Laws, Acts, Executive Orders, Doctrines, and Foreign Policy
Enclosure Movement: Movement in England from the government in which land that everyone shared was being taken from them and being sold for private ownership
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: The first created Constitution in American history
Act of Toleration of 1649: Promised toleration for all Christians but not for other religions
Slave Codes: Codes that restricted the lives and behavior of slaves
Slave Trade Act of 1788: “Improved” the conditions of slaves being transported across the Middle Passage, but even after the act, slaves continued to be packed into tight suffocating conditions
Navigation Acts: Forbade colonial trade with other countries that were not the British, required merchants to engage in trade with English colonies only in English ships, and also required that certain valuable trade items pass through exclusively British ports to be taxed
Barbados Code of 1661: Code in Barbados that legally defined African slaves as property and made slavery hereditary, and gave slaveowners the right to kill their slaves. Virginia would later establish similar laws based on Barbados’s slave laws
Albany Plan of Union: A proposition that the colonies would establish a Grand Council of representatives to decide on the matters of frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion, and a President General that the king would appoint to preside over this council. While this plan was rejected for the taxes it would cost, it laid the foundation for what would become the Revolutionary Congress in the future.
Peace of Paris (1763): Ended the French and Indian War; did the following:
Spain ceded Florida to the British
The French were removed from the North American continent
All previously French lands west of the Mississippi River were given to the Spanish
All previously French lands east of the Mississippi River were given to the British (namely, the Ohio River Valley)
Proclamation Line of 1763: The British Parliament created this line which forbade the colonists from migrating west across the Appalachian mountains and taking land in the Ohio River Valley. But the colonists didn’t listen and migrated west anyways
Quartering Act of 1765: This law kept British soldiers stationed in the colonies in order to enforce British laws and also meant that colonists were responsible for providing free housing and food for these soldiers
Sugar Act: Imposed taxes on coffee/wine/various luxury items/molasses
Stamp Act of 1765: Tax on all paper items such as newspapers/playing cards/stamps
Currency Act: Prohibited the colonies from printing their own paper currency
Declaratory Act: Stated that Parliament had the right to pass whatever law they wanted in the colonies
Townshend Acts (1767): Taxed items such as paper, tea, and glass that were imported into the colonies
Tea Act (1773): A tax on tea and provided exclusive rights to the British East India Company to buy and ship tea to the colonies, leading to the Boston Tea Party
Coercive Acts (1774): Closed down Boston Harbor until all the tea was paid for
Intolerable Acts: The general term for the acts that were passed after the Boston Tea Party (Coercive Acts, another Quartering Act, and several more others)
Paris Peace Treaty (1783): Ended the American Revolution, Britain officially recognized the United States as an independent nation
Articles of Confederation: The first governing document of the United States, ratified in 1781, provided for a very weak federal government and made it very difficult for things to happen because it was heavily influenced by state constitutions and so it failed and was replaced by the Constitution; this document provided for no executive branch (president) and also had a very weak Supreme Court
Northwest Ordinance of 1787: Promoted public education and provided provisions for protection of private property. Also abolished slavery in the Northwest and provided a method for territories in the west to apply for statehood after getting a large enough population; also led to Shays’ Rebellion as a result
Virginia Plan: Made during the Constitutional Convention, proposed a strong centralized state with a bicameral legislature (two houses in Congress) where each house would have representatives based on population
New Jersey Plan: Made during the Constitutional Convention, called for a unicameral legislature (one house in Congress) where every state had equal representatives, which would favor the small states over the big states
Great Compromise: Solution of the Constitutional Convention, proposed a bicameral legislature where one house, the House of Representatives, would represent the states by population, while the other house, the Senate, would represent each state equally with two votes per state
Three-Fifths Compromise: Said that three-fifths of the enslaved population of a state would count towards representation, meaning that one slave counted as only three-fifths of a person
Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, created to protect individual rights and protect states from abuse of federal power, adopted in 1792
Supremacy Clause (Article VI of the Constitution): States that national law trumps state law whenever they contradict
Proclamation of Neutrality (1793): Issued by George Washington, declared that the U.S. wouldn’t get involved in foreign affairs
Jay’s Treaty (1794): Negotiated by John Jay with Britain, led to the British giving up their forts and posts along the western frontier but did not address impressment
Pinckney’s Treaty (1795): Negotiated by Thomas Pinckney, allowed Americans to use the Spanish port at New Orleans for trade along the Mississippi River, and also established the southern border of the United States to be along the 31st parallel, which separated the U.S. from the border of Spanish West Florida.
