Hansen

U.S. History Final Exam Study Guide 2010 2011

Cheat Sheet Option- If you are willing to study ahead of time, I would like to reward you, by allowing you to bring a few notes to
the final. You may bring a double-sided, handwritten, 3x5 inch note-card to the final IF you turn it in to me at the start of class on
Friday, 1-14. You may bring a single-sided version if it is done by the start of class on Tuesday, 1-18. If you would like to review your
card while you study, make a copy of it, because once you turn it in, I will keep it until the final starts.
Unit I. Founding American Ideals

The Ideals
o What are the five key ideals? (think of the mnemonic aid- O.L.D.E.R.)
o Know that Jefferson (as the author of the Declaration of Independence), captured these ideals in writing during the formation of the
nation.
o Know that a rebirth of reason and human curiosity in Europe known as the Renaissance led to an explosion in scientific discovery,
which in turn led to the Enlightenment.
o Know that the Enlightenment was an attempt to uncover the natural laws governing human society, interaction, and government.
Know that the Enlightenment philosophers clashed with the absolute monarchs of the day and why this makes sense.
Be familiar with the central Enlightenment Ideas/Philosophers

The Social Contract

What was it?

Hobbess Version

Lockes Version

Lockes Key Ideas

Natural Rights

The Right of Revolution

Montesquieus Separation of Powers

Voltaires Freedom of Expression

Why important to him?

o Know that the American colonies (controlled by the British) were heavily influenced by the Enlightenment

Understand why Americans were in a unique position (compared to Europeans) to capitalize on the Enlightenment?
The American Revolution
o Long Term Causes

British History of Limited Government

Magna Carta- a very old British document limiting the power of kings

The Glorious Revolution- during which the English king was forced to accept the supremacy of Parliament

The Enlightenment

Lockes ideas arguing for power held by the people and the Right of Revolution

The Great Awakening- although this was religious revival, how did it help to spur the A.R.?
o More Immediate Causes

French and Indian Wars

Who fought against who and why?

Why did this war increase American/British tensions? (two reasons!)

Despised British Policies

Proclamation of 1763- What was it and why did it anger the colonists?

New taxes- No taxation without representation

o Coercive Acts

The Quartering Act- What was it and why did it anger the colonists?

Colonial Reactions to British Policies

Committee of Correspondence First Continental Congress

o What were they?
o What did they do? (Boycotts, militia, etc.)
o The Fighting

How did the colonists manage to win despite long odds?

The American Constitution
o Why was a Republic chosen as opposed to a direct democracy?

Fear of mob rule!

o Shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation? Know that the Constitutional Convention was held to deal with these shortcomings.
o Problems faced at the Constitutional Convention, held in and the ultimate compromises.

Small state (New Jersey) v Big State (Virginia) Problem

Compromise Senate v House of Representatives (what are the central differences between these two houses
and how do they solve the big/small conflict?)

Counting slaves?

3/5ths Compromise
o
o

Avoiding tyrannical federal government?

Checks and Balances

Judicial (Supreme Court), Legislative (Congress- senate and house), and Executive (president) Branches
o The fight over Ratification of the Constitution

What is ratification?

What is Federalism?

Who were the Federalists and who were the Anti-Federalists? What was their central disagreement?

In the end, states maintained rights not granted to Federal Govt in Constitution

Bill of Rights also part of the compromise. How?

o Other Elements of the Constitution

The Electoral College- What is it?

Amending the Constitution- What does this mean? How is it done?

Impeachment- What is it?

Fast Forward of American History From the 1780s (American Revolution) to the 1860s (the Civil War)
o Judiciary Act of 1789

What were the unique traits of the system of courts it established?

o Marbury v. Madison

Under Justice John Marshall

Established a precedent known as Judicial Review (the right to declare a law of the congress unconstitutional- solidified
the Supreme Courts right to check the legislature)
o Expansion of the U.S. Borders

The Louisiana Purchase

Whod we get it from?

