MAJOR ERAS IN U.S.
HISTORY
Reconstruction Period
Civil War Ends- 1865
13th Amendment: Abolished
slavery in U.S.
14th Amendment: everyone citizens
regardless of race
15th Amendment: everyone can
vote regardless of race (except
women)
Homestead Act: head of household
receives 160 acres of free land.
U.S. Indian Policy: move Indians to
reservations, expect assimiliation
Transcontinental Railroad: connects
the east coast to the west coast.
Cattle Industry Boom: Sale of Texas
longhorns in Midwestern cities. Cattle
trails and railroads
Gilded Age
Growth of big business: Carnegie
(Steel) Rockefeller (oil), Vanderbilt
(railroad) (Monopolies)
Growth of Labor Unions: organization
for workers- better pay and working
conditions
Urbanization: growth of cities
New Immigrants: from southern and
eastern Europe.
Political Machines: gave jobs and
housing in exchange for votes.
Populism: People’s political party.
Becomes part of Democratic party.
Social Gospel Movement: Movement
to help the poor mainly new
immigrants.
Interstate Commerce Act: regulations
of railroads in the United States
Anti-Trust Acts: regulations of big
business.
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act:
civil service exam for government jobs.
Jobs based on performance.
Spanish-American War (1898) U.S.
goes to war with Spain. Gain: Puerto
Rico, Cuba, Philippines as a result.
Causes: Yellow Journalism, U.S.S.
Maine blows up, DeLome letter- calls
McKinley “weak”
Progressive Era: (Try to fix the ills of
society)
Theodore Roosevelt: served in the
Spanish-American War as a “rough
rider”, became President.
Environmentalist, Trust-buster, built
Panama Canal
Building Panama Canal: creates
shortcut between the Atlantic and
Pacific Ocean. Eliminates the need for
a two ocean navy.
Great Migration: African Americans
migrate from the South to the North in
the years between the wars.
Susan B. Anthony: leader for women’s
suffrage
W.E.B. Dubois: founded the NAACP,
wanted immediate integration for
African Americans
16th (Sixteenth) Amendment: income tax
17th (seventeenth) Amendment: direct
election of senators
18th Amendment: Prohibition, sale,
consumption, manufacturing of
alcohol illegal in the United States.
19th Amendment: women’s right to
vote
Pure Food and Drug Act: all foods
must be labeled correctly and meet
federal standards
Initiative: citizens can put an issue on
the ballot. Referendum: vote on the
initiative, recall: remove a corrupt
political person
World War I:
German Submarine Warfare:
Unrestricted sub warfare- sinking of
American ships, cause for U.S.
involvement in WWI.
Zimmermann Telegram: intercepted
telegram from Germany asking Mexico
to invade the United States. Another
cause for U.S. involvement in WWI.
American Expeditionary Force: U.S.
troops in WWI.
General John J. Pershing: U.S. General
went to Mexico to capture Pancho
Villa, served U.S. in World War I.
Stalemate on western front: WWI
trench warfare; neither side making
any progress
Battle of Argonne Forest: Major
battle in WWI.
Wilson’s Fourteen Points: President
Wilson’s plan for peace at the end of
WWI; including the League of Nations.
Treaty of Versailles: Treaty that ends
WWI. Blames Germany for WWI.
League of Nations: President Wilson
plan for an organization to prevent
future wars. U.S. refuses to join.
Roaring Twenties:
Red Scare: Fear of Communism in the
United States
Nativism: fear of foreigners
Social Darwinism: “Survival of the
Fittest”. The strongest will survive.
Same in business, the strongest
businesses will survive.
Prohibition: 18th Amendment- no
more consumption of alcohol. Led to
organized crime.
Harlem Renaissance: Surge of music,
writing and arts by African Americans
in Harlem, neighborhood in New York.
Henry Ford: Assembly line
production. Makes the automobile
affordable to most Americans.
Assembly Line: form of production,
product moves not the worker. Makes
factories more efficient.
Clarence Darrow: Defense attorney
for Biology teacher, John Scopes.
Accused of teaching the Theory of
Evolution.
William Jennings Bryan: prosecuting
attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial.
Populist Party candidate. ran for
Presidency three times. Lost all three
times.
Charles Lindbergh: aviator who flew
across the Atlantic in the 1920’s.
Became a national hero.
Great Depression:
Stock Market Crash (1929): Black
Tuesday. Over speculation leads to
crash of stock market.
U.S Tariff Policy: Raised U.S. tariffs to
keeps foreign goods out of the United
States and promote American goods.
