American Revolution
Life, liberty, and property.
What are the three natural rights identified by John Locke?
A Supreme Court case that upheld segregation under the doctrine of 'separate but equal.'
What is Plessy v. Ferguson?
A belief that justified wealth inequality by claiming the rich were 'fit' and the poor were 'unfit.'
What is Social Darwinism?
It began with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba and resulted in the U.S. acquiring sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and establishing a protectorate over Cuba.
What is the Spanish-American War?
Investigative journalists, photographers, and authors who exposed corruption in politics, unsafe working conditions, urban poverty, and corporate abuses, creating national awareness for reform.
Who were the Muckrakers?
To prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful by allowing each branch to check the powers of the others.
What is the purpose of checks and balances in the U.S. government?
A federal agency created to assist freedpeople in integrating into society through education, land access, and labor contracts.
What is Freedmen's Bureau?
Expansion of railroads and infrastructure enabling goods and people to move efficiently.
What is the Transportation Revolution?
Cuba was free from Spain. Spain gave up Puerto Rico and Guam. U.S. paid Spain 20 million for the Philippines.
What is the Treaty of Paris 1898?
A social crusade, mainly led by women and religious groups, aimed at limiting or banning alcohol due to its association with domestic abuse, poverty, and crime.
What was the Temperance Movement?
Farmer uprising showed the weakness of the Articles and led to a call for a Constitution.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
Granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people, and guaranteed all citizens "equal protection of the laws" and "due process" from state governments, fundamentally extending the Bill of Rights to states and shaping key legal decisions on discrimination, rights, and governance.
What is the 14th Amendment?
An economic system with minimal government intervention, allowing businesses to operate freely.
What is Laissez-faire Capitalism?
a late 19th/early 20th-century U.S. diplomatic concept (John Hay's notes) demanding equal trade access for all nations in China and preserving its integrity
What is China Open Door Policy?
A system that guarantees pay for injured workers for medical bills and lost wages, encouraging employers to improve workplace safety.
What is Worker's Compensation?
Battle of Saratoga (1777)
American victory; turning point; convinced France to join the war.
An agreement that ended Reconstruction by pulling federal troops from the South and allowing Redeemers to regain political power.
What is the Compromise of 1877?
A labor rally in Chicago turned violent after a bomb exploded, linking anarchists to the labor movement.
What is the Haymarket Affair of 1886?
a significant 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine, stating the U.S. would intervene as an "international police power" in Latin American nations to prevent European intervention, especially to ensure debt repayment and stability, effectively making the U.S. the policeman of the Western Hemisphere, leading to numerous interventions but later renounced by the Good Neighbor Policy.
What is the Roosevelt Corollary?
wrongly claimed society could be 'improved' by preventing 'unfit' people from having children, leading to forced sterilizations and influencing racist immigration laws.
What is eugenics and its impact?
One: Supported the Constitution; wanted a strong central government.
Two: Feared strong government; demanded Bill of Rights.
Result—Bill of Rights added (1791).
What is Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists?
Laws that allowed individuals to bypass literacy tests and poll taxes if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the Civil War.
What is the Grandfather Clauses?
A critical term for wealthy industrialists who gained power through exploitation.
What is a Robber Baron?
Allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs and buy, lend, or lease land according to its wishes.
What is the Platt Amendment?
used to arrest anti-war activists, socialists, and labor leaders, limiting free speech during wartime.
What was the 1917 Espionage Act?