familys
freedom, stating that his residence in a free state had ended his slavery.
34. Taneys Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott was a slave, not a citizen, and thus could
not sue. Also, under the Constitution, slaves were private property. As such, they could be
taken into any territory and held there in slavery; they could not be taken from their
masters, regardless of a territorys free or slave status.
35. This invalidated the Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise (since Congress
could not ban slavery in the territories, as slaves were property).
36. This widened the North-South gap and was a major issue in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
37. Freeport DoctrineDouglass idea during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates that, despite
Dred Scott, slavery could be prevented by a territorys peoples refusal to pass laws
favorable to slavery
Panic of 1857:
38. Panic of 1857economic recession affecting the U.S., Europe, South America, and the
Far East; fueled sectional tensions as Northerners blamed it on the Southern-dominated
Congresss low tariff policies
39. The Panics causes:

Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. in New Yorks failure

Railroad and land over-speculation
Decreased flow of European capital for U.S. investments due to Europes wars
Wheat surplus, which hurt Northern farmers

1860 Election:
40. Republicans supported Lincoln. They accepted slavery where it already existed but
opposed its expansion.
41. Northern Democrats supported Douglas and popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats
supported John Breckenridge, slaverys expansion, and Cubas annexation.
42. Lincoln won the electoral vote but did not receive a popular majority.
43. From late 1860early 1861, 7 Southern statesSouth Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texasseceded from the Union, became the
Confederate States of America, and elected Jefferson Davis as president.

Civil War (1861-1865):

Northern Advantages and Disadvantages:
1. Advantages:
- Extensive railroad network
- Strong industry
- Superior navy
- Big population
- Abundant wealth and food supply
2. Disadvantages:
- Shortage of experienced, skilled military commanders
- Split population; did not fully support the war
.
Southern Advantages and Disadvantages:
3. Advantages:
- Defensive war fought on home territory
- Vast in land size
- Long coastline that would be difficult to blockade
- An important cash crop: cotton
- Experienced, skilled military commanders, including Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston,
Albert Sidney Johnston, and Stonewall Jackson
- Close economic relations with Britain
4. Disadvantages:
- Small population
- Less industry
Border States:
5. The Border States were important for their strategic location and vital agricultural and
industrial resources. Kentucky and Maryland were key Border States.
Military and Drafting:

6. Edwin StantonLincolns Secretary of War; effectively organized the Norths massive

resources
7. Anaconda PlanUnion General Winfield Scotts plan; called for a naval blockade to shut
out European supplies and exports, a campaign to take the Mississippi River and split the
South, and a targeting of Southern cities in hopes that Southern pro-Unionists would rise
up to overthrow the secession; both the blockade and seizing the Mississippi succeeded
8. IroncladsCivil War ships protected from cannon fire by iron plates bolted over the
sloping wooden sides
9. Confederates outfitted an old wooden warship, the Merrimack, with iron railroad rails
and renamed it the Virginia. It achieved devastating results but was fought to a standstill
by the Unions Monitor.
10. Trent Affair (1861)a U.S. ship commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes
intercepted the British ship the Trent and removed, as contraband of war, Confederate
diplomats James Mason and Slidell, who were bound for Britain and France to ask for
diplomatic recognition and financial support for the Confederacy; the British government
demanded an apology and release of the prisoners while it strengthened its military forces
in Canada and the Atlantic; the U.S. government released the diplomats and disavowed
Wilkess actions; no formal apology was issued; Mason and Slidell resumed their voyage
to Europe but failed in their goals
11. In 1863, Congress passed a federal conscription law. In the North, notably in New York
City, riots began when drafted individuals were allowed to avoid service by hiring a
substitute or paying $300.
12. In the Confederacy, drafting began earlier, in 1862, due to its smaller population.
Southerners could also hire substitutes or buy exemption.
Battle of Antietam (1862) and Emancipation Proclamation (1863):
13. General George McClellans Union troops won the Battle of Antietam. This was not a full
victory, however, because although Lees troops retreated to Virginia, McClellan did not
pursue Lee. Lincoln fired McClellan.
14. This victory convinced Britain and France to remain neutral and enabled Lincoln to issue
the Emancipation Proclamation.
15. Lincoln had delayed issuing the Emancipation Proclamation because he didnt want to
antagonize slave owners in the Border States.
16. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in Confederate states, not in the Border
States. However, it strengthened the Unions moral cause and rallied British and French
anti-slavery support.
Battle of Gettysburg (1863):
17. Lee invaded Pennsylvania from Virginia. He was pursued by Northern General Meade,
defeated, and forced to retreat to Virginia.
18. This was the Civil Wars bloodiest, most decisive battle and the Confederacys
northernmost advance.
Shermans March to the Sea (1864):
19. General William Tecumseh Shermans Union troops marched through Georgia, captured
and burned Atlanta, reached Savannah, and marched to the Carolinas.

Key Political Actions during the Civil War:

20. Congress created a national banking system to provide a uniform national currency.
21. Congress chartered 2 corporationsthe Union and Central Pacific Railroadsto build a
transcontinental railroad linking Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California.
22. Homestead Act (1862)gave 160 acres of government land to anyone who would farm it
for at least 5 years; a free soil proposal that passed because Southern Democrats were
no longer in Congress
23. Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862)allowed the creation of land-grant agricultural colleges;
another similar law was passed in 1890
24. Congress passed high tariffs to protect U.S. industry from foreign competition.
25. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeus corpus for everyone living between Philadelphia
and Washington, D.C.
26. Ex Parte Vallandigham (1864)a civilian was arrested and tried by a military
commission; the Supreme Court refused to review a writ of habeus corpus petition on the
grounds that it did not have the power to review a military commissions proceedings
1864 Northern Election:
27. Lincoln ran on the national-unity ticket with Andrew Johnson, a Unionist from
Tennessee. He ran against General McClellan, who claimed the war had failed and called
for a peace settlement.
28. Shermans taking of Atlanta helped Lincoln win.
29. Copperheadspeople sympathetic to the South

Reconstruction and New South (1865-1900):

Reconstruction Amendments:
1. The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery, completing the Emancipation
Proclamation.
2. The 14th Amendment (1868) made former slaves citizens, thus invalidating the Dred Scott
decision; gave all citizens equal protection of the law; and enforced congressional
legislation guaranteeing former slaves civil rights.
3. The 15th Amendment (1870) gave suffrage to black males. This stirred controversy among
womens rights leaders. Some, like Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Frederick
Douglass, supported the amendment; others, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, opposed it.
10% Plan (1863) and Wade-Davis Bill (1864):
4. Lincoln believed that seceded states should be restored to the Union quickly and easily.
5. 10% Plan (1863)Lincolns reconstruction plan; allowed Southerners, aside from highranking confederate officers and military leaders, to take an oath of loyalty to the Union
and slaverys end; when 10% of those registered to vote in 1860 took the oath, a state
government could be formed; rejected by Congress
6. Wade-Davis Bill (1864)Radical Republicans Senator Benjamin Wade and
Representative Henry Winter Daviss proposal to reunite the U.S.; in order for a state to

be readmitted, required stronger efforts to free slaves and 50% of its white male voters to
take a loyalty oath
Radical Reconstruction:
7. Radical Republicansbelieved that the Civil War was meant to stop slavery, the South
should now be punished, and Congress, not the president, should control Reconstruction;
rejected Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisianas reentry despite their qualification under
the 10% Plan; included Wade and Thaddeus Stevens
8. Former Confederates were elected to Congress.
9. The U.S. military occupied the South. Punishment of Confederate leaders became policy.
10. Southern states public school systems were improved.
11. Blacks were elected to Congress.
12. CarpetbaggersNortherners who came to the South to participate in Reconstruction
governments
13. ScalawagsSoutherners working for or supporting the federal government in
Reconstruction; became a target of the Ku Klux Klan
14. Freedmans Bureau (1865)Congressional support agency giving food, clothing, and
education to freed slaves; former slave states were split into districts managed by
assistant commissioners; despite benefits, failed to establish freed slaves as landowners
Presidents Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), and Rutherford B.
Hayes (1877-1881):
15. Andrew Johnson17th president; Unionist; Lincolns vice president; became president
after Lincolns assassination; initially followed Lincolns policies but grew more
conservative, pardoning former Confederate officials and opposing legislation helping
former slaves; Congress overrode his veto of the Civil Rights Act, decreasing his political
sway
16. The House impeached Johnson because he violated the Tenure of Office Act. The Senate
came one vote short of the required for removal.
17. Ex Parte Milligan (1866)the Supreme Court declared military courts unconstitutional
in areas with operating civil courts
18. Sewards Folly (1867)the derisive name for Secretary of State William Sewards $7.2
million purchase of Alaska from Russia; Congress agreed to the purchase, since Russia
had been pro-North in the Civil War; Russia sold Alaska because Russia was
overextended abroad and feared losing Alaska in war
19. Ulysses S. Grant18th president; Republican; fought in the Mexican War; in the Civil
War, captured Vicksburg and accepted Lees surrender; Johnsons Secretary of War;
disagreed with Johnsons policies and won election through Radical Republicans
support; despite his honesty and honor, his administration was marred by the Credit
Mobilier and Whiskey Ring scandals
20. Credit Mobilier scandal (1867-1872)Union Pacific Railroad created a dummy
company, Credit Mobilier, that was supposed to complete the transcontinental railroad;
instead, stole millions of dollars from the government; blame fell on Grant and his
cabinet

21. Whiskey Ring Fraud (1870s)to aid in the Civil Wars cost, liquor taxes were increased;
distillers and treasury officials conspired to give out cheap tax stamps, robbing the
government of millions of dollars in excise tax
22. Panic of 1873economic crisis; caused by unregulated business growth after the Civil
War, U.S. investment banking firms failure, and economic downturns in Europe; led to
greenbacks retirement and a return to the gold standard
23. Compromise of 1877in the 1876 presidential election, Democrat Samuel Tilden polled
more popular votes than Republican Rutherford B. Hayes but won only 184 of the 185
electoral votes needed to win; there were 20 disputed votes in 4 states, 3 of which were in
the South; the Democrats let Hayes, a former Ohio governor, take office; in exchange,
Hayes withdrew all federal troops from the South, promised to appoint at least one
Southerner to his cabinet, and supported internal improvements in the South
24. This ended Reconstruction; the Republicans abandoned their commitment to racial
equality. In the South, white conservatives returned to power, black voters were
disenfranchised, and lynching increased.
25. Great Railroad Strike (1877)the U.S.s first general strike; after their second pay cut in
a year, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers went on strike; paralyzed U.S. commerce for
45 days; workers were killed; 10 states governors mobilized 60,000 militia to reopen rail
traffic; Hayes used federal troops to restore order
26. Bland-Allison Act (1877)required the U.S. Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver
and circulate it as silver dollars; passed over Hayess veto
Plight of Blacks:
27. Most freedmen entered sharecropping and crop-lien arrangements with their former
masters and experienced a cycle of debt and poverty.
28. Despite policies outlined in Shermans Special Field Orders and the Freedmens Bureau
Act, most freedmen did not receive 40 acres and a mule.
29. Black Codeslaws enacted in Southern states starting in 1865; forced blacks to work in
slavery-like conditions, forbade meetings without a white present, and segregated public
facilities; aimed to limit blacks socioeconomic opportunities and freedoms
30. There were attempts in the South to undermine the 14th Amendment.
31. Race riots broke out in New Orleans and Memphis.
Jim Crow Segregation:
32. The 1873 slaughterhouse cases and 1883 civil rights cases stated that the 14th Amendment
banned only federal government civil-rights violations, not state government violations or
the denial of civil rights to individuals. This weakened blacks protection under the 14th
Amendment. Much of the Civil Rights Act of 1875which guaranteed equal
accommodations in public places and barred racial discrimination from jury selection and
had not been enforcedwas declared unconstitutional.
33. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)a dispute over the legality of Louisianas segregated railroad
cars; the Court upheld segregation by approving separate but equal facilities; led to
separate black school systems; Justice Harlans dissent argued that all citizens are equal
before the law

34. Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to deny blacks voting rights. To avoid barring
poor whites from voting, the grandfather clause exempted from these requirements
anyone whose forebear had voted in 1860.
35. Williams v. Mississippi (1898)the Supreme Court ruled that literacy tests and poll taxes
did not violate the 15th Amendment
36. Electoral districts were gerrymandered to favor Democrats.
Booker T. Washington:
37. Booker T. Washingtonson of a slave and a white man; taught at Hampton Institute; in
1881, founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a school for blacks that stressed
industrial training; claimed that blacks should not push for social equality before they
became economically equal; lectured throughout the U.S. and Europe; wrote widely,
including an autobiography, Up From Slavery
38. Atlanta Compromise (1895)a pact between black leaders led by Washington and
Southern white leaders; blacks would work meekly and submit to white political rule;
whites would guarantee blacks due process and basic education
New South:
39. New South advocates supported diversifying the Southern economy, building Southern
industry, returning white conservatives to political power, and withdrawing federal troops
while ignoring the Ku Klux Klans rise and the increase in lynching.
40. Exodustersblack migrants to Kansas

Old West (1865-1900):

Transcontinental Railroads:
1. In 1868, the first transcontinental railroad was completed with the Golden Spike at
Promontory Point, Utah, marking the Union and Central Pacific railroads meeting.
2. 5 transcontinental railroads were built during the 1800s.
3. As Western settlers brought by the railroads built farms, range-fed cattle rapidly replaced
decimated buffalo herds (70 million buffalo were slaughtered).
Transformation of Plains Indians:
4. Century of Dishonor (1881)a book by Helen Hunt Jackson; aroused public awareness
of the federal governments long record of cheating Native Americans
5. Dawes Severalty Act (1887)aimed to reform the governments Native American policy
and assimilate Native Americans into mainstream U.S. life; misguided because it ignored
Native American cultures reliance on land; dissolved tribes as legal entities; eliminated
tribal ownership of land; split reservation lands among individual tribe members to form
an agriculture system similar to the U.S. system; gave each Native American familys
head 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land; remaining tribal lands were
opened up to whites; destroyed the reservation system; later partly reversed by the Indian
Reorganization Act (1934)
6. By 1900, Native Americans had lost 50% of the 156 million acres of land they had held
20 years earlier.

7. Ghost dancea sacred ritual expressing a vision that the buffalo would return and white
civilization would vanish
8. Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)the last Indian Wars battle; the U.S. armys attempt
to destroy the ghost dance, which white settlers feared would cause an uprising; the U.S.
army, believing Chief Sitting Bull was planning a rebellion, shot and killed Sitting Bull
and others; the tribes remainder fled to a camp near Wounded Knee Creek; when the
army reached this camp, a shot was fired; in reaction, the army killed around 200 Native
American men, women, and children
Fading Frontier:
9. Frontier thesis (1893)historian Frederick Jackson Turners argument that the frontier
experience democratized American society; stressed the importance of cheap, unsettled
land and the absence of a landed aristocracy

Industrial U.S. (1865-1900):

Big Business:
1. Horizontal integrationoccurs when a company controls other companies that produce
the same product (for example: John Rockefeller and Standard Oil)
2. Vertical integrationoccurs when a company controls both the production and
distribution of its product (for example: Andrew Carnegie and the U.S. steel industry)
3. Taylorisma scientific management system developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor;
aimed to develop a disciplined labor force by eliminating wasted motion
4. The Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893 showcased the U.S.s industrial development.
5. Horatio Alger Jr.s popular stories centered on the American self-made man ideal.
6. Social Darwinisms supporters included Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner.
Labor Unions:
7. Knights of Labor:
- Led by Terence Powderly
- Grew rapidly, peaking at 730,000 members in 1886
- Had an open-membership policy
- Welcomed semiskilled and unskilled workers, including blacks, immigrants, and
women
- Idealists; aimed to eliminate labor/management conflict and create a cooperative
society in which laborers, not capitalists, owned the industries in which they worked
- Unfairly blamed for the Haymarket Square Riot; as a result, the public associated
them with anarchists
- Collapsed due to mismanagement, financial losses from failed strikes, and the AFLs
emergence
8. Industrial Workers of the World:
- Also called the Wobblies
- Led by Mother Jones, Elizabeth Flynn, and Big Bill Haywood
- Never exceeded 150,000 members
- Like the Knights of Labor, strove to unite all laborers, including unskilled blacks,
who were excluded from craft unions

- Motto was An injury to one is an injury to all; aimed to create One Big Union
- Unlike the Knights, embraced the class-conflict rhetoric and endorsed violence
- Collapsed during World War I
9. American Federation of Labor:
- Led by Samuel Gompers, the Cigar Makers Unions leader
- An alliance of skilled workers in craft unions
- Individuals were members of local unions that, in turn, were AFL members
- Focused on bread-and-butter issues: higher wages, shorter hours, and better
working conditions
10. Eugene DebsAmerican Railway Unions president since 1893; led successful strikes
against the Great Northern Railway and Pullman Palace Car Company; Social
Democratic Party founder; ran for president as a Socialist candidate 5 times from 19001920
11. Haymarket Square Riot (1886)a big rally in Chicagos Haymarket Square shortly after
striking began at McCormick Harvesting Machine Company; police tried to disperse the
crowd; a bomb exploded; 11 people were killed, and over 100 were injured; 8 anarchists
were put on trial, and 4 were executed
12. Homestead Strike (1892)in Pittsburgh, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers went on strike against the Carnegie Steel Company to protest pay cuts; Carnegie
Steel Company chairman Henry Clay Frick hired Pinkerton security guards to protect
Carnegies plant, but fighting began; several died resulted on both sides; Pennsylvania
state militia took control
13. Pullman Strike (1894)Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages while maintaining rents
and prices in a company town where 12,000 workers lived; Pullman workers went on
strike; halted substantial U.S. railroad commerce; Cleveland ordered U.S. troops to
Chicago, ostensibly to protect rail-carried mail but actually to crush the strike
14. Molly McGuires (late 1800s)a secret society of Irish and Irish-American coalminers in
northeastern Pennsylvania; linked to murders, arson, kidnappings, and other crimes
Immigration:
15. Before 1880, most U.S. immigrants came from Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia.
16. New Immigrantsthe massive wave of immigrants from 1880-1924; mainly from small
farms and villages in Southern and Eastern Europe, mostly Italy, Russia, Poland, and
Austria-Hungary; settled primarily in Northeastern and Midwestern cities; very few
settled in the South
17. Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)banned Chinese immigration; the first U.S. law to
exclude an ethnic group; supported mostly by Californians and working-class Americans
who felt threatened by Chinese workers
New Industrial Order: Supporters and Reformers:
18. John D. RockefellerStandard Oil Companys founder; used horizontal integration,
trusts, and rebates; also invested in banks, railroads, and timber; philanthropy included
the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Chicago
19. Standard Oil of N.J. v. U.S. (1911)the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil as a
monopoly violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; the Court adopted the rule of reason,
that a business combination was illegal only when it unreasonably restrained trade

20. Andrew Carnegiemade money through investments in a sleeping car company and oil;
worked in the War Department; worked in the iron business, then moved into steel after
learning of the Bessemer Process, which formed steel from pig iron; grew Carnegie Steel
Company through acquisitions; philanthropy included Carnegie Hall and public libraries
21. J.P. Morgana Wall Street banker whose company financed railroads, banks, and
insurance companies; bought Carnegie Steel for $400 million; philanthropist
22. William Randolph Hearstinherited the San Francisco Chronicle; built a media empire,
including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and movie studios; his yellow
journalism led the U.S. into the Spanish-American War
23. Social Gospela reform movement based on the idea that Christians must confront
social problems like poverty; led by Christian ministers; argued that true social change
would result from dedication to both religious practice and social reform
24. Gospel of Wealththe idea that the rich were societys wealths guardians and thus had a
duty to serve society; Andrew Carnegie was the Gospel of Wealths foremost advocate
25. Granger laws (late 1860s1870s)laws passed in Midwestern states by the Grange, a
group of farmers, to combat railroad and grain elevator companies rising fare prices
26. Progress and Poverty (1879)a book by Henry George; detailed an industrial economys
cyclical nature and its remedies
Gilded Age Politics and Presidents James Garfield (1881), Chester Arthur (1881-1885),
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897), and Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893):
27. Gilded Age (1870s-1890s)Mark Twains name for the new industrial era; the U.S.
emerged as the worlds leading industrial and agricultural producer; profits became
centralized in fewer peoples hands
28. Half-Breedsan 1880s Republican Party faction; supported civil service reform
29. Stalwartsan 1880s Republican Party faction; opposed civil service reform; supported
the protective tariff
30. Mugwumpsa group that left the Republican Party in the 1880s to become Democrats;
heavily favored civil service reform; mistrusted James Blaine as the 1880 Republican
presidential nominee because they suspected him of past corruption
31. James Garfield20th president; Republican; former Ohio congressman and Union
General; assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker; this spurred the
Pendleton Acts passage
32. Chester Arthur21st president; Republican; Garfields vice president; became president
after Garfields assassination; worked to outlaw Utahs polygamy and strengthen the
Navy; supported the Pendleton Act
33. Grover Cleveland22nd and 24th president; first Democrat elected after the Civil War;
vetoed private pension bills to Civil War veterans who submitted false claims; signed the
Interstate Commerce Act; sent federal troops to enforce an injunction against striking
Chicago railroad workers
34. Wabash (1886)Illinois laws against railroads had aimed to appease farmers demands
for lower railroad rates; the Supreme Court concluded that states could not regulate
interstate commerce; reversed Munn v. Illinois (1877), which had allowed states to
regulate interstate commerce
35. Santa Clara Co. v. Southern Pacific R.R. Co. (1886)the Supreme Court extended due
process to corporations

36. Interstate Commerce Act (1887)created the Interstate Commerce Commission to

monitor unfairness in the railroad industry and open competition; required railroads to
publish their rates; banned rebates, pools, unfair discrimination against shippers, and the
practice of charging more for short hauls than long hauls
37. Benjamin Harrison23rd president; Republican; former senator and lawyer; defeated
Cleveland despite receiving fewer popular votes; submitted to the Senate a treaty to
annex Hawaii, although Cleveland later withdrew it; signed many appropriations bills for
naval and internal improvements
38. John Peter AltgeldIllinois governor; Progressive Democratic leader; opposed
Cleveland and conservative Democrats; improved workplace safety and child labor laws;
pardoned 3 of the men convicted in the Haymarket Affair; rejected calls to forcefully
crush the Pullman Strike
39. In Hawaii, American sugar planters worked to expand U.S.-Hawaiian trade. They incited
revolt in 1893 against Queen Liliuokalani, who opposed foreigners. Feeling that most
Hawaiians did not support this revolt, Cleveland unsuccessfully tried to restore Queen
Liliuokalani.
40. Sandford Doleson of American missionaries in Hawaii; shepherded U.S. annexation of
Hawaii; when the U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898, Dole became Hawaiis first governor
41. Coxeys Army (1894)a march on Washington, D.C. by unemployed workers led by
Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey; aimed to protest unemployment caused by the Panic of
1893 and ask the government to create construction and public-works jobs
42. U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895)the Supreme Court ruled that the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act did not apply to manufacturers located within the same state
43. Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co. (1895)the Supreme Court ruled that federal tax
on income from municipal bonds was invalid, since states created municipalities; at a
rehearing, the Court ruled that federal income tax defied the Constitutions prohibition of
direct taxes
44. In Re Debs (1895)the Supreme Court denied a writ of habeus corpus to Debs after he
was cited for contempt for violating an injunction against the Pullman Strike; the Court
ruled that the strike interfered with federal responsibility to transport mail and authority
over interstate commerce

Populism and Progressivism (1890-1917):

Agrarian Discontent:
1. Causes of discontent:
- Railroads used discriminatory rates to exploit farmers
- Big business used high tariffs to exploit farmers
- A deflationary gold-based monetary policy hurt farmers
- Companies charged exorbitant prices for fertilizers and farm machinery
2. Populist Party/Peoples Partyaimed to unite discontented farmers and improve their
economic conditions; Nebraska members wrote the Omaha Platform
3. Populists supported:
- Increasing the money supply with free, unlimited silver and gold coinage at the legal
ratio of 16:1
- Graduated income tax

4.

5.
6.

7.