Federal Reserve Policies: refuse to
put more money in circulation.
Regulates U.S. banking industry.
Bank Failures: “run on the banks”.
Consumers demanded money, banks
invested money in the stock market,
couldn’t meet the demands and
closed.
Widespread Unemployment:
Production goes down, companies lay
off employees.
Dust Bowl: High winds, drought, loose
soil in the Midwest blows dust as far as
NYC.
New Deal: FDR’s programs to bring the
United States out of the Great
Depression.
Social Security Administration: create
security of the retired, and disabled
citizens of the United States.
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC): federal
government insures bank deposits up
to $100,000.
Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC): watchdog agency over the stock
market.
Court Packing Scheme: FDR’s plan to
pack the Supreme Court to insure the
survival of his New Deal programs.
Ruled unconstitutional.
World War II:
Rise of Fascist Dictators: Hitler, Franco,
Mussolini. Failure of democracies in
Western Europe led to their rise in
popularity.
Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7,
1941. Japan attacks the United States.
Reason for U.S. entrance into WWII.
Pacific and European Theaters: Two
fronts of World War II.
Battle of Midway. U.S. defeats
Japanese Navy. Turning point in WWII.
Invasion of Normandy: D-Day (June
6, 1944) Allied invasion of France.
Opens western front for the Allies in
Europe.
The Holocaust: Nazi systematic killing
of 11 million people during WWII.
Food Rationing: conserving resources
in the United States during WWII.
Food Rationing coupons were used.
Victory Gardens: growing own
gardens to conserve food supplies for
the U.S. troops.
Japanese Internment: JapaneseAmericans forced to relocation camps
after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Tuskegee Airmen: African-American
fighter pilots during WWII.
Flying Tigers: Volunteer Fighter pilots,
flew supply missions to China.
Navajo Code Talkers: created
unbreakable code in the Pacific during
WWII.
Atomic Bomb: U.S. drops nuclear
bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to
end WWII. Controversy forms over
use of the bomb.
Early Cold War Era:
Soviet Aggression in Europe:
Occupied countries in Europe install
Communist governments.
Truman Doctrine: plan that U.S. will
defend any country resisting
Communism. Created due to threat
of Communism in Greece and Turkey.
Marshall Plan: U.S. help rebuilds
western Europe after WWII.
Berlin Airlift: U.S. and Britain fly
supplies into Berlin after roads are
shut down to the city.
McCarthyism: Communist “witch
hunt” – bullying of a witness without
evidence
Korean War: North Korea invades
South Korea. U.S. defends South
Korea under the command of General
MacArthur.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO): Alliance between U.S.,
Canada, and western European
countries defending themselves
against an attack.
G.I. Bill: provides money for college,
low interest loans for those who serve
in the military.
Baby Boom: largest population boom
in U.S. History during the 1950’s and
1960’s.
Sputnik I (1957): Soviet Union
launches the first artificial satellite into
space.
Cuban Missile Crisis: U.S. discovers
missile bases in Cuba. Missiles
provided by the Soviet Union.
Civil Rights Movement:
Brown v. Board of Education (1954):
Reverses Plessy v. Ferguson decision of
“Separate But Equal” desegregates
schools in the United States.
Hernandez v. Texas: Mexican
Americans cannot be systematically
excluded in practice from juries.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968): civil
rights activist promoted non-violent
resistance. Believed in integration.
Assassinated in 1968.
Cesar Chavez: United Hispanic Farm
Workers. Used non-violent means of
protesting such as boycotts.
Great Society Programs: LBJ’s
programs to end poverty and promote
equality in the United States.
Civil Rights Act 1957: first civil rights
act passed by Congress. Primarily
dealt with voting rights.
Civil Rights Act 1964: outlaws
discrimination in the United States.
Voting Rights Act 1965: outlawed
voting rights discrimination in the
United States.
24th Amendment: eliminates poll taxes
Vietnam Era:
Domino Theory: if one country falls to
communism the rest will fall.
Gulf of Tonkin: gave the President
broad military powers in Vietnam.
Tet Offensive: large scale counterstrike by Vietcong during Vietnamese
New Year 1968.
Vietnamization: slow withdraw of U.S.
troops from Vietnam.
Fall of Saigon: 1975, U.S. troops
withdraws troops from Vietnam.
South Vietnam falls to North Vietnam.
Silent Majority: mainstream America
who still supported the Vietnam War
quietly.
26th Amendment: lowered voting age
from 21 to 18.