OSAT Middle Level Social Studies (127) key terms

An 1803 Supreme Court ruling that established judicial review, the power of courts to strike down laws that conflict with the Constitution. It grew from a dispute over a last-minute judicial appointment.

The authority of courts to examine laws and government actions and declare them invalid when they violate the Constitution. It is a central feature of the American separation of powers.

The constitutional arrangement that lets each branch of government limit the powers of the others, such as a presidential veto or Senate confirmation of appointments, to prevent any one branch from dominating.

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches, each with distinct functions, so that power is shared rather than concentrated in a single body.

A system in which power is divided between a national government and state or regional governments, each with its own defined authority. The U.S. Constitution distributes powers this way.

The constitutional provision stating that the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties are the supreme law of the land, overriding conflicting state laws when the federal government acts within its authority.

The constitutional grant giving Congress power to regulate trade among states, with foreign nations, and with Native American tribes. It has been a major basis for federal economic regulation.

The amendment reserving to the states or the people any powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states. It is often cited in disputes over federal authority.

Powers kept by state governments because the Constitution does not grant them to the national government. Examples include running elections and establishing local governments and schools.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, which protect individual liberties such as speech, religion, fair trial, and protection against unreasonable searches.

The constitutional guarantee that government will follow fair legal procedures before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. It appears in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The process by which the Supreme Court has applied most protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause, case by case.

A Reconstruction-era amendment granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people, guaranteeing equal protection and due process, and barring former Confederates from office. It reshaped civil rights law.

The constitutional principle that government must treat similarly situated people alike unless it has a sufficient justification for different treatment. Courts apply varying levels of scrutiny to such classifications.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision holding that racial segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause, overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine and energizing the civil rights movement.

An 1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of separate but equal, legitimizing Jim Crow laws until it was overturned in 1954.

State and local statutes, mainly in the South after Reconstruction, that enforced racial segregation and disfranchised Black Americans in schools, transportation, voting, and public accommodations.

The period after the Civil War, roughly 1865 to 1877, when the federal government rebuilt the South, amended the Constitution, and attempted to secure rights for formerly enslaved people.

A federal agency created in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites with food, schooling, legal aid, and employment in the aftermath of the Civil War.

The nineteenth-century belief that Americans were destined to expand across the North American continent. It justified westward settlement, territorial acquisition, and conflicts with Native peoples and Mexico.

The 1803 acquisition of a vast territory from France for about fifteen million dollars, doubling the size of the United States and opening the Mississippi Valley to settlement and exploration.

An 1862 law granting federal land to settlers who improved and farmed it for several years. It encouraged western migration and shaped settlement patterns and agricultural development.

The rail line completed in 1869 linking the eastern United States with the Pacific coast, transforming trade, migration, and settlement while displacing Native communities along its route.

The shift from an agricultural economy to one dominated by manufacturing, factories, and mechanized production. In the United States it accelerated after the Civil War and drove urbanization and labor movements.

The growth of cities and the movement of people from rural areas into urban ones, often driven by industrial jobs. It created new social problems and changed American politics and culture.

An organization of workers formed to bargain collectively over wages, hours, and working conditions. Unions shaped U.S. labor law and social reform during industrialization.

A reform movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that sought to curb political corruption, regulate business, improve working conditions, and expand democratic participation through measures like initiative and referendum.

A set of federal programs and reforms enacted in the 1930s under President Franklin Roosevelt to address the Great Depression through relief, recovery, and reform, expanding the role of government.

An economic theory holding that government spending and tax policy should be used to manage total demand, stimulating the economy during downturns and restraining it during inflationary booms.

The use of government taxation and spending decisions to influence the economy, including employment, inflation, and growth. It is set mainly by the legislature and executive.

Actions taken by a central bank to influence the money supply and interest rates in order to promote stable prices, maximum employment, and moderate long-term interest rates.

A sustained rise in the general price level, which reduces the purchasing power of money. Economists often measure it using changes in a price index over time.

The economic model in which the price of a good is determined by the interaction of how much producers offer and how much consumers are willing to buy at various prices.

The value of the next best alternative given up when a choice is made. It is a core concept for analyzing trade-offs in personal, business, and public decisions.

The principle that a country or person benefits from specializing in producing goods for which they give up less of other goods, even if another producer is more efficient at everything.

An economic doctrine that a nation's power depends on accumulating wealth, especially gold and silver, by exporting more than it imports and controlling colonial trade to benefit the mother country.

The transition beginning in the eighteenth century from hand production to machine manufacturing, first in Britain, which transformed economies, societies, and global power relationships.

The practice by which one country establishes political control over another territory and its people, often for economic gain, and imposes its institutions, culture, and language on the colonized society.

The extension of a nation's power and influence over other regions through military, political, or economic means. Late nineteenth-century European expansion reshaped Africa and Asia.

A sense of shared identity and loyalty to a nation, often based on common language, culture, or history. It has inspired both independence movements and aggressive expansion.

A global conflict from 1914 to 1918 among major European powers and their allies, triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and shaped by alliances, nationalism, and imperial rivalry.

The 1919 agreement ending World War I, imposing territorial losses, military limits, and reparations on Germany. Critics argue its harsh terms contributed to later instability and World War II.

The decades-long geopolitical rivalry after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union, fought through alliances, arms races, proxy conflicts, and ideological competition rather than direct war.

A U.S. foreign policy strategy during the Cold War aimed at preventing the spread of communism beyond its existing borders through alliances, economic aid, and military commitments.

A U.S. program providing large-scale economic aid to rebuild Western European economies after World War II, intended to stabilize the region and resist communist influence.

Conditions that drive people away from a place, such as conflict or unemployment, and conditions that attract them elsewhere, such as jobs or safety. They explain migration patterns.

The spread of ideas, customs, technologies, and practices from one society to another through trade, migration, conquest, or communication, often producing blended cultural forms.

The growing interconnection of economies, cultures, and peoples worldwide through trade, investment, technology, and migration, creating both opportunities and tensions across regions.

The geographic theme describing how people adapt to, modify, and depend on their natural surroundings, including effects such as deforestation, irrigation, and urban sprawl.

A document, artifact, recording, or image created by someone who participated in or witnessed an event, used as direct evidence in historical investigation and analysis.

A work that interprets or analyzes primary evidence, such as a textbook, biography, or scholarly article. It is one step removed from the original event or record.

An explanation of past events based on evidence and the historian's perspective. Interpretations can change as new evidence emerges or as scholars ask different questions.

A systematic slant in a source, account, or decision that favors a particular viewpoint. Historians and citizens evaluate bias by considering authorship, purpose, and audience.

The skill of placing events in the order they occurred and recognizing relationships among them, including cause, effect, and change over time, when analyzing historical narratives.