Download Study Guide for the US History EOC Exam Main Topic Things You

Study Guide for the US History EOC Exam
Main Topic
American Eras
Things You Need to Know
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Reconstruction
The West
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The Gilded Age
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Reconstruction – ended by President Hayes in 1877
Gilded Age – 1877 – mid-1890’s; Age of industrialization, immigration, rapid
growth, but also corruption, exploitation of labor, poverty
Progressive Era – mid-1890’s to end of WWI; era of reform in politics and society
WWI
Roaring Twenties – 1920’s; Rapid growth of business; prosperity except for
farmers
The Great Depression – 1929 to early 1940’s; unemployment, closing of
businesses & banks; the New Deal
WWII
The Cold War – 1945 to 1991; tensions between democratic West and
Communist states
13th Amendment – freed the slaves
14th Amendment – defined citizenship and gave citizenship to former slaves
15th Amendment – granted right to vote for all men regardless of color
1877 – year that Reconstruction ended under President Rutherford B. Hayes
Placer Mining – surface mining by individual prospectors or small groups using
picks, shovel, pans, etc.
Quartz Mining – deep earth mining by corporations using heavy machinery
Boom Towns – towns that grew quickly around gold/silver strikes
Vigilance Committees – civilians who took it upon themselves to enforce justice
on frontier
Open Range Ranching – ranching using government-owned grasslands
Cattle Drives – herding cattle to northern railheads; Chisolm Trail most famous
cattle trail
Barbed Wire – invented by Joseph Glidden; doomed cattle drives; prohibited free
movement of cattle
Homestead Act 1862 – US gave away free land to homesteaders to settle West
Railroad Land Grants – Used by US government to finance railroad construction;
railroads sold the land to settlers (some recruited from Europe)
Bonanza Farms – large mechanized farms owned by corporations
1864 Sand Creek Massacre – worst massacre of Indians by US soldiers
Battle of the Little Bighorn – defeat of US cavalry (under Custer) by Indians
1887 Dawes Act – attempted to make Indians assimilate by becoming farmers;
destroyed Indian culture
1890 Wounded Knee – last massacre of Indians by US soldiers
“Gilded Age” Term coined by Mark Twain to describe array of problems under
the surface of American prosperity
Robber Barons – businessmen that gained wealth through corruption and
exploitation of labor and resources
Tammany Hall – NY City political machine that produced infamous Boss Tweed
Rise of Monopolies & Trusts – US Steel (Andrew Carnegie), Standard Oil (John D.
Rockefeller), Railroads (Cornelius Vanderbilt), Banking/Railroads (JP Morgan)
Bessemer Process – allowed steel to be made cheaper and mass-produced by
injecting air into molten iron and burning away impurities
Immigration mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe (Jews) – came into US at
Ellis Island in New York
Asian immigrants (mostly young males) entered through Angel Island in San
Big Business
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The Progressive Era
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Age of Imperialism
and Expansion
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Francisco
Nativists – anti-immigrant group
Tenements – multi-storied apartment buildings; dark, unhealthy
Corporation – owned by many people but treated by law as if it were a single
person
Stocks – shares of ownership of a company
Fixed Costs – money a company must spend regardless if it is running or not such
as taxes
Operating Costs – costs that occur when a company is running such as workers’
pay
Monopoly – when a single company achieves control over an entire market
Vertical Integration – a company owns all the different businesses on which it
depends for its operation; a type of monopoly
Horizontal Integration – owning many companies of the same type making one
large corporation; a type of monopoly
Trust – where several companies are controlled as if they were all part of one
corporation (a form of monopoly)
Trade Unions – limited to people with certain skills (skills = crafts, trades)
Closed Shop – where workers must join a union just to apply for a job
Progressive Era - Era of reform sparked by excesses of Gilded Age
High railroad freight rates and problems with banks sparked radicalization of
farmers – Granges established followed by the Alliance Movement which turned
into the Populist Party
Populist wanted gov’t ownership of railroads, unlimited coinage of silver,
graduated income tax
Eugene V. Debs – leader of American Railway Union; led Pullman Strike; Socialist,
ran for president multiple times; imprisoned under Sedition Act during WWI
Muckrakers – journalists who exposed social and political problems; life of
immigrants (Jacob Riis in How the Other Half Lives); meat-packing industry (Upton
Sinclair in The Jungle); unfair competition of Standard Oil (Ida Tarbell)
Knights of Labor – first industrial labor union; allowed women and minorities as
members; decrease in power due to Haymarket Square Bombing
American Federation of Labor – founded by Samuel Gompers; “bread and butter”
goals such as pay, working conditions, 8-hour work day
Social Gospel – religious groups seeking to help poor through social and political