Louis and Clark

The Adams-Onis Treaty

The Mexican-American War What did the U.S. get?

o Monroe Doctrine- What was it?
o Indian Removal Act

Trail of Tears
o Manifest Destiny- What was it?
o Mormon Migration- What was it?
o Key Divisions Between the North and South That Developed Over This Time Period

Economics (how were the economies of the North and South Unique?

Slavery
The Civil War
o Why did westward expansion heighten tension between slave vs free states? (think about the representative power of free and slave
states in congress)

Dred Scott Case as an example of the tension of slavery bubbling over.

What was the case about? What was the ultimate decision?
o South secedes
o Know that the war was both about slavery and about the independence of states versus the federal government.
o Why did Lincoln ultimately decide to issue the Emancipation Proclamation? (gave the war a moral component, which helped to
convince other countries to help the north and not to help the south)
Reconstruction
o What does this term mean?
o What was the basic difference of opinion between congress (on the one hand) and presidents (Lincoln and Johnson) (on the other)
about the proper plan for Reconstruction?

Which side won this struggle?

How did it win?

What were the results of their victory?

Think: Civil Rights Act of 1866, the expansion of the Freedmens Bureau, the 14th Amendment, the
Reconstruction Act of 1867, and the 15th Amendment
o Who were the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers? (info on these groups is in the textbook- not in class lectures)

What did each want?

How did their desires, along with those of southern blacks, hinder the process of reconstruction? In particular, how were
southern blacks and scalawags at odds?
o What steps were taken to improve the position of blacks in the south, both by the blacks themselves and by the Republican
government?

Think: churches, education, voting rights.

o In what ways were the gains of southern blacks limited?

Think: few elected black officials, failure of forty acres and a mule plan, sharecropping
o How did some whites undermine and destroy Reconstruction?

Vigilante groups like the KKK

Refusal by other whites to do business with blacks who voted Republican

o How successful was the Federal government in saving Reconstruction?

Not very: Freedmens Bureau was allowed to expire, economic problems destroyed the political willpower to address black
rights

How did the closeness of the election of 1876 guarantee the end of Reconst. in the South?
What tiny ray of light remained for those who wished equal rights for black Americans?

Unit II Industrialization, Immigration, and Reform

Know that this unit covers the time period from the end of the Civil War (1860s) to the 1910s
Industrialization
o 3 key necessary factors

Tons of natural resources in America

Growth of the railroad

Urbanization
o U.S. Govt Role in Industrialization

Subsidies and loans

Laissez-faire, free enterprise, hands-off

No environmental controls, for example

Positives and negatives of the free enterprise system?

Low taxes and high tariffs

Was the govts role better for factory owners or workers?

o Key innovations

the Bessemer Process

electricity (Alexander Graham Bell)

the telegraph (Samuel Morse)

assembly line (Henry Ford)

Steam Ship (Robert Fulton)

Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney)

Skyscraper (William Jenny)

o Social Darwinism

What was it and what was its importance in terms of American Industrialization? (hint: allowed robber barons to feel ok
about their vast wealth)
o Consolidation and Monopolies and Trusts

Key business leaders

Carnegie- steel

Rockefeller- oil

Vanderbilt- Railroads
o Captains of Industry versus Robbers Barons

Vertical and Horizontal forms of integration

Trusts

What is the benefit of a trust?

Anti-Sherman Trust Act- successful/failure?

Labor Unions

Collective bargaining

Strikes

Robber Barons and Trusts had the money to influence politicians

Want high tariffs (Why?)

Contribute to the growth of political machines in key cities

o north industrialized more quickly than the south
o Lack of banking regulation led to instability
o Farmers were increasingly squeezed (economically) by greater competition and high transportation costs
o The Gilded Age

What does this term mean? Who coined it?

Immigration
o What was the Golden Door?
o Who were old European immigrants? Who were new European immigrants?
o What Asian groups immigrated?

