Period 3
What 1754–1763 conflict between Britain and France (with Indian allies) ended with British victory and large territorial gains in North America?
The French & Indian War (7 Years War is also acceptable).
During the early 1800s, suffrage expanded for which group of people, helping create a more participatory democracy?
White men (land owning requirement was relaxed).
What ideology or belief justified U.S. territorial expansion to the Pacific in the mid-19th century?
Manifest Destiny.
Name one major technological innovation of the Gilded Age that transformed industry or transportation.
The telegraph, steam-powered locomotives, Bessemer steel process, electrical generation, etc.
What 1854 law repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed territories to decide slavery by popular sovereignty?
Kansas-Nebraska Act.
What British policy (enacted after the Seven Years’ War) that limited colonial westward expansion and provoked frontier unrest (e.g., Pontiac’s Rebellion)?
The Proclamation Line of 1763
Name one technological or transportation innovation from this period that helped integrate regional markets.
Canals, steamships, railroads, & telegraph.
What was one major result of the Mexican-American War related to U.S. territory and one political consequence it produced about slavery?
Result: US acquired vast territories (Mexican Cession including California and the Southwest); consequence: intensified sectional debate over extending slavery into new territories.
What economic strategy did many businesses use to concentrate power and reduce competition in this era (two-word answer)?
Trusts and monopolies (or horizontal/vertical integration).
Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail to produce lasting sectional peace; include at least two provisions or consequences.
The Compromise of 1850 postponed conflict but included fugitive slave law (provoked Northern opposition), admitted California as free (Southern grievance), and left contentious territorial slavery questions unresolved.
Identify two Enlightenment-era sources of colonial arguments for resisting British taxation and authority.
John Locke’s Natural Rights & Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
What was the concept of “republican motherhood” and give one way it influenced women’s roles?
The belief that women should teach civic virtue and republican values to children; it elevated women’s role in the domestic sphere and influenced female education.
What was the Free Soil position on slavery and how it differed from abolitionists?
Free Soilers opposed expansion of slavery into territories to protect free labor and white opportunity; abolitionists sought immediate end to slavery on moral grounds and equal rights for African Americans.
What are two social consequences of rapid urbanization and immigration during the Gilded Age?
Overcrowded tenements and public-health issues; rise of political machines and ethnic enclaves; labor unrest and formation of unions.
Which 1863 executive action by Abraham Lincoln redefined the Union’s war aims and permitted enlistment of formerly enslaved people?
The Emancipation Proclamation.
Explain one economic reason Britain sought to raise revenue from the colonies after 1763 and one colonial political response.
Britain faced heavy war debt from the Seven Years’ War and sought revenue via taxes (e.g., Sugar Act, Stamp Act); colonists responded with protests, nonimportation, and arguments about “no taxation without representation.”
What was the main problem with the Articles of Confederation that led to calls for a stronger national government?
The Articles lacked power to tax, regulate commerce, or enforce laws, causing financial, diplomatic, and interstate problems.
What are two causes that helped end the Second Party System (the Democrats and Whigs) in the 1850s?
Sectional conflict over slavery expansion and nativist/immigrant issues that split parties; Kansas-Nebraska Act and the emergence of sectional parties like the Republican Party.
What was the Populist (People’s) Party main economic grievances and one proposed policy solution?
Grievances: falling crop prices, high railroad rates, and debt for farmers; policy: government regulation of railroads, free coinage of silver, and a stronger role for government to aid farmers.
What was a major labor response to industrial working conditions? Give a specific example.
Formation of unions (e.g., Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor), strikes (Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Haymarket, Homestead) seeking better wages/conditions.
What are three factors that helped the Patriot cause succeed despite Britain’s military advantages?
Factors: colonial militias and guerrilla tactics, George Washington’s leadership, ideological commitment to independence, international aid (notably France), and colonial resilience/supply lines and local support
Compare the positions of the Democratic and Whig (or Federalist/Democratic-Republican) parties on the role of the national bank and federal power.
Democrats (Jacksonian) favored limited federal government and opposed a strong national bank; Whigs (and earlier Federalists) supported a stronger federal role in economic development and a national bank to stabilize currency and credit.
How did immigration in the 1840s–1850s affect US cities and politics (mention one social effect and one political reaction)?
Social effect: growth of ethnic urban neighborhoods and social services needs; political reaction: nativist movements and parties (e.g., Know-Nothings) opposing immigrant influence.
How did the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) affect African American civil rights and equality after Reconstruction?
It upheld “separate but equal,” legitimizing legal segregation and eroding many Reconstruction-era gains, leading to widespread disenfranchisement and inequality.
How did Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth offer contrasting justifications for economic inequality during the Gilded Age?
Social Darwinism justified inequality as natural; Gospel of Wealth urged philanthropy and noblesse oblige — students should critique both and show social consequences like philanthropy-funded institutions vs. persistence of poverty and inequality.