The Revolutionary Era

The Revolutionary Era

• George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolution and became the first U.S. President.
• Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence and became the third U.S. President.
• Benjamin Rush, an American physician and politician, signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of the Continental Congress.
• John Hancock was an American Revolutionary leader and the first to sign the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
• John Jay, a Founding Father, served the new nation in law and diplomacy, establishing judicial precedents as the first chief justice (1789–95), and negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794.
• John Witherspoon, a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and College of New Jersey president (now Princeton University), was the sole clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.
• John Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister and Continental Army brigadier general, commanded infantry at Yorktown.
• Charles Carroll, an American patriot leader, was the longest-living signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the only Roman Catholic to sign.
• Jonathan Trumball, Sr. served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Revolutionary state and was the only colonial governor to support the American side during the American Revolution.
• The Declaration of Independence listed grievances against King George III and justified the colonies' separation from England.
• Unalienable rights encompass life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• Colonists were taxed by the British to pay for the French and Indian War.
• Colonists resented taxation without representation in Parliament.
• The Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and Tea Act were examples of tax acts.
• The Boston Massacre and the Intolerable Acts were events leading to the Revolution.
• Loyalists were Americans who supported Great Britain during the revolution.
• Patriots were Americans who favored independence from Great Britain during the revolution.

The United States Constitution

• The Magna Carta (1215) limited the king's powers and provided trial by jury.
• The English Bill of Rights (1687) influenced the Constitution by forbidding cruel punishment, granting right to bear arms, requiring legislative passage of laws, and demanding legislative approval for taxes.
• The Declaration of Independence (1776), the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution address grievances from the Declaration of Independence, also listing the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• Federalist Papers (1787-1788) are essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison that advocated the Constitution's ratification.
• The Articles of Confederation (1781) was the first form of government established by the thirteen states but was replaced by the U.S. Constitution due to its weak central government.
• The Articles of Confederation lacked an executive branch, lacked the power for Congress to collect taxes, lacked a national court system, and gave each state one vote in Congress, regardless of population.
• In 1787, delegates from the thirteen states drafted the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia.
• The Preamble is the Constitution's introduction, outlining its purpose.
• Ratification means formally approving the Constitution, at least 9 of 13 states had to ratify it for it to go into effect.
• Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker, examined equality and liberty in America in the 1830s, identifying values crucial to America's success like liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire.
• The U.S. Constitution divides governmental powers into three branches to provide separation of powers.
• The Legislative Branch makes laws.
• The Executive Branch executes laws.
• The Judicial Branch interprets laws.
• Federalism shares power between state and national governments.
• Republicanism is a system where people elect representatives.
• Checks and balances prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
• Limited government restricts governmental power via the U.S. Constitution, ensuring no one is above the law.
• Popular sovereignty asserts that the people hold supreme power, as stated in the preamble, "We the people."
• The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments, protecting individual rights and liberties and was necessary for some states to ratify the Constitution.
• The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press, as well as the rights to assemble and petition.
• The 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms.
• The 3rd Amendment prohibits the quartering of soldiers during peacetime.
• The 4th Amendment protects against unlawful search and seizure.
• The 5th Amendment protects against double jeopardy and self-incrimination.
• The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to a fast and public trial.
• The 7th Amendment guarantees trial by jury.
• The 8th Amendment forbids cruel or unusual punishment.
• The 9th Amendment reserves rights to the people.
• The 10th Amendment reserves powers to the states.

Westward Expansion

• Manifest Destiny is the belief that the U.S. should expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific, acquiring land through the 1860s.
• Texas joined the U.S. as the 28th state in 1845.
• The Mexican Cession of 1848 involved the sale of California and New Mexico to the U.S. for $15 million following the Mexican War.
• In 1850, Utah was established as a territory, with Brigham Young becoming governor.
• The Gadsden Purchase in 1853 involved the U.S. buying land from Mexico for $10 million.
• In 1859, the Oregon Territory became the 33rd state.
• Railroads encouraged settlement in the West, created job, and the transcontinental railroad connected the east and west coasts by rail in 1869.
• The California Gold Rush (1849) resulted in over 40,000 people migrating from the East.
• The Great Plains span from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
• The Homestead Act (1862) provided 160 acres to settlers in the West.
• "Exodusters" were African Americans who migrated to Kansas after Reconstruction.
• Cattle drives arose from beef demand, shipping cattle to the East by rail along famous trails such as the Chisholm, Western, and Goodnight-Loving.
• Soddies were houses built from mud and grass on the Great Plains.
• Barbed wire was used to fence land on the Great Plains, ending the open frontier.
• Windmills enabled dry-land farming by irrigating crops.
• The steel plow broke up soil for planting, making farming more efficient.
• The Great Plains Indians relied on buffalo for their way of life and when the buffalo was killed off, so was the lifestyle.
• Reservations were plots of land given to Native Americans as white settlers moved West.
• The Dawes Act was a U.S. law that attempted to assimilate Native Americans by giving them land.
• The Battle of Wounded Knee (1890) ended in the massacre of 300 unarmed Native Americans by US soliders who ended the Indian Wars.