What specific job did many Chinese immigrants do?

o What were the basic push and pull factors of immigration?
o Know that Ellis Island and Angel Island served a similar function on different coasts, know which coast was which, and what
function they served.
o What was steerage?
o Why did many immigrants move into immigrant ethnic enclaves?
o What was Nativism and what factors caused it?
o What group of immigrants was first excluded from the U.S.?
o Did most immigrants arriving in America head for cities or the countryside?
o What was the Americanization Movement?

o
o

Know that industrialization reduced the need for farm labor which resulted in increased immigration (away from Europes farms) and
urbanization (a move towards cities which included immigrants and African-Americans).
What were the basic problems of Americas rapid urbanization?

Tenements, Sanitation , etc.

Reform
o What problems did reformers, in particular the Progressives, try to solve?

Political Machines

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall (in what city did these exist?)

What was a good side of the political machines? What was their darker side?

Poor Working Conditions

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

o What methods did the Progressives use?

Social Gospel Movement (What was it?)

Settlement Houses

Unions

Farmers Grangers union got the Interstate Commerce Act passed to control railroad freight prices

Political Reform

Populist Party (what was it?)

Seventeenth Amendment (what was it?)

Muckrakers

Upton Sinclair- anti-poor working conditions and mistreatment of immigrants

Progressive Successes and Progressive Failures

Successes
o Teddy Roosevelt- first president to support progressivism. Thought prez could use the bully pulpit to
spread progressive ideas.
o Teddy set up first American land for conservation
o Meat inspection Act and FDA (Food and Drug Administration) set up to deal with the problems
raised in Upton Sinclairs The Jungle
o Clayton Act- stronger anti-trust act
o FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to break up monopolies

Failures
o No anti-lynching laws

Booker T. Washington- blacks should seek economic opportunities 1st- then equality

W.E.B. Dubois- blacks must demand full equality immediately

World War I turns Americas attention away from Progressive reform

Unit III- Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Century

-Motivations for American Imperialism
o Monroe Doctrine Roosevelt Corollary
o Extension of Manifest Destiny
o White Mans Burden

Methods of American Imperialism

o Roosevelts Big Stick
o Tafts Dollar Diplomacy
o Wilsons Moral Diplomacy

The reasons the U.S. was hesitant (more so than European nations) to become involved in Imperialism?

The Spanish-American War

o Reasons (both selfless and self-serving) that the U.S. was interested in Cuba
o Impact of, and definition of, Yellow Journalism
o The basic steps leading up to the war (e.g., Sinking of the Maine, intercepted note from Spanish Ambassador, U.S. desire
for the Philippines, etc.)
o Ultimate result of the war and the Treaty of Paris?

Some basics facts of U.S. interventionism

o U.S. pursued (and got) an Open Door Policy in China
o What the Boxer Rebellion was.

Know that the U.S. became involved imperially in the following locations: Hawaii , Cuba, China, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico,
Philippines, and Mexico (although in places like Mexico, we didnt take over, but we did interfere in internal domestic politics.

The U.S. in World War I

o Why was America initially neutral?
o What factors brought the U.S. into the war? (economic factors, Germany as bully, unrestricted submarine warfare,
Zimmerman Note, Russias collapse)
o Government control of U.S. economy during the war (Liberty Bonds, rationing, daylight savings)
o Loss of Constitutional Rights (Espionage and Sedition Acts)
o Impact on Women and Minorities (Great Migration, largely to California , women in factories)

o
o

Influenza pandemic
Imperialism and World War I demonstrate U.S. position as growing/leading world power

Unit IV- Between The Wars

The 1920s
o The Treaty of Versailles

What were Germanys basic punishments?

Understand the debate in America over the Treaty:

What were the basic arguments of Americans who wanted to accept the treaty (and
join the League of Nations)?

What were the basic arguments of Americans who didnt want to accept the treaty
(or join the League)?

Which side of the debate was democrat Woodrow Wilson on, and what side were
the Republican members of congress on?

Which side ultimately won the debate? In other words, what was the decision of the
U.S. about joining the League of Nations?
o Impact of World War I on 1920s Society?