Using the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate railroads and prevent discrimination
against small customers
- Cooperative marketing societies
- Government ownership of the telephone, telegraph, and railroad industries
The Populist Party failed because:
- Western and Southern farmers disagreed on political strategy
- Racism barred white and black farmers from working together
- Drastic urban population growth increased agricultural products prices
- Yukon golds discovery increased the gold supply, easing farmers access to credit
- The Democratic and Progressive Parties absorbed many Populist programs
- Democratic, Populist-supported presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan lost
the 1896 election to Republican William McKinley
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)increased the amount of silver the federal
government was required to buy on a recurrent monthly basis to 4.5 million ounces
Cross of Gold Speech (1896)Bryans address at the Democratic National Convention;
criticized the gold standard and supported silver coinage; famously ended, You shall not
press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind
upon a cross of gold
Chautauqua Movement (late 1800s1920s)a rural adult education movement; included
assemblies with speakers, teachers, entertainers, and preachers

Progressive Laws, Cases, and Leaders:

8. Progressive leaders were mostly middle-class reformers concerned with urban and
consumer issues.
9. Local government reform:
- Initiative, recall, and referendummade governments more responsive to public
opinion
- Commission or city-manager forms of governmentincreased governments
efficiency
- Nonpartisan local governmentsweakened political machines
10. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)banned contracts and conspiracies restraining interstate
trade; corporate monopolies could be federally prosecuted if found to conspire in
restraining trade; applied by the Supreme Court mostly to labor unions
11. Samuel Golden Rule JonesToledo, Ohio, mayor from 1897 until his 1904 death;
promoted the golden rule/ethic of reciprocity
12. Robert LaFolletteRepublican and later Progressive politician; Wisconsin Congressman,
Governor, and Senator; ran as the Progressive presidential candidate in 1924; opposed
railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations
13. Lochner v. New York (1905)the Supreme Court struck down a state law setting a 10hour day for bakery workers because it interfered with the 14th Amendments liberty
protection; barred states from meddling in employees right to contract with employers;
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmess dissent agued, The 14th Amendment does not enact Mr.
Herbert Spencers Social Statistics
14. Mann-Elkins Act (1910)extended the Interstate Commerce Commissions authority to
regulate the telecommunications industry; designated telephone, telegraph, and wireless
companies as common carriers

15. Constitutional amendments:

- 16th Amendment (1913)allowed Congress to collect income taxes
- 17th Amendment (1913)made senators elected by popular vote
- 18th Amendment (1919)forbade alcohols manufacture and sale; Volstead Act
defined alcoholic beverages and set criminal penalties for violations
- 19th Amendment (1920)granted womens suffrage; pushed for by Carrie Chapman
Catt and other womens suffrage leaders
16. Revenue Act/Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act (1913)re-imposed the 16th Amendments
federal income tax; lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%; signed by Wilson
17. Federal Reserve Act (1913)response to the Panic of 1907 and the need for a stable
currency supply that could grow and shrink with business demands; split the nation into
separate regions, each with federal reserve banks, or bankers banks; the Federal
Reserve Board controlled the interest rates that each federal reserve bank could charge
18. Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)updated the Sherman Antitrust Act; further restricted
monopolies and unfair business practices; banned competition-destructing price
discrimination and interlocking boards of directors of direct competitors; established the
Federal Trade Commission to investigate and prosecute instances of unfair competition;
exempted labor unions engaged in legal activities
19. La Follette Seamens Act (1915)mandated safety and sanitation measures for
commercial ships; regulated sailors wages, food, and hours
20. Adamson Act (1916)gave employees of railroads engaged in interstate commerce an 8hour day and overtime pay of time-and-a-half
21. Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916)forbade shipment of products whose production
had involved child labor; derived power of enforcement from interstate commerce, so the
federal government could regulate it rather than states; declared unconstitutional in
Hammer v. Dagenhart
22. Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)Dagenhart sued, as he wanted his 2 sons to work and
bring in family income; the Supreme Court struck down the Keating-Owen Child Labor
Act, stating stated that Congress, with the Keating-Owen Act, had overstepped its
bounds; led to dual federalism, the idea that Congress could not take powers reserved
for the states by the 10th Amendment
23. Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (1922)the Supreme Court struck down a 1919 federal law
taxing goods produced by child labor
24. Adkins v. Childrens Hospital (1923)the Supreme Court struck down a federal law
setting minimum wages for women workers; Holmess dissent argued, The criterion of
constitutionality is not whether we believe the law to be for the public good
Muckrakers:
25. Upton Sinclaira novelist and socialist; wrote The Jungle, a novel that graphically
exposed abuses in the meatpacking industry and led to the Meat Inspection Act (1906)
and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906); also wrote to expose capitalisms oppressive effect
on education and culture; in 1934, lost bid to become Californias governor; in 1942, won
the Pulitzer Prize
26. Jacob Riisa New York City journalist and photographer; wrote How the Other Half
Lives, a book with poignant photos of the poverty and despair experienced by New York
Citys Lower East Sides immigrants

27. Ida Tarbellthe foremost woman muckraker; wrote a book Mother of Trusts that gave a
highly critical history of the Standard Oil Company
28. Other muckrakers were Lincoln Steffens and Samuel Hopkins Adams.
Reformers and Suffragettes:
29. The only states with full womens suffrage before 1900 were west of the Mississippi.
Wyoming was the first state to grant women full suffrage, in 1869.
30. Womens Christian Temperance Unionconvinced many women that they were morally
responsible to improve society by working for prohibition; its most famous, outspoken
leader was Carry Nation
31. Ida B. Wells-Barnetta black civil rights advocate and early womens rights advocate;
the Souths foremost lynching opponent
32. In the late 1800searly 1900s, women were most likely to work outside the home as
domestic servants, garment workers, teachers, and cigar makers. They were least likely to
work as doctors or lawyers.
33. Muller v. Oregon (1908)Oregon enacted a law limiting women to 10-hour days in
factories and laundries; Muller, a laundry owner, challenged the laws legality, arguing
that it violated the liberty to contract; Louis Brandeis, one of the cases lawyers, used
extensive sociological evidence in his Brandeis Brief, a model for later social reformers;
the Supreme Court upheld that the law
Blacks during the Progressive Era (1897-1917):
34. William E.B. Du Boisthe Progressive Eras most influential advocate of full black
equality; in 1909, founded the Niagara Movement, which became the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People; promoted the intellectual
development of the black populations talented tenth, who he hoped would grow
influential; opposed Booker T. Washingtons ideas of gradualism and separatism;
supported cooperation with whites for progress
35. The Birth of a Nation (1915)a controversial film by D.W. Griffith that depicted KKK
activities as heroic and commendable
Literary and Artistic Movements:
21. Louis Sullivanan American architect; creator of the modern skyscraper; an influential
Chicago School architect and critic; mentored Frank Lloyd Wright; inspired the Prairie
School
22. Looking Backward: 2000 to 1887a book by Edward Bellamy; a utopian reaction to
disillusionment with industrialisms problems
23. Pragmatism (1907)a book by William James; detailed pragmatism, the idea that truth
should be tested by action rather than theory; pragmatists do not believe in the idea of
absolute truth; another notable pragmatist leader was John Dewey
24. Ashcan School/New York Realistsan art movement focusing on urban scenes like
cramped tenements and rowdy bars, with artwork titles like The Wrestlers and Sixth
Avenue; included George Luks, George Bellows, John Sloan, Robert Henri, Everett
Shinn, and Arthur B. Davies

25. The 1913 Armory Show/International Exhibition of Modern Art exposed the U.S. public
to new European art trends, including Cubism. This catalyzed American artists
experimentation with modern styles.
26. The first human voice was broadcast on radio in 1906; the first musical broadcast was in
1910. Woodrow Wilson was the first U.S. president to broadcast on radio. KDKA
(Pittsburgh) was the U.S.s first radio station, commencing in 1920.

Imperialism and World War I (1890-1919):

Presidents William McKinley (1897-1901), Teddy Roosevelt (1901-1909), William Taft
(1909-1913), and Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921):
1. New/Modern Navythe naval expansion policy promoted by Alfred Thayer Mahan (in
his 1890 book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783) and Roosevelt;
construction of steel ships and repair and coaling stations caused the U.S. Navy to lead
world rankings; the U.S. Naval War College was established in 1884
2. William McKinley25th president; Republican; former Ohio congressman; businesses
supported him over Bryan; while Bryan toured the U.S., he stayed at home and hosted
important visitors, building an honest, presidential image; his victory influenced future
elections by setting up interest groups and alliances lasting over a decade; reelected in
1900; a year into his second term, was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist
3. Marcus Alonzo HannaAmerican businessman dealing in coal, shipping, shipbuilding,
banking, and newspapers; active in the Ohio Republican Party; had McKinley elected
Ohio governor in 1891 and 1893; as Republican National Committee Chairman, helped
McKinley win the 1896 presidential election
4. Teller Amendment (1898)pledged that once the U.S. overthrew Spains rule in Cuba, it
would give Cuba its independence; later overrode by the Platt Amendment; Cuba came
under U.S. control after the Spanish-American War
5. Spanish-American Wars (1898) Causes:
- Cubans rebelled against Spains rule; in response, Spain dispatched General Valeriano
Weyler, who confined civilians to brutal camps
- Hearst and Joseph Pulitzers newspapers engaged in a yellow journalist battle; they
labeled Weyler Butcher Weyler and urged the U.S. to intervene
- The battleship Maine mysteriously sank in Havana harbor
6. Treaty of Paris (1898)ended the Spanish-American War; the U.S. gained Puerto Rico,
Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines and paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines
7. The Anti-Imperialism League opposed annexing the Philippines, since this would violate
the U.S.s historical commitment to self-determination.
8. Open Door policy (1899)Secretary of State John Hays proclamation aiming to protect
U.S. commercial interests in China; European powers had carved spheres of influence
in China as Chinas Qing (Manchu) dynasty weakened
9. Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory. The Foraker Act (1900) gave Puerto Rico limited
popular government. In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship.
10. Platt Amendment (1901)attached to Army Appropriations Bill; written by the U.S. into
Cubas constitution; made Cuba a U.S. protectorate; the U.S. could intervene to preserve
Cubas independence (in reality simply U.S. interests); the U.S. kept Cuban land for
naval bases, including Guantanamo Bay

11. Teddy Roosevelt26th president; Republican; sickly; an advocate for similarly

disadvantaged people; a Spanish-American War Rough Rider Regiment hero; McKinleys
vice president; became president after McKinleys assassination; a trust-buster who
used the Sherman Antitrust Act to dissolve trusts restraining interstate and foreign trade,
including the Northern Securities Company (his actions were upheld by Northern
Securities Co. v. U.S. (1904); promoted a Square Deal for labor; his style of diplomacy
was to speak softly and carry a big stick; protected U.S. interests by ensuring the
Panama Canals construction and U.S. authority in Latin America; a middleman in
conflicts between Russia and Japan; forged the Gentlemans Agreement (1907), reducing
U.S.-Japan tensions; supported national resources conservation; ran as the
Progressive/Bull Moose presidential candidate in the 1912 election, against Republican
Taft, and pledged New Nationalism; lost to Wilson
12. Anthracite Coal Strike (1902)in eastern Pennsylvania, the United Mine Workers of
America went on strike; Roosevelt negotiated to resolve the strike; marked the first time
the federal government neutrally arbitrated a labor dispute
13. Roosevelt feared that the Dominican Republic and other Latin American nations would
default on debts owed to European banks. This could then provoke European military
intervention.
14. HayBunau-Varilla Treaty (1903)a U.S.-Panama treaty establishing the Panama Canal
Zone and Panama Canals construction; negotiated by Hay and Philippe-Jean BunauVarilla, Panamas French diplomatic representative
15. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)stated that the U.S. could act as an
international police power and meddle in other countries in the Americas affairs to
prevent outside intervention; Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson enforced this by sending U.S.
troops to Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Haiti
16. Insular Casesmostly occurred from 1901-1904; held to determine if the Constitution
followed the flag; the Supreme Court stated that those living in new U.S. territories were
not automatically granted U.S. citizens rights; included Downes v. Bidwell (1901), which
involved Puerto Rico
17. William Howard Taft27th president; Republican; Roosevelts Secretary of War; elected
over Bryan; prosecuted trusts under the Sherman Antitrust Act; his administration created
the Department of Labor and parcel-post system; his worsened relationship with
Roosevelt led to Roosevelts opposition of Tafts reelection; after his presidency, was
Supreme Court Chief Justice
18. Dollar DiplomacyTafts idea that economic investments could bolster U.S. foreign
policy; for example, used U.S. bankers to refinance Nicaraguas foreign debt; failed in
Latin America and Asia
19. Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy (1909-1910)Taft replaced Roosevelts Secretary of the
Interior, James Rudolph Garfield, with Richard Ballinger, which many viewed as a break
from Roosevelts conservationist policies; U.S. Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot,
Roosevelts close friend, spoke out against Ballinger; Ballinger was accused of
improperly handling Alaska coalfield claims; Pinchot pushed the case and openly
rebuked Taft; Taft fired him; Ballinger was acquitted
20. Woodrow Wilson28th president; Democrat; pledged New Freedom and to combat the
triple wall of privileges via tariff, business, and banking reform; initiated progressive
reform, including lower tariffs, graduated federal income tax, and the Clayton Antitrust

