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Manifest Destiny and Manhattan Project: Words for American History

Word List with 33 words
By Dictionary.com

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Words in This List

Monroe Doctrine

noun

the policy of President Monroe in 1823, that the U.S. opposed further European interference with independent nations in the Western Hemisphere

Roosevelt Corollary

noun

following the Monroe Doctrine, the assertion that the U.S. might intervene in the affairs of an American republic threatened by a European country

Granger Movement

noun

a campaign for state control of railroads and grain elevators carried on during the 1870s by members of the Grange, a farmers' organization

court packing

noun

an unsuccessful attempt by President Roosevelt in 1937 to appoint up to six more justices to the Supreme Court to validate his New Deal laws

Manhattan Project

noun

unofficial name for the U.S. War Department's secret program to isolate radioactive isotopes and produce an atomic bomb

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Seneca Falls Convention

noun

a women's rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

charity school

noun

an elementary school, usually funded by charitable persons or organizations, for those unable to pay, a forerunner of the public-school system

Pioneer Day

noun

a legal holiday in Utah on July 24 to commemorate Brigham Young's founding of Salt Lake City in 1847

Fifty-four-forty or Fight

noun

a slogan among Democrats in 1846, who asserted U.S. ownership of the entire Oregon country, including the part that Great Britain claimed

Bonus Army

noun

12K World War I vets who massed in Washington, D.C. in summer 1932 to induce Congress to appropriate money for bonus certificates granted in 1924

Square Deal

noun

the stated policy of President T Roosevelt, originally promising fairness in all dealings with labor and management and later extended to other groups

wagon train

noun

a train of wagons and horses, as one carrying military supplies or transporting settlers in the westward migration

Texas Revolution

noun

a revolutionary movement, 1832?36, in which U.S. settlers asserted their independence from Mexico and established the republic of Texas

Farmers' Alliance

noun

an informal name for regional political organizations of farmers in the 1880s and that led to the formation of the Peoples' party 1891?92

Pure Food and Drug Act

noun

a law passed in 1906 to remove harmful and misrepresented food and drugs from the market and regulate the manufacture and sale in interstate trade

Seward's Folly

noun

the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, through the negotiations of Secretary of State W. H. Seward

Big Five

noun

the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan during World War I and the Paris Conference of 1919

acre right

noun

the right of a settler to purchase land that the settler has occupied or improved

Morrill Act

noun

an 1862 act granting each land, with proceeds to be used for the endowment colleges teaching agricultural and mechanical arts

Teapot Dome

noun

a federal oil reserve in Wy leased to private producer Harry F. Sinclair, leading to a major government scandal

Bland-Allison Act

noun

an 1878 act requiring the fed government to purchase $2-4m worth of silver monthly to make silver dollars

Greenback party

noun

a political party organized in 1874, opposed to the reduction of greenbacks (paper currency) and favoring their increase as the only paper currency

Overland Trail

noun

any of various routes traveled by settlers from the Missouri River to Oregon and California beginning in the 1840s

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

noun

an agreement between the U.S. and England in 1842 defining the boundary between British and American territory from Maine to Minnesota

Kinkaider

noun

a person who received free land under the provisions of the Kinkaid Act receiving a 640-acre homestead in western Nebraska after 1904

War Department

noun

the department of the federal government responsible for defense: in 1947 it became the Department of the Army

know-nothing

noun

member of the American party or Know-Nothing party, active 1853-1856, whose aim was to keep control of government in the hands of native-born citizens

Chicago Fire

noun

a three-day fire in Chicago, Ill., in 1871 that largely destroyed the city and took several hundred lives

Dies Committee

noun

an early, informal name for the House Un-American Activities Committee

Kinkaid Act

noun

a 1904 act of Congress providing for the granting of 640-acre homesteads to settlers in western Nebraska

overland mail

noun

a government mail service, started in 1848, for sending mail from the Mississippi to the Far West