53 Frequently Tested AP® US History Terms & Concepts | Albert.io (2024)

AP® US History can be a tough puzzle to solve. How do you cover hundreds of years of history that has its own deep and complicated layers of concepts, events, and reactions? The various AP® US History timelines are nearly impossible to pin down. It is an exhausting course, to say the least. Creating a set of AP® US History vocabulary flashcards can be a daunting prospect when considering all of the information that you’ll need to go through for your upcoming AP® World History exam.

But don’t fret; we’ve created this list of the 53 Frequently Tested AP® US History Terms and Concepts so you don’t get lost in that forest of AP® US History time periods. This AP® US History review narrows down all of the course into 53 must-know terms. It’s the perfect way to study for concepts, events, phrases, central figures, ideas, and more that commonly show up on the exam and the AP® US History document-based questions. Let’s get started.

APUSH is divided into nine different units:

• Period 1: 1491–1607 (4-6% Exam Weighting)
• Period 2: 1607–1754 (4-6% Exam Weighting)
• Period 3: 1754–1800 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 4: 1800–1848 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 5: 1844–1877 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 6: 1865–1898 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 7: 1890–1945 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 8: 1945–1980 (10-17% Exam Weighting)
• Period 9: 1980–Present (4-6% Exam Weighting)

5 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 1: 1491-1607

1. Encomienda System

During the 16th century, the Spanish government established the encomienda system in the Americas to divide up the American Indian labor force. Under this system, a Spanish conquistador, or another male Spaniard of significant social status (known as an encomendero), was given the labor of a number of Native Americans living in the area. Additionally, the encomienda system provided the laborers protection from other tribes, and education in Catholicism. The native laborer paid tributes to the encomendero in the form of gold or other metals, or agricultural products.

Think of this system ultimately as a Spanish system designed to regulate and control Native Americans. APUSH test questions over the encomienda system will require you to know about the system’s structure, legacy, and how it affected the Native American peoples.

2. Joint-Stock Companies

A joint-stock company is a type of business venture where any man with the resources to invest may purchase stock in a certain company. Therefore, the amount of stock you own determines your sway in the company’s dealings. This plays a key role in U.S. history because it was through the dealings of many joint-stock companies that colonies were founded in North America. These English joint-stock companies sought to harvest the natural resources of North America and bring them back to England.

Think of the venture by the Virginia Company to found a colony in the state would come to be known as Virginia. Simply put, joint-stock companies are businesses owned by shareholders that invested in exploration and colonization. They will appear on the test in questions involving the early steps of colonization.

3. Pueblo Indians

The Pueblo Indians are the Native Americans of the present-day southwestern region. They are known for their apartment-like structures made of adobe and mud that formed the towns of the Pueblo people. They flourished in developing a distinct world of art, culture, and extensive agricultural methodologies, and they led many successful revolts against the Spanish.

In 1598, the Spanish, led by infamous conquistador Juan de Oñate, invaded the Pueblo region and established a colony in New Mexico. They responded to native resistance with cruelty and terror, a conflict which eventually boiled into the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 which knocked the Spanish off their world pedestal. You won’t need to know the gory details to answer Pueblo Revolt APUSH questions, but you should be familiar with Pueblo culture and the friction between them and the Spanish.

4. Asiento System

The Asiento System was a Spanish slavery system that laid the foundation for slavery in the Americas. It essentially worked like this: African slaves were carried to the Americas and a tax was paid to the Spanish crown for each slave imported. The Asiento System and the Encomienda System both served as foundational practices of commerce for slavery in the US. The Asiento System was a forerunner of the Triangular Trade System, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of slaves being brought to the New World. It will appear on the APUSH exam in questions about the origin of slavery in the colonies, so it is a very significant component to memorize.

5. Roanoke

In 1586, English settlers led by Walter Raleigh set out to establish an early colony in America. They landed at Roanoke Island just off the coast of North Carolina. However, when the governor of the colony, John White, returned from a supply-trip to England, he found his colony entirely deserted, not a settler in sight. There were no traces of violence or insurrection, but only the word “CROATOAN” carved into a tree. White interpreted the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later search of the island found none of the settlers.

