AP美国历史必备词汇表：M

　　AP美国历史中有很多人名、组织等的必背专有名词，新东方在线AP频道为大家带来啦AP美国历史必备词汇表，本文是以字母M开头的词汇，大家一定不要错过哦！

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M

　　Douglas MacArthur

　　Douglas MacArthur was an American general who commanded the United States army in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he oversaw the American occupation of Japan and later led American troops in the Korean War. Though MacArthur pushed for total victory in the Korean War, seeking to conquer all of Korea and perhaps move into China, Harry S. Truman held him back from this aggressive goal. After a month of publicly denouncing the administration’s policy, MacArthur was relieved from duty in April 1951.

　　Machine politics

　　The means by which political parties during the Industrial Revolution controlled candidates and voters through networks of loyalty and corruption. In machine politics, party bosses exploited their ability to give away jobs and benefits (patronage) in exchange for votes.

　　Macon’s Bill No. 2

　　James Madison’s 1810 ploy to induce either Britain or France to lift trade restrictions. Under the bill, U.S. trade sanctions were lifted with the promise that if one country agreed to free trade with the U.S., sanctions would be reimposed against the other nation.

　　James Madison

　　Fourth president of the United States (1809–1817). Madison began his political career as a Federalist, joining forces with Alexander Hamilton during the debate over the Constitution. He was one of the authors of The Federalist Papers and a staunch advocate of strong central government. Madison later became critical of excessive power in central government and left the Federalist Party to join Thomas Jefferson in leading the Republican Party.

　　Maine

　　U.S. battleship sunk by an explosion in Havana harbor in February 1898. Though later investigations suggested that an onboard fire had caused the blast, popular rumor was that the Spanish were responsible. The sinking of the Maine, combined with sensationalist news reports of Spanish atrocities, led the American public to push for war against Spain.

　　Manhattan Project

　　A secret American scientific initiative to develop the atomic bomb. Scientists worked for almost three years in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and on July 16, 1945 succeeded in detonating the first atomic blast. The bombs produced by the Manhattan Project were subsequently dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

　　Manifest destiny

　　The belief of many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century that it was the nation’s destiny and duty to expand and conquer the West. Journalist John L. O’Sullivan first coined the phrase “manifest destiny” in 1845, as he wrote of “our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of our continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty.”

　　Horace Mann

　　Appointed secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. Mann reformed the public school system by increasing state spending on schools, lengthening the school year, dividing the students into grades, and introducing standardized textbooks. Mann set the standard for public school reform throughout the nation.

　　Mao Zedong

　　Founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. In 1949, Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

　　Marbury v. Madison

　　In this 1803 case, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional because Congress had overstepped its bounds in granting the Supreme Court the power to issue a writ of mandamus (an ultimatum from the court) to any officer of the United States. This ruling established the principle of judicial review.

　　March Against Death

　　In November 1969, 300,000 people marched in a long, circular path through Washington, D.C. for 40 hours straight, each holding a candle and the name of a soldier killed or a village destroyed in Vietnam. The march was a high point in the student antiwar movement and a poignant symbol of antiwar sentiment in the United States.

　　John Marshall

　　Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835. Under Marshall’s leadership, the Court became as powerful a federal force as the executive and legislative branches. Marshall’s most notable decision came in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison case, in which he asserted the principle of judicial review. During James Monroe’s presidency, Marshall delivered two rulings that curtailed states’ rights and exposed the latent conflicts in the Era of Good Feelings.

　　Thurgood Marshall

　　Attorney who successfully argued the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in front of the Supreme Court in 1954. In 1967, Marshall became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.

　　Marshall Plan

　　A four-year plan (begun in 1948) to provide American aid for the economic reconstruction of Europe. The U.S. government hoped that this plan would prevent further communist expansion by eliminating economic insecurity and political instability in Europe. By 1952, Congress had appropriated some $17 billion for the Marshall Plan, and the Western European economy had largely recovered.

　　Mayflower

　　The ship that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic, from the Netherlands to Plymouth Plantation in 1620, after intially fleeing England.

　　Mayflower Compact

　　Often cited as the first example of self-government in the Americas. The Pilgrims, having arrived at a harbor far north of the land that was rightfully theirs, signed the Mayflower Compact to establish a “civil body politic” under the sovereignty of James I.

