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"Phony war"

During World War II Hitler removed his forces from Poland to focus his efforts in France and Britain. All of Europe fell rather silent at the shock of Hitler's move. This silence and period of inactivity in Europe came to an end when Hitler again moved his forces, and attacked the weaker Norway and Denmark. The period of silence in Europe was known as the phony war.

Panama Canal

The United States built the Panama Canal to have a quicker passage to the Pacific from the Atlantic and vice versa. It cost $400,000,000 to build. Columbians would not let Americans build the canal, but then with the assistance of the United States a Panamanian Revolution occurred. The new ruling people allowed the United States to build the canal.

Pancho Villa

Pancho Villa was a combination of a bandit and a Robin Hood. He was a rival of President Carranza of Mexico. He alluded Pershing and was never caught because Pershing was forced to go fight in WWI.

Panic of 1837

Nations first economic depression. Banks loaned too much money out for Western expansion and they began to fail one by one. Hardship was acute and widespread and hundreds of banks collapsed. Martin Van Buren (who was president at the time) tried to "divorce" the government from banking altogether. This idea was not highly supported but the Independent Treasury Bill passed congress in 1840. Although the Whigs repealed it the next year, the scheme was reenacted by the democrats in 1846.

Panic of 1857

The California gold rush increased inflation; speculation in land and railroads "ripped economic fabric"; hit the North harder than South because the South had cotton as a staple source of income; the North wanted free land from the government; drove Southerners closer to a showdown; caused an increase in tariffs; gave Republicans an issue for the election of 1860.

Parity

A plan to help farmers injured from low prices and over-production. From 1909-1914, farms had enjoyed a period of prosperity. Parity was the price placed on a product that gave it the same value, in buying power, that it had from 1909-1914. The AAA paid farmers to reduce production. The payment for this came from taxes gotten from the makers of expensive farm equipment.

Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry was a fiery lawyer during revolutionary War times. Supporting a break from Great Britain, he is famous for the words, "give me liberty, or give me death!" which concluded a speech given to the Virginia Assembly in 1775. This quote is a symbol of American patriotism still today. After the American Revolution, Henry served two terms as governor of Virginia and was also instrumental in the development of the Bill of Rights.

Patronage

Patronage is like the "spoils system." When an elected official fills appointed positions with friends that helped him/her get elected, it is considered patronage. Thomas Jefferson did not change many of the appointed positions in the government when he was elected in 1801.

Patroonship

Patroonship was vast Dutch feudal estates fronting the Hudson River in the early 1600's. They were granted to promoters who agreed to settle fifty people on them.

Paxton Boys

They were a group of Scots-Irish men living in the Appalachian hills that wanted protection from Indian attacks. They made an armed march on Philadelphia in 1764. They protested the lenient way that the Quakers treated the Indians. Their ideas started the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.

Payne-Aldrich Act

Signed by Taft in March of 1909 in contrast to campaign promises. Was supposed to lower tariff rates but Senator Nelson N. Aldrich of Rhode Island put revisions that raised tariffs. This split the Republican party into progressives (lower tariff) and conservatives (high tariff).

Peace Corps

Kennedy proposed this which was an army of idealistic and mostly youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.

Peculiar Institution

Another term for slavery; The owning of human beings existed in a country that practiced liberty.

Peggy Eaton

1) Married Sec. of War Eaton. She was snubbed by ladies of the White House. Jackson tried to help her be excepted, but failed. 2)1831 3) The lady in charge of the White House affairs was Henry Clay's wife. It helped in the dissolution of Jackson and Clay.

Pentagon Papers

Papers that "leaked" to "The New York Times" about the blunders and deceptions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in Vietnam, especially the provoking of the 1964 N. Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. This is linked to Watergate.

Pet Banks

were state banks; existed in the 1830's; state banks that received federal funds from Jackson. These funds were from the removal of the deposits in the BUS in order to insure of the bank's demise when its charter ran out. These banks then loaned money and printed paper to increase spending, which lead to inflation. Jackson attempts to stop this inflation with the Specie Circular, which lead to the Panic of 1837

Peter Cartwright

Born in 1785, he was the best known of Methodist "Circuit riders". He was a traveling frontier preacher. Ill-educated but still powerful, he reigned for 50 years going from Tennessee to Illinois. He converted thousands of people doing this. He also liked to pick a fight if someone spoke against his religion.

Peter Stuyvesant

A Dutch General; He led a small military expedition in 1664. He was known as "Father Wooden Leg". Lost the New Netherlands to the English. He was governor of New Netherlands

Philippine Insurrection

Even before the Philippines were annexed by the U.S. there was tension between U.S. troops and Filipinos. One U.S. sentry shot a Filipino who was crossing a bridge. The situation deteriorated and eventually we entered into a war with the Philippines. It would take two years to settle this dispute, as compared to the four months needed to defeat the once powerful Spain. Though the U.S. had better arms, the guerilla warfare employed by the Filipinos left the Americans outmatched. Between 200,000 and 600,000 Filipinos died in the war, most from sickness and disease caused by the war.

