Free AP US History Key Terms: 300 APUSH Flashcards

In APUSH, knowing the label is the easy part; explaining the change is the work.

300 cardsLast updated 2026-08-30

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APUSH terms pile up fast, then start to blur together. You may recognize Columbian Exchange, Carpetbaggers, or Bush v. Gore on sight, then freeze when you have to explain what changed, why it mattered, and how to use the term in a short answer or essay. This deck gives you 300 cards split into colonial-and-revolution (55), early-republic-and-expansion (60), civil-war-and-reconstruction (45), gilded-age-and-progressive (55), depression-war-and-cold-war (50), and modern-america (35). Each card covers a single term, and every back uses the same fields: Meaning, Why it matters, and Example. The cuts follow the course's chronological flow, so you can study by period without losing the links between politics, labor, empire, reform, war, and federal power. On a spaced-repetition schedule, the terms you can explain cleanly stop showing up, while the ones you still mix up keep coming back until you can say more than a label. This deck leaves out long source excerpts and full event summaries on purpose. The point is to make significance and usable evidence automatic, because APUSH rewards being able to say what a term changed, not just when it happened.

What happens when you add it

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The button opens Memly and the whole deck lands in your account.
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Each card gets its own schedule, based on how well you actually recall it.
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What's inside

Showing 100 representative cards from the full 300-card deck.

