US History

Cards (24)

• 1
  Front

  What year did the Mayflower Compact establish self-governance among Plymouth colonists?

  Back

  1620. The Mayflower Compact was signed by the Pilgrim settlers aboard the Mayflower, establishing a form of self-government based on majority rule.

• 2
  Front

  What was the Stamp Act of 1765?

  Back

  A British law that imposed a direct tax on printed materials in the American colonies, including newspapers, legal documents, and playing cards, fueling colonial resentment toward British taxation.

• 3
  Front

  What were the three-fifths of all other Persons referred to in the original U.S. Constitution?

  Back

  Enslaved people. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a free person for purposes of congressional representation and taxation.

• 4
  Front

  What was the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

  Back

  A congressional agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30' parallel.

• 5
  Front

  What was the primary cause of the Civil War as defined by the Confederacy's own declarations?

  Back

  The preservation and expansion of slavery. Several Confederate states' declarations of secession explicitly cited the protection of slavery as the central reason for leaving the Union.

• 6
  Front

  What did the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution accomplish?

  Back

  Ratified in 1865, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

• 7
  Front

  What were Black Codes during the Reconstruction Era?

  Back

  Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that severely restricted the rights and freedoms of Black Americans, effectively reimposing conditions similar to slavery.

• 8
  Front

  What was the significance of the Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869?

  Back

  It connected the eastern and western United States for the first time, dramatically accelerating westward expansion, commerce, and industrialization.

• 9
  Front

  What is Social Darwinism in the context of the Gilded Age?

  Back

  The application of Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society, used by industrialists to justify wealth inequality by arguing that the rich were naturally superior and success was a result of 'survival of the fittest.'

• 10
  Front

  What was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890?

  Back

  The first major U.S. federal legislation to limit monopolies and trusts, prohibiting business activities that restricted interstate commerce or competition.

• 11
  Front

  Who were the Muckrakers of the Progressive Era?

  Back

  Investigative journalists and writers who exposed corruption, corporate abuses, and social injustices in the early 1900s. Notable examples include Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) and Ida Tarbell (exposé on Standard Oil).

• 12
  Front

  What did the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution achieve, and when was it ratified?

  Back

  Ratified in 1920, it granted women the right to vote, prohibiting any U.S. citizen from being denied the vote based on sex.

• 13
  Front

  What event triggered U.S. entry into World War I in 1917?

  Back

  A combination of factors including Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany secretly proposed a military alliance with Mexico against the United States.

• 14
  Front

  What was the Harlem Renaissance?

  Back

  A cultural, social, and artistic movement centered in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s and 1930s in which African American literature, music, art, and intellectual thought flourished.

• 15
  Front

  What was FDR's New Deal?

  Back

  A series of programs, public works projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939 to provide relief, recovery, and reform in response to the Great Depression.

• 16
  Front

  What was the significance of D-Day, June 6, 1944?

  Back

  It was the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, the largest seaborne invasion in history, which opened a major Western Front against Nazi Germany and marked a turning point leading to Germany's defeat in World War II.

• 17
  Front

  What was the Truman Doctrine?

  Back

  A 1947 U.S. foreign policy that pledged to provide political, military, and economic support to countries threatened by Soviet expansionism or communist takeover, marking a cornerstone of Cold War containment strategy.

• 18
  Front

  What was McCarthyism?

  Back

  A campaign of political repression in the early 1950s led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, characterized by accusations of communist subversion against government officials, military figures, and civilians, often without substantial evidence.

• 19
  Front

  What was the significance of Brown v. Board of Education (1954)?

  Back

  The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the 'separate but equal' doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

• 20
  Front

  What was the March on Washington of 1963, and what speech was delivered there?

  Back

  A massive civil rights rally of approximately 250,000 people in Washington, D.C., at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, calling for racial equality and an end to discrimination.

• 21
  Front

  What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplish?

  Back

  It outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations, and ended legally sanctioned racial segregation in the United States.

• 22
  Front

  What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)?

  Back

  Congressional authorization granted to President Lyndon B. Johnson to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war, effectively escalating U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

• 23
  Front

  What was the Watergate Scandal, and what was its outcome?

  Back

  A political scandal involving a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and subsequent White House cover-up. It led to President Richard Nixon becoming the only U.S. president to resign from office, doing so in August 1974.

• 24
  Front

  What event symbolized the end of the Cold War in 1989?

  Back

  The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, which marked the collapse of communist regimes across Eastern Europe and led to the reunification of Germany and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.