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2014 APUSH Study Guide
Colonial America
1. What were the different economic bases of the New England, middle and Southern Colonies? Be
sure to discuss the role of agriculture, industry and trade.
2. How did the encounter of native American peoples with Europeans affect each society?
3. Why did the initially successful indentured servant system of labor undergo a crisis, and why was
it increasingly replaced by African slavery?
4. How did the Puritans’ religious outlook affect the development of all the New England colonies?
5. How did the numbers and condition of women affect family life and society in New England,
among Southern whites, and among African-American slaves? Compare and contrast the typical
family conditions and ways of life among various members of these three groups.
6. What were the features of colonial politics that contributed to the development of popular
democracy, and what were those that kept it from being more truly democratic?
7. How did the various churches, established and nonestablished, affect colonial life, including
education and politics, in the eighteenth century?
8. What were the causes and consequences of the Great Awakening?
9. How did the development and final outcome of the imperial struggle affect relations between the
colonists and Britain and alter relations among the colonists themselves?
American Revolution
1. How did the colonists move from loyalty to protest to rebellion in the twelve years following the
end of the French and Indian War?
2. How and why did the Americans and the British differ in their view of taxation and of the
relationship of colonies to the empire?
3. What was the theory and practice of mercantilism? What were its actual effects on the colonies,
and why did they resent it so much?
4. What methods did colonists use in their struggle with the British authorities, and how did the
British try to counteract them?
5. Why was the Battle of Saratoga such a key to American success in the Revolutionary War?
6. What were the causes and consequences of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776?
7. Who were the loyalists, what role did they play during the Revolution, and what happened to them
afterward?
traitors, they were forced to give up their property and were forced to return to England
8. How did the American Revolution affect the status of slaves and women?
Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
1. How did the problems of the post-Revolutionary period and the weaknesses of the Articles of
Confederation lead to the adoption of a new Constitution?
2. What were the accomplishments of the Articles of Confederation?
What were the basic features of the new Constitution, and how did they differ from the
government under the Articles of Confederation? Be sure to discuss the major compromises of the
Convention.
3. Who were the federalists and the anti-federalists, what were the issues that divided them, and
how did the federalists win?
4. What changes in American politics and society were caused by the Revolution, and how did the
developments arising out of those changes arouse conservative fears of anarchy?
5. How did the American Revolution affect issues of social structure, economic equality, and the
distribution of power?
New Republic and the War of 1812
1. What were the most serious problems facing the new nation when George Washington became
president?
2. What strengths and skills did George Washington bring to the presidency?
3. What measures did Alexander Hamilton propose to create a strong central government and a
prospering economy? Why did his opponents oppose these measures?
4. Which set of ideas and programs – Alexander Hamilton’s or Thomas Jefferson’s – best
addressed the new country’s needs?
5. Why did George Washington warn against permanent alliances and party divisions in his Farewell
Address?
6. Why did Congress enact the Alien and Sedition Acts? Why did Jeffersonians oppose these
measures?
7. In what ways did Thomas Jefferson seek to conciliate the Federalists after he became president?
In what ways did he implement his own principles?
8. What steps did President Jefferson take to reduce Federalist influence over the judiciary?
9. Why is Marbury v. Madison a landmark in American legal history?
10. How did Britain and France threaten American shipping? What steps did President Jefferson and
President Madison take to pressure the French and British to recognize American neutrality?
11. Who favored war with Britain in 1812 and why? Who opposed the war and why?
12. What was the significance of the War of 1812?
Age of Jackson
1. Why is period following the War of 1812 called the “Era of Good Feelings”? What political, social,
and economic developments contributed to a growing sense of nationalism after the conflict?
2. In what ways did the Supreme Court strengthen the authority of the national government?
3. What problems had to be overcome for the United States to develop a vigorous economy? How
did the United States overcome the problems of scarce labor and poor transportation and
communications?
4. Identify the main provisions of the Monroe Doctrine.
5. Explain how the Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Compromise ended the “Era of Good Feelings”
and helped produce new sectional and party divisions.
6. What changes took place in voting, nominating procedures, party organization, and campaign
strategies between 1820 and 1840?
7. What new political parties emerged in the 1820s and 1830s? How did these parties differ?
8. What groups were denied political participation under Jacksonian democracy?
9. Why did settlers want to move Native Americans west of the Mississippi River? How did Native
Americans try to resist removal? Why is the removal of the Native Americans from their
homelands in the Southeast known as the Trail of Tears?