Front	Back
Columbian Exchange — what is it?	The Columbian Exchange was the Atlantic transfer of crops, animals, diseases, and people after European contact. It reshaped population, labor, diet, and ecology in both hemispheres.
Spanish mission system — what is it?	The Spanish mission system was a chain of religious settlements meant to convert and control Native peoples. It spread Spanish rule in borderlands and disrupted Native cultures and labor patterns.
House of Burgesses — what is it?	The House of Burgesses was Virginia's elected lawmaking assembly. It set an early precedent for representative self-government in English America.
indentured servitude — what is it?	Indentured servitude was contract labor in exchange for passage, room, and a chance at freedom dues. It supplied much early colonial labor before racial slavery became dominant.
mercantilism — what is it?	Mercantilism was the theory that colonies existed to enrich the mother country through controlled trade. It justified British regulation and framed later colonial resistance.
French and Indian War — what is it?	The French and Indian War was the North American war between Britain and France and their Native allies. British victory removed France but left debt and tensions that fed the imperial crisis.
Stamp Act — what is it?	The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on printed paper in the colonies. It sparked organized protest and the cry against taxation without representation.
Boston Tea Party — what is it?	The Boston Tea Party was a protest in which patriots dumped East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. It led Britain to punish Massachusetts and pushed colonies toward united resistance.
Articles of Confederation — what is it?	The Articles of Confederation created the first U.S. national government with weak central powers. Its limits convinced many leaders that a stronger federal system was needed.
Shays's Rebellion — what is it?	Shays's Rebellion was an uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers against taxes and court seizures. It exposed the weakness of the Articles and strengthened calls for a new Constitution.
Pueblo Revolt — what is it?	A 1680 uprising by Pueblo peoples that drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for about twelve years. It proved Native resistance could disrupt colonization and pushed Spain to rule the region less harshly after returning.
Mayflower Compact — what is it?	An agreement by Plymouth settlers to form a civil government and obey laws made for the colony. It became an early model of self-government based on the consent of the governed.
Half-Way Covenant — what is it?	A Puritan policy that allowed partial church membership for children of baptized but unconverted adults. It reflected declining religious zeal and helped churches keep influence in New England.
Salutary neglect — what is it?	Britain's loose enforcement of colonial trade rules before the 1760s. It gave colonists room to practice self-rule and made later imperial control more contentious.
Iroquois Confederacy — what is it?	An alliance of Native nations in the Northeast that used diplomacy and war to defend its interests. It shaped the balance of power among Britain, France, and Native peoples in the interior.
Treaty of Utrecht — what is it?	The peace settlement that ended Queen Anne's War and transferred some French possessions to Britain. It strengthened Britain in North America and redrew imperial boundaries.
Townshend Acts — what is it?	Parliamentary duties on imported goods such as glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. They revived resistance and encouraged nonimportation and wider colonial cooperation.
Intolerable Acts — what is it?	Punitive laws passed after the Boston Tea Party that closed Boston's port and tightened control of Massachusetts. They convinced many colonists that British policy threatened self-government across America.
Constitutional Convention — what is it?	The Philadelphia meeting that drafted a new national framework instead of revising the Articles. It produced the Constitution and increased the power of the national government.
New Jersey Plan — what is it?	A proposal for a stronger union that kept equal representation for each state. It defended small-state interests and pushed delegates toward compromise.
Dominion of New England — what is it?	A crown-run union of several New England and mid-Atlantic colonies created to tighten English control over colonial trade and politics. It showed early imperial centralization and deepened colonial suspicion of arbitrary rule before the 1700s crises.
Battle of Quebec — what is it?	A 1759 British victory on the Plains of Abraham that led to the capture of France's key stronghold in Canada. It crippled French power in North America and helped make Britain the dominant empire there.
Federalist Party — what is it?	A political party that favored a strong national government, commercial growth, and loose construction of the Constitution. It formed one side of the first party system and pushed policies that expanded federal fiscal power.
Jacksonian democracy — what is it?	A political style that expanded white male participation and celebrated the common man while concentrating power in the presidency. It widened electoral politics for many white men but excluded women, Native Americans, and most Black Americans.
Indian Removal Act — what is it?	An 1830 law authorizing the president to exchange tribal homelands in the Southeast for land west of the Mississippi. It advanced white settlement by forcing Native peoples off valuable land.
Marbury v. Madison — what is it?	A Supreme Court case that established judicial review, the power to strike down unconstitutional federal laws. It made the Court a coequal branch able to shape national policy.
Gibbons v. Ogden — what is it?	A Supreme Court case that gave Congress broad authority over interstate commerce. It limited state monopolies and boosted a national market.