Phillis Wheatley

Born around 1753, Wheatley was a slave girl who became a poet. At age eight, she was brought to Boston. Although she had no formal education, Wheatley was taken to England at age twenty and published a book of poetry. Wheatley died in 1784.

Phineas T. Barnum

Phineas T. Barnum was the most famous showman of his era (1810-1891). He was a Connecticut Yankee who earned the title, "the Prince of Humbug." Beginning in New York City, he "humbugged" the American public with bearded ladies and other freaks. Under his golden assumption that a "sucker" was born every minute, Barnum made several prize hoaxes, including the 161-year-old (actually 80) wizened black "nurse" of George Washington.

Pilgrims

Separatists; worried by "Dutchification" of their children they left Holland on the Mayflower in 1620; they landed in Massachusetts; they proved that people could live in the new world

Pinckey Treaty 1795

Gave America what they demanded from the Spanish. Free navigation of the Mississippi, large area of north Florida. (helped America to have unexpected diplomatic success) Jay Treaty-helped prompt the Spanish to deal with the port of New Orleans.

Pocahontas

A native Indian of America, daughter of Chief Powahatan, who was one of the first to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and return to England with him; about 1595-1617; Pocahontas' brave actions in saving an Englishman paved the way for many positive English and Native relations.

Pontiac

Indian Chief; led post war flare-up in the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes Region in 1763; his actions led to the Proclamation of 1763; the Proclamation angered the colonists.

Pony Express

A Mail carrying service; ran from 1860-1861; was established to carry mail speedily along the 2000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California; they could make the trek in 10 days.

Popular Sovereignty

Popular Sovereignty is the idea that people should have the right to rule themselves. This idea had revolutionary consequences in colonial America.

Portsmouth Conference

The meeting between Japan, Russia, and the U.S. that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the fighting between those two countries.

Potsdam Conference

Held near Berlin in 1945 with Truman, Stalin and Clement Atlee who issued an ultimatum to Japan to surrender or be destroyed. This is where Truman learned about the Atomic Bomb.

Powhatan

Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy and father to Pocahontas. At the time of the English settlement of Jamestown in 1607, he was a friend to John Smith and John Rolfe. When Smith was captured by Indians, Powhatan left Smith's fate in the hands of his warriors. His daughter saved John Smith, and the Jamestown colony. Pocahontas and John Rolfe were wed, and there was a time of peace between the Indians and English until Powhatan's death.

Predestination

Primary idea behind Calvinism; states that salvation or damnation are foreordained and unalterable; first put forth by John Calvin in 1531; was the core belief of the Puritans who settled New England in the seventeenth century.

Primogeniture

A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere. Many of them turned to the New World for their financial purposes and individual wealth.

Primogeniture

An English law in colonial times that said only the eldest son of the parents could inherit a landed estate. This left the wealthy but landless younger sons to seek their fortune elsewhere. Many of the younger sons went to the New World, and they included Gilbert, Raleigh, and Drake.

Privateering

Privately owned armed ships specifically authorized by congress to prey on enemy shipping. There were over a thousand American privateers who responded to the call of patriotism and profit. The privateers brought in urgently needed gold, harassed the enemy, and raised American morale. (American Revolution, 1775-1783)

Proclamation of 1763

The Proclamation of 1763 was an English law enacted after gaining territory from the French at the end of the French and Indian War. It forbade the colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The Colonists were no longer proud to be British citizens after the enactment. The Proclamation of 1763 caused the first major revolt against the British.

Proprietor

a person who was granted charters of ownership by the king: proprietary colonies were Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware: proprietors founded colonies from 1634 until 1681:a famous proprietor is William Penn.

Protective Tariff

It was a tariff imposing 8% on the value of dutiable imports. It was passed by the first Congress. Revenue was the main goal. It was also designed to protect small industries just getting started. Hamilton wanted more protection for the well-to-do manufacturing groups. Congress still had agriculture and commercial interest dominating. This was part of Hamilton's economic plan to support the industrialists.

Protestant ethic

mid 1600's; a commitment made by the Puritans in which they seriously dwelled on working and pursuing worldly affairs.

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Revolution was a religious revolution, during the 16th century. It ended the supremacy of the Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant Churches. Martin Luther and John Calvin were influential in the Protestant Revolution.

Pueblo Incident

In January 1968 during the Vietnam War the North Koreans seized the "Pueblo", a U.S. intelligence ship, evidently in international waters. They imprisoned the crew of some eighty men for eleven months. This episode stirred American anger, but provoked no military response.

Pueblo Indians

The Pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern United States. They built extensive irrigation systems to water their primary crop, which was corn. Their houses were multi-storied buildings made of adobe.

Pure Food and Drug Act It was created in 1906 and was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals. It was made to protect the consumer.