Roanoke represents the difficulties and the unknown fears surrounding English colonization of the Americas, and it will appear on the APUSH exam in questions involving the fears and dangers of colonization.

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5 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 2: 1607-1754

1. House of Burgesses

The precursor to Congress it was the first form of legislative power to appear in the colonies. Formed in 1642, the House of Burgesses was established by the Virginia Company to manage and administer aid to the needs of colonists. It was led by burgesses who were elected officials raised from within the population of the colony itself.

The House of Burgesses essentially foreshadowed many of the future powers and contracts that would be outlined in the Constitution, and it laid the blueprint for America’s self-determined spirit. Think of the House of Burgesses as a forerunner of American government, and it most often appears on the test in questions asking you to think about the early strides toward self-governance.

2. Mercantilism

The dominant economic theory in Europe during the period lasting from the 16th to the 18th century mercantilism. It argues that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, which a government should encourage by means of protectionism. The key requirements of mercantilism came from a nation’s drive to establish colonies quickly and efficiently.

Moreover, anything the colony produced was to be shipped and sold only in the home country, and the home nation’s exports must be greater than its import. This policy was the framework of the English, Spanish, and French colonies when expanding into the New World. Mercantilism will appear all over the test on DBQ questions about colonial expansion and MCQs about early America alike.

3. Cash Crops

Since the colonial era is one defined by trade, money, and profit, cash was central to most if not all motivations. This is where cash crops come in to play. A cash crop is exactly how it sounds—a crop grown for cash instead of subsistence. Sugar (see The Atlantic System and United Fruit Company), for instance, was a key cash crop.

Before the arrival of Europeans into the Americas, sugar plantations comprised only a margin of the regional agricultural system. But after European arrival, it became a primary crop. Often, these crops were harvested through forced labor or coercion systems and had devastating effects on the environment. Cash crops are significant to the APUSH exam because they help drive colonial expansion.

4. Triangular Trade

The triangular trade route refers to the route taken by trade ships from Africa, to the New World, and back to Europe. A ship looking to make a profit would begin in Africa and pick up a shipment of slaves and other goods to be sold in the New World. After, the ship sailed across the Atlantic and sold its shipment of slaves in the New World. These slaves would work on plantations, growing cash crops like cotton, tobacco, and sugar.

The trade ships would then pick up a shipment of these cash crops to sell back in Europe, thus forming a triangular model of trade. This trade system established the system of slavery that became prevalent in the New World for centuries while at the same time enriching Europe and depopulating Africa, and in this way, it proves essential to understanding slavery at large in America.

5. Order of Colonization of Colonies

In order from oldest to youngest the colonies were settled first in Virginia then New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Each of these colonies was founded for different reasons, cultivated different cash crops, and faced different challenges. But why is it important to know when they were colonized?

Not only is maintaining a solid understanding of the general chronology of the colonization process super helpful in managing the general AP® US History timeline, but it also plays a role in shaping each colony as a distinct, singular entity, which, in turn, subtly lays the foundation for the notion of state’s rights.

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7 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 3: 1754-1800

1. Bill of Rights

After the U.S Constitution had been written and ratified there were many who still feared the strict wording of the document. The document was generous in the power it gave to the federal government but some felt that it granted the federal level too much power. Penned by James Madison, the document attempted to assuage the fears of those who unhappy with a strong, monarch-like centralized government.

The Bill of Rights refers directly to the first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing things like freedom of speech and religion, but the Bill of Rights ultimately came to represent the fluid nature of the Constitution. Its impact lies in how it was interpreted during many historic Supreme Court cases. In this way, the Bill of Rights will appear most frequently within landmark court cases. A strong understanding of the BoR will help you unpack seminal court cases.

2. Boston Massacre

The truth surrounding the Boston Massacre has been clouded by competing narratives, but we do know Americans of the time considered it to be a first step toward the Revolutionary War. In reality, the event was more of a scuffle between colonist settlers and British soldiers, but the propaganda that rose around it whipped the colonies into a frenzy.

