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
Declaration of
Independence
Articles of
Confederation
Constitutional
Convention
Anti-Federalists
Self-rule, representative democracy
Enlightened, John Locke, natural rights, consent of the governed, no taxation without
representation – leads to Revolutionary War
Weak national government, protect states’ rights, feared strong national government,
admit new states into the union
Representation, Three-Fifths Compromise, Great Compromise, revise Articles of
Confederation
Bill of Rights, states’ rights
Federalists
Alexander Hamilton
Ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Washington, Hamilton, Madison
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
Supreme Courts, Congress, Executive, three branches of government, separation of
powers
Checks and
Balances
Marbury v. Madison
Marshall Court
McCulloch v.
Maryland
Gibbons v. Ogden
Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Mississippi
Manifest Destiny
Monroe Doctrine
Andrew Jackson
Trail of Tears
Homestead Act
Abolitionist
Sectionalism
Missouri
Compromise
Fugitive Slave Act
(Law)
Kansas-Nebraska
Act/Bleeding Kansas
Popular sovereignty
Dred Scott v.
Sanford (1857)
Secession/Secede of
Southern states
Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
JUDICAL REVIEW
Increase the power of the federal government
Supremacy of the federal government
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
Alien and Sedition Acts, XYZ Affair
Louisiana Purchase, elastic clause, violate/contradict belief of strict interpretation of the
Constitution
Trade, New Orleans, Westward Expansion, Louisiana Purchase, Access to Gulf of
Mexico, trade for farmers
Westward expansion, expand to the Pacific Ocean, Mexican War, annexation of Texas,
Homestead Act
Western Hemisphere, prevent colonization by the Europeans in Caribbean/Latin America,
avoid political conflicts with Europeans,
Spoils system (rewarding jobs), expand presidential powers, end property requirements,
Indian Removal Act
Injustice of Native Americans, Worcester v. Georgia
West, Great Plains, provide free land to settlers, people pay off land
Against slavery, William Lloyd Garrison's publication of The Liberator, Underground
Railroad, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Economic conditions and interests varied in regions (North-Industrialized vs. Southplantations)
The balance between free and slave states was maintained, tried to solve issue on
extension of slavery into the western territories
Runaway slaves, Canada
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
allow settlers in new territories to vote on the issue of slavery, status of slavery in new
states
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
Increasing sectionalism, Disagreements over states’ rights issues, Breakdown of
compromise, Election of 1860
Election of 1860 (Abraham Lincoln becomes president)
The federal government was strengthened
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
Andrew Johnson
corpus, Emancipation Proclamation (frees slaves)
allow the Southern States to reenter the nation as quickly as possible, a power struggle
with Congress over Reconstruction, impeachment
increased individual rights for African Americans, Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction,
legal and political rights to African Americans
Former slaves earned a living, economically dependent
deny equal rights to African Americans
limits voting rights of African Americans
13th, 14th, 15th
Amendments
Sharecropping
Black Codes
Poll tax, grandfather
clause, literacy tests,
Jim Crow Laws
Segregation of public facilities, limit effects of Radical Reconstruction, state and local
governments to restrict the freedoms
Plessy v. Ferguson
Racial segregation, “separate but equal” based on race, separate public facilities were
(1896)
constitutional (allowed), failed to protect rights of minorities
Booker T.
African Americans should achieve equality by expanding their opportunities for vocational
Washington
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
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, WWI working in
(Voting Rights)
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
Encouraged/increased competition, Sherman Anti-trust Act, Clayton Anti-trust Act, U.S. v.
big businesses) and Standard Oil (breaks up Rockefeller’s oil monopoly) trust busting, protect small
Business Regulation businesses and farmers
(control)
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
John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil, railroads), Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Steel), J.P.
Leaders
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 Farmers, social and political problems
Movement
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
Overproduction and under consumption, buying stocks on margin (borrowing), banks
Depression
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
Hoovervilles/Hoover blankets (people blamed President Hoover for not helping them),
Depression
High unemployment, racism (African Americans can’t get jobs)
Hoover
FDR
WWII
Korematsu v. U.S.
After WWII (1945):
Early Cold War
JFK Cold War
Life During the
1950s
Civil Rights
Movement (late
1950s to 1960s)
Rugged individualism (people should rely on themselves not the government)
New Deal relief (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
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)
Internment camps for Japanese in U.S., “clear and present danger” (JUST LIKE
SCHENCK CASE), national security is more important than civil liberties
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
Bay of Pigs Invasion (try to overthrow Fidel Castro), Cuban Missile Crisis, early
involvement in Vietnam
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)
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
Warren Court
Achieved Civil Rights Act 1964 (racial and gender equality) and Voting Rights Act (1965)
Rights of the accused, Miranda v. Arizona, Mapp v. Ohio, Escobedo v. Illinois, Gideon v.
Wainright
New Frontier (JFK)
No religions in public schools—Engel v. Vitale
Peace Corps, Space Program (fear of Sputnik satellite in Russia), tries to get economic
and civil rights programs, but dies
Great Society (LBJ)
Vietnam War
Richard Nixon
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush Sr.
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Financial Crisis
Barack Obama
Globalization and
Global Issues
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
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
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)
Camp David Accords (Peace with Israel and Egypt), OPEC Crisis (gas), SALT
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!
Persian Gulf War (protects Kuwait and prevent Iraq from getting oil), third party costs him
election, New World Order
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)
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
Stocks and banks crash (like Hoover’s Great Depression)
Stimulus plan (like New Deal), federal deficit, government involvement, Osama Bin Laden
killed
Global warming, free trade, outsourcing (giving jobs overseas),