MAJOR ERAS IN U.S. HISTORY

Reconstruction Period

Civil War Ends- 1865

13th Amendment: Abolished slavery in U.S.

14th Amendment: everyone citizens regardless of race

15th Amendment: everyone can vote regardless of race (except women)

Homestead Act: head of household receives 160 acres of free land.

U.S. Indian Policy: move Indians to reservations, expect assimiliation

Transcontinental Railroad: connects the east coast to the west coast.

Cattle Industry Boom: Sale of Texas longhorns in Midwestern cities. Cattle trails and railroads

Gilded Age

Growth of big business: Carnegie (Steel) Rockefeller (oil), Vanderbilt (railroad) (Monopolies)

Growth of Labor Unions: organization for workers- better pay and working conditions

Urbanization: growth of cities

New Immigrants: from southern and eastern Europe.

Political Machines: gave jobs and housing in exchange for votes.

Populism: People’s political party. Becomes part of Democratic party.

Social Gospel Movement: Movement to help the poor mainly new immigrants.

Interstate Commerce Act: regulations of railroads in the United States

Anti-Trust Acts: regulations of big business.

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act: civil service exam for government jobs. Jobs based on performance.

Spanish-American War (1898) U.S. goes to war with Spain. Gain: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines as a result. Causes: Yellow Journalism, U.S.S. Maine blows up, DeLome

letter- calls McKinley “weak”

Progressive Era: (Try to fix the ills of society)

Theodore Roosevelt: served in the Spanish-American War as a “rough rider”, became President. Environmentalist, Trust-buster, built Panama Canal

Building Panama Canal: creates shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Eliminates the need for a two ocean navy.

Great Migration: African Americans migrate from the South to the North in the years between the wars.

Susan B. Anthony: leader for women’s suffrage

W.E.B. Dubois: founded the NAACP, wanted immediate integration for African Americans

16th (Sixteenth) Amendment: income tax

17th (seventeenth) Amendment: direct election of senators

18th Amendment: Prohibition, sale, consumption, manufacturing of alcohol illegal in the United States.

19th Amendment: women’s right to vote

Pure Food and Drug Act: all foods must be labeled correctly and meet federal standards

Initiative: citizens can put an issue on the ballot. Referendum: vote on the initiative, recall: remove a corrupt political person

World War I:

German Submarine Warfare: Unrestricted sub warfare- sinking of American ships, cause for U.S. involvement in WWI.

Zimmermann Telegram: intercepted telegram from Germany asking Mexico to invade the United States. Another cause for U.S. involvement in WWI.

American Expeditionary Force: U.S. troops in WWI.

General John J. Pershing: U.S. General went to Mexico to capture Pancho Villa, served U.S. in World War I.

Stalemate on western front: WWI trench warfare; neither side making any progress

Battle of Argonne Forest: Major battle in WWI.

Wilson’s Fourteen Points: President Wilson’s plan for peace at the end of WWI; including the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles: Treaty that ends WWI. Blames Germany for WWI.

League of Nations: President Wilson plan for an organization to prevent future wars. U.S. refuses to join.

Roaring Twenties:

Red Scare: Fear of Communism in the United States

Nativism: fear of foreigners

Social Darwinism: “Survival of the Fittest”. The strongest will survive. Same in

business, the strongest businesses will survive.

Prohibition: 18th Amendment- no more consumption of alcohol. Led to organized

crime.

Harlem Renaissance: Surge of music, writing and arts by African Americans in Harlem, neighborhood in New York.

Henry Ford: Assembly line production. Makes the automobile affordable to most Americans.

Assembly Line: form of production, product moves not the worker. Makes factories more efficient.

Clarence Darrow: Defense attorney for Biology teacher, John Scopes. Accused of teaching the Theory of Evolution.

William Jennings Bryan: prosecuting attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial. Populist Party candidate. ran for Presidency three times. Lost all three times.

Charles Lindbergh: aviator who flew across the Atlantic in the 1920’s. Became a national hero.

Great Depression:

Stock Market Crash (1929): Black Tuesday. Over speculation leads to crash of stock market.

U.S Tariff Policy: Raised U.S. tariffs to keeps foreign goods out of the United States and promote American goods.

