The top 60 most often asked topics on APUSH national exam.
Information taken from:
Barron's AP US History
5 Steps to a 5: US History
Sparknotes Guide to AP US History
Out of Many, AP Edition (5th)
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| 1377533878 | Puritan motive | - Build a "city on a hill" - provide a model for idealistic society - religious freedoms from England | 1 | |
| 1377533879 | Motive of settling Virginia | - paid for by Virginia Company - wanted profit - mercantilism in England | 2 | |
| 1377533880 | First Great Awakening | - led by charismatic ministers in 1730 - made religion more emotional, less cerebral - "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon by Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards | 3 | |
| 1377533881 | Deism | - 1700 religious revolution which moved away from religious doctrines - God is a distant entity - No Godly intervention in daily affairs | 4 | |
| 1377533882 | Albany Congress, 1754 | - led by Benjamin Franklin - first meeting of all colonies to debate unification - Franklin's union plan, Albany Plan, rejected | 5 | |
| 1377533883 | Legal rights of women | -no suffrage under practically every circumstance -couldn't own land in most cases -were subordinate to men as caretakers, mothers, and housekeepers | 6 | |
| 1377533884 | Stamp Act / Stamp Congress | - tax on paper used for various documents - included recreation like playing cards - sparked most uproar and opposition of any British tax | 7 | |
| 1377533885 | Slavery in pre-independence times | - unregulated slave trade (no limits) - molasses, rum, slaves / Triangular Slave Trade - slaves were responsible for majority of labor in southern economy | 8 | |
| 1377533886 | Indentured servants | - extraordinarily popular prior to massive influx of slaves - workers receive free ride to America and housing once there - in exchange for house/ride, they work unpaid for 5-10 years | 9 | |
| 1377533887 | Proclamation of 1763 | - created a line through Appalachian mountains - colonists could not settle any further west - land from Appalachia to Mississippi was "Indian Reserve" | 10 | |
| 1377533888 | Articles of Confederation | - first written form of government for newly freed colonies - created a "firm league of friendship" between states - heavily favored state government, making federal government useless (no taxing, or federal laws without nullification) | 11 | |
| 1377533889 | Bill of Rights | - 1st 10 amendments to the Constitution - protected individual liberties not specified in Constitution - gave states powers not specifically assigned to federal government | 12 | |
| 1377533890 | Hamilton's economic plans | - national bank, 20% publicly 80% privately held - federal government repays all war debts in full - high tariffs to encourage American industry and discourage British/French/Spanish imports | 13 | |
| 1377533891 | Shays' Rebellion | - farmers revolt 1786-1787 - many lost farms because couldn't pay debts in gold/silver - freed debtors prisons, burnt down city halls and courts | 14 | |
| 1377533892 | XYZ affair | - France was upset by alliances with Britain and seized US ships - US tried to negotiate with France, French agents bribed US agents - French agents X, Y and Z wanted $250,000 and a $12M loan | 15 | |
| 1377533893 | Marbury v. Madison | - Marbury, an Adams midnight judge, wanted his position/paycheck - said his appointment was unconstitutional - Chief Justice Marshall established Supreme Court power of judicial review | 16 | |
| 1377533894 | Louisiana Purchase | - Louisiana territory purchased by Jefferson from France - not constitutional, but Jefferson wanted land and France needed $ - Jefferson only intended on buying New Orleans for a western port | 17 | |
| 1377533895 | Hartford Convention | - group of Federalists meeting in opposition to War of 1812 - merchants saw large amount of trade with Britain stop - passed a resolution requiring a 2/3 vote in Congress for declaration of war in the future | 18 | |
| 1377533896 | Eli Whitney | - 1793 Eli Whitney invents cotton gin - helps satisfy the massive demand for cotton/make slaves efficient - also invented interchangeable parts for rifle | 19 | |
| 1377533897 | Henry Clay's "American System" | - high tariffs on imports (20%-25%) - provide federal funding for internal improvements - support and maintain Bank of the United States | 20 | |
| 1377533898 | Monroe Doctrine | - done to limit European influence on Western Hemisphere - said European countries must be "hands off" of America - became cornerstone of US isolationist foreign policy | 21 | |
| 1377533899 | Andrew Jackson | - Indian removal, supported westward expansion - loses VP Calhoun in Nullification Crisis with South Carolina - vetoed Congress more times than any other president, tried to eliminate United States Bank | 22 | |
