Download VUS vocab definitions 2011-12

VUS Vocabulary
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17th Parallel - The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along this line.
38th Parallel - This is the line that divides North Korea from South Korea.
Allies - In 1914, this alliance consisted of France, Britain and Russia.
Amendment 13 – Amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery.
Amendment 14 – Amendment which declares that anyone born in the United States to be a citizen with
equal protection under the law and prohibits confederates from serving in Congress.
Amendment 15 – Amendment which guarantees the right to vote to all citizens, regardless of race, color or
previous condition of servitude.
Amendment 17- An amendment to the U.S. constitution adopted in 1913 that provides for the election of
U. S. Senators by the people rather than by state senators.
Amendment 18 - Prohibited the sale of Alcohol.
Amendment 19- An amendment to the U. S. Constitution, adopted in 1920, that gives women the right to
vote.
American Federation of Labor - An alliance of trade and craft unions formed in 1886.
Anti-Federalist - An opponent of a strong central government.
Anti-Semitism - Hatred of the Jewish people.
Anti-trust laws - Legislation which makes it illegal to form a business entity that interferes with free trade
or creates a monopoly that prevents competition.
Appeasement - The granting of concessions to a hostile power in order to keep the peace.
Appomattox – Where Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on April 9, 1865, thus
ending the Civil War.
Aristocracy - Government rule by the elite, wealthy or upper class.
Armistice – A truce or agreement to end an armed conflict.
Articles of Confederation - A document adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and finally
approved by the states in 1781 that outlined the form of government of the new United States.
Artisan - a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson.
Assimilation – The process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the
dominant culture.
Bacon’s Rebellion - an unsuccessful uprising by frontiersmen in Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon
against the colonial government in Jamestown.
Bataan Death March - Name for march of American POWs in which they suffered brutal treatment by the
Japanese after the Americans surrendered the Philippines
Battle of the Bulge - The month long battle in which the Allies succeeded in turning back the last major
German offensive.
Battle of Yorktown - Final battle of the American Revolution in which General Cornwallis surrendered to
General Washington.
Bay of Pigs - This involved an invasion of Cuba planned by the CIA which Kennedy backed out of at the
last minute.
Berlin Wall - This separated East Germany from West Germany.
Bessemer process - A cheap and efficient process for making steel, developed around 1850.
Bill of Rights - The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, added in 1791 and consisting
of a formal list of citizen’s rights and freedoms.
Black Tuesday - This term refers to the stock market crash in October of 1929.
Blitzkrieg - “Lightening war” or a sudden massive attack combining air and ground forces.
Blockade - The use of ships or troops to prevent movement into and out of a port or region controlled by a
hostile nation.
Bootlegger - This was someone who provided illegal alcohol.
Boston Tea Party - The dumping of 18,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest the Tea
Act.
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - Supreme Court decision that overturned the “Plessy vs.
Ferguson” decision.
Bull Moose Party - A name given to the Progressive Party formed to support Theodore Roosevelt’s
candidacy for the president in 1912.
Capitalism – An economic system based on private ownership, free competition, and profit motive.
Carpetbagger – A northerner who moved to the south after the Civil War.
Cash crop – a crop grown by a farmer for sale rather than for personal use.
Casualties - People who die in war.
Cattle drive – When cowboys round-up cows on the open range and drive them long distances to a
railroad to transport them to eastern markets.
Cavaliers - English nobility who received large land grants in eastern Virginia from the King of England
after the Virginia Company lost its charter.
Central Powers - In 1914, this alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.
Checks and Balances - The provisions of the United States Constitution that prevent any branch of the U.
S. Government from dominating the other two branches.
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – Law that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers and limited the
civil rights of Chinese immigrants.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 - This legislation outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, religion, creed or
gender.
Civil Rights Act of 1968 - This banned discrimination in housing.
CNN - Twenty-four hour news cable channel.
Colonial Era – Time period from 1607 until 1776 during which the American colonies were founded.
Colony - Outlying settlement that provides products for the mother country.
Columbian Exchange - The transfer, beginning with Columbus’s first voyage, of plants, animals and
diseases between the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere.
Communism - Government system consisting of totalitarian rule by one party and having a socialist
economic system in which the government owns and controls the means of production.
Compromise of 1877 – A series of congressional measures under which the Democrats agreed to accept
the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, as President, even though he had lost the popular vote.
The measure included the withdrawal of federal troops from southern states, federal money for improving
Southern infrastructure, and the appointment of a conservative southern cabinet member.
