American History Regents Prep

Keywords, Groups, & Phrases that Frequently Appear on the American History Regents

When you see… / The words associated with or answer is…
Mercantilism / Raw materials (colonies), manufactured goods/finished products (mother country), restrictions on trade
New England town meetings, Mayflower Compact, Virginia House of Burgesses / Self-rule, representative democracy
Declaration of Independence / Enlightened, John Locke, natural rights, consent of the governed, no taxation without representation– leads to Revolutionary War
Articles of Confederation / Weak national government, protect states’ rights, feared strong national government, admit new states into the union
Constitutional Convention / Representation, Three-Fifths Compromise, Great Compromise, revise Articles of Confederation
Anti-Federalists / Bill of Rights, states’ rights
Federalists / Ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Washington, Hamilton, Madison
Alexander Hamilton / National bank, pay off nation’s debt, loose interpretation of Constitution
Federalism / Balance of national and state government
Electoral College / Popular vote does not determine presidency, each states have “points” based on population of their states, majority of these points wins presidency, The ''winner-take-all'' method can distort the relationship between the popular vote and the electoral vote
Checks and Balances / Supreme Courts, Congress, Executive, three branches of government, separation of powers
Marbury v. Madison / JUDICAL REVIEW
Marshall Court / Increase the power of the federal government
McCulloch v. Maryland
Gibbons v. Ogden / Supremacy of the federal government
Washington / Precedents, cabinet of advisors, unwritten constitution, political parties, strengthen the federal government, Farewell Address, neutrality, U.S. needed time to gain economic and military strength
John Adams / Alien and Sedition Acts, XYZ Affair
Thomas Jefferson / Louisiana Purchase, elastic clause, violate/contradict belief of strict interpretation of the Constitution
Mississippi / Trade, New Orleans, Westward Expansion, Louisiana Purchase, Access to Gulf of Mexico, trade for farmers
Manifest Destiny / Westward expansion, expand to the Pacific Ocean, Mexican War, annexation of Texas, Homestead Act
Monroe Doctrine / Western Hemisphere, prevent colonization by the Europeans in Caribbean/Latin America, avoid political conflicts with Europeans,
Andrew Jackson / Spoils system (rewarding jobs), expand presidential powers, end property requirements, Indian Removal Act
Trail of Tears / Injustice of Native Americans, Worcester v. Georgia
Homestead Act / West, Great Plains, provide free land to settlers, people pay off land
Abolitionist / Against slavery, William Lloyd Garrison's publication of The Liberator, Underground Railroad, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Sectionalism / Economic conditions and interests varied in regions (North-Industrialized vs. South-plantations)
Missouri Compromise / The balance between free and slave states was maintained, tried to solve issue on extension of slavery into the western territories
Fugitive Slave Act (Law) / Runaway slaves, Canada
Kansas-Nebraska Act/Bleeding Kansas / Clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups, sectional conflict, tried to solve issue on extension of slavery into the western territories, allow settlers in new territories to vote on the issue of slavery
Popular sovereignty / allow settlers in new territories to vote on the issue of slavery, status of slavery in new states
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) / ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories, Causes of Sectional Conflict, protected the property rights of slave owners in the territories, sometimes failed to protect the rights of minorities
Secession/Secede of Southern states / Increasing sectionalism, Disagreements over states’ rights issues, Breakdown of compromise, Election of 1860
Election of 1860 (Abraham Lincoln becomes president)
Civil War / The federal government was strengthened
Abraham Lincoln / Preserve the Union, expanded powers of presidency, wanted southern states to enter the Union as quickly as possible, rejected harsh punishments for the South, removes habeas corpus, Emancipation Proclamation (frees slaves)
Andrew Johnson / allow the Southern States to reenter the nation as quickly as possible, a power struggle with Congress over Reconstruction, impeachment
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments / increased individual rights for African Americans, Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction, legal and political rights to African Americans
Sharecropping / Former slaves earned a living, economically dependent
Black Codes / deny equal rights to African Americans
Poll tax, grandfather clause, literacy tests, / limits voting rights of African Americans
Jim Crow Laws / Segregation of public facilities, limit effects of Radical Reconstruction, state and local governments to restrict the freedoms
