Prepare for the Praxis 5086 Social Studies Content Knowledge exam with these practice questions and answers. This guide covers US and world history, geography, civics, and economics.
Q: Northeastern Societies
Answer: this included Iroquois and Algonquin
Q: Iroquois
Answer: known for innovative agricultural and architectural techniques, construction of longhouses, the farming of maize. They farmed according to the three sisters tradition, farming maize, beans, and squash. They were important allies of the English and French.
Q: Five Tribes
Answer: included Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, and Onondaga
Q: Iroquois Confederacy
Answer: the five nations organized into the regionally powerful Iroquois Confederacy
Q: Algonquin
Answer: were located in what is today Quebec and the Great Lakes region. Active in fur trade. Had relationships with French colonizers. Converted to Christianity.
Q: Midwest Societies
Answer: included the Shawnee, Lenape, Kickapoo, and Miami Tribes. Their regions included Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Created the Northwest Confederacy
Q: Shawnee
Answer: Algonquin-speaking people based in the Ohio Valley. Organized under a matrilineal system. Had male kings, and only men could inherit property.
Q: Lenape
Answer: Algonquin-speaking people based in southern New Jersey and the Delaware Valley. Matrilineal system.
Q: Kickapoo
Answer: Algonquin-speaking people who were originally from the Great Lakes region but moved to present-day Indiana and Wisconsin.
Q: Miami
Answer: Algonquin-speaking people, moved from Wisconsin to the Ohio valley region forming settled societies and farming maize. Took part in fur trade.
Q: Southeast Societies
Answer: included Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Muscogee, and Cherokee.
Q: Chickasaw and Choctaw
Answer: the descendants of the Mississippi Mound Builders; built mounds from around 2,100 to 1,800 years ago as burial tombs or the bases for temples. Both were matrilineal lines. Formed an alliance with the British and French
Q: Chickasaw
Answer: settled originally in northern Mississippi, Alabama, and western Kentucky and Tennessee. Also farmed the three sisters tradition.
Q: Choctaw
Answer: Origins trace back to Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida.
Q: Creek/ Muscogee
Answer: originated in modern Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida; participated in an alliance with the Chickasaw and Choctaw to form the Muscogee Confederacy to engage the United States, which threatened tribal sovereignty.
Q: Cherokee
Answer: spoke and speak a language of the Iroquoian family. Migrated south until forcibly removed in 1832. Organized into seven clans; hunters and farmers; would rather come into contact and conflict with European colonizers and the United States of America.
Q: Great Plains Societies
Answer: Sioux (Sue) Cheyenne, Apache, Comanche, and Arapaho; traditionally nomadic or semi-nomadic, these tribes depended on the buffalo for food and materials to create clothing, tools and domestic items; therefore they followed the herds. Equestrian skill, horses were introduced by Europeans. Horseback riding facilitated the hunt, previously, hunters surrounded buffalo or frightened them off of cliffs.
Q: Southwest Societies
Answer: the Navajo controlled territory in present-day Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. They were descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi. They settled in the four corners area. They used three sister agricultural traditions. and they also were engaged in stone construction like cliff dwellings. They practiced pastoralism and lived in semi-permanent wooden homes called hogans, the doors of which face eastward to the rising run. They were less hierarchical structure.
Q: Pacific Northwest Societies
Answer: included Coast Salish and Chinook. Fishing was a major source of sustenance. People created and used canoes to engage in the practice. Totem poles depicted histories. Coast Salish had a widely spoken language throughout the region. Chinook controlled the coast at the Columbia River.
Q: Native American Civilizations
Answer: lost control of most of their territories and were forced onto reservations by the United States.
Q: Sample Question #1: Which of the following best describes the political landscape of the Northeast before European contact?A. Many small, autonomous tribes scattered throughout the region fought over land and resources.B. Several organized tribes controlled the region, including a major confederation.C. A disorganized political landscape would facilitate European colonial domination.D. The land was largely uninhabited, allowing easy exploitation of resources.
Answer: B. Several organized tribes controlled the region, including a major confederation.Explanation: Powerful tribes controlled trade and territory; among these were the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.
Q: Sample Question #2: How do the movements of the tribes of the Northwest (throughout present-day Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin) illustrate tribal interactions before European contact and during colonial times?A. Having been pushed westward by the Iroquois, the Lenape are just one example of forced migration in early North American history.B. The migration of the Miami from Ontario to the Ohio Valley illustrates the diffusion of the Algonquin language throughout the continent.C. Despite the wide geographic range of the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Miami, and Lenape, all these peoples spoke variants of the Algonquin language; this shows the importance of this language for many Native American tribes whether or not they were Algonquin people.D. Ongoing conflict between the Northwest Algonquin confederacy, based in Ontario and the Upper Midwest, and the Iroquois Confederacy, based in the eastern Great Lakes region and present day Upstate New York, resulted in instability that forced tribes to move throughout the region.
Answer: C. Despite the wide geographic range of the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Miami, and Lenape, all these peoples spoke variants of the Algonquin language; this shows the importance of this language for many Native American tribes whether or not they were Algonquin people.Explanation: While the Algonquin people were primarily located in what is today Quebec and southern Ontario, the Algonquin language was spoken widely throughout North American among both settled and semi-settled non-Algonquin peoples.
Q: Sample Question #3: At the time of European contact, the Southeastern United States was mainly populated byA. the Mississippi Mound Builders.B. settled tribes who spoke Muskogean and Iroquoian languages.C. nomadic tribes who spoke Muskogean and Iroquoian languages.D. the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellers.
Answer: B. Settled tribes who spoke Muskogean and Iroquoian languages.Explanation: The Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and others were Muskogean-speaking peoples; the Cherokee spoke an Iroquoian language. Both tribes were settled.
Q: Sample Question #4: Tribes living in the Great Plains region were dependent on which of the following for survival?A. buffalo for nutrition and materials for daily necessitiesB. domesticated horses for hunting and warfareC. access to rivers to engage in the fur tradeD. three sisters agriculture
Answer: A. buffalo for nutrition and materials for daily necessitiesExplanation: The Great Plains tribes depended on buffalo, which were plentiful before contact and settlement, for food; they also used buffalo parts for clothing and to make necessary items.
Q: Sample Question #5: How were the navajo influenced by the Ancestral Pueblo, or Anasazi?A. The Navajo continued the practice of pastoralism, herding horses throughout the Southwest.B. The Navajo expanded control over land originally settled by the Ancestral Pueblo.C. The Navajo began building cliff dwellings, improving on the Anasazi practice of living in rounded homes built from wood.D. The Navajo developed a strictly hierarchical society, abandoning the looser organization of the Ancestral Pueblo.
Answer: B. The Navajo expanded control over land originally settled by the Ancestral Pueblo.Explanation: The Ancestral Pueblo had settled in what is today the Four Corners region; the Navajo came to control land extending through present-day Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Q: Christopher Columbus
Answer: first laid claim to the Americas for the Spanish.
Q: Colonial North America
Answer: Spanish, British, and French all held territories in North America throughout he sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Q: conquistadors
Answer: explored what is today the Southwestern United States
Q: Important Conquistadors
Answer: Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Q: Spanish Colonization
Answer: Their mission was to spread Christianity.