In 1770 Great Britain sent troops to Boston as a means to protect officials trying to administer legislation recently upheld by Parliament. A crowd led by Crispus Attucks, a slave, began to harass British soldiers who fired upon the crowd. Several Americans were killed and the episode was heralded as a turning point where colonial sentiment turned from support of the British crown toward independence. The Boston Massacre commonly pops up on the test in questions involving the road to the Revolution, propaganda, and resistance.

3. Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was the final straw in a series of events that led to the American Revolution. The event started as a protest of Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, which gave the East India Company a monopoly in selling tea in the colonies. The Sons of Liberty, a liberation-focused rebellion group, saw this as an intentional act to weaken the local, colonial economy and merchant class, and they would not stand for it.

Men of Boston disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the East India Company ships that were held in the harbor and began to toss the tea shipment overboard. The Boston Tea Party is often seen on the test in questions surrounding the causes of the Revolutionary War, the philosophy of liberty, and nonviolent resistance.

4. Checks and Balances

One of the most important concepts in the foundation of the American government is checks and balances. Checks and balances is a political framework that separates power into a three-way system, preventing one portion of government from gaining dominance over the other two. The United States government is divided into the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. Each of these branches is granted a very specific scope of power that the other branches do not.

Also each branch of government is given powers that allow it to keep its counterparts in check. The significance of this model cannot be understated because it was and continues to prevent a seizure of absolute power by a single man or body politic. Understanding checks and balances, then, is essential to fully understanding America’s handling of power, legislation, and executive actions at large.

5. The Constitution

The U.S Constitution is one of the most important documents in United States (and really, global) history. It established the three-branch system that the United States government has come to depend on, and it instituted a Congress comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It also granted military power to the President of the United States, and it offered the right of the Supreme Court to interpret law as it applies for every citizen of the United States. Understanding the Constitution is vital to understanding how the US government was not only constructed but also how it operates today.

6. Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson and approved by the Continental Congress in 1776, this seminal document embraced the official formation of a new nation. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Congress deemed it important to outline their reasoning for breaking from the British throne and forming their own nation.

The body of the document claimed that all men were created equal and guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It also outlined the crimes committed by the British throne and denounced Parliament for its treatment of the colonies. By its ratification, the American colonies bound themselves on the path of self-governance and sovereignty. This document appears most frequently on DBQs, questions involving revolution, liberty, and rhetoric.

7. Sons of Liberty

Who were the Sons of Liberty exactly? They were a group of colonists who lived in Colonial America that were unhappy with the practices of the British Crown. They formed in order to defend the colonists from further injustices at the hands of Great Britain and to combat any further taxation they deemed unfair.

Names you might recognize among the ranks of the Sons of Liberty were notable men like Samuel Adams, John Hanco*ck, and Paul Revere. Another famous member was Patrick Henry who spoke the words, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” The Sons of Liberty represent one of the most pivotal groups in carrying out the Revolution.

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7 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 4: 1800-1848

1. Embargo Act

The Embargo Act was put into law by Thomas Jefferson in 1807, and it marked a low-point in his presidency. It essentially prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. The law intended to protect American ships from the impressment of foreign forces, but ended up simply decimating the economies of port cities and it reminded many Americans of the British Navigation Acts. It led to an 8 percent decrease in gross national product in 1807. With the embargo in place, American exports declined by 75%, and imports declined by 50%. While the act did not completely eliminate trade and domestic partners, it certainly hurt the nation’s involvement in foreign commerce.

2. War of 1812

Soon after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, America re-entered war with Britain. This was stemmed from frustration and ire surrounding the British seizure of American ships, impressment of American sailors, and the British’s aid to Native Americans attacking Americans on the frontier. Despite suffering big losses and more devastation, American forces were able to thwart the British army and navy and secure victory.

This victory led to a surge in American national pride and self-determination, with many United States citizens calling the War of 1812 a “second war of independence.” The War of 1812 often appears on the APUSH exam in questions involving the acceleration of American self-determination.