10. Why did South Carolina try to nullify the federal tariff? What was President Jackson’s reaction?
How was the controversy resolved?
11. Why was President Jackson opposed to the Second Bank of the United States? What actions did
he take to weaken the bank?
12. How did President Jackson strengthen the presidency?
13. Describe the social and religious roots of the reform movements of the early nineteenth century.
14. In what ways did moral reformers try to change the behavior of early nineteenth-century
Americans? How successful were they?
15. Describe the efforts of pre-Civil War reformers in each of the following areas: a) educational
reform b) the treatment of criminals; and c) the treatment of the mentally ill.
16. Why did the abolition movement arouse resentment among many Northerners as well as many
Southerners?
17. Why did a movement for women’s rights emerge in the mid-nineteenth century? Identify the
movement’s achievements.
18. In what ways did American literature and art give expression to a distinctive national identity in
the years before the Civil War?
Manifest Destiny and Sectionalism
1. In what ways were Northerners and Southerners similar? In what ways were they different?
2. How was industrialization both a force for unity and a force for division in the pre-Civil War United
States?
3. How did the northern economy change during the early nineteenth century?
4. Why did an increasing number of immigrants come to the United States during the 1840s and
1850s? Why did some Americans resent the immigrants?
5. How did the invention of the cotton gin affect southern society?
6. Why did some Southerners try to promote industry and a distinctive southern culture during the
1840s and 1850s?
7. Explain how the size of a plantation and the crop grown affected the conditions under which
slaves worked and lived.
8. How were enslaved African Americans able to sustain a sense of dignity and independence
under slavery? In what ways did they resist slavery?
9. Describe the role of each of the following in the settlement of the Far West: a) trappers and
traders; b) government explorers; c) missionaries.
10. Why did Anglo-American settlers in Texas rebel against the Mexican government?
11. What is the meaning of the phrase “manifest destiny”? Explain why Americans expanded west of
the Mississippi River during the 1840s?
12. Why did the United States and Mexico go to war in 1846? Why did the war arouse bitter
controversy at home?
13. Why did California’s application for statehood cause heated debate in Congress?
14. In what ways did Southerners benefit from the Compromise of 1850? In what ways did
Northerners benefit?
15. Why did the Fugitive Slave Law anger many Northerners?
16. What issue led to the formation of the Republican Party?
17. How was the issue of slavery to be decided in Kansas and Nebraska? Why did the status of
slavery in Kansas become a divisive issue during the 1850s?
18. What did the Supreme Court rule in the Dred Scott decision? What was the ruling’s significance?
19. What were the major differences in the attitudes of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
toward slavery?
20. Why did John Brown’s raid convince many Southerners that their states should secede from the
Union?
Civil War and Reconstruction
1. Examine the numerous problems that contributed to the dissolution of the Democratic Party and
the consequences this breakup had for the coming of the Civil War? Why did Abraham Lincoln’s
election prompt secession?
2. Evaluate the reasons for the Civil War by considering the following: On what principles did the
South secede from the Union? On what principles did the North go to war? How did these
principles change during the course of the war?
3. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the North and the South as the Civil War
started. Be sure to include a survey of available resources as well as an assessment of the
political leadership of the two regions.
4. Discuss the role of slavery as an issue during the Civil War. What were the experiences of
African Americans? Why did Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation? How did
Northerners and Southerners react to the proclamation?
5. Assess the ways in which the Civil War became a “total war.” What did the war accomplish?
6. How were the Civil War and Reconstruction’s impact on black and white Southerners interrelated,
and how did the impacts affect the actions of each group?
7. To what extent were white Southerners responsible for what they considered to be the harsh
conditions of congressional Reconstruction?
8. Just how radical was Radical Reconstruction?
9. What factors led to the decline of Reconstruction?
10. How were white Americans’ treatments of African Americans and Native Americans similar, and
how did the treatment of each group differ?
Gilded Age
1. What factors aided the rapid expansion of American industry in the late nineteenth century?
2. How did scholarship and popular culture support the concentration of wealth?
3. What led to the consolidation of business, and how did the rise of big business change marketing
and manufacturing techniques?