Alien and Sedition Acts: Passed by John Adams, made it possible for the government to imprison or deport any non-citizen they wanted (Alien Acts) and illegal to criticize the government (Sedition Acts), enraged the Democratic-Republicans who saw it as a political attack and an abuse of federal power that violated Constitutional rights.
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: Response to the Alien and Sedition Acts written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, argued that the states had the right to nullify any federal legislation that they deemed unnecessary or went beyond the powers granted to it by the Constitution
Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom (1786): Created by Jefferson, defined the separation between church and state, and argued that people could not be forced to support church ministry with taxes or be forced to go to church
Embargo Act (1907): An act in which the U.S. closed its ports to all exports and was in an embargo on all foreign nations.
American System: A proposal made by Henry Clay to fix the problems of America which suggested these three things
Federally funded internal improvements like roads and canals (rejected by both Presidents James Madison and James Monroe)
Federal tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturers
The creation of the Second Bank of the United States
Tallmadge Amendment: Proposed by Congressman James Tallmadge, suggested the emancipation of all slaves in Missouri after they turned 25, failed to be passed and led to the South threatening to secede
Missouri Compromise (Compromise of 1820): Stated that while Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, a new state would be created in New England called Maine as a free state to keep the balance. Additionally, it established the 36° 30’ line as the boundary for determining slave and free states, meaning that in the future, slavery would be banned from any new states that were above the line
Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809): Obtained almost thirty million acres of land from the natives for the settlement of Illinois and Indiana, led to Tecumseh’s War
Adams-Onis Treaty (1819): Negotiated by John Quincy Adams to officially define the border between the U.S. and Spanish territories in the West.
Monroe Doctrine: Created by James Monroe which had three key points:
America would not get involved in European wars unless directly impacted
European nations were not welcome in the West and were not allowed to make any new colonies or take back former colonies in the Americas
Anything that happened in the Americas was the responsibility of the U.S. and therefore, any attempt of European influence in the Americas would be considered as an “unfriendly act”
Tariff of 1828: Passed under John Quincy Adams, raised duties on imports by 35-45%, greatly harming southerners because the people in the South relied heavily on imported goods from other countries
South Carolina Exposition & Protest: Written by John C. Calhoun which outlined the idea of the Doctrine of Nullification, which stated that if a state decided that a federal law was unconstitutional, the state could nullify it
Force Bill (1833): Passed by Andrew Jackson, gave Jackson the authority to use military action in South Carolina if they kept ignoring the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832
Compromise Tariff of 1833: A negotiation between Jackson and South Carolina that negotiated a reduction to tariffs and established that states couldn’t nullify all federal laws
Specie Circular: An executive order by Jackson in 1836 that ordered that all federal land had to be purchased in specie (gold & silver) instead of with paper money
Indian Removal Act of 1830: Exchanged all Indian lands in the East for lands west of the Mississippi River, namely the Oklahoma territory, forcing many natives to relocate. This act was passed after gold was discovered in the Cherokee nation in Georgia, where the Cherokee had lived separately from the state for decades
Treaty of New Echota: Officially exchanged Cherokee lands for reservation lands west of the Mississippi, leading to their forced removal in 1838
Treaty of Kanagawa: Signed in 1854 where Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Edo Bay armed with steamships and cannons and forced Japan to open its borders for trade with the U.S.