Conquistador - Title for one of the Spaniards who traveled to the Americas as an explorer and conqueror
in the 16th century.
Conservation - The planned management of natural resources involving the protection of some wilderness
areas and the development of others for the common good.
Corporation - A stock company formed for the purpose of raising large sums of capital and limiting the
liability of stockholders.
Covenant Community - A religious group whose members bind themselves to one another and to the
group by a solemn agreement called a covenant.
Cuban missile crisis - Kennedy blockaded Cuba during this incident in which the United States and the
Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war.
Cyrus McCormick – inventor of the 1st mechanical reaper.
Dawes Severalty Act – The 1887 congressional act which attempted to break-up the tribal control of
reservations and divide the land into 160 acre individual sections.
Declaration of Independence - The document written in 1776 in which delegates of the Second
Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain.
Direct Democracy - citizens making policy and law decisions in person, without going through
representatives and legislatures. The classic example of this is the New England Town Meeting.
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Dissenter - One who refuses to accept the doctrines or usages of an established or a national church,
especially a Protestant who disagrees with the Church of England.
Dollar Diplomacy - Taft’s foreign policy of economic imperialism that promoted American business
investment in foreign countries.
Economy – the management of the resources of a community, country, etc., especially with a view to its
productivity.
El Alamein - The battle won by Britain over the Suez Canal.
Emancipation Proclamation – An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing
slaves in all regions behind Confederate lines.
Embargo - A government ban on trade with one or more other nations.
Enlightenment - An 18th century intellectual movement that emphasized the use of reason and the
scientific method as a means of obtaining knowledge.
Entrepreneur – a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk of a business venture.
Evangelical Religions – religions associated to certain movements in the Protestant churches in the 18th
and 19th centuries that stressed the importance of personal experience of guilt for sin, and of
reconciliation to God through Christ.
Exodusters – African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after the Civil War.
Fascism - A political philosophy that advocates a strong, centralized nationalistic government headed by a
powerful dictator.
Federalism - A political system in which national government and constituent units, such as state
governments, share power.
Federalist - The supporters of the Constitution and of a strong national government.
First Continental Congress - Meeting in Philadelphia in September of 1774 of 56 colonial representatives
to draw up a declaration of colonial rights.
Flappers - Emancipated young woman of the 1920s who embraced new fashions and urban attitudes.
Fort Sumter – Fort in Charleston, South Carolina that Confederate forces attacked on April 12th, 1861
marking the beginning of the Civil War.
Fourteen Points - Wilson’s plan for peace.
Free enterprise - The freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with minimal
government regulation.
Freedman’s Bureau – A federal agency set up to help former slaves after the Civil War.
French and Indian War - A conflict in North America lasting from 1754 until 1763, that was part of a
worldwide struggle between France and Britain and that ended with the defeat of France and the transfer
of French Canada to Britain.
Fugitive Slave Act - A law enacted as part of the Compromise of 1850 designed to ensure that escaped
slaves would be returned into bondage.
Geneva Convention - A series of international agreements which established rules for the humane
treatment of prisoners of war and of the sick, the wounded, and the dead in battle
Gettysburg – Site of a three day battle in Pennsylvania which was the turning point of the Civil War. The
union won the battle and 51,000 soldiers died.
Glasnost - Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of encouraging freedom of expression.
Glass ceiling - The idea that career advancement for women is not equal to that for men.
Great Awakening – A revival of religious feeling in the American colonies during the 1730s and 1750s.
Great Compromise - The Constitutional Convention’s agreement to establish a two-house national
legislature, with all states having equal representation in one house and each state having representation
based on its population in the other house.
Great Migrations - A large scale movement of African Americans from the South to the Northern cities in
the early 20th century.
Harlem Renaissance - Literary and artistic movement that celebrated African American culture.
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Haymarket Square - A violent confrontation in Chicago in 1886 between workers and police that resulted
in several deaths and the convicting of organizers for inciting a riot.
Hiroshima - The first Japanese city to be destroyed by an Atomic bomb.
Holocaust - The systematic murder, or genocide, of Jews and other groups in Europe by the Nazis before
and during World War II.
Home rule – A state’s powers of governing its citizens without federal government involvement.
Homestead Act of 1862 – Law that gave citizens 160 acres of land as long as they agreed to live on it and
farm it for a minimum of 5 years.
Homestead Strike - An unsuccessful and bloody strike at the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892.
Hooverville - The nickname for “shantytowns” (taken from the name of the unpopular President during
the start of the Great Depression).
House of Burgesses - The first elected assembly in the New World established by the 1640s and is today
known as the General Assembly of Virginia.