3. Hartford Convention

The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814 to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut. At the meetings, the Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and the political problems arising from the federal government’s increasing demonstration of power and authority.

Additionally, the convention discussed removing the three-fifths compromise, which gave slave states disproportionate power in Congress, and they discussed the possibility of a two-thirds majority in Congress for the admission of new states, declarations of war, and creating laws restricting trade. However, despite the Federalist’s claims, Andrew Jackson’s overwhelming victory in the presidential election squashed their hopes and essentially eradicated them as a substantial political force.

4. Tariff of Abominations

The Tariff of 1828 was known as the Tariff of Abominations to the American South. The tariff was passed by Andrew Jackson to protect the American economy from cheAP® English goods that were flooding in. However, the tariff ended up mainly protecting the North because it created goods that competed with English manufactures.

The South was mostly agrarian at the time and enjoyed the cheap trade it had sustained with the British, but the Tariff of Abominations drove up the prices and forced the South to trade with the more expensive North. This tariff served as a portent of the American Civil War because it revealed a clear disunity between the North and the South that was beginning to take shape.

5. Cult of Domesticity

The cult of domesticity was a social ideology that, above all, characterized women as subservient to men. It emphasized an ideal woman who was tender and self-sacrificing, a caregiver who provided a nest for her children and a peaceful refuge for her husband. Woman as cupbearer, homemaker, essentially.

This ideology eventually influenced the ratification of many social customs that restricted women to merely caring for the house. Additionally, and perhaps more holistically, it created a field for middle class women to work as domestic servants.

6. Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine is best known as U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Enacted by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warned European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs. In return, it also pledged that the United States would not intervene in the internal affairs of European nations.

The Monroe Doctrine, although initially a hands-off approach to foreign policy, established the groundwork for U.S. expansionism and interventionism in the decades to come. But, for the time, being, the Monroe Doctrine successfully kept Europe and America from meddling in each other’s affairs.

7. Marbury v. Madison

This seminal legal case was the first time the U.S. Supreme Court declared an act of Congress unconstitutional. The Supreme Court’s act established the doctrine of judicial review, which is when the US Supreme Court reviews the constitutional validity of a legislative act. Think of this case as the case that established judicial review. That’s how it will appear on the test.

For a bit of context, though: the case came about when President John Adams named William Marbury as one of forty-two justices of the peace. The Senate confirmed the nominations the following day, which was Adams’s last full day as President. But Secretary of State John Marshall failed to deliver four of the commissions, including Marbury’s. When Thomas Jefferson took office, he ordered that the four remaining commissions be forgotten. Marbury sued the new secretary of state, James Madison, in order to obtain his commission.

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5 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 5: 1844-1877

1. Emancipation Proclamation

Decreed by Abraham Lincoln, president of the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in the states that were rebelling during the Civil War. The purpose of the proclamation was to render the eradication of slavery the unambiguous and clear goal of the Civil War and the Union Army. In areas where the rebellion had been pacified, the Emancipation Proclamation freed about 30,000 slaves, and as the Union army moved into Confederate territory, it established the context in how slaves were to be freed. While the proclamation further angered the South, it set the Union towards not only reunification of the United States but it also established true freedom for all its citizens. In general, think of the Emancipation Proclamation as Lincoln’s address that freed the slaves.

2. Fugitive Slave Act

A component of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed on September 18, 1850 and served as a fundamental role in accelerating America toward the Civil War. It required that fugitive (runaway) slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state. Significantly, the act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.

Rewards and incentives compelled citizens to form militias and policing groups to round up and capture fugitive slaves, and the act forced African-American citizens into further paranoia and discrimination. You will see this act and the Compromise of 1850 appear on APUSH exams during DBQs and MCQs asking you to investigate the causes of the Civil War.

3. The Missouri Compromise

Though passed in 1820, 35 years before the Civil War, the Missouri Compromise played an integral role in forcing the nation into Civil War. It was passed as a means to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, admitting Maine into the US as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. It also, with the exception of Missouri, prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.

