AP US History Exam Review

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It is important because it heightened Northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict.

Stock Market Crash of 1929

Plunge in stock market prices that hurt economy bad. This is important because it was the start of the great depression.

Dawes Plan (1924)

This loan program was crafted to give money to Germany so that they could pay war reparations and lessen the financial crisis in Europe; the program ended with the 1929 stock market crash. This is important because it helped ease the cycle of financial problems on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hull House (1889)

the Chicago settlement house for immigrants founded by Jane Addams. This is important because it was the first of many settlement houses where immigrants could stay at and taught and given jobs.

Glass-Steagall Act

(Established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and included banking reforms, some designed to control speculation. Repealed in 1999, opening the door to scandals involving banks and stock investment companies. This is important because the gold standard was restricted to international transactions and the Americans could no longer exchange their dollars for gold.

Underground Railroad

1830, Harriet Tubman, a system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North. This is important because it was supported by black and white abolitionists.

Oregon Treaty

1846. Settled dispute of Oregon boundary dispute, stemming from the Treaty of 1818 in which both U.S. and British settlers were granted free navigation of the territory. This is important because the treaty gave the U.S. control of present day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

Henry Ford

1863-1947. American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents. This is important because he renovated and made manufacturing a quicker process.

Wabash v. Illinois

1886 - Stated that individual states could control trade in their states, but could not regulate railroads coming through them. This is important because Congress had exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce.

Interstate Commerce Act

1887 law passed to regulate railroad and other interstate businesses. This is important because it created the Interstate Commerce Commission who monitors business operations.

Boxer Rebellion

1899 rebellion in Beijing, China started by a secret society of Chinese who opposed the "foreign devils". The rebellion was ended by British troops. American troops participated in a force that marched on Peking and helped crush the rebellion. This is significant because American troops got involved to protect American lives and properties.

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906 - Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs. This is important because it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA.

Henry Cabot Lodge

A Republican who disagreed with the Versailles Treaty, and who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He mostly disagreed with the section that called for the League to protect a member who was being threatened. He is important because he was responsible for alienating Latin America and Japan.

Alamo

A Spanish mission converted into a fort, it was besieged by Mexican troops in 1836. The Texas garrison held out for thirteen days, but in the final battle. This is important because in the end all Texans were killed by a larger Spanish force.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

A United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate rates and agriculture. This is significant because it allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906)

A book talking about the bad details of the meatpacking industry. This is important because it later led to regulation acts on food industry.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the strike (example of how government always sided with employers over workers in the Gilded Age). This is important because it caused a depression in the economy.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders. This is important because it created problems in the government because this was a pro-slavery act and it was a violation of basic American rights.

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific. This is important because it led to new territories being formed for the U.S.

Gold Rush

A period from 1848 to 1856 when thousands of people came to California in order to search for gold. This is important because the gold rush sped up CA's admission to the union.

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished. This is important because it improved African Americans standard of living.

Free Soil Party

A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery. They are important because they brought northern beliefs of liberty, equality and opportunity into politics again.

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory. This is important because the dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.

Lusitaina Crisis

A small minority of influential republicans from the East( including Theodore Roosevelt) who wanted U.S. entry in the War against Germany. This is important because it created a war debate on whether the US should enter the war or not.

Zimmerman Telegram

A telegram Germany Sent to Mexico to convince Mexico to attack the U.S. This is important because it made nationalist anger towards American people and convinced Wilson that war with Germany will happen.

Oklahoma Territory

A territory that was once set aside for use by Native Americans that was thrown open for settlement in 1889. This is important because congress passed an amendment to the Indian Appropriations Act providing this open land.

Helen Hunt Jackson

A writer. Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. government many broken promises to the Native Americans. For example, the government wanted Native Americans to assimilate, i.e. give up their beliefs and ways of life, that way to become part of the white culture. This is important because it leads many Americans to feel sympathetic towards native Americans.

Marcus Garvey

African American leader during the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927. He is important because he was one of the first people to stick up for African Americans and want them to have better lives.

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality. This is important because he created Tuskegee University in 1881.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Agency established in 1932 to provide emergency relief to large businesses, insurance companies, and banks. They are important because democrates believed that they only helped the rich which causes tension.

Elkins Act (1903)

An act sponsored by President Theodore Roosevelt, provided for the regulation of interstate railroads. The act forbade rebates or other rate reductions to shipping companies. Railroads were not allowed to offer rates different from the published rates. This is important because the ICC had greater authority to stop railroads from granting rebates to favored costumers.

Contract Labor Law (1885)

An act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia. This is important because it is an agreement to perform labor in the United States or any of its territories.

Temperance Movement

An organized campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption which is a social movement. This is important because they eventually made an amendment (18th) which banned the consumption, sell, and other things surrounding liquor.