Act; supported the Federal Reserve Act; led the U.S. into World War I; a racist who
segregated the federal government and praised The Birth of a Nation
21. Watchful Waiting (1913-1914)Wilsons policy of rejecting alliances with leaders who
took control by force until he could determine their interests; implemented when he
refused to accept dictator Victoriano Huertas leadership of Mexico; ended when the U.S.
sent forces to retaliate against Mexico, which had arrested American sailors in its borders
22. Louis Brandeisnominated by Wilson to the Supreme Court in 1916; a social-justice
advocate; the first Jewish justice; famous from Muller v. Oregon
Road to World War I:
23. War causes:
- Archduke Franz Ferdinands assassination by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist
- Nationalism in Austria-Hungary and France
- Colonial expansion in Africa and China
- Militarism
24. Eventual warring countries:
- Allies (Triple Entente): Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Japan, U.S.
- Central Powers (Triple Alliance): Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria
25. After World War I broke out in Europe, Wilson issued a proclamation of neutrality and
insisted that all warring countries respect the U.S.s neutral rights at sea.
26. Lusitaniaa British passenger liner attacked in 1915 by German submarines; unarmed
but carried Allied munitions; U.S. citizens traveling aboard the ship were killed; Wilson
protested this but remained neutral
27. Soon after, the Sussex and Arabic, other ocean liners carrying Americans, were sunk.
Germany then pledged to stop attacks on unarmed vessels. Despite this pledge, in
February 1917, to counter a British blockade and a stalemate in French trenches,
Germany proclaimed unrestricted submarine warfare, in which it could without warning
sink all ships that entered the big war zone off the Allied nations coasts.
28. British spies intercepted a telegram from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman to
Mexicos German minister, asking Mexico to invade the U.S. In return, Germany pledged
to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
29. Wilson accused Germany of violating freedom of the seas, killing innocent Americans,
and interfering with Mexico. He called on the U.S. to launch a noble crusade to make
the world safe for democracy.
World War I at Home and Abroad:
30. 400,000 black men enlisted or were drafted into service. They were kept in segregated
units and mostly used in labor battalions or support activities, though some saw combat.
31. Herbert Hoover was appointed as the food administrations head.
32. In 1915, the overwhelming majority of blacks lived in the rural South.
33. Great Migration (1910s-1940s)blacks movement from the South to the Northeast and
Midwests industrial cities, like New York City, Detroit, and Chicago; caused by
decreased cotton prices, the Norths lack of immigrant workers, more wartime
manufacturing, and the KKKs growth; led to higher wages and standards of living and
more educational opportunities for many blacks
34. John Black Jack PershingU.S. Army World War I general

35. Committee on Public Information (1917)government committee led by George Creel;

used propaganda to rally public war support and stifle dissent; portrayed Germans as
barbaric; persuaded Americans to buy war bonds, spy on neighbors with foreign names,
and report suspicious activities to the Justice Department; fostered 100% American
jingoism
36. American Protective League (1917)volunteer organization that claimed the Justice
Departments approval for rallying war support; humiliated those accused of not buying
war bonds; persecuted those of German descent; encouraged banning German culture,
from pretzels to German Measles
37. Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917-1918)implemented fines and imprisonment for
making false statements aiding the enemy, hindering the draft, or inciting military
rebellion; forbade criticism of the government, flag, or uniform; led to major figures
imprisonment; upheld by the Supreme Court
38. U.S. v. Schenck (1919)during the war, Charles Schenck wrote a pamphlet opposing the
draft; was convicted under the Espionage Act; the Supreme Court stated that free speech
may be suppressed if it creates clear and present danger (like yelling fire in a packed
theater); later, this was limited to violent actions rather than support of ideas
Treaty of Versailles:
39. Wilsons 14 Points, his peace plan presented in an address to Congress, included:
- Open diplomacy (open, rather than secret, peace treaties)
- Free trade and sea transportation
- Arms reduction
- Creation of the League of Nations, an international organization to keep world peace
and security
- National self-determination for oppressed minority groups
The 14 Points did not include recognition of Allied economic and territorial agreements
made during the war or a provision to create the International Monetary Fund.
40. European reactions to the 14 Points were mixed. Some countries wanted to punish
Germany harshly.
41. Paris Peace Conference (January 1919) and Treaty of Versailles provisions:
- League of Nations
- Germany was held responsible for the war (war guilt clause), required to pay heavy
reparations, and limited to a small defense force
- New nations were created, including Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, and Poland
- German colonies were made the Leagues mandates and put under Allied trusteeship
42. The U.S. did not adopt the Treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations because:
- Wilson did not compromise on the U.S.s unconditional adherence to the Leagues
charter; this hardened Senate opposition to the Treaty
- Opponents feared that the League would promote U.S. involvement in foreign wars
(Article X)
- Senator Henry Cabot Lodge skillfully denounced the League; Wilson and Lodges
personal and political rivalry barred any chance of compromise
43. Instead of the Treaty of Versailles, the U.S. adopted a joint resolution to enact peace.
Red Scare (1919-1920):

44. Americans were terrified by Russias Bolshevik Revolution and, in the U.S., rampant
postwar labor strikes and bombs anonymously mailed to prominent leaders.
45. Palmer Raids (1919-1920)U.S. government raids against suspected communists,
anarchists, and illegal immigrants; flouted civil liberties; in 33 cities, government agents
broke into meeting halls and homes without search warrants; over 4,000 people were
jailed and denied counsel, but only 556 were later proved guilty; named after Attorney
General Palmer, a failed mail bombs target; he announced a threat of massive
Communist riots on May Day 1920, but none occurred; he was discredited
46. Major strikes:
- Boston police force tried to unionize; Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge fired
them to recruit a new force
- Seattle had a general strike in 1919
- AFL tried to organize the steel industry; broken after violence by federal troops
- A United Mine Workers strike gained small wage increases

Roaring Twenties:
Economic Conditions:
1. In the U.S., high wages and European demand from World War I continued. This led to
inflation and a booming economy.
2. Many people moved to cities. More men and women worked in office jobs. Consumer
goods marketing increased (especially via radio). Stock market investment increased.
Credit availability rose.
3. The standard of living rose. Advances like indoor plumbing, hot water, central heating,
home appliances, and fresher foods emerged, though many could not afford these.
4. Electric replaced steam power.
5. Henry Fords Model-T assembly-line production enabled average U.S. families to buy
cars.
6. The car industrys growth stimulated the steel, rubber, glass, gasoline, and highway
construction industries. Its need for paved roads gave employment to many. Tourism
increased. Rural areas grew less isolated.
7. In 1920, the number of children aged 10-15 in the industrial workforce began to decline.
8. In the 1920s, agricultural products prices fell. Midwestern and Southern farmers were
the U.S.s least prosperous group.
Republican Politics and Presidents Warren Harding (1921-1923) and Calvin Coolidge
(1923-1929):
9. During Harding and Coolidges presidencies, the federal agencies created in the
Progressive Era helped business. The U.S. government was isolationist.
10. Laissez-faire economicsthe idea that economic activity should be largely free of
government interference, regulations, and restraint; supported by leaders who, ironically,
also supported protective tariffs
11. Warren G. Harding29th president; a dark-horse Republican candidate; opposed the
League of Nations; supported low taxes, high tariffs, immigration restriction, aid to
farmers, and civil rights; promised a return to normalcy; pardoned Eugene Debs; gave
U.S. steel workers an 8-hour day; died suddenly during a cross-country tour

12. Teapot Dome/Elk Hills Scandal (1921)Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall secured
naval oil reserves in his jurisdiction; leased reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk
Hills, California, to 2 major business owners in exchange for cash payouts; businessmen
were acquitted; Fall was jailed for bribery, making him the first jailed cabinet member
13. Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922)an international conference called to
restrict the naval arms race between the U.S., Britain, Japan, Italy, and France; in the
Five-Power Treaty (1922), these countries set specific limits on the number of new
battleships each nation could build, and Japan got Pacific naval supremacy
14. Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)increased tariff schedules; increased tariffs on farm
produce to equalize U.S. and foreign production; gave the president the power to reduce
or increase tariffs by 50% based on the Tariff Commissions advice
15. Calvin Coolidge30th president; Republican; Hardings vice president; became president
after Hardings death; won a landslide election in 1924; honest; avoided responsibility for
most of Hardings cabinet scandals; believed in leading through inactivity; stated, The
chief business of the American people is business
16. Dawes Plan (1924)the U.S.s response to Germanys postwar economic crisis;
rescheduled German reparation payments; U.S. banks loaned to Germany, Germany paid
Allies reparations, and Allies repaid the U.S. government; helped U.S. banks; partly
caused the Great Depression
17. Kellogg-Briand Pact/Pact of Paris (1928)an international treaty in which 62 nations
rejected war as a policy tool; Congress demanded self-defense right and that the U.S.
should not have to act against countries that broke the treaty; lacked effectiveness, as it
failed to give enforcement measures
Culture of Modernism: The Arts and Mass Entertainment:
18. Lost Generationthe generation disillusioned with 1920s American society; key
writers, including Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald, criticized middle-class
materialism and conformity, as in Lewiss novels Babbitt and Main Street
19. H.L. Menckenan American journalist, essayist, satirist, and magazine editor; criticized
American culture, fundamentalist Christianity, and populism
20. Georgia OKeeffean American painter of abstract flowers and objects from nature;
mother of American modernism
21. Thomas Hart Bentonan American Regionalist painter; painted fluid, sculpted figures of
everyday people in the Midwest, South, and West
22. Edward Hopperan American realist painter and printmaker; depicted urban and rural
scenes
23. Jazz, created by black musicians like Joseph Joe King Oliver, W.C. Handy, and Jelly
Roll Morton, was popular among youth because it symbolized breaking with tradition.
24. Movies grew popular. Hollywood became the U.S.s movie center.
25. Sports, especially baseball, boxing, and football, became a big business.
26. Tabloids like the New York Daily News and Readers Digest grew popular.
27. Technological innovations made long-distance radio broadcasting possible. National
radio networks reached millions of Americans.
Responses to Modernism: Nativism and Religious Fundamentalism:

28. Emergency Quota Act (1921)limited immigration by nationality to 3% of the number

of foreign-born people from that nation living in the U.S. in 1910; restricted some
nationalities and religious groups, like Italians, Greeks, Poles, and Eastern European Jews
29. National Origins Act (1924)used quotas to restrict Southern and Eastern European
immigration; decreased the number of European immigrants
30. Mexican and Puerto Rican immigration increased; neither group was affected by the 1921
and 1924 restrictive immigrant acts.
31. The KKK, which charged initiation fees and sold memorabilia, grew to 5 million
members by 1925. This soon declined.
32. Scopes Trial (1925)John Scopes, a high-school biology teacher, broke Tennessee law
by teaching Darwinism, Charles Darwins theory in Origin of the Species; his trial was a
test case for the American Civil Liberties Union and fundamentalism; Clarence Darrow
defended Scopes; Bryan defended Tennessee; judge refused to allow expert witness
testimony; Scopes was convicted and fined $100, which was later dropped; some states
passed anti-evolution laws
33. Sacco and Vanzetti Casein 1920, 2 gunmen robbed a factory and killed 2 men in
Massachusetts; Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrants and anarchists, were tried; Judge
Thayer favored prosecution and execution; the men protested that they had received an
unfair trial but were executed in 1927; reflected U.S. anti-immigrant sentiments
Struggle for Equality: Blacks and Women:
34. Key Harlem Renaissance figures were writers James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale
Hurston, Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Claude McKay and musicians Duke
Ellington, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong. The Harlem Renaissance declined during
the Great Depression.
35. Marcus GarveyJamaican; the Universal Negro Improvement Associations charismatic
leader; put forth Garveyism, which involved Pan-Africanism, black pride, economic
development, and nationalism; advocated blacks return to Africa; sold stock in a
steamship line to take migrants to Africa; convicted of fraud after the line went bankrupt
36. Scottsboro boys9 black teenagers accused of rape in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama;
were flagrantly unjustly treated, with an all-white jury, rushed trials, and mob lynching;
landmark cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial
37. Flappers styled their hair in short bobs, smoked cigarettes, and wore the new one-piece
bathing suits.
38. New jobs were available in offices and stores, but the percentage of single women in the
workforce declined.
39. Margaret Sangeran outspoken womens birth control advocate; in 1916, founded
Planned Parenthood
40. The feminist movement declined in the 1920s due to the 19th Amendments passage,
womens groups inability to agree on goals, and the Progressive movements decline.