Preemption Acts: Passed during the 1830s and 1840s. These acts allowed anybody to buy large areas of land in the west for cheap prices and farm it. This led to a lot of middle-class people migrating out west, mainly because they were the ones who could afford to buy this new land
Oregon Treaty: Ratified in 1846 between the United States and Britain, dividing the Oregon Territory at the 49th Parallel, with the southern portion belonging to the U.S
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Ended the Mexican-American War, did two key things:
It established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas
It outlined the Mexican Cession, in which the California and New Mexico Territories were ceded to the U.S. for 15 million dollars.
Gadsden Purchase: Sold the southern portions of modern-day Arizona and New Mexico to the U.S. in 1853
Wilmot Proviso: Proposed by Congressman David Wilmot in 1846, suggested banning slavery in any and all lands gained from the Mexican-American War and while this was ultimately rejected, many Southerners saw it as yet another attack from Northerners against slavery. This Proviso marked one of the first major events leading up to the conflict of the Civil War.
Compromise of 1850: Proposed by Henry Clay in 1850, suggested five things:
California would be admitted as a free state
The slave trade would end in Washington D.C.
The New Mexico territory would be divided into the Utah and New Mexico territory
The above two territories would decide slavery based on popular sovereignty
A Fugitive Slave Law would be passed to appease the Southerners, which required any escaping slaves to be returned to their owners, even if they had fled to a free state. This would also fine anybody caught helping a slave escape. And while this worked to calm tensions for a little bit, it would soon prove to be insufficient within the next few years.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed this, suggesting to allow the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to be allowed to decide whether to allow slavery or not through popular sovereignty, despite both being above the 36’ 30 line established by the Missouri Compromise. This enraged Northerners, who saw it as an overturning of the Missouri Compromise, and this led to an event known as Bleeding Kansas.
Crittenden Compromise: A rejected proposal to extend the Missouri Compromise line all the way to the Pacific Ocean, made as an attempt to stop secession
Emancipation Proclamation: An executive order by Lincoln that freed all slaves in the Confederate states and was designed to change the scope of the war from being a war over Confederate secession to being a war over abolition in order to keep the British out of the war, who had just recently also abolished slavery in 1833
Martial Law: Military rule, enacted during the Civil War in September of 1863
Habeas Corpus: The right for prisoners to know what they’re being locked up for
10% Plan: Proposed by Lincoln in which southern states could return to the Union with their state governments reestablished if 10% of their voters took a loyalty oath and if they ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery
Black Codes: Laws designed to restrict the freedom of black people and force them to work for low wages. These Black Codes did a variety of things but here were some of the main codes passed:
African Americans could not borrow money to buy or rent land, making them vulnerable to the sharecropping system
African Americans could not testify against white people in court, preventing violence against blacks from ever being heard in the justice system
African Americans without a home or without a job could be arrested and forced to work hard labor under a white employer (vagrancy law)
African Americans could not own firearms
In some areas, African Americans could only work as servants or laborers
Civil Rights Act of 1866: Declared all people born in the United States citizens and having equal protection under the laws, turned into the 14th Amendment due to fear of it being overturned
Reconstruction Acts of 1867: Passed over Johnson’s veto, divided the South into five districts, and put them under military occupation with federal troops in order to enforce the new laws. Additionally, they increased the requirement for southern states to rejoin the Union to also include the ratification of the 14th Amendment. Lastly, they guaranteed to right to vote to all males, regardless of race. This also led to the first black people in Congress, including Senators Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels
Tenure of Office Act (1867): Passed by Republicans, made it illegal for a president to fire a member of his cabinet without Senate approval. After President Andrew Johnson fired his Secretary of War, this led to his impeachment trial and left him powerless to influence Reconstruction any further
Compromise of 1877: Passed by Hayes, ended Reconstruction because of Democrat outrage over Hayes being elected as president, and because few people in the North cared about Reconstruction anymore
Homestead Act (1862): Gave anybody who migrated out west 160 acres of free land for them to live on and farm
Granger Laws: Laws passed in states to regulate railroad rates and to make harmful corporate practices illegal to protect farmers
Commerce Act of 1886: Passed to require railroad rates to be fair and reasonable, also created the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce this fairness
Pacific Railroads Act: Granted railroad companies large amounts of land for low prices to give them room to build a transcontinental railroad. This led to the first transcontinental railroad being completed in 1869 and then four more being completed in the next few decades, connecting the central United States to the western regions along the Pacific Coast
Indian Appropriation Act: Passed in 1871, ended the sovereignty of Indian nations and nullified all previous treaties that the federal government had made with them. As a result, many of these native groups began resisting and in some cases, it led to violence.
Dawes Act (1887): Ended the reservation system and opened the land up for settlement, dividing it into plots of land to be farmed by the natives. Roughly 90 million acres of reservations were sold to white settlers.
Jim Crow Laws: Laws created in the South that segregated all parts of society such as bathrooms, fountains, and public transportation
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: Banned all immigration to the United States from China
Single Tax: A proposal by Henry George to tax the land that the elite owned because he believed that they were making most of the money off of that land
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890: Attempted to prevent the creation of monopolies but ended up doing mostly nothing until Theodore Roosevelt began enforcing it during the 1900s
Open Door Policy (1899): Established equal and free trading rights with China and all of the other European powers that were there taking over the ports
Pendleton Act of 1881: Passed under Chester A. Arthur, replacing the practice of patronage with a competitive examination, turning federal jobs into more of a meritocracy. Basically, now, if you wanted a federal job, you needed to compete with others for scores on an exam, and whoever got the highest scores got the job. And while this was a good thing, it also had the unintended side effect of changing how parties were funded.
Platt Amendment: An amendment forced to be put in the new Cuban constitution by American politicians after the Spanish-American War. Gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba if American economic interests were threatened. This made it difficult for Cuba to conduct foreign policy and do things in their own self-interest and as a result, America had extended their influence over Cuba.
Australian Ballot: Established by Progressives, also known as the secret ballot. Meant that now, people would vote in secret.
Initiative: Legislation passed by Progressives, allowed voters to, with enough votes, force the government to put a law on the ballot or to a referendum
Referendum: Legislation passed by Progressives, allowed voters to vote directly on a proposal, law, or political issue without needing state legislature or representatives
Recall: Legislation passed by Progressives, allowed voters to remove a politician from office before their term ends
Square Deal: A domestic program under Theodore Roosevelt designed to emphasize conservation, control of corporations, and consumer protections
Pure Food and Drug Act: Passed under Theodore Roosevelt to regulate the labeling of food and drug products
Meat Inspection Act: Passed under Roosevelt to make the mislabeling of meat products illegal and also to make sure that meat products were processed in strictly sanitated conditions
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: Established by Theodore Roosevelt, stated that Europeans should stay out of the Western Hemisphere
Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: Established in 1912, stated that non-European powers were excluded from owning any territory in the Western Hemisphere. This was established after a group of Japanese investors wanted to buy part of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
New Freedom: A new Progressive program under Wilson to increase competition between businesses, support a smaller government, and control federal authority
Underwood Tariff Act (1913): Passed under Wilson, lowered tariffs by 15% and removed duties from sugar, wool, and several other goods
Federal Reserve Act (1913): Passed under Wilson, created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States, and gave the president the power to govern the entire system
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914): Passed under Wilson, another antitrust act that broke up monopolies and legalized strikes, boycotts, and labor unions
National Defense Act (1916): Passed under Wilson, increased the regular army to roughly 175,000 soldiers.
Selective Service Act (1917): Passed under Wilson, led to 9.5 million men being drafted by the United States for World War I
Fourteen Points: Fourteen points presented by Woodrow Wilson to the other nations after World War I in Paris in order to try to prevent future wars but this wasn’t accepted by the other nations. Some of his points included:
An end to secret treaties
Freedom of navigation on the seas
Self-determination for colonies
A reduction of arms
The removal of trade barriers
The creation of a League of Nations for the purpose of guaranteeing political independence and territorial integrity to all states
Treaty of Versailles: Ended World War I, signed in Paris, did the following:
Blamed Germany solely for the war
Forced Germany to pay billions in reparations to the Allies
Forced Germany to demilitarize most of their army
Transferred all of Germany’s colonies to other powers and forced them to give up some of their territory in Europe
Espionage Act: Passed during World War I, made it illegal to spy and obtain secret intelligence information from the United States or record it, and give it to other countries
Sedition Act: Passed during World War I, made it a crime to speak out against the government, criticize the war effort, or interfere with the draft
Emergency Quota Act of 1921: Limited the number of allowed immigrants from a country to 3% of their population in 1910 annually
National Origins Act of 1924: Reduced the immigration allowed by the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 further to just 2% of their population in 1890
Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907): In Japan, this was passed to ban people from leaving their country for the United States
Immigration Act of 1917: Banned Asians from immigrating to the United States
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930): Passed by Hoover, raised tariffs on foreign products by 20%.
New Deal: Under FDR, this was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations aimed to help the lives of Americans and relieve the effects of the Great Depression. He addressed three main categories of issues and these were: relief, recovery, and reform.
National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA): Created during the New Deal, established a set of codes agreed upon by laborers and corporations to establish minimum wage levels, shorter working hours, and the regulation of prices for certain petroleum products
Glass-Steagall Act of 1933: Created during the New Deal, increased regulation of banks and limited the ways banks could invest people’s money, also created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Social Security Act of 1935: Created during the New Deal, established social security, which would withhold part of a person’s income and give it back once they turned 65 so they would have income once they reach retirement age, and also provided grants for welfare payments to those in need
Emergency Banking Act (1933): Created a Banking Holiday in which banks would close, and then the federal government would inspect them to increase public confidence in banks
Townsend Plan: Proposed by Dr. Francis Townsend, which would give everyone over the age of 60 a monthly pension of $200 that they had to spend by the end of the month
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937: Proposed by FDR in response to criticisms of the New Deal, also known as the “court-packing plan”, in which he suggested allowing the president to appoint new Supreme court Justices for every justice over the age of 70. This would allow him to, at the time, appoint six more judges to the Supreme Court, and this was proposed with the intent to allow him to pack the court with judges sympathetic to the New Deal. Immediately, both parties of Congress shut down this bill because they saw this as an overreach of power and an attempt to control the Supreme Court.
Fordney-McCumber Act (1922): Passed by Harding, greatly increased tariffs
Kellogg-Briand Pact: Signed in 1928 between 63 nations, including the United States, which made war illegal. But when you think about it, this is basically impossible to enforce. But it was an attempt by the United States to protect itself from getting involved in any more wars
Cash and Carry Program: With this program, the United States allowed any country in the war to purchase armaments from them as long as they paid in cash and used their own ships to transport the weapons. Because Britain controlled the seas, this policy only mainly helped them.
Destroyers for Bases Program: Replaced the Cash and Carry Program after Britain started running out of cash; a program in which the United States would give Britain destroyers in exchange for land rights on British possessions
Lend-Lease Act: Passed in 1941; allowed Britain to obtain the armaments they needed on credit, meaning that they could pay back the U.S. later instead of immediately in cash. So while the United States was still technically neutral, it was clear that they were supporting Britain
Bracero Program: Established in 1942, allowed Mexican farm workers to enter the U.S. and help with farming without going through immigration procedures
Selective Service Act: Passed in 1940, a year before the U.S. entered the war, which became the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history. By the end of the war, this led to roughly 15 million Americans serving in the war in total
Executive Order 9066: Passed by FDR, relocated over 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps, including Japanese immigrants and Japanese children born on American soil. Many of these relocated people had their personal property and land confiscated. Led to the Supreme Court case Korematsu v. The United States
Marshall Plan: A plan in which the United States would send twelve billion dollars to European nations to help them rebuild. The U.S. did this in order to help these nations recover economically and to get them to ally with the United States before they decided to try fixing their problems with communism. This worked and the United States was able to revive the economies of western Europe, ending the threat of communism there.