Bland-Allison Act (1878)

Authorized coinage of a limited number of silver dollars and "silver certificate" paper money. First of several government subsidies to silver producers in depression periods. Required government to buy between $2 and $4 million worth of silver. It is important because it created a partial dual coinage system referred to as "limping bimetallism." Repealed in 1900.

Dawes Severalty Act

Bill that promised Indians tracts of land to farm in order to assimilate them into white culture. This is important because the bill was resisted, ineffective, and disastrous to Indian tribes.

Washington Conference of 1921

Conference of the major powers to reduce naval armaments among Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States. This is important because Charles Evans Hughes was hoping to stabilize the size of the US navy relative to other powers to resolve conflicts in the Pacific ocean.

Pendleton Act of 1882

Created the civil service exam in response to patronage abuse. Prevented unqualified people from getting government jobs. Created a merit based system. However, this act only covered 10% of government jobs at first. Created the civil service commission to administer it This is important because positions within federal government started be awarded on the basis of merit rather than political affiliation.

De Lome Letter (1898)

De Lome, the Spanish minister in Washington, sent a secret letter he wrote describing President McKinley as weak with no mind of his own, angering many Americans when the letter was intercepted and published in American papers. This incident is significant because it happened in February, as did the explosion of the battleship Maine. Both incidents stirred up war fever in America and increased cries to go to war against Spain.

James K. Polk (1845-1849)

Democratic President: Domestic Affairs: Walker Tariff bill lowered rates Independent Treasury 1846 Wilmot Proviso Annexation of Texas Gold in California Foreign Affairs: Oregon "54°40' or Fight." -secured to 49th Mexican American War -see war chart Treaty of New Grenada (trading in Panama) Slidell Mission He is important because he is responsible for a successful war with Mexico.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

Directed the Treasury to buy even larger amounts of silver that the Bland-Allison Act and at inflated prices. The introduction of large quantities of overvalued silver into the economy led to a run on the federal gold reserves, leading to the Panic of 1893. This is important because it was repealed in 1893.

Yeoman Farmers

Family farmers who hired out slaves for the harvest season, self-sufficient, participated in local markets alongside slave owners. They are important because they are mainly in the South and the plantation owners got food from Yeoman farmers to feed their slaves, but Yeomen did not have on slavery on their farms.

Zachory Taylor

He won the presidency in the elections of 1848, and urged settlers to apply for admission into the union, causing a huge debate over the fate of the new territories in regards to slavery. He is important because this in turn sparked a huge debate and inability to compromise within the nation on the subject of slavery.

new imperialism

Historians' term for the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century wave of conquests by European powers, the United States, and Japan, which were followed by the development and exploitation of the newly conquered territories. This is important because it intensified foreign involvement because of new sources of raw materials for manufacturing and increase in agricultural products.

Election of 1916

Hughes, Wilson, issues: Wilson ran for reelection for the Democrats on the call that he had kept the United States out of the war. Charles Evans Hughes was the Republican candidate who attacked the inefficiency of the Democratic Party. Wilson won the election, so was able to continue his idealistic policies. This is important because it started the democratic slogan "he kept us out of war".

Immigration Act of 1882

In 1882, this act placed restrictions on the immigration of undesirable persons, such as paupers, criminals, convicts, and mentally incompetent. This is important because in response, Congress passed two major acts, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which would restrict Chinese laborers from emigrating into the United States.

Ocala Platform of 1890

In 1890, a national organization of farmers, called the National Alliance, met in Florida to address the problems of rural America. This is important because it fell short of becoming a political party, but many of the reform ideas would become part of the Populist movement.

Wounded Knee

In 1890, after killing Sitting Bull, the 7th Cavalry rounded up Sioux at this place in South Dakota and 300 Natives were murdered and only a baby survived. This is significant because the United States Army killed over 150 Sioux Indians, marking the end of frontier Indian confrontations.

Haymarket Affair 1886

In Chicago, a bomb went off during a union rally, police fired weapons as a response killing civilians and police. This is significant because Unions were blamed and associated w/ socialism and anarchy. As a result there was less unionization as well as strong anti-immigrant sentiment.

Sherman Anti-trust Act

It was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions. This is important because it is the first federal action against monopolies.

Selective Service Act of 1917

Law passed by Congress in 1917 that required all men from ages 21 to 30 to register for the military draft. This is important because about 2.8 million men were eventually called into the lottery with 2 million who eventually served in the war.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Law that suspended Chinese immigration into America. The ban was supposed to last 10 years, but it was expanded several times and was essentially in effect until WWII. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group. Extreme example of nativism of period

Nat Turner

Leader of a slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia. Revolt led to the deaths of 20 whites and 40 blacks. They are significant because the revolt led to the "gag rule' outlawing any discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives

Civil Rights Cases (1883)

Name attached to five cases brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In 1883, the Supreme Court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations, including theaters, hotels, and railroads, could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private discrimination and not state discrimination. This is important because the Supreme Court consolidated into a single ruling which was declared unconstitutional, thus spurring the approval of Jim Crow Laws.

Jazz Age

Name for the 1920s, because of the popularity of jazz-a new type of American music that combined African rhythms, blues, and ragtime This is important because it is a symbol of the "new" and "modern" culture of the cities.

Schenck v. US (1919)

Oliver Wendell Holmes; clear and present danger test; shouting "fire" in a crowded theater; limits on speech, esp. in wartime. This is important because determined the constitutionality of the Espionage Act.

Homestead Strike of 1892

On June 29, 1892, workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pa. to protest a proposed wage cut. Henry C. Frick, the company's general manager, determined to break the union. He hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and strikebreakers. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives, several men were killed or wounded, the governor called out the state militia. This is important because the strike led to a serious weakening of unionism in the steel industry until the 1930s.

Compromise of 1877

Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river This is important because it ended reconstruction.

Panic of 1893

Serious economic depression beginning in 1893. Began due to rail road companies over-extending themselves, causing bank failures. This is significant because it was the worst economic collapse in the history of the country until that point, and, some say, as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

McKinley Tariff of 1890

Shepherded through Congress by President William McKinley, this tariff raised duties on Hawaiian sugar and set off renewed efforts to secure the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. This is important because it increasing the average duties across all imports from 38% to 49.5%.

Annexation of Texas

Texas decides to secede from Mexico and attempts to declare its independence which eventually leads to our adoption of the land as a state although it was feared that it would cause conflict with Mexico leading to war. Getting Texas was important because Southern states in support of this as Texas brought slaves with it meaning it would increase agricultural profits

James Buchanan

The 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860. He is important because his success was owed to Southern support, and he is commonly referred to as "a northern man with southern principles".

The Big Four

The Big Four were the four most important leaders, and the most important ones at the Paris Peace Conference. They were Woodrow Wilson- USA, David Lloyd George- UK, George Clemenceau- France, and Vittorio Orlando- Italy. They are important because they made the decision at Versailles to get revenge on Germany and compensation in the form of indemnities and territory.

Panama Canal

The United States built the Panama Canal to have a quicker passage to the Pacific from the Atlantic and vice versa. It cost $400,000,000 to build. Columbians would not let Americans build the canal, but then with the assistance of the United States a Panamanian Revolution occurred. The new ruling people allowed the United States to build the canal. This is significant because it was the newest and fastest canal when getting across latin America. The canal also was created because of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.

Quota Act of 1921

The immigration act, this set a 3% immigration limit on individuals from each nation of origin. This is important because it shows a social change of discrimination of foreign immigrants in the U.S..

Decline of Muckraking

They declined because authors were running out of stories while publishers were faced economic pressures from banks. Lastly, because corporations were becoming aware of public image and made public relations offices. This is significant because the Muckraking had effects on the progressive era and educated the public about corruption in big places.

Progressives

They favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters. They are important because they proposed many reforms because they thought society needed changes and the government could do this for correcting the society.

Free Blacks

They were ex-slaves were either freed by their owners or escaped. The were considered free, but were still held under many restrictions and racial laws and found limited work. They are important because they developed their own communities, cultures, found work and were able to develop economically.

Wilmont Proviso (1846)

This proviso never became law but was endorsed by the state legislature of free states, and stated that slavery was prohibited in every state acquired in the Mexican War. This is important because the bill was never passed, but it began a change on the debate of slavery.

Oregon Trail

Trail from independence Missouri to Oregon used by many pioneers during the 1840s. This trail is important because it connected Oregon valleys to Missouri river.

Annexation of Hawaii

U.S. wanted Hawaii for business and so Hawaiian sugar could be sold in the U.S. duty free, Queen Liliuokalani opposed so Sanford B. Dole overthrew her in 1893, William McKinley convinced Congress to annex Hawaii in 1898. This is important because the island because a territory of the U.S. and later the 50th state in 1900.

Morrill Act of 1890

United States Federal Government established black land grant universities. This is important because it started many agricultural colleges in the west.

Denmark Vesey

United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822). He is important because he became a religious leader in the black community.

Election of 1924

With Republican Coolidge running against Democrat Davis and Progressive LaFollette, the liberal vote was split between the Democrat and the Progressive, allowing Coolidge to win. This is important because later Coolidge is known for his limited government while business conducted its own affairs.

Election of 1944

Year in which Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey for president and John W, Bricker (an isolationist senator) for vice president. Democrats renominated Roosevelt but changed vice president to Harry S. Truman. Roosevelt won with sweeping victory. This is important because it is Roosevelts 4th term as president.