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U.S. History – Exit Level Study Guide 11th Grade

Edited by Hans G. Friedel

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Important Themes in American History American Diversity | The diversity of the American people and the relationships among different groups. The roles of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the history of the United States. American Identity | Views of the American national character and ideas about American exceptionalism. Recognizing regional differences within the context of what it means to be an American. Culture | Diverse individual and collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and film throughout U.S. history. Popular culture and the dimensions of cultural conflict within American society. Demographic Changes | Changes in birth, marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size and density. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration, internal migration, and migration networks. Economic Transformations | Changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of capitalist development, labor and unions, and consumerism. Environment | Ideas about the consumption and conservation of natural resources. The impact of population growth, industrialization, pollution, and urban and suburban expansion. Globalization | Engagement with the rest of the world from the fifteenth century to the present: colonialism, mercantilism, global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, cultural exchange. Politics and Citizenship | Colonial and revolutionary legacies, American political traditions, growth of democracy, and the development of the modern state. Defining citizenship; struggles for civil rights. Reform | Diverse movements focusing on a broad range of issues, including antislavery, education, labor, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, war, public health, and government. Religion | The variety of religious beliefs and practices in America from prehistory to the twenty-first century; influence of religion on politics, economics, and society. Slavery and Its Legacies in North America | Systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree labor (e.g., indentured servitude, contract labor) in Native American societies, the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of slavery and its racial dimensions. Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic, political, and social effects of slavery. War and Diplomacy | Armed conflict from the precolonial period to the twenty-first century; impact of war on American foreign policy and on politics, economy, and society. (Source: Lincoln Nebraska Public Schools, 2012)

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How Historians Study the Past What Historians Do | History is more than just studying what happened in the past. When you study a historical event, you also study a society’s culture, religion, politics, and economics. Historians look for causes and effects that help to explain how and why events happened. They try to see the past through the eyes of the people who lived it. When they study the past, historians ask themselves questions. The answers to the questions help historians draw conclusions about the past. For example, historians ask questions such as how societies are similar and different. They also ask how leaders governed societies. HISTORICAL THEMES AND BIG IDEAS (Ask yourself the following)

Geography | Is your town or city near a lake, an ocean, or mountains? What is the weather like? How do the landscape and the weather affect the way you live? Culture | Have you ever met someone from another place—another country, another state, or another city? In what ways did that person act differently from you? In what ways did he or she act like you? Economics | Are you always able to buy all the things you want? How do you decide what to buy when you don’t have enough money for everything? Government | In your school, what would happen if every student could come to class at whatever time he or she wanted? Leave class whenever he or she wanted? Talk out loud anytime, even during tests? Belief Systems | When you were growing up, how did you learn what were the right and wrong ways of behaving? What people or groups taught you those things? Science & Technology | Think about a time when you wanted to share important news with a friend or relative who lived in another city or state. How did you share your news with them?

HISTORIAN’S TOOLS Primary Source | Something written or created by a person who witnessed a historical event Secondary Source | Something written after a historical event by a person who did not witness the event Oral History | All the unwritten verbal accounts of events Historians use evidence from primary, secondary, and oral sources to answer their questions. They have to choose what information is most important and trustworthy as evidence. Historical evidence is not always simple. Sometimes what historians thought to be true turns out to be false. Sometimes historians come to different conclusions using the same evidence.

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HOW TO RECOGNIZE BIAS Bias | Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Signs of Bias | Bias has tell-tale signs. Several of the common forms of bias include:

A strong point of view that may or may not include criticism of other perspectives.

Information can be easily distorted or made to show only one perspective. For example, this blog from a 2007 incident at a wedding in Gaza: "Hamas kills innocent Palestinians because they were singing."

This is a strong point of view about strong content: murder. Other perspectives are

missing, including ones based on reports that, while Hamas apparently broke up a wedding party because several Fatah leaders were in attendance. No one was killed. (Reuters, Jerusalem Post)

Strong, even unnecessary, language and use of words. Information that includes strong

sentiments often makes use of strong language or words chosen for a specific impact. For example: "A woman named Doris stood to ask the president [Obama] whether it was a "wise

decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package. "We are over-taxed as it is," Doris said bluntly. The response she got was simply silly, confusing liberal clap-trap. " Source: http://www.conservapedia.com/ 9 April 2010.

The language here is likely to have different effects depending on an individual's personal bias. If you have a liberal bias, this account reads like an attack on Obama. If you have a conservative bias, this account may sound pretty reasonable. If you are neither liberal nor conservative, the snippet may come across as an argument intended to provoke a response. "Simply silly" and "liberal clap-trap" are emotion-laden words chosen on purpose.

A specific or unique sense of style, presentation or content. Information with a unique

perspective or slant is moderately biased. It doesn't go so far as to be prejudicial or to become propaganda, but the author's point of view is neither balanced nor objective. For example, this passage from Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

"How You Can Help: Participate in tree octopus awareness marches. You can

demonstrate their plight during the march by having your friends dress up as tree octopuses while you attack them in a lumber jack costume."

The idea of parading around in costumes to depict the plight of the Tree Octopus seems more light-hearted than serious. Here the content is surprising. It just could be a joke.

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Detecting Bias | As you read, pay attention to words, pictures and emotions, but don't lose sight of the big picture. Speak the words outloud. Who do you imagine would be comfortable saying these words? Someone speaking fairly? Someone with a cause to promote? If the words or reasoning sounds odd or feels uncomfortable coming from your mouth, they could be biased. Watch for words like always, never, obviously and words that 'jump out at you.' A balanced point of view gives readers options. Biased points of view tend to have only one option: the one being presented. Biased points of view may include words that seem out of place. Pay attention to images. Biased arguments are often accompanied by pictures, charts, tables, etc. that support only one conclusion. Remember, a picture may be worth a thousand words. Is the picture real? Is it taken out of context? Is the information in the chart accurate? Be on the outlook for the author's purpose. Ask: why did the author write this? What point does the author want to make? Is the author trying to persuade readers to agree with a specific point of view? Three things you can do if you suspect bias

See who agrees or disagrees with the author. Use the link: command to get a list of pages that link to the author's page If it's a blog, check out other readers' comments

Use fact-checking to see if the information is accurate, exists elsewhere on the

Internet and who else uses it.

Don't believe everything you see or read. If the information seems biased or surprising, be skeptical.

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1. The Revolutionary Era

Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790)

was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading

author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician,

inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he

was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics

for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the

lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and a carriage odometer. He

facilitated many civic organizations, including a fire department and a university. As a writer, he

is known for Poor Richard's Almanac and his autobiography. He was the oldest figure of the

American Revolution. Franklin also was the only person to sign the three documents that

established the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the peace treaty with Britain

that ended the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution. He convinced France to help the

colonists during the American Revolution. He was also a member of the 2nd Continental

Congress.

Thomas Paine | Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 – June 8, 1809) was an

English-American political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary.

As the author of two highly influential pamphlets at the start of the American

Revolution, he inspired the Patriots in 1776 to declare independence from

Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment era rhetoric of transnational human

rights. He has been called "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession,

and a propagandist by inclination. He wrote the Pamphlet “Common Sense”

and argued that the colonists should separate from England.

George Washington | George Washing (February 22, 1732 – December

14, 1799) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States,

commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American

Revolutionary War, and the first President of the United States. He also

presided over the convention that drafted the Constitution, which replaced

the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution established the position of

President of the United States, which Washington was the first to hold.

Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)

was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the

Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United

States (1801–1809). At the beginning of the American Revolution, he

served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia and then served

as a wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781). Just after the war ended,

from mid-1784 Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris. In May

1785, he became the United States Minister to France.

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Causes of the American Revolution

The British taxed the colonies for revenue to pay for the French and Indian War

“No taxation without Representation!” – Colonists resented being taxed without

having a voice in British Parliament

Tax acts passed by the British included the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and Tea Act

The Boston Massacre

The Intolerable Acts

Declaration of Independence (1776) | It listed grievances against King George III and

justified the American colonies breaking away from England. It was adopted by the Continental

Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war

with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the

British Empire. Instead they now formed a new nation - the United States of America.

Unalienable Rights | Rights that cannot be taken away: life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness.

Loyalists | Americans who supported Great Britain during the revolution

Patriots | Americans who favored independence from Great Britain during the revolution

Boston Tea Party (1773) | The Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, took place when a

group of Massachusetts Patriots known as the Sons of Liberty, protesting the monopoly on

American tea importation recently granted by the British Parliament to the East India Company,

seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into Boston,

Massachusetts harbor.

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2. The Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

The Battle of Saratoga (1777) | The turning point in the American revolution. The French

entered the war as allies to the colonists. The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the

same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York (September 19 and October 7,

1777). The battles conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the

American War of Independence and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war.

The Battle of Yorktown (1781) | Major British defeat that effectively ended the war.

General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops,

began a siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis

and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia. It was the most important battle

of the Revolutionary War. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, it proved to be the last

major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in North America, as the surrender by

Cornwallis of his army prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Treat of Paris (1783) | The British formally recognize American independence.