Desire for normalcy

Isolationism

Decreased navy , Raised tariffs , Laws reducing immigration

Desire for Economic Growth

Laissez-faire govt stance on economics

Gov. builds roads to boost car sales

Less gov tolerance for strikes

New fear of radical foreign ideas and those who held them (aka subversives)

Socialism
o No private property
o gov should get involved in the economy to help the poor

Communism
o No private property
o Gov should get involved to make all people equally wealthy
o Russian (Boshevik) Revolution of 1917

Anarchism

Understand that the desire for normalcy clashed with the lingering desires (left over from
pre-WWI America) for Progressive change
o Post War Tensions (for a refresher- reread Postwar Tensions reading on my website)

Rocky post-war economy

Huge war demands ends, causing unemployment and inflation

Labor Tensions

Gov cracked down on strikers

Famous example- Boston Police Strike

o Police fired by governor Calvin Coolidge
o Hed later be president (partially as a result)

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

o Union for black people

Political Tensions

Bomb scare
o Results of/ Responses to Political Tensions (see the same reading for a touch up)

Red Scare

Palmer Raids

Rebirth of the KKK

Rebirth of Nativism

Anti-immigration quotas

Sacco and Venzetti Trial

National Guard called in to break up strikes

Formation of groups to protect Civil Liberties

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

ADL (anti-Defamation League- focus on anti-Semitism)

o Marcus Garvey- Back to Africa Movement
Other Important Twentieth Century Trends
o Consumerism

Increased purchasing of consumer goods, often on credit

Rise of advertising

o
o

Transportation explosion
Politics- Normalcy?

Harding scandals

Ohio Gang

Teapot Dome

Mysterious death in SF

Coolidge

Coolidge or Chaos

Hoover

Limited gov role in the economy (important to later Great Depression)

Prohibition

Other names for it?

Led to organized crime

Connection to Progressive and Womens Rights Movement

Connection to Flapper culture and Speakeasies

Civil Rights

19th amendment- womens right to vote

Sedition Laws during WWI

Great Migration of African American to the northern cities

Harlem Renaissance
Sports Mania
Movies and Radio

The 1930s
o

o
o
o

Signs of Economic Woe

Many were not part of economic prosperity

Buying on credit meant that much of the apparent prosperity was hollow

Speculation in the stock market

Overproduction
Crash of 1929

Buying on Margin

Black Tuesday

$30 billion lost in 1929

Bank Failures

Why did banks lose so much?

What is a Bank Run and why can they happen to, and even ruin, banks that havent made any
poor choices themselves?
Dust Bowl

Okies
25 % Unemployment Rate
Hoovers response to the Great Depression

Basic policy?

Hoovervilles

Why was the Hawley Smoot Tariff passed and what was its basic impact?

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (too little, too late)

Loses 1932 election to FDR

FDR/New Deal

Know the basics about FDRs background and general political philosophy.

Know the basic goals of the New Deal

Successes of the New Deal, including

Infrastructure Projects

FDIC

SEC

Social Security

Failures of the New Deal

Gave Federal government too much power?

Increased deficits

Perhaps did not go far enough- didnt completely end the depression

Unit V- The First Half of World War II

Lead up to the War

o Everything highlighted or added to Road to War sheet during class lecture
Pearl Harbor
o Why would some suspect that FDR knew but said nothing?
The U.S. and the Holocaust
o Were the Golden Doors basically open or closed to Jews?

Why is the journey of the St. Louis significant?

The U.S. Role in the War
o Women and Minorities during the war

WAAC

Purple Heart Battalion

Tuskegee Airmen

Navajo Code Talkers

o Who did the U.S. fight with on the Allies?
o Who was on the Axis?
o the Battle of the Atlantic

Why important?

How did the Allies gain the edge?

o Where did the U.S. originally open their second front (Operation Torch?)

How was this decision viewed by the Soviet Union and why?

Why did the U.S. feel less than willing to do what the Soviet Union wanted?

Who was the American commander of Operation Torch?

Where did the U.S. attack after winning the battles in North Africa (but before D-Day?
o Doolittle Raids

Why were they so risky?

Why were they done regardless?

o What were the key significances of the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway?