Praxis 5081 key terms

The nineteenth-century belief that the United States had a divine mission to expand westward across North America. It justified territorial acquisitions such as the annexation of Texas and the Mexican-American War.

An executive order issued by President Lincoln in 1863 declaring enslaved people in Confederate states free. It reframed the Civil War as a struggle over slavery and allowed Black soldiers to enlist.

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, ratified between 1865 and 1870, which abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship and equal protection, and protected voting rights regardless of race.

State and local statutes in the South that enforced racial segregation and disfranchisement from the late nineteenth century into the 1960s. They were upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson and later dismantled by civil rights legislation.

Journalists and writers of the Progressive Era who exposed corruption, unsafe working conditions, and abuses of corporate power. Their reporting built public support for reforms such as food and drug regulation.

A set of federal programs and reforms launched by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s to combat the Great Depression through relief, recovery, and reform, including Social Security and large public works projects.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision holding that racially segregated public schools are inherently unequal and violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. It overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and energized the civil rights movement.

The transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture that began around 10,000 BCE. It produced food surpluses, permanent villages, specialized labor, and the first complex societies.

A collection of laws inscribed on stone in ancient Babylon around 1750 BCE. It set out punishments, property rules, and social hierarchies, and is among the earliest surviving written legal systems.

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia following Columbus's 1492 voyages. It reshaped diets, populations, and economies on both sides of the Atlantic.

A period of cultural and intellectual revival in Europe from roughly the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, marked by renewed interest in classical learning, humanism, and achievements in art and science.

The sixteenth-century movement against corruption and doctrine in the Catholic Church, sparked by Martin Luther's criticisms. It produced new Protestant denominations and reshaped European politics, literacy, and warfare.

The shift from handcraft production to machine manufacturing and factory systems that began in Britain in the eighteenth century. It transformed work, cities, transportation, and global economic power.

The extension of a nation's political or economic control over other territories and peoples, especially the European colonization of Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century. Motives included raw materials, markets, and national prestige.

A form of government that seeks total control over public and private life through a single party, official ideology, secret police, and propaganda. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin are standard examples.

A United States program begun in 1948 that provided economic aid to rebuild Western European economies after World War II. It aimed to prevent communist influence and stabilize markets favorable to American trade.

A system in which power is divided between a central government and regional governments, each with its own authority. In the United States, the Constitution grants enumerated powers to Congress and reserves the rest to the states.

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that no single branch holds all power. It is paired with checks and balances that let each branch limit the others.

The power of courts to declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional. Established in Marbury v. Madison in 1803, it gives the judiciary a central role in interpreting the Constitution.

The body of electors chosen by each state that formally elects the president and vice president. Each state's elector count equals its House and Senate seats, so smaller states gain disproportionate influence.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, which protect individual liberties such as speech, religion, due process, and a fair trial from government interference.

The idea that political authority rests on an agreement among people to surrender some freedom in exchange for security and order. It underpins the theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau and the consent of the governed.

The drawing of legislative district boundaries to favor a particular party, group, or incumbent. It can dilute opponents' votes through packing and cracking and is constrained by court rulings and state rules.

An organized association that seeks to influence public policy on behalf of its members. Groups use lobbying, fundraising, litigation, and advertising, and are sometimes called pressure groups or lobbies.

Conditions that drive people to leave a place, called pushes, or attract them to a new one, called pulls. Examples include conflict and poverty as pushes, and jobs or political stability as pulls.

The spread of ideas, customs, technologies, or languages from one society to another through trade, migration, conquest, or communication. It often produces blended cultural forms rather than simple replacement.

A method of representing the curved surface of the Earth on a flat map. Every projection distorts some combination of shape, area, distance, or direction.

A graph showing the age and sex distribution of a population. Its shape reveals birth rates, death rates, life expectancy, and migration patterns, and helps explain dependency ratios.

The growth in the share of a population living in cities, driven by rural-to-urban migration and natural increase. It concentrates economic activity but strains housing, sanitation, and services.

Broad regions grouped by typical temperature and precipitation patterns, shaped by latitude, altitude, winds, and proximity to water. They influence farming, settlement, and energy use.

The condition in which resources are limited while human wants are unlimited. It forces individuals and societies to make choices and is the foundation of economic study.

The value of the next best alternative given up when a choice is made. It includes both monetary and non-monetary costs, such as time or lost enjoyment.

The interaction between how much producers offer at each price and how much buyers want. Equilibrium price and quantity occur where the curves intersect, and shifts in either curve change both.

A sustained rise in the general price level that reduces the purchasing power of money. Central banks typically respond by raising interest rates to restrain demand.

The total market value of final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. It is a standard measure of economic size and growth, though it omits unpaid work and inequality.

The ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer. It explains why trade can benefit both parties even when one is absolutely better at producing everything.

Government decisions about taxation and spending used to influence the economy. Expansionary policy raises spending or cuts taxes, while contractionary policy does the opposite.

Actions by a central bank to control the money supply and interest rates, aiming at stable prices and full employment. It is separate from the government's taxing and spending decisions.