Great Depression and New Deal (1929-1941):

President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) and Depression:
1. Herbert Hoover31st president; Republican; mining-industry multimillionaire; Secretary
of Commerce; Food Administration head; Coolidge did not seek reelection in 1928, so

2.

3.
4.
5.

6.
7.

Hoover ran against Democratic New York Governor Alfred Smith, a Catholic antiprohibitionist; won presidency with his conservative economic philosophy and support
for Prohibition; used the phrase rugged individualism, calling for people to succeed
with minimal government aid; Depressions scapegoat; soundly defeated by FDR in 1932
1929 stock market crashduring late October 1929, investors panicked, hurling the New
York stock market toward massive losses; on October 24 (Black Thursday), the Dow
Jones Industrial Average dropped 50% and over 13 million stock shares were traded; on
October 29 (Black Tuesday), over 16 million stock shares were traded
Companies overproduced consumer goods, which consumers did not have money or
credit to buy. Furthermore, agricultural products prices had decreased during the 1920s.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)raised tariffs to the highest level in history; to retaliate,
foreign countries set tariffs on U.S. goods, declining exports and deepening the global
depression; in 3 years, world trade declined in value by 40%
Bonus Expeditionary Force (1930)a ragtag army of 14,000 unemployed World War I
veterans; marched on Washington, D.C. to demand that Congress pay them their war
bonus; Hoover had the Senate kill the bill giving the bonus; half the veterans took the
offer of transportation home; the rest put up shacks by the Anacostia River to draw
attention; Hoover ordered the U.S. army to remove the veterans from Washington, D.C.,
giving the impression that he did not care about the poors plight
Hoover supported federal loans to private businesses and state and local governments.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)chartered by Congress under Hoover to
loan money to railroads and financial institutions; meant to keep basic institutions in
business; accused of aiding the wealthy

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) and New Deal:

8. FDRs goals were the 3 Rs: Relief, Recovery, and Reform.
9. Due to the Depression, many banks could not collect loans or return money to depositors
and had to close.
10. New Deala reform program to give direct federal aid to individuals; aimed to
restructure U.S. capitalism rather than have socialism replace it; did not nationalize basic
industries; used deficit spending on public-works programs to revive the economy, for
which conservatives attacked it; attacked by liberals for favoring business; led to the
Democratic Partys emergence as the majority party
11. The First New Deal (1933-1934) stressed central planning. The Second New Deal (19351941) pushed programs to aid specific groups, like labor organizations.
12. During FDRs first 100 days (starting March 9, 1933), the following were achieved:
- Emergency Banking Relief Actgave funds to open some banks; combined and
liquidated others; gave the president the power to reorganize bankrupt national banks
- Glass-Steagall Banking Actcreated the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to
insure deposits in commercial banks; separated commercial and investment banking
to reduce risk; removed gold from circulation, devaluating the dollar, which raised
prices and increased U.S. exports; created the Securities and Exchange Commission
to supervise stock exchange and securities
- Creation of new public-sector jobs to reduce unemployment
- Mortgage support for homeowners

Tennessee Valley Authoritya model project to supply cheap electricity, prevent

floods, and experiment with regional planning; built a series of dams for electricity
and flood control; headquartered at Muscle Shoals, a government center with a dam
and 2 nitrate plants that had been built during World War I
- Civilian Conservation Corpsgave jobs to unemployed young men
- National Industrial Recovery Actaimed to foster government/business cooperation;
allowed businesses to self-regulate; created the National Recovery Administration,
which created fair competition codes, including those abolishing child labor, setting
minimum wages, and limiting workers hours; mostly failed; overturned by the
Supreme Court in Schechter vs. U.S. (1935) because it gave the president powers that
should be reserved for the states
- Agricultural Adjustment Actaimed to limit production to increase farm prices; set a
national crop-control system; gave subsidies to farmers who agreed to limit
production of specific crops; based on sound economic principles, but defied common
sense; for example, hungry Americans felt outraged as farmers plowed under crops
and destroyed millions of piglets
- Public Works Administrationbuilt roads, schools, dams, bridges, and more; aimed
to decrease unemployment
- 21st Amendmentrepealed the 18th Amendment; ended Prohibition
13. Bureau of Indian Affairs (1934)led by John Collier; returned ownership of some lands
to tribes; established tribal governments; gave Native Americans economic aid; created a
reservation work-projects program
14. Indian Reorganization Act (1934)Indian New Deal; initiated by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs; reversed the Dawes Severalty Act; aimed to restore Native American lifes tribal
basis
15. Share Our Wealth Society (1934)a group founded by populist Louisiana Senator Huey
Kingfish Long, former Louisiana governor; criticized FDR for not helping the poor
enough; proposed radical taxes on the wealthy to make every man a king; lost its drive
when Long was assassinated
16. Works Progress Administration (1935)gave jobs, usually in construction or community
development, to the unemployed
17. Social Security Act (1935)created a federal pension system funded by taxes on
workers wages and employers equivalent contributions; supported unemployment
programs; offered states matching funds for social services
18. Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act (1935)Magna Carta of labor; allowed
workers to organize and collectively bargain; drastically increased labor union
membership; did not legally recognize migrant workers unions
19. Charles Evans HughesSupreme Court Chief Justice; often voted to uphold FDRs New
Deal but wrote the Schechter v. U.S. opinion (1935) finding the NRA unconstitutional
20. Court Packing Scheme (1937)FDR proposed a bill allowing the president to appoint a
new Supreme Court justice, up to a maximum of 6, for each existing justice over age
70.5; served as his reaction to the Supreme Courts invalidating much of the New Deal;
both Democrats and Republicans hugely opposed this show of force; FDR lost the bill
and some sway over Congress; the Supreme Court later upheld some of FDRs proposals,
like Social Security

21. Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)set a national minimum wage; reduced the workweek;
gave time-and-a-half pay for overtime
22. Father Charles Coughlina Catholic priest; led the National Union for Social Justice,
which denounced the New Deal; in his weekly radio show, discussed politics and finance;
proposed an ambiguous currency program; found popularity through anti-Semitic rhetoric
23. Keynesian economics (1936)British economist John Maynard Keyness theory that
economic crises require fiscal and monetary policy actions by the government and central
bank in order to stabilize output in the business cycle; promoted a mixed economy;
advocated by FDR
Labor and Union Recognition:
24. Congress of Industrial Organizationsled by John Lewis; organized unskilled and
semiskilled factory workers in basic manufacturing industries, like steel and cars; created
in response to the AFL, which mainly represented craft unions
25. The AFL split apart at its 1935 national convention. AFL leaders refused to grant charters
to CIO and other new unions organized on an industry-wide basis, because the AFL
favored organizing workers according to skills and trades.
26. In 1955, the AFL and CIO united.
New Deal Coalition:
27. The Democratic Coalition that reelected FDR in 1936 included white Southerners, union
members, blacks (who had switched allegiance from Republicans), and ethnic minorities.
It did not include wealthy industrialists.

World War II (1941-1945):

Growing Threat of War and U.S. Responses:
1. Hoover-Stimson Doctrine (1932)Hoovers Secretary of State, Henry Stimson, sent
identical notes to China and Japan; reacted to Japans 1931 invasion of Manchuria; stated
that the U.S. would not recognize any treaty or agreement impairing U.S. rights in China,
the open-door policy, or Chinas territory or political situation
2. Good Neighbor Policy (1930s)FDRs foreign-policy doctrine; withdrew U.S. marines
from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and other areas; the U.S. stayed out of the Cuban
revolution and settled with Mexico on U.S. properties in Mexico
3. In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. In 1938, Germany and Austria united.
4. Munich Pact (1938)German-British pact; authorized Germany to force the Sudetenland
from Czechoslovakia
5. Non-Aggression Pact (1939)German-Soviet pact; split Poland
6. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on
Germany.
7. Neutrality Acts (1930s)in the event of war, stalled U.S. exports of military components
for 6 months; meant to stop ships leaving the U.S. from transporting arms to combatants
8. Charles Lindberghan American pilot; made the first nonstop solo flight across the
Atlantic Ocean; flew his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, from New York to Paris; most
famous speaker for the America First Committee (1930s), which opposed U.S.
intervention in World War II; a noted Nazi sympathizer

9. Selective Service and Training Act (1940)the U.S.s first peacetime draft; signed men
ages 21-35 into service, of which a small group was chosen for a year of military training
10. In the 1940 presidential election, FDR broke Washingtons 2-term precedent to run
against Republican Wendell Willkie. When Willkie charged him with warmongering,
FDR told voters that he would not enter the war. FDR lost many supporters because of
his choice to run again but defeated Willkie by a narrow margin.
11. Henry Wallacevice president from 1941-1945; in 1943, made a goodwill tour of Latin
America, garnering war support from 12 countries; succeeded by Truman; the
Progressive presidential candidate in the 1948 election
12. Lend-Lease Act (1941)offered Britain surplus U.S. military equipment in exchange for
payment of material goods and services after the war; also allowed for cash and carry,
in which British and French ships could enter the U.S.s ports and buy anything they
could carry; put on the U.S. on the Allies side
Attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany-First Strategy:
13. In the 1930s, Japan used the Vichy government to expand into French Indochina, where it
wanted to build naval bases.
14. Japans military depended on the U.S.s oil, aviation gasoline, steel, and scrap iron. In late
1940, FDR imposed the first of several embargoes on Japan-bound supplies. In mid1941, he froze Japanese assets in the U.S. and halted all gasoline shipments.
15. This gave Japan 2 options: to give in to U.S. demands that they withdraw from China, or
to thwart the embargo by attacking the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor and then seizing
Southeast Asias oil supplies and other raw materials.
16. Pearl Harbor attack (1941)after U.S.-Japan diplomatic negotiations reached a
stalemate, Japan launched an attack; a carrier-based aircraft attacked U.S. ships at Pearl
Harbor; met little defense; destroyed all U.S. aircraft, major battleships, and naval crafts
at the base; killed 2,323 military personnel
17. The U.S.s strategy was to defeat Germany first and then launch a full-scale attack on
Japan. Though at first unpopular, this strategy prevailed. The U.S. could not let Hitler
defeat Britain and the Soviet Union and transform Europe into an unconquerable
Fortress Europe.
Diplomacy:
18. The FDR administration formally renounced the U.S.s right to intervene in Latin
America and sought greater Latin American cooperation.
19. In response to global anti-imperialist sentiment, the U.S. pledged to grant independence
to the Philippines. The Philippines became independent in 1946.
Wartime Mobilization of Economy:
20. As U.S. industry readied for war, unemployment plummeted.
21. The government instituted direct price and wage controls to halt inflation. Income tax
was extended to more people.
22. Office of Price Administrationrationed consumer goods, like coffee and gasoline
23. War Production Boardsupervised war production and industries conversion from
peacetime to war work; allocated scarce materials, setting priorities in goods and