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) / Racial segregation, “separate but equal” based on race, separate public facilities were constitutional (allowed), failed to protect rights of minorities
Booker T. Washington / African Americans should achieve equality by expanding their opportunities for vocational education, difference than that of W.E.B. Dubois on how racial equality should be achieved
W.E.B. Dubois / African Americans should demand immediate participation in American society, Formal education (science and literature), difference than that of Booker T. Washington on how racial equality should be achieved
Dawes Act (1887) / Native Americans to give up their culture, assimilation of Native Americans
Homestead Act / Great Plains, settle West, decline the Plains Indians
Industrialization / Urbanization (cities), increased immigration, growth of the middle class, job opportunities, expansion of the railroads, Gospel of Wealth, Social Darwinism (justified big business and the rich)
Monopolies/Trusts / Limit competition, big businesses, furthered gap between rich and poor
Yellow Journalism / Start of Spanish American War, exaggerate events
Laissez faire / Government should not intervene (get involved) in business
Progressives / Reform, social and economic changes, limit power of big business, Government regulation (control) in business, Prohibition, Suffrage, income tax, direct election of senators, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson
Women’s Suffrage (Voting Rights) / Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, WWI working in war industries (factories), 19th Amendment
Theodore Roosevelt / Good and bad trusts, trustbuster limit power of monopolies, imperialism, Big Stick Policy, international police, Western Hemisphere, Latin America, Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Panama Canal, Square Deal, Food and Drug Administration, Meat Inspection Act
Anti-trust (Against big businesses) and Business Regulation (control) / Encouraged/increased competition, Sherman Anti-trust Act, Clayton Anti-trust Act, U.S. v. Standard Oil (breaks up Rockefeller’s oil monopoly) trust busting, protect small businesses and farmers
Labor Unions / Collectively bargain, higher wages (pay), improved hours, American Federation of Labor (skilled workers), Knights of Labor, Haymarket Riots, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike (government is anti-unions)
Big Business Leaders / John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil, railroads), Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Steel), J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, robber barons (ruthless business tactics against competitors), captains of industry, philanthropic activities (did good things for society—Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Hall, J.P. Morgan Library)
Muckrakers / Make America aware of problems in society, expose the evils in American society, expose the abuses of the government and industry
Poor, urban slums: Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives), Jane Addams (Hull House)
Meatpacking Industry: Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)
Political Corruption: Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of Cities)
Standard Oil: Ida Tarbell (History of Standard Oil Company)
Populism & Granger Movement / Farmers, social and political problems
Entrance to WWI / Sinking of The Lusitania, submarine warfare, freedom of the seas, world safe for democracy, Zimmerman Telegram, Russian Revolution (1917)
Schenck v. U.S. / “clear and present danger”, don’t shout fire in a crowded theater, civil liberties limited for national security, limits freedom of speech
Results of WWI / Wilson’s Fourteen Points (avoid future wars/conflicts), Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations (U.S. Senate does not join—goes back to neutrality)
Roaring 20s / Consumerism (people spending $), Henry Ford’s assembly line, flappers, social and economic changes/improvements, Harlem Renaissance, Coolidge, Harding, & Hoover (President that practiced trickledown (tax cuts) economics—give money to rich to stimulate economy)
Harlem Renaissance / African American culture, music (jazz), literature (poetry—Langston Hughes)
Intolerance—1920s / Prohibition (18th Amendment), Temperance (no drinking) Movement, Red Scare & Palmer Raids (scared of Communist; arrest and deport), KKK revival, The Scopes Monkey Trial (science v. religion), anti-immigration (Sacco and Vanzetti trial)
Causes of the Great Depression / Overproduction and under consumption, buying stocks on margin (borrowing), banks giving too much credit, banks crash, Stock Market Crash (October 1929—all stocks lose value), Dust Bowl (Great Plains, severe drought and overproduction of farming)
Life During the Depression / Hoovervilles/Hoover blankets (people blamed President Hoover for not helping them), High unemployment, racism (African Americans can’t get jobs)