3. The War of 1812

War of 1812 | In the War of 1812, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the

world, Great Britain, in a conflict that would have an

immense impact on the young country's future.

Causes of the war included British attempts to

restrict U.S. trade, the Royal Navy's impressment of

American seamen and America's desire to expand its

territory. The United States suffered many costly

defeats at the hands of British, Canadian and Native

American troops over the course of the War of 1812,

including the capture and burning of the nation's

capital, Washington, D.C., in August 1814.

Nonetheless, American troops were able to repulse

British invasions in New York, Baltimore and New

Orleans, boosting national confidence and fostering

a new spirit of patriotism. The ratification of the

Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815, ended the

war but left many of the most contentious questions

unresolved. Nonetheless, many in the United States

celebrated the War of 1812 as a "second war of

independence," beginning an era of partisan

agreement and national pride. It was during this

conflict that Francis Scott Key, while trapped aboard a British ship, penned the lyrics to our

national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

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4. The United States Constitution

INFLUENCES

Magna Carta (1215) | Limited the King of England’s powers; provided for a trial by jury.

English Bill of Rights (1687) | Influenced the Constitution by laying down limits on the

powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in

Parliament, the requirement to regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the

monarch without fear of retribution. It also outlawed cruel and unusual punishment. It

reestablished the liberty of people to bear arms for their defense within the rule of law. These

ideas about rights reflected those of the political thinker John Locke.

Virginia House of Burgesses | The first form of representative government in the colonies.

Thomas Jefferson was a member.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

Declaration of Independence (1776) | The Bill of rights and the Constitution addressed

grievances from the Declaration of independence. It also listed the unalienable rights: life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Articles of Confederation (1781) | First form of government established bythe 13

states. The United States Constitution replaced it because it was a weak form of central

government. Specific weaknesses included:

No executive branch to enforce laws

Congress could not collect taxes

No national court system

Each state only one vote in Congress, regardless of population

Federalist papers (1787 – 1788) | Were a series of essays written to encourage ratification

of the constitution. The authors included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.

IMPORTANT FACTS

1781 | Delegates from the 13 states drafted the United States Constitution. Ratification | Means to formally approve something. Before it could go into effect, the votes of 9 out of 13 states were needed to ratify the Constitution. Preamble to the Constitution (Introduction that states its purpose) | “We the people

of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic

tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the

blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for

the United States of America.”

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IMPORTANT IDEAS IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Separation of Powers | Divides the powers of government into three branches

1. Legislative Branch – Makes the laws

2. Executive Branch – Executes the laws

3. Judicial Branch – Interprets the laws

Checks and Balances | Make sure no branch of the government becomes too powerful. For

example, the President can veto a bill, Congress can impeach a president, and the Supreme

Court can rule a law unconstitutional.

Federalism | Power is shared between the state and national government

Limited Government | Power of the government is restricted by the U.S. Constitution.

“No one is above the law.”

Republicanism | A system where people vote for elected representatives to run the

government.

Popular Sovereignty | The people hold the ultimate power and are the source of the

government’s legitimacy, power, and authority. “We the people”.

Constitutional Republic | A republic form of government where powers are limited by law or

a formal constitution, and chosen by a vote amongst at least some sections of the populace.

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THE BILL OF RIGHTS

First 10 amendments to the Constitution

Protect individual rights and liberties

The Bill of Rights was necessary in order for some states to ratify the

Constitution

1st Amendment | Freedom of speech, religion and press; right to assemble; right to petition

2nd Amendment | Right to bear arms

3rd Amendment | No quartering of troops during peace time

4th Amendment | No unlawful search and seizure

5th Amendment | No double jeopardy, do not have to testify against yourself

6th Amendment | The right to a fast and public trial

7th Amendment | Trial by jury

8th Amendment | No cruel or unusual punishment

9th Amendment | Rights reserved to the people

10th Amendment | Powers reserved to the states

Full text of the Bill of Rights

Full text of the United States Constitution

The Founding Fathers

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5. The Civil War & Reconstruction (1861-1877)

Nullification Crisis | Argument between South Carolina and the federal government over the

role of the national government:

South Carolina opposed a high tariff (tax on imports) implemented by the

national government to promote American manufacturing over European

manufacturing

The tariff benefitted the industrial north while adversely affecting the Southern

states who depended on cheap imports that they themselves could not produce

South Carolina claimed that states had the right to reject (or nullify) any national

law that was to its disadvantage

The federal government disagreed and threatened military action

A compromise was reached through Kentucky Senator Henry Clay

Causes of the Civil War

Differences between the North and South over slavery, taxation, and states’

rights, particularly the right to own slaves in the South

Increased anti-slavery sentiment in the North and activities of abolitionists (those

who proposed ending slavery)

Abraham Lincoln was elected president

THE EVENTS THAT CAUSED THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (http://www.historynet.com/causes-of-the-civil-war, 2013) Introduction | The Northern and Southern sections of the United States developed along

different lines. The South remained a predominantly agrarian economy while the North became

more and more industrialized. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed. All of this

led to disagreements on issues such as taxes, tariffs and internal improvements as well as

states rights versus federal rights.

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Slavery | The burning issue that led to the disruption of the union, however, was the debate

over the future of slavery. That dispute led to secession, and secession brought about a war in

which the Northern and Western states and territories fought to preserve the Union, and the

South fought to establish Southern independence as a new confederation of states under its

own constitution.

The agrarian South utilized slaves to tend its large plantations and perform other duties. On the

eve of the Civil War, some 4 million Africans and their descendants toiled as slave laborers in

the South. Slavery was interwoven into the Southern economy even though only a relatively

small portion of the population actually owned slaves. Slaves could be rented or traded or sold

to pay debts. Ownership of more than a handful of slaves bestowed respect and contributed to

social position, and slaves, as the property of individuals and businesses, represented the

largest portion of the region’s personal and corporate wealth, as cotton and land prices declined

and the price of slaves soared.

The Dred Scott Decision | Dred Scott was a slave who sought citinzenship through the

American legal system, and whose case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court. The famous

Dred Scott Decision in 1857 denied his request stating that no person with African blood could

become a U.S. citizen. Besides denying citizenship for African-Americans, it also overturned the

Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted slavery in certain U.S. territories. Learn

more about Dred Scott

States’ Rights | States’ Rights refers to the struggle between the federal government and

individual states over political power. In the Civil War era, this struggle focused heavily on the

institution of slavery and whether the federal government had the right to regulate or even

abolish slavery within an individual state. The sides of this debate were largely drawn between

northern and southern states, thus widened the growing divide within the nation. Learn more

about States’ Rights.

Abolitionist Movement | By the early 1830s, those who wished to see that institution

abolished within the United States were becoming more strident and influential. They claimed

obedience to "higher law" over obedience to the Constitution’s guarantee that a fugitive from

one state would be considered a fugitive in all states. The fugitive slave act along with the

publishing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped expand the support for

abolishing slavery nationwide. Learn more about the Abolitionist Movement.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel

Uncle Tom’s Cabins was published in serial form in an antislavery newspaper in 1851. Within

two years it was a nationwide and worldwide bestseller. Depicting the evils of slavery, it offered

a vision of slavery that few in the nation had seen before. The book succeeded at its goal,

which was to start a wave of anti-slavery sentiment across the nation. Upon meeting Stowe,

President Lincoln remarked, "So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this

great war." Learn more about Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Toms Cabin

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The Underground Railroad | Some abolitionists actively helped runaway slaves to escape via

"the Underground Railroad," and there were instances in which men, even lawmen, sent to

retrieve runaways were attacked and beaten by abolitionist mobs. To the slave holding states,

this meant Northerners wanted to choose which parts of the Constitution they would enforce,

while expecting the South to honor the entire document. The most famous activist of the

underground railroad was Harriet Tubman, a nurse and spy in the Civil War and known as the

Moses of her people.

The Missouri Compromise | Additional territories gained from the U.S.–Mexican War of

1846–1848 heightened the slavery debate. Abolitionists fought to have slavery declared illegal

in those territories, as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had done in the territory that became

the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Advocates of slavery feared that if

the institution were prohibited in any states carved out of the new territories the political power

of slaveholding states would be diminished, possibly to the point of slavery being outlawed

everywhere within the United States. Pro- and anti-slavery groups rushed to populate the new

territories.

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John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) | Brown

was an American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection

was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the

United States. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the

federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture.

Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of

death by hanging.

The Raid On Harper’s Ferry | On the night of October 16,

1859, Brown and a band of followers seized the federal

arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in what

is believed to have been an attempt to arm a slave

insurrection. They were dislodged by a force of U.S. Marines

led by Army lieutenant colonel Robert E. Lee. Brown was

swiftly tried for treason against Virginia and hanged. Southern reaction initially was that his acts

were those of a mad fanatic, of little consequence. But when Northern abolitionists made a

martyr of him, Southerners came to believe this was proof the North intended to wage war

against white Southerners. Brown’s raid became a step on the road to war.