Q: Spanish Missions
Answer: were established in the West and Southwest (Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California)
Q: Encomiendas
Answer: Were granted by the Spanish Crown. Individuals were granted “Land grants” to individuals to establish settlements to use to ranch or mine. They were also allowed to enslave Native peoples to do labor and the owner gained a profit.
Q: Spain’s Territories in North America
Answer: Extended through Mexico into Texas, the Southwest and California, as well as reaching as far north into today’s Montana and Wyoming. They also controlled the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans and Florida.
Q: Pueblo Revolt
Answer: In 1680, the Pueblo Revolt, led by the leader Popé, resulted in a two-year loss of land for Spain. Often referred to as part of the Navajo Wars.*Pueblo is often used interchangeably with “Indian” to refer to Native Americans. Here it is referring to Navajo, Apache, and other tribes that came together to resist Spanish control. Eventually Spain took over.
Q: Bartolomé de las Casas
Answer: Argued for the rights and humanity of Native Americans. He lived in the Americans prior to the Pueblo Revolt.
Q: Juan de Sepulveda
Answer: Argued that the Native Americans needed the rule and “civilization” that Spain could provide, which justified their treatment at the hands of colonizers.Never left Spain
Q: Casta System
Answer: An individual’s place in societal hierarchy was determined by his or her race
Q: According to the Casta System
Answer: White people most privileged
Q: Mestizo
Answer: people of mixed white European and Native American (more privileged than the Native American peoples).
Q: Smallpox
Answer: Forced labor and diseases had decimated Native American populations in Mexico and the Southwest.
Q: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Answer: Kidnapping African people or purchasing them on the West African coast, bringing them to the Americas and forcing them into slavery in mines and plantations in the Western hemisphere. (European-driven)
Q: France was mainly focused on
Answer: Trade
Q: Samuel de Champlain
Answer: reached which is today Quebec, Vermont, upstate New York, and the eastern Great Lakes region as early as the seventeenth century.
Q: Jacques Cartier
Answer: Although, he claimed New France for France in the sixteenth century, Champlain founded Quebec City and consolidated control of France’s colonies in North America 1608.
Q: Fur
Answer: The fur and beaver pelts from game plentiful in the Northeast were in great demand in Europe.
Q: Métis
Answer: described as a mixed race persons; eventually France would control much of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi region through Louisiana and New Orleans, valuable trade routes.
Q: Differences between settlements in North America
Answer: While the Spanish and French arrived generally as single men for trade, who would intermarry with local inhabitants, the English brought their families and settled in North America.
Q: Sir Walter Raleigh
Answer: Established the Roanoke Colony in present-day Virginia; this settlement disappeared by 1590.
Q: Joint-Stock Companies
Answer: sought royal charters to privately develop colonies on the North American Atlantic coast.
Q: Jamestown
Answer: It was the first established colony, located in Virginia, which became so profitable that the Crown took it over as a colony in 1624.
Q: John Rolfe
Answer: introduced tobacco to Virginia farmers; the primary cash crop
Q: Indentured servants
Answer: Because Virginia required planation farming, they also required these people. They were freed from servitude after a period of work. Some were from Africa.
Q: House of Burgesses
Answer: In 1660, the House of Burgesses, which governed Virginia, declared that all blacks would be lifelong slaves.
Q: These colonies because important sources of tobacco and rice
Answer: The Carolinas and Georgia
Q: This colony institutionalized slavery in North America for the next two centuries by adopting the slave codes from Barbados.
Answer: South Carolina
Q: Separatists
Answer: From New England, members of the Church of England who believed it had strayed too far from its theological roots, had come to North America seeking more religious freedom.
Q: Pilgrims
Answer: The first group of Separatists arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 and had drawn up the Mayflower Compact.
Q: Mayflower Compact
Answer: Guaranteeing government by the consent of the governed
Q: Puritans
Answer: People who were persecuted in England by King Charles I. They traveled over to America.
Q: King Charles I
Answer: The king of England. People suspect that the weakening of the Church of England is due to King Charles I, the people also suspect he was plotting to restore Catholicism.
Q: John Winthrop
Answer: Colonial Puritan Leader, envisioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the model of the Biblical City Upon a Hill, rooted in unity, peace, and what would be a free, democratic spirit; its capital was Boston.
Q: Elect
Answer: According to Puritan belief, wealth and success showed that one was a member; or privileged by God.
Q: Tenant Farmers
Answer: Poorer farmers; they did not own land and rarely made a profit.
Q: New Amsterdam Settlement
Answer: The settlement of New Amsterdam, an ideal port and trading post, came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York.
Q: William Penn
Answer: Quaker William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia, based on tolerance. Penn had been given the land later called Pennsylvania by the Crown to settle a debt.
Q: Holy Experiment
Answer: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware were founded in the Quaker spirit as part of Penn’s Holy Experiment to develop settlements based on tolerance.
Q: Maryland Toleration Act
Answer: In 1649, this Act had ensured the political rights of all Christians there, the first law of its kind in the colonies.
Q: Lord Baltimore
Answer: Was charged by Charles I to found a part of Virginia (to be called Maryland) as a Catholic haven. He was to help Charles I maintain power in an England divided between Catholics and Protestants.
Q: Atlantic World
Answer: The North American colonial economy was part of the Atlantic World, by taking part in the triangular trade.
Q: Triangular Trade
Answer: Between the Americas, Africa and Europe, where slaves were exchanged in the Americas for raw materials shipped to Europe to be processed into goods for the benefit of the colonial powers, and sometimes exchanged for slaves in Africa.Africa –> North America (enslaved persons)North America –> Europe (sugar, tobacco, cotton)Europe –> Africa (textiles, manufactured goods)
Q: Columbian Exchange
Answer: North America was part of the Columbian Exchange, the intersection of goods and people throughout the Atlantic World.
Q: Mercantilism
Answer: The prevailing economic system: European powers controlled their economies in order to increase global power.
Q: Balance of Trade
Answer: Ensuring a beneficial balance of trade is essential; the country must export more than it imports. An unlimited supply of desirable goods obtainable at a low cost made this possible, and the colonies offered just that. European powers would be able to maintain their reserves of gold and silver rather than spending them on imports. Those countries that obtained access to more gold and silver, like Spain, which gained control of mines in Central America and Mexico, exponentially increased their wealth, dramatically changing the balance of economic power in Europe. Long-term consequences included the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism.
Q: Salutary Neglect
Answer: Throughout the chaos in England during the English Civil War, policy toward the Colonies had been one of salutary neglect, allowing them great autonomy.
Q: Navigation Acts
Answer: Stability in England and an emerging culture of independence in the Thirteen Colonies caught the attention of the British Crown; to ensure that the British mercantilist system was not threatened, it passed this act in 1651 to prevent colonial trade with any other countries.
Q: Bacon’s Rebellion
Answer: In 1676, against Governor Berkeley of Virginia embodied the growing resentment of landowners, who wanted to increase their own profit rather than redirect revenue to Britain.
Q: Glorious Revolution
Answer: In 1688, in England, many colonists thought they might gain more autonomy; however, the new leadership under William and Mary continued to limit self-rule.