services distribution and banning nonessential production; rationed gasoline, heating oil,
metals, rubber, paper, and plastics
24. Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943)authorized the federal government to seize and
operate industries stopped by strikes; Congress was concerned about production loss due
to strikes
Minorities and Women:
25. During the war, blacks migration from the rural South to the North and Wests urban
centers continued. 1.6 million blacks left the South.
26. FDR issued an executive order, monitored by the Fair Employment Practices
Commission, banning discrimination in defense industries.
27. Richard Wrightblack novelist who wrote about racial oppression; in the 1930s, briefly
joined the Communist Party in the early 1930s; wrote Uncle Toms Children (1938),
Native Son (1940), and Black Boy (1945)
28. The war caused a significant flow of married women into the workforce. Women who did
industrial work were nicknamed Rosie the Riveter.
29. 216,000 women served in the armed forcesthe WAACS (Army), WAVES (Navy), and
SPARS (Coast Guard)in non-combat duties.
30. Navajo Code Talkersaround 400 Navajos who transmitted vital battlefield information
in the Pacific Theater via telegraphs and radios in their language; useful because less than
30 non-Navajos understood the Navajos unwritten language; important in the Battle of
Iwo Jima
31. BracerosMexican agricultural workers brought to the U.S. in thousands after a 1942
U.S.-Mexico agreement; prevalent in the South and West; after the war, became part of
the U.S. agricultural economy
Wartime Civil Liberties and Civil Rights:
32. Executive Order 9066 (1942)FDR ordered that all West Coast Japanese-Americans be
removed to relocation centers, or internment camps, for the wars duration; held that
Japanese-Americans were a security threat
33. In all, around 120,000 Japanese-Americans of them native-born U.S. citizenswere
interned.
34. Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)Korematsu was arrested and convicted for defying
government orders to move to a Japanese internment camp; the Supreme Court upheld
his conviction, ruling that Japanese-Americans internment was constitutional because it
was a wartime necessity; Justice Frank Murphys dissent stated that the ruling was the
legalization of racism
35. In 1988, Congress voted to pay compensation to each surviving internee, or Nisei.
War Events:
36. Battle of the Coral Sea (1942)U.S. carriers sent planes against Japanese troops, forcing
them to turn back from an invasion of Australia
37. Battle of Midway (1942)U.S. planes destroyed Japanese carriers as they moved toward
the U.S.-owned Midway Islands; a defining moment in the Pacific Theater
38. Casablanca Conference (1943)meeting between FDR, Churchill, and Free French
leaders Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud; Stalin could not attend due to the ongoing

Stalingrad conflict; discussed war tactics, resource allocation, and diplomacy issues;
produced the Casablanca Declaration, which stated that the Axis powers would be fought
to their ultimate annihilation and unconditional surrender
39. Tehran Conference (November 28December 1, 1943)Big Three meeting; first time
FDR and Stalin met; agreed that the Soviet Union would attack Germany from the east
and the other Allies would attack from the west
40. D-Day (June 6, 1944)Allied Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower ordered an
invasion of Normandy, France; involved over 4,500 vessels; George Pattons U.S. troops
weakened German troops in France
41. Battle of the Bulge (1944)German counterattack; pushed the Allies back into Belgium;
Hitlers armies last stand; eventually the Allies returned to Germany, leading to
Germanys surrender on May 7, 1945
42. G.I. Bill (1944)signed by FDR; gave educational benefits to World War II veterans;
created to help veterans adjust to civilian life and restore lost educational opportunities;
promoted military volunteerism; led to a better educated population
43. Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944)Washington, D.C. meeting of delegates from
China, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.; formulated and negotiated the UN
44. Yalta Conference (1945)Big Three meeting; discussed postwar plans; the Soviet Union
would attack Japan 3 months after Germanys collapse in exchange for the Sakhalin and
Kurile Islands; agreed to split Germany into U.S., British, French, and Soviet zones,
revise Polands boundaries, establish free elections throughout Europe, and hold a San
Francisco conference to form the United Nations
President Harry Truman (1945-1953) and Atomic Bomb:
45. Harry Truman33rd president; Democrat; FDRs vice president; became president after
FDRs death; reelected against Thomas Dewey in 1948
46. V-E Day was May 8, 1945.
47. United Nationscreated at the 1945 summer San Francisco conference; representative
body of nations to resolve global issues; consists of a General Assembly and Security
Council; all members sit on General Assembly and form policy; Security Council has 11
members, 6 rotating and 5 permanent members (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China)
48. Potsdam Conference (July 17August 2, 1945)meeting of Truman, Stalin, Churchill,
and Churchills replacement, Clement Atlee; agreed on occupation policy for Germany
and Japan; set German reparations; declared to Japan to surrender or be destroyed
49. Manhattan Project (1942-1945)Army engineers operations to build an atomic bomb;
led by J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, New Mexico
50. Military leaders against dropping the atomic bomb argued that Japan was already willing
to surrender. However, Truman decided to use the atomic bomb because:
- Continuing to use conventional weapons would cause the loss of thousands of
American lives.
- Using the atomic bomb would persuade Japan to surrenderand unconditionally.
- Ending the war as quickly as possible would prevent Soviet intervention.
- Using the atomic bomb would convince the Soviet Union to cooperate more in
formulating postwar plans.

51. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly
killing 40,000 people. On August 9, a second atomic bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on
Nagasaki, Japan.
52. V-J Day was August 15, 1945.
53. Atomic Energy Commission (1946)a U.S. government agency created by Congress for
peacetime development of atomic science and technology

Cold War (1945-1989):

Postwar American Life:
1. Taft-Hartley Act (1947)aimed to reduce management-labor disputes and unfair labor
practices; passed over Trumans veto; required employers to give a 60-day notice to
terminate contracts; allowed the federal government to delay by 80 days any strike
threatening public health or safety; gave unions and management a cooling-off period;
slowed unionization, especially in the South; part of the anti-Communist crusade
2. Jackie Robinsonbecame the Major Leagues first black baseball player in 1947;
recruited from the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro Leagues team, to play with the
Brooklyn Dodgers
3. Fair Deal (1948)Trumans proposal to extend the New Deal; increased the minimum
wage to $0.75 an hour; enlarged Social Security to cover more people; called for low-cost
housing projects and slum cleanup
4. Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer (1952)the Supreme Court limited the presidents
power to seize private power in the absence of authority enumerated in Article 2 of the
Constitution or statutory authority conferred on him by Congress
Containment:
5. Containment was the primary U.S. policy from 1947-1989.
6. George Kennana U.S. diplomat and specialist on the Soviet Union; wrote an influential
article (long telegram) advising the U.S. to focus its foreign policy on containing
Soviet influences spread
7. Dennis et al. v. U.S. (1946)the Supreme Court upheld the Smith Act (1946), which
made it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government
8. Truman Doctrine (1947)Truman asked Congress for $400 million in economic aid for
Greece and Turkey; justified this by declaring that the U.S. should support free peoples
who are resisting attempted subjugations by armed minorities or by outside pressures
9. National Security Act (1947)created the Central Intelligence Agency and National
Security Council; reorganized military under one Department of Defense head
10. Marshall Plan (1948)an economic-aid program devised by Secretary of State George
Marshall; signed by Truman; aimed to help war-torn Europes recovery and prevent
communist influences spread; the U.S. gave over $15 billion in aid to Europe
11. Ralph Bunchea U.S. diplomat involved in the Dumbarton Oaks Conference; mediated
the Arab-Israeli Conference from 1947-1949, for which he received the 1950 Nobel
Peace Prize; first African-American and person of color to win a Nobel Prize
12. NATO Alliance (1949)the U.S., Canada, and 10 Western European countries joined in
a defense military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to protect against
Soviet threat; marked the U.S.s decisive break from isolationism; created economic and

social cooperation; after the Soviet Unions fall, expanded membership and moved
toward global peacekeeping; headquartered in Brussels, Belgium
13. In 1949, Mao Zedongs Chinese Communists defeated Chiang Kai-sheks Chinese
Nationalists and declared the Peoples Republic of China a Communist, independent
nation. The U.S. refused to recognize Chinas new government in Beijing.
14. Korean War (1950-1953):
- After World War II, Korea was taken from Japan and split at the 38th parallel
- North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950
- Truman took advantage of a temporary Soviet boycott of the UN Security Council to
get a unanimous condemnation of North Korea as an aggressor; this marked the UNs
first collective military action
- China entered the war when the UN forces approached the strategic Yalu River
- General MacArthur disagreed with Trumans policy of fighting a limited war; he
favored blockading Chinas coast and bombarding Chinese bases; in response,
Truman fired MacArthur
- In 1953, an armistice was signed; it set the North/South Korea border near the 38th
parallel, at around the prewar border
- This was the first war in which U.S. troops fought in racially integrated units
15. Vietnam involvement (1946-1954):
- After World War II, France controlled French Indochina
- Ho Chi Minhs Viet Minh defeated France at the pivotal battle of Dien Bien Phu; in
1954, France withdrew from Vietnam
- The U.S. refused to sign the Geneva Accords peace treaty (1954), which split
Vietnam at the 17th parallel and pledged free elections within 2 years to reunite
Vietnam
- The U.S. replaced France as Indochinas dominant Western power
- Viet Cong (Communist guerillas) tried to topple Saigon, South Vietnams capital;
South Vietnam asked JFK for aid
16. SEATO (1954-1977)created to oppose Communisms spread in Southeast Asia after
Frances withdrawal from Indochina; meant to justify U.S. presence in Vietnam, though
some members opposed this; original members included the U.S., France, Britain,
Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines
17. Domino theorythe idea that if one country falls to Communism, its neighbors will also
fall (for example: South Vietnams fall would lead to all of Southeast Asias loss)
President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) and Key Cold War Events:
18. Dwight Eisenhower34th president; Republican; World War II Allied commander; led
forces in North Africa, Italy, and England; defeated Adlai Stevenson to become president;
completed military forces integration
19. Massive retaliationa military doctrine associated with Eisenhowers secretary of state,
John Foster Dulles; aimed to deter the enemy from launching an initial attack; stated that
if the Soviet Union or any hostile power attacked, the U.S. would retaliate with massive
force, including nuclear weapons
20. Suez Canal Crisis (1956)Egypt under Gamal Nasser had been receiving Soviet aid, so
Eisenhower pledged money to Egypt; later withdrew his offer; Egypt tried to nationalize

the Canal; Britain, France, and Israel invaded to regain the Canal; Eisenhower forced
Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw
21. Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)a reaction to the Suez Canal Crisis; pledged forces and
economic aid to the Middle East to stop Communist threats; denounced by Egypt, Syria,
and other nations
22. Sputnik (1957)the first Earth-orbiting satellite; launched by the Soviet Union; stunned
the U.S., prompting the National Defense Education Act and Eisenhowers creation of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
23. National Defense Education Act (1958)significantly expanded federal aid to education;
funded math, foreign language, and science programs; a response to Sputnik
24. Fidel CastroCommunist Cuban dictator; in 1959, overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista
and seized power; signed trade agreements with the Soviet Union; the U.S. broke
diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba
25. U-2 Spy Plane Incident (1960)Soviets shot down a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over
Soviet airspace; Eisenhower admitted spying; the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, survived
and served 18 months in a Soviet jail
Rise and Fall of McCarthyism:
26. Alger Hissa former State Department official accused in 1948 of giving the Soviet
Union classified documents while working for the U.S. government; California
congressman Richard Nixon played a highly publicized role in his investigation
27. Julius and Ethel Rosenbergconvicted in 1950 of passing Manhattan Project information
to the Soviets; were executed
28. McCarthyismthe making of public disloyalty accusations without sufficient evidence;
Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy played on Americans fears with his claims, starting
in 1950, that Communists had infiltrated the State Department and other federal agencies;
he created a paranoid climate, as Americans grew preoccupied with the perceived threat
of Communist traitors working in the U.S.
29. Several factors led to McCarthyisms rise:
- Chinas fall to Communism
- The 1949 Soviet development of an atomic bomb
- Trumans emphasis on containment
- Revelations that Soviet spies had infiltrated U.S. government agencies, publicized in
Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs trials
30. Millions of Americans were forced to take loyalty oaths and undergo investigations.
31. Hollywood executives drafted a blacklist of about 500 actors, writers, and directors
who were denied employment due to their alleged Communist sympathies.
32. In 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy of trying to get preferential treatment for one
of his consultants. In response, McCarthy accused the Army of being infiltrated by
Communists. A huge national audience watched the Army-McCarthy hearings on TV.
Many were disgusted by McCarthys boorish conduct and lack of evidence.
33. A few months later, the Senate condemned McCarthy for conduct unbecoming a
member. 3 years later, he died from alcoholism.
34. JFK and Nixon began their careers as outspoken Communist opponents.

