 | Term | Definition |
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Lousiana Purchase |
purchase of French land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains that nearly doubled the size of the US |
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Manifest Destiny |
belief shared by many Americans in the mid-1800s that the US was meant to expand across the content of the pacific ocean |
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Marbury vs. Madison |
US Supreme Court case that estabolished the principle of judicial review |
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Mexican Cession |
land that Mexico gave to the US after the Mixican War through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago; included what is today California, Nevada and Utah; most of Arizona and New Mexico; parts of Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming |
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Missouri Compromise |
agreement proposed by Henry Clay that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state; also outlawed slavery in any territories or states north of the 36° 30' line |
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Monitor vs. Merrimac |
1st clash of iron clad vessels |
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Monroe Doctrine |
president James Monroe's statement forbidding futher colonization in the America's and Declaring that the US would view any attempts by a foreign country to colonize as a hositle act |
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Nationalism |
feeling that a secific nation, language, or culture is superior to others |
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National Road |
Cumberland Road |
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Nullification Crisis |
a dispute between South Carolina and the federal government in the late 1820s over the state's rights to nullify, or cancel, and unpopular tariff |
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Oregon Trail |
a 2,000-mile trail stretching through the Great Plains from western Missouri to Oregon country |
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Plessy vs. Ferguson |
US Supreme Court case that estabolished the seperate-but-equal doctrine for public facilities |
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Popular Sovereignty |
the idea that political authority belongs to the people; also a principle that would allow voters in a particular territory to decide whether to ban or permit slavery |
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Radical Republicans |
republicans members of congress who felt that southern states needed to make great social changes before the could be readmitted to the union |
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Reconstruction |
period following the Civil War during which the US government worked to reunite to nation and to rebuild the southern states |
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Republican Party |
political party formed int he 1850s to stop the spread of slavery in the west |
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Republic of Texas |
independent nation of Texas, which lasted from 1836 until 1848, when Texas was annexed to the US |
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Scalawags |
name given to white southerners who supported Reconstruction the private gain; roughly determined as mean fellows |
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Secession |
act of formally withdrawing from an orgainzation such as a country |
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Sectionalism |
devotion to the intrests of one geographic region rather than those of the country as a whole |
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Segregation |
forced seperation of people of different races in public places |
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Seneca Falls Convention |
1st national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments |
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Shermans March to the Sea |
destroyed the church |
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Siege of Vicksburg |
union army's 6-week blockade of Vicksburg that led the city to surrender during the civil war |
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Spoils System |
politicians' practice of giving government jobs to their supporters |
