| A | B |
|---|
| Primary Source | Original records of an event (eyewitness accounts, records from time, speeches, diaries, reports, letters by people who were there, artifacts) |
| Puritans | English Protestants who settled Massachusettes Bay Colony. (Believed in hard work) |
| Mercantilism | Economic theory that a nation's strength came from building up its gold and expanding its trade. |
| Middle Passage | Ocean trip from Africa to the Americas |
| Declaration of Independence | It declared America's independence from Great Britain. |
| Capitalism/Free Enterprise | An economic system where wealth is privately owned rather than controlled by the government. |
| Federalism | A system where power is shared between the national and state governments. |
| Articles of Confederation | Our first form of government after the American Revolution. Too much power was given to the states. |
| Constitutional Convention | Met to "fix" the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution that we use today was created. |
| Great Compromise | Created two houses of Congress. Settled dispute of representation between large and small states. |
| Bill of Rights | First 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Designed for the Anti-Federalists. |
| Three-Fifths Compromise | Each 5 slaves would be counted as 3 persons for both taxation and representation. |
| Checks and Balances | To prevent one branch from becoming too powerful, the constitution gave each branch ways to stop or "check" the other branches. |
| Federalists/Anti-federalists | Federalists wanted a strong national government while Anti-federalists feared a national government with too much power. Think Bill of Rights. |
| Marbury v Madison | Supreme court has the power to decide whether any law violates the constitution. |
| Laissez-Faire | Idea that the government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs. |
| Louisiana Purchase | Purchase by Jefferson that increased the size of the U.S. by one third. |
| Manifest Destiny | Belief that the U.S was clearly meant to expand to the Pacific. |
| Monroe Doctrine | Told European countries to stay out of the affairs of Latin America. |
| Sectionalism | Before the Civil War many Americans felt loyal to their own state than to the country as a whole. |
| Dred Scott | 1857 Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property and had no right to file a lawsuit. |
| Missouri Compromise | Early attempt to solve the issue of slavery in the new territories. Missouri enters Union as a slave state. Maine enters as a free state. Keeps the balance of power in congress equal. |
| Lincoln's Election | 1860 election causes the south to secede. |
| Emancipation Proclamation | Declared any slave held in a state rebelling against the Union be free. |
| Anaconda Plan | Northern plan to seize control of the Mississippi, blockade southern ports and capture Richmond. |
| Total War | Union plan of destroying food and equipment that might be valuable to the enemy. |
| Imperialism | a powerful country seeks control of the political and economic affairs of a weaker country. |
| Lincoln's Civil War goals | Preserve the Union. |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | 1896 Supreme Court decision that made segregation constitutional. |
| Prohibition | 18th Amendment banned the sale and consumption of alcohol. |
| Great Depression | 1929-1941 U.S. suffered a severe economic depression caused by overproduction and a weak banking system. |
| New Deal | FDR's plan to end the Great Depression. Called for massive government intervention. |
| Communism | Economic system where all property is owned by the community. |
| Anarchists | Oppose organized government. |
| 1950s Prosperity | A period of tremendous economic growth. |
| Cold War | After WWII a long conflict emerged between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. No actual fighting between the two countries took place. |
| McCarthyism | Charging someone is a communist with no actual proof. |
| Brown v. Board of Education | 1954 Supreme court case that declared separate but equal unconstitutional. |
| Civil Disobedience | nonviolent protest of an unjust law by refusing to obey it. |
| Inflation | Rise in prices and decrease in the value of money. |
| Vietnam | U.S. aided south Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism. We eventually pulled out all of our troops and all of Vietnam became communist. |
| Truman Doctrine | Policy of giving aid to countries threatened by communism. |
| Patronage | Policy of giving government jobs to loyal supporters. |
| NATO | Alliance formed by the U.S. and its allies to fight Soviet aggression. |
| Great Society | President Johnson's plan to improve the standard of living for every American. |
| Domino Theory | If South Vietnam falls to communism, other countries in Southeast Asia would too. |
| Detente | Easing of tensions. |
