American History Vocab by Katelyn Kishore _ Student - GreenLevelHS

Civilization

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 18:11:16 UTC

Complex society including goverment, specialized workers and communication such as a writing system.

Mercantilism

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An economic system used by European nations to increase prosperity through trade

Columbian Exchange

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:13:33 UTC

A global trade of plants, animals, culture, people, technology, disease, and ideas between the Old World and the New World.

Indentured Servant

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:16:07 UTC

Someone who signs a contract to work for a certain period of time in exchange for something.

Chattel Slavery

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:19:00 UTC

A system where human were treated as personal property, to be bought or sold.

Puritans

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:21:43 UTC

English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who wanted to reform the Church of England by removing perceived Catholic practices and establishments.

Triangular Trade

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:25:51 UTC

A historical trade network linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Encomienda System

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:28:12 UTC

A spanish labor system in the Americas that required to provide labor and tribute in exchange for protection and religious instructions. This gave conquerors control over Indigenous populations.

Southern colonies

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:29:21 UTC

The English settlement of the 13 English colonies in North America, including Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They relied on cash crops such as tobacco, rice, indigo, and later cotton because they had great conditions and fertile soil. They had fewer towns and schools and were dominated by wealthy landowners who had land and political power.

Middle Colonies

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:31:42 UTC

English settlements, a group of four British colonies in colonial America, such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They were known for their diverse population and fertile soil that helped them farm. They were the most culturally and economically diverse colonies, combined with agricultural and trade.

New England Colonies

kkishore2 — 2025-08-26 22:33:15 UTC

A group of English settlements in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. These colonies developed economies based on farming, fishing, and trade. This area was known for town meetings and a focus on education.

Proclamation Line of 1763

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:26:24 UTC

A British decree that created a boundary, known as the Proclamation Line, along the Appalachian Mountains, forbade American colonists from settling.

Patriots

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:38:46 UTC

Patriots were American colonists who fought for and supported independence from British rule.

Tory

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:39:07 UTC

A Tory was a colonist who remained loyal to the British Crown and opposed the rebellion against Britain.

Articles of Confederation

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:44:43 UTC

A written agreement ratified in 1781 by the thirteen original states.

Federalist

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:48:06 UTC

A supporter of shared power between central and state governments.

Anti- federalists

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Opposed the ratification of the U.S. Constitution because they feared a strong national government and a lack of protection for individual rights.

Enlightenment

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:51:19 UTC

An eighteenth-century intellectual and cultural movement.

The Albany Plan of Union

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:53:16 UTC

A 1754 proposal by Benjamin Franklin and other colonial delegates for a unified government to manage colonial defense and relations with Native American tribes.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 17:54:29 UTC

Established a framework for the governance of the Northwest Territory and a method for its division into new states.

The Newburgh Conspiracy

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Where Continental Army officers, frustrated by unpaid wages and promised pensions, threatened to use force against the Confederation Congress or abandon their posts.

Great Compromise

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 18:01:15 UTC

Created a two-house Congress where the Senate has equal representation and the House of Representatives has proportional representation.

The Three-Fifths Compromise

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 18:02:42 UTC

For every five enslaved people, only three would be counted when determining a state's total population for congressional representation and taxation.

Salutary neglect

kkishore2 — 2025-09-08 18:03:44 UTC

The British policy from the early 1600s to the mid-1700s of loosely enforcing trade laws and regulations in its American colonies allowed them to develop a high degree of political and economic independence.

Political Party

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 17:42:33 UTC

A political party is an organized group of people who come together to exercise political power.

Marbury vs. Madison

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 17:44:31 UTC

The Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, which is the power of the federal courts to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional.

Temperance Movement

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 17:47:22 UTC

Campaigned for the voluntary reduction or total prohibition of alcoholic beverages, due to religious and social concerns.

Abolition Movement

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 18:00:50 UTC

19th-century social and political efforts to end slavery in the United States

Women's Rights Movement

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 18:05:02 UTC

Political equality for women.

Cotton Gin

kkishore2 — 2025-09-24 18:16:29 UTC

A machine invented by Eli Whitney in 1794 that efficiently separated cotton fibers from their seeds.

Steam Engine

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 13:30:32 UTC

Steam engine, early republic. This led to factory production.

