Pre / Colonial
Compare/contrast how the geography impacted lifestyles and societies of the Native Americans of the Great Plains, Mississippi River Valley, and Northwest regions of North America.
Great Basin: arid (hot/dry) landscape and dependence on migrating herds resulted in Native Americans developing a largely nomadic lifestyle
Mississippi River Valley: mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies that favored the development of permanent villages
Northwest/California: hunting, gathering, and fishing
Identify one pro and one con of the French Indian War for the British crown.
Pro: greatly increased land owned/controlled by the British
Con: left the crown greatly in debt which contributed greatly to tensions that led to the Revolutionary War
What was the Missouri Compromise?
Missouri Compromise: an agreement between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States concerning the extension of slavery into new territories, which added Missouri to the union as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and prohibited slavery north of latitude 36˚ 30'
How did westward expansion during the Gilded Age affect Native American communities? Include at least one government policy and one example of resistance.
Westward expansion led to the loss of Native lands and culture.
Dawes Act, Reservation System, and Indian Appropriations Act
Battle of Little Bighorn, Apache Resistance, Ghost Dance Movement, Wounded Knee Massacre
Identify two arguments for and two arguments against American imperialism in the early 1900s.
Pro:
Christian duty: responsibility of the white race to expand itself abroad and bring the glories of Christianity
materials and markets: opportunity to increase access to raw natural resources and new customers
sea power: securing a strong world presence foreign markets relied on a robust navy
social darwinism: the strong to eat the weak and only the fittest survive
Anti:
“follow the flag”: worried that the United States would need to extend the rights of citizens to 'inferior peoples'
isolationism: US should not meddle in other country's affairs
self-determination: a nation should be able to decide for itself who ruled it
Give an example of how the Columbian Exchange changed life for the indigenous people of North America and of how it changed life for people living in Europe.
Native Americans: disease/death, forced labor, loss of land, destruction of their culture, exposure to African Americans, horses/better transportation
Europeans: increases in wealth for the upper class, better nutrition/major population growth; increased political competition between European powers
What were three somewhat unique motivations or reasons patriots gave for why Americans should claim their independence?
Political: got spoiled by 'salutary neglect' and systems of 'self-government' (town hall meetings) and were upset when British began managing them more closely, did not have representation or basic rights standard to British citizens
Economic: were struggling to survive economically, had to pay steep taxes that previously circumvented using smuggling, were forced to purchase British goods
Philosophical: Enlightenment thinking, individual rights, social contract theory, popular sovereignty
What are three ways the Market Revolution changed American Society?
Industrialization:
- mass production: goods made in a factory rather than at home, price of goods came down
- emergence of the middle class; new gender roles for middle class of men 'handling the real work' and women managing the home; improved living standards for most, worsened working conditions for the poor
- pollution
- north and South became more interdependent; growth of both Southern cotton production and Northern manufacturing and banking
- subsistence farming transition to commercial farming
Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between how Andrew Carnegie and J. D. Rockefeller set up their economic empires.
Both entrepreneurs built empires through consolidation (absorbing/buying out) of their competitors.
Carnegie was in the Steel industry and consolidated through vertical integration or taking over at least one business in each step of the supply chain so that you don't rely on anyone else.
J.D. Rockefeller was in the oil industry and consolidation through horizontal integration or taking over every business at that step of the supply chain so that you have complete control of that step.
Identify and describe two unique ways innovations in technology changed American life in the early 1900s.
Assembly line: increased productivity, decreased prices, generally increased standard of living, drove consumerism
Mass media: increased the 'national culture' or modified American culture, values, and ideas to be more homogenous
Explain the difference between the Spanish Encomienda and the Casta Systems.
Encomienda system was a forced labor system where Native Americans farmed and mined for the Spanish "in exchange for protection"
Casta system was a way for the Spanish to organize their new American society by race (from top to bottom: Spaniards born in Spain, Spaniards born in NA, Mestizos (mixed spaniards and indegenous), Native Americans, African slaves)
What were three major challenges or weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
Inability to collect taxes
Inability to coin money
Inability to control trade disputes between states
Inability to raise money to raise and maintain an army
Inability to make really make treaties
Identify three specific changes (vocab words) brought about by social and social reform movements in the early 1800s.
Expanded suffrage: property ownership requirement for voting got dropped, all white men could vote
Rise of the Democrats (led by Andrew Jackson) and the Whig (led by Henry Clay)
Indian Removal Act / Trail of Tears: continued forceful removal of Native Americans from their lands
Romanticism: pursuit of human perfectibility in literature, art, philosophy, and architecture
The Second Great Awakening: Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects
Rise of the Abolitionist Movement (only 10% of the country)
Beginning of the Women's Rights Movement / Seneca Falls Convention
Compare two contrasting beliefs regarding the responsibility the rich had to the rest of society.