The Missouri Compromise would lead to countless friction between free and slave states, accelerate the issue of state’s rights, and further pit the nation against itself. It was later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which ushered in even more conflict.

4. Kansas-Nebraska Act

Passed in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act gave what’s called popular sovereignty to states. This meant that the settlers of a territory or state were able to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. This overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers.

Of course, leaving such a hot debate up to people rather than geography would lead to turbulence, and indeed, turbulence occurred. The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s passage led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas, which played a significant role in leading the country to Civil War.

5. The Surrender at Appomattox Court House

The Battle of Appomattox Court House, the last battle of the Civil War, was fought on April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox, Virginia. It essentially sealed the Union’s victory, with Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendering to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The meeting only took two hours, but it brought an end to a bloody four years of American civil war.

The terms of the surrender were quite fair to the South. Grant required that all Confederate soldiers turn in their rifles, but he granted them free passage home, and allowed them to keep their horses or mules. The Union also distributed food to Confederate soldiers. The significance to this surrender obviously lies in its concluding of the Civil War, but it also paved the path for an era of reconstruction (and Southern bitterness) that was to come.

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7 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 6: 1865-1898

1. Gilded Age

The period of time between 1870 and 1900 in the United States is often called the Gilded Age thanks to heavy industrial and economic growth. The period got its name from Mark Twain and his novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America.During the Gilded Age economic growth became rapid and robust. Wages rose explosively as a result of heavy industrialization and modernization thanks to technological advancements and strong economic policies.

The allure of wealth and privilege, this was the Gilded Age after all, attracted immigrants from all over Europe, leading to a massive boom in immigration. However, while white citizens enjoyed the gold from the gild so to speak, a deep social unrest began to fester as African Americans, women, and immigrants were systematically disenfranchised and excluded from this era of privilege.

2. Laissez-Faire Economics

Perhaps the most influential economic theory to arise from the Gilded Age, laissez-faire economics emphasized a free market that would produce the best and most efficient solutions to economic and social problems on its own, without much government intervention. Simply put, laissez-faire ideology allowed businesses to do what they wanted without much regulation. They could trade freely, establish their own price values, and determine worker wages and conditions.

Laissez-faire ideology drew heavily from principles of limited government intervention and the ideas of Social Darwinism which were vogue at the time. By applying Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to man-made institutions, liberals bought into the idea that competition was necessary for progress. Though this policy seemed to have positive impacts on the economy, it also began to sew deep misalignments in wealth and equality.

3. JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie

Consider these three men the triumvirate of 19th-century American wealth and business.

JP Morgan was an influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized companies, dominating Wall Street and American finance throughout the 19th century. He spearheaded the formation of several enormous multinational corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester and General Electric.

Likewise, John D Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in American history. He dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust.

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Remember Carnegie as the man who led the expansion of the American steel industry during the late 19th century. From his railroad business, he became one of the richest Americans in history.

While the immense wealth created by each of these figures is incredible enough for its own history book, the triumvirate also accelerated the notion American individualism, and the rags-to-riches, land-of-opportunity narrative surrounding America.

4. Horizontal Integration

A business strategy employed by John D. Rockefeller and other business tycoons. It is an act of joining or consolidating with one’s competitors to create a monopoly. A sort of economic or financial cannibalism. Rockefeller was extremely adept at using this technique to monopolize certain markets and reap huge financial gains. In fact, this technique was responsible for the majority of his wealth. Overall, and perhaps most significantly, it began to pave the way for financial strategy, and it helped develop Rockefeller’s monopoly.

5. Vertical Integration

This is the other side of horizontal integration. Another business strategy utilized by the Rockefeller set, vertical integration is when a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution. So this means one company produces the raw materials, packages them, and distributes them. So a company essentially takes over all different businesses on which it relied for its primary function. Carnegie Steel, for example, came to control not only steel mills but mines, railroads, etc. This strategy led to an immense amount of wealth for certain business tycoons, and further increased the power of monopolies.

6. Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890

Enacted in 1890, the Sherman Anti-trust Act was the first federal action designed to thwart monopolies, which had, by then, grown too powerful and too influential. It outlawed both formal cartels and attempts to monopolize any part of commerce in the United States. Broad and sweeping in scope, the Sherman Anti-trust Act was designed to bust, well, trusts.

A trust was an arrangement where stockholders in different companies transferred their shares to a single set of trustees. In exchange, the stockholders received a certificate granting them a certain share of the earnings of the jointly-managed companies. These trusts came to dominate a number of major industries, destroying competition. This Act would prove integral to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, as he would cite in his sweeping trust-busting reform.

7. The New South

Not all white southerners revered the lost cause of the Confederacy. Many looked to the future rather than the past, but they also could not entirely escape the foul legacy of slavery and its ties to agrarian success. Nonetheless, “new southerners” attempted to modernize the South’s economy and to diversify southern agriculture by adding new industries and trading methods.

They even encouraged northern investment and greenlighted the construction of new railroads to tie the south into national and international markets. Rather than a lost cause, these southerners looked to a new south. However, the New South, despite its gilded progress, still wrestled with the questions of tradition, legacy, and race for years to come.

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7 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 7: 1890-1945

1. Roosevelt Corollary

This piece of famous legislation served as an addendum to the Monroe Doctrine. As a quick reminder, the Monroe Doctrine was a document by President James Monroe that forbade any attempt by a European power to further colonize North or South America. However, the Roosevelt Corollary made the outright declaration that if a European power tried to intervene in the affairs of North or South America, then the United States would exercise military forces to keep Europe out. This document played a key role in developing the aggressive foreign policy America would adopt in the 20th (and really, the 21st) century.

2. “Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Stick.”

An adage made famous by Theodore Roosevelt, it accurately summarizes Roosevelt’s approach to foreign policy during his presidency. The phrase directly refers to how Roosevelt dealt with encounters between Europe and the fledgling nations that had begun to sprout in South America from former colonies.

“Speak softly, and carry a big stick” stems from the fact that President Roosevelt would calmly approach deliberation and negotiations with a peaceful but unflappable strength, hence the “big stick.” The phrase was often attributed to the newly formed and mighty United States Navy, a sort of boast of military power. A prime example of Roosevelt’s adage occurred when the navy’s Great White Fleet, composed of 16 brand new battleships, sailed around the world to demonstrate the power of the United States.

3. Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental railroad was the physical manifestation of the American dream of Manifest Destiny. Built in the mid-19th century, the railroad stretched from San Francisco and Iowa to the Atlantic Ocean. Though the railroad helped gild the Gilded Age, it also played a substantial role developing the rapid modernization and urbanization of the United States during the early-20th century.

Trade was facilitated because merchants no longer had to transport goods via ship but instead could rely on the railroad to move product. States that formerly seemed inaccessible due to the amount of time it took to get there and the danger that came with the overland route were made secure by the existence of a reliable railroad.

4. Wilson’s 14 Points

During the United States’ entry into World War I, President Wilson thought it prudent to outline the exact goals of the United States for entering the war, and he also described a variety of peace negotiations to end the war. By the time the United States entered into the war, combat in Europe was already firmly entrenched but most participating nations had not clearly outlined a peace plan. In President Wilson’s 14 points, he described the type of world he hoped to build, a world of free trade between all nations, open navigation of the seas, and the formation of the precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations. Critics of Wilson considered his 14 points too idealistic, but they undoubtedly helped set the wheels of globalization, and particularly America’s role in shaping globalization.

5. Great Depression

The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis of the 1930’s, and one of the worst economic collapses of world history. It lasted until WWII, and it marked the deepest economic slump the entire world had seen. While the causes of the Great Depression are complex and multifaceted, it perhaps mostly stemmed from four factors:

• Financial instability and credit cycles: A period of stability encouraged more borrowing and lending than prudent, sowing the seeds for future instability.
• Monetary contraction, the gold standard, and bank runs: Monetary policy, driven in large part by the gold standard, tightened credit at the wrong time fueling bank-runs and economic slowdown.
• Debt deflation: Excess private debt created a dangerous condition where no one wanted to spend, causing deflation and economic weakening.
• Maldistribution of wealth: A lopsided consolidation wealth led to a limited middle class.

6. Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the scientific project undertaken by the United States to create the first atomic weapon. Who led the creation of some of the most powerful weapons in human history? The actual scheme was led by the premiere physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The bulk of the engineering and design took place at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

However, in order to create these weapons they needed to enrich uranium and this was done in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The end result of the project was the creation of two atomic bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively leading to the end of the war in the Pacific Theater. The development of the atomic bomb would create a new world marked by paranoia and apocalyptic dread.

7. Potsdam Conference

Ever wonder how the Allies dealt with Germany after they had surrendered? As WWII concluded, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam and determined Germany’s fate. The United States had a new president, President Truman, who had taken the presidency because Franklin D. Roosevelt died during his fourth term. Most significantly, the talks created a Council of Foreign Ministers and developed a central Allied Control Council for administration of post-war Germany. The leaders arrived at various agreements on the German economy, punishment for war criminals, land boundaries and reparations. Although talks primarily centered on postwar Europe, they came to a conclusion regarding Japan, who issued an unconditional surrender. issued a declaration demanding “unconditional surrender” from Japan.

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5 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 8: 1945-1980

1. Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Monkey Trial can be unpacked as the first instance of religion versus science in the United States public education system. The issue began when a substitute biology teacher unwittingly taught evolution in a Tennessee high school. Prior to his instruction, the Butler Act had made it illegal to teach any form of evolution in a Tennessee school that received money from the state. This set off a large debate on the nature of evolution in public education.

Major figures in the American political landscape at the time came from all over to partake in this debate. Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes, the teacher accused of the crime, and against him stood William Jennings Bryan. The case itself was made even larger as major newspapers came from all over the country to cover the trial. It concluded with the defeat of Scopes, who was found guilty and fined $100, but it also pointed toward a long-lasting battle between science and religion in American society.

2. Bay of Pigs

During the Cold War, Cuba was at a crossroads in their own development as a nation. Fidel Castro led a left-wing government that supported the Soviet Union and was looking to cultivate further ties with them. He had come to power after usurping the democratic, but corrupt, President Fulgencio Batista. Apprehensive about Castro’s left-wing sympathies President Eisenhower ordered an invasion of the island, but the final stamp of approval was given by President Kennedy. The invasion, which occurred in 1961, ultimately failed and the United States faced embarrassment on the international stage, forced to grant Cuba’s new political system legitimacy. You will see the Bay of Pigs invasion on questions involving the Cold War, ‘60s foreign policy, and JFK.

3. Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis marked the height of tension during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. It arose as the result of the United States’ failed ploy to topple the left-wing government of Cuba, so Cuba began aid from the Soviet Union. The USSR armed the island-nation with nuclear missiles pointed towards the United States, leading in a 13-day standoff between the US and Cuba/the USSR

In response the United States strategically aimed its own nuclear arsenal in Turkey and Italy toward Moscow. The crisis ended with a series of tactful negotiations between Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy. In the end, the United States agreed never to attempt to subjugate Cuba again and they promised to remove their own nuclear weapons from Turkey and Italy if and only if the Soviet Union removed theirs in Cuba. It is one of the most tense moments in world history, as it brought the world close to nuclear annihilation.

4. Red Scare

The Red Scare refers to the period of time between 1947 and the early 1950’s. During this period of mass paranoia, the American national consciousness became inundated with fear regarding all things communist. This precipitated by the raising of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, the advent of a Chinese Civil War, and the damage to American security by Soviet espionage.

The main figure at the heart of the Red Scare was Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used the FBI and CIA to spy on organizations and figures he deemed sympathetic to the communist cause. He blacklisted artists, poets, Hollywood, leaders of black organizations, and more left-of-the-dial Americans, and he even managed to prosecute some. The Red Scare marked a period of fear-mongering and repression against those who professed even the slightest sympathy for Communists.