Imperialism - Closely linked with industrialism, this long term cause of the war involved the contest for
colonies.
Impressments - The forcible seizure of men for military service.
Indentured Servant - A person who has contracted to work for another for a limited period, often in return
for travel expenses, shelter and sustenance.
Industrial Revolution - The change in social and economic organization the resulted from the replacement
of hand tools with machines and from the development of large scale industrial production.
Initiative - A procedure by which a legislative measure can be originated by the people rather than by
lawmakers.
Interchangeable Parts - Standardized parts that can be used in place of one another.
Internment Camp - A place for the purpose of confining or restricting the movement of people during war
time.
Interstate Commerce Act - A law enacted in 1887 that established the federal government’s right to
supervise railroad activities and created a five-member commission to do so.
Iron curtain - Winston Churchill first coined this term referring to the Soviet domination of Eastern
European countries.
Iwo Jima - The pacific island on which the Allies won a battle against Japanese forces that would leave
more than 6,000 marines dead and is famous for picture of an American flag being raised by 4 marines.
Jamestown - First permanent English settlement in North America established in 1607 by the Virginia
Company and named after the King of England.
Jim Crow Laws - Laws enacted by southern states to separate white and black people in public and private
facilities.
Joint Stock Company - Businesses in which investors pool their wealth for a common purpose.
King Philips War - the war between New England colonists and a confederation of Indians from 1675-76.
Knights of Labor - Labor Union for individual unskilled workers organized by Uriah Stephens whose
membership was open to all.
Ku Klux Klan – A secret organization that used terrorist tactics in an attempt to restore white supremacy
in southern states after the Civil War.
Labor Union - An organization of wage earners or employees for the purpose of promoting mutual aid and
protection and for dealing collectively with employers.
Laissez Faire – The theory that government should not interfere in economic affairs.
Land Ordinance of 1785 – A law that established a plan for surveying and selling the federally owned
lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and north of the Ohio River (the Northwest Territory).
League of Nations - International peace keeping organization which the U.S. never joined.
Lend-Lease Act - A law passed in 1941 that allowed the United States to ship arms and other supplies,
without immediate payment, to nations fighting the Axis powers.
VUS Vocabulary
120. Lexington and Concord - First battles of the American Revolution.
121. Loyalist - Colonist who supported Great Britain and King George III in the American Revolution, aka
Tories.
122. Manhattan Project - A U. S. program to develop the Atomic bomb.
123. Manifest Destiny - The 19th century belief that the United States would inevitably expand westward to the
Pacific Ocean and into Mexican territory.
124. Marbury v. Madison – In this case, the Supreme Court gave power to the federal courts to declare laws
unconstitutional, a power known as “judicial review”.
125. March on Washington (1963) - Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of his dream during this.
126. Marshall Plan - This was an economic aid program for Europe after World War II based on the idea that
economically weak countries might fall to communism if they did not receive help.
127. Mass Production - The production of goods in large quantities, made possible by the use of machinery and
the division of labor.
128. Massive resistance - Policy adopted by Virginia’s Governor and legislature in order to resist desegregation
of public schools.
129. Mayflower Compact - An agreement signed by Pilgrim men creating civil government and pledging
loyalty to the King.
130. McCarthyism - Term meaning when someone unfairly accuses another of disloyalty and subversion.
131. McCulloch vs. Maryland – In this Supreme Court Case, the judges prohibited the states from taxing
agencies of the federal government.
132. Mercantilism – an economic system in which nations seek to increase their wealth and power by obtaining
large amounts of gold and silver by establishing a favorable balance of trade.
133. Middle Passage – the voyage that brought enslaved Africans to the West Indies and later to North
America.
134. Militarism - The policy of building up armed forces in aggressive preparedness for war and their use as a
tool of diplomacy.
135. Minutemen - Patriot civilian soldiers just before and during the Revolutionary War, pledged to be ready to
fight at a minute’s notice.
136. Missouri Compromise - A series of agreements passed by congress in 1820-1821 to maintain the balance
of power between slave states and Free states.
137. Monroe Doctrine - A policy of U. S. opposition to any European interference in the affairs of the Western
Hemisphere announced by President Monroe in 1823.
138. Moral Diplomacy – Woodrow Wilson’s diplomacy that preached the value of exporting democracy and
capitalism (and American goods) to promote stability and progress (and American markets) in the world.
139. Muckraker - One of the magazine journalists who exposed the corrupt side of business and public life in
the early 1900s.