The Election Of Abraham Lincoln | When the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won

the 1859 presidential election, Southern fears that the Republicans would abolish slavery

reached a new peak. Lincoln was an avowed opponent of the expansion of slavery but said he

would not interfere with it where it existed.

Southern Secession | Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North

Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia seceded from the Union and formed

the Confederate States of America.

Confederate Attack on Fort Sumter | On April 10, 1861, knowing that resupplies were on

their way from the North to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston,

South Carolina, provisional Confederate forces in Charleston demanded the fort’s surrender.

The fort’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. On April 12, the Confederates opened

fire with cannons.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) | Lincoln was the 16th President

of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He was the

first Republican President and his election encouraged the South to secede

from the Union. Lincoln successfully led the United States through one of its

greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises—the American Civil War—

preserving the Union. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln

was mostly self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party

leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of

the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s.

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Emancipation Proclamation (1863) | Was an order issued to all segments of the Executive

branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States by President Abraham Lincoln on

January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. It was based on the president's constitutional

authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. It

proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be forever free.

Gettysburg Address | It was a speech given by Lincoln after the battle of Gettysburg.

KEY GENERALS OF THE CIVIL WAR

The Union (North):

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) | was the 18th

President of the United States (1869–1877) following his highly successful

role as a war general in the second half of the Civil War. Under Grant, the

Union Army defeated the Confederate military; having effectively ended the

war and secession with the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at

Appomattox. As president he led the Radical Republicans in their effort to

eliminate Confederate nationalism and slavery.

William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) | Sherman was an

American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General

in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), for which he

received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well

as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he

implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. Some

declared that Sherman was "the first modern general".

The Confederates (South):

Robert E. Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) |was an American career military

officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of

Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. He is best known for his victories

in the Battle of second Manassas (second Bull Run), and the Battle of

Chancellorsville. Named General-In-Chief of all Confederate Armies on

February 6, 1865, his tenure in this position was cut short by his surrender to

General Grant at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) | Jackson

was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and one of the best-known

Confederate commanders after General Robert E. Lee.

Civil War (1861-1865) | War between the North (The Union) and South (Confederate States

of America)

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IMPORTANT BATTLES OF THE CIVIL WAR

The First Battle of Bull Run (1861) | On July 21, 1861, Union and Confederate armies

clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, in the first major land battle of the American Civil

War. It was a Confederate victory that gave the South a surge of confidence and shocked many

in the North, who realized the war would not be won as easily as they had hoped.

Shiloh (1862) | Just as Northerners were shocked into reality by the First Battle of Bull Run,

so too were Southerners by the Battle of Shiloh. In April 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant

engaged Confederate forces at Shiloh, Tennessee, in an incredibly bloody battle. Tens of

thousands of men died. By the end of the bloodbath, Grant had won and demonstrated to the

Confederates that Lincoln was serious about maintaining the Union.

Antietam (1862) | Lee made an aggressive push into the border states to try to defeat the

Union on its own turf. In September 1862, Lee’s army met General George McClellan’s troops at

the Battle of Antietam, which resulted in more than 23,000 casualties—the bloodiest single day

of battle of the entire war. Lee was forced to retreat back to Confederate territory.

The War at Sea | While the armies battled on land, the Union and Confederate navies clashed

on the high seas. At the very beginning of the war, Lincoln bypassed Congress and ordered a

naval blockade of all Southern ports. The South’s economy relied almost entirely on cotton

trade with Britain, so Lincoln hoped the blockade would strangle the Confederacy financially.

The Confederate navy, though small, proved a formidable adversary.

Gettysburg (1863) | Undaunted by his failure at Antietam, Lee marched into Northern

territory again in the summer of 1863, this time into Pennsylvania. There, he met Union forces

at the Battle of Gettysburg in early July. At the end of a bloody three-day struggle in which

more than 50,000 died, Lee was once again forced to retreat. The battle was a resounding

victory for the North and a catastrophe for the South.

Vicksburg (1863) | At the same time Lee was losing in the North, Grant was besieging the

city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the West. Eventually, the trapped Confederates caved in to

Grant’s demand for an unconditional surrender. This major victory at the Battle of Vicksburg

gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and thus split the Confederacy in half.

Union Victory at Appomattox (1865) | In April 1865, Ulysses S. Grant’s forces broke

through Robert E. Lee’s defenses and forced the Confederates to retreat. The Confederate

forces burned their capital city, Richmond, behind them as they retreated in order to render it

useless to the Union armies. His men malnourished and heavily outgunned, Lee chose to

surrender. Several days later, on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant formally and

unconditionally at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Grant accepted the surrender and provided

the Southerners food for their march home. Jefferson Davis and other ranking Confederates,

meanwhile, had been captured fleeing Virginia. The Civil War was over.

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Lee surrenders to Grant at

Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia

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RESULTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse and the South loses the war

Lincoln was assassinated five days after the war

The Southern economy was devastated while the Northern economy became

stronger than before the war

Reconstruction began

RECONSTRUCTION

Reconstruction (1865-1877) | The period after the Civil War in the U.S. when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union.

CIVIL WAR/RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTS

13th Amendment | Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except for a

crime

14th Amendment | Made former slaves citizens, gave equal protection under

the law for all citizens

15th Amendment | African-American males were given the right to vote

19TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS Steam Engine | In 1781 James Watt patented a steam engine that produced continuous rotative motion. These 10hp engines enabled a wide range of manufacturing machinery to be powered. The engines could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuel could be obtained. By 1883, engines that could provide 10,000 hp were feasible. Steam engines could also be applied to vehicles such as traction engines and the railway locomotives. Steam engines powered locomotives (trains) and steam ships. The stationary steam engine was an important component of the Industrial Revolution, overcoming the limitations imposed by shortage of sites suitable for water mill and allowing factories to locate where water power was unavailable. Rifles | Rifling is the cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of a firearm's barrel to improve range and accuracy. The first American military rifl to be mass-produced was the 1861 Springfield Rifled Percussion Musket. The average soldier could load and accurately fire the long-arm three times per minute. The development of a conical projectile that was smaller than the gun barrel, but expanded when fired to meet the gun's rifling made the weapons easier to load. Over one million Springfields were produced from 1861-1873. References Sparknotes. (2013). The Civil War. Available from

http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/civilwar/section7.rhtml

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6. Westward Expansion

Manifest Destiny | The belief that America had the God-given right and duty to expand

across the continent: ”From sea to Shining Sea.”

California Gold Rush (1849) | After gold was discovered in California, over 40,000

people migrated from the East to “strike it rich.”

Great Plains | Grassland of Central North America that extends from the Mississippi River

to the Rocky Mountains.

Homestead Act (1862) | Was a law that provided 160 acres to anyone who was willing to

settle land in the west.

Cattle Drives | As a demand for beef increased, cowboys drove herds of cattle along trails

to be shipped to the east by railroad. Famous trails include the Chisholm, Western, and

Goodnight-Loving.

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TECHNOLOGY OF THE GREAT PLAINS

Sod home or “soddy” | A house built of mud and grass what was settled in because of a lace

of wood on the Great Plains.

Barbed Wire | Used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the

open frontier.

Windpump | Allowed dry arming by bringing up underground water to irrigate crops on the

Great Plains. They are often called windmills.

Steel Plow | It was a farm machine perfected by John Deer that

allowed the plains settlers to break up the tough plains soils for

agriculture.

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NATIVE AMERICANS AND A WAY OF LIFE

Buffalo | The Great Plains Indians relied on the Buffalo to continue their way of life. When the

buffalo were killed off, so was the lifestyle of the Plains Indians.

Reservations | Plots of land given to Native Americans to live on as white settlers moved

west. They are managed by Native American tribes under the United States Department of the

Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are about 310 Indian reservations in the United States.

Many tribes ignored the relocation orders at first and were forced onto their limited land

parcels. Enforcement of the policy required the United States Army to restrict the movements of

various tribes. The pursuit of tribes in order to force them back onto reservations led to a

number of Native American massacres and some wars including the Sioux Wars on the northern

Great Plains, between 1876 and 1881, which included the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Dawes Act (1887) | U.S. law that attempted to assimilate Indians by giving them individual

plots of land. It authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and

divide it into allotments for individual Indians.

Battle of Wounded Knee | U.S. soldiers massacred 300 unarmed Native Americans in 1890.

This ended the Indian Wars.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

Laura Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) | She

was an American author who wrote the Little House on the Prairie series of

books based on her childhood in a pioneer family. Laura's daughter, Rose,

inspired Laura to write her books. Wilder was five times one of the runners-up

for the annual Newbery Medal, the premier ALA book award for children's

literature.