Gospel of Wealth: belief called on those who accumulated wealth to share their riches for the betterment of society
social darwinism:only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle
laissez-faire economics: believes that the government regulation and other interference is harmful to industrial growth
What were three notable societal trends, fads, or changes that came about in the 1920s?
flappers: "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts
prohibition/18th Amendment: massive alcohol consumption despite it being illegal
consumerism: the idea that a person's well-being and happiness depend on obtaining consumer goods and material possessions
credit / buying on margin: receive cash, goods, or services now and pay for them in the future
race riots: large wave of brutal and economically expensive, largely extra legal violence against (usually innocent) African Americans
Compare and contrast the attitudes and motivations of Spanish, French, and British colonization efforts in North America.
Spanish: extract wealth (mining), subjugate/convert Native Americans to Christianity, okay with killing resistant Native Americans
French: wanted to develop diplomatic and economic relationships with the native Americans, low impact/desire for land, often had strategic marriages with NA
British: English and other European migrants, all of whom sought social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved living conditions; conflicts with indians were largely about disagreements over land
What were three major ways the Anti-Federalists disagreed with Federalists?
Anti-Federalists:
- Advocated for the importance of States Rights
- Believed the Constitution would make the national government too powerful
- Opposed an executive leader
- Opposed a national/superior court
- Ultimately demanded the Constitution include a Bill of Rights
- Some argued that slavery was incompatible with the new Constitution
What were two events that worsened division/tensions created by the Missouri Compromise? Which event (I will accept two different answers) finally triggered the American Civil War?
Compromise of 1850, which admitted California to the Union as a free state
Kansas-Nebraska Act, which mandated that the settlers of each territory should decide the issue of slavery for themselves
Dred Scott v. Sandford ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
The Final Straws:
- Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected without a single vote from the Southern States
- Confederate troops attacked the union Fort Sumter in South Carolina despite clear warnings from President Lincoln
Describe the general attitude towards the government’s role in the economy during the gilded age. Then give at least two examples of how the government contradicted this concept.
Laissez-faire/hands off policy.
Examples of contradictions:
- Paid to subsidize railroads
- Tariffs (helping protect domestic businesses)
- Broke up labor discrepancies (siding with businesses of course)
What were three major reforms that came out FDR's New Deal?
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): hired unemployed men to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): insures customer deposits if a bank fails
Glass-Steagall Act of 1933: forbade commercial banks from engaging in excessive speculation
National Labor Relations Act / Wagner Act: guarantees workers the right of collective bargaining sets down rules to protect unions and organizers
National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933: regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery
Public Works Administration (PWA): construction workers get jobs doing public projects building highways, bridges, and sewers
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): monitors the stock market and enforces laws regulating the sale of stocks and bonds
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): construct dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley region to generate electricity
Social Security: Government run retirement program
Explain how environmental and other factors shaped the development of the British New England, middle, and Southern colonies.
New England: highly religious puritans, thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce
Middle colonies: export economy based on cereal crops broad range of European migrants, greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance
Southern colonies: long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting (labor intensive) staple crops, economy initially driven by indentured servants and later imported African slaves
What were three compromises that had to be reached or figured out in order for the Constitution to be ratified? (Or give me two compromises and something else that had to be figured out)
Great Connecticut Compromise: House of Reps would be based on population, Senate would be two Senators per state
3/5s Compromise: 3/5 of the slave population would be counted for the purpose of both representation and taxation
Electoral College: complicated system for how the president would be chosen
Executive: whether the Executive branch would be led by one person or many
Slavery: would slavery still be legal?
Amendments: how would the Constitution be amended or changed?
What were three ways Southerners undermined Reconstruction and ultimately led it to fail?
Ku Klux Klan / extralegal violence against former slaves
Black codes / Jim Crow laws: racist laws that clearly violated the intentions of the 14th and 15 Amendment
Sharecropping: farming system where farmers could essentially rent land from the landowner, often resulted in farmers going into debt and being tied to the land
Poll taxes and unfair voting suppression strategies
What role did political machines like Tammany Hall play in Gilded Age urban politics? Include at least one benefit and one drawback.
Political machines like Tammany Hall helped immigrants find jobs and housing, but they were also deeply corrupt, using bribery, patronage, and election fraud to stay in power.
What were three ways American life changed as a result of World War II and it's participation in the event?
Ended the Great Depression in the United States
Established the US as a World Power
African America Civil Rights movement got more exposure and support
Women established a larger role in the industrial workplace
Immigration standards for Mexicans were lowered
Japanese were unfairly interned
Red Scare: fear and accusations around communism