Vocabulary

Unit 2 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Virginia Company: established Jamestown as a business venture.

Mayflower Compact: governing document of the Plymouth colony.

Plantation: large farm in which crops are planted, cultivated, and harvested, mainly for sale.

Indentured servant: a person who works for another for a period of time, under contract, until a debt is repaid.

Lost Colony: the name associated with the mystery surrounding the Roanoke settlement.

People & Places

Jamestown: the first permanent English settlement in North America.

John Smith: soldier and brief leader of the Jamestown colony.

Roanoke: the earliest attempted English settlement in North America.

John White: leader of the Roanoke colony.

Pilgrims: English separatists who sought religious freedom in North America.

Concepts

Citizen: a community member who owes loyalty to a government.

Colony: a group of people living in an area under the supervision of a parent country somewhere else.

Government: the ruling authority for a community.

Conflict: a serious disagreement or argument between two or more parties.

Import: bringing goods or services into a country to sell or trade.

Export: sending goods or services to another country for profit.

Unit 3 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Boston Tea Party: incident in which the Sons of Liberty dumped 142 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

Boston Massacre: incident in which unarmed protesters were killed by British soldiers.

Declaration of Independence: statement from Continental Congress declaring the colonies sovereign and independent.

Continental Congress: body of delegates who spoke and acted directly on behalf of American independence.

Minutemen: voluntary, local militia prepared to fight at a moment's notice.

People & Places

Loyalist: one who remained devoted to Great Britain.

Patriot: one who fought for independence.

George Washington: commander of the Continental army.

Thomas Jefferson: primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

Benjamin Franklin: U.S. diplomat to France during the Revolutionary War.

Charles Cornwallis: commander of the British army.

Lexington & Concord: location of the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Saratoga: location of the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.

Yorktown: location of British surrender in the Revolutionary War.

Concepts

Levy: to impose or collect a tax.

Massacre: the killing of many people unable to defend themselves.

Boycott: to protest by refusing to buy a certain product or service.

Unit 4 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. Constitution: the fundamental law of the United States; "law of the land".

Electoral College: comprised of 538 electors who vote to determine the result of a presidential election.

Executive branch: responsible for enforcing laws.

Legislative branch: responsible for creating laws.

Judicial branch: responsible for interpreting laws.

People & Places

Cabinet: the body of advisors to the President of the United States.

House of Representatives: legislative body comprised of 435 elected officials; 2-year term in office.

Senate: legislative body comprised of 100 elected officials; 6-year term in office.

Washington, D.C.: capital of the United States.

Speaker of the House: head of the House of Representatives.

Vice-President of the United States: head of the Senate.

Concepts

Amend: to change or add.

Precedent: something that sets standard for future events.

Preamble: a brief introduction.

Repeal: to remove or take away.

Unit 5 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Louisiana Purchase: the acquisition of territory by the United States from France in 1803.

War of 1812: a conflict resulting from British restrictions on U.S. trade and an American desire for territorial expansion.

Monroe Doctrine: stated that any intervention in U.S. politics by another nation would be considered a hostile act.

Jeffersonian Era: period that emphasized democracy and republicanism.

Jacksonian Era: period that emphasized democracy and the "common man".

People & Places

Thomas Jefferson: third president of the United States; served two terms.

Lewis and Clark: explorers who led an expedition to learn about the Louisiana Territory.

Andrew Jackson: seventh president of the United States; served two terms.

New Orleans: site of the final battle of the War of 1812.

Ghent: site of the signing of the peace treaty ending the War of 1812.

Concepts

Compromise: an agreement or settlement in which both sides accommodate one another.

Aristocracy: the highest, most influential class of society.

Unit 6 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Anaconda Plan: war strategy of the Union.

Attrition: war strategy of the Confederacy.

Compromise of 1820: admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Kansas-Nebraska Act: allowed for slavery to be decided by the citizens of the territories.