The Gilded Age

• Andrew Carnegie, a steel industry tycoon, was labeled a "Captain of Industry" and a "robber baron" and wrote "The Gospel of Wealth."
• John Rockefeller, owner of Standard Oil, controlled 90% of the oil industry in the late 1800s by making Standard Oil a trust.
• Monopolies occur when one company controls the supply of a product or service.
• Trusts form when small companies join together to create a large company.
• The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed business monopolies.
• Labor unions are organizations that protect workers' interests and dealt with dangerous conditions, long hours, and child labor and famous ones include the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor (AFL)and organized strikes to protest injustices.
• Industrialization is manufacturing growth and the decline of agriculture.
• Urbanization is the growth of cities that led to sanitation, transportation, and living condition problems.
• Jane Addams founded Chicago's Hull House, campaigned for feminists, and supported for child labor reform.
• Settlement houses were community centers that helped immigrants with squalid living conditions, disease, illiteracy, and unemployment.
• The Social Gospel promoted Christian ethics in social justice issues.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese immigration beginning in 1882; the ban was lifted in 1943.
• The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 regulated railroads.
• The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the Federal Reserve System with the authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes as legal tender.
• Political machines were corrupt that controlled political parties, led by a political boss who tried to grab votes.
• The Tweed Ring Scandal involved William Tweed and the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City.
• Thomas Nast's political cartoons helped expose political corruption.
• Civil Service Reform laws in the 1870s and 1880s began requiring tests for government jobs, replacing the "spoils system.".
• About 20 million European immigrants arrived in the U.S. between 1870 and 1920.
• Before 1890, most immigrants, "Old Immigrants," came from Western and Northern Europe.
• Post 1890 saw an increase of Southern and Eastern European immigrants, "New Immigrants," which increased social tension.
• Around 300,000 Chinese immigrants arrived between 1851 and 1883.
• Tenements were apartments in city slums housing large numbers of people.
• Child labor was a major problem in the Gilded Age.
• Sweat shops were small factories in which workers labored long hours under bad conditions for little pay.
• The Populist Party was founded in 1892, headed by William Jennings Bryan.
• Farmers faced crisis during the 1880s-1890s like overfarming, overcharges, and debt.
• Frances Willard, an American educator and women's suffragist, influenced the 18th and 19th Amendments.

The Progressive Era

• Progressivism's goals were to protect social welfare, create economic reform, and establish political reform of government.
• Muckrakers were reporters who exposed government corruption and business abuses.
• Suffrage references the right to vote.
• The 16th Amendment established the federal income tax.
• The 17th Amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. Senators, making government more responsive.
• The 18th Amendment enacted the prohibition of alcohol.
• The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
• An Initiative allowed citizens to propose laws on a ballot.
• A Referendum is a vote on an initiative.
• Recall is procedure to remove a public official by popular vote.
• Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the 1890s.
• Theodore Roosevelt was a trustbuster who reformed big business by breaking up trusts and preserved wilderness and the 1912 Bull Moose Party candidate.
• The Meat Inspection Act regulated food preparation and medicine sales.
• Susan B. Anthony was a women's suffrage movement leader.
• W.E.B. Du Bois, early civil rights leader and NAACP founder, demanded equality for African-Americans.
• Eugene V. Debs, a labor leader, attempted to form a labor union for all workers and ran for President as a third-party candidate in 1912.
• Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" described meat-packing plants, leading to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
• Woodrow Wilson was the last Progressive Era President and passed the Clayton Antitrust Act to crack down on monopolies.

Expansionism

• Expansionism expands a state's territory or economic influence, typically via military means.
• Alaska (1867) was purchased from Russia in 1867 and known as "Seward's Folly".
• Hawaii (1898), with Queen Liliuokalani out of power, was annexed in 1898 and Sanford B. Dole served as President/governor/judge.
• Spanish cruelty and mistreatment of Cubans.
• Yellow journalism exaggerated news to get a reaction.
• The De Lome Letter criticized President McKinley
• The U.S.S. Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor, blamed on the Spanish.
• The Spanish American War (1898) was a result of Spanish cruelty in Cuba and the sinking of the U.S.S, Maine.
• Spain lost most of its empire due to the Spanish-American War.
• The Platt Amendment allowed the U.S. to control Cuba.
• The U.S. acquired Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico due to the Spanish-American War.
• The U.S. increased its strength as a world power.
• The Open Door Policy was created to ensure that the U.S. could trade with China.
• The Rough Riders were were a volunteer cavalry unit led by Teddy Roosevelt that gained fame at San Juan Hill.
• The Roosevelt Corollary declared the U.S. as an international police power in Latin America.
• The Panama Canal is a man-made waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Roosevelt was President when construction began in 1904.

World War I (1914-1918)

• Causes of World War I included Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism.
• 1914 designates the outbreak of WWI in Europe.
• 1917 marks when the United States entered WWI on the Allied side.
• 1918 signifies when the Allies won WWI after Germany surrendered.
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914 was a cause of WWI.
• Woodrow Wilson was the U.S. President during WWI and aimed "to make the world safe for Democracy."
• Gen. John Pershing commanded the American Expeditionary Forces during WWI who led the Allies to Victory.
• Henry Cabot Lodge was a U.S. Senator who opposed the League of Nations.
• The Allied Powers in WWI were Great Britain, France, The United States, Russia, and Serbia.
• The Central Powers in WWI were Germany, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
• Close ties with the Allies (Americans and British shared a common language and democracy) Americans traced their ancestry to Great Britain.
• Unrestricted Submarine Warfare refers to Germany sinking any ships, including merchant/passenger ships.
• The Lusitania was a British passenger ship sunk by a German submarine and 128 Americans were killed.
• The Zimmerman Note was a german telegram proposing that Mexico ally itself with Germany if the US entered the war that, in return, Mexico would receive land that it had lost to the USA.
• Trench Warfare includes opposing sides attacking from ditches.
• New weapons introduced were machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and airplane warfare/"dog fighting."
• Stalemate is when neither side can gain an advantage in combat.
• The Battle of Argonne Forest refers to the final allied offensive of WWI.
• Wilson's Fourteen Points proposed peace after WWI involving freedom of the seas and a League of Nations.
• The League of Nations was an international organization formed after WWI, who's aim was disputes between countries, the US did not join due to fears of international war.
• The Treaty of Versailles ended WWI and blamed Germany, leading to Adolf Hitler and WWII.
• Alvin York is a Medal of Honor recipient who led an attack against a German machine gun nest.

The Roaring Twenties

• Henry Ford used the assembly line to mass-produce the Model T automobile, making it more affordable.
• William Jennings Bryan is famous for the "Cross of Gold" speech.
• Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes, arguing that evolution should be taught in schools.
• Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
• Glenn Curtiss was a pioneer aviator and manufacturer.
• Marcus Garvey organized the first American black nationalist movement (1919-26).
• The Red Scare of the 1920s fueled suspicions of foreigners and restricted immigration.
• The Teapot Dome Scandal, during Warren G. Harding’s Presidency, was the prime example of corruption.
• Government policies reduced interference in business, growth in the automobile industry, efficient production, mass consumerism, and credit use led to prosperity.
• Flappers, during the 1920's, embraced urban attitudes and fashions.
• Reform movement movement banned the sale and consumption of alcohol, increasing organized crime.
• The 18th Amendment enacted Prohibition.
• The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, ending Prohibition.
• The Scopes Trial, the "Monkey Trial", pitted creationism against Darwin's theory of evolution.
• Social Darwinism applies Darwin's evolution theory.
• Eugenics aimed to improve the genetic composition of a population.
• Nativism favored established inhabitants over newcomers.
• The Jazz Age was coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• Jazz music became popular and Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington rose to fame.
• The Great Migration occurred from 1910-1930.
• The Harlem Renaissance was a period of African-American cultural creativity such as Langston Hughes.
• The American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted citizenship to indigenous peoples.

The Great Depression, 1929-1940

• The Great Depression cause includes declining prices of agriculture, the unequal distribution of income, overproduction, buying stocks on margin, and bank failures.
• The stock market crash of 1929.
• Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) was the President during the start of the Great Depression who was defeated for allowing the Depression to deepen.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) defeated Hoover and implemented the New Deal and communicated with the American public on the radio.
• Eleanor Roosevelt supported FDR's New Deal and championed civil rights.
• Unemployment rose to 25% during the Great Depression.
• "Hoovervilles" were Shantytowns for the homeless.
• Bread lines and soup kitchens were methods for the needy to obtain food.
• The Dust Bowl dried up the farmland and forced residents to relocate.
• John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" describes the hardships faced by the family from Oklahomal fleeing the Dust Bowl.
• The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River to stimulate business.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt had various programs, in his fight against thrw Great Depression, known as the New Deal.
• The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) boosted crop prices by lowering production.
• The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided jobs by planting trees and fighting forest fires.
• The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created jobs for writers and artist.
• Programs from The New Deal include: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) still in effect to this day.
• Social Security Act provided unemployment, old age pensions, and insurance for families, during tough times.
• FDR battled the Supreme Court as his programs were unconstitutional but later added members after his programs had passed.
• WWII brought the U.S out of the Depression.