Market Revolution — what is it?	A period of rapid economic change marked by improved transport, expanding markets, and more wage labor. It linked regional economies, increased productivity, and changed work and family life.
American System — what is it?	Henry Clay's program of protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements. It promoted economic development by tying western farms, northern industry, and federal policy together.
Second Great Awakening — what is it?	A Protestant revival movement that stressed personal salvation and moral improvement. It energized reform campaigns by teaching that individuals could help perfect society.
Temperance movement — what is it?	A reform campaign urging reduced alcohol use or complete abstinence. It reflected changing ideas about self-control, family order, and social reform.
Manifest Destiny — what is it?	The belief that the United States was destined to expand across North America. It justified expansionist policy and deepened conflict over slavery in new territories.
Missouri Compromise — what is it?	An 1820 settlement that admitted Missouri slave and Maine free, and barred slavery north of 36°30′ in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. It temporarily preserved sectional balance and showed how dangerous the slavery issue had become.
Hamilton's financial plan — what is it?	Alexander Hamilton's program funded national and state debts, created a national bank, and encouraged manufacturing. It expanded federal economic power and sharpened the split between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
Democratic Party — what is it?	The Democratic Party emerged around Andrew Jackson and favored limited government and mass political participation for white men. It built a durable national party organization and defined Jacksonian politics.
Marshall Court — what is it?	The Marshall Court was the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall, noted for broad readings of federal power. It strengthened national authority and supported a stable legal climate for commerce and contracts.
Cohens v. Virginia — what is it?	Cohens v. Virginia held that the Supreme Court could review state court cases involving federal law. It increased federal judicial supremacy over the states.
steamboat — what is it?	A steamboat was a steam-powered vessel that moved people and goods quickly on rivers. It accelerated western trade and helped integrate regional markets.
cotton gin — what is it?	The cotton gin was a machine that quickly removed seeds from short-staple cotton. It made cotton more profitable and deepened slavery's expansion in the South.
Dorothea Dix — what is it?	Dorothea Dix was a reformer who campaigned for humane treatment of the mentally ill. Her activism pushed states to build and improve public mental hospitals.
Declaration of Sentiments — what is it?	The Declaration of Sentiments was the statement issued at Seneca Falls that demanded equal rights for women. It framed women's rights as a public demand for legal and political equality.
Wilmot Proviso — what is it?	The Wilmot Proviso proposed banning slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. It made the expansion of slavery the central sectional issue in national politics.
Era of Good Feelings — what is it?	A post-War of 1812 period when the Federalists faded and one-party Republican rule masked growing national and sectional tensions. It marks the collapse of the first party system and shows that conflict over banks, tariffs, and slavery survived even without two strong parties.
Panic of 1819 — what is it?	The first major U.S. financial depression, caused by tight credit, falling crop prices, and a collapse in land speculation. It increased distrust of banks and elites and sharpened arguments over how active the national government should be in the economy.
American Colonization Society — what is it?	A reform organization that sought to resettle free Black Americans in Africa, especially in Liberia. It revealed the limits of white antislavery sentiment and drew strong opposition from many Black activists.
Adams-Onís Treaty — what is it?	An 1819 treaty in which Spain ceded Florida to the United States and fixed a boundary from the Gulf to the Pacific. It expanded U.S. control in the Southeast and clarified claims that later shaped continental expansion.
Positive good theory — what is it?	Proslavery claim that slavery benefited southern society and supposedly protected and civilized enslaved people. It turned slavery from a tolerated evil into a cause to defend and expand, making sectional compromise harder.
Uncle Tom's Cabin — what is it?	Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel that depicted the human suffering and family breakup caused by slavery. It widened northern antislavery feeling and made slavery a moral issue for readers far from the South.
Fugitive Slave Act — what is it?	Federal law that forced officials and citizens to aid in capturing runaways and denied accused fugitives jury trials. It nationalized slave catching and pushed many northerners from indifference toward resistance.
Secession — what is it?	A state's declared withdrawal from the Union and rejection of federal authority. It destroyed the existing political union and led southern states to form the Confederacy.
Emancipation Proclamation — what is it?	Lincoln's wartime order declaring enslaved people in rebelling areas free. It made abolition a Union war aim and opened the army to Black soldiers.
Presidential Reconstruction — what is it?	Andrew Johnson's lenient plan for readmitting former Confederate states after the war. It restored southern elites quickly and helped trigger a clash with Congress.
Freedmen's Bureau — what is it?	Federal agency that aided freedpeople with food, schools, labor contracts, and legal help. It marked a major expansion of federal responsibility after slavery ended.