5. The Kent State Massacre

On May 4, 1970, 4 students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University were shot and killed by the National Guard. The event marked a period of deep polarization in American history, with many younger Americans expressing anger, frustration, and flat-out disapproval of the Vietnam War while older Americans expressed the opposite. The massacre revealed a deep cultural and generational division within American society, a division that began to form during the 1950s and early 1960s as a marketable mass culture including sitcoms, rock n’ roll, hippie culture, and more began to take shape. The youth of America had grown tired of America’s aggressive foreign policy and stubborn intolerance, and they began to grow restless.

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5 Frequently Tested AP® US History Concepts from Period 9: 1980-Present

1. Détente

During the 1960s through the 1980s, the United States attempted to strategically unravel the Soviet Union while simultaneously easing tensions between the two superpowers. The concept of détente was the first step of ending the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The ideological project began with the installation of a direct hotline between Washington D.C. and Moscow in order to properly facilitate quick, precise communication between the leaders of both nations. This thawing of relations between the two superpowers was brought about by events such as the Strategic Arms Limitation talks and the signing of the Helsinki Accords.

Both efforts taken by the participating superpowers helped reduce their ballistic missile arsenal, and established a more clear line of understanding between the USSR and the US, a line of communication that would help bring an end to the Cold War. Détente marked the first instance during the Cold War that both superpowers realized that the continued escalation might lead to a potentially devastating nuclear war and the destruction of both nations.

2. Domino Theory

Domino Theory was a concept that dominated United States legislation and the national consciousness from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. It centered around the belief that if one country fell to Communism, then surrounding nations would follow suit, leading to a gradual development of communism.

It outlined a “domino effect” that went like this: if China fell to communism then it would be followed by Korea then Vietnam and so on until all of Asia was under the spell of the Soviet Union. The weight the theory carried comes from how it dominated American foreign policy through the duration of the Cold War and its interventionist procedures that led to the Korean and Vietnam War, and it would not be totally abandoned until the 1990s.

3. Fall of the Berlin Wall

After more than 40 years of Cold War, the USSR finally agreed to call it quits, and decided to tear down the Berlin Wall at the urging of United States President Ronald Reagan. The official purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep Western Berliners from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. It became a prime symbol of East vs. West.

On November 9, 1989, the USSR began dismantling the Wall to a crowd of ecstatic citizens finally able to reunite with the city’s other half. Many citizens swarmed the Wall, bringing hammers, picks, and other tools to chip away at the structure. To this day, the fall of the Berlin Wall marks a significant moment of reconciliation in not only American but global history.

4. Attacks of September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, 19 members of the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and an attempted attack on the White House in the United States. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the terror of the day initiated major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism which ultimately defined the presidency of George W. Bush.

These acts, many of which were controversial, called for heightened security, racial profiling, and more. The Patriot Act of 2001, for instance, granted broad police authority to the federal, state, and local government to interdict, prosecute, and convict suspected terrorists. It is this sense of paranoia and punitive legislation that would carry American domestic and foreign policy into the new millennium.

5. Affordable Care Act

Passed in 2010, this Act demanded households with incomes above $250,000 to pay higher taxes as a means to bring about health care reform. It also decreed that medicare will operate with the notion of “payment bundling,” the idea that hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare providers should be paid on the basis of patient outcome, not services provided. Commonly called “Obamacare,” it was designed to grant healthcare to a wider range of people. Its significance lies in that the Act tried to clean up a well-established healthcare crisis in America.

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Wrapping Things Up: The Ultimate List of Frequently Tested AP® US History Terms

From the colonial period to the present, the United States has a rich, complicated history, and the AP® US History Exam is designed to challenge your understanding of that history. Though it is a difficult exam, acing it is possible with a little hard work and preparation.

We encourage you to study this list of AP® US History key terms and concepts, and we hope you use this AP® US History Review as a keepsake. Memory, practice, and review is key to scoring well on the exam, and this list of significant events is a great place to start building your skills.

And remember, we also offer tons of AP® US History study guides, practice exams, DBQs and more on our website! Check them out and work them into your own study routine to ensure a high score on the exam.