Q: Second Treatise
Answer: John Locke’s Second Treatise was published in 1689; critical of absolute monarchy, it became popular in the Colonies. Locke’s concepts of government by consent of the governed and the natural rights of persons became the bedrock of the United States government
Q: Locke’s Argument on Republicanism
Answer: The people must come together to create the government for the protection of themselves and their property, thereby giving up some of their natural rights. However, should the government overstep its bounds, the people have the right to overthrow it and replace it.
Q: Battleground in North America
Answer: North America served also as a battleground for France and England, already in conflict in Europe and elsewhere.
Q: Beaver Wars
Answer: The Algonquin and Iroquois, allied with the French and Dutch, and English, respectively, fought the Beaver Wars for control over the fur trade in the northeastern part of the continent. The Iroquois would ultimately push the Shawnee and other tribes associated with the Algonquin from the Northeast and Great Lakes area farther west to present-day Wisconsin.
Q: Northwest Territories
Answer: Given the British alliance with the Iroquois, England would also refer to the Beaver Wars and Iroquois control over the Northeast to assert their own claim over their area.
Q: Louisiana Territory
Answer: France had come to control the vast Louisiana Territory, from the Ohio Valley area through the Mississippi Valley, the area down the Mississippi River and the Arkansas/Red River stretching west.
Q: Chickasaw Wars
Answer: Not only did France clash with Britain in the northern part of the continent, but the two colonial powers came into conflict in the South as well. In 1736, French forces, allied with the Choctaw, attacked the English-allied Chickasaw as part of France’s attempts to strengthen its hold on the southeastern part of North America in the Chickasaw Wars.
Q: Seven Year’s War
Answer: Broke out in Europe in 1756Britain emerged as the dominant power on the continent. France had allied with the Algonquin, traditional rivals of the British-allied Iroquois. However, following defeats by strong colonial military leaders like George Washington and despite its strong alliances and long-term presence on the continent, France eventually surrendered. Britain gained control of French territories in North America, as well as Spanish Florida.
Q: French and Indian War
Answer: Conflict between the British and French in North America, also known as the Seven Year’s War in Europe.
Q: William Pitt the Elder
Answer: The British Prime Minister during the seven year’s war era.
Q: Treaty of Paris
Answer: Britain gained control of French territories in North America, as well as Spanish Florida – in 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Year’s War.
Q: Pontiac’s Rebellion
Answer: There were concerns that the Colonies required a stronger military presence following Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. The leader of the Ottawa people, Pontiac, led a revolt that extended from the Great Lakes region through the Ohio Valley to Virginia. As this land has been ceded to England from France the Ottawa people and other Native Americans resisted further British settlement and fought back against colonial oppression.
Q: British Leader During the America Revolution Era
Answer: King George III
Q: Proclamation of 1763
Answer: King George III signed the Proclamation of 1763, an agreement not to settle land west of the Appalachians, in an effort to make peace; however much settlement continued in practice.
Q: Sugar Act
Answer: England expanded the Molasses Act of 1733, passing the Sugar Act in 1764 to raise revenue by taxing sugar and molasses. Sugar was produced in the British West Indies and widely consumed in the Thirteen Colonies.
Q: Quartering Act
Answer: In 1765, Britain enforced the Quartering Act, requiring colonists to provide shelter to British troops stationed in the region.
Q: Stamp Act of 1765
Answer: Any document required a costly stamp, the revenue reverting to the British government.
Q: Patrick Henry
Answer: Protested the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of Burgesses; the tax was seen as a violation of colonists’ rights, given that they did not have direct representation in British Parliament.
Q: Visual Representation
Answer: In Britain, it was argued that the colonists had virtual representation and so the Act and others to follow were justified.
Q: Samuel Adams & Sons and Daughters of Liberty
Answer: Samuel Adams led the Sons and Daughters of Liberty in violent acts against tax collectors.
Q: Townshend Acts
Answer: In response to the violent acts (by Samuel Adams and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty), the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend enforced the punitive Townshend Acts which imposed more taxes and restrictions on the colonies; customs officers were empowered to search colonists’ homes for forbidden goods with writs of assistance.
Q: John Dickinson
Answer: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
Q: Samuel Adams
Answer: Massachusetts Circular Letter
Q: No Taxation without Representation
Answer: John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and Samuel Adams’ Massachusetts Circular Letter argued for the repeal of the Townshend Acts and continued to stir up calls for no taxation without representation.
Q: Committees of Correspondence
Answer: Samuel Adams continued to stir up rebellion with his Committee of Correspondence, which distributed anti-British propaganda.
Q: Boston Massacre
Answer: Protests against the Quartering Act in Boston led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, when British troops fired on a crowd of protesters.
Q: Boston Tea Party
Answer: By 1773, in a climate of continued unrest driven by the Committees of Correspondence, colonists protested the latest taxes on tea levied by the Tea Act in the famous Boston Tea Party by dressing as Native Americans and tossing tea off a ship in Boston Harbor.
Q: Intolerable Acts
Answer: In response to the Boston Tea Party, the government passed the Intolerable Acts, closing Boston Harbor and bringing Massachusetts back under direct royal control.
Q: First Continental Congress
Answer: In response to the Intolerable Acts, colonial leaders met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress in 1774 and issued the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, presenting colonial concerns to the King, who ignored it.
Q: Lexington and Concord
Answer: Violent conflict began in 1775 at Lexington and Concord, when American militiamen (minutemen) had gathered to resist British efforts to seize weapons and arrest rebels in Concord.
Q: Battle of Bunker Hill
Answer: On June 17, 1775, the Americans fought the British at the Battle of Bunker Kill; despite American losses, the number of casualties the rebels inflicted caused the kings to declare that the colonies were in rebellion. Troops were deployed to the colonies; the British began to take over Boston.
Q: Second Continental Congress
Answer: In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia to debate the way forward. Debate between the wisdom of continued efforts at compromise and negotiations and declaring independence continued.
Q: Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms
Answer: The king ignored the Congress’ Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, which asked him to consider again the colonies’ objections; he also ignored the Olive Branch Petition which sought compromise and an end to hostilities.
Q: Thomas Paine
Answer: Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense; taking Locke’s concepts of natural rights and the obligation of a people to rebel against an oppressive government, it popularized the notion of rebellion against Britain.
Q: Common Sense
Answer: written by Thomas Paine
Q: Declaration of Independence
Answer: Summer of 1776, the Continental Congress agreed on the need to break from Britain; on July 4, 1776, it declared the independence of the United States of America and issued the Declaration of Independence, drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson and heavily influenced by Locke.
Q: Thomas Jefferson
Answer: drafted the Declaration of Independence
Q: Patriots
Answer: favored independence in America
Q: Tories
Answer: still loyal to Britain during the American Revolution, also can be called Loyalist.
Q: George Washington
Answer: appointed head of the Continental Army, despite early losses, Washington gained ground due to strong leadership
Q: Valley Forge
Answer: In 1777, Washington and his army lived through the bitterly cold winter and managed to overcome British military forces. The British people did not favor the war and voted the Tories out of Parliament; the incoming Whig party sought to end the war.