Union: states that remained loyal to the U.S. government.

Confederacy: states that left the United States to form their own country.

People & Places

Abraham Lincoln: sixteenth president of the United States; served one term.

Jefferson Davis: first president of the Confederate States of America.

Ulysses S. Grant: commander of Union forces during the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee: commander of Confederate forces during the Civil War.

Gettysburg: site of the the most important battle of the Civil War.

Mason-Dixon Line: boundary that separated the free and slave states.

Concepts

Abolition: the act of officially ending or stopping something.

Secede: to withdraw from an organization.

Address: a formal speech delivered to an audience.

Proclamation: a public or official announcement of an important matter.

Unit 7 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Reconstruction: the period following the Civil War in which the Southern states were reintegrated into the Union.

Thirteenth Amendment: abolished slavery in the United States.

Wade-Davis Bill: proposed bill preventing those who fought for the Confederacy from holding public office.

American Indian Wars: a series of armed conflicts between U.S. soldiers and Native American tribes.

Black Codes: post-Civil War laws passed limiting African Americans to a labor economy with low wages.

People & Places

Andrew Johnson: seventeenth president of the United States; served one term.

Sitting Bull: leader of the Sioux tribe.

Mark Twain: the Father of American Literature.

Concepts

Assimilation: the process through which individuals or groups from different cultural heritage adopt the beliefs, customs, and ways of life of another culture.

Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or social group.

Heritage: the inherited resources and attributes of a group or society from past generations.

Integrate: to form, coordinate, or blend into a unified group.

Unit 8 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Progressivism: group of reform movements that focused on urban problems, including workplace problems, poor sanitation, and government corruption.

Industrial Revolution: the time of transformation from an agricultural to industrial society.

Nineteenth Amendment: allows for women to vote in the United States.

Tenement housing: small, rundown apartments in major cities at the turn of the 20th century.

Square Deal: President Theodore Roosevelt's three-part domestic program; conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection.

Sherman Antitrust Act: law making monopolies illegal in the United States.

People & Places

Woodrow Wilson: twenty-eighth president of the United States; served two terms.

Susan B. Anthony: leading figure of the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt: twenty-sixth president of the United States; served two terms.

W.E.B. DuBois: founder of the NAACP.

Jacob Riis: famous journalist who chronicled the poor living conditions of tenement housing.

Concepts

Suffrage: the right to vote.

Monopoly: exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market.

Immigrate: to move to a non-native country or region to live.

Unit 10 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Roaring Twenties: an era when many people defied Prohibition, showed styles of dancing and dressing, and challenged moral standards.

Ford Model T: the first mass produced American car.

Eighteenth Amendment: made it illegal to manufacture, distribute, sell, and consume alcohol in the United States.

Nineteenth Amendment: allowed women the right to vote in the United States.

Twenty-first Amendment: repealed (took away) the Eighteenth Amendment.

Harlem Renaissance: time when African-American literature, art, and music flourished.

Great Depression: worst economic collapse in U.S. history.

Shantytowns: unplanned slum development in cities during the Great Depression.

New Deal: President Roosevelt's initiative of relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression.

Speakeasies: illegal, underground bars of the Prohibition era.

Bootleggers: smugglers of illegal alcohol of the Prohibition era.

People and Places

Henry Ford: father of the modern assembly line.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR): 32nd President of the United States; served four terms.

Dust Bowl: region of the Great Plains that experienced a long drought during the Great Depression.

Concepts

Assembly line: process used in factories in which workers perform several steps to produce an item.

Sit-down strike: protest in which a group of people refuse to leave a designated area.

Unit 11 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Allied Powers: consisted of the United States, Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain.

Triple Axis: consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Operation Overlord: commonly known as D-Day; June 6, 1944.

Operation Market Garden: code name for the Allied liberation of Holland.

Nazi-Soviet Pact: mutual agreement between Stalin and Hitler of non-aggression.

People & Places

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Allied commander of World War II in Europe.

Douglas MacArthur: Allied commander of World War II in the Pacific.

Adolf Hitler: leader of Nazi Germany.

Rosie the Riveter: fictional character who promoted gender equality and work in factories.

Stalingrad: location of the bloodiest battle of World War II in Europe.

Okinawa: location of the bloodiest battle of World War II in the Pacific.

Pearl Harbor: site of Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.

Hiroshima: site of first atomic bombing near the end of World War II.

Nagasaki: site of second atomic bombing near the end of World War II.

Concepts

Appeasement: giving into an aggressor's demand in order to maintain peace.

Blitzkrieg: swift, sudden military offensives.

Liberation: U.S. strategy of World War II in Europe.

Unconditional surrender: a process by which no terms or negotiations are offered to a defeated nation.

Holocaust: destruction or slaughter on a massive scale.

Internment camp: confined area for citizens who have been forcefully relocated.

Unit 12 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Korean War: conflict between North and South Korean military forces in the early 1950s.

Vietnam War: conflict between North and South Vietnamese military forces in the 1960s and 1970s.

Watergate: the events and scandal leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Tet Offensive: massive invasion of South Vietnam by North Vietnamese forces in 1968.

Hippie: counterculturalist of the 1960s and 1970s who protested the Vietnam War.

NAACP: the largest and oldest civil rights organization in the U.S.

17th Parallel: dividing line between North and South Vietnam.

38th Parallel: dividing line between North and South Korea.

People & Places

John F. Kennedy (JFK): 35th President of the United States; served one term.

Lyndon Johnson: 36th President of the United States; served one term.

Richard Nixon: 37th President of the United States; served one term.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK): Civil rights leader who opposed discrimination of African Americans through nonviolent protest.

Malcolm X: Civil Rights leader who promoted black power and self-defense for discriminated African Americans.

Concepts

Protest: a statement or action expressing objection or disapproval of something.

Discrimination: demonstrating unjust or prejudice behavior.

Unit 13 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Reaganomics: economic program based on the trickle down theory.

Strategic Defense Initiative: President Reagan’s high-tech, anti-nuclear defense system.

Reagan Revolution: attempt to return American to traditional values of church, family, and free enterprise.

Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981: federal law passed to boost the economy, reduce inflation, and increase employment.

Operation Urgent Fury: codename for the invasion of Grenada in October 1983.

People & Places

Ronald Reagan: 40th President of the United States; served two terms.

George H.W. Bush: 41st President of the United States; served one term.

Moral Majority: political action group formed to further traditional agenda, such as prayer in schools.

Mikhail Gorbachev: leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991.

Yuppies: young urban professionals.

Concepts

Conservatism: belief that the government should have a limited role in helping individuals and support traditional values and lifestyles.

Consumerism: belief that a person’s happiness is dependent on obtaining goods and material possession.

Unit 14 Vocabulary Terms & Definitions

Terms

Gulf War: conflict between Iraq and coalition forces, including the United States, occuring in 1990-1991.

Patriot Act: aimed at deterring and punishing terrorists in the United States and throughout the world.

Operation Iraqi Freedom: the 2003 invasion of Iraq with a goal of removing Saddam Hussein from power.

Nostalgia Era: nickname given to the decade of the 1990s.

Internet: global wide area network that connects computer systems throughout the world.

People & Places

Bill Clinton: 42nd President of the United States; served two terms.

George W. Bush: 43st President of the United States; served two terms.

Persian Gulf: a narrow area of the Arabian Sea, located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.

Saddam Hussein: leader of Iraq from 1979-2003.

Taliban: ruling group in Afghanistan during 9/11.

World Trade Center: complex of seven buildings located in the Financial District of New York City.

Pentagon: headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, located in Washington, D.C.

Concepts

Coalition: a combination of diverse things into a collective group.

Bombardment: an attack in which explosive devices are dropped on a large scale.