Sod House

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7. The Gilded Age (1877-1900)

OVERVIEW

Gilded Age | In United States history, the Gilded Age was the period following the Civil War,

roughly from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the turn of the twentieth century. The term

was coined by writers Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in The Gilded Age: A Tale of

Today, satirizing what they believed to be an era of serious social problems hidden by a thin

layer of gold. The Gilded Age was a time of enormous growth that attracted millions from

Europe. Railroads were the major industry, but the factory system, mining, and labor unions

also gained in importance. The growth was interrupted by major nationwide depressions known

as the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893. Most of the growth and prosperity came in only the

former Union states of North and West. The South remained economically devastated; its

economy became increasingly tied to cotton and tobacco production, which suffered low prices.

African Americans in the south experienced the worst setbacks, as they were stripped of

political power and voting rights. The dominant issues were rights for Black Americans, tariff

policy and monetary policy. Reformers worked for civil service reform, prohibition and women's

suffrage, while philanthropists built colleges and hospitals, and the many religious

denominations exerted a major sway in everyday life.

BUSINESS DURING THE GILDED AGE

Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) | Carnegie

was Scottish-American industrialist business tycoon and philanthropist who

controlled most of the steel industry. Known as the “Captain of Industry” and

a”robber baron.” Carnegie wrote “The Gospel of Wealth”

John D. Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) | Rockefeller was an

American industrialist business tycoon and philanthropist who owned Standard

Oil and controlled 90% of the oil industry in the late 1800s. He controlled the

industry by making Standard Oil a trust.

Monopolies | Situation in which one company controls an entire industry

Trusts | Small companies join together to form one large company.

Laissez-Faire | The idea that government should not interfere with business practices.

Social Darwinism | The belief that the rich succeed because they are superior to the poor.

This belief was applied to big business during the Gilded Age.

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REACTION TO BIG BUSINESS

Sherman Antitrust Act | Outlawed business monopolies, but was not very effective at limiting

the power of big business.

Labor Unions | Organizations that protected the interests of the worker. They created the 40-

hour work week and dealt with dangerous working conditions. They also organized

strikes.Famoius labor unions included Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor. Their

activity today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for

their membership, and on representing their members in disputes with management over

violations of contract provisions.

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND URBANIZATION

Industrialization | The rise of a manufacturing economy and decline of an agriculture

economy.

Bessemer Process | was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of

steel from molten iron prior to the open hearth furnace. The process is named after its inventor,

Henry Bessemer.

Urbanization | The large growth of cities. With urbanization came a large range of urban

problems including sanitation, transportation, and crowded living conditions.

Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) | She was the founder of Hull House

in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world

peace. She was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era and helped turn

the nation to issues of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, public health, and

world peace. Addams became a role model for middle-class women who volunteered to uplift

their communities. She became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Settlement Houses | Community centers that helped immigrants address the problems of

horrible living conditions, disease, illiteracy, and unemployment.

Tenements | Apartments built in city slums to house large numbers of people. Many

immigrants were forced to live in these “slum” neighborhoods.

Sweat Shops | A small factory where workers were paid low wages in bad working conditions.

Immigrants were considered cheap labor.

Child Labor | This was a major problem during the Gilded Age.

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POLITICS DURING THE GILDED AGE

Populism | A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their

struggle against the privileged elite. Based among poor, white cotton farmers in the South

(especially North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas) and hard-pressed wheat farmers in the plains

states (especially Kansas and Nebraska), it represented a radical crusading form of agrarianism

and hostility to banks, railroads, and elites generally. It sometimes formed coalitions with labor

unions, and in 1896 the Democrats endorsed their presidential nominee, William Jennings

Bryan. The terms "populist" and "populism" are commonly used for anti-elitist appeals in

opposition to established interests and mainstream parties. Populists wanted:

Government ownership of railroads

Lower protect tariffs on industrial goods

Silver-backed as opposed to gold-backed currency to cause inflation

High Voter Turnout | The Gilded Age was marked by high voter turnout.

Political Machines | Corrupt organized groups that controlled political parties in cities. A boss

led the machine and attempted to grab more votes for their party.

Tweed Ring Scandal | Political scandal involving

“Boss” William Marcy Tweed and the Tammany Hall

machine in New York City. It was the Democratic Party

political machine that played a major role in controlling

New York City and New York State politics and helped

immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American

politics from the 1790s to the 1960s.

Pendleton Service Act | Ensured that appointments

to government jobs were based upon merit and

qualifications. It was designed to prevent the “spoils

system” and patronage.

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Election of 1896 | Republicans nominated William McKinley while the Democrats joined with

the Populists in nominating William Jennings Bryan. Bryan gave the famous “Cross of Gold”

speech at the Democratic National Convention.

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify

mankind upon a cross of gold” William J. Bryan from the “Cross of Gold” speech.

Political Cartoons | The political cartoons of Thomas Nast raised awareness of political

corruption.

The Tammany Tiger Loose—"What are you going to do about it?", by Thomas Nast,

published in Harper's Weekly in November 1871, just before election day

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IMMIGRATION

About 20 million European immigrants arrived in

the U.S. between 1870 and 1920

Before 1890, most immigrants came from Western

and Northern Europe and were known as “Old

immigrants.”

An increase of Southern and Eastern immigrants

occurred after 1890 and were known as “New

Immigrants” and their arrival increased tensions

Most of these “New Immigrants” were

processed at Ellis Island

300,000 Chinese immigrants arrived between 1851

and 1883

Chinese Immigrants Work on the Railroad

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8. The Progressive Era (1890-1920)

GOALS OF PROGRESSIVISM

Progressivism |was a general political philosophy advocating or favoring gradual social,

political, and economic reform. Modern Progressivism emerged as part of a more general

response to the vast social changes brought by industrialization.

Protect social welfare

Create economic reform

Political reform of government

IMPORTANT TERMS

Muckraker | Reporters and writers who exposed corruption and the abuses of big business.

Suffrage | The right to vote

IMPORTANT LEGISLATION

16th Amendment |Established the federal income tax

17th Amendment | Established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The

amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators

were elected by state legislatures. Made government more responsive to the people.

18th Amendment | Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic

beverages (Prohibition)

19th Amendment | Established the right to vote for women.

Initiative | Procedure by which citizens can propse a law to be placed on a ballot.

Recall | Procedure by which a public official may be removed from office by popular vote.

Referendum | Procedure by which voters can vote for a proposed initiative on a ballot.

Prohibition | Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and

transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The dry movement was led by rural

Protestants in both political parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. The ban

was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set

down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were

prohibited. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal. Prohibition

ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth

Amendment, on December 5, 1933.

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The photographs of Jacob Riis raised awareness of

working and living conditions of immigrants in the factories and tenements

THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S IMPACT

Trustbuster | Term used to describe Roosevelt’s attempt to reform big business by breaking

up trusts.

Conservation | The preservation of wilderness areas.

Meat Inspection Act (1906) | Provided government inspection of meat.

Muckrakers | Roosevelt’s term for crusading journalists of the time period who sought to bring

about reform in American society, industry, and politics.

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) | Regulation of thepreparation of foods and the sale of

medicines.

Bull Moose Party | Roosevelt’s political party in the election of 1912. Roosevelt ran as a third-

party candidate.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) | She

was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role

in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's

suffrage into the United States.

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Robert LaFollette a.k.a. “Fighting Bob” (June 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) | Wisconsin

senator who helped reform government at the state level.

W.E.B. Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) | Early civil

rights leader and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement

of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. After graduating from Harvard, where he

was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of

history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. He demanded equality

for African Americans.

Eugene V. Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) | Labor leader who attempted

to form a labor union of skilled and unskilled workers. In 1912, he ran for President under the

Socialist Party as a third party candidate. He won 6% of the popular vote.

Upton Sinclair (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) | Sinclair was the author of

The Jungle, a book that described the terrible conditions of the meat packing industry and the

struggles of immigrants who worked at them. His book led to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure

Food and Drug Act.

Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) | He was

the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, and a leader of

the progressive movement. He passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, which

continued to crack down on monopolies. Wilson was the last president of the

Progressive Era.

“Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have

a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the

acid, one by one. Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those

who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time

again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man

pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss-

crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to

trace them. They would have no nails, – they had worn them off pulling

hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a

fan. There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of

steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of

tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every

hour. There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound

quarters into the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work, that began at

four o'clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in

a few years.” Excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle.

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9. U.S. Imperialism

INTRODUCTION Imperialism | The process of a stronger nation controlling a weaker territory through political, economic, and/or military means. American Imperialism | Is a term referring to the economic, military, and cultural influence of the United States on other countries. The concept of an American Empire was first popularized during the presidency of James K. Polk who led the United States into the Mexican–American War of 1846, and the eventual annexation of California and other western territories via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden purchase. Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) | He was a U.S. Admiral who encouraged the U.S. to strengthen its naval power to a become a world power. EXPANSIONISM Alaska | Purcahsed in 1867 from Russia. Alaska was known as “Seward’s Folly” and was initially considered a bad purchase. Hawaii | Purchased in 1898. Queen Liliuokalani was removed from power and Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898.