Q: Treaty of Paris 1783
Answer: In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the United States was recognized as a country, agreeing to repay debts to British merchants and provide safety to those British loyalists who wished to remain in North America. The American Revolution would go on to inspire revolution around the world.
Q: Articles of Confederation
Answer: The Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation to organize the Thirteen Colonies, now states, as a loosely united country.
Q: Unicameral Central Government
Answer: Had the power to wage war, negotiate treaties, and borrow money. It could not tax citizens, but could tax states.
Q: Northwest Ordinances of 1787
Answer: set parameters for westward expansion and established new states; it also forbade slavery north of the Ohio River
Q: Applying for Statehood
Answer: Areas with 60,000 people could apply for statehood.
Q: Shays’ Rebellion
Answer: Daniel Shays led Shays’ Rebellion, a revolt of indebted farmers who rose up to prevent courts from seizing property in Massachusetts and to protest debtor’s prisons.
Q: Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
Answer: Called for a Constitutional Convention to write a Constitution as the foundation of a stronger federal government.
Q: Separation of Powers
Answer: James Madison and other Federalists like John Adams believed in separation of powers, republicanism, and a strong federal government.
Q: Great Compromise
Answer: To determine the exact structure of the government, delegates at the convention (Constitutional Convention) settled on what became known as the Great Compromise, a bicameral legislature. Two plans had been presented: the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan.
Q: New Jersey Plan
Answer: Proposed a legislature composed of an equal number of an equal number of representatives from each state (which would benefit smaller states)
Q: Virginia Plan
Answer: Proposed a legislature composed of representatives proportional to the population of each state.
Q: Three-Fifths Compromise
Answer: States with large African American slave populations accounted for those persons with the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted a slave as three-fifths of a person; while represented in a state’s population to determine that state’s number of representatives in Congress, enslaved persons had no place in the political process.
Q: Anti-Federalists
Answer: Despite the separation of powers powers provides for in the Constitution, Anti-Federalists like Thomas Jefferson called for even more limitations on the power of the federal government.
Q: Bill of Rights
Answer: The first ten amendments to the Constitutions, or the Bill of Rights, a list of guarantees of American freedoms, was a concession to the anti-Federalists, who would later become the Democratic-Republican Party (eventually, the Democratic Party).
Q: Federalist Papers
Answer: In order to convince the states to ratify the Constitution, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers, articulating the benefits of federalism.
Q: America’s First President & Officials
Answer: George Washington – elected PresidentJohn Adams – Vice PresidentAlexander Hamilton – Secretary of TreasuryThomas Jefferson – Secretary of State
Q: In 1791
Answer: The Constitution was ratified
Q: Bank of the United States (BUS)
Answer: Hamilton prioritized currency stabilization and repayment of debts; he also believed in establishing a national bank, which Washington signed into law in 1791.
Q: Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury
Answer: Favored tariffs and excise (sales) taxes, which Anti-Federalists (Democratic-Republicans) were opposed of.
Q: Whiskey Rebellion
Answer: In 1795, rebellion against the excise (sales) tax on whiskey broke out; the Whiskey Rebellion indicated unrest in the young country and was put down by militia.
Q: Neutrality Proclamation
Answer: President Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 (this was during the French Revolution in Europe). Despite this action, British and French ships accosted American ships in the Atlantic and forced American sailors into naval service (impressments).
Q: Impressments
Answer: British and French ships accosted American ships in the Atlantic and forced American sailors into naval service.
Q: Jay’s Treaty
Answer: John Jay attempted to reinstate neutrality but was unsuccessful and unpopular, only negotiating the removal of British forts in the western frontier.
Q: Pickney’s Treaty
Answer: Because Spain was concerned about the balance of power on the continent of Europe, President Washington had Thomas Pickney negotiate a new treaty with Spain; providing for US rights on the Mississippi River and in the Port of New Orleans, Pickney’s Treaty was a diplomatic success, ratified by all thirteen states.
Q: Northwest Indian Wars & Battle of Fallen Timbers
Answer: Because of continued conflict with the Shawnee, Lenape, Kickapoo, Miami, and other tribes in the Ohio region; The Americans gained more territory in Ohio and Indiana following the defeat of allied tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Q: President Washington’s Farewell Address
Answer: He recommended the United States follow a policy of neutrality in international affairs, setting a precedent for early American history.
Q: America’s Second President
Answer: John Adams
Q: XYZ Affair
Answer: France continued to seize American ships, so President John Adams sent representatives to negotiate; however, in what became known as the XYZ Affair, the Americans were asked for bribes in order to even meet with French officials.
Q: Convention of 1800
Answer: The insulted Americans began an undeclared conflict in the Caribbean until the Convention of 1800 negotiated a cessation of hostilities.
Q: Alien and Sedition Acts
Answer: The Alien Act allowed the president to deport “enemy aliens”; it also increased the residency requirements for citizenship.The Sedition Act forbade criticism of the president or of Congress
Q: America’s Third President
Answer: Thomas Jefferson – 1801- Repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts- Economic policies favored small farmers and landowners- Oversaw the Louisiana Purchase- Embargo Act- The United States were fighting North African pirates in the Mediterranean, who were seizing US ships.- Non-Intercouse Act
Q: Louisiana Purchase
Answer: Overseen by Thomas JeffersonDoubled the size of the United StatesMajor step forward towards westward expansion
Q: Meriwether Lewis & William Clark
Answer: Dispatched to explore the western frontier of the territory: Jefferson hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean (via the Missouri River). While this route did not exist, Lewis and Clark returned with a deeper knowledge of the territory the US had come to control.
Q: Napoleonic Wars
Answer: Britain and France, at war with each other. They were attempting to blockade each other’s international trade, threatening US ships, as the United States did business with both countries.
Q: Embargo Act
Answer: In an attempt to avoid the conflict, Congress passed the Embargo Act under the Jefferson administration in 1807, which limited US international trade; however the Embargo Act only damaged the US economy further.
Q: Non-Intercourse Act
Answer: Congress passed this Act at the end of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, which allowed trade with foreign countries besides Britain and France.
Q: America’s Fourth President
Answer: James Madison
Q: War of 1812
Answer: British provocation (action or speech that makes someone annoyed or angry, especially deliberately) at sea and in the northwest led to the War of 1812.Despite the Confederacy’s alliance with Britain, the United States prevailed. Congress declared war under Madison with the intent to defend the United States, end chaotic trade practices and treatment of Americans on the high seas. and penetrate British Canada.The war resulted in no real gains or losses for either the Americans or the British.
Q: Battle of Tippecanoe
Answer: In Indiana, when General William Henry Harrison fought the Northwest Confederacy, a group of tribes led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh.
Q: Tecumseh
Answer: the Shawnee leader during the Battle of Tippecanoe
Q: Tenskwatawa
Answer: Tecumseh’s brother, was considered a prophet.
Q: Andrew Jackson
Answer: Became a popular war hero following the Battle of New Orleans (fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, end ing the war in 1814).
Q: Treaty of Ghent
Answer: Treaty to end the War of 1812. The war ended in 1814.
Q: Era of Good Feeling
Answer: Began with the presidency of James Monroe.