Containment Policy (1947): A policy declared by President Harry Truman in which he argued that instead of trying to stop communism entirely, they should work to stop its spread
Truman Doctrine: Advocated for containment through the lending of military and economic support. For example, Truman sent aid to Greece in the face of a communist uprising, and helped Turkey when the USSR demanded some control of the Dardanelles, a strait in Turkey connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance: Signed by Mao and Stalin, made communist China allies with the USSR
McCarren Internal Security Act: Passed by Congress during the Second Red Scare; made it illegal to support totalitarian governments, restricted the employment of those in communist organizations, and allowed for the creation of detention camps.
“Open Skies” Policy: A failed proposal during the Geneva Convention made by the United States in which both sides would agree to allow the performance of aerial photography over the other’s territory
SALT I: Signed by Nixon and Brezhnev in Moscow, limited the two superpowers to just two hundred anti-ballistic missiles each
SALT II: Signed by Carter and the USSR in 1979, banned new missile programs and limited the size of each superpower’s nuclear delivery system
Carter Doctrine: Issued by Carter, halted grain exports and technology to the USSR and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games after the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979
Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944: Also known as the G.I. Bill, provided a lot of support to returning World War II veterans. For example, it provided them with billions in federal aid and many used this money to continue their education and attend college. Many also used this aid to buy homes, buy farms, help start a family, and start businesses.
Taft-Hartley Act (1947): Passed in order to stop the growing power of unions. It protected employees’ from restraint or coercion by unions and also outlawed secondary boycotts, which was the practice of several unions supporting a striking union by joining a boycott. It also outlawed jurisdictional strikes, political strikes, and unions giving monetary donations to political campaigns.
Fair Deal: Launched by Truman to continue FDR’s New Deal. Provided national health care insurance, federal aid to education, and civil rights legislation but many of these proposed reforms were blocked by conservatives in Congress because of Truman’s conflicts with them
Modern Republicanism: A continuation of the New Deal programs during Eisenhower’s presidency. He extended social security to more than ten million citizens, raised minimum wage, built additional public housing, created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and opposed federal healthcare insurance and federal aid to education. Under Eisenhower, the Interstate Highway System was also passed in 1956
Interstate Highway System (1956): Passed as part of Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism, authorized the construction of roughly 42,000 miles of interstate highways to connect all of the nation’s major cities. This project created new jobs, accelerated suburban growth, promoted the trucking industry, and also helped connect the country together
Civil Rights Act of 1964: Did many things:
Prohibited all racial discrimination in public places and employment
Created the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission to protect against job discrimination
Strengthened voting rights legislation
Allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to use lawsuits to desegregate public schools
Voting Rights Act of 1965: Banned literacy tests and discrimination at the voting booth. This led to the amount of African American voters rising from 40% to 65% by 1960.
Equal Pay Act (1963): Required men and women with the same job and same work to be given the same pay
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972: Outlawed gender discrimination in federally subsidized education programs. This meant that for opportunities provided to men, colleges must offer similar opportunities to women
Executive Order 10450: Signed by Eisenhower in 1953, banned homosexuals from working in the government
Indian Self-Determination Act (1975): Gave reservations and tribal lands more autonomy, granting them greater control over internal programs, education, and law enforcement
Tribally Controlled Community Colleges and Universities Assistance Act (1978): Improved education on reservations and also built industries and casinos on reservations.
