US History Final Exam Review

Abolitionist• Reformer who sought to end slavery.

Anti-Semitism• Prejudice and discrimination against Jewish

people.

Big stick diplomacy• Roosevelt’s policy of creating and using, when

necessary, a strong military to achieve America’s goals.

Black Tuesday• October 29 1929, when stock prices fell

sharply in the Great Crash.

Blitzkrieg• “lightning war” that emphasized the use of

speed and firepower to penetrate deep into the enemy’s territory.

Conscientious Objector• Person who refuses to fight in a war due to

moral or religious beliefs.

Dawes Act• Law enacted in 1887 that divided reservation

land into private family plots.

Dust Bowl• Term used for the central and southern Great

Plains during the 1930s when the region suffered from drought and dust storms.

Ellis Island• Island in New York Harbor that served as an

immigration station for millions of immigrants arriving to the United States.

Emancipation Proclamation• Decree by President Lincoln that freed slaves

in all Confederate territory still in rebellion.

Espionage Act• Act Passed by Congress in June 1917 enacting

severe penalties for anyone engaged in disloyal or treasonable activities.

Genocide• Willful annihilation of a racial, political, or

cultural group.

Great Awakening• Religious movement in the English colonies

during the 1730s and 1740s, which was heavily inspired by evangelical preachers.

Hooverville• Term used to describe makeshift shantytowns

set up by homeless people during the great depression.

Imperialism• Political, military, and economic domination of

strong nations over weaker territories.

Internment• Temporary imprisonment of members of a

specific group.

Jim Crow Laws• Laws passed in southern states that separated

blacks and whites.

Kamikazes• Japanese pilots who deliberately crashed

planes into American ships during World War II.

Lusitania• British passenger liner sunk by a German U-

boat during World War I.

Middle Passage• The forced transport of enslaved persons from

Africa to the Americas between the 1500’s and the 1800’s

Monroe Doctrine• Declaration by President Monroe in 1823 that

the United States would oppose efforts any outside power to control a nation in the Western Hemisphere.

New Deal• Programs and legislation enacted by Franklin

D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery and social reform.

Okies• General term used to describe Dust Bowl

refugees during the great depression.

Open door policy• American statement that the government did

not want colonies in China, but favored free trade there.

Pearl Harbor• American military base attacked by the

Japanese on December 7, 1941.

Populist Party• People’s Party; political party formed in

1891 to advocate a larger money supply and other economic reforms.

Pump Priming• Economic theory that favored public works

projects because they put money into the hands of consumers who would buy more goods, stimulating the economy.

Reconstruction• Federal program between 1865 and 1877 to

repair damage to the South caused by the Civil War and restore the southern states to the Union

Red Scare• Fear that communists were working to destroy

the American way of life.

Social Darwinism• The belief held by some in the late nineteenth

century that certain nations and races were superior to others and therefore destined to rule over them.

Totalitarianism• A theory of government in which a single

party or leader controls the economic, social, and cultural lives of its people.

Tuskegee Airmen• African American squadron that escorted

bombers in the air war over Europe during World War II.

Underground Railroad• Support system run by abolitionists to help

enslaved people escape to freedom in the North or in Canada.

Works Progress Administration

• Key New Deal agency that provided work relief through various public-works projects.