reform (YMCA and Salvation Army); Settlement Houses (model was Hull House –
Jane Addams)
16th Amendment – income Tax
17th Amendment – direct election of senators
18th Amendment – prohibition of alcohol
19th Amendment – women’s right to vote
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan – theorized that to be great, a nation needed a
strong navy with its own overseas coaling stations
1898 – Spanish-American War; sparked by sinking of USS Maine; cavalry regiment
called “Rough Riders” organized by T. Roosevelt; beginning of US Imperialism
Defeat of Spain gave US Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines
Teller Amendment – US would NOT take Cuba as a colony
Foraker Act – made Puerto Rico territory of US
Platt Amendment – US control over Cuban Constitution: Cuba could have no
treaties w/Europe, US could intervene, US got bases in Cuba (Guantanamo)
Filipinos conducted guerrilla war against US; led by Emilio Aguinaldo
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World War I
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The Roaring Twenties
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Overthrow of Hawaiian queen by American planter class led by Sanford Dole;
Hawaii later annexed by US; Dole first governor of Hawaii
US under TR instigated Panamanian Revolution against Colombia to secure land
for Panama Canal
President T. Roosevelt’s policy towards Latin America endorsed use of force if
necessary (“Speak softly but carry a big stick”) – called Roosevelt Corollary
Open Door Policy – US trade policy with China; wanted all powers to respect
territory and gov’t of China and engage in free trade; authored by Secretary of
State John Hay
Dollar Diplomacy – President Taft’s policy that pushed the idea of using
businesses to gain influence in Latin America
Election of 1912- three-way race between Taft (Republican), Wilson (Democrat),
and TR (Bull Moose/Progressive party); Wilson won election
1914-1918
Sparked by assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Ferdinand 1914
Stalemate caused trench warfare; new weapons such as tanks, flamethrowers,
and chemicals developed to break stalemate
President Wilson tried to negotiate end to war based on his Fourteen Points
peace plan
US entered war in 1917 / Reasons include: unrestricted submarine warfare
(Freedom of the Seas), financial ties to Allies, Zimmerman telegram, Allied
propaganda
Espionage & Sedition Acts – severely limited American rights to free speech and
free press; Schenck v. United States upheld law’s constitutionality
American Expeditionary Force (AEF) led by General Pershing
Biggest Battle: the Argonne Forest; biggest hero: Alvin York
War ended with Treaty of Versailles negotiated by Wilson; included League of
Nations
US Senate (led by Henry Cabot Lodge) rejected treaty and League of Nations
First Red Scare – radicals, anarchist bombings, and Russian Revolution prompted
public hysteria against “Reds;” Palmer Raids - mass arrests and deportations of
radicals by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer
1920 - Harding elected based on “Normalcy”
Teapot Dome – political scandal in Harding administration; Sec of Interior Albert
Fall illegally leased US oil reserves to private companies
Calvin Coolidge – pro-business president; “The business of this country is
business”
National Origins Act – dramatically decreased immigration through quota system
The Flapper – young women that showed disdain for conventional dress and
behavior
Volstead Act – gave “teeth” to the 18th Amendment
Speakeasies – secret bars used to get around Prohibition laws
Sacco & Vanzetti Trial – people believed defendants convicted b/c they were
Italian immigrants and Anarchists
Scopes “Monkey” Trial – trial of John Scopes for teaching evolution in school;
Prosecution led by William Jennings Bryan; Defense led by Clarence Darrow
Eugenics – pseudo-science advocating against immigration of inferior races,
calling for selective abortion, breeding of human race
Henry Ford – mass production of cheap automobiles; assembly line
Charles Lindbergh – first solo flight from US to Europe in Spirit of St. Louis
Glenn Curtiss – Father of naval aviation; helped develop modern airplanes
The Great Depression
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World War II
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President Herbert Hoover elected 1928 – blamed for Depression
1929 – Stock Market Crash; beginning of Great Depression
Hoovervilles – shanty towns formed when people evicted from homes
Bonus Army – WWI veterans marched on Washington DC to demand bonus
payments promised by gov’t; troops burned Bonus Army camp; American public
turned against Hoover
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) elected president in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944
Bank Run – people withdrew all their money causing the bank to financially
collapse; Bank Holiday – US closed banks to make sure they were stable
20th Amendment – moved inauguration day forward from March to January
21st Amendment – repealed Prohibition
Hundred Days – first months of FDR’s new administration; first New Deal
programs
FDIC – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; protects bank accounts in case
bank fails
SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission; reformed ways in which stocks are
bought/sold
CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps; young men hired to work in National Parks
TVA – Tennessee Valley Authority; dams created electric power
AAA – Agricultural Adjustment Administration; raised crop prices by limiting
production
WPA – Works Progress Administration; gave jobs to many groups including
artists, actors, writers
Social Security Administration – set up Social Security system under which
Americans live today (Second New Deal program)
Fireside Chats – FDR connected with public via radio broadcasts
1939-1945
Began in Europe with German invasion of Poland
US supplied Great Britain (and later Russia & China) with military supplies under
Lend-Lease Act
US entered war after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941
Bataan Death March - Japan invaded Philippines; US and Filipino POWs forced to
march to prison camps; thousands died
A. Phillip Randolph – head of black porter’s union; threatened march on
Washington if gov’t jobs not opened to minorities; FDR complied
Double V Campaign – black soldiers fighting nation’s enemies but also racism at
home
Executive Order 9066 – authorized internment of Japanese Americans
Korematsu v. United States – upheld internment of Japanese-Americans
North Africa – first place US troops fought w/German Army
US strategy in Pacific – “Island Hopping”
Turning point in Pacific was Battle of Midway; US put Japan on defensive
Turning Point in Europe was D-Day (invasion of Normandy, France); put Germany
on defensive
Oveta Culp Hobby – First director of the Women’s Army Corps
General Omar Bradley - Commander on ground on D-Day
General Dwight Eisenhower - Commander of all Allied forces in Europe
General George Patton - Most effective US battle commander in Europe
Tuskegee Airmen – all black fighter squadron in Europe
General Douglas MacArthur - Commander of all US Army in Pacific
Admiral Chester Nimitz - Commander of all naval forces in Pacific
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The Cold War
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Navajo Code Talkers (aka “Wind Talkers”) – US Army used Native-Americans to
operate radios because Japanese could not translate Indian language
Flying Tigers – US volunteer fighter pilots who supported the Chinese Nationalist
Army
Battle of the Bulge – largest battle US fought in Europe; last offensive in West by
Germany
FDR died April 1945; WWII in Europe ended May 1945 (V-E Day)
US developed atomic bombs in Manhattan Project
US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
WWII in Pacific ended August 1945 (V-J Day)
22nd Amendment – limited presidents to only two terms (because of FDR)
Cold War - era of tension between Western nations led by US and communist
nations led by Soviet Union
Containment – policy in which US attempted to stop expansion of communism
Truman Doctrine – containment policy in which US provided $ and arms; first
used in Greece
Berlin Airlift – Soviet Union blockaded Allied-occupied sectors of Berlin hoping to
get them to leave; Allies responded by airlifting supplies to Berlin
Marshall Plan – Sec of State George Marshall plan to rebuild Europe to keep it
from turning to communism
US and Western nations established NATO (military alliance) to protect against
USSR
1950-1953 – Korean War – UN/US war with communist North Korea and China
McCarthyism – second Red Scare; Senator McCarthy led hearings on communist
influence in gov’t; hearings derided as a “witch-hunt”
HUAC – House Un-American Activities Committee; investigated communists in
America; Venona Papers declassified in 1990s confirmed some of the accusations
1957 – Soviet Union launched Sputnik, world’s first satellite; sparked space race
between US and USSR; US responded by establishing NASA
Bay of Pigs – US trained/armed anti-Communist Cuban force attempted landing
in Cuba; defeated by Communists
1961 – communists erected Berlin Wall
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba prompting US
blockade of Cuba; closest world has come to nuclear war; USSR removed missiles
in return for US promise not to invade Cuba
Vietnam War
o Communist North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam
o US began supplying and advising South Vietnamese Army
o President Johnson vastly increased numbers of US troops in South
Vietnam after Congress passed 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
o Draft – young men drafted into army for service in Vietnam
o 1968 Tet Offensive caused many in US to turn against the war
o Anti-war protests surged; 4 students killed by National Guard at Kent
State University due to US invasion of Cambodia
o 26th Amendment – lowered voting age to 18 years old
o President Nixon began to withdraw US troops under “Vietnamization”
program (US supports but South Vietnam fights for itself)
o My Lai – massacre of Vietnamese civilians by US troops
o Last US combat troops out of Vietnam in 1973
o South Vietnam capital city (Saigon) fell to communists in April 1975
Domino Theory – belief that if one nation fell to communism others would also
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Civil Rights
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fall (after South Vietnam fell so did Laos and Cambodia)
1972 President Nixon visited communist China; began new era of Détente
(lessening of tension)
“Star Wars” (Strategic Defense Initiative) – President Reagan’s plan for a spacebased anti-missile program; arms race broke Soviet Union – helped in US win of
