RECONSTRUCTION WESTWARD EXPANSION Vocab Centralized Government organized government

RECONSTRUCTION & WESTWARD EXPANSION Vocab

� Centralized Government: organized government of a country or territory where power is consolidated into one body, group, or city. � Impeachment: the process of accusing a public official of wrongdoing � Reconstruction: the period of rebuilding that followed the Civil War, during which the defeated Confederate states were readmitted to the Union

� Amendment: changing or correcting � 13 th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that has abolished slavery and involuntary servitude � 14 th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that makes all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, citizens of the country and guarantees equal protection under the law � 15 th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that prohibits the denial of voting rights to people because of their race or color or because they have previously been slaves

� � Due Process: a course of formal proceedings carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principals Sharecropping: a system in which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools in return for part of the crops they raise � Poll Tax: an annual tax that formerly had to be paid in some Southern states by anyone wishing to vote � Literacy Test: tests that potential voters were required to pass in some Southern states

� Grandfather Clause: Clause used formerly in some Southern states that exempted whites from the strict voting requirements used to keep African Americans from the polls � Separate but Equal: Agreement that came from Plessy v. Ferguson case that allowed Southern states to have separate facilities for African Americans as long as the facilities were equal in quality � Segregation: Separation of the races

� Manifest Destiny: 19 th century belief that the United States would inevitably expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican Territory � Annex: to incorporate (a country or other territory) within the domain of the state � Land Grant: land given to railroad companies by the federal government to motivate settlers to move west

� Sovereign: one possessing or held to possess supreme political power (country or territory) � Reservation: a piece of public land set aside by the federal government for Native American tribes � Assimilation: a minority group’s adoption of the beliefs and way of life of the dominant culture