Period 5: Glossary (College Board AP® US History): Study Guide

Themes in Period 5

• America and National Identity (NAT)

• Geography and the Environment (GEO)

• Politics and Power (PCE)

• America in the World (WOR)

• American and Regional Culture (ARC)

• Social Structures (SOC)

Contextualizing Period 5

Expansion and conflict – Territorial growth increased conflict over enslavement and national identity

Civil War era – This period centered on sectional crisis, war, and Reconstruction

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny – Many Americans believed that God wanted the U.S. to expand westward

Territorial expansion – Expansion into new territory raised hard questions about enslavement and whether it should continue

The Mexican–American War

Mexican-American War – The U.S. gained a huge amount of western territory, including present-day California and Nevada

Cession – This means voluntarily transferring or yielding land/property. Land ceded from Mexico intensified debates over free and slave territory

The Compromise of 1850

Wilmot Proviso – One of the first major political fights over slavery in new territories. It proposed to prohibit slavery in any new territory acquired from Mexico

Compromise of 1850 – A short-term attempt to calm sectional conflict

Fugitive Slave Act – Required escaped enslaved people to be returned if captured

Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences

Sectionalism – North and South U.S. developed different economies and social systems

Abolitionist movement – More Americans publicly challenged slavery

Failure of Compromise

Kansas-Nebraska Act – Popular sovereignty, which allowed settlers to determine whether slavery would be allowed, reopened conflict over slavery

"Bleeding Kansas" – Violence in Kansas showed that compromise was breaking down

Dred Scott decision – The Court ruled that Black Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories

Election of 1860 and Secession

Election of 1860 – Lincoln’s victory convinced many Southern states to secede from the Union

Secession – Southern states left the Union to protect slavery and states’ rights

Confederacy – The seceded states formed a separate government - The Confederate States of America

Military Conflict in the Civil War

Union – The North fought to preserve the nation

Confederacy – The South fought for independence

Total war – The Civil War increasingly targeted resources and infrastructure

Government Policies During the Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation – The proclamation declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were free. It shifted the war toward ending slavery

Draft – Both sides used conscription to fill their armies

Habeas corpus – Lincoln limited some civil liberties during wartime.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction – The nation debated how to rebuild the South, reunite the states and define freedom

Freedmen’s Bureau – A federal agency that helped formerly enslaved people