Q: America’s Fifth President
Answer: James Monroe- Part of the Era of Good Feeling- A strong sense of public identity and nationalism pervaded in the country.- Second Great Awakening- Hartford Convention- Tariff of 1816- Second Back of the United States- Panic of 1819- Adams-Onis Treaty- Monroe Doctrine- Missouri Compromise
Q: Second Great Awakening
Answer: During the era of Good Feeling, religious revival became popular and people turned from Puritanism and predestination to Baptist and Methodist faiths, among others, following revolutionary preaches and movements.In are and culture, romanticism and reform movements elevated the “common man,” a trend that would continue into the presidency of Andrew Jackson.
Q: Hartford Convention
Answer: Federalists developed an anti-Republican platform; however by the time they completed their discussions and were ready to head to Washington, the War of 1812 had already ended. The Federalists essentially collapsed afterward.
Q: Tariff of 1816
Answer: Disagreement over the Tariff of 1816 divided industrialists, who believed in nurturing American industry, from Southern landowners, who depended on exporting cotton and tobacco for profit.
Q: Panic of 1819
Answer: Erupted when the government cut credit following over speculation on western lands; the BUS (Bank of United States) wanted payment from state banks in hard currency, or specie. Western banks foreclosed on western farmers and farmers lost their land.
Q: Manifest Destiny
Answer: The sense that it was the fate of the United States to expand westward and settle the continent.
Q: Adams-Onis Treaty
Answer: In 1819, the United States purchased Florida from Spain.
Q: Monroe Doctrine
Answer: James Monroe’s policy that the Western Hemisphere was “closed” to any further European colonization or exploration.
Q: Abolitionist
Answer: The Second Great Awakening had fueled the abolitionist movement. This was a movement to end slavery.
Q: Henry Clay
Answer: Kentucky Senator who wrote the Missouri compromise.
Q: Missouri Compromise “Compromise of 1820”
Answer: The Missouri Compromise, allowed Missouri to join the union as a slave state, but provided that any other states north of the thirty-sixth parallel (36′ 30′) would be free. Main would also join the nation as a free state.
Q: Immigration in the 1820s
Answer: Immigration from Europe to the United States was increasing-mainly Irish Catholics and Germans
Q: Cotton Gin
Answer: Allowed exponential increase in cotton, more persons were enslaved than ever before, bringing more urgency to the issue of slavery.Was Invented by Eli Whitney
Q: Nativist & Know-Nothing Party
Answer: Reactionary nativist movements like the Know-Nothing Party feared the influx of non-Anglo Europeans, particularly Catholics, and discrimination was widespread, especially against the Irish.
Q: Technological Advances
Answer: Other technological advances like the railroads and steamships were speeding up westward expansion and improving trade throughout the continent; a large-scale market economy was emerging.
Q: Universal Manhood Suffrage
Answer: Most states had extended voting rights to white men who did not own land or substantial property
Q: Election of 1824
Answer: Andrew JacksonJohn Quincy AdamsHenry ClayWilliam CrawfordAll republicans (from the democratic-republican party)John Quincy Adams Won*
Q: America’s Six President
Answer: John Quincy Adams- son on John Adams
Q: Whigs
Answer: Henry Clay and his supporters became known as National Republicans and, later, Whigs, a splinter group of the Democratic-Republicans which supported business and urbanization; they also had federalist leanings.
Q: America’s Seventh President
Answer: Andrew Jackson- two terms- Popular with the “common man”- spoils system- Specie Circular- Panic of 1837- Tariff of 1828- Tariff of 1832- Nullification Crisis- Indian Removal Act
Q: Spoils System
Answer: Jackson rewarded his supporters, appointing them to important positions as part of the spoils system.
Q: Specie Circular
Answer: Jackson was opposed to the Bank of the United States, so he issued the Specie Circular, devaluing paper money and instigating the financial Panic of 1837.
Q: Tariff of 1828 “Tariff of Abominations”
Answer: Benefitted Northern industry, but heavily affected Southern exports
Q: John C. Calhoun
Answer: a senator of South Carolina
Q: Nullification
Answer: John C. Calhoun spoke out in favor of nullification, whereas he argued that a state had the right to declare a law null and void if it was harmful to that state.
Q: Tariff of 1832
Answer: Calhoun and South Carolina threatened to secede if their economic interests were not protected.
Q: Nullification Crisis
Answer: Jackson managed the Nullification Crisis without resorting to violence; he protected the federal government at the expense of states’ rights, working out a compromise in 1833 that was more favorable to the South.
Q: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
Answer: Despite efforts by the Cherokee, who unsuccessfully argued for the right to their land in the Supreme Court, President Andrew Jackson enforced the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
Q: 1830 Indian Removal Act
Answer: President Andrew Jackson enforced this act; forcing Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and others from their lands in the Southeast. They were to move by foot with all of their belongs to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
Q: Trail of Tears
Answer: Thousands of people were forced to travel mainly on foot, with all of their belongings, to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) on the infamous Trail of Tears, to make way for White settlers.
Q: Civil War
Answer: Rooted in ongoing conflict over slavery, states’ rights, and the reach of the federal government.
Q: Mexican-American War
Answer: In 1836, Texas, where there were a great number of white settlers, declared independence from Mexico; one reason was because Mexico abolished slavery, and institution white Texans wished to retain. In 1845, Texas joined the Union; this event, in addition to ongoing US hunger for land caused the Mexican-American War.
Q: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Answer: This treaty ended the Mexican-American War. Mexican General Santa Ana surrendered and the United States gained territory in the Southwest. The United States gained Utah, New Mexico, and California.Latinos and Latinas who had lived in the region under Mexico lost their land and were denied many of the rights that white enjoyed, even though they had been promised US citizenship and equal rights under the Treaty. They also suffered racial and ethnic discrimination.
Q: Cult of Domesticity
Answer: A popular cultural movement, encouraged women to become homemakers and focus on domestic skills. Women were freed to engage in social activism.
Q: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Answer: Social ActivistWorked for women’s rights, including women’s suffrage, culminating (def: reach a climax or point of highest development) in the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention led by the American Woman Suffrage Association.Women were also active in the temperance movement. Organizations like the Woman’s Christian temperance Union advocated for the prohibition of alcohol (achieved with 18th Amendment, repealed with 21st Amendment).
Q: Frederick Douglass
Answer: The former slave Frederick Douglass advocated for abolition. An activist leader and writer, Douglass publicized the movement along with the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Q: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Answer: Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q: John Brown
Answer: The radical abolitionist John Brown led violent protests against slavery. Abolitionism became a key social and political issue in the mid-nineteenth century.
Q: Wilmot Proviso
Answer: Anti-slavery factions in Congress had attempted to halt the extension of slavery to the new territories obtained by Mexico in the 1846, but these were unsuccessful.
Q: Compromise of 1850
Answer: Admitted the populous California as a free state and Utah and New Mexico to the Union with slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty.
Q: Popular Sovereignty
Answer: Decided by the people
Q: Fugitive Slave Act
Answer: Allowed slave owners to pursue escaped slaves to free states and recapture them. It would now be a federal crime to assist escaped slaves, an unacceptable provision to many abolitionists.
Q: Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
Answer: Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which allowed those two territories to decide slavery by popular sovereignty as well, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.
