KEY TERMS Key Terms and People to Know for the Regents Exam
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes and the Midwest to markets on the Atlantic Coast. The canal aided the economic development to the US by lowering the cost of shipping goods from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast.
Cotton Gin / Expansion of Slavery in the South
Technological improvements like the cotton gin made harvesting cotton easier and more profitable, which led to the expansion of slavery across the South in the first half of the 1800s.
Missouri Compromise
This tried to address to controversy over the extension of slavery into the West (South of the 36˚30’ line=slave, North=free). Missouri was added as a slave state and Maine as a free state (this kept the balance between slave/free in the Senate).
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine (1823) was established mainly because the US wanted to warn Europe against any further colonization in Latin America and the Caribbean and wanted to expand US influence in the Western Hemisphere.