Founding & Constitution
This 1787 agreement between Northern and Southern states decided that enslaved persons would be counted as a portion of a person for representation and taxation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
Purchased from France in 1803, this massive acquisition of land effectively doubled the size of the United States.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
This 1820 agreement admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state to maintain the balance of power in the Senate.
What is the Missouri Compromise?
Mark Twain coined this term for the late 19th century, referring to an era that was "glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath."
What is the Gilded Age?
This style of sensationalist newspaper reporting pushed the United States and Spain into war over Cuba and the Philippines.
What is yellow journalism?
This document served as the nation’s first constitution but was deliberately designed with a weak central government and no president.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
This 19th-century belief suggested the United States had a God-given mission to expand democracy and its borders across the entire continent.
What is Manifest Destiny?
As part of the Compromise of 1850, this controversial law required Northern states to return escaped enslaved people to their owners.
What is the Fugitive Slave Act?
This social worker founded Hull House in Chicago to provide services and research urban conditions in immigrant neighborhoods.
Who is Jane Addams?
The 1915 sinking of this British passenger ship by a German U-boat killed 128 Americans and increased pressure for the U.S. to enter WWI.
What is the Lusitania?
This primary author of the Bill of Rights drafted the first ten amendments to protect individual liberties and appease Antifederalists.
Who is James Madison?
This "engineering marvel" connected the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, revolutionizing trade and helping New York City become a global center.
What is the Erie Canal?
In this 1857 ruling, the Supreme Court declared that Black people were not citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in U.S. territories.
What is the Dred Scott decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford)?
This "muckraker" wrote a famous exposé on the Standard Oil Company, revealing the ruthless business practices of John D. Rockefeller.
Who is Ida Tarbell?
This period of mass unemployment and economic collapse was triggered by the 1929 stock market crash and the failure of speculative investments.
What is the Great Depression?
This specific constitutional clause gives Congress the power to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" for carrying out its duties.
What is the Elastic Clause?
This 1830 law led to the forced removal of the Cherokee and other Native American nations along a journey known as the Trail of Tears.
What is the Indian Removal Act?
This principle, used in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowed white settlers in new territories to vote directly on whether to allow slavery.
What is popular sovereignty?
Ratified in 1920, this constitutional amendment finally granted women the right to vote nationwide.
What is the 19th Amendment?
These informal radio addresses allowed Franklin D. Roosevelt to speak directly to the public to restore confidence during the economic crisis.
What are Fireside Chats?
This landmark 1803 Supreme Court case established the precedent of judicial review, giving the Court authority to interpret the Constitution.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
This 1823 doctrine warned European nations that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to colonization or interference.
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
The Civil War began in April 1861 when Confederate forces opened fire on this federal installation in South Carolina.
What is Fort Sumter?
This 1890 legislation was the first federal act intended to outlaw business monopolies and trusts.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?
During the Depression, these coercive campaigns resulted in the expulsion of an estimated 1.8 million people of Mexican descent to Mexico.
What are Mexican Repatriation/Deportation campaigns?