Q: Republican Party
Answer: A new party, was formed by angered Democrats, Whigs, and others as a result of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
Q: Bleeding Kansas
Answer: Violence broke out in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery factions.
Q: Dred Scott
Answer: In 1856, an escaped slave, took his case to the Supreme Court to sue for freedom. Scott had escaped to the free state of Illinois and sought to stay there; his former “owner” had argued that he could have him back regardless of the state he was in.
Q: Scott v. Sandford
Answer: The Court heard the case, and ruled in favor of Sandford, upholding the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and nullifying the Missouri Compromise.
Q: Election of 1860
Answer: Abraham Lincoln – RepublicanStephen Douglas – DemocratDuring the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln spoke out against slavery, while Douglas supported the right of the states to decide its legality on their own.Lincoln won*
Q: America’s Sixteenth President
Answer: Abraham Lincoln- Honest Abe- Civil War- Emancipation Proclamation- Ten Percent Plan- Assassinated by Confederate sympathizers on April 15, 1865 (6 days after the war ended)
Q: Confederate States of America
Answer: South CarolinaMississippiAlabamaFloridaLouisianaGeorgiaTexasVirginiaTennesseeNorth CarolinaArkansas
Q: The Confederacy
Answer: Formed on February 1, 1861Leader – Jefferson Davis (senator from Mississippi)
Q: Battle of Fort Sumter
Answer: Sumter, South Carolinasparked the Civil War
Q: West Virginia
Answer: Was formed when the western part of Virginia refused to join the Confederacy.
Q: 1st Battle of Bull Run
Answer: Both sides believed the conflict would be short-lived; however, after the first battle of bull run, when the Union failed to route the Confederacy, it became clear that the war would not end quickly.
Q: Anaconda Plan
Answer: The Union developed the Anaconda Plan, a plan to “squeeze” the Confederacy, including a naval blockade and taking control of the Mississippi River.
Q: 2nd Battle of Bull Run
Answer: Tactical Confederate victory, led by General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Q: Battle of Antietam
Answer: First battle fought on Union soil.Union General George B. McClellan halted General Lee’s invasion of Maryland, but failed to defeat the Confederacy.Confederacy Won!
Q: Emancipation Proclamation
Answer: January 1, 1863, President Lincoln decreed the end of slavery in the rebel states.
Q: Battle of Gettysburg
Answer: A major Union victory, led by General George Meade.Bloodiest battle in American History up to date (1863).
Q: Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi
Answer: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant gained control over the Mississippi River, completing the Anaconda Plan.
Q: Battle of Atlanta
Answer: The final major battle of the Civil War, following the Union victory led by General William T. Sherman.
Q: Battle of Appommatox
Answer: Resulted in Confederate surrender at Appommatox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant and the war ended.
Q: Ten Percent Plan
Answer: If ten percent of a Southern state’s population swore allegiance to the Union, that state would be readmitted into the Union. (Created before Lincoln’s Death)
Q: Ku Klux Klan
Answer: Andrew Johnson (Lincoln’s VP) enforced Reconstruction weakly and the white supremacist KKK emerged to intimidate and kill black people in the South.
Q: Black Codes
Answer: States developed the oppressive Black Codes to limit the rights of African Americans
Q: Civil Rights Act
Answer: in 1866, Congress passed this act granting citizenship to African Americans and guaranteeing African American men the same rights as white men (14th Amendment)
Q: 13th Amendment
Answer: abolished slavery
Q: 14th Amendment
Answer: upheld the provisions of the Civil Rights Act
Q: 15th Amendment
Answer: in 1870, granted African American men the right to vote.
Q: Reconstruction Acts
Answer: in 1867, a Republican-led Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, placing former Confederate states under the control of the US Army, effectively declaring martial law.
Q: Freedmen’s Bureau
Answer: tasked with assisting freed slaves (and poor whites) in the South.
Q: Oppressive Social Structure
Answer: Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in the South
Q: Plessy v. Ferguson
Answer: In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson when a mixed-race man, Homer Plessy, was forced off a whites-only train car. When Plessy challenged the law, the Court held that segregation was, indeed, constitutional; according to the Court, separate but equal did still ensure equality under the law.
Q: Booker T. Washington
Answer: Washington believed in gradual desegregation and vocational education for African Americans, providing it at his Tuskegee Institute.
Q: W.E.B. DuBois
Answer: DuBois favored immediate desegregation and believed African Americans should aim for higher education and leadership positions in society. Supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Q: Great Migration
Answer: Many blacks fled the South for greater opportunities in the North, in cities, and farther West, as part of a greater demographic movement.
Q: Compromise of 1877
Answer: Resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876, granting Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency, and removed troops from the South.
Q: Chinese Immigrants
Answer: In the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants came in large numbers to California, in search of gold but arriving to racial discrimination instead.
Q: Clipper Ships
Answer: The US was opening up trade with East Asia, thanks to clipper ships that made journeys across the Pacific Ocean faster and easier.
Q: Commodore Matthew Perry
Answer: Earlier in 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry had used “gunboat diplomacy” to force trade agreements with Japan.
Q: Treaty of Wangxia
Answer: Early trade agreement between the United States and the Qing Dynasty China.
Q: Homestead Act of 1862
Answer: Granted 160 acres of land in the West to any settler who promised to settle and work it for a number of years.
Q: Sand Creek Massacre
Answer: In Colorado 1864, when US troops ambushed Cheyenne and Arapaho people, triggered even more violence.
Q: Reservation System
Answer: The United States came to an agreement with the Sioux (Sue) in South Dakota, offering them land as part of the burgeoning reservation system.
Q: Great Sioux Reservation
Answer: Late nineteenth century, gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota on the Great Sioux Reservation. The US reneged n its promise, encouraging exploration and seeking control over that gold.
Q: Sioux Wars
Answer: The results of the US wanted the gold on the Sioux Reservation climaxed and in 1876 the Battle of Little Big Horn occurred. The General was George Custer. While the US was defeated in that battle, reinforcements would later defeat the Sioux and the reservation systems continued.
Q: Ghost Dance Movement
Answer: United Plains tribes in a spiritual movement and in the belief that whites would eventually be driven from the land.
Q: Wounded Knee & Sitting Bull
Answer: In 1890, the military forced the Sioux to cease the Ghost Dance ritual; the outcome was a massacre at Wounded Knee and the death of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull.
Q: Dawes Act
Answer: In 1887, the Dawes Act ended federal recognition of tribes, withdrew tribal land rights, and forced the sale of reservations-tribal land.
Q: Second Industrial Revolution
Answer: Begun on the global level with textile production in Great Britain, had been fueled in great part by supplies of Southern cotton, and was evolving in the United States with the development of heavy industry-what would come to be called the Second Industrial Revolution.
Q: Gilded Age
Answer: An era of rapidly growing income inequality, justified by theories like Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth.
Q: Gospel of Wealth
Answer: Argued that the wealthy had been made rich by God and were socially more deserving of it.
Q: Westward Expansion during the Industrial Revolution
Answer: Westward expansion required railroads; railroads required steel, and industrial production required oil: all these commodities spurred the rise of powerful companies like John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and Andrew Carnegie’s US Steel.
