Social Studies GHSGT

Top 100 things you should know

Constitutional Monarchy

• A form of national government in which the power of the monarch (the king or queen) is restrained by a parliament, by law, or by custom.

Communism

• a political belief that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of land and capital.

Totalitarian Government• regimes in which

the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior

• Saddam Hussein’s control of Iraq

Representative Democracy

• The USA uses this type of indirect democracy

• A government where elected representatives serve the will of the people

Federal Republic

• a federation of states with a republican form of government

• state and national work together

Bureaucracy

• Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures

• Owner• District manager• Store manager• Assistant manager• Supervisor• Worker

Nationalism

• dedication to the interests or culture of your nation rather than those of the world.

• Ex. 1930s Germany

McCulloch vs. Maryland

• Ruled for federal supremacy

• States could not go against the federal government the laws of Congress.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

• started segregation (separation of races) in public places & schools

Brown vs. Board of Education

• Ended segregation (separation of races) in public schools

• overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson

Marbury vs. Madison

Supreme Court case that established judicial review – the power of the court to declare laws or acts of Congress as unconstitutional.

Dredd Scott vs. Sandford

• Ruled that people of African descent, could never be citizens of the United States, and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories

• a cause for the Civil War (1861-1865).

Elastic Clause

• A statement in the U.S. Constitution granting Congress the power to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the enumerated list of powers (Article I, Section 8 ).

Ex post facto

• a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed prior to the enactment of the law

Articles of Confederation

• The first government of a loose union (confederation) of states was formed

• Later replaced by a more powerful federal Constitution.

Bill of Rights

• written by James Madison

• the first ten amendments to the constitution

• guarantee basic rights for people in the US

First Amendment

• added to the Constitution to protect 5 basic freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petitioning the government.

Great Compromise

• Constitutional Convention of 1787

• it created the House of Representatives (based on population)

• and Senate (equal representation at 2 per state).

Separation of Powers

• separates the US government into 3 branches

• Legislative (law making)

• Executive (law enforcing)

• Judicial (law interpreting)

Congress

• Legislature of the U.S.

• consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Checks and Balances

• the ability of one branch to check the power of another branch

• Veto

• Override

• judicial review

Veto

• Latin for “I forbid.”

• The President may refuse to sign a bill into law

• Congress can override veto with a 2/3 vote

Implied Powers

• Created by the necessary and proper clause (elastic clause).

• These powers are not specifically listed in the Constitution.

Expressed Powers

• powers of the US government specifically listed in the Constitution

• Declare war

• coin money

• maintain an army

Implied Powers

• Elastic

• necessary & proper clauses

• establishes that Congress has other powers than those listed in the Constitution.

Concurrent Powers

• Powers in the Constitution that are shared by both the federal and state governments

• taxes

Reserved Powers

• Powers not listed in the Constitution are given to the states

• states run schools

• issue driver’s licenses

Supremacy Clause

• The clause of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that declares that all laws and treaties made by the federal government shall be the "supreme law of the land."

Electoral College

• it takes 270 electoral votes to become president

• Number of electoral votes are equal to the number of representatives in that state

• In Georgia, the state gets 15 electoral votes.

Habeas Corpus

• A legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment

Impeachment

• To charge a government official on trial

• Two presidents have been impeached (Andrew Johnson & Bill Clinton).

Capitalism

• An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

Inflation

• A general rise in prices measured against a standard level of purchasing power

• In the 1970’s, high oil prices led to a recession and inflation.

Oligopoly

• a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers.

Monopoly

• a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service

B.C. (Before Christ)

abbreviation "BC"

Refers to years before to the current AD era

A.D. (Anno Domini)

• Based on the year of the conception or birth of jesus of Nazareth.

• Example- This year would be A.D. 2009.

Islam• Monotheistic religion

• originating with the teachings of Muhammad, a religious and political figure.

• Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad

• And that Muhammad is God's last prophet

Christianity

• Monotheistic religion

• centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament.

• Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament

Judaism• The religion of the Jewish people.

• Based on a covenant between God and Abraham (ca. 2000 BCE) and the renewal of the covenant with Moses (ca. 1200 BCE).

• It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths, and it is one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today.

Ring of Fire

• Region ringing the Pacific Ocean that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Isthmus

• a narrow strip of land that is bordered on two sides by water and connects two larger land masses

Longitude

• The measurement of a location’s distance from the prime meridian (Greenwich meridian) traveling east or west

Prime Meridian

• The line circling the globe at 0 degrees longitude

Latitude

• The measurement of a location’s distance from the equator traveling north or south.

Equator

• The line circling the globe at 0 degrees latitude

7 Continents

• Africa

• Antarctica

• Asia

• Australia

• Europe

• North America

• South America

Cardinal Directions

• North, South, East, West

Time Zone

• A region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time.

• Most adjacent time zones are exactly one hour apart.

Peninsula

• a geographical landform consisting of an extension of a body of land from a larger body of land, surrounded by water on three sides.

Strait

• a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water

• A strait is between two land masses

Cultural Diffusion

• the spread of ideas and material culture, especially if this diffusion occurs independently of population movement.

Renewable Resources

• A resource must either have a way of regenerating itself in order to qualify as renewable, or alternatively be so abundant that its depletion is next to impossible

Nonrenewable Resources

• A natural resource that cannot be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to its consumption

• Coal

• Petroleum

• Natural gas

Declaration of Independence

• (1776) – written by Thomas Jefferson

• it declared independence from Great Britain as a colony

Alexander Hamilton

• 1st Secretary of the Treasury who created the Federal banking system in the early history of the US

• killed in a duel with Aaron Burr

Reasons for the War of 1812

• 1. Impressment (seizure) of thousands of American sailors

• 2. Frustration at British restrictions on neutral trade while Britain warred with France

• 3. Anger at British alliances with Native people defending their territories which conflicted with American expansion and settlement into the Old Northwest.