Reconstruction Acts — what is it?	Laws that put the South under military districts and required new constitutions with Black male suffrage. They replaced Johnson's approach and created biracial governments in the South.
Fifteenth Amendment — what is it?	Amendment barring denial of the vote because of race, color, or previous servitude. It established Black male suffrage in principle and enlarged federal responsibility for voting rights.
Paternalism — what is it?	A proslavery belief that masters acted as protectors over enslaved people, who were cast as dependent and childlike. It defended slavery as humane and natural, helping slaveholders answer abolitionist criticism.
Peculiar institution — what is it?	A common Southern euphemism for slavery that framed it as a special regional social system. The phrase normalized slavery in politics and softened its brutality in public language.
George Fitzhugh — what is it?	A Virginia writer who defended slavery as beneficial and attacked free labor as exploitative. His books gave proslavery thinkers an aggressive ideological case against Northern capitalism.
Fire-Eaters — what is it?	Southern extremists who urged secession and rejected compromise with the North. They pushed Deep South politics toward disunion after Lincoln's election.
Border states — what is it?	Slave states that stayed in the Union during the Civil War. Keeping them denied the Confederacy key resources and shaped Lincoln's early caution on slavery.
Contraband — what is it?	A Union term for enslaved people who escaped to Union lines and were not returned to enslavers. The policy weakened slavery and pushed the war toward emancipation before 1863.
Carpetbaggers — what is it?	A Southern label for Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction to work, invest, or enter politics. The term was used to portray Reconstruction governments as illegitimate outside rule.
Sharecropping — what is it?	A labor system in which farmers worked land they did not own and paid the owner with a share of the crop. It kept many freedpeople and poor whites in debt and limited the economic gains of emancipation.
Copperheads — what is it?	Northern Democrats who opposed Lincoln's war policies and favored a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. They show that the Union faced strong internal dissent during the war, not just military resistance from the South.
Vertical integration — what is it?	A business strategy in which one company controls several stages of production and distribution. It helped giant firms lower costs and dominate markets, fueling concern over concentrated corporate power.
New Immigrants — what is it?	Immigrants mainly from southern and eastern Europe who arrived in large numbers after 1880. They reshaped urban America and fueled nativism and demands for immigration restriction.
Dawes Act — what is it?	A law that divided tribal land into individual allotments and opened the rest to white settlement. It aimed at assimilation and caused Native communities to lose large amounts of land.
Muckrakers — what is it?	Journalists and writers who exposed corruption, monopoly power, and social abuses. Their investigations built public support for Progressive regulation and reform.
Spanish-American War — what is it?	A short war in which the United States defeated Spain and won overseas possessions. It marked a turning point toward imperial expansion and greater global influence.
Bessemer process — what is it?	The Bessemer process was a steelmaking method that blew air through molten iron to remove impurities quickly. It made cheap mass steel possible, fueling railroads, skyscrapers, and factory expansion.
Haymarket affair — what is it?	The Haymarket affair was a Chicago labor rally that turned deadly after a bomb exploded and police fired. It made many Americans link labor radicalism with violence and weakened support for unions.
Wounded Knee — what is it?	Wounded Knee was the massacre of Lakota people by U.S. troops after tensions around the Ghost Dance. It symbolized the violent end of armed Native resistance on the Great Plains.
Direct primary — what is it?	A direct primary lets party voters choose nominees instead of leaving the choice to party leaders. It weakened machine control and broadened participation in nominations.
Platt Amendment — what is it?	The Platt Amendment set conditions on Cuban independence and gave the United States the right to intervene there. It showed that U.S. victory over Spain created informal empire, not full Cuban sovereignty.
Transcontinental railroad — what is it?	A rail line completed in 1869 that linked eastern rail networks with the Pacific coast. It sped western settlement and national markets and showed how federal aid could fuel big business growth.
Harlem Renaissance — what is it?	A flowering of Black literature, music, and art centered in Harlem in the 1920s. It asserted Black cultural pride and showed how the Great Migration reshaped urban America.
buying on margin — what is it?	The practice of purchasing stock with borrowed money while paying only part of the price upfront. It fueled speculation and helped make the stock market crash more destructive.
Dust Bowl — what is it?	A series of severe dust storms on the Great Plains caused by drought and overfarming. It devastated farm families and intensified migration during the Depression.
Social Security Act — what is it?	A New Deal law that created old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid for some vulnerable groups. It made the federal government responsible for a basic safety net.
Lend-Lease Act — what is it?	A law allowing the United States to supply Allied nations with war materials before direct entry into World War II. It marked a decisive shift away from neutrality and toward aiding Britain and other Allies.