140. NAACP - An organization founded in 1909 to promote full racial equality.
141. Nagasaki - The Japanese city destroyed by an Atomic bomb that caused the Japanese to surrender.
142. Nationalism - A devotion to the interests and culture of one’s nation. Also, long-term cause of World War
I encouraged competitiveness between nations and encouraged various ethnic groups to attempt to create
nations of their own.
143. NATO - Military alliance between the United States and Western European countries to prevent Soviet
invasion.
144. Nazi Party - the political party of extreme nationalism, racism and militarism that was lead by Adolf
Hitler.
145. Neutrals - Colonist who did not support either side in the American Revolution.
146. New immigration – the second phase of immigration in which most immigrants to America come from
Southern and Eastern Europe between the Civil War and World War I
VUS Vocabulary
147. New Jersey Plan - A proposal to have a single house legislature with membership based on equal
representation of each state.
148. Nisei Regiments - A decorated military fighting unit made up of soldiers of Japanese American descent.
149. Normandy - The landing of American and Allied troops in German-occupied France on 6 June 1944 and
the liberation (freeing) of Western Europe from Hitler began
150. Northwest Ordinance of 1787 - A law that established a procedure for the admission of new states to the
union.
151. Nuremburg Trials - the court proceedings held in Nuremburg, Germany, after World War II, in which the
Nazis were tried for war crimes.
152. Okinawa - The pacific island on which the Allies won a battle against Japanese forces that involved over
1,900 Kamikaze attacks and resulted in the loss of 7,600 allied seamen.
153. Old immigration – the first phase of immigration in which most immigrants to America came from
Northern and Western Europe.
154. Open Door Policy - John Hay’s proposal to protect and expand United States trade with China.
155. Panama Canal - Served as a shorter trade route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and was
completed in 1914.
156. Panic of 1837 - A U. S. financial crisis in which banks closed and credit systems collapsed resulting in
many bankruptcies and high unemployment.
157. Parochial Schools – A private school supported by a particular church or parish.
158. Patriots - Colonist who supported American independence from Great Britain.
159. Pearl Harbor - The incident which caused the United States to enter World War II.
160. Perestroika - Mikhail Gorbachev’s plans for restructuring the Soviet Union’s government control of the
economy.
161. Pink Collar Ghetto - Term referring to the fact that women often hold low paying, low esteem jobs.
162. Plantation - A large farm on which the labor of slaves or other workers in used to grow a single crop such
as sugar cane or cotton.
163. Platt Amendment - Addition to the Cuban constitution making Cuba a protectorate of the United States.
164. Plessey vs. Ferguson - An 1896 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that separation of the races in
public accommodations was legal, thus establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine.
165. Plymouth Colony - The 2nd permanent English settlement formed by separatist pilgrims in 1620 based on
principles of Mayflower Compact and religious beliefs.
166. Poll Tax - An annual tax that formerly had to be paid in some southern states by anyone wishing to vote.
167. Popular sovereignty - A system in which the residents vote to decide an issue.
168. Powhatan – a group of Native American peoples that lived in eastern Virginia at the time of the first
English settlements there.
169. Proclamation of 1763 - An order in which Britain prohibited its American Colonist from settling west of
the Appalachian Mountains.
170. Progressive Movement - An early 20th century reform movement seeking to return control of the
government to the people, to restore economic opportunities, and to correct injustices.
171. Prohibition - The period, from 1920 to 1933, during which the Eighteenth amendment forbidding the
manufacture and sale of alcohol was in force.
172. Propaganda - Bias (one sided) advertising or reporting by a government.
173. Proprietor - An owner, particularly one of those granted ownership of and full governing rights over
certain of the English colonies in North America.
174. Protectorate - A country whose affairs are partially controlled by another stronger power.
175. Pullman Strike - An 1894 strike by railroad employees led by Eugene Debs against the company which
made railroad sleeping cars, which turned violent causing President Cleveland to send in federal troops to
reestablish order.
VUS Vocabulary
176. Pure Food and Drug Administration - Agency created by legislation passed in 1906 to regulate the sale of
foods and drugs and to ensure truth in labeling.
177. Puritans - Members of a group that wanted to eliminate all traces of Roman Catholic rituals and traditions
in the Church of England.
178. Quakers - Members of the Society of Friends, a religious group persecuted for its beliefs in 17th century
England.
179. Radical Republicans – One of the congressional Republicans who, after the Civil War, wanted to destroy
the political power of former slaveholders and to give African Americans full citizenship and the right to
vote.