Missouri Compromise

• (1820) No states above the 36 30’ line would be allowed to own slaves.

Emancipation Proclamation

• Issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War freeing southern slaves.

Trust Buster

• Government activities designed to break up trusts or monopolies.

• Theodore Roosevelt is the President most associated with dissolving trusts

• His chosen successor, William Taft, actually began the most of the anti-trust proceedings.

Imperialism

• Extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over a foreign country, sometimes by aggressive means.

RMS Lusitania

• On May 7, 1915 it was torpedoed by a German submarine and the ship sank in only 18 minutes.

• The disaster did not provoke the United States into entering the First World War, but it did turn neutral sentiments against Germany.

Fourteen Points

• Address by President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918

• In his speech, Wilson intended to set out a blueprint for lasting peace in Europe after World War I

League of Nations

• formed after World War I

• 1st attempt at a United Nations that failed

• US never joined

• Failure of the organization led to rise of Hitler.

Treaty of Versailles

• The peace treaty which officially ended World War I

• After six months of negotiations, which took place at the Paris Peace Conference the treaty was signed as a follow-up to the armistice.

Isolationism

• A foreign policy which combines a non-interventionists military and a political policy of economic nationalsim.

• The United States practiced isolationism after World War I.

Prohibition

• (1920-1933) started by the 18th

• the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol was illegal

• Ended by the 21st amendment

Prohibition

• refers to a law in a certain country by which the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or illegal.

Suffrage

• the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right.

The “Roaring 20s”

• "one of the most colorful decades in history." • starting with the return of young soldiers from

the fronts of the World War I• the growth of jazz music• emergence of a new and confident face of

modern womanhood• ending with the sad note of the Black Tuesday,

starting the Great Depression.

The Great Depression

• was a worldwide economic downturn

• which started in October of 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s.

• It began in the United States and quickly spread to Europe and every part of the world

The Great Depression

• had devastating effects in both industrialized countries and those which export raw materials.

• International trade declined sharply, as did personal incomes, tax revenues, prices and profits.

• Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry.

• Unemployment and homelessness soared.

New Deal

• President Franklin D Roosevelt’s plan to the series of programs between 1933–1937

• Goal of relief, recovery and reform of the United States economy during the Great Depression.

Social Security• Created by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the “New Deal”

• Helped retired and disabled citizens

• Expanded by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his “Great Society.”

Pearl Harbor

• December 7, 1941 – bombing of Hawaii by Japanese forces

• Led to the US declaration of war entering into World War II.

Atomic Bomb

• Two were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan in 1945

• Ending World War II.

Nuremburg War Trials

• a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany.

Cold War

• The period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the mid 1940’s until the early 1990’s.

Iron Curtain

• the boundary which symbolically, ideologically, and physically divided Europe into two separate areas

• from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War, roughly 1945 to 1991.

United Nations

• An international organization composed of most of the countries of the world.

• It was founded in 1945 to promote peace, security, and economic development.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization:

• NATO• A military alliance established by the

signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949.

• The organization establishes a system of collective security whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

Warsaw Pact

• Organization of Central and Eastern European Communist States.

• It was established on May 1, 1955 in Warsaw, Poland to counter the alleged threat from the NATO alliance.

• Members included the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, & Albania.

Marshall Plan

• Plan of the United States for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe and repelling communism after World War II.

• The initiative was named for United States Secretary of State George Marshall.

Containment

• Foreign policy strategy of the US in the early years of the Cold War

• It attempted to stop what it called the domino effect of nations moving politically towards Soviet Union-based communism, rather than European-American based democracy.

38th Parallel

• parallel of latitude that in East Asia chosen as an army boundary separating North and South Korea

• North of which the U.S.S.R. was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea

• South of which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender.

38th parallel

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Passed by Congress in August 1964.

• It gave US President Lyndon B Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Vietnam.

17th Parallel

• the provisional military demarcation line established in Vietnam by the Geneva Accords (1954).

• It actually ran south of the 17th parallel and along the Ben Hai River.

17th parallel

The Civil Rights Movement

• (1954-1980)

• Movement for racial equality in the U.S. that, through nonviolent protest, broke the pattern of racial segregation in the South and achieved equal rights legislation for blacks.

Nonviolent Protest

• Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

• both a political strategy and moral philosophy that rejects the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political change.

Labor movement

• The movement of workers for better treatment by employers, particularly through the formation of labor unions.

Glasnost

• Russian word for "transparency" or "openness."

• Mikhail Gorbachev used the term to describe a program of reform introduced to the Soviet Union in 1985

• Goals included combating corruption and the abuse of privilege by the political classes.

Renaissance

• (1500s-1700s) period of “rebirth”

• Started in Italy

• Led to the revival of learning throughout Europe.

The Reformation

• (1500) movement to reform the Catholic Church in Europe led by Martin Luther

Industrial Revolution

• Period marking the introduction of mass production, improved transportation, technological progress, and the industrial factory system.

• In the United States this period began at the time of the Civil War (1861-1865).

Age of Enlightenment

• the period including the Age of Reason in 18th century philosophy, in which Reason was believed to be the ultimate authority

Conquistadores

• Spanish soldiers, explorers and adventurers who conquered much of Latin America

Gold, God, & Glory

• motto of Spanish explorers in the New World who wanted to spread Catholicism and find gold

Triangular Trade Route

Agricultural Revolution

• (1945) beginning of the use of industrial fertilizers and new crops greatly increases the world's agricultural output.

Technological Revolution

• (1950-) the period of transition to modern society based on computers, electronics, and communication technologies