Manhattan Project — what is it?	The secret US-led effort to build the first atomic bombs. It ushered in the nuclear age and shaped the end of the war and the Cold War.
containment — what is it?	A foreign policy aimed at stopping the spread of communism rather than overturning it everywhere by force. It guided US actions across Europe, Asia, and later the developing world.
Korean War — what is it?	A war between communist North Korea and South Korea, fought with US-led UN forces and Chinese intervention. It turned containment into a major shooting war and expanded presidential war-making in the Cold War.
Levittown — what is it?	A mass-produced suburban housing development that became a model for postwar suburbia. It reflected the growth of car-centered suburbs and unequal access to homeownership.
mass production — what is it?	Mass production is the use of standardized parts and assembly methods to make goods quickly and cheaply. It lowered prices and spread consumer goods, helping create a national consumer economy.
Bonus Army — what is it?	The Bonus Army was a group of World War I veterans who demanded early payment of promised bonuses during the Depression. Their treatment hurt Hoover politically and deepened public anger at federal inaction.
Agricultural Adjustment Act — what is it?	The Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers to cut production in order to raise crop prices. It marked major federal intervention in agriculture during the New Deal.
court-packing plan — what is it?	The court-packing plan was Roosevelt's proposal to add up to six Supreme Court justices for older members who did not retire. It showed the limits of New Deal power and raised fears about executive overreach.
Bracero Program — what is it?	The Bracero Program brought Mexican laborers to the United States on temporary contracts during labor shortages. It met wartime labor needs and reshaped migration patterns between the two countries.
Berlin Airlift — what is it?	The Berlin Airlift was the American and British effort to supply West Berlin by air after a Soviet blockade. It showed U.S. resolve to resist Soviet pressure without direct war.
domino theory — what is it?	The domino theory was the belief that one country's fall to communism would trigger neighboring countries to fall as well. It justified U.S. intervention in Asia and elsewhere during the Cold War.
Brown v. Board of Education — what is it?	A Supreme Court ruling that struck down state-mandated segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. It overturned school segregation's legal basis and energized the modern civil rights movement.
Voting Rights Act — what is it?	A federal law that outlawed literacy tests and other devices used to suppress minority voting. It sharply expanded Black political participation in the South through federal enforcement.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — what is it?	A congressional resolution that let President Johnson use force in Southeast Asia without a war declaration. It widened presidential war-making power and sped the escalation of the Vietnam War.
Watergate — what is it?	The scandal triggered by a break-in tied to Nixon's reelection effort and the cover-up that followed. It deepened public distrust of government and forced the first presidential resignation.
détente — what is it?	A period of eased tensions and negotiation between the United States and the Soviet Union. It showed Cold War rivalry could be managed through arms control and diplomacy.
Affordable Care Act — what is it?	A federal health reform law that expanded insurance coverage through subsidies, exchanges, and Medicaid. It produced the biggest health policy change since the 1960s and became a major partisan fight.
My Lai Massacre — what is it?	The My Lai Massacre was the 1968 killing of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers in a South Vietnamese village. It deepened public distrust of the war and strengthened claims that U.S. tactics had become immoral and brutal.
INF Treaty — what is it?	The INF Treaty was a 1987 U.S.-Soviet agreement that eliminated intermediate-range nuclear missiles. It marked a major easing of Cold War tensions and showed that Reagan and Gorbachev could reach real arms limits.
Bush v. Gore — what is it?	Bush v. Gore was the 2000 Supreme Court decision that stopped Florida's recount and effectively awarded the presidency to George W. Bush. It showed how closely divided elections could be settled by the courts and intensified arguments about voting rules and legitimacy.

Frequently asked

How is this deck split across the course?

It is divided into colonial-and-revolution (55), early-republic-and-expansion (60), civil-war-and-reconstruction (45), gilded-age-and-progressive (55), depression-war-and-cold-war (50), and modern-america (35).

What do the backs of these APUSH cards look like?

Every card uses the same back fields: Meaning, Why it matters, and Example. That format trains you to define the term, explain its significance, and attach it to something concrete you can use in writing.

Why does the deck include terms as far apart as Columbian Exchange, Carpetbaggers, and Bush v. Gore?

Because APUSH is easiest to remember when you study change across the full course instead of treating each period as sealed off. Keeping the same card format from colonization through modern America makes comparison much easier.

Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?

Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and does not use your AI allowance, so the free plan imports all 300 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.

Will importing it twice create duplicates?

No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.

Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?

Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.

Can I edit the cards after importing?

Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.