Unfinished Fifties:

Milestones in the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

1. Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)the Supreme Court ruled that a black student
must be admitted to the state law school, since the states alternative of paying to attend
law school in another state was unequal
2. Executive Order 9981 (1948)Truman desegregated the armed forces
3. To demonstrate their opposition to Trumans civil rights legislation, the Dixiecrats
walked out of the 1948 Democratic National Convention.
4. Sweatt v. Painter (1950)the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law restricting the
University of Texas to white students only, even though the state had set up a separate
law school for black students
5. After its victory in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the NAACP continued to base its
court suits on the 14th Amendments equal protection clause.
6. In 1957, Eisenhowerwho normally did not vigorously support civil rights legislation
sent federal troops to Little Rocks Central High School to enforce desegregation against
white mobs and the Arkansas National Guard. He stated that individual rights and
freedoms required that the president and executive branch support and insure the
carrying out of the decisions of the federal courts, even, when necessary, with all the
means of the presidents command.
7. Civil Rights Act of 1947first civil rights act since Reconstruction; created a panel to
ensure that blacks voting rights were not violated
8. In 1957, the Civil Rights Commission was granted the authority to investigate and report
on discrimination cases.
9. In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her white seat to a white passenger.
This galvanized the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who
founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Prosperity and Change:
10. By 1960, over 40 million U.S. homes had TVs.
11. TV shows like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, and The Honeymooners portrayed
women as housewives. Another popular TV show was The Ed Sullivan Show.
12. Interstate Highway Act/Federal-Aid Highway Act (1956)signed by Eisenhower;
expanded the interstate highway system to 41,000 miles; the federal government would
pay 90% expansions cost; authorized $25 billion from 1957-1969; eventually, over 35
years, $114 billion was spent; allowed for troop movement and evacuation routes; vastly
accelerated suburban growth
Social Critics, Nonconformists, and Cultural Rebels:
13. Leading social critics:
- William H. WhyteThe Organization Man
- David RiesmanThe Lonely Crowd
- Sloan WilsonThe Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
- John Kenneth GalbraithThe Affluent Society
14. Beat Generation writers, like Jack Kerouac (On the Road), Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, rejected middle-class conformity. Many lived around San Francisco.

15. Rock and rolla music genre that began in the 1950s U.S.; influenced by black music
styles, like rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz, and country-and-western; Cleveland DJ Alan
Freed coined the phrase rock and roll; early artists included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry,
Buddy Holly, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones
16. Abstract expressionisman art movement that emerged in 1950s New York City; led by
Jackson Pollock; artists abandoned paintings representing reality and instead created
artworks expressing their state of mind
17. Movie stars like James Dean and Marlon Brando symbolized youthful rebellion.

Tumultuous Sixties:
Presidents John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) and Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969):
1. John F. Kennedy35th president; Democrat; first Roman Catholic nominated since Smith
in 1928; first Roman Catholic president; youngest elected president
2. The 1960 election was the first with TV debates. Around 75 million Americans watched
JFK and Nixons 4 debates. Nixons negative appearance on TV affected voters
perception of him.
3. The White House during JFKs presidency was nicknamed Camelot, after King Arthurs
legendary court.
4. New FrontierJFKs domestic program; included raised tax form, a raised minimum
wage, educational aid, and space-program emphasis
5. Bay of Pigs (1961)CIA-trained Cuban refugees attempted invasion of Cuba to
overthrow Castro; failed after JFK refused air support; JFK took responsibility for the
invasion; in response, Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev secretly sent nuclear missiles to
Cuba, furthering the Soviet-Cuban alliance
6. Berlin Wall (1961)the wall built by the East German government to separate East and
West Berlin; meant to stop East Berliners defections and travel
7. Alliance for Progress (1961)a Marshall Plan for Latin America; aimed to give
economic aid to block Communism; ultimately disappointing
8. Mapp v. Ohio (1961)the Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained by unreasonable
search and seizures must be excluded from trial
9. Baker v. Carr (1962)Tennessee had not reapportioned its state legislature for 60 years
despite population growth and movement; Tennessee voter Charles Baker sued the state,
arguing a violation of the 14th Amendments equal protection clause and claiming that his
vote had been diluted; the Supreme Court ruled that the political question would be
heard, paving the way for many voting suits
10. Engel v. Vitale (1962)the Supreme Court ruled that a non-denominational prayer
created by the New York State Board of Regents was unconstitutional; the Court held that
state-sponsored prayer of any type defied the 1st Amendment
11. Rachel CarsonAmerican marine biologist and writer; wrote Silent Spring (1962), a
study on dangerous insecticides; incited the environmental movement
12. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)a U.S. spy plane discovered Soviet missile sites being
placed in Cuba; JFK blockaded Cuba and demanded that the Soviets remove the missile
bases and all long-range weapons; JFK declared that any missile attack on the U.S. would
result in retaliation against the Soviet Union; Khruschev removed the missile sites; the

U.S. lifted the blockade and removed its intermediate-range ballistic missiles from
Turkey
13. Nuclear Test Ban (1963)the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union pledged not to perform
nuclear tests in the atmosphere or underwater
14. School District of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963)the Supreme Court banned
daily readings of the Bible and the Lords Prayer in public schools
15. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)the Supreme Court held that all persons charged with a
felony (later also other charges) must be given legal counsel
16. Lyndon Johnson36th president; Democrat; JFKs vice president; became president after
JFKs assassination; a former Texas senator and a whip and floor leader; as president,
pushed JFKs agenda, including a tax cut and the Civil Rights Act of 1964; won
reelection against Republican Barry Goldwater
17. Warren Commissionthe committee ordered by Johnson to investigate JFKs
assassination; led by Chief Justice Earl Warren; concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted
alone
18. Great SocietyJohnsons social and economic welfare program; used education and job
training to help needy people overcome the poverty cycle; included:
- War on Povertyfederal-education and government employment programs
- Civil Rights Act of 1964influenced by the March on Washington; strengthened
voting rights protection; banned discrimination in public areas, like stores,
restaurants, hotels, workplaces, voting sites, and schools; required that the federal
government withdraw support from any discriminating state or program; created the
Equal Employment Commission to watch hiring practices
- Economic Opportunity Act (1964)created local Community Action Agencies to
fight poverty
- Voting Rights Act of 1965caused by demonstrations against the often violent
measures used to prevent blacks from voting; banned literacy tests for voters; gave
black voters federal registration in areas with under 50% of eligible voters registered
- Immigration and Nationality Act (1965)abolished the national-origins quota system
- Medicare, Medicaid, and other laws helping the elderly
- Arts support
- Housing construction programs
19. Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S. (1964)a motel refused to serve a black customer; the
Supreme Court upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964
20. New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)white segregationist officials in the South tried to
silence newspapers through huge libel suits; the Supreme Court argued that public figures
have a higher burden of proof in libel cases than private citizens and must prove that a
libelous statement is published with malicious intent and reckless disregard for truth
21. Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)the Supreme Court ruled that the police must honor a
persons request to have an lawyer present during interrogation
22. Watts Riots (1965)6-day riot in Watts, a depressed black Los Angeles neighborhood;
caused by a young blacks drunk-driving arrest and police brutality claims; led to 34
deaths and over $200 million worth of property damage; sparked other riots nationwide
23. Ralph Naderpolitical activist and consumer advocate; wrote Unsafe at Any Speed
(1965), which shed light on cars poor safety standards and led Congress to pass auto

safety measures; unsuccessfully ran as a third-party presidential candidate in 1996, 2000,

and 2004
24. Miranda v. Arizona (1966)the Supreme Court gave an arrested person the rights to
remain silent, be told that whatever he said could be used against him, be represented by
a lawyer, have a lawyer even if he could not afford one, and make one phone call to get a
lawyer
Social Movements:
25. In 1960, 4 black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat at Woolworths whites-only
lunch counter and refused to leave until served; this sparked the sit-in movement.
26. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1961)founded to support sit-ins; led by
Stokely Carmichael
27. Congress of Racial Equalityfounded in Chicago by James Farmer; promoted
nonviolence; sponsored the 1961 Freedom Rides, which led to bus desegregation
throughout the South
28. In April 1963, King led an anti-segregation campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Police
Commissioner Eugene Bull Connor jailed King and others and used attack dogs and
high-pressure fire hoses to quell the march. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, King
argued that citizens have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. In response to
the march, JFK asked Congress to pass a comprehensive civil rights bill ending legal
race-based discrimination.
29. March on Washington (August 1963)a massive march led by King to support JFKs
bill; King gave his I Have a Dream speech
30. Malcolm Xblack leader who moved away from Kings nonviolent civil disobedience;
became a Black Muslim while in jail and later a Nation of Islam minister; suspended by
Black Muslims leader, Elijah Muhammad, when he made derogatory remarks about
JFKs assassination; formed a new group, the Muslim Mosque; after a Mecca pilgrimage,
converted to Orthodox Islam; began publicly accepting black/white cooperation;
assassinated in 1965 in New York City during a speech; assailants were said to be Black
Muslims, but this was never confirmed
31. Black Panthers (1966)founded in California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; urged
blacks to become liberated through violence; gave black children free lunches; involved
in various violent confrontations
32. Black Power (1960s)a movement urging blacks to gain control of their political and
economic life; led by Carmichael, Malcolm X, and Newton; separate from the civil rights
movement
33. Betty Friedanwrote The Feminine Mystique; first president of the National
Organization for Women, founded in 1966 to promote workplace gender equality
34. Feminism was mainly a middle-class womens movement.
35. Womens rights expanded in several ways, including:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964banned gender-based employers
discrimination
- Griswold v. Connecticut (1964)the Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law
banning contraceptives; based on womens right to privacy

Roe v. Wade (1973)the Supreme Court ruled all state laws banning first-trimester
abortions unconstitutional; also based on womens right to privacy; criticized by
Catholics and right-to-life groups
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974)
- Affirmative action regulations
36. Equal Rights Amendmenta proposed Constitutional amendment giving women full
legal rights; drafted by Alice Paul; in 1923, introduced to Congress; in 1972, passed both
houses and went to the state legislatures for ratification; Phyllis Schafly led a campaign to
block ratification; did not receive the required 38 state ratifications by 1982, the set
deadline; feminist groups continue to push for adoption
37. Cesar Chavezmigrant farmer; National Farm Workers Association founder; aimed to
defeat persecution in the migrant worker system; used strikes, picketing, and marches
38. United Farm Workersa union created by merging the National Farm Workers
Association with Larry Itliongs Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee; led by
Chavez, Itliong, Dolores Huerta, and Philip Vera Cruz
39. Counterculture Movementbegan in the 1960s in Berkeley with the free-speech
movement; believed in womens rights and anti-materialism; opposed the Vietnam War;
experimented with drugs and sex; members were hippies; culminated with the
Woodstock Music and Art Festival (1969) in New York State
40. American Indian Movement (1968)supported Native American civil rights and
recognition of past U.S. treaties; militants occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South
Dakota, arguing that treaties had been ignored
Vietnam War:
41. Robert McNamaraSecretary of Defense under JFK and Johnson; played a key role in
escalating the Vietnam War
42. Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)alleged that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had
launched an unprovoked attack against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin (what truly
happened has never been fully revealed); passed overwhelmingly by Congress;
authorized Johnson to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the
forces of the U.S. and to prevent further aggression; gave him a blank check to
escalate the Vietnam War
43. Johnson launched bombing attacks in North Vietnam, followed by ground troops.
44. Tet Offensive (January 1968)the Viet Cong launched a series of attacks on 27 key
South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon, the capital; this violated a truce for Tet, the
Vietnamese New Year; Viet Cong were eventually forced to retreat after heavy losses;
undermined Johnsons credibility; increased U.S. antiwar sentiment
45. My Lai Massacre (1968)the mass murder of around 350-500 unarmed civilians,
including women and children, in South Vietnam; became public knowledge in 1969;
prompted U.S. outrage; 26 soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only
Lieutenant William Calley was convicted; he was originally given a life sentence but
served only 3 years under house arrest