33

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR The Spanish–American War | began in April 1898, two months after the sinking. Advocates of the war used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!" Causes of the Spanish American War

Spanish Cruelty | Spain’s military abused power and mistreated Cubans.

Yellow Journalism | News that exaggerated the truth in order to get a

reaction. Key editors were William Randolph Hearst U.S. and Joseph Pulitzer.

De Lome Letter |Letter intercepted from a Spanish ambassador criticizing U.S.

President McKinley.

U.S.S. Maine | The Maine was a warship that blew up in Havana Harbor off the

coast of Cuba. The Spanish were blamed and war was declared.

Results of the Spanish American War Spain loses most of its empire

The Platt Amendment (1901) | allows the U.S. to control Cuba

The U.S. acquired the territories of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico

The U.S. increases its strength as a world power

“Remember the Maine”

became the popular

rallying cry for U.S.

intervention in Cuba

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TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND IMPERIALISM

Rough Riders | Volunteer cavalry unity led by Teddy

Roosevelt that gained fame at the battle of San Juan Hill in

Cuba

Roosevelt Corollary | Teddy Roosevelt declared that the

U.S. would act as an international police power in Latin

America. This was a later development of the Monroe

Doctrine.

Monroe Doctrine | Was a policy of the United States

introduced on December 2, 1823 named after President James Monroe. It stated that further

efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America

would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. The Doctrine was issued at

a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved

independence from the Spanish Empire (except Cuba and Puerto Rico) and the Portuguese

Empire. The United States, working in agreement with Britain, wanted to guarantee no

European power would move in.

Panama Canal (1914) | Man-made

waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to

the Pacific Ocean. Workers faced problems

with mosquito borne diseases and hazardous

working conditions.

Open Door Policy | Ensured that the U.S.

could trade with China. When the partition of

China by the European powers and Japan

seemed imminent, the United States felt its

commercial interests in China were

threatened. U.S. Secretary of State John Hay

sent notes to the major powers (France,

Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia),

asking them to declare formally that they

would uphold Chinese territorial and

administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their

spheres of influence in China. The open door policy stated that all European nations, and the

United States, could trade with China. In reply, each nation tried to evade Hay's request, taking

the position that it could not commit itself until the other nations had complied. However, by

July 1900, Hay announced that each of the powers had granted consent in principle.

Competition among the various powers for special concessions within China for railroad rights,

mining rights, loans, foreign trade ports, and so forth, continued unabated.

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10. World War I (1914-1918)

CAUSES OF WWI

Militarism | Nations built large armies to help them secure their empires.

Alliances | European nations signed treaties with each other that created a system of alliances.

Imperialism | Competition between European countries to create empires.

Nationalism | Strong feelings of pride for one’s country.

IMPORTANT DATES

1914 | WWI begins in Europe

1917 | The U.S. Enters WWI on the Allied side

1918 | The allies win WWI when Germany surrenders

Allied Powers Central Powers

Great Britain France

The United States Russia Serbia

German Austria-Hungary

The Ottoman Empire Bulgaria

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IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (18 December 1863 - 28 June 1914) |

Archduke of Austra-Hungary was assassinated by a Serbian in 1914. His murder

was one of the causes of WWI. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-

Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central Powers

(including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the Allies of World War I (countries

allied with Serbia or Serbia's allies) to declare war on each other, starting World War I.

Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) | Was President of

the U.S. during WWI. Wilson wanted to fight the war to “make the world safe for

democracy.”

General John Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) |

The commander of the American expeditionary force during WWI.

Under his leadership, American forces helped end the stalemate and led the Allies

to victory.

Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 – November 9, 1924) | U.S. Senator

who opposed the League of Nations. Lodge demanded Congressional control of

declarations of war; Wilson refused and the United States Senate never ratified

the Treaty of Versailles nor joined the League of Nations.

KEY TERMS

New weapons introduced during the war | Machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and airplanes

were introduced. Airplanes engaged in “dog fights” in the skies over Europe.

Trench Warfare | Opposing side’s attacked from the ditches instead of an open battlefield.

Stalemate | A situation where neither side could gain an advantage in combat.

Battle of Argonne Forest | The battle that led to the surrender of the Germany army and the

end of WWI.

Wilson’s Fourteen Points | President Wilson’s proposal for peace after WWI. Wilson called

for the freedom of the seas, ending secret treaties, a League of Nations, and other peaceful

measures.

League of Nations | International organization formed after WWI to help solve disputes

between countries. The U.S. did not join and it was considered a failure.

Treaty of Versailles | The treaty that officially ended WWI. It blamed Germany for WWI and

handed down harsh punishment. Germany was forced to pay reparations to the Allies for the

cost of the war. The treatment of Germany in the treaty helped lead to the rise of Adolph Hitler

and WWII.

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Sedition Act of 1918 | During WWI, the U.S. Government had stifled freedom of speech with

the Sedition Act of 1918 in an effort to silence anti-war protests.

REASONS FOR U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN WWI

Close ties with the Allies | Americans and British spoke the same language. We shared the

notion of democracy. Many Americans traced their ancestry to Great Britain.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare | German policy of sinking any ships in the water,

including merchant and passenger ships.

Sinking of the Lusitania (1915) | British passenger ship that was destroyed by a German

submarine. 128 Americans were killed.

Zimmerman Note | Telegram sent by Germany, proposing that Mexico ally itself with

Germany if the U.S. entered the war. In return, Mexico would receive land that it had lost to the

U.S. in the Mexican-American War.

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THE RED SCARE

After WWI, Americans became very fearful of radical political theories. The Communist

Revolution had occurred in Russia in 1917, and Americans were afraid communism might

spread in the United States. Workers were going on strike to protest the rising cost of living

after the war. After a series bombings, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchel Palmer led a series of

raids – Immigrants were blamed for the violence, and the Palmer Raids targets immigrants’

homes and businesses. Other examples of Nativism include the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial, anti-

immigration laws (Emergency Quota Act and National Origins Act), and the rise of the

“new KKK.”

Sacco and Vanzetti | Anarchists and Italian

immigrants accused of murder. They were sentenced to

death. Because of their political stance and nationality

they were not given a fair trial. After a controversial

trial and a series of appeals, the two Italian immigrants

were executed on August 23, 1927. Since their deaths,

critical opinion has overwhelmingly felt that the two

men were convicted largely on their anarchist political

beliefs and unjustly executed. In 1977, Massachusetts

Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried

and convicted and that "any disgrace should be forever removed from their names." The case is

still officially open.

WWI was the first war

that saw the use of tanks

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11. The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929)

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) |

Auto manufacturer who created the Model T and

began to mass produce the automobile. He used

the assembly line to speed up producton and

satisfy demand. This lowered prices and made

autos affordable to the average American.

William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 –

July 26, 1925) | The prosecutor in the Scopes

Trial. He supported creationism in school. He was

also famous e was also famous as the Populist and

Democratic presidential candidate in 1896 who gave the “Cross of Gold” speech that argued

against using the gold standard to back money.

Clarence Seward Darrow (April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) | Defended John Scopes

during the Scopes Trial. He argued that evolution should be taught in schools.

Charles Lindbergh | American pilot who made the first non-

stop flight across the Atlantic.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (September 24,

1896 – December 21, 1940) | was an

American author of novels and short

stories, whose works are the paradigm

writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined

himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of

the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost

Generation" of the 1920s. He is best remembered for writing the famouse

American novel, The Great Gatsby.

POLITICAL ISSUES

Red Scare | The fear that Communists were going to take over the U.S. It included the Palmer

Raid, the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial, and the rise of nativism.

Teapot Dome Scandal | The prime example of corruption during Warren G. Harding’s

Presidency; involved Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall leasing U.S. naval oil

reserves in Wyoming to private interests in exchange for bribes.

Ford Model T

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ECONOMIC ISSUES: REASONS FOR PROSPERITY OF THE 1920s

Government policies that favored big business (e.g. laissez-faire economics)

The growth of automobile industry

Efficient production techniques such as the assembly line

Mass media such as radio, film, and advertising led to a consumer culture

SOCIAL ISSUES OF THE 1920s

Women’s Issues in the 1920s Flappers | embraced the urban attitudes and fashions Women began to demand more freedom and assert

their independence However – a double standard between men and women

still existed 19th Amendment (1920) | Prohibits any U.S. citizen

to be denied the right to vote based on sex.

Prohibition | Reform movement that banned the sale and consumption of alcohol. It also increased organized crime.

18th Amendment (1920) | Prohibited the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages.

21st Amendment (1933) | Repealed the 18th Amendment and ended Prohibition.

The Scopes Trial (1925) | The famous “Monkey Trial” that pitted the teaching of creationism against Darwin’s theory of evolution in Tennessee public schools. The trial represented the clash between both science and fundamentalist religion and rural and urban Americans. John Scopes, a high school teacher was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach evolution in state-funded schools. The trial is perhaps best known for serving as the inspiration for the play, and later movie, Inherit the Wind. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.

