ILTS Social Science: History (315) key terms

The shift from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture and animal domestication, beginning around 10,000 BCE, which produced permanent villages, surplus food, and early complex societies.

A crescent-shaped region in the Middle East with rich soils and water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where some of the earliest cities and writing systems emerged.

A network of overland trade routes linking China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe that moved goods, technologies, religions, and diseases across Eurasia.

A European cultural movement from roughly the 14th to 17th centuries that revived classical learning and emphasized humanism, artistic realism, and scientific inquiry.

A 16th-century movement challenging the authority and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, leading to Protestant denominations and lasting religious and political conflict in Europe.

The transatlantic transfer after 1492 of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, reshaping diets, populations, and economies worldwide.

An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individual rights, and limits on arbitrary authority, which influenced revolutions in America, France, and Latin America.

The transition beginning in 18th-century Britain from hand production to machine-based manufacturing, which transformed work, cities, class relations, and global economic power.

The extension of a nation's power through territorial conquest, economic control, or political domination of other peoples, especially the late 19th-century European scramble for colonies.

An ideology holding that people sharing a common identity should form a sovereign state, a force behind 19th-century unifications and 20th-century conflicts and decolonization.

The post-1945 geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, waged through alliances, arms races, proxy wars, and ideological competition rather than direct combat.

The postwar process by which Asian and African colonies gained independence from European empires, creating new states and reshaping global politics.

The 1776 document announcing the American colonies' separation from Britain, grounding that claim in natural rights and consent of the governed.

The first U.S. constitution, in effect from 1781 to 1789, which created a weak national government with no power to tax or regulate commerce.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting freedoms such as speech, religion, and due process from federal interference.

The 19th-century belief that Americans were destined to expand westward across the continent, justifying territorial acquisition and displacing Native peoples.

The period after the Civil War, roughly 1865 to 1877, when federal policy sought to rebuild the South and secure rights for formerly enslaved people.

State and local statutes in the South that enforced racial segregation and disfranchisement from the late 19th century until the 1960s.

The large-scale movement of African Americans from the rural South to Northern and Western cities during the 20th century in search of opportunity and freedom.

President Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s program of federal relief, recovery, and reform in response to the Great Depression, expanding the role of government in the economy.

The mid-20th-century campaign, led largely by Black activists, to end racial segregation and secure voting and equal rights through litigation, protest, and legislation.

The Cold War strategy of limiting the spread of communism through alliances, economic aid, and military commitments, articulated by George Kennan and pursued after 1947.

The severe worldwide economic downturn of the 1930s, marked by bank failures, mass unemployment, and falling production, which prompted major government intervention.

A large Mississippian city near present-day St. Louis, flourishing around 1000–1350 CE, with earthen mounds and a population that exceeded many contemporary European cities.

The French colonial region along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, centered on settlements such as Kaskaskia and Cahokia, later ceded to Britain in 1763.

A 1787 law creating a framework for governing the Northwest Territory, prohibiting slavery there and setting conditions for new states, including Illinois, to join the Union.

An 1832 conflict in Illinois and Wisconsin between U.S. forces and Sauk and Fox bands led by Black Hawk, ending with Native removal from the region.

A series of 1858 Senate campaign debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas that focused national attention on slavery's expansion and Lincoln's political rise.

An 1894 railroad strike centered in Pullman, Illinois, that disrupted national rail traffic and led to federal intervention, shaping U.S. labor law and politics.

A Chicago settlement house founded by Jane Addams in 1889 that provided social services to immigrants and became a model for American social reform.

An 1871 conflagration that destroyed much of central Chicago, prompting rapid rebuilding and helping establish modern urban fire codes and architecture.

An original document, artifact, or record created during the period under study, such as a letter, photograph, or law, used as direct evidence by historians.

A later account that interprets or analyzes primary evidence, such as a scholarly book or textbook, and reflects the author's questions and methods.

The study of how history has been written, including changing interpretations, methods, and debates among historians over time.

The practice of comparing multiple sources to check whether they agree, identifying where evidence converges or conflicts before drawing conclusions.

Placing a source or event within its historical setting-time, place, culture, and power relations-to interpret it accurately rather than by present-day assumptions.

The deliberate division of the past into named eras or periods, a choice that shapes how change and continuity are explained.

The analysis of why historical events happened, distinguishing long-term conditions, immediate triggers, and the intentions of actors.

The effort to understand past people's beliefs and choices within their own context, without assuming they thought as people do today.

The reinterpretation of accepted historical accounts in light of new evidence, methods, or questions, often challenging established narratives.