Q: Monopolies
Answer: Let the same business leaders control the market for their own products.
Q: Trusts
Answer: Business leaders in varying industries (monopolies) organized into trusts, ensuring their control over each other’s industries, buying and selling from each other, and resulting in the control of the economy by a select few.
Q: Vertical Integration
Answer: One company would dominate each step in manufacturing a good, from obtaining raw materials to shipping finished product.
Q: Horizontal Integration
Answer: The process of companies acquiring their competition, monopolizing their markets.
Q: Capitalism
Answer: With limited governmental controls or interference in the economy, American capitalism- the free market system- was becoming dominated by the elite.
Q: Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
Answer: was to regulate the railroad industry
Q: Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Answer: was intended to break up monopolies and trusts, in order to allow for a fairer marketplace.Despite its intended purpose- to prosecute and dissolve large trusts and create a fairer market place-had actually been used against unions and farmers’ alliances (Under Roosevelt).
Q: New Imperialism
Answer: Described the US approach to nineteenth and early twentieth century imperialism as practiced by the European powers.
Q: Capitalist
Answer: spurred national economic and industrial growth
Q: Working class
Answer: comprised largely of poor European and Chinese immigrants working in factories and building infrastructure, suffering from dangerous working conditions and other abuses.
Q: Sharecropping
Answer: African AmericansMany worked the same land for the same landowners, leasing land and equipment at unreasonable rates, essentially trapped in the same conditions they had lived in before.
Q: Populist Party (People’s Party)
Answer: Formed in response to corruption and industrialization injurious (def: causing or likely to cause damage or harm) to farmers
Q: National Grange
Answer: Advocated for farmers
Q: Las Gorras Blancas
Answer: Disrupted the construction of railroads altogether in efforts to protect land from corporate interests.
Q: Silver Standard
Answer: Would inflate crop prices by putting more money into national circulation
Q: Greenback-Labor Party
Answer: Formed in an effort to introduce a silver standard.
Q: Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890
Answer: Allowed Treasury notes to be backed in both gold and silver.
Q: Panic of 1893
Answer: Political conflict and continuing economic troubles led to the Panic of 1893, the result of the silver standard and of the failure of a major railroad company.
Q: Grover Cleveland
Answer: who had never been in favor of the silver standard, asked Congress to repeal the Act.
Q: Colored Farmers’ Alliance
Answer: Formed to support sharecroppers and other African American farmers in the South.
Q: Labor Movement
Answer: Emerged to support mistreated industrial workers in urban areas
Q: Samuel Gompers & AFL
Answer: Samuel Gompers led the American Federation of Labor, using strikes and collective bargaining to gain protections for the unskilled workers who had come to cities seeking industrial jobs.
Q: Knights of Labor
Answer: further empowered workers by integrating unskilled workers into action
Q: Mother Jones
Answer: revolutionized labor by including women, children, and African Americans into labor actions.
Q: Socialism
Answer: The philosophy developed in Europe that the workers should own the means of production and that wealth should be distributed equally, taking into account strong economic planning.
Q: Utopianism
Answer: Adherents conceptualized establishing utopian settlements with egalitarian societies.
Q: Social Gospel
Answer: The notion that it was society’s obligation to ensure better treatment for workers and immigrants.
Q: Progressive Movement
Answer: Women activists also aligned with labor and the emerging progressive movement.
Q: America’s Twenty-Six President
Answer: Progressive Leader – Theodore Roosevelt – 1901
Q: Trust-Buster
Answer: Roosevelt enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act and prosecuted the Northern Securities railroad monopoly under the Interstate Commerce Act, breaking up trusts and creating a fairer market.
Q: Square Deal
Answer: He led government involvement in negotiations between unions and industrial powers, developing the square deal for fairer treatment of workers.
Q: Spanish-American War (1898-1901)
Answer: Roosevelt continued overseas expansion following McKinley’s Spanish-American War (1898-1901), in which the US gained control over Spanish territory in the Caribbean, Asia, and the South Pacific.US annexed: Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. They also took over the Panama Canal and Cuba became a US protectorate.
Q: Yellow Journalism
Answer: aroused popular concern and interest in intervention in Cuba.
Q: Teller Amendment
Answer: Cuba would revert to independence following the war. The US signed a peace treaty with Spain in 1898. As a result, it controlled Puerto Rico and Guam.
Q: Platt Amendment
Answer: Despite having promised independence to the Philippines, McKinley elected to keep it, under the Platt Amendment, the United States effectively took over Cuba despite previous promises of independence.
Q: Roosevelt Corollary
Answer: The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which promised US intervention in Latin America in case of European intervention there, essentially gave the US total dominance over Latin America.
Q: Hay Pauncefote Treaty
Answer: Great Britain granted its claims to the area that would become the Panama Canal to the US as Columbia refused to recognize the treaty, President Roosevelt engineered a revolution, creating the new country of Panama, and beginning construction of the canal.
Q: Panic of 1907
Answer: Banks restricting credit and over speculating on the value of land and interests, coupled with a conservative gold standard led to the Panic of 1907.
Q: Federal Reserve Act 1913
Answer: To stabilize the economy and rein in the banks, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 to protect the banking system. Federal Reserve banks were established to cover twelve regions of the country; commercial banks had to take part in the system, allowing “the Fed” to control interest rates and avoid a similar crisis.
Q: Interventionists
Answer: Believed in spreading US-style democracy
Q: Isolationists
Answer: believed in focusing on development at home.
Q: Submarine Warfare
Answer: u-boats in the Atlantic ocean
Q: Lusitania
Answer: the sinking of the Lusitania, which resulted in many American civilian deaths
Q: Zimmerman Telegram
Answer: Germany promised to help Mexico in an attack on the US
Q: nationalism
Answer: pride in and identification with one’s country
Q: United States Enters World War I
Answer: December 7, 1917
Q: President Woodrow Wilson
Answer: played an important role in negotiating the peace
Q: Wilson’s Fourteen Points
Answer: laid out an idealistic international vision, including an international security organization
Q: Treaty of Versailles
Answer: European powers negotiated and won the hard Treaty of Versailles, which placed the blame for the war entirely on Germany and demanded crippling reparations from it.
Q: League of Nations
Answer: A collective security organization, was formed, but a divided US Congress refused to ratify the Treaty, so the US did not join it.
Q: Stimson Doctrine
Answer: Determined United States neutrality in Asia
Q: Neutrality Acts of 1930s
Answer: Congress passed the neutrality acts of 1930s in face of conflict in Asia and ongoing tensions in Europe.
Q: Red Scare
Answer: Fear of homegrown radicals-particularly of communists and anarchists- and xenophobia against immigrants led to the Red scare in 1919 and a series of anti-immigration laws
Q: J. Edgar Hoover
Answer: lead a series of raids (the Palmer Raids) on suspected radicals, precipitating the hysteria of the Red Scare.
Q: Emergency Quota Act & National Origins Act
Answer: In response to widespread xenophobia and a sentiment of isolationism following the First World War, Congress limited immigration specifically from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe with the racist Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and National Origins Act of 1924.
Q: Marcus Garvey
Answer: Believed in self-sufficiency for blacks, who were settling in urban areas and facing racial discrimination and isolation.