4. What impact did national economic trends have in the South and West?
5. How did the nature of work change, and what were workers’ responses to those changes?
6. How did the “new immigrants” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century differ from
previous immigrants to America?
7. What was Nativism? What forms did it take? Why did so many native-born Americans embrace
it?
8. What problems plagued the growing American city? Why?
9. How did literature, art, and music reflect both the social tensions and possibilities of the new
American cities?
10. Were new entertainment choices in sports, parks, and movies a tightening of the new industrial
order, a release from it, or both?
11. What roles did the two major political parties play in the late nineteenth century?
12. How did events shape political concerns during the Gilded Age?
13. Why and how did the farmers and workers revolt?
14. How did conditions for African Americans deteriorate at the end of the century?
Progressive Era and World War I
1. Why did the United States suddenly abandon its isolationism and turn outward at the end of the
nineteenth century?
2. How did the Venezuelan and Hawaiian affairs show the new American assertiveness as well as
American ambivalence about foreign involvements?
3. How did America become involve with Cuba and how was a reluctant President McKinley forced
to go to war with Spain?
4. Describe the easy American military conquest of Cuba and Puerto Rico. What were the long
term consequences and significance of the Spanish-American War?
5. Why did McKinley decide to keep the Philippines and what were the opposing arguments in the
debate about imperialism?
6. Describe the Filipino rebellion against the U.S. rule and the war to suppress it.
7. What was the U.S. “Open Door” policy in China?
8. What was the significance of the “proimperialist” Republican victory in 1900? Explain the rise of
Theodore Roosevelt as a strong advocate of American power in international affairs.
9. What were the aggressive steps Roosevelt took to build a canal in Panama and indicate why his
“corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine aroused such controversy? Discuss Roosevelt’s other
diplomatic achievements, particularly in relation to Japan.
10. What were the origins and nature of the progressive movement? Who were the progressives?
11. How did the early progressive movement develop its roots at the city and state level?
12. How did President Roosevelt being to apply progressive principles to the national economy?
13. Why did Taft’s policies offend progressives, especially Roosevelt? How did Roosevelt lead a
progressive revolt against Taft that openly divided the Republican party?
14. What were the basic principles of Wilsonian progressivism?
15. How did Wilson successfully reform the “triple wall of privilege?”
16. What were the basic features of Wilson’s foreign policy and how did they draw him into
intervention in Latin America?
17. Describe the women’s suffrage movement and the obstacles they needed to overcome.
18. What progressive reforms were passed for the workers? for the farmers?
19. What were the four constitutional amendments passed during the Progressive Era? What did
they do?
20. What caused American entry into War I, and how did Wilson turn the war into an ideological
crusade?
21. How did America demonstrate its traditional preference for voluntary methods in its war
mobilization?
22. What was America’s material and ideological contribution to the Allied victory?
23. How was Wilson forced to compromise during the peace negotiations, and why did America in the
end refuse to ratify the treaty and join the League of Nations?
24. Apart from such immediate factors as the Wilson-Lodge antagonism, what general features of
earlier American history worked against American involvement in European affairs and
participation in the League of Nations?
Roaring 20s
1. How and why did America turn toward domestic isolation and social conservatism in the 1920s?
2. How did some of the events of the 1920s reflect national conflicts over social, cultural, and
religious values?
3. How did the automobile and other new products create a mass-consumption economy in the
1920s?
4. How did changes in both technology and values affect American culture and ways of life in the
1920s?
5. In what ways were the twenties a social and cultural reaction against the progressive idealism
that held sway before and during World War I?
6. Analyze the domestic political conservatism and economic prosperity of the 1920s.
7. What were the Republican administration’s policies of isolationism, disarmament, and high-tariff
protectionism?
8. Contrast the easygoing corruption of the Harding administration and the straight-laced
uprightness of his successor Coolidge.
9. Describe the international economic tangle of loans, war debts, and reparations and indicated
how the United States dealt with it.
Great Depression
1. How did Hoover go from being a symbol of twenties business success to a symbol of depression
failure?
2. How did the stock market crash set off the deep and prolonged Great Depression?
3. How was Hoover’s response to the depression a combination of old-time individualism and the
new view of federal responsibility for the economy?