CULTURAL ISSUES Jazz | Jazz is a popular musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in black communities in the Southern U.S. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. Famous jazz composers included Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. The Jazz Age was a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald to describe the 1920s The Great Migration | The mass migration of African-Americans to Northern cities from 1910 through both World Wars. They left the segregated south for industrial jobs in northern cities. The Harlem Renaissance | Period of African-American cultural creativity in music, art, and literature centered in Harlem, New York. Langston Hughes was a famous poet.

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12. The Great Depression (1929 - 1940)

OVERVIEW The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930s or middle 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world's economy can decline. The depression originated in the U.S., after the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday).

The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as cash cropping, mining and logging suffered the most. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. In many countries, the negative effects of the Great

Depression lasted until the end of World War II. CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Decline in world trade

High protective tariffs

Overproduction of consumer

goods

Buying stock on margin

(borrowing) and market

speculation for quick profit

Very unequal distribution of

wealth

Decline in agriculture prices

Severe drought in the southern

plains (dust bowl)

Stock Market Crash of 1929 (“Black Tuesday)

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PRESIDENTS

Herbert Hoover (President from 1929-1933) | President when the Great

Depression began. Hoover is criticized for allowing the Depression to continue.

He was defeated when voters looked to the federal government for help.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (President from 1933 -1945) | Defeated Hoover in

1932. Implemented the New Deal to help with the Great Depression. He gave

fireside chats on the radio to communicate with the American public.

LIFE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Unemployment | Unemployment rose as high as 25% during the Great Depression

“Hoovervilles” | Was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the

Great Depression. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United

States during the onset of the Depression and widely blamed for it.

Bread lines and soup kitchens | Methods by which the needy could obtain food.

Dust Bowl | Term used to describe the area of the Great Plains where heavy droughts and had

dried up the farmland. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought combined with farming

methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, soil terracing and wind-

breaking trees to prevent wind erosion. Extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great

Plains in the preceding decade had displaced the

natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept

the soil in place and trapped moisture even

during periods of drought and high winds. Rapid

mechanization of farm implements, especially

small gasoline tractors and widespread use of

the combine harvester were significant in the

decisions to convert grassland (much of which

received no more than 10 inches (250 mm) of

precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland.

John Seinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath | Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses

on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought,

economic hardship, and changes in financial and agricultural industries. Due to their nearly

hopeless situation, and in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out

for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they sought jobs, land, dignity, and a

future.

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HOOVER’S PROGRAMS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) | Dam built on the Colorado

River near Las Vegas, Nevada to help stimulate business and

provide jobs.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) | Hoover’s

program to provide loans to struggling businesses.

ROOSEVELT’S NEW DEAL

The New Deal | Roosevelt’s program to fight the Great Depression. It was a series of

economic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved

presidential executive orders or laws passed by Congress during the first

term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to

the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief,

Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor;

Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial

system to prevent a repeat depression.

Fireside Chats | Roosevelt used the radio to speak to the American people and give them

hope and confidence.

FDR’s First “100 Days”| FDR was inaugurated on March 4, 1933. Two days later, he issued

a proclamation ordering the suspension of all banking transactions, in effect closing the banks for a "bank holiday." This step was made to stop bank runs in which people would panic and suddenly try to take all their money out of the bank. After closing the banks, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass legislation which would guarantee that savers would not lose their money if there was another financial crisis. Banks that passed an audit for fiscal health were allowed to re-open on March 9, 1933. Also, President Roosevelt frequently turned for help to what was called the Brain Trust, which was made up of individuals from outside of government including professors, lawyers, and others who came to Washington to advise him on economic affairs. Roosevelt liked to learn through listening to experts and then questioning them. In doing so, he became familiar with different points of view. He considered their input when making decisions.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) | Insurance for people’s bank accounts.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | Government agency that regulated stock

market.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) | Law that attempted to raise crop prices by lower

production.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) | Public works program that gave jobs to young men.

The workers planted trees, fought forest fires, and built public parks.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) | Created jobs by hiring writers and artists.

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Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) | Program that built dams in the Tennessee Valley area

in order to control flooding and provide electrical power.

Social Security Act | The most important act of the New Deal. Social Security provides

unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for familes.

FDR Battles the Supreme Court | The Supreme court had declared several New Deal

programs unconstitutional. FDR tried to add more members to the Supreme Court to pass his

programs. This was known as court packing.

HOW DID THE GREAT DEPRESSION END?

New Deal Influence | Each New Deal program had its own success. Some programs

regulated wages and prices, which helped most families buy things they needed, like food and

clothing. Others employed people as conservation workers, artists, writers, and laborers. Social

Security helped the elderly who could no longer work and whose savings were gone.

Most historians agree that though the New Deal programs helped alleviate some of the

problems during the Great Depression, they did not end the economic downturn; World War II

was really responsible for the change in the economy. WWII brought us out of the Great

Depression by creating jobs in industry and the military.

Civilian Conservation Corp Workers, 1930s

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13. World War II (1941-1945)

IMPORTANT DATES 1939 | Adolf Hitler invaded Poland beginning WWII. 1941 | Japan attacked Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. The United States entered the war as a result. 1945 | Germany was defeated to end the war in Europe. The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in the Pacific.

Allied Powers Axis Powers

Great Britain United States

Canada Soviet Union

France

Germany Italy Japan

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Franklin D. Roosevelt | President of the U.S. during WWII and declared war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He died while in office in 1945.

Harry S. Truman | President of the U.S. during the last months of WWII. He made the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan to end the war sooner and save U.S. service member lives.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower | U.S. General in Europe during WWII. He was in charge of the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day). He later served as the 34the President from 1953 until 1961.

General Douglas McArthur | U.S. General in charge of the Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean.

General George Patton | Outspoken U.S. General who led the U.S. Third Army and helped to liberate Paris.

General Omar Bradley | U.S. General who led the US 1st Army during the Invasion of Normandy.

General George Marshall | Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during WWII. He oversaw all the military operations in the War in Europe. After the war, he was responsible for the Marshall Plan to help rebuild war-ravished Europe after WWII.

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CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II The main causes of World War II were nationalistic tensions, unresolved issues, and resentments resulting from World War I and the interwar period in Europe, in addition to the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The culmination of events that led to the outbreak of war are generally understood to be the 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany and Soviet Russia and the 1937 invasion of the Republic of China by the Empire of Japan. These military aggressions were the result of decisions made by the authoritarian ruling Nazi elite in Germany and by the military leadership of Japan. World War II started after these aggressive actions were met with an official declaration of war and/or armed resistance. CAUSES OF WWII SUMMARY

Harsh treatment of Germany after WWI

The rise of dictators, fascism, extreme

nationalism, and totalitarianism in Europe and

Japan (Nazi Party in Germany)

Germany’s invasion of Poland

Germany’s aerial attacks on Great Britain

Japans’ invasion of China

Japans’ attack on Pearl Harbor

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) | On December 7th 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor forcing the U.S. to enter the war. Battle of Midway (1942) | Major turning point in the war in the Pacific. This pivotal battle dealt a severe blow to the Japanese Navy. Island Hopping | Allied naval strategy to reach Japan by taking one island at a time. Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)| Part of the island hopping

campaign and major battle in which the U.S. fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This month-long battle included some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.

The Atomic Bomb (1945) | Powerful weapon dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Harry Truman made the decision to drop the bomb in an effort to reduce American casualties. WWII ended as a result.

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THE WAR IN EUROPE Germany occupied and controlled most of Europe prior to the Allied invasion on D-Day. The Holocaust | The mass murder of 6 million Jews and others in Nazi concentration camps. Two-front War | Germany was forced to fight British and American troops from the West and Russian from the East. This divided Germany’s army in two and helped the Allies gain the advantage in Europe. Invasion of Normandy (D-Day, June 6th 1944) | General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allied invasion of Axis-controlled France across the English Channel. The landings, were part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II and the largest seaborne invasion in history. Battle of the Bulge (December, 1945) | Was the last major German offensive in Europe. German forces in a surprise attack pushed past U.S. forces through the forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, and France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. Soviets Occupy Berlin (1945) | The Soviets captured Berlin, German in Spring 1945. Hitler committed suicide rather than face capture and WWII ended in Europe. Many senior Nazis were convicted in the Nuremburg Trials of crimes against humanity for the holocaust and executed.

THE HOME FRONT

Entering WWII helped the U.S. end the Great Depression through massive wartime production.

Many new opportunities were created for women and minorities to enter the work force.

Rationing | restricting the supply of items used by the

public during wartime

Internment of Japanese Americans | Over 100,000

Japanese Americans were forced to relocate to crowded

prison camps were they were detained during WWII.

“Double V Campaign” | African-Americans continued to

face discrimination at home and pledged to fight for victory

over Hitler in Europe and an end to racism.