180. Recall - A procedure for removing a public official from office by a vote of the people.
181. Reconstruction – The period of rebuilding that followed the Civil War, during which the defeated
Confederate States were readmitted to the Union.
182. Red Scare - The panic surrounding the threat of communism in the early 1920s.
183. Redemption – The Southern Democrats’ term for their return to power in the South in the late 1870s.
184. Referendum - A procedure by which a proposed legislative measure can be submitted to a vote of the
people.
185. Reformation - A religious movement in 16th Century Europe growing out of desire for reform in the
Roman Catholic Church leading to the establishment of protestant churches.
186. Reparations - Money paid to victim(s) by guilty party.
187. Republic - A government in which the citizens rule through elected representatives.
188. Republicanism - The belief that government should be based on the consent of the people.
189. Revolution - Name given to the American war for independence from Great Britain.
190. Roosevelt Corollary - Foreign policy expanding the Monroe Doctrine calling for United States military
intervention in Latin America for “chronic wrongdoing”.
191. Rosie the Riveter - A nickname and a symbol of the American woman who traded housework for factory
work
192. Rough Riders - Voluntary military unit in Spanish-American War lead by Teddy Roosevelt.
193. Scalawag – A white southerner who joined the Republican Party after the Civil War.
194. Segregation - The separation of people on the basis of race.
195. Seneca Fall Convention - A women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.
196. Sharecropping - A system in which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools
197. Shay’s Rebellion - An uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers protesting the increased state taxes
in 1787.
198. Slavery-based Agricultural Economy - plantation agricultural production system in lowlands along
Atlantic and Deep South which depended on slave labor and would lead to eventual conflict between the
North and South.
199. Slums – A densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty rundown housing, poverty,
and social disorganization.
200. Small Scale Subsistence Farming - farming whose products are intended to provide for the basic needs of
the farmer, with little surplus for marketing.
201. Speakeasy - This was a nightclub where liquor was sold illegally.
202. Speculation - This term refers to making extremely risky business transactions on the chance of making
quick or considerable profits.
203. Spoils system - The practice of winning candidates’ rewarding their supporters with government jobs.
204. Square Deal - President Theodore Roosevelt’s program of progressive reforms designed to protect the
common people against big business.
205. Stalingrad - Russian city in which the Germans conducted a month long siege.
206. Stamp Act - A 1765 law in which Parliament established the first direct taxation of goods and services
within the British colonies of North America.
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Suffrage - The right to vote.
Tariff of Abominations
Tenant Farming – A system in which farmers supply their own tools and rent to farmland for cash.
Tenement – Multi-storied building divided into apartments to house as many families as possible.
The Jungle - A novel by Upton Sinclair published in 1906 that portrays the dangerous and unhealthy
conditions prevalent in the meatpacking industry at that time.
Three-fifths Compromise - The Constitutional Convention’s agreement to count three-fifths a states slaves
as population for purposes of representation and taxation.
Transcontinental Railroad – A railroad system that links the eastern and western United States.
Transcontinental Railroad Strike - Strike of the workers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1877 that
stopped over 50,000 miles of rail traffic for a week until President Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops
in to end the strike, also known as the Great Strike of 1877.
Treaty of Ghent - The 1814 treaty that ended the war of 1812.
Treaty of Paris - The 1783 agreement that ended the Revolutionary War, confirming the independence of
the United States and setting the boundaries of the new nation.
Treaty of Paris (2nd)- Peace Agreement that ended the Spanish-American War.
Treaty of Versailles - Peace Agreement that ended World War I.
Truman Doctrine - This set the precedent that the containment of communism would be a basic principle
of American foreign policy.
Trust - A legal agreement under which several companies group together to regulate production and
eliminate competition. To do this, stockholders turnover their stock to group of directors.
Tuskegee Airman - A group of decorated African American flyers in World War II.
Vietnamization - This called for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in Vietnam.
Virginia Declaration of Rights - A document written by George Mason which outlined the rights of
citizens and became the basis for the Bill of Rights.
Virginia Plan - A proposal to have a bicameral, or two-house, legislature with membership based on
population.
Virginia Statute of Religion Freedom - A document written by Thomas Jefferson including the ideas of
freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 - This eliminated the literacy test and stated that federal examiners could enroll
voters denied suffrage by local officials.
War Hawk - One of the members of Congress who favored war with Britain in the early 19th century.
Warsaw Pact – Military alliance between Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries formed in
response to NATO.
Whig Party - The political party formed in 1834 to oppose the policies of Andrew Jackson.
Yellow Journalism - Sensational style of writing that exaggerates to news to lure readers.