Factory System

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 13:31:37 UTC

A method of manufacturing that centralized production in large facilities (labor)

Canals

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Private investment to reduce transportation costs and stimulate economic growth

Monroe Doctrine

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 14:05:50 UTC

A foreign policy position opposing European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It stated that the Americas were closed to further European colonization of any political affairs.

Democratic Party

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 14:08:42 UTC

Left leaning political party in the United States

Whigs

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 14:10:19 UTC

A major political party in the United States that existed from the mid-1830s until the mid-1850s.

Telegraph

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 14:13:12 UTC

A device that converted messages into electric impulses that traveled by wires and were converted back to readable text.

Interchangeable parts

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Components manufactured allowing one to directly replace another in a device or assembly without custom fitting

Impressment

kkishore2 — 2025-09-26 14:17:25 UTC

The act of forcing people to serve in the military against their will.

Manifest Destiny

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 02:51:42 UTC

The belief that the United States was destined to expand westward across North America, spreading democracy and civilization.

Compromise of 1850

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 02:53:57 UTC

A set of laws to help ease tension between free and slave states. California was admitted as a free state.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 02:55:48 UTC

The 1854 law allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, leading to Bleeding Kansas.

Popular Sovereignty

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 02:57:03 UTC

Its the idea that people should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.

Fugitive Slave Act

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:01:10 UTC

A law that required people to help capture and return escaped enslaved people to their owners, even from free states.

Sectionalism

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:02:38 UTC

Being loyal to their own region, such as the north, south, or west, rather than the country as a whole.

Secession

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:05:11 UTC

The Southern states left the Union to form their own government, the Confederacy, starting in 1860 with South Carolina.

Union

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:06:01 UTC

The Northern states that remained loyal to the U.S. government during the Civil War.

Confederacy

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:07:47 UTC

The Southern states that left from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, led by Jefferson Davis.

Thirteenth Amendment

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:09:40 UTC

In 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:10:45 UTC

In 1868, it granted citizenship to all people born in the U.S., which included enslaved people and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Fifteenth Amendment

kkishore2 — 2025-10-20 03:11:24 UTC

In 1870, it gave African American men the right to vote.

Capitalism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 16:51:29 UTC

An economic system where private individuals own and operate businesses for profit.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 16:52:47 UTC

An industrial leader who built a railroad empire for shipping. This was one of the first great industrialists.

Andrew Carnegie

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 16:53:51 UTC

A steel magnate who built the Carnegie Steel Company.

John D. Rockefeller

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 16:55:12 UTC

Founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and became one of the wealthiest.

JP Morgan

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 16:57:45 UTC

Powerful banker who financed railroads, organized U.S. Steel, and helped stabilize the U.S. economy during financial crises.

Titan of Industry

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:00:16 UTC

Power industrialists who contributed to the economic growth and innovation in the late 1800s.

Robber Baron

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:01:52 UTC

This was considered a negative term for industrialists who were accused of exploiting workers and corrupting government to gain wealth.

Unions

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:02:55 UTC

Organization of workers to protect and gain rights by fighting for better wages and working conditions.

Migration

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:03:54 UTC

This was the movement of people where immigrants came to the U.S for industrial jobs during the Gilded Age.

Gilded Age

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:05:15 UTC

This was a term coined by Mark Twain to describe the late 1800s as a period of wealth and industrial growth.

Social Darwinism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:06:05 UTC

This was a belief that in society, only the strongest and most capable individuals or businesses succeed.

Gospel of Wealth

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:06:49 UTC

Carnegie's ideas that the rich have a duty to use their wealth to help improve society.

Muckraking

kkishore2 — 2025-11-01 17:07:43 UTC

This was an investigative journalism exposing the corruption, poor working conditions, and social injustices.

Women’s Suffrage

kkishore2 — 2025-11-24 16:52:39 UTC

The movement for the right of women to vote.

Prohibition

kkishore2 — 2025-11-24 16:55:52 UTC

This was a nationwide ban on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States.

Isolationism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-24 16:58:46 UTC

Someone who advocates for a policy of remaining apart from the affairs of other countries , who focuses on domestic issues and avoids any international involvement.

Imperialism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-24 17:02:46 UTC

When a country expands its power and influence over other nations and territories.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:05:23 UTC

A U.S. naval officer who argued that strong nations need a stronger navy.