4. Describe the rise of Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932.
5. How did the early New Deal pursue the “three Rs” of relief, recovery, and reform?
6. What was the New Deal’s effect on labor and labor organizations?
7. Discuss the early New Deal’s efforts to organize business and agriculture in the NRA and the
AAA and indicate what replaced those programs after they were declared unconstitutional.
8. Why was the Supreme Court hostile to many New Deal programs and why did FDR’s “courtpacking” plan fail?
9. Explain the political coalition that Roosevelt mobilized on behalf of the New Deal and the
Democratic Party.
10. What changes did the New Deal undergo in the late thirties? Explain the growing opposition to it.
11. What are the arguments presented by both critics and defenders of the New Deal?
World War II
1. How did domestic concerns influence FDR’s early foreign-policy measures?
2. Describe U.S. isolationism in the mid-1930s. What were its effects?
3. How did America gradually begin to respond to the threat from totalitarian aggression while still
trying to stay neutral?
4. What were Roosevelt’s increasingly bold moves toward aiding Britain in the fight against Hitler
and the sharp disagreement these efforts caused at home.
5. Discuss the events and diplomatic issues in the Japanese-American conflict that led up to Pearl
Harbor.
6. How did America react to Pearl Harbor and prepare to wage war against both Germany and
Japan?
7. Describe the domestic mobilization for war.
8. Explain the early Japanese success in Asia and the Pacific and the American strategy for
countering them.
9. Describe the early Allied efforts against the Axis powers in North Africa and Italy.
10. Discuss FDR’s 1944 fourth-term election victory.
11. Explain the final military efforts that brought Allied victory in Europe and Asia and the significance
of the atomic bomb.
Cold War and Postwar America
1. Explain the growth of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union after Roosevelt’s
death and Germany’s defeat.
2. What were the early Cold War conflicts over Germany and Eastern Europe?
3. What were American efforts to “contain” the Soviets through the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall
Plan, and NATO?
4. Describe the expansion of the Cold War to Asia and the Korean War.
5. Analyze the postwar domestic climate in America and explain the growing fear of internal
Communist subversion.
6. What were the economic transformations of the immediate post-World War II era?
7. Describe the postwar migrations to the “Sunbelt” and the suburbs.
8. Explain the changes in the American population structure brought about by the “baby boom.”
9. How did “Ike’s” leadership coincide with the American mood of the 1950s?
10. Describe Eisenhower’s initially hesitant reactions to McCarthyism and the early civil rights
movement.
11. Indicate the basic elements of Eisenhower’s foreign policy in Vietnam, Europe and the Middle
East.
12. What were the challenges Eisenhower faced from the Soviet Union and how did he respond to
them?
Stormy 60s and Vietnam
1. What were the high expectations of Kennedy’s New Frontier and what were the political obstacles
it encountered?
2. Describe Johnson’s succession to the presidency in 1963, his electoral landslide over Goldwater
in 1964, and his Great Society successes of 1965.
3. Discuss the course of the black movement of the 1960s, from civil rights to Black Power.
4. Was the New Left an important force in American politics? How did their ideas disseminate into
the popular culture?
5. Describe the various groups efforts towards a more just society. Why did so many of the protest
movements begin to flourish in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
6. What does it mean to be a feminist? How did the feminist movement evolve in the 1960s and
1970s?
7. What factors turned the idea of the “New South” into a reality in the post-World War II era?
8. How has the West developed such a booming, diverse economy?
9. What qualities define “Politics – western style”? How have these values influenced modern
American politics?
10. What were the basic elements of Eisenhower’s foreign policy in Vietnam?
11. How did Johnson lead the Untited States deeper into the Vietnam quagmire?
12. How did the Vietnam War bring turmoil to American society and eventually drive Johnson and the
divided Democrats from power in 1968?
Stalemated 70s
1. What was Nixon’s policy towards Vietnam?
2. Describe the American withdrawal from Vietnam, the final Communist victory there, and the “new
isolationism” represented by the War Powers Act.
3. Discuss the Watergate scandals and Nixon’s resignation.
4. What was the connection between the Middle East conflicts and the troubled American economy?
Describe the attempts of American administrations of the 1970s to solve both sets of problems.
5. Discuss the Iranian crisis and its political consequences for Carter.
Reagan’s America
1. How did the “Reagan revolution” signal a change in domestic policies? In international relations?
In American culture?
2. Was the Bush presidency an active and successful force in international affairs? In domestic
affairs?