Cold War
1989 – Fall of the Berlin Wall
1991 – Fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) – end of Cold War; Mikhail Gorbachev last
leader of USSR
1896 Plessey v. Ferguson – established “Separate but Equal” standard; allowed
segregation
Booker T. Washington – advocated that blacks raise themselves up through
education; Atlanta Compromise
Jim Crow Laws – laws or statutes that enforced segregation
Ida B. Wells – led crusade against lynching in the South
Harlem Renaissance – flowering of black culture; music, literature, art, poetry
Marcus Garvey – advocated separatism and then the Back-to-Africa Movement
The Great Migration – migration of blacks from the South to the North during
WWI; better jobs and conditions; work in munitions factories
1947 – Mendez v. Westminster – successfully challenged segregation (of Hispanic
children) in schools
1947 – President Truman desegregated the US military and Civil Service
1948 – Delgado v. Bastrop ISD – made segregation of Mexican-American children
illegal
Norris v. Alabama – blacks allowed to serve on juries
Morgan v. Virginia – interstate busses desegregated
1950 Sweatt v. Painter – ruling that UT’s law school did not meet separate but
equal standard, Sweatt won right to attend UT
1954 Brown v. Board of Education – desegregated public schools
Little Rock Nine – black students prevented from attending Little Rock high
school; Eisenhower sent US Army to escort them
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – made discrimination by sex, race, and religion illegal;
landmark legislation
24th Amendment (1964) – prohibited poll taxes
1965 Voting Rights Act – peak of Civil Rights movement; prohibited all
restrictions on voting
Rosa Parks – 1955 – refused to give up bus seat to white man; arrest sparked
Montgomery Bus Boycott; propelled Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to national
prominence
“Letter from the Birmingham Jail” – famous letter by MLK protesting racial
discrimination
Malcolm X – advocated separation from whites and violence in pursuit of civil
rights; changed his views and was assassinated by Black Muslim Movement
1965 Watts Riot – first great race riot of 1960s in Watts section of L.A.
Affirmative Action – schools and businesses allowed to discriminate in favor of
minorities; racial quotas sometimes set
1968 – MLK assassinated
Thurgood Marshall – first black justice of the US Supreme Court
George Wallace – white supremacist and segregationist; governor of Alabama in
1960’s; shot and paralyzed while running for president in 1972
Shirley Chisholm – first black woman elected to Congress; first woman to run for
Women’s Issues
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Sixties to the Present
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President
Busing – method used to racially balance schools
Susan B. Anthony – leader of Women’s Suffrage Movement
19th Amendment – gave women right to vote
“Rosie the Riveter” – symbol of women in industry and other work normally
done by men during WWII
The Feminine Mystique – book written by Betty Friedan advocating feminism
NOW – National Organization for Women; pushed for passage of Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA)
Phyllis Schlafly – conservative women’s leader; fought against ERA
Roe v. Wade – Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal in first 3 months of
pregnancy
Sandra Day-O’Connor – first female justice on Supreme Court
Sally Ride – first female astronaut
Geraldine Ferraro – first woman to run for vice-president
Watergate – Democratic Party National Headquarters burgled by “plumbers”
sent by CRP and were caught; President Nixon involved in cover-up; major
evidence against Nixon were audio tapes; Nixon resigned rather than be
impeached
Camp David Accords – 1978 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt brokered
by President Jimmy Carter
Iran Hostage Crisis – when US refused to turn over the Shah of Iran who was in
US for medical treatment, Iranians took over US embassy in Tehran and kept US
citizens hostage for 444 days; hostages released after Reagan inaugurated
president
Iran-Contra Affair – members of Reagan administration secretly selling weapons
parts to Iran and using that money to support anti-communist guerrillas (Contras)
in Nicaragua; illegal under law passed by Congress
1991 Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) – US and coalition of other
countries went to war with Iraq after it invaded Kuwait; President George H. W.
Bush led coalition
The Balkan Crisis 1990s – Civil war in Yugoslavia resulted in the ethnic cleansing
of Muslims and others (Bosnia/Kosovo) causing US and NATO allies to intervene;
Clinton president
Impeachment of President Clinton – Clinton impeached for perjury (lying under
oath in a court) & acquitted by the Senate
Election of 2000 – Bush v. Gore; Florida recount
Ted Turner – established 1st cable television station (TBS), TNT, and 1st 24-hour
news station (CNN)
Robert Johnson – established first black cable station (BET)
Bill Gates – developed software for computers
9-11 – terrorist attack on US; resulted in Patriot Act and invasion of Afghanistan
2003 Iraq War – US and coalition of other countries invaded Iraq and toppled
Saddam Hussein after he refused to give up weapons of mass destruction (WMD);
George W. Bush led coalition