Open Door Policy

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:06:43 UTC

This was a U.S. policy that provided equal trading rights in China and prevented any one nation from controlling Chinese markets.

Militarism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:07:41 UTC

Building a strong armed force in preparation for war.

Nationalism

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:08:27 UTC

Pride in one's nation (thinking your nation is the best).

League of Nations

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:09:31 UTC

An international peacekeeping organization that was created after World War 2.

Treaty of Versailles

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:10:20 UTC

A peace treaty that ended World War 1 and punished Germany harshly.

Great Migration

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:11:22 UTC

A movement in which millions of African Americans from the South moved to northern cities for industrial jobs.

Zimmerman Telegram

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:12:30 UTC

This was a secret message from Germany to Mexico proposing an alliance against the U.S.

Stock on Margin

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:13:36 UTC

Buying stocks with borrowed money. This led to market instability, which later led to the 1929 stock market crash.

Tariffs

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:14:12 UTC

Taxes on imported goods.

3 Rs (Relief, Recovery, Reform)

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:15:30 UTC

These were goals of FDR's New Deal program to fight the Great Depression.

Island Hopping

kkishore2 — 2025-11-29 18:16:35 UTC

This was the U.S. strategy during WWII of capturing specific Pacific islands to move closer to Japan.

Holocaust

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:22:48 UTC

The genocide during World War II, in which Nazi Germany murdered many Jews.

International Organizations

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:23:39 UTC

Groups made up of different countries that work together on global issues.

United Nations

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:24:23 UTC

An international organization created after WWII to promote peace and cooperation.

Breton Woods System

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:25:20 UTC

A post-WWII economic system that set rules for money and trade to stabilize the global economy.

NATO

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:26:17 UTC

A military alliance formed by the United States and Western countries to defend against the Soviet Union.

Iron Curtain

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:27:11 UTC

The division between communist Eastern Europe and democratic Western Europe.

Warsaw Pact

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:28:04 UTC

A military alliance of the Soviet Union and Eastern European allies.

Containment

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:28:55 UTC

A U.S. policy to stop the spread of communism.

Domino Theory

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:31:02 UTC

The idea that if one country fell to communism and nearby countries would follow.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:32:33 UTC

The idea that nuclear war would destroy both sides so no one started one.

Atomic Bomb

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:42:06 UTC

A powerful nuclear weapon was first used by the US in WWII.

Nuclear Weapons

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:42:47 UTC

Weapons that use nuclear reaction and create massive destruction.

Great Society Program

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:43:54 UTC

President Lyndon B. Johnson's program to reduce poverty and improve education and civil rights.

Brown v. Board of Education

kkishore2 — 2025-12-16 02:45:00 UTC

Supreme Court case that ended segregation in public schools.

Reaganomics

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:28:44 UTC

The economic policy of President Rondalde Reagan, which focused on tax cuts, decreased government spending on domestic programs, and strengthened the military.

Liberal

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:29:44 UTC

A political ideology that supports government action to promote social welfare, protect civil rights, and regulate business to promote fairness.

Conservative

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:31:00 UTC

A political ideology that favors limited government involvement in the economy, traditional social values, and a strong national defense.

Moral Majority

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:32:23 UTC

A Christian conservative political organization that wanted to influence public policy on issues like abortion and school prayer.

Trickle Down Economics

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:34:22 UTC

The theory that tax cuts and economic benefits for businesses and the wealth that will eventually go down to the rest of society through investments.

Monetary Policy

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:35:59 UTC

This is an action that is taken by a national central bank to control the money supply, interest rates, and inflation.

Fiscal Policy

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:36:45 UTC

This is where the government decides about taxing and spending to influence the economy.

Laissez-Faire

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:37:41 UTC

A philosophy that the government should interfere as little as possible in business and economics.

Inflation

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:38:20 UTC

A rise in prices across an economy and a decrease in the value of money.

Deregulation

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:39:22 UTC

Reducing or removing government rules and restrictions on industries to help ecnomic growth.

Terrorism

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:40:23 UTC

The use of violence against civilians for political or ideological goals.

Globalization

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:41:32 UTC

To interconnect the world's economies, cultures, and population through trade, technology, and communication.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

kkishore2 — 2026-01-12 22:42:07 UTC

The value of all goods and services a country produces in a year.