Key Political Events and Demographic Trends (1968-2014):

1968 Election:

1. Robert Kennedys 1968 assassination split the Democratic Party between Vice President
Hubert Humphrey and Senator Eugene McCarthy. Humphrey won the nomination.
Antiwar rallies occurred outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
2. George Wallaceformer Alabama governor; a longtime school-segregation and states
rights champion; American Independent Partys presidential candidate; appealed to
Americans upset with antiwar demonstrators, Black Power militants, and government
bureaucrats; won 5 Southern states; received strong support in some Northern states
3. Nixon won by appealing to middle-class Americans and pledging to restore law and
order.
President Richard Nixon (1969-1974):
4. Richard Nixon37th president; Republican; former U.S. representative, senator, and
Eisenhowers vice president; resigned in August 1974 after the Watergate Scandal,
becoming the first president to do so
5. Dovesbelieved the U.S. should withdraw its forces from Vietnam; included Senator
William Fulbright, who wrote The Arrogance of Power, a war critique
6. Hawkssupported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; believed the U.S. should
increase military force to win the war
7. Silent MajorityNixons name for the moderate, mainstream Americans who supported
his Vietnam War policies; believed that the U.S. should support South Vietnam but
favored gradual withdrawal from Vietnam
8. Vietnamizationwithdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam and replacing them with newly
trained South Vietnamese troops; aimed to preserve U.S. goals for peace with honor
9. Invasion of Cambodia (April 1970)Nixon, suddenly and without consulting Congress,
ordered U.S. troops to join the South Vietnamese army in cleaning out Viet Cong
sanctuaries in officially neutral Cambodia; he claimed this was necessary for
Vietnamization and to protect U.S. troops
10. Stunned by the invasion, college students protested; over 1.5 million students shut down
1,200 college campuses.
11. Kent State shootings (1970)at Ohios Kent State University, students burned the
ROTC building; the mayor called the Ohio National Guard, which fired into a massive
crowd of protesters, killing 4 students and wounding 9; triggered massive antiwar rallies
nationwide, notably at Jackson State University
12. Pentagon PapersDefense Department papers discussing the U.S.s Southeast Asian
involvement in the 1960s; showed that the government had deceived the public about its
war intentions; The New York Times received the papers from Daniel Ellsberg, who had
studied defense policies, and began publishing articles about the study in June 1971; the
government tried to stop the Times by arguing national security, but the Supreme Court
allowed publication due to freedom of the press; set a precedent for future press conflicts
over security versus liberty
13. 26th Amendment (1971)a response to the Vietnam War; gave citizens 18 years and
older the right to vote; by November 1971, 11 million Americans aged 18-21 years old
were eligible to vote
14. Dtenterelaxation of U.S.-Soviet tensions; introduced by Nixon and National Security
Advisor/Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
15. In 1972, Nixon became the first president to visit Beijing, China, and Moscow, Russia.

16. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (1972)U.S.-Soviet agreements; led to more trade and
the SALT I Treaty, which limited the number of submarine-launched and intercontinental
ballistic missiles each superpower could stock in its arsenal
17. Furman v. Georgia (1972)the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was
unconstitutional unless fairly applied; later decisions allowed the death penalty in some
circumstances
18. New FederalismNixons plan to distribute some federal power to state and local
governments, thus reducing the federal governments size, scope, and spending; included
revenue sharing, in which state and local governments could spend their federal dollars
however they saw fit, within limitations
19. Paris Accords (January 1973)the peace treaty ending the Vietnam War; the U.S.
pledged to fully withdraw; North Vietnam released over 500 prisoners of war; achieved
through secret negotiations between North Vietnam and Kissinger
20. War Powers Act (1973)the president must inform Congress within 48 hours after U.S.
troops are sent into a hostile area without a war declaration; Congress must approve any
military commitment lasting over 90 days; passed over Nixons veto
21. Watergate Scandal (1972-1974)some Committee for the Re-election of the President
(CRP/CREEP) members tried to spy on Democrats at their headquarters in the Watergate
Hotel; were arrested and convicted; Nixon stated that the burglars had no tie to his
administration; James McCord, one of the burglars, claimed a Republican cover-up; an
investigation uncovered wire taps, presidential tapes, and more espionage evidence;
Washington Post writers Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed details behind
the break-in
22. Saturday Night Massacre (1973)Nixon refused to give his tapes to Archibald Cox, the
governments special prosecutor; Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to
fire Cox; rather than fire Cox, Richardson quit; eventually, the tapes surfaced
Presidents Gerald Ford (1974-1977) and Jimmy Carter (1977-1981):
23. Gerald Ford38th president; Republican; became Nixons vice president after Spiro
Agnew resigned after his financial irregularities were investigated; became president
after Nixon resigned; pardoned Nixon, though Nixon had not been convicted; his rise to
power represented the first use of the 25th Amendment, which provided for action in
cases of a vice-presidential vacancy
24. Mayaguez Incident (1975)a battle between the Cambodian Khmer Rouge and the U.S.
crew of the Mayaguez; the ship and its crew were successfully released; the names of the
Americans who died in the battle and the 3 Marines who were left behind and executed
by the Khmer Rouge are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
25. Jimmy Carter39th president; Democrat; defeated Ford; aimed to create responsible
government; stressed human rightsbased foreign policy; reduced unemployment;
eased the energy crisis
26. Bakke v. University of California (1988)the Supreme Court upheld the universitys use
of race in its admissions decisions and banned racial quotas; found that Bakke, a white,
should have been admitted to the universitys medical school
27. Inflation was the primary domestic issue.
28. Stagflationthe combination during the 1970s of slowed economic growth, increased
government spending, and rising (double-digit) inflation, unemployment, and interest

rates; caused by Vietnam War spending, rising energy and healthcare costs, and federal
budget deficits of over $3 trillion
29. Camp David Accords (1978)Carter invited Egypt and Israels leaders to Camp David,
the presidential retreat in Maryland; after 12 days of intense negotiations, the Camp
David Accords peace agreement was reached
30. SALT II Treaty (1979)signed by Carter and Leonid Brezhnev; reduced and limited the
number of missile launchers and bombers
31. Three Mile Island (1979)a nuclear power plant south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
overheated due to human, design, and mechanical errors; part of its uranium core melted;
released radioactive water and gases; led to a slowdown in other reactors construction
and changes in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Americans grew more aware of
environmental concerns
32. Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)the U.S. supported the Shah of Iran, who lost power in a
coup by the Ayatollah Khomeini; Khomeinis supporters were anti-U.S.; Carter allowed
the Shah to receive cancer treatment in the U.S., upsetting Iranians; Iranian
revolutionaries stormed the Tehran U.S. embassy and took hostages; Carter froze Iranian
assets in the U.S. and sent ships within striking distance; an accord was finally signed;
the revolutionaries freed the hostages on Reagans inauguration day
Presidents Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), George H.W. Bush (1989-1993), Bill Clinton (19932001), and George W. Bush (2001-2009):
33. Key 1980 election issues:
- Iran Hostage Crisis
- Weak economy and high inflation rate
- Hostility toward big government
- Call for a more conservative Supreme Court
34. Ronald Reagan40th president; Republican; like Carter, capitalized on his Washington
outsider status; defeated Carter by a huge margin; appointed the first woman Supreme
Court Justice, Sandra Day OConnor; increased military spending, including the
Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars Program), a space-based defense system; first
increased the number of nuclear weapons but then worked with Gorbachev toward
nuclear weapon reduction; won reelection over Democratic nominee Walter Mondale
(and vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro)
35. Reaganomics/supply-side economicsReagans economic policies; aimed to promote
growth and investment by deregulating business, reducing corporate taxes, and lowering
federal taxes for upper- and middle-income Americans
36. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1982)the Supreme Court extended 1st Amendment
freedoms of the speech and press to parodies and satires
37. Mikhail GorbachevSoviet political leader from 1985-1991; removed Soviet troops
from Afghanistan; liberalized the countrys repressive atmosphere via glasnost
(openness) and perestroika (restructuring) policies; a key player in the Soviet Unions
fall
38. Iran-Contra Affair (1986)a scandal involving the CIA, NSC, and Reagan
administration; the U.S. sold weapons to U.S.-friendly Iranians to encourage them to free
hostages; these sales profits funded Nicaraguan revolutionaries fighting the Sandinista
government; Congress had not approved this; hearings led to Oliver North, Robert

McFarlane, and John Poindexters convictions; for many, echoed the Watergate scandal;
later, as president, Bush pardoned all involved
39. Black Monday (October 19, 1987)the Dow Jones dropped 22.6%, the largest singleday drop since 1914; caused by trade deficits, computerized trading, and U.S. criticism
of West Germanys economic policies; affected the insurance industry and caused the
savings and loan scandal
40. Savings and Loan Scandallax regulation of the savings and loan industry led to poor
investments and high insolvency; after Black Monday, this worsened; as the federal
government guaranteed deposits up to $100,000, a $166 billion rescue appropriation was
made; showed poor governmental regulations effects
41. George H.W. Bush41st president; Republican; former congressman, CIA director, UN
Ambassador, and Reagans vice president; defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis;
pledged, Read my lips, no new taxes; sent troops to overthrow Panamas Manuel
Noriega
42. Texas v. Johnson (1989)the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning the flags
desecration, stating that this restricted free speech
43. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (STARS) (1990)signed by Gorbachev and Bush; cut
both countries nuclear weapons arsenals by 30%; a landmark agreement in easing U.S.Soviet tensions
44. Persian Gulf War (1991)Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on
August 2, 1990, threatening U.S. oil interests, and failed to meet the peaceful withdrawal
deadline; on January 18, 1991, the U.S. launched Operation Desert Storm under General
Norman Schwarzkopf; followed air strikes with a ground war; multinational troops
liberated Kuwait; Hussein was left in power, albeit under heavy embargoes
45. The Soviet Unions 1991 collapse led to weaponry proliferation, new opportunities for
U.S. trade, and foreign policy challenges in Asia.
46. Bill Clinton42nd president; Democrat; former law professor, Arkansas attorney general,
and Arkansas governor; achieved gun control measures, a strong economy, acts
supporting time off for family leave, and welfare reform; became the second president
impeached after an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky
47. Branch Davidian Incident (1993)the Branch Davidian group was an apocalyptic
Christian group founded in the 1930s; member David Koresh and his followers lived at a
compound outside Waco, Texas; as a warrant for illegal weapons and child abuse was
attempted to be served, a shootout occurred between the FBI, ATF, and Branch
Davidians; 4 federal agents and 5 Branch Davidians were killed; a 51-day standoff
occurred; ended with the compounds burning and Koresh and his followers deaths
48. North American Free Trade Agreement (1994)created a trade bloc between the U.S.,
Canada, and Mexico
49. Oklahoma City Bombing (1995)Timothy McVeigh, who claimed he was upset with
the government about the Branch Davidian and Ruby Ridge events, destroyed the
Oklahoma City Federal Building with a fertilizer bomb; 168 people died; McVeigh was
killed by lethal injection
50. World Trade Organization (1995)gives a framework for negotiation and formalizing
trade agreement; replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, formed in 1947;
the U.S. is a member

51. George W. Bush44th president; Republican; former Texas governor; won presidency
after Democratic Vice President Al Gore conceded following a Florida voting ordeal;
Gore had polled more popular votes but less electoral votes than Bush; as president,
Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act and other education initiatives; declaration
against terrorism led to Afghanistans liberation and the invasion of Iraq
52. 9/11 (September 11, 2001)a day of attacks linked to the Al Qaeda network, led by
Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden; operatives hijacked and crashed 2 airliners into New
York Citys World Trade Center, wrecking the buildings and killing thousands; another
hijacked plane hit Washington, D.C.s Pentagon; a final hijacked plane was diverted,
crashing in Pennsylvania; led to U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
53. USA Patriot Act (2001)broadened government authority to gather intelligence; further
defined crimes punishable as terrorism
54. Americans migration from the Frostbelt to the Sunbelt began in the 1970s and continues
today. Since 1970, the South and West have had the greatest population gains.
55. Latinos today make up 30% of Texas, Arizona, and Californias populations and 40% in
New Mexico.