Download IB HL Exam Questions on Civil War

IB HL Exam Questions on
the Civil War and
Reconstruction
• 2003
• Analyze the immediate and longer-term political
effects of the United States Civil War in the period
1865 to 1896
• 2004
• Why did the United States Civil War break out in
1861?
• 2005
• “Abraham Lincoln’s leadership was the main
reason why the Union won the Civil War”. To what
extent do you agree with this claim?
• 2006
• Assess the relative strengths of the North and the
South at the beginning of the United States Civil
War in 1861.
• 2007
• Why, in spite of the advantages of the North over
the South, did the Civil War in the United States
last so long?
2008
Why was compromise no longer possible between
the North and the South in the United States by
1860?
• Escalation of rhetoric and crises which polarized opinion
between North and South. This led to a growing sense of
sectionalism, in which the two sections identified more with
the North or South than they did with the Union and came to
view almost all the actions and pronouncements of the other
section as hostile
• Some of the events and crisis were: 1854, the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Whig Party disappeared and the
new Republican party arose in its place. It was the nation’s
first major party with only sectional appeal and a
commitment to stop the expansion of slavery. One
Republican leader, Sumner, was violently attacked and nearly
killed at his desk in the Senate by Brooks of S. Carolina.
Open warfare in Bleeding Kansas Territory: the Dred Scott
decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid in 1859, the split in the
Democratic Party in 1860 polarized the nation between North
and South; the election of Lincoln in 1860 was the final
trigger for secession
• 2009
• “The Civil War in the US was caused by political
disagreements.” To what extent do you agree
with this statement.
• In the early days of the US, loyalty to one’s state often took precedence
over loyalty to one’s country. However, while in the years after the War of
1812, nationalism became evident…but by the 1820s the forces of
sectionalism became more manifest. As Northern and Southern patterns of
life diverged, their political ideas also developed marked differences. The
North needed a central government to build an infrastructure of roads and
railways to protect its complex financial and trading interests, and control
national currency. The South depended much less on the federal gov. than
did other regions, and Southerners therefore felt no need to strengthen it.
In addition, Southern patriots feared that a strong central gov might
interfere with slavery, which the North opposed. Southerners sought to
protect their sectional interests by supporting states rights and opposing
federal government. Northeasterners and Westerners argued that what was
good for their section was good for the nation and sought to further their
interests by using federal power. Although hostilities between North and
South gradually increased, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 introduced
what was intended as a permanent solution to the slave issue in which that
hostility was most clearly expressed – the question of the extension or
prohibition of slavery in the federal territories of the West.
• After the Mexican War the dispute about the problem of
•
slavery in the territories increased. Questions such as whether
the Union was older than the states or the other way around
fuelled the debate over states rights. Whether the federal gov.
was supposed to have substantial powers or whether it was
merely a voluntary federation of sovereign states added to the
controversy; and several decisions and events contributed to
the outbreak of the Civil War.
Could address the following issues: the Compromise of 1850,
the Kansas Nebraska Act, the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty,
and the political crisis in the North: the fugitive slave laws
(which culminated in the Dred Scott Case of 1857) and in 1860
the election of Lincoln, then the leader of the Republican Party
in Illinois
• 2009
• In what ways did the Civil War change the
economy and racial relations in the South?
• Economy; After the CW a major undertaking was the reconstruction of
Southern railroads, ports, roads, and communication systems. Federal
grant money supported this reconstruction. Between 1865 and the early
1870s, over 8,000 miles of new railroad track were laid. By the end of
the 1880’s, the South had one of the best railroad systems not just in the
US but in the world. Southern industry, notably textile milling, did boom
after the end of Reconstruction. The South also developed its natural
resources: steel, oil, and lumber became important industries. By 1900,
the South had developed a more balanced economy. Still, it failed to
keep up with even more rapid growth in the North and in the West.
Moreover, in rebuilding their own economy and infrastructure,
Southerners had become dependent on aid from the federal government,
Northerners and foreign investors
• Racial Relations
• With regard to the conditions of African Americans, the Congress passed
the 13th Amend: in 1868 the 14th Amend, and in 1870 the 15th, and
created the Freedmen’s Bureau. However, while African Americans gained
freedom in the South, they hardly gained equality. Despite the Radical
Republicans’ efforts at Reconstruction, many African Americans in the
South struggled with poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. As
Reconstruction waned, the condition of freedmen worsened. The
Freedman’s Bureau closed, voting restrictions such as the poll tax, and
literacy tests proliferated, and racist violence spread. Discrimination in the
South further intensified with the passage of Jim Crow laws in the 1880s.
The Supreme Court upheld such segregation in its Plessey versus
Ferguson decision in 1896, which declared all “separate but equal”
facilities to be constitutional. This decision cleared the way for decades of
demoralizing discrimination against African Americans.
• 2010
• “The Kansas-Nebraska problem destroyed the
power of the Southern pro-slavery group.” To
what extent do you agree with this view?
• Also
– Success and failure of Reconstruction
– Was the Civil War Inevitable or Avoidable
(Irrepressible or Repressible
• Analyze the immediate and longer-term political
effects of the United States Civil War in the period
1865 to 1896
• Immediate
–
–
–
–
–
Split in Fed Gov
Presidential Plan v Radical
Details of Radical Plan – focus on Amendments, 50+% plan
10 years of change in South, of Revolution
Composition and achievements / failures of Southern
Legislatures….new constitutions
– Return of Democrats, 1872 Amnesty Act, 1874 reunify and
regain control of South and of Congress – Redemption
– Segregation / discrimination – Jim Crowe, KKK – denied 14
and 15 Amend Rights….sharecropping
• Long Term
– Plessey v Ferguson – to 1960
– Hayes Tilden compromise – Reps become the party of
big business; split; Laissez Faire economics and high
tariffs (McKinley Tariff of 1890, 48%), Radicals retire or
die: Corruption assoc with Industrialization
– Grantism; Grant Scandals; Credit Mobilier, Whiskey
Ring, Belknap, Fish and Gould
– Excessive force used against Labor: RR Strike,
McCormick-Harvester, Homestead, Pullman
– Yet Amendments are safe – eventually will be
applied…..50s and 60s
– Eventual voter re-alignment; Depression; African
Americans leave the party of Lincoln for the party of
FDR
2011
Compare and contrast Lincoln
and Davis as wartime leaders
during the US civil war.
2012
• 5. “Sectionalism, not slavery, was the
major cause of the US Civil War.” To what
extent do you agree with this statement?
• 6. To what extent had Reconstruction
fulfilled its aims by 1877?
2013
• In what ways, and to what extent, did the
events of the 1850s contribute to the
increase of sectionalism and the outbreak
of the US Civil War?
• Why, and with what results, was there
political opposition to the plans for
Reconstruction in the US between 1863
and 1867?
2014
• “The role of foreign powers had a
significant effect on the outcome of the
US Civil War.” To what extent do you
agree with this statement.
• To what extent did the theory of
nullification and the nullification crisis
contribute to the origins of the US Civil
War?
• 2015
• “The problems associated with
westward expansion were the most
significant causes of the US Civil War.”
• To what extent do you agree with this
statement?
• Compare and contrast the effectiveness of
one Union and one Confederate military
leader during the US Civil War.