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Triangular Trade
Triangular trade was a profitable trade system established by England in the 1600s through the mid-19th century. Ships would come from Africa loaded with slaves and arrive in the West Indies. The slaves were offloaded for use in the sugarcane plantations. The sugarcane and molasses would be sent to the colonies to be made into rum. Finally, the rum is sent back to Africa to be traded for slaves, initially restarting the triangle trade once again. -
James Town
James town was the first permanent English settlement which was established in 1607. Initially, James' town struggled during the 'starving time'. In the Chesapeake region, people started to harvest natural resources for the profit of their company investors and the crown. Tobacco which was planted in Virginia became a cash crop leading to the change of colonial history. -
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a new bloom of interest in the church. It was led by new ministers who were asking questions never been asked. The Great Awakening led to the division of 'old lights' and 'new lights', which was about how church ideals should be. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were the main figures in the Great Awakening, while these men did have polar opposite ministering approaches they both impacted on church population booming again. -
Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a scientific and intellectual movement, but it soon became a political movement due to the new questioning of the nature of government. John Locke was the key figure for this movement with Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Thomas Hobbes also being figures. Locke established the idea of the 'natural rights of man' which included 'Life, Liberty, and Property'. He also advocated for the separation of church and state. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act forced colonists to pay taxes, represented by a stamp, on papers, documents, etc. This act was put into place after the Seven Years' War due to Britain needing money to pay for the war. This thought started to put the idea of succeeding in Great Britain. The colonists started the statement of no taxation without representation. Because of this anger about taxation led the Sons and the Daughters of Liberty groups to be made. The Boston Tea Party was another outcome of the Stamp Act. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was originally nonviolent. Colonists surrounded British guards and yelled and threw things at them. What originally started as a snowball fight ended up with five people dying. One of the people who died was a free man. Five soldiers were guarding the Boston Customs House. After taking a lot of verbal and physical harassment they were given the order to open fire on the crowd of around three hundred to four hundred people. The massacre only fueled the fire of the colonists. -
Intolerable Acts
In response to all the boycotts, riots, harsh writings, political activism, and speeches the British government passed the coercive acts which are better known as the intolerable acts. This act closed the Port of Boston, outlawed assemblies, and total control of colonial, and royal officials who were accused of a crime were trialed back in England. The British Empire also pushed more things on the Colonies such as enforcing the Quartering Act, regulated trade and commerce, and forcing taxes. -
Battle of Trenton
The battle of Trenton was a turning point for the Continental Army on the confidence front. Throughout the war, the Continental Army was having lost after loss due to the lack of abilities, people, and equipment. General George Washington decided to have a surprise attack on the German soldiers who were holding Trenton for the British. So the night before Christmas George Washington led his troops over the Delaware River to attack. With this surprise attack the Continental Army won the battle. -
Battle of Yorktown
After a grueling campaign through the southern colonies, General Cornwallis retreated to the coast of Yorktown, Virginia for the winter and the protection of the Royal Navy. Cornwallis was not aware however that the French Navy had defeated the British fleet at the Battle of the Capes in September. When Cornwallis arrived at Yorktown, he found the French Navy at his back and the American Army before him. With this advantage, George Washington was able to win Yorktown. This battle ended the war. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris officially ends the American Revolutionary War, granting America its freedom. The newly created United States of America granted all British lands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River and north to British Canada. This treaty showed that Great Britain had to recognize that their Empire was beaten by the Colonists. The Treaty of Paris was based on a 1782 preliminary treaty. -
XYZ Affair
The XYZ affair started in 1798 and lasted till 1800. In order to repair relations with the French, Adams sends diplomats to negotiate a treaty. The French demanded a "gift" of 250,000 dollars before they would negotiate. The American diplomats refused to pay and were angry enough to want to start a war. Adams avoided war by negotiating peace with Napoleon. The U.S. and French negotiators restored peace with the Convention of 1800, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine. -
Revolution of 1800
The "Revolution of 1800" was the election of 1800. The two candidates were Vice President Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Federalists were afraid that Jefferson would return the power back to the states, dismantle the army and navy, and overturn Hamiltons financial plane. However, Burr was seen as not as trustable as Jefferson. The election was really close so the House of Representatives had to decide. They elected Thomas Jefferson to be the third president of America. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
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War of 1812
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Panic of 1819
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Cotton Gin
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Gibbons v. Ogden
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Election of 1824
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Steam Engine
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Indian Removal Act
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Cherokee v. Georgia
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Underground Railroad
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Compromise of 1833
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Second Great Awakening
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Second Bank of the United States
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Mexican-American War
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Know-nothing Party
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Utopias
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Seneca Falls Convention
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Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay created the Compromise of 1850 to bring peace to the idea of slavery in newfound states. After the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was enacted, the issue of California came to the table. Clay came up with the idea to let California come into the U.S. as a free state, have the slave trade abolished in Washington D.C, have more strict fugitive slave laws that were enacted nationwide, and territories applying for statehood would now be governed by the concept of Popular Sovereignty. -