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14. Post-War America (1945-1974)

LIFE UNDER HARRY TRUMAN (1945 – 1952) GI Bill | A 1944 law that gave military veterans financial and education benefits. Taft-Hartley Act | Law passed in 1947 that struck a blow to the power of the labor unions. The bill overturned many rights won by unions under the New Deal. Among other things, it The outlawed closed shops which were contractual agreements that required an employer to hire only labor union members and put restrictions on strikes. Suburbanization | Many people moved to communities built on the outskirts of major cities known as suburbs. Levittown, New York was the first suburb community. The Baby Boom | The period from the end of WWII through mid-1960s was marked by unusually high birth rates. LIFE UNDER DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1953 - 1960)

Interstate Highway Act (1956) | Authorized the building of a national highway system. The new roads encouraged the development of suburbs away from the city. Rock N’ Roll | A form of music that became popular in the 1950s – sometimes seen as rebellion against the conformity of the decade.

LIFE UNDER JOHN F. KENNEDY (1961 – 1963) First Televised Presidential Debate | Kennedy and Richard Nixon were involved in the first televised debate durign the Election of 1960. Peace Corps | Kennedy’s program that addressed social and international concerns. National Aeronaotics and Space Administration (NASA) | The United States’ space agency that sent Americans into outer Space. In 1969, the U.S. landed the first man on the moon. Kennedy Assassination (November 22nd, 1963) | JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

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LIFE UNDER LYNDON B. JOHNSON (1963 – 1968) Great Society | LBJ’s program that addressed America’s social problems including health care, civil rights, and urban decay.

The War on Poverty | LBJ’s agenda designed to help poor American’s. This included the Head Start program and Job Corps Training. Medicare (1965) | Federal program that provides health insurance to American’s over the age of 65. Medicaid (1965) | Program that provides health insurance for people on welfare. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) | The federal department responsible for the major housing programs in the U.S.

Johnson’s Civil Rights Record | Civil rights was a focal point during the Johnson administration and many laws were passed during his Presidency including:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Made discrimination based on race, religion, or

national origin in public places illegal

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 | Eliminated literacy tests for voters

24th Amendment | Abolished the poll tax

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 | Prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of

housing

LIFE UNDER RICHARD NIXON (1969 – 1974) 26th Amendment | Gave voting rights to Americans 18 years and older, largely due to the fact that 18 year-olds were eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War. Nixon’s Trip to China | In 1972, Nixon visited China, a Communist nation, to open up diplomatic and economic relations. Many Americans saw the trip as successful. Watergate | The Watergate scandal was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, on August 9, 1974, the only resignation of a U.S. President. The scandal also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of 43 people, including dozens of Nixon's top administration officials. The investigative reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for the Washington Post in 1972 opened up the scandal. Watergate and the Teapot Dome scandal were the worst corruption scandals in U.S. Presidential history.

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15. The Cold War Era (1945-1975)

IMPORTANT TERMS AND EVENTS The Cold War |Often dated from 1947 to 1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States with NATO among its allies, and powers in the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union along with the Warsaw Pact. This began after the success of their temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences. The Cold War was so named because the two major powers—each possessing nuclear weapons and thereby threatened with mutual assured destruction—never met in direct military combat. Instead, in their struggle for global influence they engaged in ongoing psychological warfare and in regular indirect confrontations through proxy wars. Cycles of relative calm would be followed by high tension, which could have led to world war. The tensest times were during:

Berlin Blockade (1948–1949)

Korean War (1950–1953)

Suez Crisis (1956)

Berlin Crisis of 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

Vietnam War (1959–1975)

Yom Kippur War (1973)

Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989)

SOVIET UNION (U.S.S.R) AND COMMUNISM Communism | Is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order. This movement, in its Marxist–Leninist interpretations, significantly influenced the history of the 20th century, which saw intense rivalry between the "socialist world" (socialist states ruled by communist parties) and the "western world" (countries with capitalist economies).

Government owns all property

One political party

Government controls the economy and wealth is distributed equally

Command Economy | An economy in which economic decisions (supply, prices, etc.) are made by the government rather than by market forces (Cuba, Soviet Union)

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UNITED STATES AND FREE ENTERPRISE ECONOMY Capitalism | Is an economic system based on the private ownership of capital goods and the means of production, with the creation of goods and services for profit. Elements central to capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, and a price system. Free Enterprise | A system by which people can conduct business free of government control except for reasonable regulations made for the public good. Free enterprise advocates belief that the economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention.

Containment | The policy that the U.S. should prevent the Communism from spreading to other nations United Nations (1945) | International organization formed after WWII to serve as a peacekeeper in world conflicts. The U.S. and Soviet Union used the U.N. to promote their beliefs during the Cold War. Truman Doctrine (1947) | U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism. Marshall Plan (1948) | Program proposed by General George Marshall to help European countries rebuild after WWII. The U.S. offered economic aid to the war-torn countries. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1959) | A military alliance formed between the U.S., Canada, and ten western European countries. Warsaw Pact (1955 – 1991) | As a mutual defense treaty between eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. It was a response to NATO.

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Berlin Airlift (June 1948 – May 1949) | U.S. operation that flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet Union set up a blockade in 1948. Korean War (1950 – 1953) | The Korean War was between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), supported by the People's Republic of China. It was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean Peninsula was ruled by the Empire of Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of the Empire of Japan in September 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, with U.S. military forces occupying the southern half and Soviet military forces occupying the northern half. The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides; the North established a communist government, while the South established a democratic government. The 38th parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Korean states. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. In 1950, the Soviet Union boycotted the United Nations Security Council, in protest at representation of China by the Kuomintang/Republic of China government, which had taken refuge in Taiwan following defeat in the Chinese Civil War. In the absence of a dissenting voice from the Soviet Union, who could have vetoed it, the United States and other countries passed a Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Korea. The United States of America provided 88% of the 341,000 international soldiers which aided South Korean forces in repelling the invasion, with twenty other countries of the United Nations offering assistance. Suffering severe casualties within the first two months, the defenders were pushed back to a small area in the south of the Korean Peninsula, known as the Pusan perimeter. A rapid U.N. counter-offensive then drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, when the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of North Korea. Chinese intervention forced the Southern-allied forces to retreat behind the 38th Parallel. While not directly committing forces to the conflict, the Soviet Union provided material aid to both the North Korean and Chinese armies. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed. The agreement restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile (4.0 km)-wide fortified buffer zone between the two Korean nations. Minor incidents continue to the present day.

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The Rosenberg’s (1951) | Were an American couple who were accused of Communism and helping the Soviet Union obtain information about the atomic bomb. They were found guilty and sentenced to death. Nuclear Weapons | In 1952, the U.S. successfully detonated the first H-Bomb (Hydrogen), a more powerful type of nuclear weapon than dropped on Japan. The Soviet Union exploded a nuclear weapon in 1953. The arms race followed as both countries amassed more nuclear weapons. Nuclear Arms Race | The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies during the Cold War. Mutually Assured Destruction | Doctrine that the use of nuclear weapons would result in the complete destruction of both sides (attacker and defender). Joseph McCarthy | Senator from Wisconsin who became famous by accusing people of being Communists without providing evidence. McCarthyism (1954) | McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. It was named after Joseph McCarthy.

Sputnik (1957) | The first man-made satellite to be launched into outer space. Sputnik was a success for the Soviet Union and a symbolic success for Communism. This caused the U.S. to increase interest in its space program and a space race developed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Space Race | was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet

Union (USSR) and the United States (USA) for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, the Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national security and symbolic of technological and ideological superiority. U-2 Incident (1960) | A U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured. This increased tension between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Berlin Wall | A wall built by the Soviets to separate East and West Berlin. The wall stood until 1989 when Communism collapsed. Bay of Pigs (1964) | A failed invasion of Cuba planned by the U.S. government. The U.S. used Cuban exiles to invade Cuba but they were soundly defeated by the Cuban military. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) | A standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union when it was discovered that the Soviets were installing nuclear missiles pointed at the U.S. In May 1962 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev proposed the idea of placing Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba to deter any future invasion attempts like the Bay of Pigs. After a tense 13-day standoff, the U.S. pledged not to invade Cuba when the Soviet Union removed the missiles.

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Vietnam War (1954 – 1975) | The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. At home, the American public was deeply divided over U.S. involvement in the war. This war was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist common front directed by the North, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government and Viet Cong viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned international borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were gradually withdrawn as part of a policy known as Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued. U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress. The capture of Saigon by the Vietnam People's Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities. Approximately 1,000,000 Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed. Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians, 20,000–200,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U.S. service members were killed in the conflict. Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964) | Congressional approval that gave LBJ the power to escalate the war in Vietnam. The Tet Offensive (1968) | Was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks that were launched against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place. It caught the U.S. by surprise and when the American public learned about it on television, it challenged the belief that the U.S. was winning the war.

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Domino Theory | The belief that if a nearby nation became communist, then surrounding nations would do the same.

Flexible Response | Was a defense strategy implemented by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to provide the U.S. alternatives to the policy of Massive Retaliation. Flexible response called for mutual deterrence at strategic, tactical, and conventional levels, giving the United States the capability to respond to aggression across the spectrum of warfare, not limited only to nuclear arms.