Federal Reserve Policies: refuse to put more money in circulation. Regulates U.S. banking industry.

Bank Failures: “run on the banks”. Consumers demanded money, banks invested money in the stock market, couldn’t meet the demands and closed.

Widespread Unemployment: Production goes down, companies lay off employees.

Dust Bowl: High winds, drought, loose soil in the Midwest blows dust as far as NYC.

New Deal: FDR’s programs to bring the United States out of the Great Depression.

Social Security Administration: create security of the retired, and disabled citizens of the United States.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): federal government insures bank deposits up to $100,000.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): watchdog agency over the stock market.

Court Packing Scheme: FDR’s plan to pack the Supreme Court to insure the survival of

his New Deal programs. Ruled unconstitutional.

World War II:

Rise of Fascist Dictators: Hitler, Franco, Mussolini. Failure of democracies in Western Europe led to their rise in popularity.

Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941. Japan attacks the United States. Reason for U.S. entrance into WWII.

Pacific and European Theaters: Two fronts of World War II.

Battle of Midway. U.S. defeats Japanese Navy. Turning point in WWII.

Invasion of Normandy: D-Day (June 6, 1944) Allied invasion of France. Opens western front for the Allies in Europe.

The Holocaust: Nazi systematic killing of 11 million people during WWII.

Food Rationing: conserving resources in the United States during WWII. Food Rationing coupons were used.

Victory Gardens: growing own gardens to conserve food supplies for the U.S. troops.

Japanese Internment: Japanese-Americans forced to relocation camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Tuskegee Airmen: African-American fighter pilots during WWII.

Flying Tigers: Volunteer Fighter pilots, flew supply missions to China.

Navajo Code Talkers: created unbreakable code in the Pacific during WWII.

Atomic Bomb: U.S. drops nuclear bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII. Controversy forms over use of the bomb.

Early Cold War Era:

Soviet Aggression in Europe: Occupied countries in Europe install Communist governments.

Truman Doctrine: plan that U.S. will defend any country resisting Communism. Created due to threat of Communism in Greece and Turkey.

Marshall Plan: U.S. help rebuilds western Europe after WWII.

Berlin Airlift: U.S. and Britain fly supplies into Berlin after roads are shut down to the city.

McCarthyism: Communist “witch hunt” – bullying of a witness without evidence

Korean War: North Korea invades South Korea. U.S. defends South Korea under the command of General MacArthur.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Alliance between U.S., Canada, and western European countries defending themselves against an attack.

G.I. Bill: provides money for college, low interest loans for those who serve in the military.

Baby Boom: largest population boom in U.S. History during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Sputnik I (1957): Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite into space.

Cuban Missile Crisis: U.S. discovers missile bases in Cuba. Missiles provided by the Soviet Union.

Civil Rights Movement:

Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Reverses Plessy v. Ferguson decision of “Separate But Equal” desegregates schools in the United States.

Hernandez v. Texas: Mexican Americans cannot be systematically excluded in practice from juries.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968): civil rights activist promoted non-violent resistance.

Believed in integration. Assassinated in 1968.

Cesar Chavez: United Hispanic Farm Workers. Used non-violent means of protesting such as boycotts.

Great Society Programs: LBJ’s programs to end poverty and promote equality in the United States.

Civil Rights Act 1957: first civil rights act passed by Congress. Primarily dealt with voting rights.

Civil Rights Act 1964: outlaws discrimination in the United States.

Voting Rights Act 1965: outlawed voting rights discrimination in the United States.

24th Amendment: eliminates poll taxes

Vietnam Era:

Domino Theory: if one country falls to communism the rest will fall.

Gulf of Tonkin: gave the President broad military powers in Vietnam.

Tet Offensive: large scale counter- strike by Vietcong during Vietnamese New Year 1968.

Vietnamization: slow withdraw of U.S. troops from Vietnam.

Fall of Saigon: 1975, U.S. troops withdraws troops from Vietnam. South Vietnam falls to North Vietnam.

Silent Majority: mainstream America who still supported the Vietnam War quietly.

26th Amendment: lowered voting age from 21 to 18.