　　McCarthyism

　　The extreme anticommunism in American politics and society during the early 1950s. The term derives from the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led an intense campaign against alleged subversives during this period.

　　McCulloch v. Maryland

　　1896 Supreme Court case that determined states could not tax federal institutions such as the Second Bank of the United States. The ruling asserted that the federal government wielded supreme power in its sphere and that no states could interfere with the exercise of federal powers. The ruling angered many Republicans, who favored states’ rights.

　　William McKinley

　　Republican candidate who defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. A supporter of big business, McKinley pushed for high protective tariffs. Under his leadership, the U.S. became an imperial world power. He was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901.

　　McKinley Tariff

　　Raised protective tariffs by nearly 50 percent in 1890, the highest in U.S. history.

　　Meat Inspection Act

　　Passed in 1906. The act set federal regulations for meatpacking plants and established a system of federal inspection after the muckrakers’ exposés revealed the unsanitary and hazardous conditions of food processing plants.

　　Medical Care Act

　　An element of President Johnson’s 1965 Great Society program. The Medical Care Act created Medicare and Medicaid to provide senior citizens and welfare recipients with health care.

　　Herman Melville

　　A prominent American fiction writer in the 1840s and 1850s. His best-known novel is Moby-Dick (1851).

　　H.L. Mencken

　　Writer who satirized political leaders and American society in the 1920s. Mencken’s magazine American Mercury served as the journalistic counterpart to the postwar disillusionment of the “lost generation.”

　　Mercantilism

　　Theory of trade which stresses that a nation’s economic strength depends on exporting more than it imports. British mercantilism manifested itself in the triangular trade and in a series of laws, such as the Navigation Acts (1651–1673), aimed at fostering British economic dominance.

　　Mexican War

　　Tension between the U.S. and Mexico grew after Texas accepted Congress’s offer of admission to the Union despite the Mexican government’s opposition. In 1846, after Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande, the U.S. declared war against Mexico. The U.S. won the war easily. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and granted the U.S. possession of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million.

　　Minutemen

　　The nickname given to local militiamen who fought against the British during the Revolutionary War. “Minutemen” were supposedly able to be ready for battle at a minute’s notice.

　　Missouri Compromise

　　Resolved the conflict surrounding the admission of Missouri to the Union as either a slave or free state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 made Missouri a slave state, admitted Maine as a free state, and prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory.

　　James Monroe

　　President from 1817 until 1825. His presidency was at the core of the Era of Good Feelings, characterized by a one-party political system, an upsurge of American nationalism, and Monroe’s own efforts to avoid political controversy and conflict.

　　Monroe Doctrine

　　Issued by President Monroe in December 1823. The doctrine asserted that the Americas were no longer open to European colonization or influence, and paved the way for U.S. dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

　　J.P. Morgan

　　A Wall Street financier and business leader during the era of industrialization. In 1901, Morgan bought Carnegie Steel and established the world’s first billion-dollar corporation, U. S. Steel Corporation.

　　Mormonism

　　The Church of Latter-Day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith in 1831. The church’s core tenets derive from the Book of Mormon, a book of revelation similar to the Bible. Led by Smith, the Mormons moved steadily westward during the early 1830s, seeking to escape religious persecution. After Smith was murdered in 1844, a new leader, Brigham Young, led the Mormons to Utah, where they settled and are still centered today.

　　Lucretia Mott

　　An outspoken proponent of women’s rights. Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

　　Muckrakers

　　Investigative journalists who worked during the early 1900s to expose the corruption in American industry and politics. Their writings and publications encouraged widespread political and social reform. Important muckrakers include Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens.

　　Munich Pact

　　A 1938 agreement between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. The Munich Pact permitted Germany to annex the Czech Sudentenland after Hitler declared he would take it by force. Intended to appease Hitler and avoid war, the pact only emboldened him further.

　　Benito Mussolini

　　A fascist Italian dictator who rose to power in 1922. Mussolini aligned himself with Hitler, creating Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936. The union of the two fascist forces paved the way for World War II.

　　Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)

　　U.S. Cold War policy, developed in the 1960s, that acknowledged that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union had enough nuclear weaponry to destroy each other many times over. MAD policy hoped to prevent outright war with the Soviet Union on the premise that any attack would lead to the complete destruction of both powers.