Kent State Shooting (May 4th 1970) | Was a shooting that occurred at Kent State University in the U.S. city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others

“Hawks” | Supporters of the Vietnam War who believed the U.S should increase military force in order to win the war. “Doves” | Critics of the Vietnam War who believed the U.S. should withdraw. The Draft | During 1969 through 1972, the Selective Service used a lottery system to determine the order in which to draft men for service in Vietnam. Many who received a low number were drafted or chose to enlist. Others went to any extreme to avoid being sent to fight in the unpopular war. People who avoided the draft were called “Draft Dodgers.” During the early years of the war, men could avoid being drafted by enrolling in college. Pentagon Papers (1971) | The Pentagon Papers were a classified United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The papers were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971. The papers among other things, demonstrated that a series of U.S. Presidents including the LBJ Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about the Vietnam War – especially that the U.S. was winning. Escalation | Term used to describe the growing U.S. presence in Vietnam, including build-up of U.S. troops. War Powers Resolution of 1973) | A law passed in 1973 that limited the President’s right to send troops into battle without Congressional approval.

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Master Sergeant Raul (Roy)

Perez Benavidez (August 5,

1935 – November 29, 1998)

was one of the Vietnam War’s

most decorated soldiers. He

received the Medal of Honor

for his actions in combat near

Lộc Ninh, South Vietnam on

May 2, 1968. He was born in

Lindenau near Cuero, Texas.

Cold War-Era Map

of the World

57

16. The Civil Rights Movement

THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

Slavery | Bound in servitude as the property of another person. The slave trade brought slaves

from Africa to the colonies and the United States.

Abolition Movement | The movement to end slavery. Famous abolitionists included Frederick

Douglas, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Brown.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863) | During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln freed all

salves in the Confederate States. Slave states loyal to the Union were allowed to keep their

slaves.

CIVIL WAR/RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTS

13th Amendment | Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except for a

crime

14th Amendment | Made former slaves citizens, gave equal protection under

the law for all citizens

15th Amendment | African-American males were given the right to vote

EARLY STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY

Segregation | The separation of races.

Jim Crow Laws | Southern race laws that encouraged segregation and discrimination against

African-Americans. They were state and local laws in

the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.

They mandated de jure (by law) racial segregation in

all public facilities in Southern states of the former

Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a "separate but

equal" status for African Americans. The separation in

practice led to conditions for African Americans that

tended to be inferior to those provided for white

Americans, systematizing a number of economic,

educational and social disadvantages. De jure

segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States. Northern segregation was generally

de facto (by fact), with patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending

practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) | Supreme Court decision that upheld segregation and said that

“separate but equal” facilities were legal.

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TECHNIQUES USES TO PREVENT VOTING

Poll taxes

Literacy tests

The Grandfather clause | Laws in southern states stated that all descendants of

men who were voters before 1867 did not have to meet the educational,

property, or tax requirements for voting then in existence

Racial violence with the Ku Klux Klan and others

EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS

W.E.B. Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) | Early civil rights leader and co-

founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he

became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. He demanded

equality for African Americans.

Booker T. Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) | was an

African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to Republican presidents.

He was the dominant leader in the African-American community in the United

States from 1890 to 1915. He believed African-Americans should achieve

economic independence before social equality.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) | Refused to give up her seat to a

white passenger. After she was jailed, the Montgomery bus boycott was organized.

Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) | The first African-American

women elected to the U.S. house of representatives for New York in 1969.

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965)| Black Muslim leader who

argued for separation, not integration, and influenced the Black Power movement.

He later changed his views, but was assassinated in 1965.

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) | Civil Rights leader from the

1950s – 1960s who helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott to protest segregation. He

orgazized the March on Washington where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

He was assassinated n 1968. King advocated peaceful protest and passive resistance.

Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) | Was an American

farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Dolores Huerta,

co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm

Workers union, UFW). He pushed for greater rights for migrant farm workers.

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IMPORTANT TERMS

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) | Was a landmark Supreme Court decision that

overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in which the Court declared state laws establishing

separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.

The Little Rock Nine (1957) | A group of nine

African-American students that were integrated

into an all-white school in 1957 by order of

President Eisenhower despite the resistance of

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Made discrimination

based on race, religion, or national origin in public

places illegal and required employers to hire on

an equal opportunity basis.

Reynolds v. Sims (1964) | Supreme Court

ruling that state legislature districts had to be

roughly equal in population.

Affirmative Action | Sometimes known as positive discrimination, refers to policies that take

factors including race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin into

consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group in areas of employment, education,

and business. The term "affirmative action" was first used in the United States in Executive

Order 10925 and was signed by President John F. Kennedy on 6 March 1961; it was used to

promote actions that achieve non-discrimination. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted

Executive Order 11246 which required government employers to take "affirmative action" to

hire without regard to race, religion and national origin.

Civil Rights Protesters in the 1960s

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17. Science & Technology

in the 19th and 20th Centuries

TRANSPORTATION Transcontinental Railroad | Completed in 1869, it helped connect the West and East coasts. It made transportation of people and goods faster and helped jumpstart industry. Automobile | The automobile transformed the American landscape. It made the biggest impact on the economy from the 1920s until the 1970s. Airplane | In 1903, the Wright Brothers conducted the first successful flight of an airplane. Since then, the airplane has been used for military purposes and the transportation of people and goods. Space Exploration | In 1961, the Soviets put the first man in space. In 1969, the Americans put the first man on the moon. Today, astronauts travel to the International Space Station on spacecraft. Several private companies are working towards flying astronauts to space on private space craft. COMMUNICATION AND ENTERTAINMENT Telegraph (1844) | Invented by Samuel Morse, the telegraph was the first machine to enable long-distance communications with electricity. The telegraph used the Morse code to translate codes. Telephone (1876) | Invented by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone allowed people to transmit spoken messages from long distances.

Radio | Radio is the wireless transmission of signals through free space by electromagnetic radiation. It allowed communication through wireless sound waves making voice transmission possible. By the 1930s, the radio was major source of entertainment, news, and advertising. Television | The television became popular in the 1950s. By 1960, 90% of American households had a television. The television became the main source of entertainment, news, and advertising.

Computer | Computers were developed in the late 1940s and are the most important invention of the last half of the 20th Century. Computers have transformed life at home, at the worklace, and militarily.

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Internet | The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email. Most traditional communications media including print, telephone, music, film, and television are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet. Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting to Web site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed. MEDICINE Penicillin (1928) | Penicillin is an antibiotic used to cure or stop the spread of certain infections. The development helped people survive infections that would normally kill. Polio Vaccine (1955) | In the early 1950s, Jonas Salk invented the vaccine for polio, a crippling disease. The most famous person affected by polio was President FDR. AGRICULTURE Barbed Wire | Used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the

open frontier.

Windpump | Allowed dry arming by bringing up underground water to irrigate crops on the

Great Plains. They are often called windmills.

Steel Plow | It was a farm machine perfected by John Deer that allowed the plains settlers to

break up the tough plains soils for agriculture.

OTHER REVOLUTINARY DEVELOPMENTS Steel | Steel is a light, flexible and rust-resistant metal that helped in the development of structures such as bridges, cars, and skyscrapers. Bessemer Steel Process | The technique used to convert iron-ore into steel. Electricity | In 1880, Thomas Edison invented and patented the first light bulb. This helped change business. In the 1920s, electricity was widespread in American homes and businesses, and household appliances made life easier. Petroleum-based products | These products are used in everyday life and include gasoline, oil, plastics, and asphalt.

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Disclaimer This document is not intended to be an all-inclusive outline of U.S. History, but rather a broad overview for review and testing purposes. The information included in this document generally follows the main ideas emphasized in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Title 19, Part II, Chapter 113, Subchapter C, High School, §113.41, United States History Studies Since 1877 (One Credit), Beginning with School Year 2011-2012. This document is intended to be “open source,” that is no claim to copyright is made. It contains a wide variety of hyperlinks, artwork, content, and other information gleaned off the Internet and the Manor High School U.S. History – Exit Level 11th Grade Study Guide. No claim is made as to the accuracy of the information contained, however, being a broad overview, most of it would fall under common knowledge and verifiable facts. However, every reasonable effort was made to verify the general accuracy of the information contained. While bias takes many forms, including bias by omission and inclusion, every attempt was made to provide a neutral interpretation of the facts presented. In the interest of brevity, much was left out. REFERENCES This document is intended to be dynamic, changing, open source review guide for U.S. History. It is something like a collage of different content found on the web. Therefore, many references were included in the creation of this document. The following are a few of the prominent ones: Manor High School. (Date?). U.S. History-Exit Level 11th Grade TAKS Study Guide. Unpublished. U.S. Library of Congress. Online Archives. Available from http://www.loc.gov/index.html Wikipedia. (2013). Available from http://www.wikipedia.org/

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