Foundations & Freedom
This Reconstruction amendment officially ended the institution of slavery everywhere in the United States.
13th Amendment
This 1800s belief held that the United States was destined by God to expand its territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Manifest Destiny
The stock market crash on "Black Tuesday" in October 1929 marked the official start of this devastating economic era.
The Great Depression
The US entered World War II immediately following a surprise Japanese attack on this Hawaiian naval base on December 7, 1941.
Pearl Harbor
The Cold War was a decades-long rivalry pitting the democratic United States against this communist superpower.
The Soviet Union (or USSR)
Enlightenment thinker John Locke argued that all people are born with these three "natural rights."
Life, liberty, and property
Completed in 1869, this massive infrastructure project physically connected the East and West Coasts, speeding up trade and settlement.
Transcontinental Railroad
Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment brought a major shift to American politics by granting this right to women.
The right to vote (or suffrage)
This secret, intercepted German message proposed a military alliance with Mexico and helped pull the US into World War I.
The Zimmerman Telegram
In this landmark 1954 case, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Brown v. Board of Education
This constitutional agreement decided that three out of every five slaves would be counted for both congressional representation and taxation.
Three-Fifths Compromise
This famous processing station in New York Harbor welcomed millions of "New Immigrants" arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s.
Ellis Island
This term was used to describe Progressive Era journalists, like Upton Sinclair, who exposed corporate corruption and filthy working conditions.
Muckrakers
Out of wartime fear and prejudice, Executive Order 9066 forced over 110,000 people of this specific heritage into relocation camps.
Japanese Americans
This foundational US foreign policy during the Cold War focused on stopping the global spread of communism.
Containment
This amendment guaranteed citizenship and "equal protection under the law" to all persons born in the United States.
14 Amendment
This 1862 law accelerated westward expansion by offering 160 acres of free land to citizens willing to farm it for five years.
The Homestead Act
A combination of a severe prolonged drought and poor farming practices caused this environmental catastrophe in the Great Plains during the 1930s.
The Dust Bowl
This was the top-secret scientific research program launched by the US to build the world's first nuclear weapons.
The Manhattan Project
Signed into law in 1964, this landmark federal act outlawed discrimination and segregation in all public spaces and workplaces.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Inspired by Baron de Montesquieu, this constitutional concept divides government power into executive, legislative, and judicial branches so no single branch becomes too powerful.
Separation of Powers (or Checks and Balances)
Business titans like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie eliminated competition during the Industrial Revolution by creating these massive combinations that controlled entire industries.
Monopolies
This was the name of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's massive package of government programs aimed at providing "Relief, Recovery, and Reform."
The New Deal
President Woodrow Wilson’s plan for lasting post-WWI peace, which included a proposal for the League of Nations, was called this.
The Fourteen Points
This terrifying 1962 standoff brought the US and USSR closest to a full-scale nuclear war after Soviet nuclear missiles were discovered just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
The Cuban Missile Crisis