Praxis Elem CKT Social Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

A document, artifact, or record created during the period being studied by a participant or witness, such as a diary, letter, treaty, or photograph.

Secondary source

A later account that interprets or analyzes primary evidence, such as a textbook, encyclopedia entry, or scholarly article written after the events.

Push and pull factors

Push factors are conditions that drive migrants away from a place, such as war or famine; pull factors attract them, such as jobs or safety.

Cultural diffusion

The spread of ideas, technologies, religions, or customs from one society to another through trade, migration, conquest, or communication.

Absolute vs. relative location

Absolute location gives exact coordinates or an address; relative location describes where a place is compared with other places.

Economic systems continuum

A spectrum from command economies, where government decides production, to market economies, where prices and private choices decide, with most nations mixed.

Chronological thinking

The skill of placing events in sequence and distinguishing long-term causes from immediate triggers when explaining why something happened.

Great Compromise

The 1787 agreement creating a bicameral Congress: the House apportions seats by state population, while the Senate gives each state two equal votes.

Three-Fifths Compromise

A constitutional provision counting enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation and direct taxation, without granting them rights.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting freedoms such as speech, religion, due process, and jury trial.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's 1863 order declaring enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free, shifting the Civil War's purpose toward abolition.

Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship and equal protection, and protected voting rights by race.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court decision upholding racial segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal, later overturned by Brown v. Board in 1954.

New Deal

Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s program of federal relief, recovery, and reform that created Social Security and regulated banking and industry.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal law banning discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations, employment, and federally funded programs.

Marbury v. Madison

The 1803 Supreme Court case establishing judicial review, the power of courts to strike down laws that violate the Constitution.

Neolithic Revolution

The transition around 10,000 BCE from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture, producing food surpluses, specialization, and early cities.

River valley civilizations

Early complex societies that arose along major rivers, including Mesopotamia on the Tigris-Euphrates, Egypt on the Nile, and China on the Yellow River.

Silk Roads

Overland trade networks linking China, Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean that carried goods, technologies, religions, and diseases.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after 1492, including smallpox that devastated Indigenous populations.

Renaissance

A European cultural movement beginning in Italy in the 1300s that revived classical learning and emphasized humanism, art, and scientific inquiry.

Industrial Revolution

The shift beginning in Britain around 1750 from hand production to machine manufacturing powered by coal and steam, driving urbanization and social change.

Decolonization

The post-1945 process by which Asian and African colonies gained independence from European empires, often through nationalist movements and sometimes armed struggle.

Cold War

The prolonged geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II, marked by nuclear arms competition and proxy conflicts.

Separation of powers

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that no single branch holds all governing power.

Checks and balances

Constitutional mechanisms letting each branch limit the others, such as a presidential veto, congressional override, and judicial review.

Federalism

A system dividing governing authority between a national government and state governments, with the 10th Amendment reserving undelegated powers to the states.

Electoral College

The body of electors chosen by states that formally elects the President, with each state's votes equal to its congressional representation.

Judicial review

The power of courts to declare legislative or executive acts unconstitutional, established by Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

Civil liberties vs. civil rights

Civil liberties are protections from government interference, such as free speech; civil rights are guarantees of equal treatment under law.

Amendment process

A constitutional change requires two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states.

Interest groups

Organizations that seek to influence public policy and legislation on behalf of shared interests, without nominating candidates for office.