World War II (1941-1945)

• In 1939 Adolf Hitler invaded Poland and officially started WWII.
• Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on a naval base in Hawaii during 1941 which led to the U.S entering the war.
• Germany was defeated in 1945 in Europe where the atomic bomb was dropped in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end war.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt was president during WWII and declared war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Harry Truman, next president, made the decision to use the atomic bomb in Japan.
• Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was in charge of of Europe during WWII, and was in charge of the Invasion of Normandy or D-Day.
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur was in charge of all allied forces in the pacific ocean in WWII.
• The U.S 1st army was led by Gen. Omar Bradley in charge of the Invasion of Normandy or D-Day.
• Gen. George Marshall oversaw all military operations in Europe in WWII and was later in charge of the Marshall Plan.
• Adm. Chester Nimitz was the commander of the Pacific Fleet during WWII.
• Gen. George S. Patton served as a u.S army officer that performed mobile tank warfare in Europe.
• The allied and axis powers were major players in WWII.
• The allied powers consisted of: Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
• The axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
• The United States went into WWII duw to harsh treatment of Germany, rising of dictators, and the invasion of Poland.
• Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941 by the war in the Pacific due to the U.S entering the war.
• Battle of Midway was the turning point against the Japanese navy.
• Island-hopping, Allied naval, is to reach Japan by taking one island at a time.
• The atomic bomb, powerful weapon dropped in Japan, was ordered by Harry Truman to reduce American casualities,
• The Bataan Death March resulted in 76,000 American and Fillipino being transferred to be prisoners.
• The Flying Tigers were a group of pilots from the Army, and Navy to help with the Chinese Air Force.
• The Navajo Code Talkers transmitted secret communications.
• The Holocaust mass murdered 6 million Jews.
• WWII forced Germany to fight british and American troops from the East and West, and Russia forces, due to 2-front war.
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in France in 1944.
• The Tuskegee airmen were black serviceman who trained in the American Forces during WWII.
• Rationing was the restriction of time used by the public.
• Americans were later interned with Japanise American.
• Minority and women played a large role to keep up with jobs during war.
• Citizens participated in Victory Gardens to grow food.
• War bond helped the government with military operations due to debit security.
• The U.S Office of War Information was created during WWII consolidation and government information services. The Executive Order of 9066 led to Japanese Americans to internment from Fredlin Rosevelt.

Post-War America (1945-1974)

• The GI Bill in 1944 give military veterans financial and educational benefits.
• A blow to power the labor union, the Taft-Hartley Act, overturned any rights one during new deal.
• Suburbs are communities built on the outskirts of major cities and was lead by Levittown.
• The Baby boom was between WWII and the mid 1960s because of high birth rates.
• Interstate Highway Act (1956) authorized national highway in 1956, due to developing cities with no cars.
• Rock n roll became very popular music in 1950.
• Space Race was u.S, and U.S.S.R. over space.
• Civil rights act of 1957 protect voters to illegal in interfere voting.
• beat generation is group of writers in in the 1950s.
• Kennedy and Nixon were part of televised elections.
• The Peace Coros was program to help nations.
• The new frontier.
• NAAS send space to moon.
• Kennedy and Lincoln was a assassin in Dallas.
• The great society, Lyndon Jobsons, help people.
• War on poverty design to help poor.
• Medicare help health issues. _ Medicaid, housing in urban area.
• Civil rights for Johnson civil acts, during admndiration.
• Life under, Richard Nixons of Nixon reference of those who do public discourse.
• The 21 amendment were over 18.
• Nixon and China opens up economic business to make success.
• abuse over power lead to a resignation.
• Environmental protection agency is EPA.
• Endagespeces act protect species from extinction.
• Federal assistances for people discrimination.

The Cold War Era

• Containment was policy by to prevent communism.
• United NAtion created in 1945 for world conflict.
• The United States and the Soviet union from the UN.
• Truman economic in aid countriea, to prevent communiste.
• to help, rebuild , Europe.
• NATO , military Alliances in European.
• Berlin , to hell well blockade.
• after WII, korea were divided by north and so at 88 .
• united staes, central so the , south Koreas.
• America , committee . of investagation to the .
• accused of communism get bomb.
• bomb, nuclear boom sucesseded,
• Senator from who accused all.