Q: United Negro Improvement Association
Answer: Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association would go on to inspire movements like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam; however, those radical philosophies of separation were at odds with the NAACP, which believed in integration.
Q: Lynchings
Answer: African Americans were kidnapped and killed by the Ku Klux Klan
Q: Harlem Renaissance
Answer: The development and popularity of African American-dominated music (especially jazz), literature, and art, was extremely popular nationwide and contributed to the development of American pop culture.
Q: 19th Amendment
Answer: Giving all women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920.
Q: Roaring Twenties
Answer: A seemingly trouble-free period of isolation from chaotic world events, would come to an end
Q: Laissez-Faire
Answer: Government sponsored laissez-faire policiesDef: a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering.
Q: Manufacturing
Answer: flooding markets with cheap consumer goods.
Q: Credit
Answer: While mass-production helped the emerging middle class afford more consumer goods and improve their living standards, many families resorted to credit to fuel consumer spending.
Q: Over speculation
Answer: risky consumer loans on crops and the value of farmland
Q: Great Depression
Answer: Over speculation on crops and the value of farmland, and weak banking protections helped bring about the Great Depression
Q: Black Tuesday
Answer: October 29, 1929, aka the day the stock market collapsed. The start of the Great Depression
Q: President during the Great Depression
Answer: Herbert Hoover
Q: American’s 32nd President
Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt-First elected in 1932- New Deal
Q: New Deal
Answer: a plan to bring the country out of the Depression
Q: First Hundred Days of FDR’s Administration
Answer: a series of emergency acts, known as the alphabet soup of acts due to their many acronyms, was passed for the immediate repair of the banking system.
Q: Glass-Steagal Act
Answer: Established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to insure customer deposits in the wake of bank failures.
Q: FDIC
Answer: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Q: SEC
Answer: Securities and Exchange Commission
Q: Securities and Exchange Commission
Answer: To monitor stock trading, it also has the power to punish violators to the law.
Q: Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Answer: To address the efforts of over speculation on land, the AAA reduced farm prices by subsidizing farmers to reduce production of commodities.
Q: Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)
Answer: Refinanced mortgages to protect homeowners from losing their homes
Q: Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Answer: created for the long term to insure low-cost mortgages
Q: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Answer: The first large-scale attempt at regional public planning; despite being part of the First Hundred Days, it was a long-term project. It was intended to create jobs and bring electricity to the impoverished, rural inhabitants of the Tennessee Valley area, one of its true objectives was to accurately measure the cost of electric power, which had been supplied by private companies. The TVA was the first public power company.
Q: Federal Emergency Relief Act
Answer: The federal government allotted aid to states to be distributed directly to the poor through the Federal Emergency Relief Act.
Q: Public Works Administration (PWA)
Answer: The federal government distributed funding to states through the PWA for the purpose of developing infrastructure and to provide construction jobs for the unemployed.
Q: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Answer: offered employment in environmental conservation and management projects.
Q: Second New Deal
Answer: During the Second New Deal, the Works Progress Administration was established.
Q: Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Answer: The WPA was a long-term project that generated construction jobs and built infrastructure throughout the country.
Q: Federal Writers’ Project and Federal Act Project
Answer: Created jobs for writers and artists, who wrote histories, create guidebooks, developed public art for public buildings, and made other contributions.
Q: Wagner Act
Answer: Ensured the right to unionize and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Q: National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Answer: Strengthening unions guaranteed collective bargaining rights and protected workers.
Q: Neutrality Act of 1939
Answer: Allowed cash-and-carry arms sales to combat participants; in this way, the United States could militarily support its allies (Great Britain).
Q: Lend-Lease Act
Answer: To ally with and support Great Britain without technically declaring war on Germany, FDR convinced Congress to enact the Lend-Lease Act, directly supplying Britain with military aid, in place of cash-and-carry.
Q: Winston Churchill
Answer: British Prime Minister during WW2
Q: Atlantic Charter
Answer: FDR and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in response to the non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin to sign the Atlantic Charter, which laid out the anti-fascist agenda of free trade and self-determination.
Q: Pearl Harbor
Answer: After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US entered the war. (WW2)
Q: D-Day
Answer: On June 6, 1944, the US led the invasion of Normandy, invading German-controlled Europe.
Q: Battle of the Bulge
Answer: After months of fighting, following the deadly and drawn-out Battle of the Bulge when the Allies faced fierce German resistance, the Allies were able to enter Germany and end the war in Europe
Q: Navajo Code Talkers
Answer: The United States had been able to break the Japanese code; at the same time, Japan had been unable to crack US code thanks to the Navajo Code Talkers who used the Navajo language, which Japan was unable to decipher.
Q: Island Hopping
Answer: The US strategy of island hopping allowed it to take control of Japanese-held Pacific islands, proceeding closer to Japan itself despite kamikaze attacks on US ships.
Q: Kamikaze
Answer: Japanese fighter pilots intentionally crashed their planes into US ships
Q: President Harry Truman
Answer: Takes over following FDR’s death in 1945. Authorizes nuclear weapons for WW2.
Q: Nuclear Weapons
Answer: President Harry Truman authorized the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the only times that nuclear weapons have been used in conflict.
Q: End of World War II
Answer: The war ended with Japanese surrendering on September 2, 1945.
Q: United Nations
Answer: Formed in the wake of the Second World War, modeled after the failed League of Nations.
Q: Security Council
Answer: comprised of major world powers, with the power to militarily intervene for peacekeeping purposes in unstable global situations.
Q: Superpowers after WW2
Answer: With most of Europe destroyed, the victorious US and the Soviet Union emerged as the two global superpowers.
Q: Yalta Conference
Answer: In 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt had met at the Yalta Conference to determine the future of Europe.
Q: Marshall Plan
Answer: While the US-led Marshall Plan began a program to rebuild Europe, the USSR consolidated its presence and power in eastern European countries, forcing them to reject from the Marshall Plan
Q: Cold War
Answer: This division would destroy the alliance between the Soviets and the West, leading to the Cold War between the two superpowers and the emergence of bipolar world.
Q: McCarthy Era
Answer: Accusations of communist sympathies against public figures ran rampant during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s, reflecting domestic anxieties.
Q: Truman Doctrine
Answer: Stated that the US would support any country threatened by authoritarianism (communism).
Q: Korean War (1950-1953)
Answer: a conflict between the US and Soviet-backed North Korean forces, which ended in a stalemate.
Q: Containment
Answer: To contain Soviet (communist) expansion, defined US foreign policy
Q: Domino Theory
Answer: Once one country fell to communism, others would quickly follow
Q: Bay of Pigs
Answer: invasion in Cuba (1961), a failed effort to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro
Q: Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Answer: when Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba and military crisis was narrowly averted, both under the Administration of the popular President John F. Kennedy.
Q: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
Answer: Congress never formally declared war in Vietnam but gave the president authority to intervene militarily there through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Q: Vietnam War
Answer: Led to widespread domestic social unrest, which only increased with US deaths there, especially after the Vietnamese-led Tet Offensive (1968). The US ultimately withdrew from Vietnam and the North Vietnamese forces, or Viet Cong, led by Ho Chi Minh, took over the country.