Definitions

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 March 1918, outlined the harsh conditions under which the crumbling Russian Empire withdrew from the First World War (1914-18). Negotiated by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), the leader of Soviet Russia...

Bleeding Kansas' was a term coined by the New York Tribune in 1856, referring to the escalating hostilities in the Kansas Territory between pro-slavery activists and anti-slavery 'free staters' following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska...

Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American lawyer and statesman, one of the defining political figures of his age. Over the course of his several decades on the stage of national politics, Clay helped lead the United States into the War of 1812...

The Dred Scott Decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857) was the infamous ruling of the United States Supreme Court that, according to the US Constitution, Black people were not and could not be considered citizens of...

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (1850-1864) was part of the Compromise of 1850, drafted to diffuse tensions between Southern 'slave states' and Northern 'free states.' The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 already allowed slaveholders to reclaim...

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed by the US Congress in September 1850 to diffuse a sectional crisis brewing between the 'free states' of the North and the 'slave states' of the South. The crisis was sparked by a disagreement...

Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913) was a former slave, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She served as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War and...

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an effort by the US Congress to resolve a sectional dispute between the 'free states' of the North and the 'slave states' of the South. Hoping to hinder the westward expansion of slavery – and thereby limit...

RMS Lusitania was a British transatlantic liner infamously sunk by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915 during the First World War (1914-18). Struck off the coast of southern Ireland, the ship sank in less than 20 minutes, and nearly 1,200 passengers...

Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862) was the commander of the Confederate western armies in the early months of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Over the course of his 34-year military career, Johnston served in the armies of three republics...