Westward Expansion
This doctrine, announced in the early 1800s, said the Americas were off-limits to new European colonization and became a basis for U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.
The Monroe Doctrine
The phrase "Gilded Age" was coined to suggest the era looked prosperous on the outside but had serious problems underneath. Name one problem associated with this era.
Examples: political corruption, extreme inequality, poor working conditions, urban poverty.
Reconstruction took place directly after which major U.S. conflict?
The Civil War
The Progressive Era sought to reform problems caused by industrialization and urbanization. Give one example of a problem Progressives wanted to fix.
Examples: unsafe working conditions, child labor, unsanitary urban housing, political corruption, monopolies.
This invention by Samuel Morse in the 1830s–1840s revolutionized long-distance communication.
The telegraph (Samuel Morse).
Name the 19th-century route that thousands of American settlers traveled to reach fertile land in Oregon and California.
The Oregon Trail
This industrialist and steel magnate became famous for building a large steel company and using vertical integration
Andrew Carnegie (steel)
This 1865 amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States.
The 13th Amendment
This female reformer helped lead the movement for women's suffrage and was a key organizer for state and national campaigns.
Answers may include Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, etc. (Alice Paul led later strategies; Susan B. Anthony was a prominent national leader.)
Thomas Edison is often credited with improving and commercializing this practical electric device that changed homes and factories.
The practical incandescent light bulb (and electric lighting systems)
The forced relocation known as the "Trail of Tears" primarily affected this Native American nation after the Indian Removal Act.
The Cherokee Nation
Who had control of Standard Oil?
John D. Rockefeller
Name one way southern states limited the political power of newly freed African Americans after Reconstruction (examples: laws or practices).
Examples: Black Codes, poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, intimidation by groups like the Ku Klux Klan
Muckrakers were journalists who exposed social problems. Name one famous muckraker and the issue they exposed.
Upton Sinclair — exposed meatpacking industry in "The Jungle"; Jacob Riis — exposed slum conditions; Ida Tarbell — exposed Standard Oil practices.
The development of the transcontinental railroad helped connect the country. Name one effect the railroad had on American business or daily life.
Examples: faster transport of goods; national markets; time zones; growth of cities along rail lines.
This 1862 law gave free land in the West to settlers who agreed to live on and farm it for several years.
The Homestead Act of 1862
Name used to describe minimal government regulation of industry. (Hands off approach)
laissez-faire economics
Describe the purpose of the Freedmen's Bureau.
The Freedmen's Bureau provided food, housing, education, and legal help to former enslaved people and impoverished southerners.
Explain one way Progressives used government to improve living or working conditions (give a specific reform or law).
Examples: Pure Food and Drug Act, meat inspection laws, building codes, child labor laws, antitrust laws.
Explain how the rise of big businesses and trusts affected competition and consumers in the late 19th century.
Large trusts reduced competition, could set prices, sometimes led to higher prices or unfair practices; eventually prompted antitrust laws
Explain one major economic and one major environmental consequence of rapid westward settlement in the 19th century.
Economic: growth of agriculture, mining booms, increased trade; Environmental: loss of native grasslands, decline of bison, soil depletion.
This President was known as the "trustbuster"
Theodore Roosevelt
Explain what "sharecropping" was and analyze how it affected freedpeople's economic independence.
Sharecropping: tenant farmers worked land for a share of the crop; often kept families in debt and economic dependency.
Evaluate how the Progressive Era both expanded democracy for some groups and failed to help others—give one positive reform and one limitation.
Positive: antitrust actions, consumer protections. Limitation: many reforms excluded or discriminated against African Americans, immigrants, and women in practice.
Describe the role of immigrant labor in American industrial growth and give one reason many immigrants took factory jobs despite difficult conditions.
Immigrants provided much of the factory and construction labor; many accepted low pay and long hours because jobs were available and they needed income.