Hoover / Rugged individualism (people should rely on themselves not the government)
FDR / New Dealrelief (CCC, WPA, PWA—give people jobs), recovery (AAA, NIRA—regulate prices), reform (Social Security Act, bank holiday, SEC—regulate stock market), pump and prime, Court Packing (tries to add supreme court justices when they declare part of New Deal unconstitutional (Butler v. U.S., and Schechter Poultry v. U.S.—Congress says “no”),12 years as president, greater involvement of federal government
WWII / Lend Lease, cash and carry (U.S. helps England), Pearl Harbor attacked by Japanese (1941)—Congress declares war, D-Day, atomic bomb (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) – used to save American lives, women work in factories, Nuremberg Trials (crimes against humanity)
Korematsu v. U.S. / Internment camps for Japanese in U.S., “clear and present danger” (JUST LIKE SCHENCK CASE), national security is more important than civil liberties
After WWII (1945): Early Cold War / Potsdam Conference sets up Cold War, Superpowers (U.S. and U.S.S.R), Containment (stop Communism from spreading-Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan ($ to Greece and Turkey), NATO (collective security), domino theory, Korean War (Congress did not officially declare war, outcome—Korean stays divided at 38th parallel), Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift
JFK Cold War / Bay of Pigs Invasion (try to overthrow Fidel Castro), Cuban Missile Crisis, early involvement in Vietnam
Life During the 1950s / Baby boom, suburbs (automobile and Interstate Highway Act), social conformity, consumerism, technology, McCarthyism (similar to Palmer Raids—fear of Communism in the U.S. and spies), Cold War fear (bomb shelters, fear nuclear attack)
Civil Rights Movement (late 1950s to 1960s) / Brown v. Board of Ed (1954)—(separate, but equal is INEQUAL, overturns Plessy v. Ferguson case), Rosa Parks (Montgomery Bus boycott) Martin Luther King (civil disobedience), Greensborough sit-ins, freedom riders, Selma March (Voting Rights), Million Man March, NAACP, Malcolm X, Black Panthers and Black Power
Achieved Civil Rights Act 1964 (racial and gender equality) and Voting Rights Act (1965)
Warren Court / Rights of the accused, Miranda v. Arizona, Mapp v. Ohio, Escobedo v. Illinois, Gideon v. Wainright
No religions in public schools—Engel v. Vitale
New Frontier (JFK)
Great Society (LBJ) / Peace Corps, Space Program (fear of Sputnik satellite in Russia), tries to get economic and civil rights programs, but dies
War on Poverty (help poor people), Medicare and Medicaid, Civil Rights Programs, similar to FDR’s New Deal Program and Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal, greater involvement of federal government
Vietnam War / Domino Theory, Congress did not officially declare war (just like Korean War), Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, LBJ becomes an unpopular president, Vietnam War takes away money from Great Society, war protests (Vietnam veterans against the war), counter culture (hippies), draft, Kent State Massacre, Tinker v. Des Moines (freedom of speech/arm bands allowed in school), guerrilla warfare, Tet Offensive, riots at the Democratic National Convention
Richard Nixon / Ends Vietnam War (vietnamization and Nixon Doctrine—peace with honor),détente (easing of tension--USSR), SALT Agreement, Visits China to ease tensions (Ping Pong Diplomacy), Watergate Scandal (Nixon resigns)--*President is not above the LAW* (U.S. v. Nixon, Nixon v. NY Times—limit executive power)
Jimmy Carter / Camp David Accords (Peace with Israel and Egypt), OPEC Crisis (gas), SALT
Ronald Reagan / Domestic: Reagonomics--Trickle down (tax cuts), supply side economic (like Hoover, give businesses money to stimulate economy)
Foreign: Increase spending on military (federal deficit), puts pressure on Russia (tension increase again), Reagan Doctrine (support people who want to be free in Communist countries). ALL OF THIS LEADS TO FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL AND END OF COLD WAR!
George Bush Sr. / Persian Gulf War (protects Kuwait and prevent Iraq from getting oil), third party costs him election, New World Order
Bill Clinton / NAFTA (free trade), Impeachment Trial (vote him not guilty), adopts Republican platforms (welfare reform), good economy=high approval ratings, policing overseas for human rights (Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti)
George W. Bush / War on Terror as reaction to September 11, 2001—War in Afghanistan and war in Iraq, Patriot Acts (limits rights for national security), department of Homeland Security, trickle down (tax cuts)/supply side
Financial Crisis / Stocks and banks crash (like Hoover’s Great Depression)
Barack Obama / Stimulus plan (like New Deal), federal deficit, government involvement, Osama Bin Laden killed
Globalization and Global Issues / Global warming, free trade, outsourcing (giving jobs overseas),