Executive Order 11246: Signed by LBJ in 1965, which required “affirmative action” in hiring to increase the number of minorities and women in the workplace. But this ended up giving preferential treatment to disadvantaged groups and many argued that the new numerical quotas that affirmative action required discriminated against actual qualified people. This led to Regents of the University of CA v. Bakke
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: Passed by Congress after the North Vietnamese attacked an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. Allowed LBJ to take “all necessary measures” needed to protect American interests in Vietnam, and this became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Nixon Doctrine: Declared that while future Asian countries would receive U.S. support against communism, the U.S. would not intervene with their military
Paris Peace Accords: Signed in 1973, promised a ceasefire and removed the United States from the Vietnam War. Just two years later, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell on April of 1975, turning Vietnam into a communist country.
Great Society: A series of programs launched under LBJ to combat poverty, and many of these were based on what Roosevelt had done previously in his New Deal. Included Medicare and Medicaid, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Food Stamp Act, the National Foundation of Arts and Humanities, the Higher Education Act, and the Child Nutrition Act
Medicare: Passed under the Great Society, provided health insurance to Americans over 65
Medicaid: Passed under the Great Society, provided health insurance to those in poverty
Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Passed under the Great Society, provided more than $1 billion in federal aid to school districts
Food Stamp Act: Passed under the Great Society, gave food stamps to the poor
Higher Education Act: Passed under the Great Society, provided federal scholarships for higher education
Child Nutrition Act: Passed under the Great Society, provided breakfasts in schools
Energy Policy and Conservation Act (1975): Set corporate standards for gas mileage. Manufacturers who failed to meet these standards were fined
In addition to looking for new energy sources, there was a large movement for improving the environment in the United States. For example, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, a book about how humans were poisoning the environment, especially with the use of DDT pesticides, and were causing a silent spring (killing the birds around them, causing there to be no spring birdsong). Additionally, in 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire due to the massive amounts of pollution flowing down its waters.
Clean Air Act: Passed in 1970
Clean Water Act: Passed in 1972
Endangered Species Act: Passed in 1972
War Powers Act: Required the president to notify Congress within 48 hours after taking military action, and also required congressional approval for any military action that would last more than 60 days
Economic Recovery Act (1981): Reduced personal income taxes by 25% over the next three years. In addition, many other forms of taxes, such as corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes received cuts as well
Glasnost: Passed by Gorbachev in the USSR, meaning “openness”, opened up the Soviet political process and the dissemination of information
Perestroika: Passed by Gorbachev in the USSR, meaning “reconstruction”, restructured the economic system of the Soviet Union to be more free market
Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty: An agreement made between the United States and USSR in 1987 in which the two powers would remove and destroy all intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965: Passed by LBJ, ended immigration quotas from the 1920s
Patriot Act: Passed after 9/11, giving the U.S. government the power to tap phones, expanding the surveillance capabilities of the government, and expanding what crimes counted as terrorism. But as a result of this act, the government began collecting records of cell phone calls and emails and began using military tribunals to try suspects suspected of terrorism. Suspects were imprisoned indefinitely in a prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. This prison was used because due to the fact that it was not on U.S. soil, they could be classified as enemy combatants instead of criminals or prisoners of war.
Bush Doctrine: Declared that the U.S. had the right to do “pre-emptive strikes” against enemies before they attacked the U.S.
Economic Stabilization Act (2008): Passed after a Wall Street bank went bankrupt during the Great Recession of 2008 which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program to purchase failing mortgages and assets from banks
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009): Passed by Obama to promote economic recovery, provided tax cuts to encourage spending and also provided money to state and local governments to fund construction projects, education, health care, and renewable energy
Kyoto Protocol (1997): An agreement in which many countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but the United States did not ratify this treaty
Paris Climate Accords (2015): The United States and many other countries agreed to work to keep the rise in mean global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.
Requerimiento: A legal document issued by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain that granted the monarchs the authority to claim land in the Americas (as encomiendas) and to convert whomever they found there
New Laws of 1542: Spanish laws that ended indigenous slavery and forced labor and also began the end of the encomienda system as they were slowly being replaced by Africans