Policy of Concentration
As white settlers moved west, they began to recognize that the Native Americans occupied the most ideal land for settlement. After unlawful methods, of getting the land, in 185, Congress created the Concentration Policy. The Policy of Concentration awarded white settlers with the most optimal land while forcing Native Americans to relocate to new land. Although a harsh policy, settlers were not satisfied with the policy which led to the introduction of the Indian Appropriations Act. -
Bleeding Kansas
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Dred Scott v. Sandford
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Election of 1860
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Anaconda Plan
The Anaconda Plan was made up of General Winfield Scott. It was a plan to achieve a Northern victory. It was called the "Anaconda Plan" as it would strangle the Confederacy by cutting it off from external markets and sources of material. It included blockading Southern coasts and securing control of the Mississippi River. It was the Union's plan for winning the Civil War and included separating the Confederacy in half by the Mississippi river and capturing the Confederacy's capital, Richmond. -
Fort Sumter
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Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act gave free land to lower-class people who would move to new areas. This was open up to any head of the household. It didn't matter if they were white or black. Some single women even took up the chance. People believed that it would be a good way to get a fresh new start. All they had to do was live and be stable there for five years before they got the title to the land. This became very popular with the people who were building the Transcontinental Railroad. -
Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg marked the turning point in the Civil War. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day battle was the bloodiest single battle of the Civil War. It was a Union Victory by ending Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second quest to invade the North and bring the Civil War to a swift end. The loss at Gettysburg dashed the hopes of the Confederate States of America to become an independent nation. President Lincoln later gave the Gettysburg Address speech. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the third year of the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free." This is not to be confused with the Thirteenth Amendment, since the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves held in Confederate States, while the amendment freed slaves all over the nation. -
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States of America Constitution provides that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Deleware, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Mississippi did not support the Thirteenth Amendment but on January thirty-first of eighteen-sixty-five Congress passed the amendment. Ending slavery within America. -
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist, far-right hate group. They became popular in the 1870s. The terrorist group was made up of white Southerners resisting the Republican Party's Reconstruction policies which were aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. They would harass and even kill some Black people who were trying to vote or do anything allowed by the reconstruction era. -
Freedman's Bureau
The Freedman's Bureau was to help newly freed slaves be able to live with their newfound freedom. President Andrew Johnson vetoed many bills that the Freeman's Bureau wanted to pass. However, Congress overpowered these vetoes. It helped freedpeople establish schools, purchase land, locate family members, and legalize marriages. Due to many white Southerners, and President Andrew Johnson, challenging the Bureau's legitimacy, which sparked racial violence in the South, the Bureau failed. -
The 14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment says "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This amendment allowed African Americans and enslaved people who had been emancipated after the American Civil War to have citizenship and equal rights. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America. This ideology inspired a variety of measures designed to remove or destroy the Native population. The manifest destiny ideology lured the farmers to move to Oregon. The gold that was found in California in 1848 only persuaded more people to move west with Manifest Destiny. By 1840 nearly seven million Americans had moved west in hopes of living a new life. -
Reconstruction Act
The Reconstruction Act had a pretty even number of successes and failures. On the success side, the Union was restored, which was the main goal of the act. The South's economy grew, and new wealth was created in the North. The 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed Blacks the rights of citizenship, equal protection under the law, and suffrage. On the other hand, many white Southerners were bitter towards the U.S. government and Republicans. Also, racist attitudes toward African Americans continued. -
The 15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment gave the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment was passed by Congress. The first black man to ever vote because of the Fifteenth Amendment was named Thomas Mundy Peterson. -
Transcontinental Railroad
Two companies (Union Specific and Central Specific) were asked to build a railroad connecting the east and the west. Abraham Lincoln was smart for adding a built-in competition. However much land you covered with the railroad the more money you made. Since both the Union Specific and Central Specific wanted more money, they passed each other instead of connecting at the ending point. They had to rip up all the extra railroad tracks and finish it. Kicking off the expansion of production. -
Americanization
Americanization was the ideology of, "kill the Indian, save the man." The white settlers were able to do this by taking kids at the age of six away from their tribes and families and sending them to boarding schools. At these schools, the children were beaten, sexually assaulted, and completely changed. The boys had to get haircuts, they couldn't speak their native tongue or sing any native songs, had to wear white people's clothes, and they could not do anything related to their heritage. -
Ghost Dance Movement
The Ghost Dance Movement was created by Wovoka, a Paiute. He believed that the Native Americans were being punished by the Gods for not living out their native culture. He believed that if they performed a native dance, then the gods would reward them by bringing back all the Bison and having the Bison scare off the white people from their land. The officers on reservations were scared that this movement was something more than just a dance. The Ghost Dance movement ended with Wounded Knee. -
Wounded Knee
The wounded knee massacre started when a man was part of a tribe that was on a reservation. He was asked to give up his gun to one of the officers on the reservation which he denied. When the officers tried to take the gun by force the gun accidentally went off, starting the wounded knee massacre. The massacre killed approximately one hundred and fifty to three hundred Native Americans. Wounded Knee is known as one of the deadliest shootings of Native Americans in American history.