| 1377533900 | Trail of Tears | - 1838 removal of Native Americans from Georgia into the west - showed President Jackson's support for state's rights - led to the death of thousands of innocent Native Americans (too grueling of a journey on foot) | 23 | |
| 1377533901 | Nullification/Calhoun/Tariff of Abominations | - South Carolina tried to nullify federal laws, Jackson wouldn't allow it - Jackson passes Tariff of 1828 (Abominations) harshly limiting trade - South Carolina, with Jackson's VP, Calhoun, tries to secede from US, Jackson sends military to stop them | 24 | |
| 1377533902 | Transcendentalists | - an intellectual movement criticizing new US materialistic lifestyle - focus on nature, and finding meaning and self reliance - primarily led by authors Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson | 25 | |
| 1377533903 | Ralph Waldo Emerson | - transcendentalist leader who encouraged self reliance - published essays "Nature" (1836) "On Self Reliance" (1841) - Speech "The American Scholar" considered the Intellectual Declaration of Independence | 26 | |
| 1377533904 | William Lloyd Garrison | - published "The Liberator" and abolitionist publication - leader of the movement for immediate, uncompensated abolition - said that blacks were equal, and entitled to freedom and equal rights | 27 | |
| 1377533905 | Harriet Tubman | - escaped slave - started the Underground railroad, a system for escaping slaves - called the "Conductor", helped hundreds of slaves escape | 28 | |
| 1377533906 | Dred Scott v. Sanford | - 1857 Supreme Court case: slaves are not citizens - slaves are property, Missouri Compromise is dead - said since Scott was property, case shouldn't have even been brought to court | 29 | |
| 1377533907 | Popular Sovereignty | - measure proposed by Sen. Lewis Cass on slavery in new territories - allowed residents of a territory to vote on yes/no for slavery - Congress didn't approve, but it became a bigger idea in 1850s | 30 | |
| 1377533908 | Kansas-Nebraska Act | - 1854 legislation by Sen. Stephen Douglas on organizing territories - took Louisiana Purchase land and split into Kansas and Nebraska - unpopular with North, as it allowed possibility of slavery, therefore completely repealing Missouri Compromise | 31 | |
| 1377533909 | Douglas's Freeport Doctrine | - statement by Stephen Douglas at 2nd Lincoln-Douglas debate - used by Lincoln to prove Douglas was a hypocrite - when asked whether he believed in popular sovereignty or Dred Scott decision, he compromised, favoring popular sovereignty | 32 | |
| 1377533910 | Causes of Civil War | - maintain the Union, under Lincoln - stop expansion of slavery - eventually, with Emancipation Proclamation, to end slavery | 33 | |
| 1377533911 | Emancipation Proclamation | - 1863 decree by Lincoln that all slaves in Confederacy were free - not effective, simply symbolic - made North the moral side of the war | 34 | |
| 1377533912 | Radical Reconstruction | - Johnson, Lincoln's VP, now president, proposes plan - Johnson almost thrown out of office for obstructing reconstruction - Eventually radical republicans used 2/3 majority to pass legislation and override vetoes for an effective reconstruction plan | 35 | |
| 1377533913 | Compromise of 1877 | - 1876 Pres. election Samuel Tilden (D) vs. Rutherford Hayes (R) - Tilden wins popular vote, Rutherford supposedly wins electoral vote - no winner clear, compromise makes Hayes the President, but Republicans will end Reconstruction | 36 | |
| 1377533914 | Knights of Labor | - first major labor union to survive through economic turmoil - included all workers to join: skilled, unskilled, blacks, women - ended after wrongfully associated with Haymarket Square Bombing in Chicago, 1886 | 37 | |
| 1377533915 | Dawes Act | - 1887 legislation to assimilate stranded Native Americans - not wanted by the Native Americans, killed their tribal identity - eliminated by Indian Reorganization Act (1934) as it was discriminatory and hurtful for Native Americans | 38 | |
| 1377533916 | Social Gospel | - Protestant Christian movement around 1900 - applied Protestant Christian logic to social issues in US - tried to aid poverty, alcoholism, equality, and poor working conditions | 39 | |
| 1377533917 | Populists | - political party and movement led by disadvantaged farmers - William Jennings Bryan and "Cross of Gold" speech - fought for elimination of gold standard, unlimited silver coinage, graduated income tax, government regulation of major industry | 40 | |
| 1377533918 | Yellow Press | - started by William Randolph Heart's New York Journal stories - often highly exaggerated, encouraging impulsive American action - led US into Spanish American war with "Remember the Maine", firing up citizens | 41 | |
| 1377533919 | "New Immigration" | - immigration jumped in Gilded Age, post Civil War - mainly immigrants from South, East and Southeast Europe - result of poor European economic conditions | 42 | |
| 1377533920 | Open Door Policy | - European countries began claiming ports in China - US did not have a port, and China had huge economic opportunity - says China is open to trade with the United States | 43 | |
| 1377533921 | DuBois & Booker T. Washington | - W.E.B. DuBois wanted equality and full integration - Booker T. Washington pushed for blacks to find economic purpose - differed in that DuBois saw all as a equal, and Washington knew blacks were lesser at the time, and wanted them to fit it | 44 | |
| 1377533922 | Muckrakers | - term coined by T. Roosevelt for investigative journalism on business - showed political and social injustices in big business and politics - led by Sinclair Lewis, Mother Jones, Jacob Riis, and more | 45 | |
| 1377533923 | Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare | - U-boat campaign by Germany in relentlessly attacking Britain - led to the US involvement in WWI, along with Zimmerman Telegraph - sunk approximately 178 boats, and killed about 5000 in opposition Navy | 46 | |
| 1377533924 | Wilson's 14 Points | - 1918 plan by Wilson as a plan for restructuring post-WWI world - ideas rejected by European powers except for the League of Nations - plan included freedom of seas, removal of trade barriers, self-determination for Europeans, and international organization | 47 | |
| 1377533925 | Bonus Army | - 1932 organization of WWI veterans in Washington DC - result of Hoover's inaction during economic turmoil in US - WWI veterans demanded their bonuses be paid immediately, even though they were due in 1945 | 48 | |
| 1377533926 | 100 Day Congress, New Deal | - passed recovery legislation, more than ever in history - restricted more rights, and gave government more power than ever - GSA, NIRA, AAA, TVA, FERA, CCC, SEC all legislation passed in first 100 days of FDR presidency | 49 | |
| 1377533927 | Civilian Conservation Corps | - FDR agency created in first 100 days - provided/created outdoor work for 2.75M 18-24 year old men - projects included soil conservation, flood control, trail/road building, and forest projects | 50 | |
| 1377533928 | Cuban Missile Crisis | - 1962 event when US U2 spy planes saw Cuba was getting missiles - Missiles were from USSR, US ordered them to stop sending them - ended in 13 days after USSR stopped missiles in Cuba, and US stopped missiles in Turkey, and stopped Cuba interference | 51 | |
| 1377533930 | Brown v. Board of Education | - ordered immediate desegregation of schools and other public places - overturned "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson - major turning point in civil rights movement | 52 | |
| 1377533932 | Sputnik | - 1957 launching of Soviet sattelite into space - led to space race and education movement in US - government called for more and better technological and science education, from high school to graduate school | 53 | |
| 1377533934 | Sit-Ins | - form of civil disobedience by African Americans for civil rights - African Americans sat at white-only counters and areas - refused service or moving, when one group left, another would sit down, hurting business and making a point | 54 | |
| 1377533936 | Civil Rights Act of 1964 | - most meaningful legislation to end Jim Crow in the South - passed by LBJ to end discrimination by race or sex - guaranteed equal opportunity with employment, public education, public services and voting | 55 | |
| 1377533937 | Malcolm "X" | - leader of Nation of Islam, member from 1952-1964 - fought for black separatism, and supremacy for blacks and islam - assassinated by Nation of Islam after changing opinion on black separatism | 56 | |
| 1377533939 | Gulf of Tonkin incident | - said that American destroyers were attacked in Gulf of Tonkin - Congress passed Gulf of Tonkin resolution, escalating confict - unofficially started Vietnam War, allowed LBJ to have a "blank check" in doing whatever he wanted in Vietnam | 57 | |
| 1377533941 | Watergate | - scandal regarding spying on Democrats led by Richard Nixon - 5 men were caught breaking in to Democratic HQ at DCCC - Nixon used executive privilege to not turn over evidence, supreme court made him, he deleted some, then resigned | 58 | |
| 1377533943 | Tet Offensive | - Vietcong and N. Vietnamese offensive against US - began on Tet, lunar calendar new year, everyone was celebrating - 1600 dead US, 40000 dead Vietcong, and while US stopped the attack, it showed that Vietcong could organize large attacks | 59 | |
| 1377533945 | Camp David Accords | - 1978 meeting of Middle East leaders organized by Carter - Egypt, Israel and US met at presidential retreat Camp David - after 13 days of meetings, the three had arranged a peace treaty, which worked, but tensions were still high | 60 |
