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A major territorial conflict between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763, leading to British dominance.
French and Indian War
The constitutional principle where different branches of government can limit each other's powers to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
Checks and balances
The executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.
Emancipation Proclamation
A late 19th-century political movement, primarily composed of farmers, that advocated for government regulation of railroads, bimetallism, and other economic reforms.
Populist Movement
The forced relocation and incarceration of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, mostly U.S. citizens, during World War II.
Japanese American Internment
The unresolved conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, which resulted in a prolonged armistice and the division of the peninsula along the 38th parallel.
Armistice; divided Korea
Urban political organizations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that gained power by providing services to immigrants and the poor in exchange for votes.
Political machines
A key contemporary debate in U.S. domestic policy concerning the processes for legal entry, residency, and citizenship for non-citizens within the country.
Immigration reform
The division of power between a central (national) government and several regional (state) governments.
Federalism
A system where the mother country controls trade, builds wealth, and is self-sufficient by accumulating gold and silver.
Mercantilism
The increasing interdependence of world economies, cultures, and populations, driven by cross-border trade, technology, and flows of investment and people.
Globalization
A legislative package passed in 1850 that admitted California as a free state and enacted a stronger federal Fugitive Slave Law.
Compromise of 1850
The congressional resolution passed in 1964 that granted President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Landmark federal legislation enacted in 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations and employment.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The major political scandal during the 1970s involving the Nixon administration's illegal activities and subsequent cover-up of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Watergate
A landmark New Deal program established in 1935 to provide a safety net for Americans, offering old-age insurance, unemployment compensation, and aid to families.
Social Security Act
A vibrant cultural, social, and artistic explosion centered in New York City during the 1920s, celebrating African American heritage and identity.
Harlem Renaissance
The Cold War foreign policy articulated by President Truman in 1947, pledging U.S. support to free nations resisting subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.
Truman Doctrine
The geopolitical event in 1991 that marked the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, ending decades of superpower rivalry.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
A pivotal protest during the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1956, where African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The acquisition of a vast territory from France in 1803 that significantly expanded the size of the United States and secured control of the Mississippi River.
Louisiana Purchase
The British policy after the French and Indian War that restricted colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to avoid conflict with Native Americans.
Proclamation of 1763
A key weakness of the Articles of Confederation that severely limited the national government's ability to fund its operations.
Lack of power to tax
The constitutional amendment, ratified during Reconstruction, that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection of the laws.
14th Amendment
The foreign policy stance adopted by the United States at the outbreak of World War I in Europe, aiming to avoid involvement in the conflict.
Neutrality
A severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II, characterized by widespread unemployment and poverty.
Great Depression
A derogatory term used to describe powerful business leaders of the late 19th century who amassed fortunes through often ruthless and exploitative business practices.
Robber Barons
A key event in 1898 involving the explosion of a U.S. naval ship in Havana Harbor, which fueled American public support for war against Spain.
Sinking of the USS Maine
A significant precedent set by George Washington in his Farewell Address, warning against the formation of long-term international pacts.
Avoid permanent foreign alliances
The 19th-century American belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand its territory westward across the North American continent.
Manifest Destiny
The strategic waterway built by the United States that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, significantly reducing shipping times and enhancing global naval mobility.
Panama Canal
The major technological revolution characterized by the rapid development and widespread adoption of digital technologies, leading to unprecedented access to information and global communication.
Information Age
The federal law passed in 1973 that limits the President's ability to commit U.S. armed forces to hostilities abroad without congressional approval.
War Powers Act
The influential 1963 book by Betty Friedan that challenged the traditional role of women in society and helped spark the second-wave feminist movement.
The Feminine Mystique
The set of domestic programs launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice.
Great Society
The series of coordinated terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001, targeting the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
9/11 attacks
The landmark Supreme Court case in 1954 that ruled
Brown v. Board of Education
An Enlightenment concept asserting inherent individual freedoms, such as life, liberty, and property, which governments cannot take away.
Natural rights
A vocal critic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal who proposed the
Huey Long
Investigative journalists and writers who exposed corruption, social injustices, and political abuses in American society during the Progressive Era.
Muckrakers
A secret communication intercepted in 1917, proposing a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered World War I.
Zimmermann Telegram
The Supreme Court case in 1803 that established the principle of judicial review, allowing the judiciary to declare laws unconstitutional.
Marbury v. Madison
The agreement at the Constitutional Convention that established a bicameral legislature, balancing proportional and equal representation.
Great Compromise
The U.S. program initiated after World War II to provide massive financial aid for the economic recovery of Western European countries, aiming to prevent the spread of communism.
Marshall Plan
The Supreme Court decision of 1857 that ruled African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in U.S. territories.
Dred Scott v. Sandford